Blog

The Aulvem blog is where I keep the build logs of the things I make on my own, buying guides backed by calculations, and reviews of what I actually used. Three categories — Build, Guides and Reviews — under one theme: build it, write it down.

Guides

What Size Tablet for Manga? Page Size and Sharpness Matter

Among the tablets checked on Amazon.com, a B6 page (a common Japanese manga size) showed at paper size or larger on 10.1-inch and bigger screens. On 8- to 8.7-inch screens it showed at about 84-90%. By this estimate, a screen at least 1.5 times as long as wide looks sharp at 30-40 cm (11.8-15.7 in) with 1,467 pixels or more on its short side.

Guides

How Much Storage Does a Tablet Need for a Long Flight?

For an 8- to 15-hour flight, 128GB or more of built-in storage holds 15 hours even in High (HD) quality. On 64GB, 15 hours in High may not fit, and in Standard (SD) even 32GB holds 15 hours. These are estimates from Netflix's maximum data of 3 GB per hour in High (1 GB in Standard), and the system's share is an assumption.

Guides

How to Choose a Tablet for One-Handed Reading in Bed

With 300-400g assumed as the one-hand limit, pick an 8- to 9-inch tablet for one-handed reading in bed. Without a case, the ones sold on Amazon.com weigh 293-337g/10.3-11.9oz, while even the lightest 10- to 11-inch model weighs 433.6g/15.3oz, over the target even at 400g. A case adds about 78-186g/2.8-6.6oz.

Guides

Best Wireless Earbuds for Commuting and Office Calls

For a Windows PC and a phone, the Sony WF-1000XM6 and Sony WF-1000XM5 are the models whose official pages cover all five things to check. For an iPhone and a Mac, this guide's pick is the AirPods Pro 3, which switch between the two by themselves. Apple's pages don't mention their wind-noise measures or how their call noise reduction works. This guide is based on the makers' official pages.

Guides

Can Earbuds Connect to a Laptop and Phone at the Same Time?

Per the makers' official pages as of October 2026, a laptop and a phone connected at the same time need earbuds with multipoint. Most models take 2 devices; the Technics EAH-AZ60M2, EAH-AZ80 and EAH-AZ100 take up to 3, or 2 with LDAC on. If either device is a Windows laptop or an Android phone, you need multipoint.

Guides

Best Earbuds for a Windows Laptop and an Android Phone

Among the models checked, for a Windows laptop and an Android phone, pick earbuds with multipoint so both stay connected at once (2 devices). With a Pixel phone, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is the pick. LDAC isn't on Windows' codec list, so use it on the Android side. This guide is based on the makers' official pages.

Guides

What Size Power Bank Do I Need for Disney World?

For cable charging, assuming one charge per phone per day, one person at Disney World needs 10,000mAh from opening to close, just barely. Two people sharing need 20,000mAh, and a family of 4 needs two 20,000mAh banks. On a heavy photo and video day (1.5 charges per phone), even one person should carry 20,000mAh.

Guides

What Size Power Bank Do I Need for a Long-Haul Flight?

If your airline allows a power bank in flight, size it by what you charge in the air: a phone alone just barely gets by on 10,000mAh. Adding a Nintendo Switch 2 raises it to 20,000mAh and adding an iPad Air 11-inch to 25,000mAh, both just barely. A phone plus half a MacBook Air 13-inch charge needs 25,000mAh.

Guides

What Size Power Bank Do I Need? 5,000 vs 10,000 vs 20,000mAh

5,000mAh is for an emergency top-up, 10,000mAh for a normal day, and 20,000mAh for travel (if you can recharge each night) or two phones. With a large-battery phone, one charge from 10,000mAh and two from 20,000mAh are just barely enough, and 25,000mAh just barely covers one MacBook Air 13-inch charge. For a laptop, this article picks banks with 65W or more output.

Guides

Can You Use One Monitor for PS5 and PC? Here's What to Buy

One monitor can serve a PS5 on HDMI and a PC on DisplayPort, because every model checked has both inputs. The PS5 tops out at 120Hz. Only the PC can use a refresh rate above 120Hz. Covers PS5 1440p, how to read an HDMI 2.1 label, and picks by situation, from official specs as of October 2026.

Guides

What Size Tablet for Manga Spreads? Aspect Ratio Matters Too

For major makers' current models, with no gap, a 12.9- to 13-inch tablet with a 4:3 screen shows a US manga spread at full printed size. Each page is about 103-104% of paper. A 13-inch class 16:10 screen comes to about 91-92%, close to paper only at the lenient end of the 85-95% line (an assumption).

