One of the longest trains at The Great Train Show (Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose, CA, Sunday, 02/23/2020) was the The Baz Boys 20′ x 25′ Z-scale layout. Being the smallest scale of model trains, each car is about 2″ long. Two engines pulled a mile-long freight train across the landscape and a short passenger train zooms by on the opposite track. Video recorded on an Apple iPhone XR for 3.5 minutes from beginning to end.
SiliCon With Adam Savage Replaces Silicon Valley Comic Con
When Silicon Valley Comic Con 2019 ended last August, no announcements were made for the 2020 show dates. That was unusual since previous shows had the dates for the next show in advance. The only potential date we had for the last six months was a picture posted on Friends of Comic Cons that listed October 16 to 18, 2020 from inside the 2019 program guide. The official website for Silicon Valley Comic Con updated this past Sunday night with the new dates and more announcements forthcoming. But tickets weren’t on sale yet. As of yesterday afternoon, the old website redirected to the new website.
Silicon Valley Comic Con is dead! Long live SiliCon With Adam Savage!
Read more “SiliCon With Adam Savage Replaces Silicon Valley Comic Con”Will Apple iPhone 12 Expose You To The Coronavirus?
NOTE: The video that this blog post is based on has the word “coronavirus” bleeped out and replaced with the emoticons for “beer flu” since the YouTube algorithm is demonetizing and suppressing videos with that particular word.
Last week Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech announced on Twitter that he got a package from China. As far as he was concern, “it was Coronavirus in a box.” He apologized to the unnamed Chinese company for disposing of the unopened package. An irrational overreaction on his part to the coronavirus epidemic in China? If the package came over on a slow boat from China, he clearly overreacted. If the package came over on a fast airplane from China, he may not be overreacting. Speaking of fast airplanes from China, Apple plans to ship millions of new iPhone 12s all over the world later this year.
Will “coronavirus in a box” be coming to an Apple Store near you?
Read more “Will Apple iPhone 12 Expose You To The Coronavirus?”I Failed to Take Microsoft Windows 10 Certification Exam
Last year I bought the “Exam Replay” certification voucher with a one-year expiration date, a free retake exam and a 30-day practice test for $265 USD. My initial plan was to take the retiring Microsoft Windows 7 exam before April 2019. When that exam came and went, my revised goal was to take the new Windows 10 exam. I had to wait until summer for the new study guide to come out. That left about six months to get Windows 10 certified.
Plenty of time, right? Uh, no.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I failed to show up at the testing center to take the exam before the voucher expired last month. That flushing sound you hear in the background was $265 USD going down the toilet.
Read more “I Failed to Take Microsoft Windows 10 Certification Exam”Medical Mask Hoarding Is A Bigger Coronavirus Threat
With the coronavirus outbreak spreading in China and the World Health Organization declaring a global emergency, the biggest threat to the United States. isn’t the eight confirmed cases so far. It’s all the Americans who are hoarding medical and N95 masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Hoarding creates shortages and jacks up prices. If hospitals run out of masks and can’t get any more, an outbreak among medical professionals and the general public becomes a serious possibility.
The coronavirus, however, isn’t the biggest health threat to worry about. The regular flu virus had so far infected 19 million people and killed 10,000 people, including 68 children. That’s far more than the 15,000 people infected and the 300 people killed by the coronavirus in China.
You did get your flu shot back in October or September?
Read more “Medical Mask Hoarding Is A Bigger Coronavirus Threat”See It First Vs. Gofobo For Free Movie Preview Tickets
Have you ever noticed how some reviewers post a review of a forthcoming movie just days before it opens to the general public? Yet they never disclose how they got free tickets to see a preview screening.
- Are they sleeping with the teenagers behind the concession stand at the movie theater?
- Do they know someone who is waiting tables to make it big in Hollywood?
- Are they taking cash payments from the movie studios?
Last Spring I saw two movies, Disney’s “Aladdin” and Amazon Studios’ “Late Night”, in free preview screenings. I slept with no teenagers, I know no one in Hollywood, and took no cash payments. I did accept free tickets from two third-party websites, See It First and Gofobo, that anyone can sign up for.
Read more “See It First Vs. Gofobo For Free Movie Preview Tickets”5 Questions About The Amazon Hub Apartment Locker
The Amazon Hub Apartment Locker came to my apartment complex last year. Like the more familiar Amazon Locker at retail locations, the Amazon Hub provides a place for apartment residents to pick up packages from Amazon and other carriers at their own convenience. Residents don’t have to worry about their packages being stolen from their doorstep. The leasing office can get out of the package business. Amazon saves money on not shipping out replacement products. I will answer five questions that I’ve gotten from readers about the Amazon Hub.
Read more “5 Questions About The Amazon Hub Apartment Locker”Will Fry’s Electronics Shut Down On 01/20/2020?
While reading news articles, forum posts and viewer comments about the future of Fry’s Electronics, I kept coming across a specific date for when the entire chain is to shut down for good: Monday, January 20, 2020. Which happens to be tomorrow. It’s also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States. Will Fry’s Electronics — the entire chain and not just a few stores — shut down tomorrow?
Read more “Will Fry’s Electronics Shut Down On 01/20/2020?”Does Overclocking The AMD Athlon 3000G Require A BIOS Update?
I just finished building my new test PC and tried to overclock the AMD Athlon 3000G processor out of the box. The Asrock B450 Pro4 ATX mainboard came with BIOS version 3.60 (08/06/2019) installed. That version supported the 3000G — except for one small detail. No matter what changes I make in the BIOS to overclock the processor, the settings revert to stock speed at 3.5GHz after reboot.
We’ve seen this behavior before when the Ryzen 3000 BIOS updates removed the unofficial feature for overclocking the Athlon 200GE. I updated the mainboard to BIOS version 3.90 (12/16/2019) and easily overclocked the 3000G to 3.9GHz. The main selling point for the 3000G was the ability to overclock the new $50 USD budget processor on any Ryzen 3000.
Does the 3000G need a BIOS update to overclock?
Read more “Does Overclocking The AMD Athlon 3000G Require A BIOS Update?”2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Shannon presents the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray at the Silicon Valley Auto Show on Saturday, January 12, 2020, at the San Jose Convention Center. Winner of the 2020 MotorTrend Car of The Year award.