Posts by Dave K

That old box of tech junk you should probably throw out saves a warehouse

Every discerning tech should have a TBFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC. In fact, when supporting oddball kit, many may even have a TRFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC (That Room Full Of Old Tech You Should Probably Have Thrown Out But Kept Just In Case).

Many years back, working at a University with numerous odd labs of experimental kit to support, I had a TRFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC which came in very handy from time to time. One example was that we had two motion tracking systems (Optotrak 3020s - a £35k piece of kit). One of them was all set up with a Windows XP control PC running Matlab and worked a treat. A colleague was asked if they could get the other one working in the same way for an important experiment: "Of course, not a problem".

At least, until it turned out the second Optotrak was an older system with an ISA controller card, yet the version of Matlab we had required Windows XP. A problem given that ISA had become pretty much obsolete in the late 90s, yet XP hadn't been released until 2001. Yet, in my TRFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC, I'd retained various odd PCs of different specs, and soon managed to find an early Pentium III system that still had a lone ISA slot, yet had the performance to cope with Windows XP. Swap a bit of RAM around as well, and the motion tracker fired up just fine.

Microsoft disarms push notification bombers with number matching in Authenticator

Re: Security vs Convenience

Part of the problem can be when multiple services are set up to require 2FA approval. When they first introduced it where I work, there was 2FA for logging into Windows, 2FA for connecting to VPN, 2FA for Outlook, 2FA for Yammer, etc. In short, staff were used to being hit with numerous 2FA approval requests, so if another one comes through its easy to assume it must be for Sharepoint or something and just tap "approve".

Now, my workplace has largely fixed the mass of 2FA approvals thankfully, but it does show that someone can approve a nefarious request quite innocently, depending when it arrives and how their organisation's security is set up.

Anyway, the addition of the code makes a lot of sense here - I certainly agree with you there!

Intel to rebrand client chips once Meteor Lake splashes down

Re: Marketing: why do we need it again

It's a tough one. There have been changes in the past which haven't been negative, for example Intel relegating "Pentium" to lower-end CPUs and introducing the "Core" brand back in 2006.

The main point I've noticed is that it only tends to work if the new product is a significant improvement over the old one. Core 2 Duo was a huge step forwards from the Pentium 4, so people didn't care about the rebrand. On the flip side, AMD relegating "Athlon" when they introduced "Phenom" wasn't exactly a success - especially as Phenoms didn't exactly deliver the "Phenomenal" performance they were named after.

If Intel's next range of CPUs are significant developments, many people won't care about the name change. If they're not that much of an improvement, it'll be seen more negatively as an empty marketing ploy.

Microsoft pushes users to the Edge in Outlook, Teams

Re: Chrome

It could be the greatest browser the world has ever seen, however after spending years of having Microsoft trying to ram it down my throat at every possible opportunity, I refuse to use it on principle.

It's a bit like dealing with an overly-pushy salesman. He may be selling a great product at a fantastic price, but if he's excessively and aggressively pushing the product on you come-what-may, you simply walk away...

No more feature updates for Windows 10 – current version is final

Re: Upgrades work for me

It works fine, but with one major caveat - Windows Update won't show feature updates for you because it sees your hardware as unsupported. On one hand, a good way of avoiding them, but on the downside it means using a flash drive and ISO to "upgrade" the OS every couple of years so you don't stop receiving security updates.

Maybe time for someone creative to release another utility like wufuc that unblocks the updates?

If you pop Windows 10 LTSC 1809 onto it, you'll get security updates until late 2028 - one option to consider anyway. Or wait until the LTSC version of Windows 11 lands and install that with tweaks to bypass the requirements checks. My VM testing shows that Windows 11 on unsupported hardware will download security updates just fine, but not feature updates - which makes it a royal pain to use if you use a standard version as you have to do an ISO upgrade install every time your build runs out of support.

Re: Truly, certainly not

I'm one of the "prefer Windows 7" folk, it was simply the last OS Microsoft released that felt as if it was both well designed and flexible.

Windows 10 is flexible, but felt as if it was in a perpetual beta state - it still feels like that now, but at least some of the messier aspects of the UI can be fixed with 3rd party tools. There's also the manner of the forced and often buggy updates unless you use yet more 3rd party tools to wrestle control of the updates. Windows 11 looks more polished (although far from perfect), but has all the flexibility of a turd, plus insane system requirements.

