For users of screen readers, depending on the screen
resolution, the two checkboxes are for opening and closing the side menus that
appear to the left and right side of the screen. This is designed both for large screens
and for mobile devices with a touch screen. Checking either the main menu or sidebar checkboxes causes
the menu to open from the left or right side of the screen, respectively. Clearing
the checkox in either the main menu or sidebar closes the menu. The checkboxes are
visible to screen readers such as JAWS and NVDA for Windows, Voiceover for Mac,
and Orca screen reader for Linux. When a screen reader says "clickable" for both
main menu and sidebar, that is for the respective checkboxes. End of explaination.
Anyone who is into home theater electronics and those who understand home theater terms such as a home theater receiver, a home theater processor, and eARC. This article is unsuitable for blind users who do not have eyesight.
Hah... 😆 Let me get myself back in control of my moment as I write my blog post. Because that cool new home theater processor interests me a lot! 🤣😀
Okay, so what does that new home theater processor do? Does the ISP processor let me have multiple theaters? Yes! That's having two home theater processors in one processor! Okay, let me explain. Most people that have a surround sound system typically have a home theater receiver with amplifiers built-in. A processor does not have an amplifier, so it needs an external amplifier. An ISP processor can have up to 32 channels of audio. That's 32 speakers. What!? 32 speakers!? Yes. "But you don't need 32 speakers–let alone 4 or 8 subwoofers for a dedicated home theater room," you exclaimed. That's true, but that's not the point. Think about AMC Theatres. If you have been to a movie theater, you know AMC Theatres has so many auditoriums, right? Think about just one device that can connect to 16 speakers per theater room. Actually, commercial movie theaters do have multiple rows of surround speakers. Each row of surround speakers can be located to the left and right side of the room and can surround multiple rows of seating. Of course, that can be done using a StormAudio ISP processor, but that's not what I am interested in.
What piked my interest is the multi-theater feature of the StormAudio ISP MK3 processor. This would allow me to assign 16 channels of audio to a dedicated home theater room and 8 channels of audio to my home office/gaming/studio room. A home theater processor has two HDMI outputs. One HDMI output is linked to the 16 channels for the home theater room. Another 8 or 16 channels of audio (depending on the modules installed in a processor) can go to my home office/gaming/studio room. So people might be thinking "is it possible for a home theater receiver with an integrated amplifier to have 32 channels of amplification?" The problem with that is, the home theater receiver's power supply is very limited in terms of the amount of current that must be pushed from an electrical outlet to the speakers. The receiver can get so hot to the touch even if nothing is playing. That's why going with external amplifiers is better when playing at high volumes. A dedicated home theater room needs to be connected to a dedicated circuit breaker in order to provide enough power to the speakers in a dedicated home theater room. For a computer room, I may not need a lot of power, so a 700w amplifier going into 7 channels (that's 100 watts each per speaker) is more than enough for me.
Although the price of the StormAudio ISP MK3 processor is sky-high, for me, that is similar to buying two cheaper home theater processors, but the cool thing about this is I could have more speakers in a dedicated room and still have leftover for the speakers in the computer room. And I could control the processor to show me a different video source going out to HDMI 2, which is the connector going out to my computer room. If I want to see what's playing in a dedicated movie theater from a computer room, I can do that because the processor acts as a hub. Sure, if I could find a multi-theater processor at a lower price than the StormAudio, that's great, but I get what I pay for. Right now, the MK3 only supports HDMI 2.0, which means I cannot game at 4K (3840x2160) at 120Hz and my TV (Samsung 43" QN90B) supports HDMI 2.1.
I have my PC connected to my TV, then from the TV to an eARC HDMI audio extractor, and then to my Denon AVR-X3400H which does not support eARC. Basically, eARC allows 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound audio to come directly from the TV and the audio passes into a receiver's HDMI out for the receiver to process audio information so that the sound can output through the speakers. But because my home theater receiver does not support eARC, I use an audio extractor (that I linked above) in order to supply audio going out to my receiver. Here's how it works:
"HDMI Out" from an audio extractor connects to my Samsung 43" QN90B's HDMI 3, which lists "eARC." Connecting an audio extractor to HDMI 1, 2, or 4 in the back of my TV won't work as those HDMI ports do not provide eARC support.
"HDMI Audio Out" connects to my Denon AVR-X3400H's audio input. This allows my receiver to process audio that came from my PC that hooks up to my TV's HDMI 2.1 inputs.
"HDMI Input" from an audio extractor connects to my Denon AVR-X3400H's HDMI Output. This allows me to select HDMI3 on my TV. Any video going from my receiver to my TV passes through my audio extractor's HDMI input.
