* Posts by Baldrickk

1059 publicly visible posts • joined 26 May 2016

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Windows 10: Happy with Anniversary Update?

Baldrickk

Re: Restart

The machine has some other quirks too, like jumping out of fullscreen applications (somehow) every now and then. A little annoying when gaming, and not OS dependant.

It's not actually my machine, it's a loaner because my actual machine is dead :( and the real owner wanted the Windows 10 license, so Windows 10 it is.

All my other machines handle waking fine.

Baldrickk

Restart

My wifi-card has an issue, it doesn't always startup properly when waking up from sleep mode, and turning it off and on again within windows isn't enough either. A full power cycle does the job though.

So I get back from work, wake it up, can't connect to the network.

"OK then, I'll just restart".

Hits restart.

Almost 2 hours later, I'm typing this on my phone, with the laptop still spinning with the words "Getting Windows ready Don't turn off your computer" on the screen.

Gee thanks MS. Maybe I really needed access to something on there?

Maybe I was at work? In which case, I would be wasting money getting no work done.

I didn't ask you to update, no notifications that the update was going to be installed, would have been fine installing overnight.

What I needed was just a simple power cycle, and MS has just screwed that up.

Good job.

An anniversary to remember: The world's only air-to-air nuke was fired on 19 July, 1957

Baldrickk

Almost all nuclear devices detonate based on altitude and not on imact - the shockwave and heat produced is what really does the damage.

They are still targeted against a ground target though.

Also, if it is launched from land/sea it also can't be air to air - that is for aircraft targeting aircraft

Apple's 'lappable' iPad Pro concept is far from laughable

Baldrickk

What would you rather have on your lap: The Surface Pro's thin stand or the iPad's Smart Keyboard?

Neither.

I'd prefer something with a little more physical stability, a whole lot more grunt, proper multitasking ablitlity and decent storage built in.

If it gets hot enough to burn my lap, a thin tray to act as an insulator works fine too, so be it.

So. Why don't people talk to invisible robots in public?

Baldrickk

Use in car? yes!

"I'd like to erm, do the arhm... ahh forget it" - types

typing is much easier for putting thoughts down "on paper", you can type just what you want to type, and backspace to remove mistakes. Bit hard to do that with voice.

I do use mine in the car a lot though, very useful for triggering the satnav, or starting a voice call when driving, you can keep your attention on the road (as much as possible, far more than if you were trying to load the maps app, type in a destination and set off the navigation).

"Ok Google, navigate to 123 example street" - damn useful.

And that's why it is used more in cars, even before you factor in speaking to it in public being embarassing, it's a hands-free method of operating the device, in a situation where you are explicitly doing something that requires use of your hands.

If you are just sitting there browsing, then your hands are perfectly free to interact.

I'd actually be happy talking to my phone in public, the voice recognition is actually really good, and mostly understands me properly - more than some people, as I sometimes slur words through talking too quickly and google still tends to know what I am saying.

The thing is that I find fingers on a keyboard to be a better utility for text entry, no matter how good the voice recognition is.

Brits don't want their homes to be 'tech-tastic'

Baldrickk

Re: And

RE: Programmable Thermostats

I have one too. It comes on just long enough before I get out of bed to warm the house up enough if not already there, and turns off before I have to leave for work.

It stays off all day until just before I get home, which due to regular hours is generally about the same time, and then once it has done its job for a few hours, turns off again, so the house can gently cool.

If I need it on longer, I just have to tap it when I walk past to get a drink, snack etc from the kitchen.

I have a very new, very well insulated house that doesn't leak much heat, that usually doesn't even trigger the heating for most of the year, body heat and other minor assorted heat sources being enough to keep the temperature up.

Where will a smart meter help me here?

>It would be nice when I turn off a device it is off, not on some sort of standby eating juice...

If saving juice is you concern, then having a degree of automation on lights, windows, window blinds and thermostats can actually save energy.

Take blinds - a PV powered motor could close the blinds whenever the temperature in the room rises above X, thus reducing the amount of sunlight that enters. It would be self contained, and it wouldn't communicate with anything other than a manual overide switch (aka an 'Off' switch).

Sounds like a plan, you could probably build that for peanuts with an arduino, or a breadboard and some cheap logic in a box.

Samsung: Don't install Windows 10. REALLY

Baldrickk

R560

I have the same laptop - Almost.

I obviously plumped the extra few quid for the one with the high end intel wifi card instead of the one mentioned in the story.

And it's been the best damn laptop I've ever known. In the time I've had it, one of my friends has been through two Dells, two Acers, a Sony Vaio, a MSI and is currently using an Asus.

WIth the exception of the MSI and his Asus, the rest all died of various hardware faults.

My little Samsung is still going strong, a bit weak on the gaming front these days, but that's it.

Microsoft won't back down from Windows 10 nagware 'trick'

Baldrickk

Re: the craziest thing about it is

Same here, if they had delivered an OS that was basically Windows 7 with the back-end changes and upgrades, I'd have bitten the bullet already.

As it is, now that my PC has died and I won't be able to install to a spare disk in case I need/want it - when I build my new PC, it'll have only *nix on it.

Baldrickk

Re: I did upgrade recently

I had this on my Father's tablet.

There are purportedly 4 fixes for this. Th 4th being a re-install.

The first two didn't work for me

The third was to create a new user (local only user is fine) then reboot. Then remove the new user.

- This worked.

- It did happen again though, about a month later. *touch-wood* it hasn't / won't happen again.

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