Yes, I was reminded once again why I absolutely hate Windows. And, to be honest, I really wanted to give it a chance. It's only been 24 hours since I prepared the Surface 3 for work, but Windows is already driving me mad!
Yes, I solved the driver issues relatively easily based on all my experience with Windows, even though the installation was really tricky without a touchscreen. Everything worked well afterwards. I also came up with a solution for the storage system: I ordered a small USB drive in the shape of a mouse dongle to give me some extra space, as the notebook does not have any other slots for storage (microSD, M.2, etc.).
What is really frustrating me, though, is Windows Update. As I recall, it was also the reason I abandoned Windows many years ago and switched to Linux. The problem is still the same, if not worse.
I installed an app on the Surface which required a reboot. The PC then decided to install updates. I have been stuck in a reboot loop for more than half an hour and I'm only 80% through the update. It's absolutely crazy.
Why would Windows not update while I'm using ...
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I have a Surface 3 tablet with a stylus. And, honestly, it looks very good at first glance. The screen has absolutely no scratches and the chassis is almost perfect, so in that respect it's really great. For the price of shipping, it's a great deal.
It came with Windows 8.1 already installed. However, the GUI was not the standard version of Windows, but a strange edition that was unable to run a lot of basic software, such as the Vivaldi browser. After some research and discovering that Linux is not the answer as it has a lot of driver problems, I decided to reinstall Windows 10.
The process went relatively smoothly, with only one issue arising. There was no touch driver during installation and the tablet does not have a docking keyboard. I therefore had to abort the installation, unplug the USB drive containing the installer and connect the USB hub to the device's only USB port. I then connected the USB drive, together with the mouse and keyboard.
Then the installation was without any more issues, and after running one single executable from microsoft pages, it has installed all the necessary drivers and everything worked well.
Another issue ...
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It's some kind of Barbie phone that my colleague gave me. However, after a while, I had nothing positive to say about it.
Although its design is intended to look premium, the system and functions are just pure pain. The controls are really unintuitive and some adjustments that I would expect to find in the settings menu are only accessible via weird widgets or apps, such as everything related to Bluetooth.
I still haven't managed to install apps either, as it won't run .jar or .jad files, which should be suitable for this phone. It comes with some pre-installed games, but they are just trials. I still haven't found any unlock codes that work, and all the language AI models kick me out as they won't help me illegally activate these.
Also, there is a dead pixel on the screen, as can be seen in the first photo. So I guess it will just be a phone that I put in a drawer and don't use anymore, except for charging to keep the battery alive.
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In the last few months, I haven't released any new user functions or improvements to the HryProDva.cz portal, except for the new avatar design in memory of Ozzy Osbourne.
However, I have many open projects with some nice features, such as two new games, some graphics improvements and other minor fixes. However, I have found that, every time I start working on something, something more important comes up.
For example, I am working on a simple payment system to give users the chance to buy a really cheap VIP account and get rid of annoying advertisements. I have received some feedback about people being willing to pay not to view them. The system is almost finished; the only problem now is the QR code for payments in Slovakia. It works really well for the Czech Republic already.
But now I have to change the development process again, as the need for sophisticated IP banning is increasing every day.
To be honest, I have always wanted to keep the community as free as possible, but as the portal grows, more and more users are not responsible enough and make a mess even after receiving a polite warning. So, once again, I have to keep the ...
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I have added a very nice piece of hardware to my collection. It's an IBM 365X. Even better, I got it for the price of shipping!
The only thing I was warned about was the cracked hinge. At first, I thought it was just a cosmetic issue from the photos, but when it arrived, I found out that it was impossible to open the notebook safely without damaging everything else.
I managed to come up with a solution. At first, I thought I would be able to glue it together somehow, but it did not work. So I chose the least aesthetic way, but it works. I used an engraving pen to melt the plastic and buried some bent nails in it to strengthen the joint. It's not ideal, but it holds the whole thing together.
Later, I would definitely try sanding it down and finding an old sticker — IBM or, even better, Y2K — to cover it up a bit. For now, though, it works, and I will do my best to make it look even better.
I was very surprised that the external floppy drive worked on the first ...
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I received a phone call from a family member. At first, I had no idea what it was and I couldn't turn it on. Even after plugging in the charger, there was no power through the cable. As I thought it was working, I decided to check the battery first.
