After a few years, I decided to redesign my webpage HryProDva.cz, as it was really necessary.
The old design was inspired by an HTML template from the 2010s. I really liked it at first, but it was already outdated by the time my page launched.
So I tried some layouts by creating a stylesheet with chatbots, choosing some colour schemes and approaches to the redesign, and then started coding. The goal was to make it cleaner and fresher and to get rid of the grey square elements, which were not very attractive.
After about two weeks of coding and fixing all the misaligned items, I created a working page that I was really happy with. I ran a few rounds of testing on all the subpages and made a few more fixes until I could not identify any significant issues. Then I released it.
Yes, I agree that some things are designed more for appearance than accessibility, but there are also things that are more accessible now. As usual, though, the design changes have attracted a lot of negative comments. People don't really like change, so the core players are complaining a lot. Some of the complaints are fair and I ...
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My rule for buying phones was never to spend more than 4,000 CZK. After adjusting for inflation, I have increased this to 5,000 CZK. I also recently bought another Redmi Note 9 PRO to replace my broken main phone. I did not plan to buy a phone. However, I saw a very nice phone with a hardware keyboard, which I have always wanted. But it costs 9k CZK, which I never wanted to pay for a phone. However, my wife decided to buy me a present, so I now have it.
It's really nice, too. I really enjoy writing on the hardware keyboard, as I'm not able to write quickly or precisely on a touchscreen.
But let's start from the beginning. Firstly, I decided to order a screen protector to protect the screen. Then I had a conversation with a friend who had bought the same phone and they told me that it comes with protective glass already applied to both screens and an extra piece of protective glass in the package. So I cancelled my order. When the phone arrived, I realised that there was just a protective foil ...
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Some time ago, I received a Canon FS11 camera from my friend Tom. The "smart" battery is completely dead. After a few attempts, I realised that the battery was completely beyond repair.
So I filed it away as a future project. And now that future has arrived. After measuring everything inside the battery, I realised that the electronics were completely dead. That was why it didn't work even after I replaced both LiPol batteries inside. After a lot of tinkering and trying to fix the electronics, I made a radical decision. I tried connecting the LiPols directly to the output pins and 'asking' the camera if it would accept them. Surprisingly, everything worked well, even with the bypassed electronics! I will use it for a while, and then I will have to try charging the battery. If charging works well too, I'll have won! I'm not really planning to buy a spare, non-original battery for 700 CZK.
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I got a really nice toy — an Odroid Go Super — and it was free! The only condition was that I had to arrive at the railway station at the exact time and collect it from the previous owner through the door of the arriving train.
It was tricky, but it was worth it. It's a really nice retro gaming handheld and the successor to the Odroid Go Advance that I already have. It has very similar internal hardware, such as the CPU, but a much better body that suits the hand better, and most importantly, it has a really beautiful screen. The only disadvantage compared to the previous model is the lack of out-of-box WiFi connectivity. Unfortunately, the previous owner resolved this issue by plugging a tiny Wi-Fi dongle into the USB-A port on the top of the handheld.
As you can see from the screenshots, it can run a variety of interesting games. I am looking forward to playing some PS1 titles, such as Star Wars: Dark Forces 2 and Carmageddon, as well as many other great games on the NES, SNES and Megadrive.
I ...
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Over the last few weeks, we have read tens or even hundreds of articles about the rising prices of PC components, especially RAM. There have also been many disastrous articles about the notebook and mobile phone markets.
One of these articles really caught my attention. It said that the standard for mid-range notebooks would drop to 8 GB, and that even worse, most phones would fall back to 4 GB of RAM.
That makes me laugh. I think that for most notebook users, 8 GB is more than enough for their basic needs, such as reading emails, articles, watching YouTube videos, and scrolling through social networks.
The situation with phones is even funnier. Is it really necessary to have more than 4 GB of RAM? What would you have to do on your phone to need more than that? I have also experienced laggy phones, but it was probably a software issue, as they were sluggish even with outstanding parameters. I still use phones with 3 GB of RAM, though, and they're still really smooth and can run anything I want without any problems.
