As I recall, back around 2009 or so, certain models of second-gen Acer netbooks equipped with mechanical hard drives had a design flaw where playing certain types of audio could damage the hard drive because one of the speakers is mounted in the case directly above the drive. So, as ridiculous as audio-induced hard drive death may sound, this isn't the first time I've heard of the phenomenon.

First off, despite the problems I personally will be facing from not being able to run Flash content (discussed in the next paragraph), I want to say good riddance, it's about time Flash finally got the axe. It long outlived its welcome nearly a decade ago, but I imagine legacy apps are likely what kept it going past its prime. And thus we get into the "problems I personally will be facing". I have a NAS that's approximately ten years old. Ancient in tech terms, yes...but, it's still working perfectly fine and meeting my current needs. The problem is, the entire administrative UI...the ENTIRE UI...runs in Flash. Once Flash is totally killed, I will lose any ability to manage that NAS. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will face the sudden death of necessary functionality once Flash is completely done for, so there is going to be a bit of an adjustment period for those still using legacy Flash material. Still, I'll reiterate what I said at first...despite the problems it is going to cause me, I am still glad to finally see Flash go.

During the late 90s-early 2000s, there was a huge desire to drive real-world UI towards the "ultra-futuristic" representations seen in sci-fi, with shiny, fancy 3D interfaces and holographic displays. The thing is...none of these are required in the real world. For the general everyday user, a standard 2D UI is good enough, and anything more than that is at best a waste, at worst adds complexity that could be seen as potentially user-hostile. Just because the future according to sci-fi might look advanced, that doesn't mean we need to change the real world to match that.

For my daily driver & primary work computers, Firefox is what I prefer to use for all of my browsing when possible. But, under certain circumstances (most commonly wanting to login to a second web account simultaneously without logging out of the first), I'll use Chrome as my "Plan B" browser. Also, I've noticed that Chrome seems to better handle long-duration livestream videos than Firefox, so if I ever notice Firefox starting to get bogged down by the livestream or the video repeatedly stops to buffer, I'll switch it over to Chrome.

On the side, I perform freelance computer repairs, usually via house call. If I have determined that the customer's default browser is not compromised (infected with malware and whatnot), I'll use that because doing so allows me to make sure it is functioning properly. If it is NOT working properly, or the computer is infected (in which case I'll be using the computer from a known-clean Windows PE bootable USB), Firefox Portable is my Plan B. I also have a "just in case all other options fail" Plan C browser on my utilities USB, a very small and admittedly quite old browser called OffByOne. If for some reason I can't run any other browser, I can use that to do basic Google searches and file downloads to try and get the system back to a somewhat-normal level of functionality so I can switch back to Firefox Portable to continue my troubleshooting.

When it comes to my smartphone running Android Pie, I primarily use Chrome because it feels (to me anyway) to be the fastest and also works best with a specific website I use at work for online ordering. But, I also have Firefox installed as an ad-free alternative since I have the ABP extension on it.

I don't know the full details on the inner workings of brand name vs. generic drugs, but a thought I had is that maybe they were going to hold on to this bit of information until just before the trademarks/exclusivity clauses for Enbrel are due to expire, then suddenly come parading this new use out into the open, and use it as a reason to further delay at least some, if not all, generic versions of Enbrel. Just a thought, take it with a grain of salt...sold and marketed by a pharmaceutical company at $250 per grain.

Yes, you can download maps for offline use in a small area, but if you go outside that pre-defined area OR you didn't download maps for offline use and happen to drive through an extended area with poor or no 4G/3G service, it becomes useless. This is perhaps the most bothersome "no internet connection means it won't work" experience I personally have encountered, and it is the primary reason I still carry a standalone GPS device in my car.

There's also VoIP phone services, including a lot of the phone services provided by cable ISPs. Lose that connection, and you lose "landline" phone service...and yes, there are still lots of people who use landline phones either by choice or necessity.

Having in the past been "one of those weird people interested in warning sirens as a hobby", I have a fair bit of knowledge to how insecure their control systems actually are, and thus how trivially easy it is to compromise them. Although security is slowly improving, a lot of older siren systems are controlled using unencrypted analog radio signals transmitting standard DTMF (telephone-type) tones. For a malicious person, it is shockingly easy for them to turn on an off-the-shelf police scanner, find the frequency used to control the system, record the activation signal (such as during a regular monthly test), then at a later time use an illegal transmitter of some sort to rebroadcast that recorded activation signal on the same frequency over and over. I do not know what control method Dallas uses for their siren system, but the fact that one of the news articles (CBS News) I read about this said the FCC has been asked to help investigate leads me to believe more than likely such an attack was utilized...and this isn't the first time such has happened.

