The charger for my wife's Microsoft Surface failed. Microsoft's knockoff of Apple's Magsafe is apparently pretty unreliable. I had the idea to charge the machine with a USB-C cable. However, it gave me an error message that it was unable to charge. Some research revealed that USB-C charging is available as long as the charger supports the USB-C PD spec.

I bought a USB-C PD charger and cable from Monoprice, both of which are rated to handle 100 watts. However, I am concerned that it might be possible to run up to 100 watts of power through a USB-C cable that's only rated for 15 watts! This seems like a massive fire hazard!

Do USB-C PD devices have some way to tell how much current the cable can handle? Is this a fire waiting to happen?

Some of of these SPAM article on the Firehose lately really make me think. I assume they're generated by some sort of AI. The sentence structure tells my brain this is a real article. However, when I try to make a conclusion regarding what the article is about... I can't! I have to go back and read it again... and again... Finally I conclude, this is just clever SPAM, and I hate it!

We got a new sewing machine in our house. It's a very nice Singer "Heavy Duty" unit. However, while using the machine, I noticed it is still using the same motor and controls that sewing machines have used for the past 50 years.

Electric motors have come a long way in the past 20 years. Variable frequency drives are extremely cheap. It's to the point where it's difficult to find power tools that don't use brushless DC technology. Why are sewing machines a hold out?

My main complaint with sewing machines are the crappy low speed torque. You push the pedal down and listen to the motor buzz while it's stalled out. Push the pedal down some more, and the machine takes off, faster than your desired speed. This is a perfect application for a brushless DC motor and a VFD, yet they are only available on a few professional models.

It's time for sewing machines to come into the 21st century!

When you search Google for something, does is sort the results chronologically? No, it puts the most relevant result first. Outlook can't do that. Have a piece of critical information in your inbox from a year ago? Good luck finding it now. You have to sift through all of the emails that contain the keywords you are looking for, no matter how far apart they appear. They may even be in attachments.

Last week I was locked out of my old AT&T account. None of the password recovery tools would work. It said all of my security questions were invalid. I finally called AT&T to reset my account, and the tech informed me it was likely due to a security update on their system.

The old password system did not support any special characters. They updated the password rules to require special characters, and require OAuth for any mail clients. I received an email in 2019 about the changes, and then forgot about it... (my bad). However, AT&T did not send additional notices. One day my email just didn't work.

Once the friendly tech named Troy reset my account, I could access webmail again. However, Thunderbird no longer works. I really like Thunderbird as an email client for Linux, and don't really want to switch. It appears AT&T and Yahoo! got into some sort of disagreement with Mozilla about implementing OAuth. Now I remember why I didn't upgrade when I got that email in 2019...

Looks like there is a way to get AT&T email to work with Thunderbird by following the directions from mozilla.org. It's all working now, but it was a huge PITA!

After weeks of Googling, I finally found why Windows 10 always asks for a username and password to connect to local network shares, despite passwords being disabled on the server. AlPal01 posted the solution on answers.microsoft.com

I already know what most Slashdot readers thing about Microsoft...

Time and time again, COVID vaccine distributors in the US release a batch of vaccine appointments, and their servers crash. You would think they would learn. Unfortunately, Netcraft just doesn't track these things like they used to. However, if it keeps up, there's going to be a run on IBM magic smoke just like toilet paper.

Meijer seems to have it right. Register once, and they contact you when it's your turn.

I run a variety of ad blockers on my machines, including custom hosts files from Someonewhocares. However, I've noticed several Covid vaccine registration sites aren't loading correctly. Particularly, Meijer, but even some county health departments. They load fine on machines without such elaborate ad blocking. I think there is something suspicious going on, but haven't had the time to dive in fully. Anyone else notice this?