Tesla Model 3/Y Organizers by Spigen

If you have a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, and find yourself staring into the deep voids under the console or armrest, wondering how to make them less like deep voids, Spigen has solutions! Check these out on Amazon:

Before landing on Spigen, I tried a number of similar products from lessor known brands, but none were quite as nice.

I think the items are pretty self-explanatory from the pictures, but I’d say the quality and fit are great, and I appreciate the carbon fiber accents.

Product links are advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

I love my LG Gram laptop

I’ve had my LG Gram 17Z90Q laptop (available on Amazon) for many months now, and I love it. It’s as ultra lightweight as LG claims, and it’s ultra-thin, which makes for great portability. The 12th gen Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB of RAM provide plenty of power, and make it easy to get things done.

I absolutely love the fact that the LG Gram series laptops charge with USB-C. This means I can leave the power brick at home, and charge with a more compact USB-C charger. I typically travel with the very portable Anker Prime 100W USB-C Charger paired with an Anker 100W USB-C cable.

Though it can be a little hard to find a backpack that carries a 17″ laptop, I think the the larger-than-typical display size is worth the trouble! That said, the LG Gram does come in a variety of sizes. Check out the listings on Amazon:

LG Gram @ Amazon.com

Key Specs

  • Intel 12 Gen Core i7 Processor
  • 32GB of memory, with substantial clock speed of 5200 Mhz
  • 2TB of Storage via 2 x 1TB PCIe4 M.2 NVMe SSD
  • 17″ WQXGA Non-Reflective IPS Display
  • Charges by USB-C
  • 80 Wh Battery: up to 12.5 hours of nonstop power or up to 17.5 hours of video playback

Why Choose the LG Ultra Lightweight Laptop?

  1. Portability and Convenience: Its ultra-lightweight design makes it the ideal companion for those who are always on the go (even if that’s just around the house).
  2. Stunning Visual Experience: The 17-inch display offers vibrant, sharp visuals, enhancing your entertainment and work experience.
  3. High Performance: The powerful Intel 12th Gen Core i7 processor ensures a smooth, lag-free user experience.
  4. Extended Battery Life: The long-lasting battery life promotes productivity and entertainment without the constant need for charging.
  5. Advanced Connectivity: With Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4, you get fast, reliable connections and data transfers.

Product links are advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Network Cable Unplugged on ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming

The Solution

  • Open up Network Connections.
    • There are plenty of ways to do this, but I press WIN+R, type ncpa.cpl, and hit enter.
  • Right-click on the offending network adapter, click Properties, then click Configure.
  • Under the Advanced tab, select Speed & Duplex.
  • Change the value to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex (or whatever matches the device on the other end). The default is Auto Negotiation, which is apparently the problem, combined with a hardware issue (see background below).
  • Click OK. Your connection should come up within seconds, assuming you were suffering the same problem.

Some Assumptions

  • I experienced this with an Intel I225-V Ethernet Controller on an ASUS ROG Strix Z490-I Gaming motherboard. I assume the problem and fix may be the same for other ethernet controllers listed here by Intel.

Sources and Background

I stumbled upon this solution after reading this Reddit post:

[SUPPORT] ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming, ethernet not working.

The suggested fix was to download a specific driver from Intel, but the link was for Windows 10, and I’m on Windows 11. The included theory was that a hardware problem prevents proper auto-negotiation when connected to non-2.5Gbps-supporting devices. Given that hint, I decided to just change the Speed and Duplex setting. It worked!

Adding Common Windows Defender Exceptions

After installing Windows or moving to a new computer, I often forget to setup a number of Windows Defender exclusions.

For instance, Jetbrains suggests exclusions around Visual Studio and Resharper processes and folders.

