End-user perspective on small office tools & technology

Deal: Insta360 Link 4K Webcam

For years I searched for a 4K capable webcam. Early models, like Logitech’s Brio were merely adequate. It managed to deliver higher resolution, but really didn’t offer much improvement in other aspects of image quality. For the higher prices commanded by the newer webcams, I would have liked to see better dynamic range, color rendition, and less noise.

Insta360 Link

I was still looking for better webcams when I put the Insta360 Link on my Amazon wish list. At $299 it was interesting, but more than I was willing to spend. I literally forgot about it, until my wife decided to get it for me as a present.

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New Gear: JetKVM is really very handy!

Late last year I supported the Kickstarter for JetKVM. This device is a tiny little IP-KVM solution. It’s basically a refined package of everything involved in a PiKVM. Connect HDMI & USB from a computer-to-be-controlled, and Ethernet. Then the web interface on the JetKVM device allows that device to be remote controlled using just a web browser from anywhere there’s IP connectivity.

JetKVM-device-front

I had actually forgotten that I supported the project until one day a pair the wee devices arrived. It happens that I’ve been meaning to work on a KVM solution for my home office.

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Tech that I miss: Email Tagline Inserter

I’ve been online a long time. My first computer, purchased in 1988, was an IBM PC-AT clone boasting an 80286 CPU running at a blistering 12 MHz. It had a 14.4K modem and I started using CompuServe to get online. Initially running MS-DOS, over time I transitioned to IBM’s OS/2. This is how I came to use an email client known as PMMail from Blueprint Software Works. PMMail was the superlative email client for OS/2.

As OS/2 waned (and eventually collapsed) in the marketplace, PMMail was ported to Windows as PMMail 2000. So, my email history migrated to Windows without issue. I continued to use PMMail 2000 Pro for many more years. In fact, I used it until my employer forced me onto Outlook in 2006.

PMMAIL 2000 Windows

Even when forced to use Outlook I kept PMMail around. It was Win32 program that really did not run well on anything after Windows XP. For a long time, I maintained a Windows XP virtual machine with a copy working copy of PMMail installed. Sadly, that VM was lost to a hard drive failure.

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Changing Course: Returning Tivo Edge OTA

We’ve had the Tivo Edge OTA device for a couple of weeks. I had hoped that it would allow us to maintain our Tivo infrastructure to at least provide local channels. Further, the latest Tivo hardware might be acceptable for access to some basic streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon Prime. But I was wrong. So very wrong.

While all the above was true, I failed to consider what version of the Tivo user interface the Edge device would provide. Our Roamio Pro runs what’s known as TE3, which means Tivo Experience 3. This is the menu structure that we’re comfortable using for a decade or more. It’s a bit stodgy looking, but it it’s familiar and works well enough. It’s the experience was wish to sustain.

Tivo TE3 screen sample

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New Gear: Epson EcoTank ET-2850 Inkjet Printer/Scanner

Computer printers suck. Every last one. Maybe some suck just a little less.

Epson EcoTank ET-2850

Over the years, we’ve had a litany of printers in our household. We started with an Epson 870 color inkjet. It was photo printer bought specifically for a project. We wanted to scan a bunch of old family photos, to create a booklet for each of Stella’s brothers and sisters.

It was a nice idea. But it took a vast amount of time. And consumed a monstrous amount of fancy paper and ink, in tiny little, high-priced cartridges. In the end, we might have been better off to have a local pharmacy output the images to real photo paper. It would have cost about the same, and the photos would have lasted longer.

That was over 20 years ago. In many regards, nothing has changed. In a recent podcast, Cory Doctorow reminds us that inkjet inks are the single most expensive fluid in existence.

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