Category: Technology

Over these few weeks, thanks to my Lenovo Yoga died on me (mentioned here), I have to buy a new set of external adaptors. Since the Lenovo Yoga has two USB-C ports but no regular USB port, I have to purchase external adaptor that is built for USB-C. It has its advantage for sure since I just need to use one single port for connection to my 4K HD monitor with ports for networking and other USB devices all in one compact device.

Now that I am using Microsoft Surface Pro 6, all these gadgets no longer work. Trust me. I tried. I even found a USB-C convertor to plug into the Surface USB 3.0 port and no luck. The USB ports on the adaptor kind of work but not the networking port. Definitely no output to the monitor either.

So I have to give them all up and buy myself a new all-in-one adaptor which I found on Amazon.

It works … except that the HDMI port does not produce the 4K resolution on my 4K HD monitor. I tried everything including direct changes to the resolution settings. It just cannot get my 4K monitor to display 4K.

So, I tried this on my 4K TV. And it worked. Damn, that’s annoying.

So I ordered a simple display port to HDMI adaptor hoping that it may solve the problem this time.

And nope. It has exactly the same problem. They just cannot sync with my 4K monitor.

Some people asking exactly the same question why the adaptors are not working. The vendors and some other “smart” users blame the problem on the HDMI cable saying that a low quality one will not work. Well, I am using exactly the same cable that used to connect my Lenovo Yoga to the same monitor. I also use this same cable for the connection to TV which works. Don’t tell me it is its low quality causing the problem.

The search goes on. I eventually bought this adaptor.

And it works! I finally found one that works with my 4K monitor giving me 4K resolution.

I don’t blame the other 2 adaptors for not being able to output 4K resolution on my monitor. After all they both can produce 4K output on my TV. My guess is that the 4K specification can be very tricky so a better adaptor may be able to handle more types of monitors.

Lessons learned.

Well, just days into my trip the unimaginable happened. My trusted laptop suddenly popped out a warning message telling me that the hard disk has encountered hardware failure and it is going to die soon. I am told to backup the computer as soon as possible.

I have not seen this message for at least 10 years. Not on my computers for sure.

Before that, I have seen it once or twice happening on someone else laptops.

I have dealt with hardware failures many times. Hence the recommendation I always make to others that they should backup their computers regularly. And I backup my computers religiously all the time.

But having this trouble in the middle of a trip where I needed the computer most is a first time.

I have already backup the computer completely over the past 10 hours. It took that long to backup everything I have on the laptop. I am taking no chances.

But now what?

I could not find a computer store nearby that is open. I am not sure if I can buy a replacement hard disk in coming few days.

The wait and see is getting me slowly.

Don’t know what to say when I was called this morning from the bank that one of my credit cards is compromised. I was told that the card is disabled and a new card will be sent to me in a few days. I thought that was no big deal because it has happened to me several years ago. Credit card information being stolen is just part of life when everything are paid with credit cards these days.

I was kept on the phone to verify every transactions happened lately whether each of them were legitimate purchases I made. It took couple of hours over the phone to get things cleared up. I thought the trouble was over until I checked online to see which credit card of mine can be used in place of the one that was compromised.

Crazy as it may seems, I found another credit card of mine has quite a number of Uber charges that I do not recognize. Within moments I realized that this other credit card was hacked as well. After another round of marathon phone calls to handle the situation, most of my day was used up already.

This is so frustrating. I have no idea how my credit card information were stolen. I do not visit questionable websites. My computer is clean from malwares. I shop at normal places. It is something I like to dig deeper to see if I can prevent this from happening in the future.

For now, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the credit card thieves / hackers will spare me for a long long time.

One worrisome thing I noticed during my trip to Asia several months ago was that Windows XP is everywhere. I am not joking here. Even though Windows XP has been discontinued by Microsoft with no updates and totally open to all kinds of exploits, it is still heavily in use. This gets me thinking, maybe those end of day prophecies are not about bombing, wars or whatever humanity issues but just that Windows XP stops working one day in the near future.

Odd Encounters

Official support for Windows XP has ended in year 2014 yet almost all the government services I have to deal with are still using Windows XP. Remember I travelled to quite a number of countries in Asia. This means all these countries, assuming they are using legitimate copies of Windows XP, have not upgraded their computers nor the operating system for at least 10 years already.