And that's all there is to it! In short, my PC connects to my TV via an HDMI cable, the TV connects to an audio extractor, and an audio extractor connects to my receiver. An HDMI audio extractor avoids having me buy a new receiver. Think about this. Back on late 2018, my Marantz SR-5008 was having issues and the audio continues to make squealing noise after the outbreak of Hurricane Michael. Since January of 2019, I wanted a new receiver. Should I buy a Denon AVR-X3500H which supports eARC or should I buy a Denon X3400H which does not? Back around August of 2013, I bought a 4K-ready receiver, thinking that $900 would give me a much better sound compared to Marantz SR-5007, which was a discontinued model. That's why I bought myself into that "$900" hype! Bad! Bad mistake! So let me ask you this. Would you spend $300 extra just for eARC support? Me? I don't think so. I bought a Denon X3400H just to save $300 in the process. Sure, Amazon mentioned that X3400H is a discontinued model (yes, it "was" as it's past-tense, but let's forget about the tenses for now), but I bought it anyway! Why? So I can quit being a fool! The sound character is the same regardless of whether it's a 2010 model or a 2022 model!
Of course, I've gotten way too far off-topic from my article, but the point is, I'm going to wait for ISP to come out with a new processor that supports HDMI 2.1 such as 4K at 120Hz. 4K at 120 Hz would last for a very long time for me. Maybe a decade? Even if HDMI Alliance (or whatever it's called) upgrades to 8K (a resolution of 7680 by 4320) at 120Hz? Okay, hold on a minute. Today, I don't think modern graphics cards can even handle 4K at 120 frames per second or even at 240 FPS unless people play older games or turn down the graphics settings. I mean, I'm talking Cyberpunk 2077 that can push even an NVIDIA RTX 3090 so hard that gamers can't get more than 90 to 100 frames per second. So, HDMI 2.1 will be with us for a very long period of time. Well, I'm pretty sure that games such as Cyberpunk 2077 could run the GPU (graphics processor unit) down to 20 frames per second or even lower. 😂🙂
Anyway, one day I could save up my money for an awesome StormAudio home theater processor. One day. That is, if I could get into network engineering and make a whole lot of money (I am Cisco CCNA certified as of October 2021; I am CompTIA CySA+ certified as of August 23rd of this year, which renewed my CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications).
For those unfamiliar with LXC and Proxmox, LXC is similar to a virtual machine that runs a guest OS (Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, etc.) but the container part of LXC excludes the core part of the OS and simply provides networking and storage inside a container. Unlike virtual machines, applications inside a container can access resources on a host system directly. Proxmox is a hypervisor for running virtual machines and Linux containers (LXC) in a server hardware.
IP Addresses and Subnetting
Do you need to have multiple IP addresses assigned to a network interface inside an LXC container? In terms of networking, a single NIC can have multiple IP addresses. This is useful if you want to run a single server with multiple websites that have their own IP address. Here's what I mean:
172.20.31.0/23
A small HTML file with a list of websites hosted by the web server.
172.20.31.1/23
A web application running Adminer, a lightweight alternative to phpMyAdmin.
172.20.31.2/23
A development version of my website that mirrors a production version. Anyone who visits my site sees my production version of my website.
Once I test the changes I made in the development website, I push the changes up to the production website.
172.20.31.3/23
A custom-built web application for taking notes. Any notes written in HTML gets shown up in the web browser.
172.20.31.4/23
A development version of the note-taking web application taken from 172.20.31.3.
A note for those new to networking: pay attention to the subnet. A slash 23 subnet can start with 172.20.30.1 and ends at 172.20.31.254. Both 172.20.30.255 and 172.20.31.0 are both valid IP addresses. 172.20.30.0 is a network address and 172.20.31.255 is a broadcast address. Cisco has an article about IP addressing and subnetting in order to help you understand how subnetting works. With that out of the way, let's get into configuring a Linux container running in a Proxmox server.
I watched the video about whether the ransomware can be stopped and I scrolled down through the comment section. While reading comments, some people are suggesting that we switch to Linux because Linux is more secure compared to Windows. That is true that Linux is inherently secure compared to Windows and Mac; however, what if I were to tell you that if you are running Arch Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Haiku OS, or just about any other operating systems in our planet that you can still fall victim to phishing attacks? If we all switch to a different operating system on a basis that one is more secure compared to other operating systems, then we are forgetting about our weakest link.
Let me ask you again. Who or what is the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain? It's not Windows; we are the ones that need education so we can protect ourselves online.
