Posts by Jakester

Middleweight champ MX Linux 23 delivers knockout punch

Much Better Than MXLinux 21

I started looking for alternative Linux distributions when Ubuntu went all-in on their crappy Snap applications. Nice concept on paper, but not in the computer. I had a production computer that I left Snaps in, although I don't use any Snap applications, and after under two years there were 31 loop mount points for Snap applications.

I was using both Debian 11 and MXLinux 21 because neither could do all the things I wanted that I did in Ubuntu. So far, I haven't found anything I do that I can't do with MXLinux 23. They fixed a minor issue with user and group numbering in MXLinux 21, The MX Tools is a handy set of tools that makes administering a system easy. The MX User Manual (almost 200 pages) on the desktop goes into much detail on the structure, use, and configuration of MXLinux (applicable to other distributions to a large degree).

The only trouble I encountered was setting up Samba shares. As in MXLinux 21, I added two lines in the Global section to force the user to the main user/administrator of the system, ie:

force user = myadmin

force group = myadmin

and then making sure the shared folder has ownership of 'myadmin:myadmin' (this version of Linux uses that syntax instead of the more familiar (to me) of 'myadmin.myadmin'.

The share still didn't work, although a Windows computer could tell the share was present. I had the go into the firewall with 'gufw' and set a predifined rule, SAMBA, to open the Samba ports to ipv4 and ipv6 traffic.

I spent less time installing MXLinux 23 and trouble-shooting why the shares didn't work than I ever spent on installing and setting up a Windows server.

Linux Mint cuts slice of 'Victoria' as 21.2 beta lands with dash of fresh Cinnamon

Re: Thank you!

>It is worth adapting to change when something better is offered, you know.

Just because there is a change to something, doesn't automatically make it better for me and others.

Minnesota governor OKs broad right-to-repair tech law

It is unfortunate that agricultural equipment is exempt from the bill. When a tractor, planter, combine, etc breaks-down, time is critical. A farmer can't just wait a week or two to get an authorized dealer's repair technician to start fixing. If the planting time window is lost, there is no crop. Sometimes, an alternate crop with a shorter time to maturity might be able to be planted. I'm so glad I am not a farmer having to deal with that with my tools of the trade.

All Microsoft Surface Pro X cameras just stopped working

Re: Certificate!

I guess while they are at it, they should put security certificates on it for the keyboard, touchpad, USB ports, power switch, and power adapter.

Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster scuttles into public view

Snap Is Crap

I tried a couple Snap applications with Ubuntu 20.04. Not a pleasant experience as the text editor would only allow a save into my home directory tree and not anywhere else, including my home server. I removed all Snaps and snapd from my Ubuntu desktop installs, but left them in on my server, just in case removing the Snaps broke things. Well, a couple years later and a total of 32 mount points all related to Snaps were present as well as the current and previous versions of the default Snaps that Ubuntu installed, which I don't use. I am still testing MXLinux 21 and Debian 11. I am now using those on my desktop and laptops and will be switching to one of those within the next year on my home server. My server needs are very modest and I can use the default samba server in MXLinux and slightly modifying the smb.conf file to not have to change anything on my Windows and Linux desktops and laptops. Ubuntu was great until about 2016 when it became less user friendly, less compatible with hardware (specifically video cards in 2016), started forcing Snaps on the users. Sure, Snaps makes it easier for Canonical, but it is a pain in the ass to us end users trying to actually use the crappy Snaps.

By order of Canonical: Official Ubuntu flavors must stop including Flatpak by default

Good Riddance

Snaps in Ubuntu were annoying (as in totally useless) and quickly created a huge mess of loop mounts. I had a total of 31 loop mounts on a system that I don't use any Snaps, but let them continue to invade because I didn't want to risk breaking the Ubuntu 20.04 installation by removing the Snap crap. I did a test install of Ubuntu 22.04 some time back and found that more and more Snap crap apps were being installed. I switched to Debian for most of my Linux needs and also use MX Linux. I realize Canonical wants to monetize their product, but they really need to concentrate on something that is productive. I have found nothing beneficial to the end user by using Snap apps, but unrealistically restrictive, making management of the system more challenging and trying to Snap schite to work like the original releases. I just don't have the time or desire to try to find solutions make their Snaps work. Canonical, you have successfully made it to the same la-la land as Microsoft software engineers and programmers to make you OS slow, inconvenient, buggy and call them features.

