Hello my fellow tildestians (tilderinos?) - I'm looking to upgrade a very old home router (a hand-me-down linksys of some variety). I game quite a lot (my computer is connected via ethernet to the current router) (often while others folks are streaming shows elsewhere in the house) so preferably something that is able to handle that? Maybe something that would allow a later upgrade with mesh? I don't know what a mesh is but I see them recommended in a lot of these "best router of 2026" lists so maybe that's something I need to look into.

I've seen a lot of recommendations for asus and tp-link and ubiquiti? I am not super technically inclined so ease of set up is a nice bonus but I'm willing to put in the effort if needed >_< Budget is around ~300 usd. Blessings be if you have the time and knowledge to spare for me :) thank you!

(also, if this is in the wrong topic please relocate me with my sincerest apologies)

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022) which has reached end of life and no longer receives updates. I was wondering if it was possible to revive it using one of these alternate Android versions, but I was very frustrated to see that LineageOS (the one I've seen mentioned the most besides Graphene) supports both the 2020 and the 2024 model of this tablet, but not mine.

I wanted to hear from fellow Tildes users if installing one of these OSes would be worth it to get continued security updates for an old tablet like this, which OSes are out there (I've only heard the names of a few of them), which ones to avoid (maybe it's abandoned or there's some drama around a particular OS for whatever reason), and if anyone knows of one that specifically supports my model.

I'm also curious if S-Pen stylus support would work on any of these other OSes.

Hello,

I have decided to get myself a laser printer.

My intentions are to have a working printer occasionally. So sometimes I will print a lot, but then it can be left unused for a couple of years and I want it to be usable in the instant I want it without having to go and get new whatever.

My question is are there any considerations besides the printer being listed at https://openprinting.github.io/printers that I should make?

I will not hunt down the most open (as in copyleft/libre soft- & hardware) printer but would not mind it being open.

More importantly is the expectation that I could find new toners (I think that's the word for "ink" in laser printers) in 5 years.

I don't really want color, but if it isn't that big of a difference I might as well.

(I could change my mind to get a different kind of printer, but you'd have to be really convincing.)

Hello Tilderonians,

I have inherited a non-functional ~10 year old gaming PC that was previously used as a VR rig for kids. The people who owned said PC had no info on how or why or how long it had not been working for.

I got it home, plugged it in, and tried to power it on. Nothing happened.

I opened it up. With the PSU switched on, there is a red led lit up on the motherboard, an ASUS Pro Gaming Z170i. According to the user manual, this just means the mobo has power and is in standby. There is also a white led lit up on the gpu (a GTX1080) which seems to also indicate simply that it has power.

I first assumed that the power button built into the case was the issue. I found where it plugged into the mobo and, on advice from the internet, used a screwdriver to jump the pins for the power switch. Nothing happened.

I then also read online that the PSU fan should spin up when turning it on with nothing plugged in. So I unplugged everything and tried it and nothing happened. I read the LEDs on the hardware could still function even if the PSU was dead, so I decided that was the issue. I ordered a new PSU, same 750 watts. Old one out, new one in, turned it on and again...nothing happened. The fan didn't spin up on the new PSU either. The same LEDs as before came on the mobo and gpu but nothing else.

At one point I also swapped the single RAM stick with another I had that I knew worked, but that didn't change anything.

At this point I don't know what to do. Is there a way to test the motherboard? What else could stop the PC from doing anything at all? I've never built a PC before but I've installed/swapped several parts.

I don't want to spend a ton of money to revive this 10 year old hardware but I was willing to drop ~$60 on a PSU. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks for reading.

I'm looking for a new laptop as my current one is falling apart, and one option that seems quite tempting at the moment is getting a desktop machine, leaving it running away in the background, and then accessing it using remote desktop software from a laptop (or even tablet) most of the time. My logic is that I want a fairly decent device for programming on and occasional games, but I also want something portable that I can carry into every room of my flat. I've also been experimenting more with Tailscale and using my laptop as a remote development machine and my phone as a dumb terminal while traveling abroad, and that's worked fairly well, so I'm interested in how far I can take this concept. Plus the idea of also being able to use my main device as a small homelab is kind of appealing as well.

