Resurrecting a Dell Precision Workstation 410

I’m finally making some good progress sorting through all my old computer hardware for donation or recycling. My collection of old laptops, desktops and computer cables are finally out of my garage and donated to my local Goodwill. This mostly went quickly except for a brief nostalgic time spent with my old workhorse, a Dell Precision Workstation 410MT.

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How to Fix Dell Monitors With Mac Laptops

The Problem I’m lucky to have a work-provided MacBook Pro as my primary system along with a pretty nice Dell UltraSharp 30-in monitor at the office. One of the things I’ve always struggled with in this combination is really poor resolution when the Dell is connected. This problem with Dell monitors isn’t quite the “fuzzy font” problem you’ll see if you search around (that’s mostly referring to font smoothing or anti-aliasing adjustments which macOS can apply). Instead it’s more like the screen is running at a much lower than native resolution. This weekend I finally upgraded my system to macOS…

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Nest for Sprinklers: OpenSprinkler

My friend Jeff Cable was one of the early adopters of the Nest thermostat. At the time we talked a lot about the obvious next step of supporting home sprinkler/irrigation controls. Especially here in California (where we are in a pretty serious drought), having better control over irrigation (not to mention the remote access) seems like the logical next step. Rather than waiting around for Nest, I just bought and installed an OpenSprinkler. OpenSprinkler started out as a hobby kit for makers and they still sell it a variety of ways, from kits to completed units. The software is open…

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