Category: Live

What can Reship do to get more 5 star reviews?

Packaging forwarding services overall seem to get mixed reviews. I think this is largely down to expectations. They advertise low postage rates, but then have a few extra fees which people are surprised by. This leads to a negative experience simply because it gave false expectations and didn’t live up to them. I think the other issue is that it makes sense for higher value small items. Low value small items are not worth the postage costs, unless you really really need something, and large items just cost too much to post internationally in general. They should also link to the direct for their budget PostNL option (https://postnl.post/track?barcodes=) rather than where you have to manual input the tracking ID (https://postnl.post/#/tracking/items/).

I recently used Reship to post a guitar pedal which I couldn’t get here in Australia. The costs were as follows:
– $5 Annual mailbox fee (although this can be spread amongst future payments)
– $7 Package Fee
– $29.34 Shipping (Cheapest PostNL option)
– $4.22 Shipping GST (Australia requires large international companies to collect GST)

The total was $45.56 ($40 if you don’t count the mailbox fee) was still less than USPS would have charged at $55, and the particular seller I was buying from would not post international.

USPS took 2 days to deliver my package from the seller to the Reship warehouse. Reship had taken photos and added to my account on the 3rd day. I paid the fees and it shipped the next business day. Using PostNL, my item took 45 calendar days to reach Australia. This was also longer than the estimated 15-20 days, even if they meant business days.

If you choose to give it a go, please use my referral code for $10 towards your first shipment: DK771N6N8

Two-Rock Copied My Deluxe Reverb!

Ok, not really, but I had already modified my Deluxe Reverb with:
– Be switchable high power fixed bias/low power cathode bias
– Reverb/Tremolo on both channels
– Bright cap removed
– Modified ’68 custom tone stack
– Modified negative feedback
– Post phase inverter master volume (although I didn’t like this on this amp and removed it)

And I was going to add:
– Add raw (tone stack bypass) with volume control
– Bias Tremolo (but only after converting to hand wired)

I was recently looking at what amps were on the market, and realised the Two-Rock Vintage Deluxe is essentially this amp:
– Low power mode is cathode bias
– Single channel with reverb/tremolo
– Bright cap switchable
– Mid control/Texture control
– Presence control
– Master Volume
– Tone stack bypass (with tone control)
– Bias Tremolo

LG Ultrafine 4K daisy chain with 34WK95U-W

After my last post comparing these two monitors, I wanted to see if you could daisy chain the two and still only have to connect one cable to the MacBook, as the LG Ultrafine 4K supports 40gbps and has a thunderbolt out port as well.

Turns out that you can! Thunderbolt 40gbps from MacBook -> LG Ultrafine -> 20gbps to LG 34WK95U-W at full resolution on both monitors.

LG UltraFine 4K 24″ (Mac) vs. LG 34WK95U-W 5K2K 34″ Monitor

For a while now I’ve been using an LG UltraFine 4K (24MD4kL) monitor with my Apple MacBook. However I’ve wanted to have a little more desktop space and was able to get an LG 34WK95U-W UltraWide at a discount, so I thought I would share the differences between these two high pixel density monitors.

Comparison:
– Higher pixel density on the UltraFine, but the UltraWide is still retina like
– Clearing sounding speakers UltraFine, but the UltraWide is louder and much more useable than the built in 14″ MacBook’s
– Ultrafine is slightly brighter, and the semi-gloss screen is slightly more premium
– 3 USB-C ports on the UtraFine compared to 2 USB-A, but the UltraWide has HDMI/DisplayPort inputs and can display two sources at the same time
– UltraFine wakes from sleep faster
– Thunderbolt on the UlatrFine allows daisy-chaining to another 4K monitor
– Native Apple controls for volume an brightness on the LG UltraFine although you can use MonitorControl with the UltraWide
– Some people are annoyed by the fan noise on the UltraWide, but I couldn’t hear it
– About 1.5x more desktop space on the UltraWide
– UltraWide is almost twice the price

Overall, some people might be better off getting two UltraFine 4Ks instead of a single UlatrFine, since it’s almost twice the price, but I got my used and I already use the monitor on my MacBook as a second display as well as Touch ID and the webcam, so having 3 monitors was just too clumsy and took up too much space. I tend to work on just 2/3rds of the UltraFine, as I find two windows optimum as a programmer. But the extra third allows me to have space for email or a video without having to constantly cover my main work.

I had to do a few things to get my UlatrFine to work at high DPI resolutions.
– Update the monitor firmware using the LG OnScreen Control software downloadable here.

– Using the display menu on the monitor itself, change the Display Port version to 1.4. Again it wouldn’t show up as a 5120×2160 monitor without doing this.

More tips can be found on this MacRumors thread. I did not need to use SwitchResX or BetterDummy in order to run at 3840×1620 resolution.

Also while the UltraFine 4K is made for Mac, people have got it working on Windows machines with Thunderbolt, and the brightness can be controlled with one of these apps:
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/lg-ultrafine-brightness/9N5MJ2FQ4GWW
https://github.com/motamed/LG-UltraFine-Brightness-Control

Aldi Crofton Cast Iron Enamel Cookware

I’ve been looking for some non aluminium/non ptfe frying pans for a while. I’ve found stainless steel stick too much, and it’s too hard to keep them seasoned all the time. I also tried ceramic coated stainless steel, but these were expensive and still didn’t last that long.

Eventually realised it’s worth paying for cast iron enamel cookware, but this is normally really pricey. However this week Aldi have their 2015 range of cast iron enamel cookware on special. I ended up getting the 28cm frying pan, 24cm frying pan, 28cm wok and 30cm shallow casserole to add to my two Le Creuset casserole dishes. While the quality is never going to be on par with Le Creuset, they still feel very solid, have stainless steel riveted handles that stay cool, and a decent thickness of enamel.

Cooked with them today, and the surface doesn’t stick too much with some oil. They’re also a little lighter than other cast iron cookware, which is maybe why they’re cheaper. It does make them slightly easier to handle, although their still noticeably heavier than stainless steel or aluminium cookware.

Overall very pleased, and I think they’re worth the money. They should certainly last longer than the ceramic or other nonstick pans I’ve used in the past.

Mount MacBook Pro Underdesk

I’ve had my macbook mounted under my desk for a while. I original had it on some U-shaped aluminium extrusion brackets. If I was doing something taxing it would overheat a little, so I drilled some holes where the fan is, but that didn’t really make that much difference. I was looking for something else, and eventually decided on a cheap IKEA wooden shelf mounted with u-shaped brackets. I just made my own out of the same aluminium I used before, but I’m sure there are other brackets around like these robot servo brackets.

Here are some pics of the original mount, new shelf, and all the other things I have mounted under my desk:

There are a few other good ideas I’ve seen floating around. There’s the IKEA napkin holder which I tried for a while, as well as this basket idea.

50 Things To Do Today

Someone, sent me this, can’t quite remember who (SORRY!), but its got some good ideas for small improvements we can make to our lives. Its a bit newagey and I think you still need Jesus :-P, but there’s some good practical tips in this, I especially like the audio learning one, which I’ve started doing a lot through podcasts / audiobooks. In case the embedding doesn’t work you can get it at
http://www.learnoutloud.com