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■ Site Update
I recently created a custom QR Code for wheartm.com, and thought it might look cool on a business card. I wanted to use a different printer, just to see how other printers would look or their turnaround time. The only printer I’ve ever used was Vista Printing, but it can be expensive and they are slow on printing and shipping. I’ve never had a problem with Vista, except they removed some of my early business card designs due to inactivity.

Dymo Mobile Labler

When I moved to Jacksonville, I left my rarely used giant super tanker printer and scanner at the dumpster, and choosing smaller items to bring with me to the new home. Basically, if I ever need to print or scan something, I will need to re-buy another printer… while I don’t print as much, I do, from time to time, use the scanner to produce high resolution image file. Lately, if I need to scan something, I just have to take a photo of it on my phone – which is a very poor substitution.

Anyway, recently I discovered a tiny portable thermal printer in one of my storage boxes – it is an old Dymo Mobile Labler. I bought this in 2017 and used it to label all my comic book dividers and labeled various boxes. I haven’t used the Dymo in over a decade, so I was surprised that the thing is still working just fine! Of course, the original printer ribbon inside was jammed up… but as soon as I removed it and replaced it with a new paper ribbon, it was working as if it was new!

A couple things I need to address: this portable labler (it has a rechargeable built-in battery) has long been discontinued. Looking at current Dymo printers, they all look like pods and probably support more modern thermal paper. The Bluetooth connection is iffy. You really need to be close to the printer, otherwise you’ll be disconnected. The app is not great, but it gets the job done. It doesn’t support modern emojis.

Still, the thermal print looks amazing and it’s fast! The print is very clear and with deep blacks. The sticker on the label is also very sticky, so I would be careful on trying to remove it if you stuck it on something accidentally.

Now that I have printer/labeler, I might try and organize my various harddrives. For example, I might have an old backup photo drive, I might label it “Seagate 4TB Photo Backup 2000-2020” or something.

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■ Asustor
So I’ve been looking for the perfect NAS, and after many hours of looking, I’ve decided to get the latest Asustor AS5402T (a company related to Asus). The 5402T is a two-bay NAS, plus four m.2… which sounds amazing, except I can’t seem to unscrew the tiny, tiny screws that is holding the case. I’ll have to find a good screwdriver … or maybe use a power tool to remove the screws at a later time.

Personal Cloud

When I upgraded to my current NAS System with the Asustor AS5402T in April 2024, I really thought 30TB was going to be enough to backup my files. I am so very wrong. In just two short years, I have reached near-capacity at 98%.

So, I recently was digging through my old tech storage boxes and resurrected my two old “NAS” drive: Seagate’s GoFlex and Personal Cloud. Each 3TB drive operates independently as DLNA servers. The GoFlex worked for a few days and then ultimately failed when I tried to write files to it to 100%. I sort of expected it to die, as I originally got the drive around the 2010’s.

The Personal Cloud drive appears to be holding up, but writing files to it takes a long time and it’ll sometime disconnect. Seagate stopped supporting the drive in 2021, but you can still use the drive by creating a network folder to the IP address. For example \\198.168.xxx.xx.xx

The Seagate drive is so small, that I’m just only using it to backup older television shows I have no interests in re-watching. However, if I ever need to rewatch Buffy the Vampire Hunter, it’ll be available on the Personal Cloud drive.

I think over time, if I never need to access the Personal Cloud for anything, I might just disconnect it … I’ll plug it back in if I need access to those old shows (or alternatively, I can dust off the old DVDs and find a Bluray player … or re-rip them from my DVD collection).

Also, check it out: I have created a custom splash screen when you launch Jellyfin! I have read that you can create other users to view my movies, which I am re-naming to as “VUFLIX”.