Hasn't this been a concern since the 90s though? I distinctly recall my mother traveling for work a lot back in the 90s (before 9/11, mind you), and every time she'd take her laptop the airport security would ask her to turn it on to prove it was a real laptop and not a bomb. I don't know if this was the case or not, but it was implied that if she couldn't prove it was real, she wouldn't be allowed to take it in carry-on.

Could this same tactic not be used to weed out fake explosive iPads? I would presume that an iPad casing stuffed with enough explosive to cause real damage wouldn't have room for electronics to make it functional, so I imagine the same "can't prove it's real, can't take it in carry-on" security check could be used rather than a whole outright ban.

Ah, yeah I figured they'd eventually find a way around that. Perhaps then changing the security permissions on the folder after creating it will help stop that trick of theirs in the next general release...until they find a way around THAT, of course.

I agree with the general consensus that they should have more than one backup. Having only one is foolish.

That said, regardless of how many backups a location maintains, there should be a standard mechanism that analyzes key files BEFORE starting a backup, verifies that they have not been modified or deleted, i.e. by ransomware, and if it detects that they have been modified or deleted, displays an alert and stops the automatic backup before it even begins, thereby protecting the integrity of the existing backup.

I was able to code such a mechanism myself into the automatic backup on our computer systems at work, which admittedly are simple .cmd scripts that use robocopy to back up key directories weekly to both an on-site and off-site NAS. But, it's effective. It outright refuses to run the backup if any of the files I told it to check are changed or missing.

I agree wholeheartedly, the fact that Windows 10 by default will just randomly reboot itself on a whim to install updates is INFURIATING. However, after some research, I found a way to stop it from automatically rebooting that has worked for me for several months so far.

First, we need to disable the mechanism that actually performs the automatic reboot after installing updates...
-Open Task Scheduler (Start, type "Task" and it'll appear in the results)
-Expand Task Scheduler Library>Microsoft>Windows>WindowsUpdate
-Delete the "Reboot" task
The task that performs the reboot is now gone, but we're not done yet.

Next, we need to prevent Windows from re-creating the automatic reboot task, which has reportedly happened spontaneously on some computers, most often during build upgrades...
-Hit WinKey+R and enter %systemroot%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator to open that folder
-Delete the file named "Reboot"
-Create a new FOLDER named "Reboot"
Since a folder named Reboot now exists, Windows won't be able to re-create the task file named Reboot.

As I said, doing this has worked for me for several months now, but of course YMMV applies here, especially if Microsoft ever decides to surreptitiously find a way to work around our attempts to take back ownership of our computers and crush us underfoot even harder for daring to defy them. :p

I still use optical media, but not for long-term data storage or transport. I primarily use DVD and CD to run bootable diagnostics, repair or cleanup tools (memtest86+, WinPE, DBAN, etc) and OS installation. I've long found booting from optical media to be far more reliable and supported than booting from USB, despite being significantly slower. Granted, USB boot support has improved, but I still periodically encounter systems that outright refuse to boot from USB, even with SecureBoot disabled. Besides, when running WinPE to clean up a potentially-infected computer, it's definitely beneficial to use read-only boot media.

My handwriting is so horrible that not even the NSA can decipher it, let alone myself at times. Therefore, for clarity I prefer to type my notes, especially if they are to be seen by other people. Also, it is simply faster for me to type than hand-write. Therefore, I almost always keep a blank Notepad window open on my computer for this specific purpose.

Besides, I'm always losing pens or having coworkers take them without returning them afterwards. If I somehow end up losing my computer keyboard, then I have more serious problems to worry about than my note-taking habits.

Regarding the "police tend to confiscate phones and delete the video evidence" issue...why not use a method of recording that simultaneously saves a copy of the video in a private cloud storage service? Granted this is still not 100% foolproof, since once the police have the recording phone in their physical possession they could potentially gain access via the cloud storage app and also delete the file there. But, it's still an extra step of protection that could potentially help in some "they deleted the video" scenarios.

Or, how about this...a cloud storage service that requires a second different password to be manually entered (No "remember this password" setting) before any uploaded files can be modified or deleted? I do not know if any such services exist, but this would almost certainly prevent police from deleting the cloud copies even if they have physical access to the phone and the cloud storage app.

Only twice that I can recall have I put in what I would consider true Easter Eggs. The first one was in a program I wrote for the TI-86 graphing calculator that would plot on a world map the exact location of latitude and longitude coordinates entered by the user. There was an Easter Egg where entering a specific combination of button presses on the map screen would make the program plot the coordinates of my hometown that I lived in at the time.

The second Easter Egg was in a very quick Visual Basic program I wrote where you could pop virtual bubble wrap by clicking on the bubbles. It had an option to "tear off a new sheet" whenever all the bubbles had been popped. The Easter Egg is triggered after popping and tearing off a ridiculously high number of sheets consecutively, at which point a message box would appear suggesting the user may wish to seek professional help for their severe stress.