The plan would be:

• Framework Desktop sits somewhere at home and is on all the time. My wife has a Framework laptop that she's quite impressed with, I realise the value proposition for desktop computers is less given there's already so much possibility to configure and upgrade, but I've never built a PC myself before and I don't want to complicate this setup too much.
  '* A dumb terminal device that I can carry around with me. For now, that'll probably be my current laptop as long as it lasts, but in the future maybe a cheap Chromebook or even a tablet that I can connect a keyboard and mouse to.
• Moonlight/Sunshine setup for the remote desktop side of things. From what I can tell, this can stream both individual applications but also the whole desktop, and works with various clients.
• Tailscale to access all of this outside the home. This is less important but it would be convenient. And if I go down the homelab direction, also for being able to access my self-hosted services remotely or running my personal website off my own hardware.

Things I'm concerned about:

• German connection speeds are, broadly speaking, poor, especially with upload speeds. I'm looking at maybe 300M down, 50M up. Inside my local network that won't affect me, but if I did want to take my laptop with me, I don't have a good sense of whether the remote desktop aspect is really feasible.
• The Framework desktop - I like the company, and I like the idea of a repairable desktop that's still sold as a single unit and not something where I need to buy everything myself. But I also don't have a good sense of how much of a premium I'd be paying here, vs either building something completely from scratch or buying a more typical desktop
• The laptop would probably live in the living room because that's where all the other technology (in particular the modem) in our house lives. It's fine if it makes a noise while I'm actively using it to watch things, but I'd need it to be very quiet the rest of the time. Framework does sell a fan that is specifically designed to be quiet, but I'm not sure if this is "it's quiet compared to having a normal computer fan on" or "it's quiet compared to having turned all my devices off for the night".

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup, and is this something that would reasonably work, or am I completely missing something obvious that makes this a terrible awful idea that nobody should do?

Thanks in advance!

I'm looking to replace my current mechanical keyboard which has a few problems. If anyone has recommendations I would appreciate it.

Here is what I'm looking for:

• Mechanical switches
• USB C and bluetooth.
• Smaller size (no keypad)
• Clicky but not too loud. I think I currently have "brown" switches which are good.
• Backlit (but not colorful unless I'm able to set it to something muted or single-colored)
• Works with mac, pc, linux, and maybe tablets

I don't care very much if there is a battery in the unit as long as it can switch to bluetooth while plugged into usb.

I went to mechanicalkeyboards.com and looked around and got a bit overwhelmed. Looks like the prices are mostly under $200 which would be ok.

What went wrong with my current keyboard:
It's an EPOMAKER TH80 pro. The size is good, the features are good, and the keyboard feel is good. But the battery went dead so it has to be plugged in all of the time, and several of the keys get double presses at random so I have to backspace a lot.

Thanks!

Asked in ~comp thread, figured it should be its own post.

Thinking about whether I want to do some upgrades to my 10 year old PC or buy new. I could bump RAM to 16 without breaking the bank since its DDR4, and maybe splurge on a new processor, but I'm not sure if I'd just want to go with a new machine at that point, thoughts?

AMD Ryzen 3 1300
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR4
MSI B350M PRO-VD PLUS
4GB ATI Radeon RX 480

Edit: To follow up some questions about what I'm using this computer for, not a whole lot at the moment. I was thinking of making it into a media server or a Steam OS console now that it's available to download, but it's more of a whim and a project itch to keep my mind off of personal and global events.

Came to post and saw this thread popped up 5 hours prior (okay, near 7 hours as I'm still trying to look). So please help them first!

Sadly, while a lot of the requirements are the same, it doesn't offer what I'm looking for. Here are the demands (and here is why I cannot profit from it):

• USB A or C wired (no BT or detachable connection)
• Full 100% size

Similar demands are:

• Works with Linux
• Cherry MX (or comparable) switches - red or brown level
• Backlit with custom coloring

Honestly, Ducky seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, but I see no "buy" option, nor are there Linux options. Yeah, they're on mechanicalkeyboards.com but the third party is disconcerting and also the options I want are out of stock.

It looks like we’re finally getting some real options in the space, so I’m interested in people’s thoughts and experiences!

I’ve been running a pair of LG 27MD5KL monitors forever, and they’ve been largely great - but they’re really showing their age at this point, and I’m being forced to upgrade either way because my new job requires using a Windows laptop (likely a Dell Pro 14, but TBC), and those old LGs use an esoteric dual link DP variant that only Apple supports. I’ll also be keeping my personal MacBook Pro, so smooth compatibility with both is a must. Use will largely be software work: lots of documentation, lots of terminal windows, lots of dark mode, but some design review work as well where decent colour accuracy helps.

