Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Caveat emptor is undefeated in online shopping
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/03/2026
» It is becoming more common to buy things online. The majority of my shopping, not counting groceries, is now done that way. In the past I've warned about prices that are too good to be true, like a 4TB thumb drive for a few dollars from sites like Temu and AliExpress. There is now a kind of middle ground where the price could be correct and it's coming from, say, Amazon. Recently, even though I had some doubts, I bought a 5TB SSD drive from Amazon for around half of what I'd expect it to be. I did this knowing I can easily send things back to Amazon.
Microsoft on the naughty list again
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/03/2023
» Some of you may have already noticed, Microsoft is getting very pushy about installing Windows 11. On one of my machines, it started the process under the guise of a standard update. Softwarekeep.com has an excellent article titled "How to Cancel Windows 11 Update and Stay on Windows 10" that covers many ways to handle this. One option is to revert back to Windows 10 within 10 days of Windows 11 being installed, found here: Start menu > Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Recovery > Previous version of Windows. After this arbitrary 10 days, you need to do a clean Windows 10 install. I also recommend the free Windows Update Blocker, currently at version 1.7, as a way to control your Windows updates.
A tablet of note
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/11/2020
» I have used my new Onyx Boox Note Air for a couple of weeks now and I like it. Having a user manual in English would be very useful but I finally found the setting to enable the auto rotate feature.
Try not to drop your phone
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/03/2020
» The big news these days is coronavirus, the family name that covers the latest version, Covid-19. The impacts on tech are fairly obvious -- a lot of stuff is made in China these days. Apple, for example, is heavily invested in Chinese manufacturing and it has closed stores because the supply chain has run dry. Replacement iPhones are in short supply, so if you've damaged your phone, expect a potentially long wait before a full replacement is available. This also applies to replacement parts. So don't drop your phone. Employee travel is also discouraged while the virus spreads across the globe. At the time of this writing, stores in China have reopened and will not close. As an aside, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a non-partisan think-tank, named Apple as one of 83 internationally known brands utilising the slave labour of Uighur Muslims.
Users won't flip for Samsung's new phone
Life, James Hein, Published on 26/02/2020
» There is a lot of interest in the new Samsung Galaxy flip phone. It's cheaper than the last model, not a difficult target. As mentioned previously it opens like the old flip phones, not like a book. The hinge is better, as is the dust protection, but with this design you will always be swiping your finger across the fold. It is no larger than a regular smartphone so that wow of a bigger screen is not there anymore. At the price point I just can't see how this is an attractive unit to get.
A new era for Windows?
Life, James Hein, Published on 29/01/2020
» When you read this, Windows 7 will have reached its end of support, but it still has about 27% of the current market share on Windows desktops. The Microsoft term "end of support" refers to technical support and security updates/fixes, and it means that over time your operating system will become less secure and more open to attack by malware.