March, 2016 | Chuck's Tech Blog

Budget Webcam – Docooler review

I have to admit, the idea of a $8 (at the time of this review) webcam that would actually work was pretty alien to me. At no point did I expect such a cheap device to work, much less work well. Even then, my expectations dropped even further when I saw the real name on the box was different from the name on Amazon. The advertised 12 Megapixel resolution was actually 640×480, at least according to the box it came in and the screenshot I took. The rest of the engrish made it hard to tell whether these were the real specs or some shoddy job. This made my expectations drop even more. However, once tested I was pleasantly surprised at what it was capable of.

Packaging of the so-called Docooler webcam was fairly basic. The page on Amazon declared that installation disk was needed and thus there was no disk inside the box. The camera was wrapped in a thin plastic wrap and put in the box. There was no real packaging to keep the camera in place while it shipped.

Outside of the box, the camera consisted of a roughly 5 foot USB cable (permanently connected to the camera) and a plastic mount for LCD panels. The plastic mount had no springs so it is a bit flimsy sitting on my monitor, but since the monitor never moves it sits just fine.

The camera itself has a built-in Mic and an adjustable manual focusing lens (that’s right, no autofocus here). The lens itself is 8mm.

With at least my Windows 10 computer, the drivers installed automatically. Since the camera came with no software, the only way to test it is with Skype or some other video phone program. This also means that you cannot take single pictures without trying to install a 3^rd party software. The camera clarity also depends heavily on the camera’s focus, internet connection, and lighting.

This is not an all-inclusive test, but rather a simply show of the video quality in Skype, as seen in the picture below. The camera also functioned perfectly in Lync and Zoom, if you or your organization uses either of them.

All in all, for an $8 web camera, I am pretty impressed by its quality. If you are a company with a conscious budget but need video conferencing capabilities, then I absolutely recommend it and you can pick it up here. If you need high quality or higher resolution than the 640 x 480, then I would pick up something else. Just a note though, I recommend a separate microphone or headset as the mic on the webcam is basically worthless, with no one on the other end able to hear more than a soft mumble.

Siri Doesn’t Make Calls on Speakerphone – a Fix

UPDATE: This issue has since been resolved so long as you have the latest iOS update.

I had noticed for some time that when using Siri to call someone on speakerphone, the call is made without using the speaker even though Siri would say she was calling the person on speaker. For example:

Me: “Siri, call mom on speaker”
Siri: “Calling mom on speaker”

But then… the call is made normally but without the speakerphone being used. Now, I can manually tap on the speakerphone icon and that works, so what could be causing this issue?

Wi-Fi calling. After going into Settings -> Phone -> Wi-Fi Calling and turning it off, I was immediately able to make a call on speakerphone with Siri.

I am not sure if there will be a fix for this issue, either through my carrier (T-Mobile) or through Apple (especially since this has been an issue since this feature was first released). Still, for anyone else who has this issue here is your fix.

Know something I don’t or have a question? Post below!

Wish.com 1TB Thumb Drive Review – Fake or Real?

As I browsed the net for high-capacity thumb drives, I came upon a curious site called Wish.com . There I found a USB 2.0 thumb drive for sale in two capacities: 512MB and 1TB. The 1TB drive is the one that really stood out to me as it had a very surprising price: $20.

I highly doubted that the drive was legitimate, especially since there were no reviews. Considering the cost of current 1 TB thumb drives are several hundred dollars, the saying of “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is” comes to mind.

The problem with some drives, is they may seem legitimate when used. The write process may very well show the full amount, however the drive has a background program that actually re-writes over the original. This trick the operating system into thinking there is 1 TB of storage, and by all accounts moving 1 TB of data (which I can’t imagine the time that would take on USB 2.0) will seemingly work. However, when you actually look into it you will see that there may only be 8, 16, 32, or if you are lucky 64 GBs of data there.

This style was also used in knock off SSDs – a SSD shell would be used to make it look legitimate, but upon opening the case you would find a 2GB thumb drive and some bolts for weight.

Still, I couldn’t help but be curious – how large was the actual drive? I purchased the drive and patiently waited for its arrival.

The packaging was nothing special, basically a bubble wrap envelope with the drive by itself in plastic. I can’t say we were off to a good start.

Still, I wasted no time plugging it into a test computer and ran it through anti-virus scans. At the very least, the drive came back clean. Next, I set about testing it.

The first program I used is ChipGenius, which scans the flash chips itself to find actual size and manufacturer. The reveal was more in line to my expectations. The software read the drive as using SanDisk flash memory at 32 GB in size. Still, I couldn’t have two discrepancies.

The next test was a program called FakeFlashTest. This test didn’t even get to finish as the program would lock up at about 75% through. Definitely not good sign.

So finally I decided to do a real world test by transferring 90+ GBs of pictures and music onto the drive and see what, if any, data is missing or corrupted.

As expected, over half of the files and folders could not be opened. Folders and files that used nearly 28GB did open fine, further pointing to the drive as being 32GB in size.

Ultimately the drive met my expectations of being a fake. Again, if it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

I do recommend avoiding sites like wish.com and eBay to buy any thumb drives (or any other flash memory for that matter) and go straight to legitimate retailers such as newegg.com, amazon.com, or even retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. As you can already buy affordable thumb drives, it doesn’t make much sense to save a few dollars and risk getting a fake.

Questions or thoughts, please be sure to post your comments below!

Windows 7 Stuck on Checking for Updates? Use the Windows 7 Update Readiness tool.