Who knows, maybe with Windows 12 we'll finally get another version that looks pretty, consistent, finished and flexible. Not holding my breath.

Overall though, this is a good move for Windows 10 users. Most of MS's feature updates have been questionable at best, finally a few years of stability for the platform at last.

Shocks from a hairy jumper crashed a PC, but the boss wouldn't believe it

You're a bright spark, so you are...

Microsoft may stop bundling Teams with Office amid antitrust probe threat

Re: Edge

At least that's their website. I understand Microsoft.com advertising Edge and Windows at me. Imagine however if you browsed using Chrome to Mozilla's web page only to be plastered with ads about "Use Chrome, it's way better!". Or if you visited Microsoft.com and it gave you a big embedded advert for Chromebooks instead.

Like I say, this isn't advertising on your company's own website, it's identifying URLs from competitors to hijack them and push your company's own stuff.

Techie called out to customer ASAP, then: Do nothing

Re: This is a job for .... Justin Case!

This.

It's also the reason that many organisations have change freezes in place around Christmas, Easter and other such periods of the year where the majority of skilled staff will be on holiday.

Microsoft promises it's made Teams less confusing and resource hungry

Basic UX problems

Quicker switching and performance improvements all sound good, but then again Microsoft has a track record of messing things up, so I'm not exactly holding my breath here. Saying that, nice for them to admit for once that many of the frustrations people experience with using Microsoft products are rooted in basic UX problems. People have been saying that to them for years and not just about Teams, however that feedback usually falls on deaf ears.

Anyway, with any luck they've got rid of that infuriating feature where the entire application dims and a dialog pops up to tell me "We're opening this file in Excel!" every single time I tell it to open a file in Excel. That has to be in the running for the most-pointless-dialog-box ever award...

How the Internet Archive faces potential destruction at the hands of Big Four publishers

But they're not suing. Its publishers who object to IA renting out digital books. Nothing to do with the software on there.

And how much of the stuff on there is available to buy? Most of it is essentially abandonware, and that's the point of the archive - preserving old games and software for future generations, along with books, websites and many other things.

Microsoft to give more than microsecond's thought about your Windows 11 needs

"We have taken and will continue to take steps to mitigate unrequested modifications to a user's choices"

Ha, I'll believe that when I see it, seeing as Microsoft is one of the worst offenders given how many times Edge manages to sneakily set itself as the default browser - overriding my choices. Even when I do manage to set my default browser, MS just loves to disregard my choice by forcing OS links etc. to open in Edge regardless...

UK.gov bans TikTok from its devices as a 'precaution' over spying fears

Re: 冰山一角

I wondered that as well. It's not that difficult to lock-down corporate Android devices so that only allowed applications can be installed. At least, that's the way my work phone functions. If I wanted to use a social media app, or use a file-sharing service other than company OneDrive, I should rightly have to use my personal device for that.

The fact that UK government employees apparently can install whatever they want onto work devices doesn't fill me with confidence.

BOFH: I care a lot ... about onion bhajis

Happy Friday

"They asked me to wait outside."

"And you thought here was technically outside?"

"Oh no, I nipped across the road for a pint. Then I came here."

Outstanding! Anyway, almost time to "head offsite to get some replacement equipment", or visit the pub as its also known...

Don't worry, that system's not actually active – oh, wait …

Re: Why would one ...

I'm more intrigued by what would happen when the toaster finished toasting and tried to eject the pizza across the room...

Service desk tech saved consultancy Capita from VPN meltdown, got a smack for it

Re: smacked down for saving the day?

A bad manager will ignore your concerns, then smack you down for this when you're proven right.

A good manager will see this as an opportunity, not a threat and will both publicise when a concern is raised, and will promote the fix/brag about how their team helped solve the problem.

As a former tech for many years turned manager, I like smart people in my team. Helps to avoid shit hitting the fan in the first place, and helps to recover from a mess if things do go wrong. Only bad managers dislike those smarter than themselves further down the chain.

Microsoft adds features to Windows 11 monthly – managing it is your problem

Re: Did anyone ask for this?

