The Ashdar Partners Blog

I spent some time troubleshooting problems in my home office tonight.  Firstly, I managed to realize that the Windows 10 CTP that I've been running on   Brix since the fall was somehow using the  " Performance" power profile. I'm not sure if Windows did that to "help me" or if I did it when I was fiddling with things. Brix is a desktop (sort of -- it actually sits on my sub-woofer), so saving power isn't a big deal but this setting would have led to higher processor operating frequencies, more heat output and a louder fan. I do care about louder fans. One of the reasons that I bought Brix was to get away from my noisy old Core 2 Duo. When I set the power plan to "Balanced", Brix quieted down immediately.  This will probably be more impressive once the temperatures start to climb as we head towards summer. Secondly, I got down to business and finally looked at the time/clock problem I've been seeing around my home office. I had ...

I recently found an IBM Model M keyboard at my local Goodwill store. There is rarely any computer hardware in there worth having, so this was quite a surprise. As far as I can tell, this Model M has never been used even though it was made in 1993. It came in what appears to be the original box, with a styrofoam insert. The coiled, un-stretched cable still has plastic wrap on it. There is no visible wear on the keys. There are no finger grease stains. It is a virgin, IBM-branded, Lexmark-manufactured beige beauty. Even the box doesn't look 20 years old. The model M was built before USB was a thing, so it has a PS/2 port. My main rig has a "legacy free" motherboard, so it doesn't have PS/2 ports. It only has USB ports. The keyboard I have been using lately is from long-gone Micron computer. I bought a computer from Micron in the 1990s and the only remaining evidence of that is that keyboard. (Micron was a popular computer vendor at that time, though there isn't muc...