Headworx

I experienced a computer crash last week. Traced it down to a broken trace on the motherboard or a broken cable that connects the motherboard to the hard drive. To the extent I was able to resurrect it a couple of times before it died completely on the next day. Luckily it was the motherboard, not the hard drive. Following my previous experience in moving a Windows 10 hard drive between two completely different systems and having the new one up an running in minutes, I decided to do the same with the replacement machine. Unbox it, remove the factory installed hard drive, put the one taken out from the broken computer and - voila: I was up an running in minutes. What is more important: the whole system configuration is unchanged. Folders, drivers, saved passwords, web history, everything. This makes it obvious that the default procedure for migrating to a new machine should be the same: clone your old drive to the new machine and boot it up. Done. Except. Except this is not s...

This one came as a shocker to me. Major banks issue major credit cards that keep a history of transactions and offer that openly to any reader. And by *any* I don't mean an authorized wireless payment terminal a waiter uses in a restaurant. It can be just any NFC reader, like the one most of us have in mobile phones. So I can be riding a bus with my wallet safe in my pocket and the bus is a little crowded and a person behind me is standing with a phone in her hand. Entirely common situation. And then this person is capable of scanning my cards without me even being aware of this. Look what happens. You can actually get a lot of information. The transaction history on the attached screenshot is real. You can see this person travels a lot and even can track back the countries: Singapore, Poland, Hong Kong. You can trace the dates and spending habits. I just can't imagine what is the use for this information? Why did the bank decide to store that in the open? Is this somew...

I preparation of trekking vacations in some remote parts of the World, I've started evaluating options on what gadgets can / should I carry on my back for three weeks. So first - the priorities what is a must and what is a nice to have? It starts with a DSLR and 1 or 2 lenses. This is not negotiable an in my case (Nikon D750 + Sigma 24-70mm ART + Laowa 12mm + 3 spare batteries) makes a total of around 2600g. It is a lot but the truth is once I moved to a full frame format, there is no going back. I want to carry that extra bulk, period. The camera is accompanied by carefully selected accessories: ND and CPL filters, a battery charging cradle, a flashlight, a lens cleaning set (cloth+pen+fluid+blower), a remote IR trigger, and an OTG hub that allows connecting SD cards and pendrives to a smartphone. 400g in total. Ah it also includes the TrailPix - the lightest replacement for a tripod. This complete set of photo equipment is 3000g, it is almost a miracle, considering it ...

IP (Internet Protocol) packets are like shipping containers. Or more precisely, intermodal containers. They are absolutely standardized. And can carry almost anything. The term standardized means they can be used across different modes of transport, without reloading their cargo. Sounds like IP, right? From my laptop WiFi card to the access point, then via Ethernet to the router, then via a DSL phone line, to an Ethernet infrastructure and finally to a fiber optic long distance cable. You can even insert a microwave or laser-based link in between and nobody will notice. And nobody cares, since all the links are engineered to carry the IP packets. In a similar fashion the ships, trains, trucks are engineered to carry the intermodal containers. There is only one case when the intermodal containers are not used: air cargo. And the reason is simple: they are too bulky and too heavy. The nature of air transport is that is has to have as little overhead as possible. Otherwise it will...

I had been looking at the Huawei Matebook for some time and just could not resist last week when they lowered the price for the entry model down to below $400. And it seems to be a great piece of hardware matched with the excellent Windows 10 Signature package. Signature means pure OS, no crapware included. It appears the Matebook is fire married with ice in a very elegant package. Especially when mated with the portfolio keyboard, the dock and the pen. The whole package is still 1/2 the price of an iPad Pro, while what you get is a great tablet and a great computer. It is also probably the first Intel - based machine that is really passive. No fan. Just the back getting little warm, but nothing uncomfortable. The keyboard is not a ThinkPad class but much better compared to the iPad accessory. But most surprising of all is the Windows 10 package that handles both laptop and tablet modes very well. When undocked, it enters the tablet mode automatically and forces all apps to w...