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Power Supply for ASUS ZenBook UX501VW

After I purchased the new ASUS ZenBook, I went looking for another power supply for it, one to keep plugged in at my desk at the office, and another one for my backpack. One would think that would be easy to do, right? Not so.

ASUS decided to do something very odd, and rather stupid. They changed the size of the power tip for the power supply, but kept the same part number. I went through two different orders of the PA-1121-26 power supply and both of them had the wrong size tip. There is nowhere on the ASUS website to order a compatible one, and purchasing one from anywhere else will likely get you the wrong size tip.

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Who shall control my media? Part 2 - Infrastructure

The infrastructure I’ve had our media setup on has changed quite a bit over the years, too. When I first started streaming stuff, I was using UPNP servers to serve a D-Link streamer. It worked pretty well for the first generation of this type of product. I used DiVX to encode our DVD collection, and things weren’t bad. I then migrated to MythTV and things were significantly better. It could handle more video containers, more codecs, and it could handle our recordings. We used nothing bug Myth until about 3 years ago, when I got a deal on a Sony streaming box. The Sony device was clunky and not fun to use, but it did let us stream Netflix. It was quickly replaced with a Roku 3 that I picked up at Costco when it was on sale. That was the beginning of the end for MythTV.

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Who shall control my media? Part 1

Over the last couple of years, the entire media landscape has changed. We were quite happy with MythTV, but its pretty limited in its scope, it can only handle TV, Recorded TV, Videos, Music and Pictures that are on its local drives. Now, add in the fact that we’ve had a Roku now for a while, as well as played with the Fire TV stick and set top box, and things get more messy. I’ve been exploring and trying out a bunch of different options, and have started to settle in on one.

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Installing Ubuntu on the ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW

Update 2016-04-25, this post is obsolete.  I now have information on installing Ubuntu 16.04 at https://marclewis.com/2016/04/25/installing-ubuntu-16-04-lts-on-asus-zenbook-ux501vw/

After receiving my new ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW, the first thing I did was prepare it to dual boot between Windows 10 and Ubuntu.  I’m not a fan of Windows at all, but I do understand that sometimes its required, so I need to dual boot.

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TP-LINK HS100 WiFi Smart Plug and Amazon Echo First Impressions

With Jessica not being nearly as mobile any more, we decided it was time to start looking into a little bit of home automation. To start, we decided to just add a couple of controls for our lights. The TP-LINK HS100 WiFi Smart Plug seemed like a good way to get started as TP-LINK makes fairly decent products and they’re significantly less expensive than most of the others. The fact they say it works with the Echo makes it a no-brainer.

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ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW Review

After three years of using my trusty Vaio laptop, the time had finally come to replace it. The Vaio has been a great laptop for me, but it was starting to show its age. When I bought the Vaio, its intended use was to be a desktop replacement when I wasn’t at the office. Its large 17.3" screen suited that purpose well. At the time I bought it we weren’t living in a place where we could setup a desktop computer at home, there simply wasn’t enough space. We’ve since moved and have the space for a desktop, so my laptop requirements have changed a bit.

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