Category: Uncategorized
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Facebook Down?
If you have tried to log on to Facebook over the past couple of hours and have not had any luck, do not try adjusting your set. The company is experiencing very widespread outages across the Americas. According to www.downdetector.com, the outage is greatest on the east coast of North America, but Brazil and Peru…
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The Safety of Ottawa…
Yesterday MacLean’s Magazine posted their index of the most dangerous (crime-related) cities in Canada. Ottawa, where I currently live, placed a comfortable 145th on the list. I’m good with that – I do not expect to be jumped by a group of marauding bandits when I walk down the street. What I found interesting about…
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Electile Disfunction
Tomorrow our friends to the south (I’m in Canada… for the more geographically challenged, I am referring to the United States of America. Yes, I know about Alaska being part of the USA and being to the north… can we just get on with it? Thank you.) are going to the polls. The mid-term elections…
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Remember
It is that time of year again. The debate over when to put up Christmas decorations has begun. The minute Halloween is over, people rush to put them up. Within a few short days, we go from Orange and Black with spooky melodies to Green and Red with cheerful melodies. I hate it. I have…
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Surface Pro Battery Woe
Friday afternoon I had a Skype meeting, and as I was settling into the board room at my office for quiet, I realized the battery on my Surface Pro 4 was at 0%. I plugged it in, and got the feedback: “Plugged in, Not charging.” Okay, I would be careful to not yank the power…
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The Dangling Control Panel
Once upon a time, the Windows Control Panel was an easy to navigate set of icons that consolidated in one place all of the administrative tasks we would need, both as an end user and as a desktop administrator. Things change, systems evolve. The Control Panel that we knew in Windows XP evolved, through Windows…
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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Windows 10?
Yes, it has actually happened. The title of this article is a callback to The Sounds of Music. My ex-girlfriend (who will not be reading this article) would be proud. On October 4th I wrote an article called Windows 10 1809: What’s New. I was all excited. Two days later I wrote 1809 Recalled. Microsoft has since…
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Drivers? Drive Me!
By now, it is likely that I do not need to explain to you that a hardware driver is a piece of software that allows your computer (through the operating system) to communicate with a hardware component. You know that, right? Good. You are ready to install a new operating system on your computer. You do…
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Does Microsoft Listen?
You were all excited to upgrade your existing Windows 10 installation to the Fall 2018 update. On October 2nd you downloaded the bits to Version 1809. You installed it, using the same in-place upgrade process you have been using for years. You realize that you have lost data… crucial data… a lot of it. You…
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Face Recognition Issue in Windows 10
Before anyone gets upset, let me be clear that there is no issue with Facial Recognition in Windows 10… at least, not that I am aware of. It is not a security flaw; rather, it is a usability issue that I have with the functionality. I have several computers that I use on a regular…
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Mitch’s QOTD
Trying to debate religion using logic is like trying to install SQL Server with a monkey wrench. Don’t bother, it won’t work.
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It’s a Lock! TappLock wins.
I took the summer off from the gym. I played a lot of golf, I wasn’t in the right mindset, it doesn’t matter why… I just did. I started back this week, and it was painful. Fortunately, one aspect of the pain was easily resolved. In my gym bag there were two padlocks. The first,…
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Windows 10 1809: What’s New
Last night I was pleased to hear that, as predicted, Windows 10 version 1809 dropped at the Microsoft Surface event in New York City. While it may or may not be available for you via Windows Update this morning, I downloaded the ISO yesterday and went right to work. Well, to be more specific, I…
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Surface Pro Firmware Patch Leads to WTG Woes
I have been a huge proponent of Windows to Go (WTG) since it was first announced in Windows 8. I love being able to run Windows off a USB key, because it allows me to use any computer as my corporate environment. That is the theory; the practical is that I use my personal device…
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IPv6: Be gone!
Let me start this piece by stating that I am not advocating that we all ignore IPv6. There are many reasons to use it, and there is nothing wrong with it. Sure, it is more complicated than we may like… but then again, so was IPv4 when we were first introduced to it. But alas,…
The World According to Mitch 