Ready, Set, STOP
This week on Battle Born Tech℠ we welcome Steve, Teresa, and Josh.
Steve has a 15-year-old laptop still works. Steve wasn’t going to throw it away. The question was which Linux would still talk to it, and why one installer built him a house while the other only moved the furniture.
Steve, actually USB Wifi add-on is a good solution to getting WiFi networking to an old Linux box.
Teresa has a sound bar that lights up. It just wouldn’t make a sound. The problem wasn’t the sound bar.
Every program on Josh’s computer remembers “don’t print on both sides.” Except the one that prints his checks. The fix was not where he’d been looking.
News: Windows 10 gets another year, of Extended SECURITY updates, data centers become war targets of drones, and French supermarkets learn what happens when the freezer takes orders from the internet.
EUBANK RULE: If a competent programmer cannot find the bug, the programmer is looking in the wrong place.
We are often in the studio Saturdays 9 am to 11 am and Sundays 7 pm to 9 pm Pacific. Have your smart phone or speaker remind you to call! Call direct to studio then or anytime at 775-241-3571 and set up a time to battle your tech!
“It’s a bridge, not a destination.”
“Puppy’s installer is a mover, not a builder. It carries the files in, but expects the house already to be standing.”
“Back in the bad old days of Linux, touchpads and Wi-Fi were the first to go.”
“We salute the refurbishers, the hobbyists, and the tinkerers who keep old technology going.”
“Those USB ports on the monitor are just decorative unless you plug the monitor into the computer.”
“It’s like plugging everything into the power strip, but you never plugged the power strip into the wall.”
“There are a lot of ways for sound NOT to come out of your computer.”
“You’ve been fixing it in Windows. That’s a post-fix. The break is inside the program.”
“If a competent user cannot fix a problem, the user is looking in the wrong place.”
“The internet was designed to survive a nuclear war. It heals itself by design. Unfortunately.”
“I wonder how long the internet would go on talking to itself if all the people suddenly disappeared.”
“This call is going to cost you money, because now you have to print checks.”
“Everybody’s messing with the printer settings, not just the printer.”
AI assisted to make us sound more human.
Battle Born Tech℠,
where the Wi-Fi is strong,
the fonts are good-looking, and the passwords are above average.
Printer Setup
A program’s own printing preferences, which can override what you set in Windows every time it prints.
22H2
The final version of Windows 10. Required for ESU. Type winver to check.
Data Center
A building full of computers that run online services. Yandex is Russia’s rough equivalent of Google.
VBScript
Short for Visual Basic Scripting Edition, a simple programming language Microsoft introduced in 1996 for small automation jobs: login scripts, installers, and the little .vbs files that did chores behind the scenes in Windows. Phasing out next year.
BATTLE PLANS
with help from Claude.ai
32 bit
An older style of computer processor and software. Most new software is 64-bit only, so a 32-bit machine needs a system built for it.
Atom N270
A low-power Intel processor from about 2008, common in netbooks. Tops out at 2 GB of memory.
antiX
A small Linux system built for old computers, still offered in 32-bit. Its installer prepares the drive for you.
Puppy Linux (BionicPup32)
A tiny Linux that loads entirely into memory from a USB stick. Fast, but its installer expects the drive to be prepared first.
Frugal install
Runs in RAM memory. The system copies its files into memory at startup instead of running from the hard drive. Turn off the system, and it’s gone.
Partition
A labeled section of a storage drive. A drive with no partition is like a lot with no building on it.
GParted
The Linux tool for creating and resizing partitions.
EXT4
Fourth Extended File System, a journaling file system for Linux. The standard Linux file system format for a partition.
Publisher
Microsoft’s desktop publishing program for flyers, newsletters, and church bulletins, part of Office since 1991. Microsoft announced the retirement in February 2024. Microsoft 365 subscribers lose access on October 1, 2026, and support for the standalone Office 2021 version ends October 13, 2026.
Magic Pointer
The AI-powered mouse cursor on Googlebook, Google’s new line of laptops that is replacing the Chromebook. Point at or circle something on the screen (an email, a date, a picture, a block of text) and Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, offers suggestions such as explaining it, rewriting it, or searching for it.
0xDEADBEEF
A hex value set by programmers to indicate an error.
Driver
The small piece of software that lets the operating system talk to a piece of hardware. On old Linux, Wi-Fi and touchpad drivers are the usual casualties.
Ethernet
The wired network connection. Almost always works when Wi-Fi doesn’t.
USB upstream
The cable with a flat rectangular USB-A end and a squarish USB-B end. It connects a monitor’s USB ports back to the computer. Without it, those ports give power but no data.
Duplex printing
Printing on both sides of the sheet. Good for reports, bad for checks.
Bot Check
Automated requests from programs rather than people. Includes search crawlers as well as the bad kind.
Claude HR complaints
On October 8, 2026 Anthropic added a prohibition on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward Claude models.
CALL US
Saturday 9 am – 11 am Pacific
Sunday 7 pm – 9 pm Pacific
775-241-3571
Click for More Info
- antiX
- Claude Policy (HR)
- Puppy Linux
- BionicPup 32 ISO
- GParted
- Microsoft ESU
- About MS ESU
- VersaCheck
- Yandex Drone Strike
- Yandex – Kyiv Post
- CNBC – Refrigerator Attack
- HackerNews – Attack
- Aljazeera – Attack
- VBScript phase out
- bbtl.ink/stats for more links
Breakmaster Cylinder composed and performs our theme music.
Carson City Linux User Group – Meeting third Saturdays at ComputerCorps in Carson City – carsoncitylinux.org
One on One Tech Help at the Carson City Library Wednesdays 3-4 pm Techbusters
ESU
(Extended Security Updates): Microsoft’s program that keeps sending security fixes to Windows 10 after regular support ended. Security fixes only, no new features. Now runs through October 12, 2027.
Data Center
A building full of computers that run online services. Yandex is Russia’s rough equivalent of Google.
Connection Controls
Equipment, like supermarket refrigeration, that can be adjusted over the internet. Convenient for the repair company, and for anyone else who gets in. On-prem are on premises not connected to the internet.
We are often in the studio Saturdays 9 am to 11 am and Sundays 7 pm to 9 pm Pacific. Have your smart phone or speaker remind you to call! Call direct to studio then or anytime at 775-241-3571 and set up a time to battle your tech!
Tuesdays 8 PM Pacific 95.1 FM Carson City, Nevada
Streaming at KNVC.ORG
Battle Born Tech℠ is a
Registered Service Mark of Christy Ramsey
