Friday, November 27, 2015

Install apps the right way

Google Play Store is convenient to find and install apps on your phone, but it is a horrible thing and I never enable it on any of my phones, never.

Here is how I find and install apps on my phones:

In a browser, open this link to find your app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps

For example, you can search for "Notification Auto Clear" and get it at this URL:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.necta.notificationclear


Copy the link (URL), open the following link and paste. Then click on "Generate Download Link":

http://downloader-apk.com/


Then click on "generate download link" again, then click on "Proceed to Notification Auto Clear 1.0 (or the app name) apk Download Page". Wait for a few seconds (depending on the size of the app), your browser will pop up the download dialog:


Now your phone will start to download the apk file, once finished, simply click/open it to install the app.

If you did above steps on a computer, then you need to transfer the downloaded apk file to your phone, obviously. Then use a file browser to open/install the apk file. If your phone does not have any file browser yet, then you need to do above steps on your phone for a file browser such as ES File Explorer.

It is not so convenient but well worth it and once you are familiar with the process, it is quite easy.

[update] Another two very easy ways - just open the following URL's on your phone:

http://apkpure.com
http://apkmirror.com

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Fix Acer Nettoop PC

Several years ago I bought two Acer AspireRevo nettop PC, AR1600 and AR3610, because they are convenient and cheap, ideal for HTPC (NVIDIA ION graphics) and server (small and quiet). The AR1600 started to crash during or after boot about a year ago, later the AR3610 followed exactly the same behavior.


I was going to throw them into the recycle bin; so I opened them up (only one screw) to destroy the hard drives:


Then I noticed a screw on the heat sink looked loose. I removed the fan, turned ou all the 4 screws were loose:



I tighten up these screws and both boxes came back into life again. When they were loose, the heat sink could not have good contact with the CPU and GPU. Then the CPU and GPU overheat soon after powered on.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Tweaking photo prints

It started when I was trying to print a photo to a glossy photo paper with a Canon MP600 printer, the output looked horrible. Recently I looked into this issue.

This is a sample photo I took with my a5100 camera and developed in Lightroom:


After many tries with different settings, I got good enough prints like this:

 

ICM Printing

The easiest way to print a photo in Windows is to right click on the photo(s) and select print. This type of printing is based on ICM (Windows Image Color Management, or ColorSync on Mac) and the following settings are required to achieve the correct colors.


First, the paper type must match, in this case I use HP glossy photo paper so I select "Photo Paper Plus Glossy":


Then the key is to select ICM as color correction as showing above; so the printer driver will use inks in the way that's best for the selected type of paper.

That's it, quite simple, but be warned: you may not always get the right colors. ICM is pretty much a mess, never consistent and you have no control of it.

An important note: If your image file has an embedded ICC profile (so called a tagged image), this Windows' built-in photo printing utility always ignores that and won't use it for printing. What you see in the utility's preview pan is what you get in your prints.

 

Color Managed Printing

If you use a so called "color managed" application such as Lightroom and Photoshop etc., then you must not use any printer driver's color correction but let the application use an ICC profile for color handling. In this case, "Canon MP600 SP2" is the profile for glossy papers:


Afterward, you still need to do the same settimgs as in above ICM method except this time select "None" instead of "ICM". Then you are good to go. ICC profile naming and paper type:

 SP = Glossy, MP = Matte, PR = Pro

The # suffix means the highest quality available (the less, the higher). For example, SP2 means no quality 1 (as seen grayed out in the illustration above).

Although Lightroom still let you use your printer driver to manage color instead of using an ICC profile:


but no matter what I select in the printer settings, Driver Match, ICM, None, or whatever, I always get something like this:


Now what about plain (non-photo) paper? 

This is the result when plain paper is used and selected as the media type:


Not too bad but not so correct neither with an obvious blue tint. After trying many different paper types and other settings, the best result comes from selecting "matte" as the media type for a plain paper:


Looks fantastic for a plain paper, doesn't it?

If you use a different printer and/or paper, your results may look different, but this article should lead you to the right direction. I have done lots of tests but I cannot write them all here - I always try to focus on the key parts, so please ask should you have a question.

To summerize:

  • Use either ICM or ICC, never use both.
  • If ICC is available, better use it, especially for photo papers. But YMMV, then try ICM.
  • When use ICC, use the correct profile for the media type.
  • For plain paper, the best color might be from selecting another media type.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Moen kitchen faucet leak

The 7560 faucet is very convenient and durable - 13 years of trouble free service. Eventually the spout started to leak water, down to the cab below the sink. The leak is even more in spray mode.


I bought an universal replacement from Homedepot for $22 and it works and the leak stopped immediately.


However, it is a little smaller to fit well into the seat; so I take out a plastic cup from the old spout and mount it onto the new one. Now everything is perfect.


I noticed that the spray mode is very gentle, nothing like the old spray which is VERY strong. If you are the original owner of the faucet, Moen will send you a replacement for free. The model # for the wand is 136829.