THDP38 Microsoft News




The Help Desk Podcast show

Summary: I will be straight with you right up front…..this podcast is not about Windows 10.  That is coming soon….probably the first episode we record after my hip replacement surgery.  During the next podcast episode:  THDP39 I will go over our schedule expectations for the next month so stay tuned for that. It has been so long since we have produced podcasts on a regular basis…so we are kind of catching up here I guess and because of that this is a pretty busy show.  So this week once again I am trying to keep this episode at a nice manageable length….oh….somewhere south of 30 minutes for sure……just like the approximate 25 minutes of THDP37 last week. I want to thank everybody who is listening to the last two podcasts right now.  You are our hard core listeners or maybe you have some hardcore boredom issues…..I don’t care.  You still downloaded 36 and 37 at a pretty good clip. Another reason I bring this up is this announcement: [HOSANNA] Yes, this can only mean one thing…..we now have a listener in South Dakota.  I’m thinking the audio equipment has probably warmed up enough to work again and wham! There you have it you chose to listen to the Help Desk Podcast.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. In similar news over the last couple of weeks we have also picked up new listeners in Finland, Taiwan, Kenya, Ghana, Argentina and Estonia.  Yep, that means there are only two states in the USA where we have no listeners:  North Dakota and Montana.  And worldwide we now have listeners in 74 nations.  Let’s hear it folks!! [CHEERING] Don’t forget to mention that you are now using the Surface to podcast with because the Samsung ultrabook didn’t have enough guts to get the job done.. There was unacceptable latency and lag with everything (especially the audio editing with Audacity.  My love/hate relationship with Audacity is at times trying enough…I don’t have to go out and look for trouble by using a laptop that can’t get the job done. Between you and me, I don’t want to give Microsoft any credit with the Surface but since I have had it the thing has done everything I have asked it to do.  From troubleshooting switches to editing podcasts with Audacity. My setup is as it has always been.  A computer and two 21” monitors on a monitor arm.  I have a MediaSonic SmartDock Pro.  It handles the DVI and HDMI monitor cables along with an RJ45 for the network cable and what ….about 3 or 4 USB 3.0 PORTS ALONG WITH A COUPLE MORE 2.0 PORTS and then throw in 3 audio ports to boot.  I have that velcro’d onto the back of one of the monitors.  Easy to get to but out of sight (and off my desk). The other day I was running 3 You Tube videos… one on each screen and there was no latency.  In fact I was also typing out notes for a podcast!!  I have a Surface 2 Pro with the Core i5 and Windows 8.1 Pro on it.  I also got the 128GB storage and I put a 64GB SD card in it.  I am tempted to try to put a 128Gb SD card in but I am not sure it will work.  It may only recognize 64GB.  That and they are pretty pricey too and I don’t really need it anyway. Remember our 2nd annual laptop Buying Guide?  I believe we ranked the Surface as the 2nd best laptop available.  I rated that BEFORE I actually owned one.  Amazon was giving it away when I bought it.  It was refurbished and ran around $445. The Surface2 Pro has a 10” screen.  I don’t think I would like the bigger 12” screen of the Surface3.  It would have to be faster and lighter (and also somehow much, much cheaper) for me to consider one.  I don’t really like the keyboard but I can’t type for poo anyway so there probably isn’t anything they could have done to make me happy with that. I guess this has turned into a sort of review but we are talking about Microsoft anyway.