Unfortunately, after taking a quick look, I realised that it would be rather complicated. The phone itself is not as easy to access as phones used to be. I had no idea how to open it and was afraid that it was glued and that I would have to "cook" it. Fortunately, I tried using my nail and discovered a tiny gap. I used special tools to unclip the back of the phone. Even though I was really afraid of damaging the display because it bent a lot, I was eventually able to open it.
I also had to unscrew some covers inside and remove the tapes holding the battery in order to take it out. Then I saw the battery connector. It's a really fragile, small flex with an even weirder snap. At first, I measured it and found that it had a "nice" zero volts. I ...
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It's the same problem with the screen orientation on the tablet-notebook again. Or, to be precise, the touch orientation, or perhaps more accurately, the stylus orientation.
On this notebook, the screen orientation works well with a fresh installation. The touchscreen also works fine. Even after rotating the screen. The stylus worked well until I used it in the default screen position. This was fine as I was only using it in landscape mode. However, after a long time — longer than I would have expected — I discovered that when the screen is rotated, the stylus axes are inverted or flipped depending on the rotation. Interestingly, the touchscreen works well and it's just the stylus that's broken.
As I cannot have anything that works perfectly, I had to find a solution. After some unsuccessful attempts, when nothing changed or, even worse, things got worse or I even messed up the touchscreen, I finally found a solution that fixed it.
At first, I thought I would create some transformation matrices, as I did with the VisionBooks screen orientation failure. Unfortunately, it does not work in this case. The best solution seems to be to write a script that listens for changes in screen orientation ...
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Even though I ended up with two broken Switch 3s, I still really wanted one. After all that frustration, I bought an Acer Switch 5. It's absolutely amazing!
It comes with the lighted keyboard, but is still compatible even with the keyboard from switch 3. So that is the only part i can recycle, and keep as spare one. Only thing i was missing, was the strap for the pen on the side of keyboard, so i used the one from the broken switch, and glued it there. It seems, that the keyboard used to have it too, but it wore of. Now it is complete.
So back to the device. It has i3 processor and 8GB RAM which should be enough for anything i would do.
So, when it arrived, I tried the pre-installed Windows just to see if everything worked. When it did, I started booting Ubuntu. At first, I tried the live version just to make sure that everything worked as it should. Then I started the installation. To my surprise, it crashed three times, which confused me a bit. I therefore recreated the USB installation media using the latest ...
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To be precise, I have a very good Acer Obsidian for working from home, which is great for any work I need to do. It has enough RAM and a very fast AMD processor, as well as a really good Nvidia GeForce 4070. So I have everything I need for working from home. However, this notebook is more like a desktop computer as it is not something you would want to carry around.
For daily use on the go, I have an IdeaPad with a touchscreen display and a palm-rejection stylus. It is the predecessor of the Lenovo Yoga.
It is fine, but for the use of the touchscreen it is quite big, and in tablet mode, it is quite thick. However i still really like it and it is fine notebook. However it is a bit old, and 4GB of RAM is not much today. However it still works, and can be used.
However, I did receive a gift from a friend. It's an Acer Switch 3, a x64 notebook with a detachable keyboard and a touchscreen with palm rejection. It's a really nice, powerful and compact piece of hardware. It is very similar to the VisionBook I have already mentioned. The ...
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Another lovely gift from Tom! The IdeaPad Flex 14! It looks brand new, with no scratches or signs of use.
It comes with an i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a GeForce graphics card. It's exactly the kind of PC I would have used as my main PC a year ago, before I got a sponsored notebook to develop apps for HryProDva.cz.
Unfortunately, there is one annoying issue, which is possibly caused by Czech Post shipping it, as it worked before they sent it to me. The "ESC, ;, q, a, z" keys on one column of the keyboard are behaving very strangely. Sometimes they work fine, but other times they generate presses of 3–8 random keys. Absolutely random keys!
I completely disassembled the notebook and found a slightly broken flex cable, which was possibly scratched by the chassis plate. I fixed the flex cable and added some protection against scratching, thinking that it was fixed. And it was... for a while.
But then it started misbehaving again. This usually happens for a couple of minutes after booting up, and then it works normally. I'm thinking about the problem and am not sure if it's a ...
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