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How to Block Home Screen Ads on Hisense VIDAA OS Smart TVs

 If you own a modern Hisense Smart TV running VIDAA OS (I have the 65U7K model), you've probably noticed the home screen getting increasingly cluttered with intrusive, auto-playing video ads. When you buy a great TV, the last thing you want is a giant ad banner screaming at you every time you hit the home button. After getting properly irritated with it recently, I decided to fix it. Instead of digging through restrictive TV settings, I tackled the problem at the network level on my Fibre router using Parental Controls and Domain Blocking locked strictly to my TV's MAC address. I used Gemini to help track down and tweak the exact ad-serving domains, and it worked like a charm! No more video ads hijacking the home screen, and the TV is much more enjoyable to use. Here is the exact setup and the list of URLs you need to block if you want peace and quiet on your TV screen again. Step 1: Find Your TV's MAC Address Go into your TV’s network settings, find its MAC Address , an...
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DND map for Sigil

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Why, to me, 7 Days to Die is the perfect survival game

I've posted on this blog years ago about 7 Days to Die. Back then it was Alpha 8 I was talking about, and I already loved the game then. Well, the game has now launched. And it's been one hell of a ride! It's my most played game on Steam, with, as of writing this, a few hours short of 1300 hours. Yes, not as much as some people, but I think a fair bit enough that I can write this review. What is 7 Days to Die? In a nutshell, it's a survival game with intensive crafting options, taking place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. This world is voxel-based, meaning it's fully destructible, and every single building and point of interest in the game can be explored. Every 7 days, a big horde of zombies show up, so your task is to basically prepare in the 7 days leading up to that to survive. Survival As with any survival game, 7 Days to Die also has the usual features. Hunger and thirst being the two main things to worry about. Now, I say worry about, but in t...
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Logitech still sucks! Logitech G603 Double Clicking issue

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 Yes. I know. I've been MIA for like 4 years from this blog. But I have to do my little rant now. Years ago I made a few posts here about Logitech devices giving up the ghost. Be it rodents or speakers. Well, for my birthday in 2019 my wife bought me a G603 wireless mouse.  And it worked great! It finally seemed my hardware failing days with Logitech was at an end. Only for it, earlier this year, to start double clicking. When I'm not double clicking. Do you know how freaking irritating that is??  Turns out, it's a relatively common issue with them. After a few years they just start doing that. The solution is to replace the actual switch itself, but I don't have the know-how to do that, nor the patience, nor the access in dear old South Africa.  So yeah. I think the lesson has finally been learned! I now have a Razer Deathadder V2 Hyperspeed . And guess what! It doesn't double click when I'm not double clicking!!  Time will tell of course, but so far I'm lo...
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Project Man Cave Part 4: RAM and CPU Cooler

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Things are progressing!! I just ordered in the RAM and CPU cooler for my Project Man Cave PC. After watching tons of videos about the difference between 16 and 32gigs of RAM, I've come to the conclusion that, for the time being at least, 16gig is the absolute sweet spot, with 32gigs only yielding a frame or two extra. I have decided on the G.Skill TridentZ RGB 3200MHz 2x8gig kit from Wootware: And then, the i7-9700k, which I will most probably order next month (Feb 2020), obviously doesn't come with a CPU cooler, so I've ordered a Phanteks PH-TC12DX Black cooler, which gets great reviews, also from Wootware: They are on their way as I type this! It's slow but surely coming together. Literally just the CPU next month, and I can actually build it. Can't wait!
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Project Man Cave Part 3: Motherboard and NVME M.2 SSD

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I have finally made some more progress on Project Man Cave. The gaming PC I've been dreaming of building from scratch for years and year and years. Last week, I made a big purchase. I got the motherboard, and a 500gig NVME M.2 SSD. Two more parts to go, then I can assemble the machine. Anyway, here's what I got: Motherboard After reading up on the Z390 chipset, and the various options out there, I decided on the Gigabyte Z390 GAMING X. This one  https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z390-GAMING-X-rev-10#kf It cost me about R2800 here in SA. It's not the top of range by a long shot, but seeing as this PC will literally only be for gaming, it's more than sufficient for what I'll need. Ahh that new motherboard smell! Storage As for storage, I've opted for the 500gig Western Digital SN750. Wow these things are tiny! I have plenty of storage in the house, so won't be getting dedicated storage for now, the NAS will serve that purpose just f...
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Project Man Cave Part 2: Speakers, Keyboard and Mouse

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I'm making progress on my Man Cave Project! To re-cap, I've always wanted to build a proper dedicated gaming rig from scratch, and kit out this room we have in the house next to our kitchen to be the official Man Cave. And I'm going all out (well, for me at least!). I started in February to buy the parts I'll need for it. In my previous post, I mentioned the first few items: the Chassis, Power Supply, some case fans, and my awesome Steelseries Acrtis 7 Wireless headset. Now, I have some more progress to share :D At the end of April, I bought myself the Logitech Z607 5.1 Speakers, and I just couldn't let them sit in their box until I finally have everything, plus I wanted to make sure they work. They are great! The only hassle I had was it only included one cable to connect to my PC, which meant it wasn't 5.1 sound after all, so I bought a couple of extra RCA to 3.5mm cables and now it's connected properly. They sound great! I already have a wireless ...
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