One Happy Team…

Category: Hardware

О “железе” и программах

  • Neo Geo MVS misadventures

    Royal Mail admitted that they’ve lost the package that was shipped back more than a month ago from Spain, with my non-functioning Neo Geo MVS.
    The good news is that I received a refund, and it took me just a couple of days.
    The bad news is that the maximum refund is 65GBP, while I paid around 200GBP for the console.
    The good news is that the seller already shipped me a replacement board, free of charge, which is very generous of him.
    The bad news is that this is a naked board. No video output, no gamepad ports, no power supply, no enclosure. Now I’ll have to source everything by myself.

    The board I received is MV1A. It comes as two separate boards, that you connect at a right angle. So your cartridge is put parallel to the motherboard.
    There’s also a newer MV1C board, which looks smaller at least on photos, and consists from a single board, so the cartridge slot is on the motherboard, and the cartridge is put in a vertical position.
    https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=MVS_board_types
    https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/neo-geo-mvs-motherboard-pcb-comparison-chart-for-consolization.5904/

  • NES Advantage

    Discovered that there was an official arcade stick made for NES.

    People say, though, that for many games, it was more of a disadvantage.

  • Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

    The really groundbreaking feature of this phone is its camera.
    At first I wasn’t impressed. Yes, it takes rather bright photos at night, but that’s it.
    But then I zoomed to see the moon, and… wow:

    And this one was taken from some 50 meters away, across the canal.

  • Neo Geo MVS misadventures

    My misadventures with Neo Geo console continue.
    I bought it back in May, from Spain.
    For the first day or so it had a distorted image, which is a known problem.
    Then the image disappeared completely, showing just a bit of garbage.
    I’ve sent it for repairs, and it got stuck in Spanish customs from 5th of June, until the 29th of July, when they decided that they don’t want to accept my customs declaration, and shipped it back.
    Now it’s still on its way back, and I was told that it should arrive “in a week or two”.
    Yes, a single day of happiness, three months of waiting. And when I finally receive it, it will still be the same malfunctioning console, which I’ll have to find a way to fix myself now.

  • Keychron K1

    I decided to replace Keychron K8 with a low-profile Keychron, and stay with TKL.
    Between K1 and K1 SE I decided to go with the original K1, because I like to keep my keyboard flat, and for some reason I’m more attracted to the aluminium body, and not a plastic one.
    Keychron K1 gets everything right. It’s a total joy to work with. I went for the red switches, and they are pleasantly quiet. Also, the charging port is at the right place, on the back of the keyboard, and not on the left side.
    I was surprised by the amount of lighting effects this keyboard has. Especially because I tend not to use lighting effects at all.
    Maybe later I’ll replace ABS keycaps with PBT ones. But in the meantime, I like the smooth feel of ABS’s.

  • Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

    I ended up ordering my next phone, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, from Hong Kong. Hong Kong uses UK standards, but the phones ship with Snapdragon CPU instead of Equinox. And the price is lower by some 10 to 20 percent. So, you end up getting a more powerful phone for less. A no brainer, really.
    It took 10 days for the phone to arrive. Looks legibly sealed, so if it was tampered with, someone at TechInTheBasket did a great job to conceal it.
    There is a bit of bloatware, but it’s easy to uninstall.
    Fingerprint sensor works great. It’s super fast and recognizes both hands well enough for now.
    Camera hole in the middle of the screen is slightly annoying, but that’s the norm nowadays.
    Funny, but it seems to be nearly impossible to operate this phone without a case. All the lenses are on one side, and stick out too much.

  • Keychron K8

    Decided to try out a Keychron keyboard as well. The closest to Razer Type Pro I could get, so I could compare apples to apples. I went with K8 with brown tactile switches.
    First impression: slightly quieter, about 60db vs 65db for Razer. Also, wired connection option is great. But I actually miss the second Enter, since it’s a TKL keyboard. Turns out I press it with my thumb unconsciously quite often.
    Also, Keychron is much faster to wake up than Razer. It takes just a second for it to connect, and about 5 seconds for Razer.
    Ended up returning the Razer keyboard.