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

Re: Windows 10 is not a problem

Yes, Win 10 will run on a 32G partition, but version upgrades are a problem because the last one I did required 10G free for the temporary files and that 10G requires the C: drive. Now a typical 32GB partition of the NvMe drive is about 28GB. Your 20GB install doesn't allow for version upgrades. On some of the 'laptops' with a 32GB drive, I have had to just do a fresh install and reinstall applications. Your mileage may vary.

Ubuntu 22.10 is out, with an extra remix in the family: Unity

Thanks for letting the world know that Unity is the new Ubuntu standard. When Unity was the default a few years ago, I had to switch to the LXDE desktop because Unity would not work with any of my video cards -- it would take about 10 seconds from pressing a key before the character would appear on the screen. I had then geared all my scripts for configurations and administrative functions for the LXDE desktop and was able to use up to Ubuntu 20.04. I tested Ubuntu 22.04 when it was released, but never implemented it because there were too many things I do that I couldn't do any more and the excessive boot times and program load times due to the unsnappy Snap programs. I switched to Debian with LXDE, which I should have done years ago. I spent less time getting Debian 11 installed and configured than I spent trying to get Ubuntu 22.04 to mount a CIFS share on my home server. I was never able to get the share to auto-mount on boot-up nor get it to mount with 'sudo mount -a'. So, no more Ubuntu for me. They need to focus on getting the core product to work and abandon those crappy Snaps. I like the Snap idea, but the implementation sucks and the rest of Ubuntu has suffered in the process.

The only Windows 10 updates for the year are coming. Spoiler alert: It's just security

Re: It's just security

Except for e-mail with Godaddy emails now switched to Microsoft's Office365 mail servers. This last patch Tuesday broke e-mails for my company unless you use a newer copy of Outlook. I prefer Thunderbird e-mail client, but it won't talk to the new Office365 servers after patch Tuesday.

Microsoft leaves the Office, rebrands everything as 365

Re: Survey missing option

In the early days of Windows 3.x, there were many Windows applications that were absolutely rock-solid and were $20 or less. Part of their robustness was they had all their configurations local to their own directory and didn't rely on the registry. The manufacturers had to make sure their software was solid to keep their prices low.

Removing an obsolete AMD fix makes Linux kernel 6 quicker

Re: Why mince words??

Every time I look at the lineup of laptops in the store, I see a mix of Intel and AMD units. How can you say they are rare?

California to phase out gas furnaces, water heaters by 2030

Re: Are they mandating the replacement tech?

Sorry, Nevada has many major fault lines as well.

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

Re: trademarks

It would be nice for Intel to have produced a few million Intel Processors with Intel Processor processor packaging, lose a court challenge and have to pull-back and destroy or relabel the Processor processors. I guess they could call it the iProcessor and take a chance with a trademark battle with Apple.

Appeals court already under fire for upholding Texas no-content-moderation law

Re: Here we go...

What about the year-round residents of Arizona and Texas who continue to have to help the many thousands of illegal immigrants into their communities? Many there are also blue-collar workers?

Martha's Vineyard declared themselves a sanctuary city, so if all those rich people have buggered off for the off season, then their homes and properties must certainly be vacant. What better sanctuary could they give to the immigrants they claim to welcome by giving them sanctuary in their vacant properties?

Voyager 1 data corrupted by onboard computer that 'stopped working years ago'

Not quite 70's tech, but I fire up a Radio Shack Model 100 laptop every once in awhile, just for grins. I bought it 20 years ago, just because it was very cheap and an interesting piece of computer history. I did have to clean the battery contacts when I got it.

