During my last trip, my earbuds were losing the battle with the cabin noise. I found that noise-cancelling headphones are very expensive so I bought some hearing protectors to wear over my earbuds.
Posts by Mike Lewis
199 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2009
Can noise-cancelling buds beat headphones? We spent 20 hours flying to find out
Intel mulls cutting ties to 16 and 32-bit support
Why a top US cyber spy urges: Get religious about backups
WAN router IP address change blamed for global Microsoft 365 outage
Re: SPOF anyone?
And Australia's entire EFTPOS network by correcting a spelling error.
Someone fixed the code they were assigned, noticed a message in adjacent code was incorrectly spelled, corrected it and down went the network. The length of that message had been hard coded in the program and correcting it changed its length.
What goes up must come down: Logitech sales tumble amid PC slump
Don't lock the datacenter door, said the boss. The builders need access and what could possibly go wrong?
Windows 11 still not winning the OS popularity contest
Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech
WASP malware stings Python developers
Microsoft feels the need, the need for speed in Teams
Why I love my Chromebook: Reason 1, it's a Linux desktop
Microsoft Outlook sends users back to 1930 with (very) mini-Millennium-Bug glitch
Goodbye, humans: Call centers 'could save $80b' switching to AI
You can never have too many backups. Also, you can never have too many backups
Philippines orders fraud probe after paying MacBook prices for slow Celeron laptops
Re: Government procurement
> mindless automatons following a script without any regard for the actual outcome
That happens in private industry too. A company making an automated analyser decided the project would be done with C++. Unfortunately, the programmers they hired knew only Visual C++, not embedded programming or anything about hardware. The project was finally completed years late after spending a lot of money on replacing burned out stepper motors.
America's chip land has another potential shortage: Electronics engineers
Amazon shows off robot warehouse workers that won't complain, quit, unionize...
Internet Explorer 11 limps to the end of Windows 10 road
Hawaiian Airlines to offer free Wi-Fi via SpaceX's Starlink
The right to repairable broadband befits a supposedly critical utility
Backup Internet Connections
I had a team of three technicians trying to fix my broadband and failing. The fault was found days later by a fourth who discovered after quite some time that another company's technician had disconnected me at the junction box while repairing my neighbour's connection.
I rely on the Internet for medical reasons so I have my usual connection plus a 3G modem and the hotspot on my phone. All three use different ISPs in case the fault is with the ISP's network. If the power goes off, my laptop batteries will last a total of 21 hours and I can charge them in my car with a 12 VDC to 240 VAC inverter.
Microsoft Teams unable to send and receive calls for some after update
Wolfing down ebooks during lockdown? You might want to check out Calibre, the Swiss Army ebook tool
Microsoft tweaks Teams and Viva to help bridge gap between frontline workers and their managers, among other things
Survey shows XP lingers on while Windows 11 makes a 0.21% ripple in the enterprise
Which OS
When my Windows drive died four days ago, I had to decide which operating system to install out of Windows 7, Windows 10 and Linux. Windows 10 has a bad reputation with Microsoft's "Ready or not, here I come" installation of buggy updates, changing user preferences and hiding settings, all of which make Windows 7 appear more reliable to me. Linux was not a practical option as I have so much Windows software so I reinstalled Windows 7.
There's something to be said for delayed gratification when Windows 11 is this full of bugs
Black screen of death
> Windows 11 introduced a novelty in the Windows world: a black screen of death.
That was actually introduced by Windows 7.
I fixed the neighbours' computer - again - and told them not to move it. Of course they moved it and got a black screen. I found out that Windows, running on that particular hardware, was sensitive about which USB port you used for the mouse.
140,000-plus drivers sent $60m in compensation checks after Amazon 'stole their tips'
If your apps or gadgets break down on Sunday, this may be why: Gpsd bug to roll back clocks to 2002
If it's going to rain within the next 90 mins, this very British AI system can warn you
BOFH: Pass the sugar, Asmodeus, and let the meeting of the Fellowship of Bastards … commence
Microsoft approved a Windows driver booby-trapped with rootkit malware
In a complete non-surprise, Mozilla hammers final nail in FTP's coffin by removing it from Firefox
Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far
CPU Requirements
I'm confused about the CPU requirements as it ran fine in a VirtualBox VM using one core of a 2nd generation Pentium.
