Pity the poor DevOps team which deployed that untested update overnight. I thought I had problems. Let’s all become gardeners.
Oh, look, a ChromeBook Pro. Well, an old MacBook running ChromeOS, anyway.
Sometimes, I don’t know why I start things. In this case, tinkering with Linux to revive an old laptop. I’ve tried so many distros and flavours through the years that you’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now. But no. In just one evening I’ve been through Manjaro, Mint Xfce and Ubuntu Budgie, all …
One rookie error. After an uptick in email newsletters from a company I didn’t recognise, I clicked the unsubscribe link. A split second after doing so, I recognised my mistake. I was confirming to the sender — probably a bot — that my email address was live. But by then, it was already too late. …
I should really have listened to my conscience, which said to me: “You don’t need yet another device.” I justified this one on the basis it was affordable and had plenty of space for backing up all of my files. But as with most things that seem a bit too good to be true, this …
There are always tradeoffs in tech. That’s why so often we feel disappointed or underwhelmed, despite extraordinary advancements in our lifetime. There’s a reason you can pick up a smart and not-very-old refurbished Windows ultra portable for over a thousand pounds off its original asking price. It’s not just that it’s second-hand, discarded as a …
No amount of jiggery-pokery in the bios or fiddling with power settings can improve the thermal management of a Windows ultra portable laptop. The only fix for all that annoying whirring and whining of the onboard fan is to physically lift the device on a riser to let warm air freely escape. This is the …
I do love bug-fixing undocumented changes for Microsoft. Thanks for deploying a feature I had to highlight to the Microsoft 365 support agent assigned to me. A helpful change, meaning I now have to re-educate already tech-averse teams on the new process. Absolutely brilliant.
I was a bit slow realising why my Internet connection has been so especially bad lately. The aha moment came late yesterday afternoon. That was after a successful morning presenting to a large group via video call without any issue whatsoever. The difference? Our eldest had two exams yesterday, and so was out for most …
It’s amazing to think my first job way back in 1995 was testing a geographic information system for a major electricity supplier. Amazing because the network engineer I’ve been waiting for all week announced on his arrival that he couldn’t connect my property because the cable is delivered via an electric pole, which he cannot …
Do we actually need laptops with AI chips, or is this just a new category invented to help manufacturers boost flagging sales? Most consumers no longer need to buy a new laptop, either because the decade-old device they already have is still good enough, or because they use a phone or tablet instead. The average consumer needs …
I should imagine that in the coming years, I will occupy a position with respect to AI similar to that of my tech-reluctant colleagues. I have spent the whole of my working life using the Internet, so it comes as second nature to me. But AI is something I don’t really get. And so I …
This is why you should never ask AI to do your homework.
There I was thinking it time to finally abandon my decade-old tech. Frustrated by a skippy trackpad, I began pondering options. First, brand-new high-end devices, justifying it on the basis I buy the best for everyone else. But, no, I can’t really justify that. So I started pondering a mid-range laptop instead. But that only …
I seem to spend more time debugging my tools than I do building with them. Imagine being a builder and having to spend two hours rebuilding the motor of your cement mixer just to lay a row of bricks. Maybe instead of investing billions in AI, tech companies could target it inwards to give us …