'I wonder what this cable does': How to tell thicknet from a thickhead

About 30 years ago I expanded a thin=net network installation to a total of about 10 computers. A few months later, I got a call that their network was suddenly very unreliable. When I got to the location, things were not as they were when I completed the original expansion. When they moved their home-made cubicles, they pulled the thin-net cable through the small openings in the cubicles. Some of the cables caught on the wood or other obstructions and strippe feet of insulation from the cable and damaging much of the braided shielding as well. I was surprised the network worked at all. I replaced the bad sections of cable and all was well again.

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

Unfortunately, held hostage by others

Linux (my current favorite is Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop) is far easier to configure and maintain than Windows. Microsoft seems to constantly change default programs the user has setup and sometimes changes printer defaults.

Unfortunately, a number of agencies the companies I do some work for have to provide some information to state agencies and the payroll company using only data extracted from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Unfortunately, Libre Office can't be used. That has been a thorn in my side for years. I don't like being forced to use one product because another agency uses that product.

Too little, too late: Intel's legacy is eroding

Good Riddance Optane

I was happy when Intel announced that they were dropping Optane for home users. I never saw any benefit from it and computer manufactures would have been smarter to increase RAM instead of putting int Optane. Optane was a real pain in the ass to try to do a backup or restore using a third party backup program booted from USB or CD because you had to put in the Optane driver to access the drive. Eventually I did discover that Optane could be disabled, first in Windows and then in BIOS and if done in that order, you didn't have to reinstall Windows. I always had a deep distrust of Optane because, without the Optane driver, you could not access data on the hard drive. Questions I never knew the answer to were things like if the Optane module failed, could you retrieve data from the drive using another computer? Could the Optane module be replaced and would you then be able to boot the system or do you have to reinstall Windows? Is there more than a 1 second difference in bootup time? I never really could see a difference in the laptops I worked on where I disabled Optane.

Perhaps Optane made sense in a server environment, but I have no experience with such a configuration.

Personally,Optane seems somewhat reminiscent of the RAMBUS DRAM technology. Yes, RAMBUS DRAM computers were faster than others of the time, but the monetary cost was high. As I recall, that technology also lost out to other technologies after only a couple years.

Dev's code manages to topple Microsoft's mighty SharePoint

Re: Buffer overflow DoS attack.

Well, SOMEBODY thought 640K was enough for anybody or they would not have put the BIOS in the upper memory space.Apparently Bill Gates and others weren't smart enough to tell the engineers and programmers that 640K was not enough.

Record players make comeback with Ikea, others pitching tricked-out turntables

Re: Digital transmission?

For my ears, the battle between vinyl and digital is irrelevant. I shop for used LPs that I like at local thrift stores and use my computer and an USB turntable to convert to mp3 files I can play in my car. Many of the albums I get are in very good or excellent shape and only need a good cleaning to get files with few clicks, pops or significant scratchiness. Sometimes for a serious pop or click, I can edit out a really offending ones. I have had passengers comment on how noise-free my recordings are (granted, car noise hides some of the defects).

Of course, the big advantage of digital is you can listen almost anywhere, anytime. To me, that trumps any difference in quality between digital and vinyl.

Internet connection now required for Windows 11 Pro Insider setup

Re: re: Windows is no longer fit for purpose

... and sometimes the Edge and One-Drive installation/updates that occur on every startup can run for hours taking 95-100% of the cpu resources the entire time. This is even if you don't use Edge or One-Drive. Sometimes rebooting the system will temporarily 'fix' the problem.

Linux Snap package tool fixes make-me-root bugs

I got rid of Snap in Ubuntu after a fresh install of Ubuntu Desktop resulted in boot times in excess of 3 minutes. I got rid of the Snap crap and boot times went down to 34 seconds (times are from power-on to completion of login). I probably could have lived with the 3 minute boot-up process if the crappy Snaps would actually let me save documents to locations other than my home directory and I didn't have to deal with the 19 or more loop mounts. Did I mention Snaps are crap for me as an end-user.

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

Also, what is very un-nice is to have extensions hidden, then have files such as BlahBlah.txt, BlahBlah.pdf, BlahBlah.exe, BlahBlah.htm, BlahBlah.ini, BlahBlah.zip, BlahBlah.gz, then all you can see in your directory is BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah.