Let me ask you a question. Do you find yourself wanting a larger TV because a movie looks too small? Do you not like black bars above and below the movie that is formatted for ultra-wide screens? Before reading any further, I want to link to an article that talks about aspect ratios. Now, please note that this article will require anyone to have eyesight, so this will not be suitable for those who are using a screen reader. Of course, it might be helpful if anyone who is blind could visualize in their head. Maybe a Braille measuring tape could help?
If a full article interests you, here's my setup of how I use my computer. Having my monitor up close to me is great so I do not have to use a magnifier all the time.
This is my setup of how I have my LG 32" 4K monitor close to me. I was watching Security Now! on TWiT.TV while participating on Discord as a member of Club TWiT.
After Christmas, I wanted to buy a Nintendo Switch so I can play Breath of the Wild. I wanted to buy a highest capacity MicroSDXC card for Nintendo Swtich that I can afford. So I looked through Amazon and I saw a 512GB MicroSD card for less than $15. The description mentioned Nintendo Switch, so I went ahead and bought the MicroSD card. Once I have a Nintendo Switch in hand, I went ahead and inserted a MicroSD card and decided to install The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Later on, I wanted to try Skyward Sword and the data corruption happened. I downloaded the game again and same thing happened again. I then reformatted the MicroSD card and tried to install Skyward Sword, then Breath of the Wild, but then the data corruption happened again as well. This led me to believe that the MicroSD card I bought can only fit one large game at a time. I am able to download small games such as Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest III, but that's about it.
Just because the description says "Nintendo Switch" does not mean it is compatible with Nintendo Switch. There's no review of the card mentioning "Nintendo Switch" until I wrote a review. If you do a search for "Nintendo Switch" (without quotes) in the product page, I am the only one who wrote the review of Nintendo Switch and I gave it a one-star rating. No one has ever written a review of the 512GB MicroSD card for Nintendo Switch except me.
So, I went with a SanDisk 256GB MicroSD card. Yes, it's more expensive, but the truth is, I have not had any problems with two large games and a couple of small games that was downloaded into my SanDisk MicroSD card and I gave it a 5-star rating for that. I wanted the largest capacity I can get, but at the end of the day, I think 256GB is more than adequate for purchasing console-exclusive games for Nintendo Switch.
One game that is not console-exclusive is Dragon Quest XI S, which is available for both Steam for PC and Nintendo Switch. I already have Dragon Quest XI S in my Steam library, so I do not see myself purchasing the game for Nintendo Switch. I have my Switch docked and the dock is hooked up to my home theater receiver, so I can play games on a large screen monitor. And yes, my computer is hooked up to my receiver via HDMI, so I use my computer all the time. If I want to play games that are exclusive to Nintendo Switch, I can switch my receiver to Nintendo Switch. So anyway, I don't care for portability aspect of Nintendo Switch because the screen size is not suitable for my visual impairment.
Should I have went with a 400GB MicroSD card? Yes. However, I've had to ask myself this question: am I going to play games in Nintendo Switch that is available for Steam? The answer is no, which I already covered that in the previous paragraph. So it's only going to be console-exclusive games such as Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, and just about any games that are not available in Steam. If I factor in games that take up to 16GB in disk space, I can only see myself playing 15 large games, which is way more than enough for me. Of course, with a 400GB MicroSD card I would have bumped up to 24 large games. However, I would be looking at spending hundreds of dollars in games before I run out of space in a MicroSD card. I have already spent $120 for two large Zelda games and even Link's Awakening is another $60. Yikes. So yeah, 256GB is more than enough for me for now.
With all that said, you get what you pay for when it comes to pairing a MicroSD card with Nintendo Switch. Don't skimp on a price of a MicroSD card just because you get a much higher capacity for your new Nintendo Switch. Now go play some Zelda games and have fun!
(For my blog post, I want to focus on the audience regarding people who use Internet every single day and knows a lot about cybersecurity. Myself included.)
Imagine a scenario: you went to get your haircut and the place you went to requires you to enter an email address before you get your haircut. Why? Even if I do have a
smartphone and I use Internet every single day, why must I put in my email address? For what purpose? To send spam? For businesses, they might say "we respect your privacy
and take security seriously," but in my mind, I would say that if an email gets compromised in a data breach, it's more likely that those who are not tech-savvy are more
likely to receive spam and phishing emails. Not thinking about security when using the Internet can lead to ransomware and identity theft. They might stop using the
computer altogether because of fear of feeling unsafe online.
What is an operating system? Windows? Mac? Linux? What is an email address? What is a "file?" See where I'm going with? What is Android? iPhone? iOS? How do I manage
files and folders in my computer? How do I check my email? I hope you get my point.
Okay, so you say that your 90-year-old family member knows how to use the Internet, takes care of security themselves, and I should not overly-generalize myself. Well,
that's great, but we should not force everyone to have a smartphone just so they can face dangers lingering in the Internet. I have more details in the full article.