  • Razer Type Pro

    I wanted a new keyboard for a long time. But I didn’t really need a keyboard. That’s how I ended up using Logitech K310 for almost 10 years. But everything has to end, so I decided to try out a new keyboard.
    I almost certainly wanted something from Razer, since I’ve been using their mice for at least 10 years, if not more. And I didn’t want any gamer features, such as lighting or extra keys. I was thinking about tenkeyless (TKL for short) keyboard. But what if I wanted to play a retro game that needed that numpad? 😅
    So, I ended up going with Razer Type Pro. Didn’t want the armrest Ultra adds, since I like my keyboard not taking too much space.
    First impression: tall and heavy. But maybe that’s because Logitech K310 was a complete opposite: low profile and very light.
    I thought that you can also use this keyboard wired, but turns out the cable is only for charging. Since my motherboard has Bluetooth built in, I ended up using it in a Bluetooth mode.
    On the downsides, the keyboard will go into sleep mode after 15 minutes, and it takes about a second for it to wake up. Need to get used to this.
    Also, which is really strange, there’s no battery indicator. Not even in Razer Central / Synapse.

  • Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro

    Got myself Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro in good condition from eBay a few weeks ago.
    I knew it was big, but I didn’t think it would be so heavy, though. They literally put a metal plate in it to make it heavier, which is quite a common practice, AFAIK:

    It’s also very tall. Which is alright if you put it in your lap, but less so if you use it to play on PC and put it on your desk.
    There are 40 Neo Geo games in total, and those are Japanese versions. So there’s blood in Metal Slug, but also, the names are all kanji.
    The emulator is Final Burn Alpha, pretty standard stuff. There are a couple of basic filters. Smoothing uses something like SuperEagle/SaI algo, so it completely ruins mesh details such as Hanzo’s arms in Samurai Shodown.
    Since it uses Final Burn Alpha under the hood, there’s also a hack that allows you any game from any of the platforms this emulator supports. Even CPS3. Yes, you can run Street Fighter 3 on it, and it runs smoothly.
    Having said that, I will probably sell it at some point, as it takes a lot of space, and doen’t have any advantages compared to my PC and Hori Fighting Stick.

  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8

    The way I discovered that my Note 8 is “slightly outdated” is when I noticed that my Evernote stopped supporting new features. Turns out it requires Android 10 now, and my Note 8 is still on Android 9. And has been for a while – since August 2021, it seems.
    That way, by buying a flagship back in November 2017, I skipped Note 9, Note 10 and Note 20. There was no Note 21, because COVID. If I wished to, I could stay 5 years with the same phone 🤯

  • RetroTINK 5X

    About a month ago got my hands on RetroTINK 5X. What can I say? It’s amazing.
    Two main things I ended up missing in my RetroTINK 2X were better PlayStation 2 support and SCART port.
    You see, I was planning to buy RetroTINK 2X mainly for Nintendo 64. Which ended up being a huge disappointment.
    But PlayStation 2 library proved to be still fantastic. And once I decided to realize my childhood dream and buy a real Neo Geo, it was really a no-brainer.

    One of the most interesting features of RetroTINK 5X are the CRT-emulating filters.
    You can see some of those cool effects here:

    Or here:

  • Back to Windows 10

    Spend the weekend going back to Windows 10.
    Unlike upgrades, which are quite straightforward and preserve everything, downgrades are hard.
    Had to install it from scratch, first time in maybe 10 years. Until now, I was always just upgrading, from Windows 7 to Windows 10, then to Windows 11, preserving all of that junk. It migrated probably between a few HDDs and SSDs. Not anymore.
    What broke me was strange UI freezes, as if it was trying to read something from a slow disk. Couldn’t find anything concrete about that problem: Internet is full of “7 ways to fix your Windows”, with suggestions to reinstall mouse drivers 🤦‍♂️
    Also smaller things: no previews on folders, dumb taskbar and useless websearch instead of working local search.
    As part of the migration, I also moved from Opera to Firefox. I was on Opera by inertia, really. Same as I was on this copy of Windows.
    (more…)

