Bloomberg Terminal conflicts with Win10 Fall Creators Update

Bloomberg is advising that customers running Bloomberg Terminal need to refrain from upgrading to Win10 FCU, version 1709. Per their professional support page:

In October 2017, Microsoft released Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (OS build: 16299.19 and 16299.15). The update introduced issues that are known to interfere with the Bloomberg Terminal. We are working with Microsoft to resolve these issues. In the meantime, please refrain from updating your PCs to affected versions.

As I’ve advised many times, 1709 isn’t yet ready for prime time.

Office non-security patches for November 2017 have been released

These are November patches. We are under MS-DEFCON 2. You do NOT want to install them yet (unless you want to be an unpaid Beta tester).

Office 2007

Update for Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 (KB4011203)

Office 2010

Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4011188)

Office 2013

Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB3172533)
Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB4011228)
Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB4011229)
Update for Microsoft OneNote 2013 (KB4011075)
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4011252)
Update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 (KB4011168)
Update for Microsoft Project 2013 (KB4011235)
Update for Microsoft Word 2013 (KB3162081)
Update for Skype for Business 2015 (KB4011255)

Office 2016

Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011138)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011216)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011223)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011224)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011226)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4011259)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 Language Interface Pack (KB4011145)
Update for Microsoft OneNote 2016 (KB4011137)
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4011240)
Update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 (KB4011219)
Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB4011227)
Update for Skype for Business 2016 (KB4011238)

The Office Publisher 2007 update and the Office 2010 update are UNCHECKED important updates.
Security patches for all current supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday)

Google’s ‘Pad Thai’ doodle

You may have noticed today’s Google Doodle, which “celebrates Pad Thai.”

Having lived in Thailand for 13 years, I consider myself something of an aficionado — but my wife’s the expert. My wife still makes the best Phad Thai I’ve ever had. She learned at her mother’s knee, in South Eastern Thailand.

A couple of notes. ผัดไทย or Phad Thai (that’s the way my wife spells it) is pronounced, more or less, “pud tai.” Thai is a tonal language, so you’ll never get it right. It literally means “stir fried, Thai style” which describes the situation quite well – stir fried noodles, done the Thai way, almost always in a cast iron wok.

There’s an entire cuisine built around Phad Thai. Every Thai village has at least two or three different roadside stalls selling Phad Thai, and they’re all different. The best Phad Thai IMHO is, invariably, available near the sea, where fresh shrimp makes it Phad Thai Goong. (Goong = shrimp) Phuket is a Phad Thai paradise.

I’ve had good Phad Thai in the US, but most of it’s kinda blah. The recipe offered by Google/YouTube is OK, but you really need to get original, authentic, fresh ingredients — which I can find in several Asian grocery stores in Nashville and, especially, Atlanta. If you’re curious, watch this excellent video from a real Thai Thai named Poo.

Avoid the temptation to use the American “Sriracha” sauce — you know, the bottle with the rooster on it. It’s made by a Vietnamese guy in Los Angeles. Which is fine, but the best stuff comes from Sriracha, the eponymous province in Thailand where Sriracha sauce was invented. My favorite is Sriraja Thai Panich from Theparos Food Products, which you can find in Asian markets all over the US. It’s completely different from the rooster stuff.

Some day, I swear, I’ll write a book about real Thai food.

MS-DEFCON 2: Non-security Office updates due today

Which means it’s a good time to check and make sure you have Automatic Updates turned off.

If you’ve been following along, you already have Automatic Updates turned off. If you aren’t sure about your Auto Update status, see my new article in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

You need to patch sooner or later, to be sure. But you don’t need to install non-security patches right away.

We’re at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

Everything you need to know about voting on Tuesday

For those of you who are US citizens…

Drop by vote.org for quick access to election information.

Then vote. Please. Every vote, in every election counts – now more than ever.

About that Comcast outage…

Good third-party coverage on downdetector.com.

Commercial customers are screaming. Business customers are screaming. Per Paul Hawkins:

We use Comcast High Speed Business internet for many of our offices. Confirming that Bell Air MD (1 office), Fitchburg MA (3 offices), Stratham NH (1 office) Concord NH (1 office) Merrimack NH (1 office), Hamden CT (2 offices) are all having intermittent disconnects since about 12:45 PM EST today, 11/06/2017. We have WAN failovers and forced the failover to get us past the issue of short intermittent issues for now. Unfortunately, we spend an hour trying to figure out why our VPN’s were all dropping and reconnecting. Finally suspected a wid spread issue with Comcast. We have 3 other offices on Verizon FiOS, Optimum, and Cox, and they are all fine.

Microsoft yanks buggy Windows patches KB 4052233, 4052234, 4052235

Those are the “Patch Thursday” fixes I talked about last week. Microsoft blew it, and now they’re covering their tracks by not only pulling the patches in the Catalog, but also obliterating the KB articles.

Computerworld Woody on Windows.

More Surface woes. This time it’s the Surface Pen and Win10 Fall Creators Update

If your Surface Pen suddenly stops working, there’s another possible cause. Before you change your battery or go out and buy another Pen, make sure you read this.

Computerworld Woody on Windows.

If you haven’t yet seen the Flickergate site, and you own a Surface, now might be a good time to drop by.

New version of the EU General Data Protection Regulation

From HiFlyer:

“This website is a resource to educate the public about the main elements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
“After four years of preparation and debate the GDPR was finally approved by the EU Parliament on 14 April 2016. It will enter in force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal and will be directly application in all members states two years after this date. Enforcement date: 25 May 2018 – at which time those organizations in non-compliance will face heavy fines.”

http://www.eugdpr.org/

Key Changes

http://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html

AnimojiKaraoke: Birth of a new art form

Yeah, I’m joking. It’s really AnimojiLipsync. Still…

If you haven’t been on Twitter this weekend, you may have missed the emergence of a remarkable new form of … I’m not sure what to call it.

Enabled by the “animoji” feature of the new iPhoneX, it’s captivating. I first saw “Hooked on a Feeling” animojisynched by Harry McCracken. Then I saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Mia Harrison and my life will never be the same.

Here’s a great compilation from Oli Newton. Enjoy the weekend.

Yahoo Financial abruptly cuts off its near-real-time stock quotes

… and I don’t have a decent alternative.

I’ve used Excel formulae like this one for years

=NUMBERVALUE(WEBSERVICE(“http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=”&A3&”&f=l1”))

Do you know of a good way to pull near-real-time stock quotes into Excel?

By the way… If you know of a good way to do this in Google Sheets, I’ll dump Excel in an NYSE minute. But Google Finance is also losing the function.

Throttling CPUs in Win10 Fall Creators Update, version 1709?

Just got this note from reader J:

So been working with couple users who think their laptop is slower since 1709.

I have found that Microsoft has changed power profiles and in fact some laptop users like myself have actually lost a couple profiles with only balanced profile listed in Control Panel.

But I have also noticed that the CPU’s may be throttling back more aggressively on laptops.

Apparently Fall Creator tries to throttle apps in background, but it appears the entire PC might be suffering from this throttling. Even active apps and programs. Wonder if you heard anything about this.

Most of us who manage to switch to a performance profile gain back the performance. If Microsoft claims better battery life, and their just throttling the CPU more. Isn’t this just smoke and mirrors trying to say Win 10 is more efficient?