The UI is something I can get used to without grumbling too much. My main concerns are (1) will I have another battle to prevent its trying to install itself on my mum's antique laptop and (2) will Microsoft drop its "ready or not, here I come" approach to installing buggy updates.
‘Fasten your seat belts, raise your tray table, and disconnect your Bluetooth headsets from the entertainment unit’
Developing for Windows 11: Like developing for Windows 10, but with rounded corners?
What you need to know about Microsoft Windows 11: It will run Android apps
Mensa data spillage was due to 'unauthorised internal download'
Re: Wow
I got into Mensa years ago with a surprising amount of room to spare and I didn't last long. I was disappointed to find that they were no more intelligent and a little more crazy than my fellow team members writing safety-critical software.
Their attitude towards intelligence was odd, like that of a teenage boy who thinks he knows how to drive fast just because he has a car with a big engine. Skill and effort are required, not just raw mental horsepower.
Norton dodges UK courts after telling Brit watchdog it will be nicer to consumers
Re: Hot Deals With Your New Laptop.
When I was doing volunteer work at the local community computer centre, there was a steady stream of people who had saved up what little money they had to buy an HP laptop then were quite upset that it was running so slowly. I replaced the pre-installed Norton Antivirus with the free version of Avira and they went away quite happy.
UK.gov's new single enforcement body does not cover rogue umbrella companies, contractor campaigners complain
Indian Finance Minister throws Infosys under the bus as new e-tax portal fails on first day
Today I shall explain how dual monitors work using the medium of interpretive dance
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
You would be surprised by what you can expect from the company accountant.
At one place I worked, the CTO didnt know much about technology. When a network or computer started acting up, he would sit down in front of it, tap a few keys to confirm it wasn't working then hand the whole thing over to our accountant who was quite good at fixing it.
This was a company making medical equipment, by the way.
Desktop renaissance? Nope, rebound of hefty PCs is just because there's notebook shortage – analysts
UK Computer Misuse Act convictions declined last year despite pandemic explosion in online criminal activity
IBM, Red Hat face copyright, antitrust lawsuit from SCO Group successor Xinuos
The wrong guy: Backup outfit Spanning deleted my personal data, claims Cohesity field CTO
Re: If you cannot touch it do not complain when it evaporates
I've always followed the policy that backups are not done unless I do them myself. I once returned from a hoilday to find that the sysadmin had reformatted my hard drive and deleted the backups because he thought I had left the company. Fortunately, I had my own backups on computers in other cities that he didn't know about.
Does Samsung want you to buy new phones? Asking 'cos Galaxies now get four years of security updates
Re: Pointless
A replaceable battery used to be important to me until I bought two for my five-year-old phone. The first was clearly a fake and died after only three charges. The second was much better but the battery connectors hadn't been tinned properly.
I have found that keeping the batteries charged to around 40%, as recommended by the lithium-ion battery manufacturers for long-term storage, works well for prolonging battery life with five years for my mobile phone, seven for my tablet and twelve for my laptop batteries.
Healthy 32-year-old offered COVID-19 vaccine because doctors had him down as 6.2cm tall with BMI of 28,000
New Jersey blames Microsoft for weeks of outages, glitches plaguing coronavirus vaccine sign-up website
Writing the ATC software was interesting.
I was told when I got the job that I would be allowed one bug in my code. A second one meant termination.
My code was gone through with a fine-tooth comb by the two most senior engineers before I was even allowed to run it on the test bench.
There was a lot of redundant hardware. Each communcations card had a full set of backup channels. There were backup cards in each rack, backup racks and two generators.
Although we were some months behind schedule, there was no pressure at all to cut corners.