As a tweaker (other than a trouble maker), I know that rule, very well; so I never update any software. Somehow I installed a new version of the TouchMousePointer on my Miix, thought I had a copy of the old version to go back. Well, as always, the new version is erratic and double-tap no longer work (unless I do it extremely quickly). To make it a though tragedy, I can no longer find the old copy in my storage!
After lots of searching, the oldest version I could find is 1.0.9.1 and, fortunately, it works fine on my Miix. To save your trouble finding it, here I uploaded it to my server:
There are even older versions around, 1.0.32 and 1.0.33. They work more solid than the 1.0.9.1, but they lack of an essential feature: click through the touchpad. For example, if there is an image file underneath the translucent mouse pad, you can still double tap on the mousepad to open it, as showing below. With this fantastic feature, the mousepad takes virtually no space/room on your touchscreen, as you can still see and access whatever underneath, and you can move the mousepad to anywhere you like without blocking anything on your screen.
A tablet is heavy so the relatively lighter keyboard cannot hold it. There are two stupid workarounds so far: 1) MS Surface's kick stand; 2) ASUS T100's iron in the keyboard.
I have a very simple simple solution here: move Surface's kick stand to the bottom of the keyboard, similar to what I did with my Miix 2 8:
The NS-HD01A is the last Insignia HD radio I bought and it is the first that can no longer hold a charge. I opened the case, this is what I see compared to HD01 (left):
As you can see, the new battery (blue) has less capacity, 750mAh vs. 840mAh, and it is made in China instead of Korea. No wonder, this battery died so quickly after only a year while my older HD01 is still working fine. The dead battery is blown, like many such China made ones I've seen:
As you know, I have two early models of HD01 that crash too often to be usable, so I moved one battery from them into this new HD01A and now it is working fine.
I was reading some news and noticed one common thing among Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Madonna: they wear large glasses. Based on their age (61, 53 and 56) and the large size of the glasses, these must be reading glasses and must be progressive (these super stars won't wear bifocal to show their age).
So, where they got these glasses? If you've read my this article, you know nowhere to buy progressive reading glasses and even bifocal ones are difficult to find in stores. If you, or your parents, are such old, you should get these glasses - very convenient and comfortable. There is no reason to wear ordinary reading glasses. See my this article for more details. Abstract in Chinese
Sony is really cheap to not include a $1 hot shoe cover for a $800 camera. Well, I'm even cheaper and won't buy one. I bought a pancake turner from Dollar Tree and cut a cover from it.
I've been looking for a pair of reading glasses that is easy to carry with and convenient to use when needed. Believe it or not, such a thing is extremely difficult to find.
Finally the ThinOptics caught my eyes in a RadioShack. I bought one and tried, but sadly too easy to fall off to be practical.
Eventually, I found this Bifocal rimless on ebay for only $7.99 shipped from California and so far solved my problem. I simply put them on whenever I go out.
It is quite thin and light, and frame-less:
The lower portion is for reading and the upper portion (quite large - good) is for pure pass-through:
Very comfortable and convenient, no longer look at people like this:
Progressive could be even better, but no such a thing yet! There are 3-focal ones, say, +1.5/+1.25/+0.75, but nothing like +1.5/+1.25/0, or +1.5/0. Why?
[update] Saw this in a local store for less than $15. It is sunglasses with a shallow tint, perfect for all seasons, indoor and out.
Found more bifocal sunglasses in Rite Aid, they are too dark though, the above SIGHT is more versatile.
This is by far the only pair of bifocal found in local stores, that is not sunglasses:
These cameras came with focus mode set to AF-A by default. In this mode, the camera is supposed to use AF-S and, if it sees object moving, switch automatically to AF-C. Cool, I thought, saving the trouble switching manually between AF-S and AF-C, especially on the a5100 that lacks of a fast menu (Fn). So I left them in AF-A.
What a mistake! I got so many shots that were out of focus, such as this one (16-50 PZ at f/5.0):
So I downloaded a focus test chart from Jeffrey Friedl and investigated into the focus issue. Turned out, the camera always do back focus while using AF-A or AF-C modes. I tested with a6000 + SEL50F18 and a5100 + SEL35F18 and both behaved exactly the same.
This back focus issue is easier to notice at f/2.2 and f/2.5, and not so noticeable at f/2.0 and f/1.8. It appears to be more severe in AF-C mode than AF-A. Above photo was taken in AF-A mode.
Once I switch to AF-S, focusing becomes normal:
Although I only present two test charts here, I've done lots of tests to reach the pattern which is totally repeatable. Hopefully Sony will address this issue with a new firmware update. Until then, we'd better avoid AF-A and AF-C and live with AF-S.
[update] I did more tests, now I can safely say:
For non-moving objects, AF-C is not as accurate, dependable and consistent as AF-S. This is normal, because AF-C is ought for tracking moving objects.
AF-A may use either AF-S or AF-C algorithm for non-moving objects. This is not right, because AF-A should always be identical to AF-S, not AF-C, if everything is still.
So, never use AF-A - always use either AF-S or AF-C for your specific shooting situation.
The following photo and video show that AF-A picked improperly AF-C over AF-S:
