Types of Projectors:

There are two mainstream types of projectors available of the commercial market right now, DLP and LCD. LCD is the same technology that has been around for decades and is used by your average flat panel TV now. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and is essentially a bunch of electrically controlled pixels that change colors and a lit from behind to produce an image for the viewer on the other side. With an LCD projector, the light is very bright and the LCD is very small (<2 inches). DLP, or Digital Light Processing, is relies on microscopically small mirrors laid out on a semiconductor chip, known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). These mirrors pitch to direct light toward or away from the projection area. Currently DLP technology is very popular because it is cheaper to produce.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

DLP: Since DLP chips direct light away instead of trying to block the light passing through, they are capable of extremely high contrast ratios at a relatively low cost. FYI – Contrast ratio is important if you want vivid colors and crisp, dark blacks; very few LCD projectors can match DLPs at high-brightness contrast. Single chip DLP projectors are also generally cheaper and can be made very small.  DLP projectors are not perfect however, they require the DMD chip and a color wheel which spins at thousands of rotations per minute, all these moving parts equates to many points of failure. The color wheel also creates what is referred to as the rainbow effect, this is where some people observe a splitting of the color white into the three colors that make it up; red, green, and blue. There are some three chip DLP projectors available without a color wheel, but they are more expensive.

DLP Rainbow Effect

LCD: LCD technology has been around for a while, which means that it has been tried and tested. LCD does not have any moving parts and relies on fewer mechanical devices to produce the final image, thus it is technically more reliable. Single LCD projectors cannot produce the high contrast ratios seen in DLP technology and are usually only used as high brightness business projectors. Newer 3LCD projectors split up the colors (red, green, and blue) into individual panels and recombine the resulting image, this essentially triples the contrast ratio which results in darker blacks and more vivid colors.

Single LCD vs DLP

We recommend that you try to watch a movie on a DLP projector before considering one, that way you can see if you are one of the few people that can notice the “Rainbow Effect” before you settle on a technology.

Brightness:

Brightness is purpose dependent. If you have a lot of natural light coming in your home and you plan on watching during the day or you want a larger screen, go for more lumens. It is also good to mention that most projectors have two brightness modes: the full brightness (usually the advertised number of lumens) and the “eco” mode (a lower brightness setting designed to extend bulb life). If possible, find a projector that will output the brightness you need in its eco mode as this will extend the life of the bulb and the projector.

• 3000+ lumens: If you plan on going well over 100″ or you have a really bright home. (note: even the brightest projectors are useless in direct sunlight)
• 2200-2800: The sweet spot for brightness – good for low light conditions and not too bright where it will bother you at night.
• <1800 lumen: probably will not work for a 100″ screen, unless it is night time and you have all the lights turned off.

Your Options:

The staff at HypeSheet has had a chance to personally research and even test out a lot of projectors and here are the options we recommend:

For less that $500 these projectors are good options:

Epson 730HD
Key Features: 3000 Lumens, 720p HD, Very Good Contrast

Epson VS335W
Key Features: 2700 Lumens, 720p HD, Very Good Contrast, Cost Effective HD

Optoma H182X
Key Features: 3200 Lumens, 720p HD, Excellent Contrast, 3D ready

The Cream of the Crop:

Epson 5030UB
Key Features: 2400 Lumens, 1080P Full HD, Insane Contrast, 3D ready (includes rechargeable RF glasses), Wireless HD, whisper quiet

If your ready to setup your budget home theater here is what you will need (too keep it under $600 we are not including the cost of tools):

• Projector
• Ceiling Mount
• 2×2 lumber (pine ok)
• 1 Box of Screws
• Wood Glue
• Drywall Anchors
• Blackout Cloth / Projector Screen Material
• Staple gun
• Hammer
• Drill / Driver
• Drill / Driver Bits
• Optional 5.1 surround sound

Figure out your frame:

The size will depend on the purpose and brightness which we talked about earlier. We are assuming you want a 100″ (measured diagonally) screen for this write up. There is a nifty equation that some old math dude came up with called the Pythagorean theorem which says the sum of the square of the two adjacent sides of your screen will equal the square of the diagonal length.

So let D be the diagonal size (e.g., 100 inches), and let L1:L2 be the ratio (e.g., 16:9). Then we can say that the width and height are L1*x and L2*x respectively, where x is some number that we are supposed to find. Using Pythagorean theorem we can see that

then,

Using x you can find width and length as L1*x and L2*x respectively (the answer will be in the same units as you used for diagonal D, inches in our case). If you work out the numbers for 100″ screen you will get x = 100 / sqrt( 256 + 81)  > x = 100 / sqrt (337 ) > x= 100 / 18.358 > x = 5.447 . So then the width of our screen will be 5.447 x 16, 87.1″ and our height will be 5.447 x 9, 49.0″, so about 87 x 49 ” screen.

Do the work:

Cut your frame from 2×2 oak or pine. Measure twice cut once. Glue and screw. Then wrap the screen materal around the back and remember to stetch it. Staple and hang!

The cocktail was invented in by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc. (a spirits as food distributor on the east coast) in 1941. The traditional Moscow Mule is a vodka-based drink with an unusual ingredient list including ginger beer, lime, and bitters. As the story goes, Martin recently purchased the Smirnoff recipe and name for his company and was out promoting his new product. He took a break for dinner and drinks at the local Cock ‘n’ Bull on Sunset where the owner, his friend Jack Morgan, was struggling to sell his homebrew ginger beer. The final piece was another friend who had a large stock of copper mugs – and the Moscow Mule was born.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Premium Vodka (3 parts)
• 1/2 oz Lime Juice (1-2 Fresh squeezed limes) (1 part)
• 4 – 6 oz Ginger Beer (8-12 parts)
• Dash of Bitters
• Mint (optional)

How-to: Squeeze 1 – 2 Ffresh limes into a copper mug and add vodka. Fill mug with ice to brim. Add ginger beer until almost full, then a dash or two of bitters. Stir gently and garnish with a lime wedge and mint.

Fun Fact: The acid in the lime juice actually reacts with the copper to give the mule an extra tangy flavor!

And our featured mixing set:

Here we have compiled a detailed article that will provide you the knowledge and tools you need to speed up your PC and sound a little smarter too!

• A little about data storage in your computer:
Your computer has two main storage methods, RAM and Disk Drives. RAM is not where your files are saved when you shut off your computer; so when you get a notification that your are running out of disk space, you are not running out of RAM… so don’t go around telling people that because those in IT will likely think less of you. RAM, or Random Access Memory, is where your operating system stores temporary files while you work on them. After you are done with your files, save them, and shut down your computer, everything in your RAM is deleted. Your harddisk or hard drive is where your data is stored and is probably the bottle neck of your performance.

• Hard Disk Drive (SSD) VS Solid State Drive (HDD)
Traditional disk drives use a disks that spins at speeds of up to 7200 RPM. The disks have data stored on them via magnetic fields and use a wiper arm to read the data. 7200 RPM sounds fast, but think about all those moving parts; to read something you need to move the wiper arm to the correct place and then spin the disk until the data is under the reader head. SSDs on the other hand are much simpler, a ledger says your data is at so and so address, then you send an electrical signal to transfer said data… no moving parts.

• What kind of SSD should I buy?
Currently this guide it being written on a PC equipped with the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, which has been running great for over two years. Samsung drives are priced similar to other drives, however the EVO version comes with a 5 year warranty (10 years for the PRO!). The Pro versions use more expensive MLC NAND flash (versus TLC) which should technically last longer and offer slightly better performance (5-10%), however if you configure your drive according to our article this wont really matter and you can save some cash with the EVO model.

• How Big of a Drive Should I get? (Very Important)
Lets say you currently have a 240 gig hard drive and your using about 200 gigs of it, buy a 250 GB SSD right? Wrong, read on to find out why. So a long time ago drive manufactures decided to make a gigabyte equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes… well there are actually 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, and 1024 x 1024 (1,048,576) in a Megabyte, and 1024 x 1024 x 1024 (1,073,741,824)in a Gigabyte. So what happens is that they shiest you 73 Megabytes per gig. So a 250GB hard drive is (250 x 1,000,000,000) 250,000,000,000 bytes… which in the computer world is (250,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824) or 232GB. Next issue if wear leveling (covered later in detail), basically you should keep 10% of your drive free, so now you are down to 209GB of space and your drive is basically full. Rule of thumb: If it is going to be more than 80% full, get the next larger drive.

• Installation – Requirements
So now you have your Samsung 850 EVO 500GB or Samsung 850 EVO 1 Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM) and your ready to install. Samsung Magician Software is great, however if your hard drive is formatted in GPT GUID Partition Table as opposed to MBR this may not work. To find out in Windows Use Windows+R to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc in the empty box and tap OK (or you can search for Disk Management). In the Disk Manager, right-click on the area next to your C:/ drive (usually Disk 0) and select properties from the drop down menu (IMAGE). From here, go to the “Volumes” tab and you will see the “Partition Style” there. If it is GPT, you will likely need to reinstall Windows from scratch, if it is MBR, you should be able to clone your drive with relative ease.

• Installation – Data Migration
If your drive old drive is a Western Digital, there is a free version of Acronis True Image which works great, if not then the Samsung Data Migration software should also work well. You will need an external USB 3.0 drive enclosure such as the [USB 3.0 & Tool-free ] Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 HDD SATA External Hard Drive Disk Enclosure avialable at Amazon for under $15, after you are done replacing your drive just use your old one in this as an external backup drive! In True Image, just select your target drive as the USB drive, your source as your C:/ drive, and the method as “proportional” if the drive sizes are different. If Samsung Migration or Acronis True Image fail you read the next section.

• Installation – Problems
We ran into a few snags during the installation and file migration process so we figured out solutions for them!

“Clone Disk Operation Failed” – Acronis AND Samsung Magician just hangs
You will need to open and admin command prompt and run check disk to fix disk errors.
1) Get to the Windows search by hitting either the key combination (Windows key + s) or go the search box in the Start menu, type in “cmd” (without quotes)
2) Right-click on “cmd.exe”, and select “Run as administrator”.
3) Click yes to the User Account Control prompt and then a black command box should appear.
4) Type the command “chkdsk /r” (without quotes).
5) You will be asked to schedule the volume to be checked on the next restart; type “y” and hit enter.
6) Restart you computer and allow it to fix your disk errors.
7) Attempt the disk cloning process again!

We have gone over the replacement of a notebook SSD in the ASUS Zenbook upgrade, so please check that out for details.

• Optimizing – getting the most out of your drive.
So hopefully you chose a drive that has plenty of space, because we need some. The first this you will want to do is install Samsung SSD Magician software and run it. Check your OS optimization and make sure that Defragmentation and Indexing is disabled, defragmentation can cause unnecessary wear on the drive. Next make sure indexing is disabled, however if you are using Outlook and want search to function you may need to add Outlook to the indexed locations via Windows “Indexing Options”. Finally Over-Provisioning, this is essentially unformatted space on the drive which is used by the SSD controller for wear leveling. We recommend that at least 10% of your drive is unallocated or set as Over-Provisioning space. You can use the Samsung SSD Magician software for this or Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc mentioned above). In the Disk Manager you would simply right-click on the Healthy Volume (C:) and select “Shrink Volume” from the dropdown menu.

• Signs of SSD Failure
SDDs can show signs of failure or can just stop working all together. If the memory is begining to wear or the drive is somewhat full you may experience times where Windows will freeze momentarily. If music is playing you may here the song skip or buzz (freeze on a note). You can solve this problem by deleting some files and increasing both your free disk space and your Over-Provisioning space. If this continues after freeing up at least 5% more in both areas it may be time to look into an RMA with Samsung. We have completed a couple of RMAs on older Samsung drives and were provided with refurbished drives that worked well.

Quick Specs:

• Connectivity: HDMI-2, DisplayPort-1
• Resolution: 2560 x 1080
• Panel Type IPS
• Aspect Ratio 21:9
• Brightness 300 cd/m2
• Color Gamut sRGB over 99%
• Response Time 5ms GTG
• Refresh Rate 60Hz
• Contrast Ratio (DFC) 5,000,000:1

In Depth Review:

The LG Electronics UM67 29UM67 is an cinema format ultra wide 29 inch monitor. With a Wide Full HD (WFHD) resolution of 2560×1080 you get a true 16:9 aspect ratio which means you can watch a widescreen movie with no black bars. The In-Pane Switching (IPS) panel is also a bonus as it provides excellent viewing angles of 170° or more. Color reproduction on this monitor is 99% of sRGB, this makes the UM67 a very good solution for graphic designers, professional photographers, or anyone looking for highly accurate color.

Multitasking is also an interesting feature of this monitor and you don’t have to shuffle back and forth between windows. With a single click you can enable the 4-Screen Split feature which divides the screen into as many as four source segments, allowing you to view four different windows at the same time. Just make sure you have the correct OS to run software for this feature (Windows Vista/7/8 or Mac OS)

You may want to make sure that your video card supports resolutions up to and above 2560×1080 (See the list below for supported graphic cards). If you want the best performance from your new monitor and you’re planing to use your desktop, we recommend upgrading your video card to one that supports AMD FreeSync technology. FreeSync ensures that fixes jerkiness when playing games and eases strain on the eyes by allowing the monitor to run at a higher refresh rate of 75hz (instead of 60hz) at 2560×1080. FreeSync is available on supported AMD Radeon based graphics cards which we list below. We recommend the Gigabyte AMD R7 360 128 Bit GDDR5 2GB 2xDVI/HDMI/DP Overclocked Graphics Card GV-R736OC-2GD as this card is a great value given the features (notably support for Dual-Link DVI). Sapphire cards like the Sapphire Radeon R7 360 OC and its compact brother the Sapphire Radeon NITRO R7 360 OC are known for their reliability, however some games may not be supported yet. Finally, if you want support for up to 4 monitors the Sapphire Radeon R9 285 2GB Dual Mini DP has the latest R9 285 chipset which will future-proof your computer for years to come.

We tested out the Sapphire Radeon R9 285 2GB Dual Mini DP and were able to get the LG Electronics UM67 29UM67 to run and it looked pretty damn good. We did run into an issue with the AMD Crimson driver install, but that was actually because of our Anti-Virus software (AVG); once we disabled that installation was a breeze.

Graphic Cards that Support 2560 x 1080 resolution:

• Intel HD 3000 or higher (Including Iris and 500 series found in laptops usually)
• AMD HD54xx/64xx/77xx or higher
• GeForce 300 or higher

FreeSync Video Cards:

• AMD Radeon R9 300 Series
• AMD Radeon R9 Fury X
• AMD Radeon R7 360
• AMD Radeon R9 295X2
• AMD Radeon R9 290X
• AMD Radeon R9 290
• AMD Radeon R9 285
• AMD Radeon R7 260X
• AMD Radeon R7 260

More info on FreeSync:
http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/freesync

The newest integrated feature of Windows 10 is Microsoft OneDrive. OneDrive allows you to get to your files from anywhere, on any device, and share and work together with anyone in your work and life. This is great if you want it, if not Windows 10 makes it very difficult to uninstall through traditional methods like through “Programs and Features”, “Windows Features”, or “Windows Update”.

Thankfully the team at HypeSheet have found a solution that removes the persistent program and its link under the explorer favorites menu. Just open up a text file, add the code below, rename the text file to OneDriveRemover.bat, then run it (may need to run it as administrator)!

@echo off

cls

set x86=”%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe”
set x64=”%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe”

echo Closing OneDrive process.
echo.
taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe > NUL 2>&1
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 5 > NUL 2>&1

echo Uninstalling OneDrive.
echo.
if exist %x64% (
%x64% /uninstall
) else (
%x86% /uninstall
)
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 10 > NUL 2>&1

echo Removing OneDrive leftovers.
echo.
rd “%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd “C:\OneDriveTemp” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
rd “%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1

echo Removing OneDrive from the Explorer Side Panel.
echo.
REG DELETE “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}” /f > NUL 2>&1
REG DELETE “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}” /f > NUL 2>&1

echo If explorer menu has the “onedrive” option still, you need to set the value of “IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree” to 0. This is in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}
echo.

pause

Many of us are passionate about mixology and some are just interested making their own cocktails at home. Either way alcohol an integral part of our society, unfortunately the complex libations of the past are just that – the past. If you are passionate about what you drink, how you serve your drinks, or just how cool you look while you make drink, The TeiKis® Boston Cocktail Shaker Ultimate Gift Set is a great package to have in your arsenal.

This set includes:

• 30oz Boston Cocktail Shaker and Glass
• 4 Prong Hawthorn Strainer
• 50ml Measure
• 25ml Measure
• 28.5cm Bar Spoon
• Masher / Muddler
• 30/50ml Jiggle

This robust cocktail set is made from stainless steel, is dishwasher safe, and is backed by 100% Money Back Guarantee / 2 year warranty. Not an avid connoisseur of the premium pour but know someone who is – The TeiKis kit comes in a gift box and is available on Amazon , which means you can have it delivered in just one day! If you really want to impress pick up The Curious Bartender: The Artistry and Alchemy of Creating the Perfect Cocktail for under $10 bux. This book was written by Tristan Stephenson, a brand ambassador and bartender trainer at The Ritz, among other top hotels. Stephenson opened critically acclaimed London bars, Purl, The Worship Street Whistling Shop and Dachs & Sons. This book not only covers how to make such classics as an Old Fashioned, but also details his modern variations such as the Green Fairy Sazerac topped with an absinthe ‘air’ or an Insta-age Rob Roy with the ‘age’ on the side.

Know your drinks… well.

Toys form your personality. If you play with cars you will grow up loving cars. Same applies to guns, sports and anything else you loved doing as a kid. So why not try playing with robots? In case  you want to influence your fast growingh kids or enjoy exploring something you always was facinated about, you may try getting Spheros – a programmable robot ball, that can perform various task.

Insert your phone in this Freefly VR Headset, put it on, run the app and submerge into virtual reality. With this headset you will be able to view 120 degrees of virtual reality using any of the most popular phones, including: latest iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, Samsung Galaxy 4&5 and Samsung Note 3&4. Pretty much any screen sizes between 4.7″ and 6.1″ can be automatically  adjusted for thickness. It also has soft leather finish in case you want to stay in that reality for long periods of time. But most importantly it comes with a Bluetooth wireless joystick that lets you control your new reality with ease.

This headset is doing a pretty good job by blocking the light, so you can truly dive in into exploring new locations, footage and environments.

The product looks and feels amazing, but with more and more competition in this industry each month it will be a great adventure to see which product will emerge on top of this market.  Please check four of the other headsets below that come in different price categories and in different shapes.

If you know your beer, but there is always something wrong with all the craft beer, you must prove the world that you can do truly better. Making your beer and developing a perfect recipe is not going to be easy, but once you figure it out, you can become our next national hero. This starter beer kit will help you to get started and learn the process by making all the key decisions yourself.

Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Brewing kit includes 2 gallon fermenting keg, 11 reusable plastic bottles, labels, ingredients and easy to follow instructions. Parts are easy to clean and durable. It will take you about two weeks to get the beer ready for consumption – a week for brewing and a week for natural carbonation. Lets share some beer passion!

The X-ACTO precision knife set is an amazing tool for any cut that requires precision. A lot of artists, sculptors, designers and hobbyists use this tool to accurately trim and cut through a variety of materials. All three knifes serve a corresponding function: the biggest knife is for cutting through heavy materials, The middle knife is for medium to heavy weight materials and the lightest knife is for working with lightweight materials. The set includes 10 interchangeable blades made of carbon and sharpened steel allowing you to make any cut you can think of. Blades come in a variety of types including straight edge, general purpose, fine point, and scoring blades.

These are a very useful and versatile set of tools. The wood box is very compact and well organized as it appears on the pictures, and it makes for hassle free storage. All parts of the set are quality items, durable, built to last for decades and made out of quality materials. All three metal tools are well-made and have a good weight in the hand. X-ACTO is practically a household name, and they always made quality blades and tools. This is a great gift for a crafter or anyone who loves to work with their hands.

X-ACTO knifes are a standard for precision in the industry for many decades and to get there they had to learn their craftsmanship and perfect product’s design, utility, and reliability. Make your perfect cut every time!

No matter what your hobby is, this is one heck of a box of tools. At the price of $16.29 it is an absolute steal! These knifes will serve you for the next 20 years.