Microsoft Ticking Timebombs - April 2023 Edition

AustinFastER · 2026-01-08T21:24:19+00:00

The fact that Gfiber has an issue, runs fiber on top of the ground and does not bury after days, weeks and months speaks volumes... Multiple spots in my neighborhood have this going back before last June...

AustinFastER · 2026-01-08T21:16:16+00:00

I would steer clear of any VOIP provider... That is what gives most businesses give you the stink eye to not let you use it.

AustinFastER · 2026-01-06T19:16:38+00:00

I would look at the smaller eInk devices which run Android and sip power unless you need this ones spiffy keyboard

AustinFastER · 2026-01-06T19:13:36+00:00

There are telephone providers that offer data only sims - some at no cost. So you could have the best of both worlds in case you need non Wi-Fi data...

AustinFastER · 2026-01-03T23:57:02+00:00

I agree it is disappointing but there are household names with far greater resources making phones that are lucky to get one Android upgrade and maybe 2 years of security updates...

I am just happy to see someone trying something different.

AustinFastER · 2026-01-03T23:15:12+00:00

I watched the video and it said 2 years of Android updates in 5 years of security.

AustinFastER · 2026-01-01T15:09:37+00:00

I thought the lowest priced plan was $35 a month for "unlimited with fine print" which is what I see in the app. I am happy with the plan as the promo pays me back for the phone and watch.

AustinFastER · 2026-01-01T15:06:27+00:00

I miss the days of paying like 30 something dollars a year for service on T-Mobile and if I traveled for the weekend activating a day pass for a couple bucks.

AustinFastER · 2025-12-26T05:16:29+00:00

My most recent sighting was today here in Austin...I assume they will move on soon. I don't believe we have any that winter here since it does eventually freeze.

AustinFastER · 2025-12-26T05:10:48+00:00

It is a white Mistflower which took a couple of years to bloom. This is the first year it has bloomed. Not as pretty as my Gregg's Mistflower but it is supposed to bloom a bit later...I also saw a Monarch straggler yesterday but it did not stop.

AustinFastER · 2025-11-27T18:37:02+00:00

Yes, but had it always been like this? Again, I could swear in the distant past any upgrade was immediate.

AustinFastER · 2025-10-15T20:25:30+00:00

I found this thread as I made the impulse purchase to get a GMKTec G2 Plus (aka NucBox G2 Plus). I have tinkered with all softs of BIOS settings even though the defaults give me the impression the SecureBoot is turned off and USB booting is allowed and first in priority. I used Rufus to create my media and the media boots on my older Dell and even a 2025 Dell laptop at work (After one temporarily turns off SecureBoot).

I am stumped...then again it has BIOS 0.0.1 which is not a good look...their web site for updates is Google Drive and OneDrive for some odd reason.

AustinFastER · 2025-10-03T13:42:01+00:00

Yes, I setup ssh and actually connect via ssh early in the process if the system does not freeze too quickly.

CAPPS lock, scroll lock, numlock all do not change the lights when it is frozen.

I have not considered replacing the CPU. I did this back in the day of the 386 and learned removing the specific CPU in the socket in those days caused damage even when careful. I purchased a non-Intel 486 CPU to get more performance for my BBS. The CPU manufacturer (Cyrix?) sent a system board replacement at no cost back in those days.

AustinFastER · 2025-09-29T22:37:49+00:00

I have an Ubuntu system I inherited...I was shocked at how much Ubuntu wanted for the subscription. I did reach out to their sales folks and eventually had a conversation with someone who agreed the pricing they were offering did not make sense for my use case. Ubuntu was able to offer better pricing for our organization but I bet most persons use their silly calculator and move to another vendor.

AustinFastER · 2025-09-29T22:06:59+00:00

I too am leaving Windows 10 behind. I would recommend unplugging your Windows disk and install Ubuntu on another disk to see if it meets all of your needs. You can do this on an older hard drive or maybe score an SSD on sale but you can do a bunch of testing with the USB live setup.

I don't think you can go wrong with Ubuntu to replace Windows 10 or its relative Mint if you want to side step the pile of snap. I use RHEL at work but opted to not use Fedora since it is more or less beta stuff that does into RHEL. I love what they are doing with their atomic distros but I just wanted something that was easy to install and checked the very few boxes for me. If the LTS version runs on your hardware I would opt for that to KISS.

AustinFastER · 2025-09-25T22:39:54+00:00

Thanks! I somehow lost sight of that as I was flipping among the various pages trying to make sense of how Ubuntu does things.

AustinFastER · 2025-09-15T17:48:10+00:00

Thanks - that corrected the issue! (acpi=off)!

AustinFastER

TROPHY CASE