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Ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and Adblocker make the web usable – but are not available on every platform and not of the same quality.

Pi-hole is an Linux-based server setup that absorbs ads by filtering DNS requests. You set up the Pi-hole server on a simple Raspberry Pi, set your devices to use the pi-hole server to resolve DNS entries, and voila – any requests to ad sites are immediately and transparently absorbed.

This is far superior to ad block applications for a few reasons. First, because the websites doesn’t even know you’re using it, you will never get those annoying ‘disable adblock to continue’ messages. With a little extra work, you can make your wired/wireless router also run DNS requests through it so that all devices wifi connected phones/laptops/game systems/etc get free ad filtering.

I just set one up this weekend on a raspberry pi and it’s been interesting to play with so far. Pi-hole has been a bit too fiddly in the past, but seems to be working pretty well these days with a slick web interface and easy installation. So far, it has worked really well – but I do occasionally get a false positive and have to turn the filtering off. I’ll give it a few days and see if it grows on me.

Here’s the instructions I used: https://blog.cryptoaustralia.org.au/instructions-for-setting-up-pi-hole/

Changing the DNS for your Win10 system while still using DHCP:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-your-pcs-dns-settings-windows-10

Setting up SSH after install on your raspberry pi so you can access your pi hole via windows/putty/etc.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ssh/

Here’s the parts list from Amazon:

	Raspberry Pi 3 b+ Case, iUniker Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Transparent Case with Raspberry Pi Heatsink for Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3B, 2B – Access to All Ports (Clear) $5.68
	Samsung 32GB 95MB/s (U1) MicroSDHC EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME32GA/AM) $7.49
	Element14 Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard $36.97
	iTrunk Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (B Plus) Power Supply, 5V 2.5A Extra Long 2M Micro USB Power Supply Charger Adapter for 2018 New Version Raspberry Pi $8.15

Handy technique for saving texture space! There are various tools to do this, but the basic scheme is to split up a large texture into much smaller chunks, individually trimming these chunks, and seamlessly reconstructing the sprite in the viewport.

Floppy disks are a relic of the past these days. You can still see the odd 3.5″ floppy – and there are even still companies making 3.5″ USB drives you can plug into your system today. But 5.25″ floppy drives (360k and 1.2 meg variety) are much more scarce. So scarce, in fact, that you’re likely not to find any outside of an old vintage computer. Most modern PC’s since the Pentium don’t even have connectors, interfaces that support them, and I know of no vendors that make USB 5.25″ drives.

So what is one to do if they have old 5.25″ floppies they need to read? Turns out others have had the same problem – so you’re not alone.

Here’s some options:

1. Find a service that will convert them – Usually for a fee around $5-$25 per disk.
   
2. Buy an old vintage Intel pre-Core based computer from eBay that has a working 5.25″ drive.
   This means a 486 or lower computer. Almost all plug-in floppy controllers require a PC who’s motherboard has an ISA interface (not PCI). You must also be careful because older 8-bit ISA floppy controllers (from the XT/AT era) often will NOT work in faster 386/486/Pentium ISA interfaces (even though they are supposed too).
   
3. Use a 5.25″ to USB converter:
   
   1. GreaseWeasle V4 [NEW 2022] – https://decromancer.ooo/greaseweazle/
      Interfaces with 8″, 5 1/4″, and 3 1/2″ drives. Amazingly, it only costs $31 CAD and seems to get as good reviews as the Kryoflux. Definitely one of the cheapest options on this list. Since it extracts the raw flux transitions from the drive, any diskette format can be captured and analyzed – PC, Amiga, Amstrad, PDP-11, many older electronic musical instruments, and industrial equipment. The Greaseweazle also supports writing to floppy disks. The design is fully open and comes with no license encumberment.
      [UPDATE 10-2022] I just bought one of these and could not be happier. It’s pretty sweet!
      
   2. Kryoflux – https://www.kryoflux.com/
      The Holy Grail of floppy readers, but not cheap at 105€. It is able to read all formats, save as a raw stream, or export to common sector formats like the Acorn Electron, Apple, Amstrad CPC, Archimedes, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, MSX, IBM PC, PC-8801, Sam Coupe, Spectrum, E-MU Emulator & Emulator II, DEC RX01 & RX02 and many others.
      
   3. Device Side Data’s FC5025 –http://www.deviceside.com/fc5025.html
      USB 5.25″ floppy controller plugs into any computer’s USB port and enables you to attach a 5.25″ floppy drive. Even if your computer has no built-in floppy controller, the FC5025 lets you read those old disks. It also understands formats used by Apple, Atari, Commodore, TI, and others.
      
   4. Supercard Pro – https://www.cbmstuff.com/
      I don’t know very much about this one, but here’s a review and this page which contains a lot of useful information.
      
   5. DREM – https://www.drem.info/
      DREM is a MFM/RLL hard drive emulator that can read raw dumps of a hard drive. It also allows you to read floppies. More here.
      
