Observations on the world and its inhabitants
You need to thank one man for your current existence – a Russian. On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer at Serpukhov-15, the Soviet command bunker for early warning satellites. Just weeks after serious NATO actions, his Oko satellite system reported that the United States had launched five intercontinental ballistic missiles from ...
The selection of a web browser is a decision made daily by millions, yet the factors influencing performance often remain opaque. This investigation was undertaken to compare six popular browsers—Chrome, Vivaldi, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Opera—across two distinct operating systems: Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The objective was not to conduct fresh laboratory ...
Recently I moved to Espanso both on Windows and BigLinux for a free and easy way to create shortcuts for key phrases used. There are now several articles on this site about the learning. That means something. Espanso on Windows is easier to setup. It can output images, text, and a whole lot more – ...
We’ve had a busy month in the business of measuring “Humanity.” Between the release of Humanity’s Last Exam (HLE) and the interactive bloodbath that was ARC-AGI-3, it’s becoming clear that we aren’t exactly building a new mind. We’re building a $600 billion filing cabinet that’s learned how to speak with a slight academic sneer. The ...
The Objective This was to create a secure, dual-user environment on a single BigLinux machine where the primary user (CW) and a secondary user (User2) maintain complete session isolation. The secondary user requires access to their mobile hotspot (UX1) without viewing the primary user’s files or possessing administrative (root) privileges. The Core Bottlenecks & Hardware ...
I’m not going into why Authors may want to use AI. It’s big business out there. And no – it’s not about letting AI write books! FFS. But wait – it’s not only authors who may be interested in running an AI locally on their computers. AI can present tools for many use case scenarios. ...
For the better part of three decades, “personal computing” was synonymous with Windows. It wasn’t just an operating system; it was the foundation of digital life. Blue Screens of Death and endless updates were tolerated because, frankly, there were few alternatives. Apple was expensive and maintained by a cult. Linux was perceived as an obscure ...
This one follows from: Man vs. Machine (Spoiler: The Machine Lost). But on this occasion it was Man and Machine [AI] working together in harmony. The primary motivation for this migration was to reclaim the performance of a 2018 Dell Inspiron 7786. While the hardware remains capable, running Windows 11 felt increasingly sluggish and heavy. ...
This is for Windows 10 and above computers that do not have a SSD or M2 drive. If you do the following on a computer with SSD or M2 drive, you will quite probably wreck your computer. But don’t believe me. Just do it – and then sue yourself! At each restart, time how long ...
Of some annoyance to me is the different spellings of the same words between the UK and the USA. I’m in the UK and culturally I prefer UK spellings. But it is not that simple. Microsoft Word that is ‘made’ in the USA seems to ‘think’ that it is fine if I spell prioritise as ...
This is the essential guide on how to get your email account hacked. You really need this.
Well, loads of people have been biting their nails about ChatGPT. Yuh know anything that is new and apparently intelligent is to be feared. Like “OMG!! OMG!! AI is taking over the world, let’s have a panic attack!” The sort of responses are similar to when aeroplanes were made to fly people around, the telephone ...
Some people – there are always ‘some people’ – will not know about Camtasia and Snagit. The Semmelweis reflex takes care of that lot. The way it works is that if you hear about something that sounds technical or comes from somebody you think is a nerd, you move on swiftly. After all ‘what’s it ...
Loads of people don’t know much about how to use a ‘word processor’. Hmmm.. the words ‘word processor‘ now seem so strange. Formatting documents is a most important activity. Why? A well presented letter or report starts off at an advantage of being well received and easier to read. The reader is put in the ...
This post is not for luddites and not for people who are diehard Apple lovers. Right – so I needed a solution for controlling my PC, when I’m watching Netflix or Amazon Prime. Somebody want’s to know why. Jeez. So – I’m sitting or lying several feet from my desktop which works with a large ...
Sometimes you (meaning me) needs a calculator fast. One might think of calculators as for doing sums – and that’s fine (as they say). However, calculators can do far much more. Obviously, this is not going to be lecture involving lists of reasons why ‘one’ may need a calculator. If you’re on a laptop or ...
It’s not for everybody!! And this is not a book review. Do your own reading. Or avoid it!
All technology is ‘confusing’ to most people. Read that again – carefully this time. Anything that is new, is on ‘computers’ and requires thinking through more than two steps – is confusing. Look, I’m not debating it – the latter is what I have seen repeatedly. Right – let me get on with the OneDrive ...
Over the years I’ve seen how people use word-processors. In fact the term has almost gone completely out of vogue. Most people in work environments use Microsoft Word. In the pandemic period documents would regularly have been shared in a group on a big screen and somebody would be typing. That experience over the last ...
Well, I often post up situations I encounter as a sort of diary which then forms evidence for my patterns of thinking. Scenario This one was at a hotel A. There was some confusion on a Sunday night when I needed to check in. I had 5 nights which I accidentally double-booked for the following ...
Well, as usual people don’t know what they don’t know and won’t take the time to explore – so they need to be told. On this occasion I’m sharing this simple timer thing that lives on Windows 10. Obviously, I can’t say nor do I have time to check if it exists on any other ...
Oh yes – it was another day in ‘Paradise’. This is a place that cannot be named, cuz I’m not economically independent as yet. But.. but one day the beans will be spilt – fully! Until then just get the anonymised story. So, there is nail-biting anxiety among folk over here about using a thing ...
Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been on an e-cleaning binge! That means I’ve been sorting out loads of electronic files of all types and cleaning up electronic messages. Did I say ‘electronic messages‘? Just checking. Yes – I did! Some fool wants to know what does ‘electronic messages’ mean. Chrysst! People don’t know what ...
This is not an advertisement! This is only about me sharing knowledge of something very useful. It is called Roboform. Immediately some fool somewhere wants to know whether it is free. ‘Everybody’ wants ‘everything’ for free innit. Well it is not! So if you’re looking for ‘free’ – kindly get lost right NOW! I’ve been ...
Well, for most people I know they don’t care much about this. People often don’t know and therefore don’t care about duplicate files on their computers. I’m not here to cure them – they can remain blissfully ignorant. Those who want to know can read on. Duplicate files happen – that’s a matter of fact. ...
I’ve been using labels and filters on Gmail for quite some time. But like many things you come to appreciate them better with time. So I’ve been reviewing how I use these features. Lately I’ve been flooded with all sorts of emails. Many of them I don’t need to look at immediately, so I didn’t ...
For those who don’t know and are not friends with Google, McAfee is company that makes antivirus and firewall related software. As with most things you’ll always find a following of people who will shout how wonderful things are about ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’. And if you say anything negative about anything, you’re likely to ...
Problem: Media of various types will play though laptop’s speakers but no on inserting headphones. Solution: 1. Control Panel > Sound > Select Headphones. 2. Make headphones default and click ‘ok’. Headphones then play well. Removing headphones allows speakers to play. Yes, why? I dunno why this happens and I don’t care. The only thing ...
Recently purchased this Dell Inspiron 7737. I was aiming to purchase a 15-inch screen laptop but this 17-inch screen laptop deal turned out to be better than any 15-inch laptop I could find (at the time). [AND – this does NOT mean I like DELL or any particular brand. Read Disclaimer at the end.] Important ...
This is only for those who know about music files and playlists. I’ve regularly had the problem when I moved my music from computer to computer, or disc to disc, that my playlists would not work. I mean I have like lots of playlists – so I really didn’t want to make them all over ...
Captain Walker
Captain Walker
