Windows 11 upgrade is shit and other PC-related trivia

1. My PC had been bombarding me with messages for several weeks, starting with "Upgrade to Windows 11 - it's really great!" which I ignored. The messages got progressively more threatening until they ended up with something like "If you don't upgrade then we shut down your PC", so against my better judgment, I caved in yesterday.

The inevitable result was that it took me over half an hour to turn it on this morning, and another quarter of an hour to open, update and save a simple spreadsheet and then send one email. Why do they bother? It was working fine.

2. Last year, I bemoaned the dearth of USB ports on modern PCs.

I had a good clean of my desk yesterday, including removing everything from on and under the desk, scrubbing everything down and plugging it all back in with less cable tangle. Oops! There on the back of the monitor (it's a Lenovo all-in-one job) are another three USB ports for my permanent stuff (keyboard, mouse, external hard drive), leaving me with two at the side for occasional stuff (CD writer, USB stick, charge cables for iPod and phone).

3. When we were kids, our Dad taught us the rudiments of typing on a proper old fashioned typewriter. We bashed away happily for a bit and then asked how you do capital letters. Our Dad explained you press down the shift key, and illustrated by pressing down the left hand shift key. So for the whole of my life I used the left hand shift key and never realised the right hand one existed.

My daughter asked me recently why I never use the other one and told me where it was. Well bugger me! There it is, right in front of me, twice as large as the left hand one with the same upwards arrow on it. How did I never notice?

I still can't bring myself to use it though. I always keep my left hand little finger resting on the left hand one, and it requires a conscious effort to use the other one, i.e. if I need to type a capital P or 'close parantheses' single handed.

What's the point of making a computer with only two USB ports?

I had to upgrade my tech at the start of lockdown for Zoom meetings and so on. The online reviews said it only had three USB ports, it turns out it only has two.

So I bought two 4-into-1 USB ports for £12 each and now have 8, which is plenty, I don't need to unplug one thing to plug in something else. But it looks a right mess.

The question is, it can't cost more than £10 to make a computer which had eight or ten USBs to start with, so why don't they? If they'd offered two otherwise identical PCs, one with two and one with ten USBs, then I would have happily paid an extra £30 or £40 for the one with ten USBs, just because it's tidier and more convenient. Everybody's happy.



The round black thing with the green light is the one-off and volume control for the excellent Logitech speakers which I had to buy (for about £50) because the inbuilt ones are crap, fair enough, it's a very small box (that's it in the picture) with no room for proper speakers. I can see the commercial logic of that.

That's a bit depressing

From the BBC:

A master player of the Chinese strategy game Go has decided to retire, due to the rise of artificial intelligence that "cannot be defeated".

Lee Se-dol is the only human to ever beat the AlphaGo software developed by Google's sister company Deepmind. In 2016, he took part in a five-match showdown against AlphaGo, losing four times but beating the computer once.

The South Korean said he had decided to retire after realising: "I'm not at the top even if I become the number one. There is an entity that cannot be defeated*," the 18-time world Go champion told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Depressing either because AI is now cleverer than we are - or because Go wasn't as difficult as people thought.

* Presumably, sooner or later they will develop a new programme that can beat AlphaGo, but that's probably not what he meant.

NHS - Disbelief

Exhibit 1

No doubt we'll get the usual 'NHS funding crisis', 'Tory cuts' wailing.

But what about this?..

And this?

And this?

And this?

There is a lot more of 'this'.

Why don't they just concentrate on the basics?

Monitor lizard

"Computers, a host of TV channels and smart phones: The simple indoor pleasures missed out on by yesterday's children"

From The Daily Mail:

They are the traditional childhood pastimes which often see children spending hours safely in front of a screen instead of coming home drenched and muddy after jumping in puddles, injured from falling out of a tree or picking up nasty infections from mud pies.

The dubious pleasures of playing outside are disappearing - as children choose to stay indoors playing video games rather than go out to make sandcastles and daisy chains. Dozens of indoor pursuits that now define childhood are activities that yesterday's children never had the chance to try...

David Hardy, spokesman for the Electro Attractions Group which carried out the survey, said:

"Nowadays, children have much more to keep them amused - computers, a host of TV channels and smart phones - something older generations didn't have. As a result, youngsters don't have to get dirty in the mud and puddles, be bored stupid by fresh air or get beaten up by bigger boys in the park.

"Forcing your children to suffer these traditional activities occasionally can be a great way of reminding them just how great it is simply sitting in front of a computer or TV screen.

"But that's about it, really. You've made one daisy chain, you've made 'em all, frankly."

Computer Security

From the BBC

The thieves are acquiring equipment intended only for legitimate mechanics, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

Manufacturers are trying to stay ahead of the thieves by updating software.

...

But Ian Crowder, from motorists' group the AA, warned the risk should not be overstated.

"By far the most common way of a car being stolen is still from thieves breaking into homes and stealing keys," he said.

Reminds me of this cartoon

Fun Online Polls: Michael Stipe's Jaguar & Stupid printer choices

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll, on a very low turnout, were as follows:

Which model Jaguar would Michael Stipe out of R.E.M drive?

Mark 2 - 5 votes
E-Type - 8 votes
XJ6 - 1 vote
XJ-S or XJS - 1 vote
S-Type - 4 votes
X-Type - 2 votes
Other, please specify - 3 votes

So only four people got the joke - Michael Stipe would drive an S-Type, it would save him the faff of buying a personalised number plate.

