On Windows 10 Support EOL
The end of support for Windows 10 updates and the aggressive push from Microsoft to force users to upgrade to Windows 11 (which is apparently "incompatible" with tons of perfectly fine computers) reminded me of a certain gem from a bygone era. I bet you've never seen it, as it was a rather obscure parody of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up".
“Bought It Up” was a spoof of that track, and one of several parodies and jokes spawned by Microsoft’s relentless use of the "Start Me Up" slogan during the Windows 95 launch in 1995. Windows 3.1 users who got suckered into purchasing a copy of the new OS quickly grew frustrated with its requirements and the resulting upgrade costs.
This song was later animated and shared on the forums as a Macromedia Flash (SWF) movie. Remember those? Yes, Macromedia, which Adobe gobbled up much later, in 2005. So technically this one is from the OG era of Flash. Ah, memories…
Here's the original SWF file if you need it. You can play it using Ruffle, an open source Flash Player emulator.
Just a random piece of the early internet humor culture for ya. Guess history does repeat itself, who would've known, lol.
How to Survive Without a Numpad. Alt ♫ Code ☼ Emulation ♥ on Tenkeyless (TKL) and Laptop Keyboards With Autohotkey, the "Unix Way"
I recently obtained an extremely hard to find retro keyboard I always wanted.
It's one of those models with tactile mechanical switches, but not the deafeningly loud buckling spring ones. It both looks majestic and can actually be used on a modern PC thanks to the USB 1.0 interface.
Take a look. It's glorious!
Typing on it brings back memories of the old-school terminal computers, and the time when I typed my first words on a similar mechanical, solidly built keyboard. Which might explain why I have come to love expressing my thoughts through writing so much.
Ahem, anyway… There is just one tiny little issue with this keyboard. Coming from the early 2000's it completely lacks n-key rollover. Which makes it entirely unsuitable for gaming or any other applications where you're expected to press and/or hold several non-modifier keys simultaneously.
Think "WASD" 1st person shooter controls. That's not possible on a "retro" keyboard. And neither is something like this:
BTW, you can test your keyboard's rollover capabilities here.
I don't game much on my main PC, instead usually going for either one of my consoles or a fairly powerful guest-room laptop, which are all connected to a projector. So it's not really an issue. But I would like to have an option to make use of my monstrous RTX 4080 not just for rendering, video editing/encoding and running CUDA-accelerated apps, but for gaming also.
Consequently, I decided to get one of those compact wireless/wired "gaming" mechanical keyboards that are all the rage right now.
My Little Keyboards, My Little Keyboards...
After an extensive research, initial confusion and even shock, I landed on these two cuties. They both look so retro and slick, that I had to get both. Don't you judge me.
And if you look closely enough, you might notice that they both lack a numpad!