Category: Tech

Plasma Partisans Unite!

Food isn’t the only thing that can be overly processed. I was surprised and pleased to hear this segment on Marketplace, about the “improvements” that are found in the latest televisions.

Computer monitors continue to “look correct,” but television technology is going in the wrong direction, as far as I’m concerned. 8K? Really? But is returning to the old, discontinued plasma technology the best way to go? For some, but not for me.

A couple of friends have plasma TV’s (you know who you are!). They continue to use them and are pleased with the picture quality. I once tried a plasma TV, but for whatever reason, my eyes with cataract replacement lenses had trouble with it, as I explained at the time.

Plasmatic reaction

This video shows the effect of phosphor lag that, I suspect, some models of plasma TVs had more than others.

I see HDR (high dynamic range) as being another industry misstep, like 3D TV was. The idea seems to be that too bright isn’t bright enough. As I have said multiple times, I am happily hanging in with my two Samsung LCD/CFL sets and my very beloved JVC video projector. No HDR, no 3D, no motion smoothing, and no built-in “intelligence.”

P0420

My 2011 Honda CR-V has 82,000 miles on it. The check engine light came on six months ago. As the weather warmed up the light turned off and the car passed the emissions test during annual inspection.

Recently, with the weather turning colder, the light returned, and it has stayed on. I bought one of these for $17:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z3HB7DR

The OBD II scanner reported this:

P0420 $f111
Catalyst System Efficiency
Below Threshold Bank 1

So, it would seem the catalytic converter is failing. I reset the code to turn off the check engine light, but it’s certain to return.

I bought the CR-V new, fifteen years ago this coming May. In Massachusetts, a 15-year-old car is exempt from emissions tests. What to do… what to do…

A ChatGPT for Medicine

Wall St. Week recently featured the medical information startup OpenEvidence.

If this outfit goes public, it will be the first time I buy stock in a company other than my former employer, which is privately held.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/business/dealbook/openevidence-fundraising-chatgpt-medicine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vk8.ZrkA.fbIQBReE7qu-&smid=url-share

This Changes EVERYTHING! Here’s Why.

Did I say “everything?” Sorry, I meant to say this changes nothing, except for me.

The touchpad on my Windows 11 Lenovo laptop started giving me trouble. Gradually, it got worse, until suddenly it stopped working.

The Dell all-in-one with Windows 10 I bought in Arizona for my father, then shipped back home after he died, has TPM 2 for Windows 11. But Microsoft doesn’t support its AMD processor for the update and the system was running so slowly as to be essentially useless anyway.

Hoping the Lenovo touchpad failure was in the hardware, I replaced it. Device Manager says it’s okay, but like the original pad, there is no response. I’m now wondering if it’s somehow a software problem, resulting from an update. More likely there’s a failed component on the circuit board. Checking Reddit, I saw that I am not alone in having this failure. I will never buy another Lenovo product.

Retiring the Dell all-in-one, the Lenovo took its place in the office. For the porch, there is now a Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows 11, with a Qualcomm ARM 64 Snapdragon X Plus CPU. So far, its compatibility and responsiveness are indistinguishable from the Lenovo with its Intel i7 processor.

The Lenovo laptop has only one standard USB-A connector. I used it to put an old, long idle, Belkin USB-2 powered hub back into service. It’s fully loaded with a mouse, DVD-RW drive, laser printer, and an Ethernet adapter from a previous project. One less Wi-Fi connection competing for the airwaves.

I’ll give some flavor of Linux a try on the Dell all-in-one, to see if it has some life left in it. What I don’t have is space left for it!