Since (mostly) leaving Facebook, and cutting down on Twitter, I’ve come to realize the extent of how outdated traditional computing definitions have become. To help those who need to get up to speed, I’ve compiled a few technobabble words and translated them into normal English. app: in many cases, an extremely limited web […]
Tag: computing
The porn blackmail scam—ignore it if you receive it
I’m not saying I can’t be conned—because by my own admission, I have been—but sometimes when you’re very sure of your position, scammers’ lies don’t work. Here’s a fascinating one that came in today, a lot more aggressive than the usual request for helping someone move millions of dollars of bullion out of the […]
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Musk apologies to Unsworth, only because teacher told him to
Via Adeline Chua: I see Elon Musk has apologized to Vernon Unsworth. But it smacks of the apology a child would give after being compelled by his teacher to do so. Translation: ‘I wouldn’t have said anything if the Vern didn’t push me. It’s all Vern’s fault.’ Or, ‘Vern made me do it.’ […]
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A three-decade time capsule hanging on my door
There was an Epson bag hanging from the back of my bedroom door, hidden by larger bags. I opened it up to discover brochures from my visit to a computer fair in 1989 (imaginatively titled Computing ’89), and that the bag must have been untouched for decades. I’ve no reason to keep its contents […]
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PS/2 keyboard one way to get your Windows 10 computer back after bricking
Everybody wants PS2. Still from The Professionals episode ‘Servant of Two Masters’. I read this article in The Guardian, thinking: surely, after Microsoft rolled out some terrible updates, it wouldn’t be so stupid as to do one that bricks customers’ computers again? Especially after the bug was reported a month ago. The April update worked reasonably […]
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Why you shouldn’t sign up for Facebook’s two-factor authentication
I know, you’re stick of reading my reporting on my experiences with Facebook et al, let alone what someone else is going through. But here’s a word of warning from Gabriel Lewis, who signed up to Facebook’s two-factor authentication. Note: he never opted in to SMS notifications, and he doesn’t have the Facebook app. He’s […]
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When Microsoft says your Windows 10 needs a reset or full reinstallation, they might be wrong
As many of you know, between around December 8 and February 2—dates during which I had Microsoft Windows 10’s fall Creators update without the January 31 cumulative patch—my computer suffered roughly three to six BSODs per day. Going on to Bleeping Computer was helpful, but Microsoft’s wisdom tended to be hackneyed and predictable. While […]
The path of least resistance: we humans aren’t discerning enough sometimes
I came across a thread at Tedium where Christopher Marlow mentions Pandora Mail as an email client that took Eudora as a starting-point, and moved the game forward (e.g. building in Unicode support). As some of you know, I’ve been searching for an email client to use instead of Eudora (here’s something I wrote […]
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Windows 10, with the BSOD-prone Creators fall update, is calming down
I wonder if we have finally got there with Windows 10’s many BSOD crashes. Since my last post on the subject in late January, I have had a few more BSODs, but (knock on wood) things have been more stable for a few days. Then again, I haven’t pushed the computer quite as much. […]
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Windows Unreliability Monitor
Microsoft should rename Windows’ Reliability Monitor to Unreliability Monitor. This isn’t too unusual for Windows 10, is it? I’ve put Oracle Virtualbox and Cyberlink Power2Go back on, because it’s becoming more apparent that Windows 10 is incompatible with my hard drives in certain circumstances. It’s always when a drive (including a phone set […]