Update 'designed to improve user experience' takes down the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal

Re: 3 9s....

I was fed up with Microsoft Office bugs for decades as a PC support tech. At home, I used Star Office, when it was a commercial product and after it was acquired by Sun Microsystems. I quit upgrading when Oracle acquired it When Libre Office forked from the Star Office/Open Office development, I have been using that for all my spreadsheet and document writing. So far, I have had at least 99.99999% availability. Plus, I don't have to mess with any billing, registration, activation issues.

Running Windows 10? Microsoft is preparing to fire up the update engines

Re: But why would you want to keep running those old versions???

I have a 24-6rack digital recorder that requires a Win XP computer to control it. That-s another reason for running an old version.

Re: Old hardware though...?

Not 4-5 years down the road - it is 3 years down the road. That goes fast (only takes 3 years).

The inevitability of the Windows 11 UI: New Notepad enters the beta channel

Test EOL Characters

Years ago when I was doing simple programs with Microsoft's macro assembler with DOS 3 through DOS 5, I would have about 1 in 10 lines just ignored. Looking at the text file in Debug, I found that those lines ended with the hex character 0D instead of hex 0D 0A. Since Microsoft is designing Notepad from the ground up, who knows what crap is going to end up hidden in the file? Run tests before using it for important projects when it is released.

Currently not a problem for me, I quit any assembler programming after Win 95 was released - there were just too many APIs to try to keep track of.

How's 2022 going for you so far? Hopefully better than it is for IBM Cloud

Reminds me of a PC/Network support person a couple decades ago needed to acquire new computers to add to a network at a local hospital. He related that the IBM rep pitching his product proudly said something to the effect, "We know that standards are very important to you, which is why we keep updating them." Perhaps they changed the standards for their cloud.

Flash? Nu-uh. Windows 11 users complain of slow NVMe SSD performance

I manage:

Linux file servers: 3

Linux virtual machine hosts: 3

Linux based network file backup stations/backup vm stations: 3

Windows based servers: 0

Windows based virtual machine hosts: 0

Windows based backup stations/backup vm stations: 0

Personal equipment:

Linux file server/media center/backup: 1

Linux virtual machine hosts for network, server testing: 1

Linux based diagnostic/backup station: 1

Linux/Windows dual boot laptops: 3 (one kept in car for emergency spare)

Linux/Windows dual boot for getting work done: 2 (I can use Windows and Linux at the same time, whichever is best for the task at hand)

Windows only PC: 1 (for wife's use)

Windows only laptop: 1

Windows based servers: 0

My computers are relatively old: typically 5-9 years old. One laptop is just over 1 year old, but the processor does not support Windows 11.

I did perform a test install of Windows 11 on a computer at work. There are enough issues with the continued inconsistent look and feel of Windows that has continued on into 11 that I will only start upgrading those work computers when it becomes necessary. Some people like the glitz of meaningless and time-consuming changes, I like the glitter of consistency.

I never look to Microsoft and say, "That is the solution". I look to Microsoft and say, "That is the problem".

A Windows 11 tsunami? No, more of a ripple as Microsoft's latest OS hits 5% PC market

Re: It's not a ripple

I manage about 50 PCs. Three of the PCs might support Win 11, so I will start replacing computers mid 2022. I halted all new computer purchases when I discovered the then impending release of Win 11 and its implications. I wanted to replace some of these computers over the last several months, but I am unwilling to take a chance on getting a new computer then discover Win 11 won't run on it. I am waiting for mid-2022 to start replacing production computer so I can discover if all our applications work with Win 11. We had an accounting program that required a time-consuming work-around to get it to work with a new computer that didn't work correctly with Windows 10 until mid-2021, even though the manufacturer insisted it was fully Windows 11 compatible - network searches and my experiences proved their assertion incorrect. All the computers that don't meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 do need to be replaced. The release of Windows 11 didn't speed-up my replacement schedule, it brought it to a standstill until I can verify our users will actually be able to run their programs.

Microsoft turns Windows Subsystem for Linux into an app for Windows

Re: Found a shortcut

I have a couple Windows VMs tunning on a Linux host. One is an accounting program which is the 'server' in a peer-peer configuration with 4 users. It automatically gets snapshots taken of the system nightly and backed-up. In case of a host computer failure, I can move the backed VM to another host and be running again in less than an hour. To start from scratch with a fresh install of Windows on a physical computer, install the application, perform the updates and restore the data will pretty much take a day to complete. With a VM, a failed set of Microsoft patches are easily reversed by going back one or two snapshots. I personally can see no benefit to the Windows Subsystem for Linux. If I want to do something in Linux, I will use a Linux computer rather than the less reliable Windows platform with whatever bastardized concept of a Linux subsystem they have come up with. Is the Linux Subsystem going to be another one of the Microsoft projects they support for a couple years then toss the skeleton of another abandoned idea out the back door?

Windows 11 in detail: Incremental upgrade spoilt by onerous system requirements and usability mis-steps

Re: Windows versions

I wouldn't label Win 3.0 as excellent. With 3.0, and only Excel and Word installed, I would get at least two unrecoverable application errors a day. Very frustrating piece of garbage. Yes, 3.1 was much better.

It's time to delete that hunter2 password from your Microsoft account, says IT giant

Re: No MS account

You can setup manually, but you have modify the registry. This started with Office 2016, probably a programming bug, but even if you click the manual setup box, it would still do a simplified setup that almost always is wrong. Her is the link - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-disable-simplified-account-creation-in-outlook-2016-outlook-2019-and-outlook-for-office-365-662bf4f8-c357-dbc8-53b3-ff8f445e8247

Microsoft does and doesn't want you to know it won't stop you manually installing Windows 11 on older PCs

Re: Crashes?

Never had a crash on any of my analog computing devices (slide rules) I owned over the years, although I did break a cursor once. Never required rebooting and never had a battery failure. Also my printer, a #2 graphite device had unlimited fonts and never needed toner, but did require periodic reshaping of the toner point. When the toner was gone, you just replaced the entire printer. There were several brands of #2 printers, most were yellow, but others were produced in various colors. They were completely interchangeable and would print any known and unknown language. None required a Microsoft account to work. An added bonus - you could erase and change individual characters on the printed output with aid of a rubbery accessory at the end opposite of where the toner was deposited on the paper. These printers also didn't need batteries nor did they require a wall connection and were completely portable. I usually carried a spare. They used to cost about 5 to 10 cents apiece, but inflation over the decades has brought the price up to about 5 times that price. Even more amazing is some print in different colors, others have been designed for applying some types of makeup and others made for carpentry and other construction.

Lenovo blames 'firmware' issue for blank-screened Smart Displays, says Google's working on a fix – 6 months after complaints started

Re: Smart Clock?

I had a little portable travel clock that only cost less than $5 about 35 years ago. It was digital and ran on one AAA battery. I tossed it out about 10 years ago after the slide switches started getting to be unreliable. I guess I could have cleaned the contacts with a solvent to try to fix, but I just replaced it with a $1 quartz-analog bedside alarm clock, which is still running fine. I use my phone as a backup alarm. So, my alarm clock expense comes to about $0.0005 per day or about $0.17 per year. Of course, the dial isn't lit, but if it is too dark for me to read the dial, it isn't time for me to care what time it is, anyway.

Not too bright, are you? Your laptop, I mean... Not you

Re: Ah, a first time user

Back in the DOS days when I would use Microsoft's Macro Assembler to make some special drivers and applications, I quickly discovered my programs didn't always work. I carefully looked at my source code and compared it to the compiled code to discover that periodically a command would be missing. I verified my source code was correct, but when examining the text in the debugger, sometimes at the end of a line of code there would be cr-cr-lf instead of the expected cr-lf. I had to abandon Microsoft's text editors and purchase a special version of Wordstar from then Egghead, $29 as I recall., which was originally made for the short-lived IBM PC Jr. A couple changes had to be made to the .com file to correct the difference in screen resolutions, but that information was provided in an magazine article by a person who also wanted a solution to the bad end of line sequence Microsoft so generously produced. That simple solution made creating macro assembly tasks so much easier.

