Do you really need a Google Drive Paid Upgrade?

Problem!

My Google account is more than a decade old now. 15 GB for free storage seemed absolutely fine until a few years back, when I started running short of storage space with lot of my storage lost to Google Photos. While per Google "High Quality" photos/videos are not counted against your storage space, if your photos/videos are not lucky enough to get auto-converted by "Google Backup and Sync" application to the "High Quality" format, the size of the files then get counted against your storage quota in Google Drive.

What did I do then?

I deleted some obsolete files. I then created a shared folder in my wife's Google Drive account and moved around 9 GB of archived files to the shared folder located in my wife's account.

DIY: Fixing Android "System Update" Boot Loops with Open DNS

 Few days back I received a pop-up for Software Update for my 3 year old Lenovo Yoga Tab 3. This Tab is an excellent Tab having premium looks, finish and performance. This was probably the 2nd or 3rd update I have received over the years. While the previous updates went through smoothly, this update did not happen.

The system would always prompt for an update, auto-download it and start updating a little while later. The problem starts after the Tab reboots for update. After showing the progress bar for few minutes, the update crashes on the Recovery screen (as shown in the screen shot) with a "Status 7" error. While I wanted to investigate more on the error and fix it, I couldn't do as the ab would reboot to android, download the update, reboot and this went into a loop. After googling,  found few solutions on disabling the "System Update" service, which unfortunately didn't work. Coming from a Network Admin background I realised that the best way to circumvent the System Update is to block the website from where the update is being downloaded.

DIY Home-made Hand Sanitizer

Due to the pandemic of Corona Virus, sale of Hand Sanitizers shot up. While trying to buy one for my family from Amazon, I ended up buying something which looked similar, but was a "Menthol perfumed Detton Disinfectant liquid". To ensure that my purchase doesn't go for a waste, I Googled and realised that making your own DIY Hand Sanitizer was really easy.

Ingredients -

1. Isopropyl Alcohol (99.9% pure).

2. Aloe Vera gel.

3. Essential Oils.

DIY: Making your RO Water Purifier compliant to Indian Laws

Around mid-2018 when my old water purifier conked off, I went for a RO Water Purifier (Livpure Pep Pro++) knowing that the water from RO tasted sweet to your tongue. However I hadn't done much research on water purification techniques and water quality of the supply that I received in my Mumbai home.

Background:

From around early 2018 the activities around water conservation and ground water recharge had increased in India. In addition to that the Indian Supreme Court introduced a ban on RO Water Purifier systems setting a baseline on the TDS parameters which should be considered before deciding to buy RO systems - https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/ban-on-ro-systems-to-continue-in-delhi-supreme-court-declines-to-stay-ngt-order/1772112/ . The Supreme Court ruled that you  need an RO system ONLY if the TDS is greater than 500 mg/litre (500 PPM).