4. ISA on modern PC’s
   • See complete list of ISA devices (mostly over USB) here on my other article.
   • dISAppointment LPC to ISA adapter (*new* Jun 2023)
     I recently read about this adapter.  [TheRasteri] found he could access the ISA bus lurking in modern computers through the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus which is exposed on the TPM port in many modern motherboards. He then exposed an actual ISA slot and plugged in a sound blaster card. Low and behold it works! More details on his youtube site, as well as on Vogons. No word yet if he’s producing any for purchase.

Cables/Adapters for connecting 3.5/5.25/8″ floppy drives to your PC:

• CablesOnline – http://www.cablesonline.com/
  CablesOnline has a good selection of universal floppy cables for a very reasonable price.
• Dbit – http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html
  The DBit FDADAP board is a small adapter which adapts 8″ floppy disk drives (Shugart SA800 style bus) to work with the PC 3.5″/5.25″ floppy disk cable pinout. It has 34- and 50-pin connectors which can be connected to the PC floppy controller and the 8″ disk drive using simple straight-through ribbon cables (not included), and a 3.5″ style power connector for the on-board microcontroller

Dead/Discontinued controllers

• Catweasel – http://www.nishtek.com/cw.html
  Discontinued PCI board for connecting to floppies. Like other solutions, it doesn’t make drives show up as a drive letter – but rather lets you read raw formats for all sorts of platforms.

Other resources/discussions:

• FloppyDisk.com – Source to buy various sizes of floppy disks
• CablesOnline has a universal floppy cable (Item # FF-002) for $9.99
• TULARC – MASSIVE resource of information about vintage hard drive, floppy drive, motherboard, disk controller cards, IO cards, etc. Pinouts, drive format properties, jumpers, specs, and so forth. Probably the most amazing resource of vintage setup info on the web I’ve found.
• https://www.xbitlabs.com/how-to-read-floppy-disk/

I recently bought a used 2016 14″ Razer Blade M970 (RX09-01652E22) gaming laptop for about 20% the price of a new one (seems the only things that lose value faster than a Porsche driving off the lot are gaming laptops with last gen technology). I needed this one since it had a high-end GPU that allowed me to do modern DX12/Vulkan work, while being in a nice transportable 14″ slim form factor (it had a M970 graphics card).

While a screaming deal, there was one other noise problem: the fans. Gaming laptops are kind of notorious for needing powerful fans to cool their graphics cards. Both the fans in this laptop were starting to make bearing noises. The temps were fine and the fans worked ok – they were just a little noisier than they should have been. I took them out and cleaned them, but same result.

The originals are Cooler Master FB07006M05SPA312’s. DC 5v 0.5A, 4 pin connector.

Unfortunately, finding these guys turned up next to zero hits. Best options I could find were:

1. Live with it – but know the fans might be dying/making more noise soon.
2. Send it in to Razer and they’re replace them out of warranty. They charged a flat $100 rate + parts (they quoted me about $20) + shipping. About $150. Ouch.
3. Buy used fan/heat-sink assembly off eBay. They were still charging around $40, and the fans were definitely all used. They could have the same noise issues as I was having – or have them soon.
4. Dig deeper.

Found:

I opted for #4 and found a company on AliBaba that hit the spot. I found this vendor selling off-brand versions that looked and speced out right. I took the gamble since the price was $32 for 2 fans – a SCREAMING deal:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2PCS-CPU-fan-for-GIGABYTE-Razer-Blade-14-RZ09-01161E31-RZ09-01161E31-R3U1-laptop-cpu-cooling/32841110492.html

They arrived about 2+ weeks later as I opted for the free shipping. I popped out the old ones and can confirm these look and fit identically to the originals – sans the CoolerMaster stickers. They appeared to be brand new. Temps all appeared fine after gaming for well over an hour. They revved up to full power and then back down to idle perfectly. Best of all – they were nice and quiet. Success!

Alternative:

If you are looking for originals, I found these at $65/each, but that’s pretty steep to me:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Emacro-for-Cooler-Master-FB07006M05SPA312-Server-Round-Fan-DC-5V-0-5A-4-wire/32887795069.html

 

 

If you use samba and connect to it via Windows, you might get a message that says:

You can’t connect to the file share because it’s not secure. This share requires the obsolete SMB1 protocol, which is unsafe and could expose your system to attack.

The right solution is to update the Linux Samba share software/service. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible – especially if the server is not yours. The only recourse is to find another solution, contact the server owner to update it, or accept the risk.  Installing support for SMB1 opens you to the risk of various attacks – including a brutal man-in-the-middle that exposes everything. It’s a good idea to do whatever you need, then disable the protocol, because a compromised server/man-in-the-middle might block safer SMB2.x/3.x protocols which might make your system fall back to the unsafe v1.x without you knowing it.

At any rate, sometimes you have to accept the risk. Here’s how to install/enable smb1 on Windows if all else fails:

1. Run Powershell command processor in elevated mode (run as admin)
2. Type the following command:
   get-windowsoptionalfeature -online –featurename smb1protocol
3. Once SMB has been installed please type the following command to activate it:
4. enable-windowsoptionalfeature -online –featurename smb1protocol
5. Once done, press Y and hit enter to restart your computer.