How to keep your enterprise up to date by deploying the very latest malware

WOL was an easy option years ago when there was just one setting in the BIOS to enable WOL. I gave up on it when there were multiple settings that had to be made in the BIOS to enable WOL and the correct sleep states to allow WOL to function, then setting the network adapter in Windows to enable WOL, just to discover the WOL still wouldn't turn-on a computer. Several years later, HP and other PC manufacturers discovered a bug in their BIOS's that required a update so that WOL would work. I haven't even bothered trying WOL after the BIOS updates, I just have users leave their computers on. If I want particular computers to be available for remote maintenance in the evenings, I will just enable the automatic turn-on at a specific time every day.

You'll want to shut down the Windows Print Spooler service (yes, again): Another privilege escalation bug found

Re: Non-fix fix

I use mainly Linux at home because it works so much better than Windows for day-to-day activities. Unfortunately, I do have to use Windows for a few applications. Perhaps those might work under WINE in Linux, but I haven't tried as I prefer to use applications in the environment they were designed for.

The 'Linux is successful only because you don't have to pay to use it.." argument doesn't hold water. My computers came with Windows, so the cost is the same whether I am using Windows or Linux (in my case both since I use dual boot to get into either Linux or Windows).

Not for children: Audacity fans drop the f-bomb after privacy agreement changes

Re: Strike three

Why wouldn't there be confusion with Libre Office, Open Office and Star Office. As I recall, Star Office was purchased by Sun way back when and made it available under the GPL as Open Office. When Oracle bought Sun and had control of Open Office, users got nervous and the Libre Office fork was born. After Oracle decided it couldn't rip-off unsuspecting computer users, it abandoned Open Office and Apache Open Office resulted.

So yes, there may be confusion, because they are indeed related.

We don't know why it's there, we don't know what it does – all we know is that the button makes everything OK again

Re: The knob......

At one assignment in the US Air Force, my office was in a hangar office with a poorly designed environmental control system. In the winter, the heat would never come on, so had to work with gloves, hat, winter coat and boots to stay warm. Temperatures would get down to into the 30's (F) quite often in the offices. However in the summer, the air conditioning would seldom come-on and the system would detect a fault with the system and go into a "failsafe" mode to keep water in the pipes from freezing. One day with temperatures exceeding 100F outside, the system went into a failsafe mode. It got so hot in the offices that many of the thermometers (the old style alcohol filled) blew off their tops. I was in an office there for a little more than a year and they were never able to fix the system.

Re: The light..

Several years ago I purchased a new laptop which had a totally worthless power indicator. As I recall, when the power supply was plugged in and the battery was charging, the power light would glow (white LED). When the battery was fully charged, the LED would turn-off. If the power supply was disconnected or if power to the power supply was turned-off, the LED would stay dark until the battery was almost completely discharged, then the LED would once again light-up (it was a white-only LED). There was no way to tell if the laptop was charging or discharging at that point. After talking to the manufacturer tech support, they assured me that was how it was supposed to work. I took that piece of garbage back for a full refund.

Microsoft to unveil 'what's next for Windows' ... Rounded corners and what else?

Re: Suggestions

I too hate the "install and reboot" that Microsoft insists on doing without my input. A couple days ago I started a hard drive test which takes several hours. A few hours later I checked in on the progress and the computer was waiting for someone to login after an update and reboot. While I should have gone into the settings and told it to wait 7 days for updates to resume, I shouldn't have to do that. I should get a message telling me updates are waiting and give me the option to update now or not update until I say to update. I had two users who were prompted to give a time to reboot so a release upgrade could occur. They gave a 1 a.m. time to reboot. They did this around 9 a.m. As soon as they approved that time, the computers started the upgrade process, since 1 a.m. had already occured. They were unable to use their computers for a couple hours.

Re: How about.....

