artiss.blog

Back in 2021 I detailed how I cleaned out the PS4 Pro that I’d bought uses and, seemingly, had nothing more than a damp cloth rubbed over it. 14 months later, in 2023, I had to do it again. It seems that replacing thermal paste and pads only has a limited life. It’s now 3 years later and, recently, I haven’t been playing it anywhere near as much. But I’ve started again and am playing Call of Duty – a game that really pushes the PS4 Pro’s capabilities and will set the fan spinning quite easily.…

When I first got my Commodore 64 in the early 1980s, I was given a succession of cheap, second hand TVs to attach it to, before being bought a more reasonable sized Hitachi TV… One of the earlier ones that doesn’t leave my memory is the ITT, which is pictured at the top of this post. The one in the picture is the 26″ ITT TV CC782 – I’m not sure if this is the exact one that I had, but it looks to be. It sat on top of the dining room table, with my C64 perched directly in front. A lovely teak…

I love Dyson products. I love the founder less, but there’s no denying their products are well thought out and built. My Dyson cordless cleaner is the best vacuum cleaner I’ve ever owned. So when they announced a handheld cooling fan, that was something I was certainly interested in. How could they re-think the simple portable fan? But let’s look at the tech first. Design The fan makes use of the same bladeless fan technology that their full-sized brethren use, with the fan at the bottom,…

If you’re visiting Center Parcs in the UK anytime soon, here are a few quick tips that may help you out, based on my own experience. My last visit was 2026, so are relevant at that time. Since 2001, Center Parcs in the UK has been a separate company from the original Center Parcs business. Therefore, I’m not going to assume that anything in the UK model of their holiday village is representative of the wider European model. Install the Centre Parcs app and use it in advance to plan your time.…

Whilst it’s been 9 years since I worked there, I’d bet good money that Boots The Chemist’s POS (Point of Sale) system hasn’t changed. In which case, every time it changes from GMT to BST or back again, all the staff have me to thank me for the fact they don’t have to manually change the time on their POS server. Or indeed, just have to correct it at any other time too. Let me explain. Boots, as with many other retailers, uses the IBM (now Toshiba) 4690 Operating System. It’s a hardened but…

Have you ever come across Zeller’s formula (aka Zeller’s congruence)? If not directly, you will have indirectly. For every digital device you have that shows the day of the week, whether your phone or your computer, there’s a chance this is what powers it. Or a variation of it, at least. Created by Christian Zeller in the 17th century, it’s a set of formulas that let work out the day of the week, based on the provided date. I came across it a long time ago – maybe nearly 30 years ago (December…

My wife is going through chemotherapy right now and, when it became known, friends and family all bought her various gifts that they thought would help. In addition, I researched various forums and cancer sites for additional ideas too. This post details the items that have made a real difference, and that she would recommend to anyone thinking of buying for somebody going through the same thing. But what kind of things will they need? Whilst recovering, there’s a good chance that they will…

I’ve been to Liverpool once before – back in the early 1990s to watch a football match. I don’t think I saw much of the city, and I have very little memory of it other than the match itself. My daughter hasn’t been at all. Yet, we’re both fans of the Beatles. With the Easter school holidays in swing, it was time to change that and visit the home of the Fab 4 with a 2 day jaunt to the city. Day One – Homes, Flats & Caves We set off at 10am. It was a 2 hour drive to Liverpool and we heard to……