tridy

I have MS Teams but I do not want to install Ms Office on my computer. I have OnlyOffice, for instance, and I wondered if it is possible to trick the "ms-excel" to get opened in "C:\Program Files\ONLYOFFICE\DesktopEditors\DesktopEditors.exe", in my case. I tried placing excel.lnk shortcut (to DesktopEditors.exe) in Windows dir but that does not work. I can start OnlyOffice now by running excel from the run dialog but Teams is executing it differently: I thought that if there is a callto link, then there should be a ms-excel link as well, which gives me the same "We can't open ..." popup when trying to run from the run dialog: How do I create a handler for the ms-excel link? I have found some stuff in the registry that I can play and try to create a custom ms-excel protocol, but maybe someone has a better solution?

well, this is kind of strange. Do you have a dedicated mic or headset or is it on the webcam? I think on the Logitech webcam I disabled the microphone in the settings, and now it is not even seen by the device manager. Try disabling the microphone for desktop apps from settings, and using Skype after that to see if it lets it through. I have a USB mic and a WebCam that has the mic disabled. I have MuteMe USB button (that actually detects when the mic is in use - this is how I discovered that Snagit is trying to use the microphone on startup, even though I am not recording anything) that enables and disables mic access globally if needed. so this is not a problem. I just want to be strict about what can and cannot access the microphone. So, I would like to disable mic access for applications that have audio features, but which I do not use, like audio chat in TeamViewer. BTW, I found a setting for "Voicd Activation" that I never asked for and never opted in for that, but still it was on.

It looks like Streacom is a part of this as well, which gives it a slightly bigger chance that this will work out. If I do not have the case by mid-June, I will send them a notice that I do not want the case anymore but a refund, and file a dispute via PayPal. My general feeling is that when a process like this is coming close to completion, there is more and more good news to share. In the case of Calyos-Streacom, it does not look like this. The copper video is weird. I am not an expert on this type of machine, but having cardboard on the bottom probably shows the "test" or "temporary" state of the installation. We should have had a video or a real running working example by now and I do not think we have seen one. Or have we?

It is possible to disable microphone access for each app for Windows store applications. I am wondering if it is possible to disable microphone access for each desktop application individually. It is very rarely that I need a mic for the yellow-marked apps, for instance. It might be that I would need that but I would rather control it myself than allow access all the time. At some point, (well a year ago) even Thunderbird was accessing the mic, which is weird. Windows settings for mic only allows all or none, but is there a more granular way of doing it with some software? A mic firewall, sort of.

I have been using Microsoft's Wireless Display Adapter, the older 1080 one, and it is OK. Most of the time it would connect and work as expected for presentations and similar. Now I am looking at 4K Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter and it is around 4 years old, so I am wondering if there has been any improvement in the Miracast field and if there have been any good adapters for that. I need that purely for Windows and focus on reliability, so no stopping because of overheating after 2 hours of presentations. I do want it to be Miracast, and NOT Chromecast. Have you had any experience with any of the newer Miracast adapters?

I do not remember if this was in the description when I last looked at it but it says mid/end Q2 2024, which makes it like by the end of June 2024. I will have to wait until then. At least PayPal's 180 days of buyer's protection covers that period.

So it has been more than 2 months without any updates. Is there anyone who has got the case or the refund?

Nice trick with the cart! So it went from 151 to 213, which means they have changed the available amount. As a result, it does not say anything about how many they have sold, even approximately.

Now they have removed the counter of the available vouchers, which is weird, I think. https://sg10.calyos-tm.com/products/479-voucher A month has passed since I made the purchase and there is no news or updates from Streacom/Calyos.

It worked to pay by PayPal, so if it is not delivered within a month or so, or if it comes damaged, at least I would have a chance to open a dispute or whatever it is called. It looks like they do the same bad VAT/IOSS workaround as eBay when VAT is refunded after the order is placed so that VAT would be paid later at Swedish (in my case) customs. This does not exactly work as they say, since the customs in Sweden will charge VAT based on the whole amount that already includes the original VAT (even though it was refunded). I wrote an email to the store and support asking for that but there is a high chance that they will screw this up anyways. update on the VAT issue, got a reply from the support. It is going to be shipped from somewhere in Europe, so no more VAT issues: The final receipt

Today I got the voucher email: Another pre-order. Do I dare?