  • iPhone 5S

    После двух проколов с Nokia, наконец-то решился взять нормальный телефон – iPhone 5S.
    У Nokia E52 внезапно разряжалась батарейка, у Nokia 208 наполовину сдох динамик. Новый Nokia 208 стоит 400 шекелей. За три года цена на него не упала от слова вообще.
    Израильские барыги конечно вообще молодцы – продают iPhone 5S за 1200 шекелей, когда ему красная цена – 700.
    Так что заказал у китайцев. Шел он чуть больше месяца. 13го заказал, 19го он уже ждал на почте.
    По первым впечатлениям, это просто таки праздник какой-то. Батарейка живет дня два-три. Последняя версия ОС. Работает быстро, не тормозит. Счастье, одним словом.

  • Titan One и PS4

    Подключил Titan One к PS4. Он сходу заработал. Мышка, клавиатура, все распознается и работает как надо. Теперь можно и в Uncharted 4 с удовольствием поиграть.

  • Прощайте, старые друзья

    Избавился от двух старых телефонов, Motorola E1000 и Qtek S200. Две эпохи.

  • Asus GL752VW

    До жесткого диска теперь добираться легче, всего два винта. Зато батарейка не то, что не быстро отстреливающаяся. А вообще несъемная.
    К вопросу о мониторе. Панель CMN N173HGE-E11, TN, а не IPS, как пишут некоторые.
    Установил SSD от Samsung. Samsung конечно красавцы, поставляют утилиту для клонирования. Пол часа, и система перезалилась со старого тормозного диска на новый и быстрый.
    Не могу только определиться, кто большие жмоты – Samsung или Asus. Потому что ни те, ни другие не положили в комплект несчастный винтик для M2.
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  • nVidia в конец офигела

    Есть у nVidia утилитка, называющаяся GeForce Experience. Все ее предназначение – сообщать о новых версиях драйверов и выставлять типа оптимальные настройки в играх. После очередной установки эта утилитка затребовала от меня ни много ни мало зарегестрироваться на сайте nVidia. Причем ей позарез нужна еще и дата рождения. Может уже тогда сразу как Apple, и кредитку прописать?!

  • О принтерах

    Обнаружил, что обычные принтеры уже толком никто и не продает в наших краях. Повсюду комбайны. Впрочем, стоят они как обычные принтеры когда-то. И места занимают не сильно больше. За счет того, что комбайн плоский, и сверху можно еще что-нибудь легкое.
    Так же открыл секрет, почему в принтере Brother не сохнут чернила. Уснул рядом с принтером со сбитыми часами. А тот решил, что сейчас десять утра, никто не спит, и начал чистку. Спросоня так и не смог его остановить.

  • Наушники Morul U5 Plus

    Мне было интересно, стоило ли покупать Skullcandy, если можно взять китайчину за пол цены. Стоило. У Morul уже оголился кабель, там, где он соединяется с регулятором громкости. Вот тебе и вся водонепроницаемость. Синяя изолента в помощь. А использовал то я их всего ничего, от силы два раза в неделю. Так что посоветовать им можно только человеку, готовому менять наушники каждые несколько месяцев. Тогда, быть может, это еще будет неплохим приобретением.

  • О Blackberry

    Очередная мечта идиота – заиметь себе Blackberry. Смешно, что лет пять назад, когда они еще вполне были в ходу, я вообще не хотел такого монстра. Да и сейчас он мне не нужен. К счастью, мейлы мне с телефона строчить не приходится. А ни для чего другого он не приспособлен.
    Но вот хочется потаскать этот кирпич и пожать его QWERTY клавиатуру. Уж больно она душевная и ламповая.