Windows 7 may be dead (at least according to Microsoft), but I have found myself still working on many Windows 7 machines. I also still end up with the occasional new computer that I am tasked to bring up to date and deploy for a client.

One particular issue I have found with either new Windows 7 computers or fresh Windows 7 installs is when I begin the computer’s first check for updates. Often it will take between one to three hours for the computer to go from Checking for Updates to actually having updates to install.

However, there have been a few times (including a machine I am working on now) where Windows 7 Updates is stuck on ‘Checking for Updates’. It doesn’t seem to matter how long it runs for, it will always stay at ‘Checking for Updates’.

The first time I ran across this mess I ran it for three days before calling it quits. I have had computers take a few hours to find updates before, but after three days then you know it’s a lost cause.

Thankfully there are a several ways of fixing this, but for now I will just cover the two that has consistently worked for me.

Update Windows Update Agent

This one can be a fairly quick fix. Simply download the update agent and run it. This has worked a couple of times for me, however if that fails then it’s time for the Windows Update Readiness Tool.

The Windows 7 Update Readiness Tool

This tool isn’t the easiest to find. As a matter of fact, it’s buried below all the other Microsoft support pages for Windows 7 Update issues. Despite the various standalone FIXIT programs they offer, this tool has worked every time where the others fail.

Simply download the tool and run it. Be warned – this will take a very long time as the software scans the updates on the system and searches for updates that are needed. Even on a machine with 12GBs of RAM and a speedy SSD, it took over an hour for the scanner to do its job. Worst case, you can probably run it overnight.

Once the tool does its job, simply follow the prompts and install the updates.

It should be as simple as that! Granted there might be a different update issue you are having than the one I listed here. Unfortunately I do not have the answers for them all I’m afraid, but this one is one that hopefully helps for those whose updates get stuck on ‘Checking for Updates’.

Do you have any questions or tips? Comment below!

Using Windows Easy Transfer in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

One issue that we came across while deploying new machines at the office was being able to transfer people’s files easily. In Windows 7 we used Windows Easy Transfer to move someone’s files to their new computer. When Windows 10 first came out, we were initially not impacted as we simply did the upgrade in place install of Windows 10. However, now that we are moving people from one Windows 10 machine to another, we discovered that there was no built in tool for an easy migration. What is a tech to do, especially in an environment where we avoid 3rd party tools?

After some research I discovered that the Windows 7 Easy Transfer tool will still work on newer versions of Windows. The only rub is that you need to have a live Windows 7 machine still running and you have to copy the Easy Transfer tool’s files onto a thumb drive. You will also need to know whether you are running on 32-bit or 64-bit windows as the files come in both flavors. Alternatively you can download them from the links below.
Migwiz 32-Bit
Migwiz 64-Bit

If you want to know where to get the Windows Easy Transfer tool from Windows 7 and how to use it in Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, follow these steps –

For 64-Bit machines:

Step one:
Go to your start button and type C:\Windows\system32, press enter, and then navigate to the folder named migwiz.

Step two:
Copy the folder and paste it into a thumb drive.

Step three:
Unplug the thumb drive and plug it into the Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 machine you wish to use it on.

Step four:
Open the location where you saved the migwiz folder and open it. Then double click on “migwiz”.

Step five:
Use easy transfer like you would on a Windows 7 computer. Note: You can run it directly off the thumb drive!

For 32-Bit machines:

Step one:
Go to your start button and type C:\Windows\SysWOW64, press enter, and then navigate to the folder named migwiz.

Step two:
Copy the folder and paste it into a thumb drive.

Step three:
Unplug the thumb drive and plug it into the Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 machine you wish to use it on.

Step four:
Open the location where you saved the migwiz folder and open it. Then double click on “migwiz”.

Step five:
Use easy transfer like you would on a Windows 7 computer. Note: You can run it directly off the thumb drive!

It really is that simple! No need to use 3^rd party apps or programs to do the same thing. This is also useful for going from a Windows 7 machine to a new Windows 10 machine.

Have any questions or thoughts about Windows Easy Transfer? Leave a comment below!

Removing WordPress’s Twenty-Fifteen Footer

To celebrate this new blog of mine, I have decided to give a quick tutorial on how to get rid of the footer that WordPress likes to add at the bottom of every page in the Twenty-Fifteen theme. You know the one – “Proudly powered by WordPress”. How do we remove that?

After searching for answers, and finding things that did not work very well (or at all), I have finally found the answer.

The easiest way to remove the Proudly hosted by WordPress footer in Twenty Fifteen is to go to your WordPress control panel, then go to plugins -> Add New -> Search for Custom CSS -> and install the one that will be by John Regan and Danny Van Kooten (as seen below).

Click Install Now, and then Activate Plugin.

Now when you go to Appearance, you will find a new option called Custom CSS. Select that and it will take you to the CSS page that is relatively blank. This page will overwrite the theme’s existing CSS (but only the ones you add).

Just click in the box and add the following on a seperate line (after the first line):

.site-info {
display:none;
}

It should look like below:

Just remember to click Update Custom CSS before visiting your site again. The changes should take effect immediately, but if the footer is still there then clear your browser’s cookies and cache (or simply visit the page in another browser). For whatever reason, it took about a minute of refreshing before I saw the change.

I can’t promise this will work in every theme though but I hope it helps beginners like myself who wish to get rid of the footer. If anyone has a better way, I would love to hear it in the comments below!