Veteran software developer / sysadmin and holds a PhD in Computer Science. Avid computer enthusiast (geek) who has been dabbling with technology ever since his Dad brought home an 8086 computer.
Emerging Tech Trends
Losing an object is a common occurrence : you dropped an item without noticing it and you can’t find it anymore. It happens to everyone. However, losing something as mundane as your car keys can be very expensive to replace. As such, there is a growing market for tracking devices.
Technodabbler Insights
As previous mentioned, I participated to Extra-Life, an event to raise funds for Opération Enfant Soleil. The cause raised a total of 6,653,220 USD, with 6,767 USD coming from my team (a big thanks to Ludia for doubling our fund raising effort). I'm very happy with the
Gaming Experience
The introduction of powerful game streaming technology, such as Nvidia's Gamestream or Steam Stream forever changed how I game on the PC. My gaming PC is actually a powerful 4u server machine, comfortably installed in my server rack in the basement. Yet, I can game from any room in the
Homelab and Projects
Wifi is difficult to deploy properly and even more difficult to debug. When living in a small apartment, the solution is pretty simple : place a simple wifi router roughly in the middle of the appartement. However, in a large multi-floor house, getting a strong wifi signal in every room can
Homelab and Projects
Solutions to share the Internet on a network have tremendiously evolved in the last twenty years. My first experience was using Wingate, a software proxy that could act as an Internet gateway. Along with the introduction of Internet broadband came the consumer gateways, such as the iconic Linksys BEFSR41. The
Gaming Experience
Being a parent imposes some restriction on how, when and where you can play video games. The Shield Mobile was a saviour: with its streaming functionality, I could play PC games from anywhere in the house. The Shield TV extends the Shield ecosystem by introducing a powerful Android console for
Gaming Experience
The Nvidia Shield Portable is a wonderful little Android machine. Released by Nvidia in 2013, it was the first Android device to use Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor. Even more importantly, it was the first device to integrate Nvidia's new streaming technology, allowing a player to stream a game either from
Homelab and Projects
EDIT : The T20 might be a bit old, but Dell continued the series with the T30 and the T40. You might want to check them out. A server is a computer decided to providing one or more services. In the case of home offices, the most common type would be
Gaming Experience
Streaming, at least for computers, is the continuous delivery of media from a provider: only the content you need is transmitted. Although streaming is mostly associated with music and movies, streaming technologies for video games have been gaining popularity. In essence, you play a game on a device, but the
Homelab and Projects
One of the important aspect of Linux is its Open Source nature: everyone is free to contribute and no one "owns" Linux. This creates a great diversity which is both a strength and a weakness for the operating system. Wars over the best "distro" of Linux are fought with religious
Homelab and Projects
Streamline your home lab with the Dell 2161DS-2 KVM switch. Discover its innovative cable management and pitfalls of Java dependency in this retrospective review. Is it still a viable option?
Emerging Tech Trends
Given the ridiculous number of high profile hacks, password security is more important than ever. Proper password etiquette can be summarizes to two rules : * Use strong passwords (composed of characters and digits, no dictionary words) * Do not reuse passwords in more than one place The problem is that passwords are
Homelab and Projects
Last year, the development team for Ghost blog announced a partnership with Cloudflare. The goal was to improve the Ghost(Pro) infrastructure, making it faster and more secure. With a little tinkering, Cloudflare can be used with any Ghost blog. Technodabbler received this upgrade a couple of days ago. But
Homelab and Projects
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to receive a Lego NXT Mindstorm kit as a gift from my wife. With it, one can build a robot using technical legos, motors and sensors. A special programmable brick is used to control the behavior of the robot. As a programmer,
Gaming Experience
In the last two weeks, I've had the opportunity to try out a couple of demos. Here are a few quick impressions. Tuscany was one of the first demo available for the Occulus Rift, allowing a user to visit a beautiful garden house. I was very impressed when I tried
Gaming Experience
When it comes to 3D VR technologies, I am negatively biased. Products like the Virtual Boy and the Nintendo 3DS offered a disapointing 3D experience, and the only added entertainment I get from a 3D movie in theater is a pounding headache. The first time I placed a Oculus Rift