Posts by Thomas F Thurlow

Microsoft touts Windows 11 SE: A locked-down OS to give Chromebooks a run for their money in schools

Microsoft 365 changes the cost of Windows 11 SE for individuals / Connect to Ethernet?

Microsoft 365 is a very nice product, but it is not cheap. One has to pay for a yearly subscription.

Schools will probably be able to get deals on licenses. Businesses can get deals on licenses.

But an individual using a Windows 11 SE computer may have to pay quite a lot for a Microsoft 365 license.

Alternate products to Microsoft 365 that are free are not likely to be offered by Microsoft for Windows 11 SE laptops.

Can one connect an Ethernet cable to a Windows 11 SE laptop? While no Ethernet interface

is mentioned, some USB connectors ( USB-C ?) may connect to Ethernet through a converter cable.

At home it can be nice to connect to the internet with an Ethernet connector rather than Wi-Fi. Chromebooks don't

have an Ethernet connector, but Chrome boxes do.

Tom

Tomorrow's wireless world will be fatter, faster, and creepier

Re: Are THZ frequencies for use by Wi-fi or 6g or 7g cellular phones safe?

I appreciate the comments made about THZ frequencies. At least I am not the only one thinking about this subject. On power - we are likely using higher power levels in our cell phones as the data rates increase to Mbit or Gbit data rates, from the kbit data rates of analog cell phones of the 1980's. On cell phones - young children are putting these things up against their heads - that could produce bad side effects.

It would be nice if development could be done to keep cell phones less dangerous:

- make cell phones that expose the human body to less high frequency radiation

- look into ways to achieve much higher data rates with the currently used lower frequencies - so

we don't have to move to such high frequencies for 6g and 7g devices in the future.

It would be nice to see articles on the testing of different frequency signals at different power levels, and how they are safe or not safe for people.

Thanks,

Tom

Are THZ frequencies for use by Wi-fi or 6g or 7g cellular phones safe?

As we march steadily upward, and move higher and higher with the frequencies that are used for wi-fi and 6g or 7g cellular

phone systems, are those THZ frequencies we are moving to safe? While issues were raised with the 860 mhz frequencies used in

the original analog cell phones, I do think that the analog cell phones were safe. But the move to THZ frequencies could be very unsafe because:

- we are getting closer and closer to microwave or even x-ray frequencies

- we are sending larger and larger amounts of data to devices. And safety can relate to the dosage of these

frequencies we are being exposed to

I think that there should be massive testing done to find out how high wi-fi and cell phone frequencies can go

before they become unsafe. Testing should include dosage as well as frequency. When the maximum

frequencies that can be used safely are determined, then product development doesn't need to stop.

New products just need to use safe lower frequencies in different ways to achieve new goals.

Additionally, testing should include testing with birds and other creatures to make sure the use of THZ frequency bands doesn't

cause more creatures to go extinct.

Tom

A little bit of TLC: How IBM squeezes 16,000 write-erase cycles from QLC flash

What about caching flash writes to extend the life of flash?

Having flash that lasts through 16 times as many writes as it might is good. But caching writes to TLC or QLC flash and only writing

out cached contents to flash infrequently also is a way to extend the life of flash storage. For caching with DRAM, if one has battery backup for

when power goes out, then the caching works o.k. Like the battery of a laptop, or battery backup for servers.

But if there is no battery backup, having a lot of flash disk updates in DRAM cache when power goes out is problematic.

Consumer flash drives don't say much about caching when one buys them.

Congrats, Meg Whitman, another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the CV: Her web vid upstart Quibi implodes

Leo Apotheker was the CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corp was made

From source TheRegister:

" In 2011, HP – under the leadership of Léo Apotheker at the time – bought Autonomy "

( https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/01/leo_apotheker_autonomy_trial/ )

Former HP CEO and Republican Meg Whitman – who split HP with mixed success – says Donald Trump can't run a business

Leo Apotheker was the CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corp was made

From the article:

> It was on Whitman’s watch that the company made one of the worst tech

> acquisitions of all time, buying software maker Autonomy for $11bn. It

> wrote down the value of the purchase by a whopping $8.8bn a year later.

I think that Leo Apotheker, the previous CEO of HP before Meg Whitman, is more to blame for the purchase of Autonomy Corporation PLC than Meg Whitman is. Leo Apotheker was CEO of HP when the offer to purchase Autonomy Corporation PLC was made:

From Wikpedia:

> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Autonomy

> 18 August 2011: Hewlett-Packard announced that it would purchase

> Autonomy for US$42.11 per share. The transaction was

> unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both HP

> and Autonomy and the Autonomy board recommended that

> its shareholders accept the offer.

The takeover may have completed in the first 2 weeks Meg Whitman was CEO of HP, but the offer to purchase Autonomy Corporation PLC was made before Meg Whitman was CEO. Meg Whitman was on the HP board when the offer was made to purchase Autonomy Corporation PLC, but she was not CEO of HP then.

Here are some links that back up what I am saying:

An HP corporation announcement:

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1373462

>Press Release: October 03, 2011

>Topics: Financial, Strategic Focus: Software

>Print

>Share

>HP Acquires Control of Autonomy Corporation plc

From Wikpedia:

> wiki2.org/en/Léo_Apotheker

>Léo Apotheker (born September 18, 1953, in Aachen) is a German

>business executive. He served briefly as the chief executive officer

>of Hewlett-Packard from >November 2010 until his firing in September 2011. [1]

From Wikpedia:

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman

>In January 2011, Whitman joined Hewlett-Packard's (HP) board of

>directors.[42] She was named CEO on September 22, 2011.[43]

Thanks,

Tom

IBM to GTS staff: Not volunteering to leave with a redundo cheque? We'll give you a helping hand

IBM: I Been Moved

In the 1970's when IBM was known as a company with great benefits that was doing very well financially,

it still moved employees around a lot. IBM was said to stand for "I Been Moved".

IBM has not done so well the past 20 years. Retirement benefits if one completes 30 years with IBM now are a small fraction

of what they were in 1970. Warren Buffett bailed on IBM stock sometime in the past 10 years.

But as articles like this indicate, IBM still moves people around a lot.

Thanks,

Tom