Options I’m seeing at the moment are:

• Asus ProArt PA27JCV
• Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG
• LG 27GM950B
• BenQ MA270S
• Apple Studio Display
• Apple Studio Display XDR

I get the impression that Apple’s the better option where possible, but I’m concerned about compatibility, especially when I don’t directly control the choice of laptop. If anyone has real world experience on that one I’d be interested, especially the difference between “technically works on non-Apple laptops” vs “is an equivalently good experience on non-Apple laptops”.

I’m guessing just using separate inputs for each laptop will be fine on whatever I go for, but I’m open to getting a KVM if needed (L1Techs? I haven’t actually checked how hard it is to find one that supports 2x 5K yet…). Couldn’t immediately see anything that’ll take Thunderbolt input from the Mac and HDMI input from the Windows laptop and push both to Thunderbolt output, which might otherwise have been a way to bridge the Apple display question.

Probably going for 27” 5K rather than 32” 6K, unless there’s a compelling argument for the latter. I briefly tried a Dell 32” 6K a few years back and other than horrible backlight bleed, sitting that close to a 32” display ended up feeling like I was craning my neck rather than moving my eyes to see edge to edge.

So, what do people think would be best here?

Sending up a bat signal for @gary and @ButteredToast - you guys both know your stuff on this one!

I have an older kobo (Kobo Libra H20) and have been using Calibre, and basically manually plugging it in and syncing books over to it.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good ways of doing wireless sync?

I've looked into KoReader but not sure exactly how involved that would be to set up. I am comfortable setting up something "SelfHosted" as long as I can easily spin it up and spin it down, I don't currently have any computer I leave on 100% of the time.

I've seen previous topics here, and Booklore looked interesting, but when I went to track it down it looks like the website is down (the GitHub is still there though), and apparently lots of controversy surrounding it in some reddit posts...it looks like there is maybe a fork of it (Grimmory), but I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with it or anything similar.

I'd prefer something without a lot of AI/LLM use, but not sure how realistic that is.

I only read eBooks, not manga/visual novels, and I don't listen to audiobooks so I don't necessarily need anything with support for any of those.

I would also be fine paying for something, but preferably only a one-time fee not a subscription.

I primarily read books on my Kobo, but it would be a "nice to have" if I could somehow sync to my iPhone (or Apple books) and iPad, but not required (and I don't need it to sync progress between devices, as I'd pretty much only be reading on one at a time).

Additional "nice to have" would be the ability to add books from any device.

Any suggestions? Just use Calibre content server? Or is there something "better"?

My current headphones (Philips TAH8506) are pretty worn out from daily use and recently a bit of plastic on the side cracked, so I figured it'd be a good time to get new ones. Since I know very little about literally any audio hardware it seems a good idea to ask here. Things I'm generally looking for:

• must be over-ear
• decent sound quality; I'm not going to pretend I'm an audiophile, the ones I have now are sufficient so anything as good will do
• connectivity: this is where things get tricky. My current usage is being connected through a jack when using pc and bluetooth when using my phone. These 2 connection modes are a must for me. However, I'd also really like if I was able to connect to pc over 2.4gz with a dongle because bluetooth latency is, frankly, awful. It's mostly why I use a wired connection to pc.
• microphone is not needed (in fact I'd prefer if they don't have one)
• ideally not more than $200
• available in Europe without oversea shipping
• nice to have, but not required:
  • a way to control playback (pause/volume etc) from the headphones. The ones I have now have a touch panel on the right and I occasionally use it (but probably wouldn't miss it)
  • ANC
  • cat-resistant cables (probably no such thing exists)

I'd also appreciate general pointers regarding which brands provide good quality at a decent price to make searching easier. Thanks in advance for any answers!

I use hearing aids with Bluetooth, which is fantastic for phone call clarity, watching videos, and listening to audiobooks. I use my iPad often for watching videos, so they’re constantly paired.

My particular model of hearing aid has a flaw where the ambient sound gets adjusted during streaming in such a way that it causes a static like sound that’s loud enough to require turning the sound up to hear whatever I’m streaming. I seriously doubt this is good for my hearing.

I can go into the app and adjust the ambient sound balance, which reduces the static sound but makes the sounds around me quieter. This will reset back randomly, sometimes even when I pause. Annoying, but I can live with it.

My issue is that if I play a game on my iPad, it turns on streaming even if I have the sound turned off in the game. So I’ll be sitting here listening to static while I’m playing a card game or something, it’s loud enough that it’s then harder to hear the people around me.