Microsoft has forgotten all about stability. Granted MS software was never renowned for this, but XP and 7 were pretty solid platforms by MS standards. Since then, we've had the mess of Windows 10 and the various borks and broken updates, now we've got Windows 11 with Microsoft deciding they're just going to dick about with it as and when they please. Microsoft have completely and utterly lost the plot.

Saying that, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. MS has spent over a year ignoring what numerous people are asking for with Windows 11 (fix the crippled taskbar and hopeless Start Menu) and instead spends their time faffing about trying to add Bing search boxes to as many parts of the OS as possible.

Microsoft: People don't want pointless gimmicks and features forced upon them in a regular stream. What they want is for you to get your shit in order and simply produce a solid, stable, usable and reliable OS. Is that too much to ask for?

Twitter rewards remaining loyal staff by decimating them

Re: Funding

I agree entirely. Plenty of otherwise profitable companies have been felled by such buyouts. Over in the UK, Maplin was one of them. Several changes of ownership adding more and more leveraged debt, then when sales declined, the company quickly plunged into a loss-making position and was wound up. Without the burden of those interest payments, the company would have suffered a decline in profitability, but certainly wouldn't have sank as quickly as it did. Numerous other examples exist as well.

Simple fact is, Twitter sold for $44bn, and Musk should be liable for every single cent of that, but he isn't.

Funding

"Reminder: Elon spent $44 billion on this. Forty-four thousand million dollars"

Well, actually he didn't. Because in the wonderful world of finance, you can take out loans against the entity you are buying. So $13bn of that are loans now owed by Twitter (not Musk). This is part of the reason Twitter is up such a familiarly named creek, because of the massive interest payments it now owes on those loans.

The question will be if Twitter can survive this. It won't be the first or last company to be sunk by the burden of interest payments as a result of a buy-out that massively increases a company's debt.

BAE Systems handed £38m Border Force intelligence contract

Cerberus?

I wonder if it'll start bad, become good, then get indoctrinated as each successive version is released?

Bonus points if the lead PM goes by the handle of IllusiveMan...

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

Re: It's not all bad

It's not so bad when the entire recipe is in "cups", but it is a problem when you come across some American recipes where half the stuff is in ounces (ie for things like butter which can't fit in a cup), and the rest in cups. Also, it becomes a problem for any recipe where you use eggs.

Knowing how big a cup is supposed to be matters quite a lot when the same recipe calls for 3 eggs and 6 ounces of butter.

Personally I much prefer recipes that say 100g of porridge and 200ml of milk. The ratio is still clear and if you want to pour them in via a cup, that's entirely your choice.

Re: Hooray for Avoirdupois and pounds, shillings and pence

"At one time it was made illegal under EU rules to sell a pound of bananas in the UK. and a market trader got prosecuted for it. This article is a great example of history being written by the winners."

Incorrect. What was made illegal was selling items *only* by pounds/ounces. Shops have always been allowed to sell by pounds and ounces if they want to, but they must also sell by grams/kilograms as well. The trader was fined because he refused to provide pricing for metric quantities.

This is the end, Windows 7 and 8 friends: Microsoft drops support this week

Re: With the passing of Win7, we morn the loss of the last true windows desktop. So long Aero...

Upvoted. I'll also add it was the last environment designed purely for the desktop PC which was also designed to look pretty whilst being powerful and flexible.

Win 10 is quite flexible, but has the style and aesthetics of a sheet of A4 paper. Then there is Win 11 which was designed to look nice, but has all the flexibility of a concrete block.

Farewell Windows 7. The last Microsoft OS to be both pretty and powerful.

Corporations start testing Windows 11 in bigger numbers. Good luck

Re: No surprise here...

Very few. I think initially a number of businesses did migrate to LTSC, but that didn't please Microsoft - their intention was that LTSC would only be for specialised environments and they needed companies to use the standard channels, because that way companies have to get involved with testing new builds and that helps improve MS's chance of discovering bugs - seeing as they don't have their own QC department any more.

Anyway, MS got their wish by blocking Office 365 on Windows 10 LTSC. For most businesses, that pretty much eliminates the option of using it on regular office machines. Of course if you don't use O365, LTSC works just fine...

Wrong.

Right from the start, I liked Windows 95, I found the UI far more logical than Program Manager in Windows 3.1

Similarly, I liked Windows 98 straight off, it retained the same UI as Windows 95, but added some quality of life improvements.