So why would I need more than 4 GB? Is it really necessary?
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I have finally revived the last of the three N500s. The battery was completely dead and I didn't want to spend money on a spare one as I have two other working N500s.
I finally found a used LiPol battery that fits into the body. I disassembled the original battery and took the control board with the connector out. I soldered the new LiPol battery and tried it. The thermistor is possibly on the board as there is a pin on the board that needs to be soldered. I did not need to connect any resistors and the phone boots and works without any problems.
So now I have three of the same device working. The last one just needs to be jailbroken. Then I would like to run some tests and compare these "same" phones. Even at first glance, the systems look completely different, so I am wondering what I will find on them.
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This is one of the few devices that I knew I really needed to have as soon as I saw it. At first glance, it looks just like a boring Chinese tablet. But when you take a closer look, you'll see that it's really interesting.
To be honest, the Chuwi Hi8 is not that interesting as it is. But my model is the Chuwi Hi8 Dual, which means it has dual booting. It's not just simple dual booting, but has some nice tweaks that make it different.
So, when you don't know what to expect, the first thing that surprises you is that you power up the device and, even though it has a Windows 'hardware' touch button at the bottom, it boots into Android. It seems a bit funny, but yeah. Why not? The Android version is 4.4. It looks quite normal; just a few Chinese-named apps that I have removed.
The most interesting part is the top icon bar on Android. As well as the classic buttons and switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other adjustments, there is a special button labelled 'OS SWITCH'.
Yes, I know this function isn't really anything special — it just reboots with ...
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My colleague gave me these headphones as a gift. He bought them second-hand in a sale from an online shop. He cleaned them and bought some spare ear pads from AliExpress for a few pounds, tried them out, and then never used them again. As everyone knows, I collect things, so he gave them to me.
And it is a really nice piece. The sound is very very good, and it fits nicely on head and are really comfortable for ears even after long use.
But also have a few disadvantages. Because of high quality of sound (possibly) they do not use bluetooth, but their own dongle, for wireless transmission. Unfortunately the dongle is really wide, as it usualy covers all neighbouring ports on notebook, so it is not really practical. I would prefer it longer in way of the connector, to keep space for the others. And also one really weird thing is, that the dongle to pc is USB-C, but the charging port on the headphones is micro-USB. And i really can not see a reason why to chose two different generations of "mobile" usb connector on one product.
The second disadvantage was only partially ...
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So once again, I started programming things that I "always wanted to try," and I also did a bit of modern "vibecoding". I've never really enjoyed the early stages of a project when "nothing works yet," so I often use a method where I let AI write some tragic, but partially functional code that gets things moving, and then I rewrite it about twenty times to make it work the way I want it to. And yes, I admit, it's several times more work, hassle, corrections, etc. But after the first twenty minutes of work, I have something moving, and that fills me with the desire to fix it and finish it the way I want. Don't judge me.
This time, I decided to revive my efforts to create a 2D racing game from a top-down perspective. As I already mentioned, my first attempt, where I controlled a car that drove along a marked route and slowed down when it drove onto grass, was completed quite quickly. I gradually fine-tuned the walls that cannot be driven through and generate collisions, and I was quite satisfied with the basic concept. But then I realized that I needed someone to race against. So ...
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I have printed another piece for my son's wooden railway. It is a Czech locomotive called the Eso. The model comes from Printables and was made by the same person who made the 810 train I already have.
The main part looks great and feels very familiar. It is almost identical to the real thing. Unfortunately, adding the chassis detracts slightly from its beauty, but I can absolutely understand that this is a limitation of the tracks and size in order for it to work.
In the end, it's still really nice. I have just modified the model slightly to make it connectable from both sides. The original model only had one magnet and my son wanted to connect two of them together.
I have also succeeded in changing the colour of the print mid-process, which was quite tricky on my old Ender 3V2, but I managed it.
The best part is that my son enjoys it, too. I have also experimented with couplers a little, as it is difficult to find and buy the necessary magnets. So I used what I had and modified the ...
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