Repairing a vintage Gibson LG-0 from 1969
When I was a teenager I inherited an old acoustic guitar from a deceased relative. The guitar had been abandoned in an attic for at least ten years before that, and was in quite bad shape. We’re talking multiple cracks in the top, loose braces, finish flaking off all over the place, impossibly high action, […]
HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless headphones review
I purchased these headphones from Microcenter a little more than a year ago. I was looking for wireless headphones with good range, good battery life, and suitable for work calls and gaming with my friends. Do they stand up to the task? Pros Range is good, I can go to a different room or floor […]
Am I Brandon Foltz the statistics YouTuber?
As it happens, I also have a YouTube channel. However I’m probably not the Brandon you’re looking for assuming you found your way here after watching his YouTube channel. Also known as Brandon C Foltz, he has a popular and extensive series of videos on statistics and other mathematics topics. If you have a question […]
The best thing I ever did to my Game Boy Advance
I wasn’t a particularly rich kid, so my collection of Game Boy Advance games from childhood was pretty small. Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time with an infant sleeping on my chest, and needed something to do with my hands. I decided that now that I can afford games, I’d revisit some of […]
Counterfeit Castlevania Aria of Sorrow from Ebay
I recently purchased a copy of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance from a seller on eBay. Given that copies of this game (with or without the box) tend to sell for $100 or more, I was happy to find a seller with good reviews listing the cartridge for $20. I had […]
Fine tuning Ubuntu 20.04 on Asus UX305FA laptop
Unfortunately Ubuntu doesn’t come configured perfectly out of the box for every laptop under the sun. For my laptop in particular (an Asus UX305FA) there are a few changes I’ve had to make repeatedly across multiple Ubuntu versions, so I figure it’s worthwhile to document them. Using PowerTop to improve idle power consumption. Install PowerTop […]
Learning how to type, two or three times
In the Spring of 2018 I decided I would learn how to properly touch-type. Prior to that I typed using no particular formal technique, some combination of looking at the keys and muscle memory built up by using a computer all my life. Maybe I decided to learn touch-typing to kill time in my senior […]
A quantitative analysis of Shobu
Last year at PAX Unplugged I was hoping to find a relatively simple board game that would be amenable to simulation and quantitative analysis. I found such a suitable game, called SHŌBU (which I will write as Shobu from here out) published by Smirk & Laughter games. Shobu is a delightfully simple two player board […]
Configuring Temple University Email in Mozilla Thunderbird
I’m a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, and until now I haven’t been able to read my email in my preferred client, Mozilla Thunderbird. That is until my friend Peter Mowen (@TheMathochist) spent some time to figure it out. Since the university still doesn’t provide instructions, here they are: From the Thunderbird interface, navigate […]