Using tablets as desktop external monitors

This post was originally written in 2018 and is out of date now. But a new and up-to-date post is coming soon. Both my work laptop and my personal laptop have 15.6-inch “full HD” screens, which are a decent size. But sometimes — especially when on the go — I’d like a little more screen…

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Get the red root prompt back in Linux Mint 19

The Linux terminal is one of those indispensable tools that I spent lots of time in. Linux Mint recently released a new version, 19, to replace 18.3. There were several good upgrades, including a major update to the Cinnamon window manager, so it was worthwhile to get the newer versions installed. Unfortunately, one of the…

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Synology’s DS718+ SSD caching is crippled

Synology DS718+ Please note that this story is from 2018, but is still accurate, even if it refers to a fairly old product. Soon after writing this, I had my DS718+ replaced with a DS918+ that has caching that works as it should. That was recently replaced (and made a secondary NAS) with a phenomenal…

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Rolling your own Synology NAS

My Synology DS215j is a great little machine, and has been chugging along without issue for nearly 3 years. Being one of the least-expensive Synology NAS units, it’s also one of the least capable. It’s slow (but not sluggish), has limited memory, and some of the software available to bigger and badder units is not…

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