I didn't like ME, because it was less stable than 98 and broke a number of DOS games I still played whilst providing no benefits I could see over 98.

I liked XP straight away too, it was far more stable than Win 9x, plus you could easily switch the start menu and UI into classic mode to make it look just like 98/Win 2k if you wanted to.

I didn't like Vista, the UI was messy and it felt cumbersome and slow (service packs improved the latter, but the UI remained messy)

I liked Win 7 straight away, they'd fixed the UI issues and performance problems from Vista, plus PCs had improved and could more easily handle the system requirements that Vista had previously introduced and Win 7 retained. It also introduced genuinely useful features like snapping windows, plus the improved task bar.

To be honest with you, I've never used a version of Windows which I've hated and then come to love. I still dislike Windows 10 FWIW, the UI is an ugly, boring mess, the forced updates are still a pain in the arse, the throbber is still broken and the sound effects still sound like they were knocked out in 30 minutes by an intern with a cheap keyboard.

Either way, please cut the crap with these generalistic statements like "everyone hated 95/98/XP etc. with a burning passion when it came out" before learning to love it, because that frankly isn't true. I want to like Windows 11, I genuinely do think it looks a lot prettier than Windows 10, but the crippled task bar and poor start menu ruin an otherwise not-that-bad OS IMO.

Re: GUI changes?

1) Task bar to be anywhere other than at the bottom of the screen.

2) Turn off "grouping" of task bar buttons and show the full name of the programs/files open instead of just an icon.

3) Right click on task bar to easily open Task Manager.

4) Start Menu that can show all my programs by default without requiring an extra button click and which doesn't have a big section dedicated to "recommended" apps (yes, you can turn the recommended section off, but you can't reclaim the space it takes up).

5) Change the size of the taskbar (handy to shrink it on smaller laptop screens)

6) Full control of which icons are always displayed in the system tray

7) Change the size of the Start Menu to show more icons (particularly handy on large screens)

There's a handful for you off the top of my head. No doubt if I ran Windows 11 as a full-blown OS on one of my devices instead of just as a test in a VM I could have found more for you. It is undoubtedly one of the least flexible/customisable versions of Windows I've ever come across. If you like the defaults, fine. If you don't, you're screwed.

Re: it's the GUI, stupid

"Have you ever considered the possibility that the new system is actually more logical"

No. If the new system was logical, they wouldn't need a text label next to the modern-style "toggle switch" buttons in Settings to tell you if they are on or off. That is a clear admission that the toggle-switch button is a failure and does not clearly illustrate its current status.

I also cannot believe it is logical to have basic settings in one style of user interface, then the "advanced settings" in a completely different (and older) style of user interface. That's not logical, it's just lazy.

Furthermore, I can't accept it's more logical to hover over an icon on my taskbar in order to bring up a list of Excel windows so I can see which is which, rather than having the filenames being displayed directly on the buttons on my taskbar (as every single prior version of Windows has supported).

I don't mind changes that are logical and well thought out. The introduction of "Settings" does make sense as Control Panel is a bit of a mess, but MS dropped the ball by implementing illogical UI elements (see above) and only shifting half the stuff across, so if anything they've made things more of a mess than they were before. I also don't mind the centered buttons on the task bar because there is an option to switch them back to the left - everyone is happy. But when they introduce a new version of something that clearly and plainly has less functionality than the old version (task bar and start menu for example), I cannot see that as an upgrade, only as a downgrade.

Oh, no: The electric cars at CES are getting all emotional

Re: "buttons replaced with touchscreens"

Or on the flip side, it means that when you are changing gear or adjusting something, your dominant hand (at least for the right-handed majority) is on the steering wheel. Also, roughly 2/3 of people are right-eye dominant, and having that dominant eye on the side of oncoming traffic is preferable.

Simple fact is this, studies have repeatedly shown that for these reasons, plus others, countries that adopt right-hand-drive vehicles that drive on the left have a lower crash likelihood than LHD vehicles on the right. Hence, not a misguided decision at all.

Don't get me wrong, the touch controls of modern cars are bloody awful, and I imagine they are easier to operate for right-handed people in LHD vehicles, but the better solution is to bin the touch controls.

