Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

"if you don't want a microsoft account, just make a microsoft account during #windows #oobe, then add a local account & delete the microsoft account afterward! easy peasy!"

i think you might be missing the point, help forum authors.

#til: if you want to set up a new #windows desktop pc with a local account & never know a microsoft account, you *MUST* prevent it from connecting to a network before #oobe finishes.

if you make the mistake of connecting on wifi first, a microsoft account is your only choice now. the *ONLY* thing you can do then is:

1. force-off the pc,
2. get out of wifi range or turn off your router,
3. turn on the pc,
4. don't go back or turn the router on again until the desktop appears.

seriously.

"The tools and tricks that let Ars Technica function without a physical office" - Looking at the “future of work” with a team that’s been living it for two decades: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/no-office-no-problem-how-ars-technicas-remote-workers-work/

sometimes when searching for niche tech, you come across what can only be described as technological shitposts:

#til among the many simple things you could do in outlook express that you can't do in the #windows 10 mail app is forward a message as an attachment. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/apps_windows_10-outlook_mail/windows-10-mail-forward-as-attachment/e9a87269-c211-413e-b293-128f6ea8225b

my customer has the user's guide that came with microsoft word 2.0 for windows way back in 1991. it's an 800-page tome. fast forward 28 years, & neither word nor the rest of the still-expensive microsoft office suite come with manuals anymore.

i just turned on a customer's laptop for the first time in months. the battery was completely drained, so i had to find & plug in their charger. after the laptop powered on, windows immediately logged off & shut down.

why?

because the laptop lid was closed right after the owner clicked on shutdown. windows stopped the shutdown & went into sleep mode instead, so it didn't finish shutting down until today, & it stayed in sleep mode until it drained the battery.

default windows behavior.

oh, btw, why i was hired to replace the battery: in the 100, the ram doubles as semi-permanent storage like a disk drive, & the ni-cad battery is what preserves it when it's turned off. when it fails, a symptom is random memory corruption even after a cold start.

i repaired vintage computers before, but up to now they were all mine, so it wasn't really a profession. now, after thorough testing of the Model T in my care, i can at last call myself a PROFESSIONAL vintage computer repair tech. *level-up.wav*

today, my computer fairy wand is on: someone else's TRS-80 Model 100.

the soldered-on nicad battery needs to be replaced. the original's been in there since 1983.

They introduced it with a Macromedia Flash Player animation channeling School House Rock. The original has been lost to time because Flash is dying & the server with the loading content is long since dead, but not before being captured & uploaded to YouTube. It was called "Get Perpendicular": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb_PyKuI7II

In 2005, Hitachi claimed advancing hard disk storage density with what it called Perpendicular Magnetic Recording in its Deskstar line and embedded Microdrive: https://web.archive.org/web/20110711171907/https://www1.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/index.html

But that's only the context for what I wanted to share.

How did we arrive in the timeline where a pocket computer a million times more powerful than the first supercomputers is simultaneously the single slipperiest personal possession AND the single most fragile personal possession?

Guess what just broke, how it broke, & what parts suffered the most damage.

If I accidentally dropped a 20th Century portable computer gadget from waist high, it would usually survive either completely undamaged or with light cosmetic damage.

If I accidentally drop a 21st Century portable computer gadget from waist high, it's destroyed beyond repair.