I’m now using the script below, run as administrator, to keep track of and add my preferred exclusions:

# Visual Studio
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "devenv.exe"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess "msbuild.exe"

# Resharper
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:localappdata\JetBrains\Transient"

# Microsoft Android Subsystem for Windows
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:userprofile\.gradle"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:userprofile\AndroidStudioProjects"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:userprofile\AppData\Local\Andro id/SDK"

Sources:
Exclusions to consider for Android development
Resharper Performance Guide

Unlock Google Pixel 3a on Windows 11

Trying to follow a number of guides, I was running into problems unlocking my Google Pixel 3a. Specifically, at the fastboot step, fastboot would hang reporting “<waiting for device>”, even though I had followed all the steps.

It turns out that I needed the Google USB driver and had to install it in a way that made Windows 11 happy.

  1. Obtain the driver, either by downloading the zip or using the Android Studio SDK Manager, both approaches described here: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb
    1. Extract the zip if you chose that route.
    2. Either way, note the location of the driver (likely c:\users\{username}\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\amd64\extras\google\usb_driver\amd64 if you chose the SDK Manager route).
  2. Open Device Manager (right-click on the Start button or just search from the Start Menu).
  3. Locate Pixel 3a, likely under the Other devices or Portable Devices section.
  4. Right-click Pixel 3a, and then click Update Driver.
  5. On the first step, choose “Browse my computer for drivers.”
  6. Then choose “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.”
    1. It may be tempting to “Search for drivers in this location,” but in my experience Windows will not pick up the new driver using that option in this case.
  7. You’ll be presented with a list of hardware types, choose “Show All Devices” and click Next.
  8. Now click “Have Disk” and when prompted for the folder path, enter the path from step 1 above.
  9. Select the Google Pixel 3a device from the list and click to finish the wizard.

You should be ready to go through the unlock process!

Unlock Summary

If you’ve ended up at my site, you probably already know this part, but briefly:

  1. Ensure your phone is in developer mode.
  2. Enable OEM unlocking and USB debugging in Developer settings.
  3. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
  4. With adb installed, run adb reboot bootloader
  5. Wait for the phone to enter the bootloader, and run fastboot flashing unlock
  6. This will prompt you with the default option of “do not unlock,” which you could pick by pressing the power button. Instead, press Volume Up to cycle to the “unlock” option, and press the power button to confirm.

Quick VPS Comparison

I’m shopping around, so I’m dumping my findings here. Do your own research as things may have changed since writing.

And if you decide to sign up with Vultr or Linode, why not support this site (referral links):

Vultr – The one with the funky name!
Linode – Get a $100 credit!

Shared Plans

VultrLinodeDigital OceanHost Gator
3 vCPU4 vCPU4 vCPUN/A
8GB RAM8GB RAM8GB RAM
256GB NVMe160GB SSD160GB NVMe
4TB Transfer5TB Transfer5TB Transfer
$48/month$40/month$48/month

Dedicated Plans

VultrLinodeDigital OceanHost Gator
2 vCPU4 vCPU2 vCPU2 vCPU
8GB RAM8GB RAM8GB RAM4GB RAM
120GB SSD160GB SSD25GB SSD + 100GB165GB SSD
10TB Transfer5TB Transfer4TB TransferUnlimited Transfer
$60/month$60/month$60 + $10/month$79/month

Bare Metal

VultrLinodeDigital OceanHost Gator
4 core / 8 thread @ 3.8GHzComing SoonN/A (?)4 core / 8 thread
Intel Xeon-D CPU
32GB RAM8GB RAM
2 x 240 GB SSD1 TB HDD
5TB TransferUnlimited Transfer
$120/month$189/month

Random Bits

VultrLinodeDigital OceanHost Gator
Add backup for +20% the base costBackups vary by instance size, $10/month for the shared and dedicated instances quoted above.Build and deploy 3 free static sites for free(I’ve ruled Host Gator out, so not bothering with this)
DDOS protection for $10/monthFree DDOS protectionTransfer to and within VPCs is free
Free cloud firewallFree cloud firewallFree cloud firewall
Comprehensive OS image libraryEasily analyze performance, keep track of your transfer usage, and create custom alerts for when you near thresholds you set.Collect metrics on visibility, monitor Droplet performance, and get free alerts when problems arise in your infrastructure
Scale up, but doesn’t appear that down is an option.Easily resize/upgrade/downgrade instances.Fairly straight-forward resizing, but quick assessment suggests it’s not as slick as Linode.
Easy add-on storage @ $10/100GB/month