Does anyone know if there’s a way to force the sound off so I don’t have to mess with switching Bluetooth on and off and having to restart the hearing aids because suddenly they don’t pair even though it was working 5 minutes ago?

Hearing aids: Phonak Audio L90-RL (lumity)

iPad Air, 4th gen, WiFi only

iPad os:26.5

A little over a year ago I was gifted a Geeetech A30T. I did a couple of prints with it, but haven't had a ton of use for it. My last print was about 5 months ago. I have another print I'm trying to do today, but the printer doesn't extrude. It goes through the motions, but that's it. If I set the nozzle to "Clean" mode, then some extrusion comes out. The load/unload motor for the filament spool works. I've tried unloading/reloading the filament spool. I did a manual level on the bed. Any suggestions on where I may be going wrong?

Last year, I took a promotion at work which meant I would be managing a few people and also involved with/overseeing a number of long term projects. As I've learned how to manage people, I've also learned that my previous methods for note taking are insufficient for what I'm doing and I'm losing track of things in my paper notebooks.

My employer has offered to buy me a new laptop but I'm actually pretty satisfied with my current laptop, so I've been doing some research into e-ink tablets which I think will help me stay more organized while also allowing me to take notes by hand (my preference) rather than typing things into a Google doc as I've been doing for my one on one meetings.

I don't have any experience with this technology and no way that I can get any hands on experience before buying something, so I'd love to hear from anyone who has used something like this, and especially if there's anything I need to consider that I haven't thought of.

My use cases:

• note taking / digital organization
• online reading (I run literary magazines and our submissions come in through an online system, and there's no convenient way to download them as pdfs to read offline, so having access to a web browser is important)
• access to Google Drive ideally so I can get to my notes from my desktop or laptop
• it'll be used at my desk or on my couch in full light, so no backlight or front light is not an issue

One of my coworkers has a remarkable tablet but he told me it's been less useful for him than he thought. In my research, this seems to be too limited for my uses.

The Onyx Boox Go 10.3 seems to be what would work best for me but I've also read a lot of warnings about their poor customer service so I'm a bit hesitant.

Hey, so I've used an XBone controller for... God knows how long. I've been playing Mina the Hollower and realized that it's causing some pain along the muscles going from the top of my left middle and ring finger past my wrist; I've got piano fingers and kinda grip the analog pretty hard, so my fingers are going past 90° holding the thing and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be doing this anymore.

I think if I had a bigger controller I'd be fine? I'm trying my arcade stick, but it's not great for fine motion like the analog. Does anyone have any experience with having to move out of their usual controller due to pain, and what did you do?

I recently realized that many of my favorite gadgets are basically "new" versions of old technology.

• I use Sony Xperia 1VII, with a headphone jack, side mounted fingerprint, no screen cutout, stock Android. It's running the latest Snapdragon chip, however, and the camera hardware is better than the current iPhone (doesn't mean the software is better)
• My favorite smartwatch is Pebble Time. My rePebble Time 2 is on the way. I'm currently using a Garmin, but I'm not exactly happy with it.
• My keyboard is a Niz EC84. The default keycap looks like my keyboard in middle school and it is just perfect right out of the box (except I should've got the 45g one). As a Topre clone, it bounces with rubber domes. I don't like mechanical as the tactile point is not right at the very top of the curve. It also supports hardware mouse key and Bluetooth which is useful when you're working with multiple machines. (Sadly no QMK in this layout)
• When I was buying my PC I couldn't find a single good modern case (i.e. with USB C ports in the front panel) that doesn't have any glass like old school PC. Luckily, Fractal North was just released back then and I immediately preordered.
• I suppose the ThinkPad line may fit into this aesthetically, but it's not exactly the same as it was in IBM era. I heard that the Chinese are making new board for the old ThinkPad chassis though.

I feel like this is an underserved market - why can't they just give me the same phone/computer I have but with the latest technological advancements. Sure, it'd be niche and many people will complain at the price, but at least there is a choice.

Does anyone have other favorite new old school tech they wanted to recommend?

Hey all, I'm looking for some recommendations for mp3 players. Specifically though I'm looking for two different recommendations. I have a seventh grader I teach who is really interested in getting started with mp3 files (that she has yet to acquire), so a cheaper device if possible. I, on the other hand, have a solid yet growing collection of FLAC files I would love to listen to not on my phone, so I'm willing to splurge a little more for this. I tried searching tildes for it but couldn't find anything that suit my need. I know about the tangara (I think thats how it is spelled?) but I can't seem to find if I can even buy it anymore :/ Thanks!!!