Meet the merry pranksters who keep the workplace interesting, if not productive

Re: Pranking is abuse

I agree, but to clarify when I say "wanting to bring [someone] down a peg or two." it's more in the meaning that a practical joke can help some people realise they aren't as infallible as they think they are.

Case in point, at a previous company there was an ex-IT-support member of staff who'd moved to working on an ERP implementation project. She was pleasant enough, but liked to act as if she was the god of all things technical because of her previous role and this did irritate a few of her ERP colleagues. So one day they stuck a piece of gaffer tape over the optical sensor on her mouse.

Result was a phone call to me (the new support tech) about a faulty mouse. Went over to her desk, found that the cursor wasn't moving and so I instinctively turned the mouse over to reveal the tape on the underside. She went rather red at missing this, there was a chuckle from the others in her office and the god-complex rapidly evaporated.

Now this wasn't an act of vengeance, it was a harmless prank, But it had the desired effect. I should add that your link provides several definitions of prank, such as "to play a trick on someone that is intended to be funny but not to cause harm or damage" and "a trick that is intended to be amusing and often to make someone look foolish" - I'd say these apply quite nicely to the example above and show that you can bring someone down a bit with a prank.

Re: Pranking is abuse

You're over-generalising. Pranks fall into many different categories. Most are pretty harmless and the victim of the prank can often see the funny side as well. Done right, these can be a laugh for all involved and help teams to bond - so long as they don't go too far of course. You also have pranks against a particular person with a superiority complex. In these cases, the victim usually has it coming for being a bit of a tit to to their colleagues. Treat people with respect and you're less likely to have colleagues wanting to bring you down a peg or two.

Some pranks can go to far, I agree. Certainly if you're damaging possessions or causing distress, but these are typically the minority I find. The vast majority are just harmless fun with no mental or physical abuse involved.

What did Unix fans learn from the end of Unix workstations?

Re: Indy over O2

I did used to have a couple of Indys, but sold them ages ago as they weren't being used, plus mine were fairly modest spec and hence quite slow. The O2 was essentially the successor to the Indy. Not the snappiest system, but they do have the fun of having a unified memory architecture (no separate system and graphics RAM), which means it's possible to use video files as textures in models just by passing the relevant pointer. Quite radical for the mid 90s!

I will agree however that the plastic cases of them are unbelievably fragile and brittle.

It's possible to emulate IRIX on MAME, but don't expect snappy performance. It's pretty painful in fact, but is certainly an impressive acheivement. Would be great to see more of these emulated in due course. It's always difficult though when both the underlying hardware and software are so proprietary.

Re: Dissenting opinion: Nostalgia is a drug, kids...

"SGI did awesome graphics, but my middle-level nvidia card blows it away."

Well, obviously. The 3D performance of my current mobile phone blows SGI graphics capabilities away, but you can't really compare modern graphics to those from 25 years ago. For their time, they were fantastic. By today's standards, they're positively prehistoric. But then, people don't use old Unix systems in order to be impressed by their performance compared with modern kit.

Same here. Have an old O2 I acquired for free from a local university when they were being retired, subsequently picked up an Indigo2 and a Fuel. Beautiful looking machines for their time and I thoroughly enjoy firing up IRIX from time to time for a bit of nostalgic fun, but finding spare parts for them is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive sadly.

Programming error created billion-dollar mistake that made the coder ... a hero?

Re: Worst code I ever saw...

That was the problem I had when learning to code. My dad (a university lecturer) taught me first in Pascal, then in C and always expressed the need for comments. As the code I was working on originally was so simple and self-explanatory, plus each exercise was pretty-much standalone, it seemed pointless to me adding comments that explained code which was simple and obvious, and which I had never needed to refer back to so far.

Of course over time, the code steadily becomes more complex as I learnt new commands/functions and more advanced algorithms and techniques. Then we get onto the topic of reusing code when tackling a challenge that is similar to some code I'd written a month or two earlier. Being faced with a fairly complex algorithm and zero comments suddenly made me understand why comments are so useful.

These days I probably end up over-using them if I'm honest, but it doesn't half help when I rip-off some of my old code from previous years.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Re: Not only two signs...

And this is why comms cabinets should (wherever possible) be located in a secure, locked room to which only limited authorised personnel have the key.

Where that isn't possible, (ie, small comms cabinets), the power socket should be located as high up as possible to discourage anyone from reaching for it to plug something else in.

