Recommendation for entry-level audiophile headphones

I bought a pair of Philips SHP9500 headphones after extensive research in November 2022 and I still love them.

I’ve since picked up a Fosi Audio SK02–a USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC)–as well. Add in a shorter 3.5mm male-male audio cable (a 4 ft. Anker brand audio cable is perfect for my desk) and a subscription to a music streaming service that offers high-fidelity music and it makes for a wonderful listening station.

If you’re a fellow aspiring audiophile, I invite you to check out a playlist I compiled based on found articles and my own listening adventures: Soundstage and Imaging Testing

Recommended tweaks for iPad Air 1st gen running Chimera iOS jailbreak

AltList (required for 3DAppVersionSpoofer)

Source: https://opa334.github.io/

libhooker version 1.6.9 (required for 3DAppVersionSpoofer Settings menu preferences)

Source: https://repo.theodyssey.dev/

libCSColorPicker (required for PreferenceLoader)

Source: https://creaturecoding.com/repo/

libCSPreferences (required for PreferenceLoader)

Source: https://creaturecoding.com/repo/

PreferenceLoader version 2.2.6 (required for 3DAppVersionSpoofer Settings menu preferences)

Source: https://repo.theodyssey.dev/

3DAppVersionSpoofer version 1.1.4

Source: https://github.com/0xkuj/3DAppVersionSpoofer/tree/main/packages

NOTE: Download to device and share to Sileo to install after prerequisites are installed.

AppStore++

Source: https://cokepokes.github.io/

Filza File Manager 64-bit

Source: https://tigisoftware.com/repo/

RocketBootstrap

Source: https://repo.theodyssey.dev/

Soundcore by Anker Life P3 Noise Cancelling Earbuds at lowest price ever on Amazon

Last September, I spent more hours than I care to admit researching wireless earbuds, checking sites (mostly RTINGS.com), saving the names of a few top picks to a Google Keep note, and setting multiple price alerts using camelcamelcamel. Two months later, I discovered that the Soundcore by Anker Life P3 Noise Cancelling Earbuds were on sale for $59.99, which matched the previous lowest price ever. (I would have received a price alert email from camelcamelcamel, but I hadn’t set up the price watch correctly.)

After waffling back and forth, I bought a pair, received them a few days later, and loved them. They’re comfortable, the sound quality is great, and the noise cancelling features are fantastic. I’ve even used them with noise cancelling active and no music playing to dampen the sound at very loud events.

I’m confident that more expensive earbuds would likely have better neutral sound or would be better for working out, but I feel like the Soundcore P3 earbuds hit the sweet spot of quality and value for the money.

Why do I mention this 6 months after I bought them? Because I still love them, I still use them when working out, and they’re on sale for $59.99 again today.

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How to suppress PHP warnings generated by Piwigo when running PHP 8.x

Are you running Piwigo on a server running PHP 8.x? Is your error_log file in your gallery quickly filling up with PHP warnings? If so, follow these steps to suppress those warnings:

  • Log in to your Piwigo gallery.
  • Click Administration. (This guide assumes your account has Webmaster rights.)
  • Click Plugins on the left-hand menu.
  • Click Add a new plugin.
  • Click in the Search field, type “localfiles” (minus quotes), and press Enter.
  • Under the LocalFiles Editor result, click Add.
  • Click Plugins on the left-hand menu.
  • Toggle the LocalFiles Editor plugin on if it isn’t already
  • Click the Settings button under the LocalFiles Editor item.
  • Copy and paste the following code into the local/config/config.inc.php file:
$conf['show_php_errors'] = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_WARNING;
  • Click Save File.

Original source: https://piwigo.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31875

Making PowerShell talk

Here are a few basic lines of PowerShell code to get your computer to talk to you.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.speech

$speak = New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

$speak.Speak("Hello world")

It’s simple code, but it makes my children smile.

You can quickly launch PowerShell on most Windows computers by right-clicking the Start button and clicking Windows PowerShell.

Sporadic packet loss for last month with Mediacom Internet service

I had planned to post the following on the Mediacom Support forums, but was unable to register an account after triple-checking my e-mail address and requesting a new verification e-mail 5 times over the course of an hour. So I’m posting this here for public view:

I signed up for Mediacom service around 6 months ago. Once the setup was complete, service was flawless until early December.

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