Article published: 2021-10-06 12:00
Categories: The World of Computers, Computers, Security
This is a rendering of my home theater made in Blender. It has a 200" projection screen, 7.2.4-channel speaker system, and comfy seats with cupholders in between.
I have been watching a couple of YouTube videos of people who want a computer in one room (such as a wiring closet) and a keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) in a home office. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I want to post links to YouTube videos.
Embedding YouTube or Odysee videos will insert a tracking cookie in users' personal computers. As a citizen of the US, I need to follow GDPR if European visitors visit my website. I don't like and want to talk to lawyers to be honest. 🤣😀
As for the video from Linus Tech Tips, I would much rather have a couple of computers rather than single computer that can house a couple of virtual machines running desktop OSes such as Linux and Windows just to make it easier for me. So yeah, a virtual machine is a computer within a computer that can serve different purposes such as running Ubuntu within Windows using VirtualBox or by running Windows OS in a Linux host using KVM or Xen.
Article published: 2021-08-14 17:42
Categories: Dreams and Imagination, Homes and Buildings, Home Theater, The World of Computers, Computers, Networking
This is a comparison of two lavalier microphones. Recently, I bought a Shure MX185 cardioid lavalier microphone as I want to test if a uni-directional (cardioid) microphone is right for me, especially if I want to test and hear if my AKG K702 headphone leaks sound to my microphone especially for the Zoom meeting. I bought a Movo LV8-D microphone as of late October so I can participate in Zoom meeting that began November of last year. The Zoom meeting I am participating in is Cisco Academy from National Industries for the Blind. I'm studying for Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate (CCNA, for short) and my class ends by the end of August. I asked if students and my instructor can hear any leaks coming from my K702 headphone and they said they did not hear any leaks at all, which is great. However, I have a Sony WX1000XM3 headphone and because of the shape of my headphone, I don't think my hearing aids are picking up any high frequency sounds unlike when I use my AKG open-back headphone.
I plan to ship my Shure microphone back because the uni-direction nature of a lavalier microphone is not for me, especially as I was reading from left to right as i read the script during the recording.
Do note that even though I did cut out a couple of pauses in my audio production software (Ardour), I tend to speak slow as speaking at a moderate speed for more than a minute is not my second nature. As I live in Altha, FL, a rural town in the United States, I've been very lonely a lot even when I go to restaurants with my family. Plus, I did not position the text inside the dialog in the first part of the video correctly. I do not want to waste another 45+ minutes trying to render the entire video using Blender. Although as a Linux user, I could have used KDenLive instead of Blender; however, as Blender is a very easy tool for me to use, I used it for the majority of my video editing. My familiarity with KDenLive is secondary to Blender.
When I zoom in using GNOME Magnifier (Windows key+Alt+8 to activate the magnifier and Windows key+Alt+- or Windows key+Alt+= to zoom in or out, respectively), there is a small mouse cursor shown in the screen. I think it's a bug with the compositor that draws the entire application, be it Firefox, GIMP, or Ardour). Please ignore the small mouse cursor. Thanks.
Anyway, I appreciate you checking out my video that I linked above. Here are the links to products listed for the video:
When uploading a screenshot of your website (or someone else's website), make sure your email address (or portion of your email address) is not exposed when taking a screenshot. I uploaded my screenshot of pagination for my website and a part of my email address has been exposed over the web and I had to retake the screenshot without it. If you have a webmail opened in one browser tab such as GMail/Google Workspace, your browser tab will look similar to this:
Inbox (5): yourname(at)your...
That tab is exposed by the <title> tag inside a website. Here's what I mean:
Instead of "@", I use "(at)" so that spam harvesters and bots won't harvest any email addresses in my website; however, I won't give away any of my 170+ email addresses at all. Pay special attention to the title of web pages that you currently have opened. By "title," I meant your browser tabs. My advice is do not leave anything sensitive unattended. I hope I can be of help to everyone. Be safe out there in the web!
As a web developer of my website, I have implemented pagination that allows anyone to view more posts by page and be able to view blog posts by month and year. I created a custom theme from scratch so that I can personalize my website to my liking. I wanted to give the pagination system an "electronic" look.
This screenshot shows pagination implemented in my website. In my development machine, I have set the number of posts per page to 5 in order to demonstrate the effect. I blurred the surrounding image to cut the file size by half.
For those with eyesight, you can click in the image to see a full screen of my desktop that shows the pagination system in effect.
The code for the pagination system for ClassicPress can be found in this full article.
Article published: 2021-05-01 08:57
Categories: The World of Computers, Scripting and Programming
