Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
Remember them? I wrote some! 🙂 In fact, I believe I wrote the first type-and-run program to appear in a non-computer, general-circulation magazine, at least in the US. Back at the dawn of the PC era, I was a newly-hatched junior editor at New Shelter magazine; a general-circulation publication with 750,000 subscribers; covering things like…
Yes, by definition: It’s not working, so it’s broken! 🙂 I think you’re really asking if it can be repaired. If you can remove the keyboard, it’s quite possible that you can indeed correct what’s wrong. You’ll have to poke around your laptop, carefully removing fasteners, to see how it’s put together. Some laptop keyboards…
Reader Terrence Clay asks: “Are portable speakers that much better than phone or laptop speakers?” There are many variables, but — if everything else is equal — high-quality larger speakers will sound better than high-quality smaller speakers. It’s partly physics, partly biology. Music and nature produce sounds over a huge range of frequencies; but a…
Yes, with one exception; especially if you mean doing a full shutdown, followed by a full restart some time later. All reasonably current PCs have well-developed power-management systems that are designed to reduce unnecessary energy consumption during use, while the PC is idling, and during restart. Because energy consumption is directly correlated with wear-and-tear of…
Q: “How can you fix an SD card which cannot be formatted? Every time I reformat it the files are still there.” A: The card is probably write-protected by hardware; or by software; or is simply broken. Hardware write-protection: Examine the card for a “lock” or “write protect” slider or switch, often (not always) on…
As with any city, there are places and times when traffic is bad; and places and times when it’s not. Without more specificity to your question, it’s really not answerable. But here’s how you can find out: Open Google Maps for Boston, and enable the traffic layer; Google Maps will then show you live traffic…
Permalink: https://langa.com/?p=1574 Want to ask Fred a question? Have a comment? Click here! Want free notification of new content like this? Click here!
I hadn’t, but I’m glad you asked (thanks!). This was fun to research, not only because it involves an interesting artifact from the early days of computers, but also because it shares a concept with Bandersnatch, the Netflix choose-your-own-ending movie! TUTAC stands for “TUTorial Automatic Computer,” a device that existed only on paper, in the…
In Windows, it’s easy! Open Device Manager by your preferred means (e.g. use search/run/cortana and enter “device manager” or “devmgmt.msc”; or open device manager in Control Panel/Devices and Printers/device manager; etc.). See Fig 1. To make sure you’re seeing everything, click View, and select Show hidden devices. Fig 2. Scroll down the list of devices:…
In the most conceptual sense, a click or keypress briefly completes an electrical circuit. The part of the computer that handles the keyboard sees this as a zero value changing to a one; the computer then initiates whatever sequence of events it’s been programmed to follow to interpret the keypress, send the keypress value to…