The problem - my employer is all in on Microsoft 365. They have flipped the admin switches that mean email can only be checked via Outlook (or Apple Mail, because executives like Apple, I assume). Meetings, data etc are all managed via Teams, and there's a tight integration between teams and Outlook. Data are stored... Continue Reading →
Linux 2: Even nearlier there… Moving to CachyOS, squashing bugs, and living the Linux life.
My last post was about trying out Bazzite. I'd installed it to an external SSD and gave it a good go for a few days as my main OS. It was a bit of a faff, needing to carry around the SSD with the laptop when I moved about, so I finally put on my... Continue Reading →
Using local AI/LLM in VS Code without third party software, on the CPU, GPU or NPU
I've found VC Code copilot to be invaluable in writing small scripts and the like for, say, visualizing my DEM output in Blender. Just a super way of speeding up tool-building in scenarios where you can immediately tell if it's worked or not. With an education account, you get access to all kinds of top-end... Continue Reading →
Major update to Open Source photogrammetry software Meshroom 2025.1
Meshroom has for some time been one of my top choices for open-source or free photogrammetry software, offering a really deep amount of customization and tinkering. However, while this blog made a big splash early on reviewing all the different open-source photogrammetry software, I've found they haven't really kept up with Metashape or RealityScan, and... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] XREAL Air Pro 2 – Immersive Augmented Reality Glasses
At the recent SEB conference, I traveled sans laptop, working on the assumption I could do everything urgent on my OnePlus Open. I could... but what I found was that some tasks just needed a larger screen (specifically remote-ing into a remote workstation was difficult to make out everything on the small 6-7" unfolded screen).... Continue Reading →
RealityScan 2.0 Released (formerly RealityCapture)
As I’d previously noted, RealityCapture has been re-branded to RealityScan, to align branding across desktop and mobile applications. With the rebrand come some major new changes: AI Masking Smarter Alignment Aeriel LiDAR Support Quality Analysis To install it, you need to fire up Epic Games Launcher, then I had to wait a while until the... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Oneplus Open Apex Edition (after 2 months)
I moderately recently upgraded my phone from the Samsung Fold 3 to the Oneplus Open (OPO). As per usual with my tech, through a combination of selling the old gadget and picking the new one up 'as new' on ebay, I was able to keep overall costs very low. I've had the phone a couple... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Asus Proart P16 AMD CoPilot+ Review: Incredible performance and design
Welp, it’s new computer time. My Surface Laptop Studio was starting to slow me down a bit with work, and wasn’t keeping up with games, even with the eGPU. I was also starting to feel like I was missing out on the new copilot+ PC stuff – I dabble with local LLMs and stuff, and... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Philips 40″ 5K2K Ultrawide Thunderbolt monitor
A shortish review here about the Monitor I've been using at work for about 6 months now. It's the Philips 40" curved monitor: I needed a new monitor to go with the new computers my team and I got set up with, and I very specifically wanted a very high-resolution monitor for multi-tasking. I wasn't... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] JBL Tour One M2 Noise Cancelling Headphones
*Note, I was sent these headphones for review by JBL nearly a year ago, but they've had precisely zero input into this review (obviously, given I haven't written it until now), and it doesn't affect what I'm writing at all. The only benefit I stand to gain is the amazon affiliate link I'll shove at... Continue Reading →