Newsletter Archives

  • Mac mini setup — KVM update

    APPLE

    Will Fastie

    By Will Fastie

    Reconfiguring the Mac mini so it would be a part of my KVM arrangement went without a hitch.

    I more or less expected that because the KVM box is a rather simple thing, although my use case is odd. I’ll explain that below. For now, I’ll just describe the slight differences that showed up when I made the KVM connection.

    Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.09.0, 2025-03-03).

  • Saving history

    PERSONAL MEDIA

    Will Fastie

    By Will Fastie

    Nothing lasts forever. Or does it?

    The readership of this newsletter is old enough to have used, if not embraced, a host of analog technologies for documenting memories. Today we’re taking photos and videos using our omnipresent “phones,” but as recently as two decades ago magnetic tape and film were our primary tools.

    We know this to be true because in our attics, basements, and closets we have trays of 35mm and Instamatic (127) slides. We have strips of black-and-white negatives, and perhaps strips of color negatives. We have boxes of video tapes in Sony Video8, Hi8, Betamax, VHS, VHS-C, and the crossover format MiniDV. We have albums of printed photos. We have quarter-inch audio tapes, cassette tapes, and maybe even the elusive 8-track cartridge format. We may even have vinyl LPs, and older 45s and 78s.

    Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.03.0, 2023-01-16).

  • Salvaging a fatally hacked PC

    LANGALIST

    Fred Langa

    By Fred Langa

    A subscriber’s PC was commandeered by malware; even the administrator’s account is now inaccessible! How can this PC be safely returned to service, especially now that Windows 11 is closing some of the old back-door admin-access workarounds?

    Plus: Is Google’s Remote Desktop just another way for Google to snoop on us? Does using Remote Desktop create new privacy vulnerabilities?

    And: A question about analog versus digital audio in portable devices, and their relative effects on battery life.

    Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).