NotebookCheck Needs to Fix Their Useless Rating System
Everything is “good” according to NotebookCheck. They’ve come across devices with glaring problems, but even those get a high final score.
How are consumers supposed to distinguish between better and worse when three-quarters of all scores are between 80 and 90?
Here’s how NotebookCheck categorizes the scores:
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Huawei Revises MateBook X Pro with Speaker Distortion Remedy
Previously, the Huawei MateBook X Pro’s speakers would produce distortion because they rattled against the laptop body. As shown in this unit purchased in November, Huawei has addressed this issue by putting small pieces of foam underneath the speakers. Is this because they saw my original post, where I both pointed out the issue and introduced a solution? We may never know.
Spectre X360 13t (Coffee Lake) Teardown
The bottom lid: 4 Phillips screws hidden under the rubber strip/foot, 2 T5 screws on the bottom corners. HP, fuck you for hiding screws under the rubber foot, and for double-fooling people by putting them under only one of the two strips.
MateBook 13 Models: 16GB Variant Internally Tested
With a 4.6GHz i7-8565U and a full 25W GeForce MX150, Huawei’s upcoming MateBook 13 is looking to become the most power-dense ultrabook. But apparently, it only has 8GB of RAM? Let’s investigate. Continue reading
Show CPU/GPU Stats in Notification Area with Afterburner
By the way, I’m using NetSpeedMonitor to show my network throughput.
If you want to show CPU or GPU stats like usage, frequency, power and temperature in the Taskbar’s Notification Area/system tray, like iStat Menus in Mac OS, you can do it using MSI Afterburner.
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Extract Image from PDF in Acrobat DC (with transparency)
Here’s how you can extract a PNG image from a PDF in Acrobat DC while preserving its transparency.
- Go into edit mode.
You’re Probably Doing 3D Printing Tolerancing Wrong. Here’s a Better Way.
Do you use 3D printing to make functional parts? Do your printed parts have slight dimensional errors, such as undersized holes? It is essential to take care of this if you use your FDM 3D printer to make precise or functional parts. Here’s the easiest and most elegant fix, using nothing but your slicer and a caliper.
Because the extruded molten plastic gets squashed by the nozzle and also flows outward toward the sides, everything you print is fattened, creating overall oversized prints and undersized holes.
Fortunately, there are ways to fix this flaw. First, I would recommend against these methods, if you currently use them:
Bad methods
- Compensating by slightly changing the values in CAD: this is cumbersome if you use different printers or have collaborators, and problematic if you work with assemblies in CAD.
- Changing the size in the slicer: FDM 3D printers generally have undersized ID and oversized OD, so enlarging or shrinking the size is bound to reduce one problem while worsening the other.
The Elegant Way: Horizontal Expansion
[Fix] AdGuard Breaking MasteringPhysics in Chrome
The Problem
All the math symbols and equations show up as unformatted code on MasteringPhysics.com.
The Cause
AdGuard’s “Send statistics for ad filter usage” option appears to be causing this error.
The Solution
Go to the “Miscellaneous” section of the AdGuard settings and turn off “Send statistics for ad filter usage”.
Fix Equalizer APO Not Working in Windows 10
The Problem
Equalizer APO is not taking any effect in Windows 10.
The Solution
- Open the Configurator program by searching for it in Start.
- Select your device and check “Troubleshooting options“.
- Choose “Install as SFX/EFX (experimental)“.
- Restart Windows.
HE400i EQ Correction using Rtings Data
Introduction
I found a frequency response measurement of the HE400i that is more accurate than the ones I previously used in my equalizer settings. I discovered a way to extract the graph data from Rtings.com. Rtings.com has measurements of lots of headphones, and their methodology is one of the most accurate. So, I imported their data into Room EQ Wizard and created an equalizer profile to correct the frequency response of my HiFiMan HE400i.
Measurements and Correction
I came up with the filters manually. I’m choosing not to boost the troughs or over-correct the treble to prevent side effects that arise when any particular listener’s ears don’t exactly match this graph.