FalonyTech

pixel 6 back

Pixel 6 Review

November 28, 2022

In late August, 2022, I purchased the Pixel 6 Pro for my wife and the Pixel 6 for myself. I was excited to have a Google device again with vanila Android on it. This is a Gen 1 on the main processor, designed by Google itself, but another in a long line of phones otherwise, and having read some reviews prior to getting, I expected going into this some bugs, but what I am experiencing is not what I read about. Overall, I am not impressed, and below I will detail some of my experience.

Windows 10 Start Menu

Reinstall Windows

April 3, 2022

After a recent replacement of my gaming laptop's SSD, I was in the position of reinstalling Windows 10. After the reinstall, I got to go through all of the things about Windows that make this operating system a chore to deal with, and why I prefer to use Linux. I use Windows for gaming only, but having it around so I can keep up with the latest trends, bad as they are, is nice.

discovery cove entrance

Family Vacation 2021 - Travel Tech

June 19, 2021

Recently, I took my family on vacation, and decided to bring a pared down set of tech with me. I am going to walk through some of my experiences with the tech that I brought, though I have to admit that I did not get a whole lot of time to utilize any of it.

pinebookpro and camera

Travel Gear 2021

May 20, 2021

In two weeks, I will be going on vacation with my wife and son. This will be the first real trip that we have taken since he was born a little more than a year ago. As I gear up for this trip, I am evaluating what technology I will be taking with me. This trip is focused on a lot of non-technology related activities, and I don’t think that I will have a lot of time to play around on the computer. My forearm will appreciate the break from typing every day. But I still plan on having a few items around in case we are sitting around the hotel, and I can get a chance to jump online.

Acer Nitro 5 laptop

Acer Nitro 5 17.3 inch 2020 Model Review

May 9, 2021

I was originally going to write a multi-part series on this new laptop, including a first impressions and then review article, but I started using the laptop regularly for gaming and neglected writing the article until now. Since I have been using the laptop for over a month, I am just going to write the review.

Office Online

30 Days of Microsoft - Office Online

February 29, 2021

I have been using Microsoft Office 365 for more than 30 days now, and I have a few updates and a new part of the ecosystem to talk about. Office 365 is as easy to use as I would expect. The phone applications; however, are not as good as I would expect. I will cover my experience so far.

OneDrive

30 Days of Microsoft

January 31, 2021

My subscription to Office 365 is coming up for renewal. My wife uses Office regularly and wanted to keep it. Office is not directly available on Linux, which is what I use, but I do prefer it for spreadsheets and documents. Since I am already paying for Office 365, the though occured to me, why not make use of all of the services that come with the subscription, including the cloud storage, Office Online, etc. And if I am going to try Office online and the cloud storage, I thought it would be fun to take it the next step further and try out Microsoft applications for Android, iOS, and with my Windows desktop. I will be testing out the way it can integrate into my daily flow, across many different systems, including Linux.

VS Code

2020 Custom Built Tower

December 31, 2020

To cap off 2020, I finally completed the rebuild of my customer desktop tower. Over the past couple of years I upgraded the CPU to a Ryzen 1800X, updated the motherboard to match, bought newer RAM that would work with the new motherboard, and upgraded to a 500Gb M.2 SSD. While the parts are a little older, they are still very nice parts, and 2020 was the time to complete the build. On December 26th, I installed a Radeon RX580. While this card is not new to the market, it is a huge upgrade over the Radeon HD 6850 I have been using up until this point.

VS Code

Web Development on Linux

November 29, 2020

The primary thing that I do with my laptop is web development. There are a few other things that I use my laptop, or a full fledged computer for, like some light gaming, surfing, etc., but first and foremost is web development and learning. Most of the classes I take, and what I see the most in web development is MacOS, and some with Windows; however, I use Ubuntu.Below will be a continually updated list of what I do to set up my web development environment.

My desk setup

COVID-19 Lockdown

April 24, 2020

In March of 2020, the company I work for sent most of its staff to work from home due to the Corona Virus outbreak, myself included. Because of this, I have gotten a chance to use my home office consistently enough to know what I like about it and what is lacking. I have also gotten a chance to do some personal development and catch up on some side projects for this site.

Raspberry Pi 4

Raspberry Pi 4

April 19, 2020

About two months ago, my Raspberry Pi 4 arrived, and to say the least, I was excited to try it out. I heard some of the stories about this thing overheating, especially the model I got with the 4gb of RAM. decided to get the Cana Kit for $99, which came with a power switch, a plastic case (pictured), a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, and several small heatsinks for the chips with a fan that is positioned on the top of the case. These are my thoughts on performance, quality, and overall satisfaction.

Kinesis Advantage 2

Kinesis Advantage 2

February 25, 2020

As someone that has used an ergonomic keyboard for 17 years, this is a very different experience, but that is not a bad thing. While I like this keyboard for general typing, it has some drawbacks if you are used to a normal keyboard. I have been using this as my primary work keyboard for almost a year, and it really helps.

iPad

iPad 9.7" 2018

February 25, 2020

The iPad 9.7" 2018 is a great device and worth the money, as long as you have simple needs or do not plan on using it as the main PC, then you are good. I purchased one of these recently for the main purpose of being able to take notes for work. While I have some major issues with the way that Apple handles their hardware and the lock-in that they push for their ecosystem, the limited use that I have for this device allows my to appreciate what a solid device that it is without being sucked into the lock-in effect.

Kindle Fire 10

Kindle fire HD 10

April 5, 2019

I recently was in the market for a new tablet. I was previously using the Kindle Fire HD 8, but this tablet was showing its age and was never the fastest or most powerful tablet. I was stuck making a choice between the Apple iPad 9.7 2018 and the Kindle Fire HD 10. From the title of this article, you can already tell which one I went with. The price was the driving factor in the decision. While both were on sale, the Kindle Fire HD 10’s price could not be touched by the iPad.

thinkpad

ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th Gen

March 16, 2019

I just purchased a ThinkPad X1 Carbon and this is my first impression of this business class laptop. It is running Pop_OS! Linux instead of Windows, which it came with. This will be a review strictly on its performance with Linux.

HP Spectre

HP Spectre x360 - One Year Later

February 19, 2019

I owned one of these, and used it as my daily driver. This was the primary laptop that I utilized day to day, but it was running Windows. I give this a full review, as it is over a year later.