Bonus points to Fraggle: "E-bow-type".
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Although we might never find an answer to the question "Why does the printer always run out of paper when you're printing?", perhaps we can come up with a definitive response to one of the stupidest/easiest/most irritating choices of all time.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

"Ok, we give in" say Microsoft "mandatory 'time outs' to go check out porn sites aren't as popular as we expected,

and so we are abandoning the 'you've spent long enough on your X-Box, so time to go search the internet for porn' feature on the new X-Box" announces Don Mattrick, the President of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, "but it does mean we will have to now have some design compromises which will mean that 'wherever we go my games are always with me' won't be the case, unless of course you already carry them around with you, say in a case, when you want to take your games with you and carry on doing that or buy a case and start carrying it around with you when you want to take your games with you; in which case they will".

Criticism against the Xbox One for its original restrictions on game sharing and its need to connect to the internet came not only from the public and the press, but also from Microsoft’s rivals. The unveiling of the PS4 by Sony at E3 even included a 22-second spoof video entitled 'Official PlayStation Used Games Instructional Video' showing two Sony employees simply handing a game from one to the other.

Marc Whitten – the vice president of Xbox Live also confirmed another change, abolishing the Xbox One’s proposed region locking: "You could buy a console in any country and use it any country," said Whitte. "You can use any disc in that console."

Whitten also clarified the future for Xbox One’s digital policy in an interview with gaming website Polygon, saying that "While we are adding in the ability to use physical discs, we still believe in the power of a digital and cloud-powered future played out at launch and rolled out over time. You are going to see us invest a ton in all of the ways digital builds experiences."

Internet filtering...

Independent 17th June

Claire Perry MP, David Cameron’s special advisor on ‘preventing the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood', has outlined plans for UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make users opt-out to view adult content online by the end of the year.

BBC 18th June

But Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of trade association ISPA, which represents the UK's net suppliers, said: "ISPs have already taken several steps on making the internet safer, with many offering or working towards an 'active choice +' system, which presents parents with an unavoidable choice."

So, Claire Perry is going to make them do it, but there's no legislation, and they don't want to.

Trouble is, filtering's a blunt instrument that works badly. Even people who hate porn often find themselves ordering it to be switched on because a site they use is categorised as pornographic incorrectly.

It's much better done on the PC end - set up your PC with a login for each user and then set filtering accordingly. Not only do kids then get "their" view on the PC (with their choice of wallpaper and files and bookmarks), you can also downgrade their rights so they don't go deleting something important. Then if the kids need to get to a site that the filtering blocks incorrectly, you can do it, rather than having to sit for an hour waiting for the ISP to deal with it.

from the files of the "Believe it or not", department

Bank supervisor 'not to blame', as clerk falls asleep at desk with finger on keyboard, resulting in €222,222,222.22 bank transfer

A German court has ruled that a bank supervisor was unfairly dismissed for failing to double check a €222,222,222.22 transaction made when a clerk fell asleep with his finger on a keyboard.

The 48-year-old was fired for failing to investigate the accidental multi-million transfer, which occurred when a junior clerk started dozing at his desk with a finger on the number two key while attempting a transfer of just €64.20.

Judges at Hesse labour court ruled, however, that failing to spot the error and approving the transaction was not worthy of dismissal.

The judges instead decided that the supervisor, who had been an employee at the company since 1986,  should only have been reprimanded as she had already checked 812 transactions that day, allowing just a couple of seconds to check each one for irregularities and errors.

The judges ruled that it was clear there had been no malicious intent on the supervisor’s behalf, saying she should have received a warning.

As a result, they ordered the bank to reinstate the supervisor, saying her work contract could not be terminated.

Fortunately for the company, the huge transaction was spotted by a third employee later in the day and corrected before any money was exchanged.

Yeah! Apple rocks!

The solution to all yesterday's "issues" came to me as I lay awake fretting last night, namely buy an external CD/DVD reader/writer, which I snapped up for a very reasonable £39.99 at Curry's-PC World (I'm not going to spend another penny in an Apple Store, not ever again, ever). It's USB powered so you don't need to faff about with yet another power cable.

The system graciously allowed me to re-load Office for Mac (version 2008) and will allow me to make MP3's from audio CD's using iTunes. All I need to do now is install Neo-Office (which I have used to create lots of charts and stuff) and I'm back where I was four days ago.
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UPDATE: now I set it all up nice and new, I've a nasty feeling that there was nothing wrong with the old Mac Mini, it was just the monitor that was on the blink (I must have been using it for seven years or so, maybe longer?), as it keeps shutting down again (it was fine earlier on). I'll throw another £70 into the bottomless pit of Curry's-PC World tomorrow and see what happens.

iQuit

Health Scare Story Du Jour

From The Metro:

People who spend more than four hours a day in front of their PCs are as likely to suffer from heart problems as those who watch lots of TV. That is the conclusion of a study, which also found that those who spend all day glued to their screens doubled their risk of heart failure.

We're all doomed I tell you, doomed.

"Cows to power data centres"

This isn't a 'cow attack' story as such, but interesting/terrifying* nonetheless. After a few paragraphs of eco-wibble, the best bit is at the end:

Power and cooling for data centres has evolved into a major environmental and cost issue for many companies, as more and more data is collected and held. Other green ideas include making use of sustainable energy sources like wind or waves, or locating them in colder places for natural cooling**.

* Delete according to personal prejudices. Those bovines are smarter than they look: once we're all hooked up to cow-power, who's to say that they won't just go on hunger strike and bring the world grinding to a halt?

** UPDATE: Anti Citizen One links to an article of January 2010 titled Iceland Gets Major Data Center Project.