I am running Windows 11 Insider Preview, which is probably how I got the "Insider Preview" drivers through the Windows Update. I did not actively choose to get the version of the drivers. Anyway, I noticed that I have not had a notice about nVidia drivers update for quite some time now (like a couple of months), so I decided to check manually: When I looked at the driver version on my machine through GFE, I got: Version: 550.09, Release date: 02/28/2023 I went to the official drivers website and I found that the latest version is: Version: 546.33, Release Date: 2023.12.12 I downloaded that and installed the official ones, just in case. Then I did some research and found the following: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/16pwhtx/nvidia_driver_says_its_up_to_date_but_its_not/ Since the version is higher, it did not trigger the update, but still, it is kind of weird way of versioning the drivers without any special markings if it was Beta/Preview. It seems that the drivers were signed by nVidia, so they are official. Well, I guess this is the price for having a Preview version of Windows.

as the first step you need to figure out if your computer is using software or hardware encryption: Here in my case, it uses software encryption. As the next step I need to figure out if my SSD is "modern" and supports hardware encryption. https://blog.odenthal.cc/how-to-enable-bitlocker-hw-encryption-with-modern-ssds-e-g-samsung-980-pro/ the link above has further links to the following: https://media.kingston.com/kingston/articles/enabling-and-disabling-edrive-to-utilize-hardware-encryption-us.pdf https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/computers-it/samsung-ssd-970-evo-plus-drive-encryption-won-t-change-from/td-p/1352406 It does not look to me like an easy-to-verify and turn on the hardware encryption, especially when it requires W11 reinstall. I do not think this is something that can be fixed with a patch from MS. I mean switching from software to hardware encryption without wiping the whole drive would be a security problem by itself from what I see it.

Project Update - September 2023

Gave it another try today, but now it is totally blocked, no hope: so, at this point, there is no reason for even trying to purchase it via VM+W8.1, because it will not start anyway. I wish this game existed anywhere else outside of the MS Store. Here is the image when I look at this history of my purchases: For Testing only? (The first purchase is for the game, and the second one is for the expansion)

I purchased the game when I was using Windows RT tablet "back in the day", so I did not have to purchase it this time. I downloaded, installed it, and then logged in with my credentials that was able to pick up the license. A couple of days after it actually stopped working and would hang on the "waiting" for sync from the server when the game was starting. I might give it another try at some point. I also realized that playing it with the mouse is not as fun as playing it with touch on the Windows RT tablet.

Going back to the original thoughts about the LED lamps being modular and the reason for that. It still bothers me, since it does not look like that the way we handle (not only) bulbs is not really working for the environment. Remember the 3 REs? In this particular order: 1. Reduce 2. Reuse 3. Recycle (4. Destroy the environment) Basically, with anything that we are doing, Recycle is not a good-enough answer,. Most likely if all of the light bulbs would've been recycled th it would not be that bad. However,the lack of the recycling places ("even" in countries, like the USA), and lack of the incentives for people to recycle, the recycling part is not working. The idea of something being "cost-effective" concerns the producer and the buyer, rarely the impact on the environment. The business has no interest in solving the new environmental problems but selling you new clothing that will protect you from higher UV radiation, new extra protective sunglasses or breathing air filters, etc. Withough the regulations, businesses are evil. So are the people. Maybe there should be a deposit value for a bulb, so there will be enough incentive for people to return them to the place where they bought them, just like it is properly done with the deposit plastic bottles in some countries. Maybe there should be an imposed certification for the bulbs. Maybe something like the control for acohol that gets imported, or similar. Maybe the better quality LED lamps be subsidized. There are some options, I think. Sure, recycling is better than not recycling, I think it is not really working on the scale it should, and I do not think it is the right answer. ---- “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I see. Since we are not restricted as we were with the "old" bulbs, we can actually spread the LEDs across a larger area and have the electric components not as close to LEDs. I think it makes sense. That is what hot-climate areas should do as well then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klaJqofCsu4 ok, so more LEDs, less power ... I would assume these bulbs do not run as bright as the ones that use more power. There is going to be a tradeoff, just like with the Longer-lasting light bulbs: it was complicated where the balance between power, longevity, and brightness needed to be found. So, I really would like to see a comparison between these lamps. Adding 2x more LEDs and giving 3x less power got to be sacrificing the brightness. I do understand the problems with the hot weather, and maybe it is a reasonable scenario but "forget about physics"? A video about the grading efficiency of the LED bulbs and different parameters. LED Bulbs Downgraded From A+ To F! - Energy Labelling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWcfz1lfD-w

Interesting, this I did not know. I got to get to the recycling factory like that. It is interesting to look at it. And I do mean that, and not in a sarcastic way. Thanks for the "Longer-lasting light bulbs: it was complicated" video link about the Phoebus cartel.

