The Lance J. Technoweb

The Problem: A Poorly-Behaving Trackpad Button MacBook trackpads buttons are going bad. Happily, there is a quick and technically-simple fix that may work for many MacBook owners with a misbehaving trackpad. A few months ago I started to notice that my trackpad was operating in a funky manner. The trackpad button had lost its solid click and turned mushy. As I typed the trackpad button would mistakenly register clicks, and the cursor would jump all over the place; The cursor would jump around and my words would end up jumbled. Or a button press wouldn't register at all, and I'd end up trying to smash down of the button with no response. It was the worst experience I’ve ever had with a keyboard and mouse. I tried every technique I could find on the web to try to fix my bad trackpad button – from sliding paper through the gap around button, to MacBook disassembly and vacuuming everything. Nothing made it better. My MacBook was fairly unusable, and getting worse. Af...

Recently, I was asked by a good friend to help her buy a new Windows Desktop PC. I recommended that she buy a PC with something other then a near-obsolete processor - meaning a machine with an Intel Core2Duo or better, as I believe that a computer with a decent processor will have a good chance of not becoming obsolete as soon. Atom, Pentium, and Celeron are too close to being obsolete. And I also recommended that she get a machine with Windows 7 instead of the now-deprecated Windows Vista. And after I described what makes a decent desktop PC, I started to shop for one. And that's when I discovered that the Mac Mini is a bargain. A bargain mid-ranged desktop computer I went to the popular brand web sites: Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, ACER, etc. And I found that a machine of this class generally starts around $500+. And that for $500, you don't get wireless, bluetooth, or sometimes even speakers. WTF??? In contrast, the base model $599 Mac Mini is very well specified - it h...

I recently visited my dad while on a business trip when I coincidentally discovered that DD-WRT is now available for his TEW-652. The TEW-652BRP has been a great router for my father, but it isn't what I'd call "feature rich". An upgrade to DD-WRT is a big bonus. I live 2500 miles away from my non-technical father, and so a well-specified router that helps me manage his network remotely is important to both of us. This article will explain what I did to finally get DD-WRT working on my TEW-652BRP v1.0R. About the TEW-652brp It's a nice looking little black 802.11n, 2.5 GHz router. It was amazingly inexpensive (usually way under $30), and  the TEW-652brp is available through Amazon. Mine is a version 1.0R, you'll likely want the same version. Out of the box, it works quite well - it has been stable, and I was fairly happy with the stock firmware. But it was short on features - I like having VPN, SSH, and flexible DHCP services on the home netwo...

I've been living next to the interstate highway for the past couple years. And I mean right next to it. My house is 105 feet away from a major six lane freeway, and my property abuts it. I can see vehicles pass by from my living room. Let me tell you what that's like to live next to the freeway, and what to look for if you are considering moving near a major traffic artery. Home Construction First of all, a little background. The home I live in was designed and built in 2000 with the freeway in mind, and so road noise was taken into consideration when it was built.  The Interstate was planned in the 1950's and built in the early 1960s. Therefore, most of the windows in my house face away from the highway, and the bedrooms are the rooms furthest away from the road. The side of the house closest to the road consists of bathrooms and a stairwell. These internal rooms help absorb some of the noise that would otherwise enter the house. Given the building's urban setting, th...

The bad news - a big hole in my woofer I 've had this nice pair of Advent two-way speakers for years. They sound great, they're compact, and the look great. But they recently broke. I was listening to some music (at low volume!) the other day, and suddenly a painfully annoying buzz started to emanate from the right speaker. I took off the grill covering and there I found a huge hole in the woofer. The flexible foam cone surround broke down over time and finally gave way. Bummer. Then I checked out the left speaker - its woofer's foam surround developed a substantial crack too - it just wasn't buzzing yet. I went online and looked for replacement speakers. After some search, I realized that I'd have to spend over $200 to get some half-way decent speakers - a fairly depressing amount of money. And they likely weren't as soulful or as attractive as my old Advents. So instead of replacing them, I decided to repair them. Ordering Replacement Woofers Since the w...

It used to be that all the cheapest smart phone plans had just about the same pricetag - about $70 a month and up. $70 a month adds up very quickly, especially when you have to do things like pay the mortgage or the rent. I need a smartphone plan with internet access with a full browser, email, decent performance, plus roughly 400 minutes per month. I'm not a big text messager. And I want to pay as little as possible. So I went to all the web sites of all the major American mobile service providers to check out their pricing. Since I originally wrote this article there have been changes in smartphone plans. There is a now difference - a huge difference in terms of pricing. Read on... Here is a summary of what I've found in terms of the cheapest way to get a smart phone plan from the major American providers: 1. The T-Mobile plan comes with 500 minutes of prime-time talk. Data and texts are unlimited. Total price with a subsidized phone: $80/month... and that's wit...

The patient: a Toshiba A15 with a noisy, bad fan. I have a great Toshiba A15 that just keeps on humming along. Actually, humming and buzzing. It makes an awful racket, and so I decided to replace the aging internal fan. Here's what I did to replace the fan. I suspect this basic technique will work with other similar Toshiba laptops. Tools and Parts required A small phillips head screwdriver A replacement fan, such as this one Some " canned air ", to remove dust Procedure 1. Shut Down the Laptop, unplug it, and remove the battery 2. Remove the fan cover I flipped the laptop on its back. In the corner there is a covering with two bulges. I removed this cover by removing the three screws. I then gently unsnapped the cover to expose the fan. The fan cover With the cover removed, the fan is exposed 3. Remove Fan Next, I removed the two screws holding the fan in place. Then I gently pulled off the tiny power cable. The power cable connection The fan 4. Clean the heat s...