Alternatives worth researching later

VirMach – $40/month shared VPS option, Virtual Dedicated for $80/month (6 vCore @ 2 GHz+, 16GB, 250GB SSD), Dedicated Server for $79/month (4 core Xeon, SSD, 5+ IPs)

RamNode

Google Cloud Compute

UpCloud – Simple plans, comparisons available for other cloud platforms.

OVHcloud – Seemingly very well-priced.

Converting Fiat to Crypto

I’ve been exploring the world of cryptocurrency for a while, but typically struggled to find the best way to convert USD to crypto.

I want a solution that:

  1. Charges little to no fee for trading USD for crypto, like BTC, LTC, etc.
  2. Makes funds available immediately for any use, including sending outside of the original service.

And I think I finally found my go-to solution:

Uphold – ‘Anything to Anything’
Trade between cryptocurrencies, precious metals, U.S. equities*, and national currencies in one easy step

I just bought 3.59301766 LTC for $500.00 at the market rate of $139.16. Notice that the product of the LTC quantity and the market price is actually $0.0043 more than I paid, so no fee and favorable rounding.

I immediately transferred half of this Litecoin out to an external wallet for a total fee of just 0.003 LTC, or about $0.417. Not too shabby!

And the whole process was incredibly simple and smooth. In a world where so many apps disappoint, Uphold is a joy.

‘Anything to Anything’

While I’ve used Uphold mostly for buying, selling, and transferring crypto, Uphold describes their service as ‘Anything to Anything.’ That’s because they really do offer a wide range of asset and platform options. As of this posting:

27 National currencies
58 Cryptocurrencies
50 US Stocks
4 Precious Metals
36 Countries with Bank Connectivity

Uphold even offers the Uphold Card, which is their debit card that allows you to pay with the assets in your accounts, like Bitcoin or Gold, while earning 1% cash back and 2% crypto reward. “Spend Bitcoin, earn Bitcoin.”

If you’re not already with Uphold, I hope you’ll check them out, and please use my referral link if you decide to sign up!

https://uphold.com/signup?referral=6853538b8d

Blank Lock Screen in Windows 11 Remote Desktop Connection

I recently opted into the dev track in the Windows Insider program so that I could try Windows 11. After getting it installed, using a Microsoft Account, I enabled Remote Desktop. I disabled:

Require devices to use Network Level Authentication to connect

Because it’s been my experience that logging in with a Microsoft Account doesn’t work otherwise.

Unfortunately, I still could not login at this point. The Remote Desktop client would clearly connect to my Windows 11 machine, as it would take me to the lock screen where I would normally see the login prompt. However, the login prompt was missing.

After some poking around, and purely on a hunch, I discovered that this option was to blame:

For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device.

After I disabling it, I was able to login as expected.

As of this posting, I found no indication anywhere that this option is problematic, and maybe there are scenarios under which is works, but hopefully this post saves someone some trouble.

Also, for what it’s worth, I’m really enjoying Windows 11 so far.

Greenshot: The hotkey(s) could not be registered.

If you just installed Greenshot, especially on a fresh Windows installation, and it’s complaining that it cannot register the PrintScreen hotkeys, there’s a good chance that OneDrive has registered these hotkeys.

What’s funny is that you may not see the “Automatically save screenshots I capture to OneDrive” option enabled in the OneDrive settings.

It seems that OneDrive doesn’t enable this option by default, but still registers the hotkeys so that it can show you this dialog when you use PrintScreen for the first time:

So just say No Thanks. Now you can register Greenshot!