I remember to good ole days when you could set all networking parameters in one location of the control panel. I think it was called "Networking", or something like that. You could set IP, DNS, gateway, and as I recall the computer name just by going to --> Control Panel --> Networking. Now, you have to find where they hid the "network adapter properties" applet and make those changes, then if you need to change the computer name, find where they hid the "advanced" change computer name. If you want to have the computer start with a "magic bullet" over the internet, find the settings in Windows to start with the magic bullet and hope that your bios supports that function, make sure you setup your private network as private and be prepared to change it back to private when a Windows update changes that setting for you because they know you are a very public person. So, yes, Microsoft -- even if you mistakenly think that the previous group of incompetent software "designers" and "programmers" screwed up by putting things in the wrong spot, remember that where users expect to find icons and settings from previous versions is the right spot. Please keep the same look and feel. As much as I don't like Apple products, they have been spot-on with a consistent look and feel. I guess in some ways, Microsoft does have a consistent look (BSOD) and feel (where the f*xc!k did they put the g*mdmfkngthngnw?) Of course, some of the features and functions you may have used in the past, you don't have to anymore when they very unceremoniously remove it. So, I agree - pick something and just stick with it.

Re: Suggestions

Dear J.D., Microsoft has not improved boot time as you suggest - manufacturers of hard drives, cpu's, memory, support chips, and motherboards have. After your system appears to have completely booted and lets you start to run applications, Windows goes into overdrive sucking up resources to blast you with the next round of updates, virus checking, Windows Store updates (even if you have never done anything in the store), collecting data and performing telemetry to send info back to Microsoft. This ravenous consumption of resources I have seen go on for tens of minutes, consuming 70%-99% of cpu resources. On some systems I have watched the task manager report 0% resources being used because other Windows processes are sapping away so much computing power that the task manager can't get the information or report the use for minutes. Just for grins, I installed Windows XP Pro in a VirtualBox virtual machine hosted in Linux on an i3-3240 processor. Bootup and login total time was 10 seconds total for XP. Windows 10 Pro rel 20H2 bootup and login (automatic login) was 92 seconds. Don't tell me Microsoft has improved boot time unless you mean "improved" means more or increased. Speed of modern hardware is primarily responsible for any perceived improvement.

Congestion or a Christmas cock-up? A Register reader throws himself under the bus

Re: PICNIC?

All this IBM talk reminds me of when I was looking through an IBM repair manual (I forget what the device was), but one of the trouble-shooting steps was to replace the AMD. I had to look that up in the glossary - it was short for an Air Movement Device, which normal people would call a 'fan'.

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

Re: eh

I can't imagine a 5mm thermal pad would be good for anything other than insulation. Is there a decimal point missing in these numbers? Even 1mm sounds insanely thick.

Microsoft hits Alt-F4 on Windows 10X: OS designed for dual-screen PCs axed

Reminiscent of Microsoft Bob...

... a non-solution in search of a problem.

Yep, you're totally unique: That one very special user and their very special problem

Re: When turn off/turn on fails

I find extremely irritating like the black power button on a black background and designed to blend into the rest of the computer as Tom 7 noted. Equally infuriating is the manufacturer who puts the model number and serial number in grey letters on a slightly different shade of grey in 8 point type.

If you can't log into Azure, Teams or Xbox Live right now: Microsoft cloud services in worldwide outage

Re: CURRENT STATUS: Microsoft rerouted traffic to our resilient DNS capabilities

Because that means running TWO 486SX's at the same time.

.... when did we upgrade from the 386's??

Apple iPad torched this guy's home, lawsuit claims

Phone or Battery Problem?

I replaced a phone (not an iPhone) about a year ago when I periodically noticed it getting very warm in my pocket. I could turn it off and back on again and it would be good again for a few days. However, I decided to replace the phone when it went into its high discharge mode (heating up), it would drop the remaining charge by 50% in less than 1/2 hour. I figured it was only a matter of time before it could go into a higher discharge mode and combust. In my case, I don't know if the problem was a battery that suddenly was self-discharging or a defective component in the phone going into a near short-circuit condition. I suspect the problem was the phone and not the battery, but I will never know for sure.