My new media PC has a 120GB Kingstong V300 solid state drive (SSD). I bought it because reviews suggested that it offered excellent performance given its low price. But it seems that since those reviews were written, Kingston has started using cheaper, and much slower components in these drives.
More Watch out when buying a Kingston V300 SSD

Actually, “building” may be overstating it a bit. The Shuttle DS437T is a “barebone” system, which means you’ll only need to add a couple of components to create a complete PC. It’s essentially a case with a motherboard. The CPU is soldered onto the motherboard, and has built-in graphics. The barebone also comes with audio, network and wifi. All you need to add is memory, storage and an operating system. But the thing that makes this barebone different from others it that it contains no moving parts. There are no cooling fans, which means you can use it to build a completely silent PC.
More Shuttle DS437T barebone: Building a silent media PC

If you buy a laptop computer under €750, chances are the wifi module used isn’t going to be very good. To get to that low price point, manufacturers need to choose cheap components over good ones. So they usually put a decent processor in, and a big hard drive, because customers ask for those kind of things. But from there on in they complete the system with bargain bin components. Most of those are integrated onto the computer’s motherboard, and impossible to replace. Fortunately however, most laptops do let you replace the wifi module. And it’s really not hard to do.
More Upgrading your laptop’s wifi might be easier than you think

Last weekend, Björn and I spoke at WordCamp Netherlands, and while preparing the presentation I figured that one of the things I was going talk about would probably work as a WordPress plugin. It’s been ages since I last released a plugin, mostly because there’s a solution out there for almost everything you can possibly run into. This specific little fix however proved to be an exception to that rule.
More New WordPress plugin: RT Filter Page List

The fourth edition of WordCamp Netherlands took place last weekend, and I had the pleasure of speaking at this wonderful event. With Björn Wijers, I talked about the intranet project we were involved in at the Dutch tax office (Belastingdienst).
More WordCamp Netherlands 2014 slides

If I remember correctly, the first wireless router I ever bought was a Linksys WRT54G. I’d had a couple of wired ones before that, and knew from experience that cheap routers can be very frustrating. Many of us now use the internet almost 24/7, and buying a sub-par router is like buying a good stereo with terrible speakers. It’s the central hub in your network, on which all other devices depend. It makes sense to get something decent.
More Linksys WRT1900AC review

If you know what Dynamic DNS (DDNS) means, you probably also know that the most popular provider of DDNS services is terminating its free plan. For years, Dyn (formerly DynDNS) has been the go-to service for anyone wanting to access their private LAN though an easy to remember (sub)domain name. I don’t use their service frequently enough to warrant moving to a paid account, so I’ve been looking for an alternative.

No-ip.com is often recommended, and is probably a great service. They say it’ll be free forever, but I guess that’s what Dyn used to say. I’d prefer something a little less commercial. That’s why I liked DuckDNS. Duck has a fun name, a slightly clumsy website, and no apparent business model. Its update clients aren’t as polished as Dyn’s, but they’re still pretty easy to set up. With the website’s help, I’ve set up a cron job on my NAS that does the updating.

You get four free domains, but there’s no paid plan. If you donate (which I certainly will), you get bumped to ten domains. Plenty for home users and small businesses. Easy, simple, fair.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve become somewhat of an enthusiast photographer. Ever since I got my first DSLR camera, I’ve been proud of some of the images I’ve managed to capture, and I love taking my camera on all sorts of trips. The problem with this is that my Canon 1100D isn’t very pocketable. I used to carry it around in it’s own holster-type bag. But on most trips, my family and I would also take a small backpack for things like snacks. Carrying two bags just isn’t fun. Case Logic has a bag that cleverly combines the two, and they were kind enough to send me one to review.

More Case Logic Reflexion Backpack review

In the shared office space where I work, there’s an old 2nd generation iMac that we use to play music. It’s hooked up to a decent set of speakers, and plays music from the web or the local network. Over the last couple of years though, software support for non-intel Macs has all but disappeared, so we’ve been looking for alternatives.

Enter Volumio. The idea is really simple. Volumio transforms a Raspberry Pi computer into an audiophile music player. Simply install it onto an SD card, put it into the Pi, and you’re good to go.
More Make your Raspberry Pi sing with Volumio

I need a new laptop. My trusty old Asus UL30A is starting to feel slow, and I’d love to have a better screen and an SSD. Because I mostly work from my desktop PC, I don’t need anything to-of-the-line. A mid-range i5 will do. Touchscreen is optional, but I do need 8 GB of RAM. Surprisingly, it’s not easy to find these specs in a 13 inch form factor. Which is why I was happy to see Lenovo’s announcement of the IdeaPad U330 touch. Unfortunately, it seems to have all but disappeared…
More The case of the missing Lenovo U330 Touch