Guides

Best Wireless Earbuds for People Who Hate Silicone Ear Tips

For earbuds without ear tips, the AirPods 5 has active noise cancellation (ANC) and sits in the ear. To keep the ear canal clear, the AeroFit 2 hooks over the ear and the AeroClip clips on the ear.

Build

My top country in GA4 was a bot — identifying Singapore traffic without ASN data

GA4 put Singapore at the top of my country report: 210 sessions in 28 days, one engaged, zero seconds of engagement. Cloudflare's free plan will not show the ASN, so I used what it does show — the screen size GA4 records and the Chrome version that fires the analytics beacon — and compared it with my readers in Japan.

Build

Blocking spoofed AI user agents did not clean my analytics — a month of numbers

I put two Cloudflare WAF rules in front of credential scanners impersonating AI crawlers. A month later the blocked requests were still in my analytics as 403s, the scan count had gone from 145 to 991, and the scanning had moved onto the names real crawlers use — ChatGPT-User and Amazonbot. What the numbers say and how I split the two jobs.

Build

AI crawler user agents are self-reported: 468 real fetches, 991 fake ones

Anyone can send a request calling itself GPTBot. Splitting eight days of Cloudflare logs by verifiedBotCategory and by whether the path exists in my sitemap left 468 genuine article fetches against 991 credential-scanning requests. The same UA string splits across verified and unverified rows, and one of the agents in my logs cannot exist at all.

Build

Is cross-posting duplicate content? I measured it before deleting anything

I was one command away from unpublishing five cross-posts to fix a suspected duplicate-content problem. Measuring the actual line overlap first killed the plan: 795 of 1,658 lines matched, but 762 of those were inside code fences and only 3 prose lines matched across 22 files. Here is the measurement and the canonical support matrix that replaced the deletion.

Build

A Google Sheets .xlsx breaks silently in Excel — rewriting 203 cells without dynamic arrays

Export a Google Sheet to .xlsx and ARRAYFORMULA / FILTER / SORTN / QUERY survive the trip, even though Excel has none of them. Worse, the IFERROR that was already wrapping them swallows the missing-function error, so the screen shows 'no matches' instead of #NAME?. Here's how I counted the broken cells with openpyxl and rewrote them as helper columns plus INDEX/MATCH so they run on Excel 2016.

Build

Idempotent notifications with an outbox — separate detection from sending, re-check right before send

Sending a notification the instant you detect the condition means stock or price can change between detection and delivery, and the alert goes stale. Instead, detection only enqueues into an outbox; a dispatcher re-fetches and re-checks right before sending, and drops anything that no longer holds. Here's the idempotent enqueue, the send-time re-check, and exponential-backoff retries as a state machine on Cloudflare D1.

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Guides

Manfrotto PIXI EVO review — a ball-head mini tripod that holds a full-frame body and still fits in a bag

Two-plus years with the Manfrotto PIXI EVO. A rated 2.5 kg load means it carries a full-frame body, and the low-to-high height range covers desk and eye-level scenes. At 270g it is on the heavy side, and the stiff ball-head lock makes 1° tweaks awkward.

Reviews

Sony Walkman NW-A105 review — the Type-C, Android DAP I switched to, revisited from 2026

Over five years of commuting with the Sony NW-A105. The USB Type-C, microSD, and Android wins weighed against the weak battery life and sluggish UI, with comparisons to the current NW-A300 line and to going phone-only.

Reviews

Peak Design Capture V3 and ProPad review — the clip that locks a DSLR onto your hip belt

A few years with the Peak Design Capture V3 (CC-BK-3) and ProPad (PP-2). The main draw is locking a DSLR onto a hip belt so you can raise it to your eye in one motion. The lock is solid and almost rattle-free, though tolerances against some plates can produce a metallic click.

Reviews

Sennheiser HD 598 SR review — open-back spaciousness and a fit that lasts for hours

A hands-on review of the Sennheiser HD 598 SR open-back headphones after years of work and personal use. Strong on soundstage and long-session comfort; weak on isolation and price tier. With closed-back and wireless comparisons.

Reviews

Elecom EX-G Bluetooth M-XGL10BBBK review — the budget mouse where grip differences show up most

A review of the Elecom EX-G M-XGL10BBBK, a low-priced Bluetooth mouse offered in three sizes. The grip punches above its price; wireless stability and the configuration software are where the corners were cut.

Reviews

Logitech MX MASTER 3 review — the natural sequel to the 2S, with USB Type-C and a MagSpeed wheel

A year-plus with the Logitech MX MASTER 3 at work and at home. Focused on the deltas from the 2S — USB Type-C charging, the MagSpeed wheel, and the redesigned thumb wheel.

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