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

Re: And so, Twitter died

It's probably so that he can find someone else to blame when it all implodes. "I believe in free speech, yet Apple/Google banned the app because of this", "The EU is against free speech and their (inevitable) legal action killed Twitter", etc. etc.

He's already stated doing that by blaming all the "activists" that are (according to him) responsible for the drop in advertising revenue. Of course the fact that he publicly advocated unbanning controversial accounts and laying off most of the content moderators had nothing to do with it...

Guess the most common password. Hint: We just told you

Re: Stupid admins and their stupid ersatz "security"

Or for throwaway accounts that require this, you just start every password with the same symbol and number, then capitalise the first letter. Doesn't take any extra effort to learn and passes the "is it secure" test for an account I really never wanted to create in the first place.

Of course for everything else, I use a password generator these days. As a result, I couldn't tell you what 99% of my passwords are.

Twitter set for more layoffs as Musk mulls next move

Reorganisation

"On Wednesday, Musk told a Delaware court his reorganization of Twitter was almost complete"

You mean he's close to the point where there'll be no staff left apart from himself?

India follows EU's example in requiring USB-C charging for smart devices

The rules can be amended you know if our needs out-grow USB-C such that a successor is needed...

Multi-tasker Musk expects to reduce time at Twitter, seek another leader

Either Musk is redefining the meaning of incompetence, or what he's doing is deliberate.

A small part of me considers a grumpy child being forced to play with a toy that he no longer wants, so the child throws it onto the floor in a tantrum and jumps on it so *nobody* can have it. Maybe this is Musk's plan? Maybe inside he's thinking "The next time I try and back out of a purchase, maybe they'll think twice before forcing the deal through".

Or maybe he's just incompetent. Place your bets!

Musk tells of risk of Twitter bankruptcy as tweeters trash brands

I thought there'd be fireworks, but I didn't expect anything this clueless. The guy has absolutely no idea how to motivate a workforce. Any company that told me to expect working 5-days a week in an office (because he doesn't trust anyone) for 80 hrs a week would be one I'd hand my resignation into quicker than you can say "Salad Fingers" (kudos on the username by the way).

Anyway, excuse me - need to buy more popcorn...

Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

Re: reputation?

The company in my case above was QuietPC.com. Sorted out the shipping issue brilliantly and I continue to shop with them as a result.

Re: You get what you order

Yep, the shunt my wife had also made me invest in one. I hope I never have to use the footage from it, but it is reassuring to know that I have a timestamped recording I can produce in the event of any future issue.

Re: reputation?

This.

I've had mistakes from companies before. Where they have gone above and beyond to fix whilst apologising for the mistake, they retain my business. Had this a bit back with a company who shipped me an incorrect part. After phoning them they were super-apologetic, sent out the correct part via next-day priority delivery and arranged a courier to collect the wrong part *after* I'd received the correct one. None of this "Post it back to us at your expense, then after we've received it we'll think about sending you the right part", just great service to fix the issue ASAP, and I still use that company to this day as a result.

Re: You get what you order

Similar situation with a shunt my wife had some time back. Another car reversed into her, but they claimed my wife had driven into them. No witnesses, but suddenly we get a letter through the door from my wife's insurance company saying that my wife was going to be deemed responsible for the crash due to a witness produced by the other party.

It took less than 2 minutes with Google search for me to find out that this so-called witness was the sister of the other party (and hence inadmissible). Of course we couldn't prove that she was never there in the first place, but at least we managed to get the claim back to 50/50 responsibility, but I was furious that my wife's insurance company had just blindly accepted word of this witness and hadn't done any checking what-so-ever. They hadn't even contacted us to verify anything, just said "oh, a witness - you must be responsible then".

Funnily enough, we moved insurance companies as well.

BOFH: Don't be nervous, Mr Consultant. Come right this way …

Re: should we call time on the BoFH?

No, no it isn't.

Heavy, man: Tuxedo puts out 2.2kg Stellaris AMD Gen 4

Screen?

Looks interesting, but chunky. It's a pity they've gone with a 16:9 screen however. I spy a decidedly chunky bezel at the bottom of the screen and it's a pity they couldn't have gone for a 2560x1600 screen to turn some of that plastic into extra screen space.