I think that quite often this is one of the LEDs that fails that kills the bulb. I am not concerned about "factory original", the "refurbished" will do :). Just a crazy idea to have led modules like the replaceable cherry keys switches. Is there a video showing the recycling process of LED lamps?

I have to disagree with that. It would be much easier to take it apart and recycle the materials separately, like hard plastic from electronics, even if you do not plan to repair it. I see your point as having no plastic bags in the stores benefits 0% of people because the paper bags are more expensive. People are egoistic and selfish and have to be enforced to do something, or have no choice. That's a terrible argument. Of course they won't, just like the Coca-Cola's team probably won't tell you that soda is bad for you. Just because a company won't tell you their product is bad doesn't mean it doesn't have drawbacks. But a light bulb is not a laptop. Just because something works well for one type of product does not mean it works well for a different kind of product. I do not think it is a fair comparison either. It is hard to think of arguments when trying to put a drawback on something that we agree is bad (drink, not the bottle). But it is interesing that you mentioned that and I have an example just with the bottles. For the simple products, it can be as simple as this, considering I do not have a bottle opener. and that is sort of what can be done for the bulbs. There might be even advantages to that since you could put opaque, transparent or even color "tops". I do not think there are any drawbacks that will win over the benefits when talking about Framework. I agree that this is a different product and case about upgradability than repairability. As you said, with the the simple one-purpose device like a bulb, it is hard to provide incentives for that. I do not believe this is the right cause I see why it would not work. Maybe it has to be the right and simple enough design. I will go back to the greediness of the producers that they just want us to buy more lamps, even though I cannot prove or even test that. I started doing it 2 years ago writing a date and store where I purchased that lamp. But mMy apartment was built 2017, and I do not have any problems with any home appliances or anything that I could notice, so I do not think that the current is the problem. It partly could be a batch issue. How about not modular/repairable but at least separatable and recyclable? Like one could separate plastics from electronics and ... I see that you will say that no one will actually do it, even if there is a possibility for that. It has to be enforced or give fininancial interest of doing that. Maybe a "bulb-recycling-machine" could unscrew it. ----------- not fully related to the reuse/repair but to recycle. Some extra engineering, and hopefully not as many tops ending up in the trash instead of recycle. Maybe not the representative example but still interesting:

The electronics inside can stay pretty much as it is, it is that I want the top part to be removable. It will hardly make it weaker. I do not think that the Framework notebook team will agree that modularity makes things weaker. To me, it basically says that the glue holds something better than a screw, which I will disagree with. It has to be engineered, that is true, I think. Do not mean to be rude here, but if I think this way, then doing something about global warming has no economic sense to normal people. Incredibly cheap drives our planet to death. Recycling has no economic sense. It does not make economic sense for me to have 8 different boxes for different types of materials to sort and recycle. It occupies too much space and is inconvenient. So it has to be regulated, in the same way as the possible enforcement of the replaceable batteries in phones. There should be no such thing as "the last place" or "any place" for such things. Plastic bags are cheaper than paper but in some places, plastic bags were banned. Was that economic sense? Look at how many "cheap" pens, pencils, and razors we have. They are cheap to buy but they are meaningless and irresponsible.

I probably should mark it as the answer.

Maybe it is just me. From what I have experienced, unlike the box suggested 5-20 years, quite a few lamps (regardless of the price) last 3-6 years. Just like with many things, the producers of the lamps are not interested in making the lamps live longer, so I do not trust any producer that they are not repeating the "old" lamp conspiracy. When I look at the recycle box for the lamps for our multi-block house, there are quite a few of them every week. We moved to the new apartment 7 years ago, and since then I have changed all of the 12 lamps (that I can count now), and those were not cheap ones. It depends on how one defines a problem. For me, anything that can be repaired is better than recycling, so any waste is a problem. I have taken apart several lamps and with some, I was able to repair them, something like this. Most of the "dead" ones have the majority of LEDs still alive. The problem was that the cover of the bulb is not that easy to attach back. Nothing impossible but not as elegant as if it were designed for that. Still kind of rewarding, imho. As about complexity and simplicity. I would trade a little complexity for "native" repairability, it is not that having easier access to the bulb's components and making the top detachable would make it into a super sophisticated and expensive device. I would pay 2x for that compared to the "usual" lamp.