asty.org – Page 3 – the homepage of Chris Allegretta

No, I don’t do sponsored posts, guest writers, or commercial cross-promotions

Posted on May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 by chrisa

Since this is now about 90% about what I get in my inbox related to my website now, I wanted to take a quick moment while I’m working on new articles in the background to discuss this:

I don’t do sponsored posts, guest writers, or cross-promotion on this site

My site caters to other computer hobbyists and technology enthusiasts, or casual consumers of technology who are looking to educate themselves about technology, and are looking for an unbiased guide. I am not risking my reputation as a reviewer and someone who is frequently asked to weigh in on technology purchases for friends/acquaintances, to refer my readers to some online gambling or crypto promotion site.

If you own a small, independent, …

Signia Silk X w/CROS: A huge leap for single-sided deafness (SSD) hearing aids

Posted on February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 by chrisa

Model tested: Signia Silk 5X (right side), Silk CROS (left side).

Signia Silk and CROS hearing aids in their case

Design

The Signia Silk X is a completely-in-canal (CIC) hearing aid, which right off the bat differentiates it from every other CROS hearing aid solution I’ve tried so far (which were all Receiver In Canal or RIC models). You can read about different types of hearing aids here. As someone who lost part of their hearing at a relatively young age (30), I feel a lot less self-conscious wearing these hearing aids in public and at work due to their very conspicuous design. Whether we want to admit it to ourselves or each other (or are even aware of …

My favorite wireless Bluetooth earbuds cost less than $40

Posted on February 11, 2022February 21, 2022 by chrisa

The SoundPeats Mini are my daily drivers by simply being high quality and tremendous value earbuds

I surprised myself when traveling 4 hours away by plane for a family wedding. As someone who has used several types of wireless headphones (earbuds) for years, and frequently a fan of the Samsung Buds, I ended up only bringing one pair of earbuds with me after all: The SoundPeats Mini (affiliate link). But they are so good for the low cost it was basically a no-brainer: I love these earbuds.

SoundPeats mini packaging: box, case, earbuds, manual, charging cable, tips

The Basics

When I first started looking for wireless buds, I did what anyone would do: I tried them all. I’m an Android …

How a Better Routeplanner (ABRP) eliminated my EV Range Anxiety

Posted on October 6, 2021October 6, 2021 by chrisa

Plus a clear-eyed look at the state of non-Tesla long distance driving for EVs in the US

I have a huge secret. First, I’ll say I’ve loved being an EV owner the last 4 years. I took my vehicle to and from work 5 days a week, 70 miles round-trip, no issues ever. No need to stop and recharge, as my Bolt’s 238 miles of range was always enough even in Massachusetts winters. I occasionally got stuck on the ice, sure, but gas-powered cars can have this problem at times. Never slammed into a wall accidentally, ran over something (or someone!) on the road, and never needed a jump start.

No my secret is much more embarrassing because it’s so …

Trying out the Qubes 4.1 beta on newer Intel and Ryzen devices, and the FrameWork Laptop

Posted on October 1, 2021October 4, 2021 by chrisa

A quick post since I have seen various folks ask online whether their laptop is supported by Qubes OS. I decided to grab the beta of the 4.1 release from July and try it out on some laptops (and my current desktop) where a new release would be most helpful, especially on some Ryzen-based systems where the previous 4.0 release did not work well out of the box. Since I also recently got the wonderfully consumer-friendly FrameWork laptop, I would try it out there as well, since I plan to use it as my daily driver OS.

You can see from the table below that there is some decent support for even relatively recently Ryzen CPUs. In fact at …

“All Crypto is a pyramid / ponzi scheme”

Posted on September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 by chrisa

I wanted to write up a brief article about this to point people at when they inevitably parrot the uninformed ‘attack’ they heard from someone else on the Internet: “Cryptos are just ponzi schemes”. In my earlier article I tackled the silly notion that “only criminals use crypto”, so I wanted to specifically address the ponzi scheme angle.

Let’s start with the basics, or we have no basis for having a useful discussion. What is a ponzi scheme? According to Investopedia, a ponzi scheme is “a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors. …