Originally I intended to take photos of these computers but I was challenged multiple times with serious threats to my personal safety for trying. Seriously, I did not, like, pull out a big ass camera to take a picture. All I tried to do was to take a quick photo with my cell phone. And nope, it is not allowed everywhere. The hassle I have to went through for even attempting to take a photo or asking about the computers is unbelievable. It is as if I was trying to spy on them or catching them for doing something criminal.

Bureaucrats Do Not Really Care

I do not see this as an issue of the frontline government workers. They have to use whatever they are given. I wonder who gave them the instructions to forbid people from taking pictures of their computers showing the Windows XP desktop or logo. And more importantly, what is the reason for being such paranoia?

My theory is that those who made the decision to use Windows XP computers could have been long retired in all these countries. If not, they probably moved higher up in their ranking or positions already. Hence those who inherited the existing equipment have no idea that computers are not furniture. Maybe those who originally made the purchase decision also have no idea that computers are waste asset that have to be replaced while they are still working.

Since we all know how bureaucracy functions in the real world, it is not hard to figure out the rest. Replace a broken computer is allowed. Repairing a broken computer is part of the maintenance program. But upgrading to new computers with operating system that may not work well with the rest of the deployed frontend computers, is definitely not a good idea for any smart bureaucrats who care about the safety of their jobs.

As long as these computers are still kicking, the bureaucrats in power would leave the headache of computer upgrades to the next bureaucrats.

Windows XP Is Common in Many Critical Government Services

I will not name names here. In the countries I have visited, Windows XP is used in customs, police stations, fire stations, centralized control centres for major bridges and tunnels. We are talking about critical government services here. We are also talking about the most vulnerable version of Windows being used for such purpose.

If these governments want to reduce the upgrade overhead, they have to bite the bullet and switch to something cheaper like Linux. Of course there will be huge up front cost to switch over and likely firing many of the IT staff too because they may not be tech savvy enough to maintain Linux based computers. In other words, either way these government departments are facing large expenses that the politicians will not approve. This is the other reason why many countries are stuck with their trusted Windows XP computers.

Time Bomb is Ticking

I am not saying Windows XP does not work well. In fact, the matured version of Windows XP was much better than the initial releases of Windows 7. Windows XP is also much less demanding in terms of CPU power. In short it is more efficient.

The problem though, is that Windows XP was released so long ago, that the components in those old computers with Windows XP can stop working anytime. When that happens, it is still possible to get new computer hardware to work with Windows XP now. In a few more years, however, it may no longer be the case.

A good example is the newer generation of USB ports. Currently, we are having the 3rd generation of USB being adopted everywhere. Windows XP can barely working with the components supporting this generation of USB. Soon, when the 4th generation becoming the standard, it is likely it may not even work with Windows XP at all.

I can foresee already that massive computer failures on these Windows XP machines happening in the near future. When that happens, I wonder if the government officials and the politicians understand what it takes to resolve the problem.

Defusing the Time Bomb

Hopefully, some government workers and high up bureaucrats, get the chance to read my post here. The important thing now is not to panic since they cannot suddenly upgrade all the computers anyway. By having a disaster management plan in place, it will take care of the crisis faster and minimize the impact of normal government operations. I think that is the number one priority for these government departments.

Many IT departments already adopted the practice of taking complete image of their deployed computers. Such backup image is great for dumping onto another computer should the original machine break down. It minimizes the down time but it only works if the target computer is having almost exactly the same configuration with very similar components. This is where the real bottleneck is as I discussed earlier in the article. Basic image of the computer hard drive is not good enough any more.

To improve the situation, the IT departments can create virtual machines of these frontline Windows XP computers. There are many solutions out there that do not cost much and can handle this task perfectly. What it means is that when new computers are needed, any hardware available can be used and having the cheapest stable operating system installed on such computer will be enough. The actual solution is just deploying the virtual machines onto these new computers.

Of course there are technical details that has to be attended to but it is well worth the effort. If anyone cares about the continuity of their computer systems operate smoothly with minimal down time, using virtual machine technology is probably the best solution right now.

Personal Agenda

I have my personal agenda here when I am writing this article. I actually talked to some high up government officials who understand the problem but they do not know what to do about it. Obviously, their people who manage the computers have not keep up their knowledge with the current technology we have nowadays.

I do not wish that one day I am stuck at a airport just because the computers suddenly not working and they have no way in restoring the service quickly.

I do not want to spend days waiting for something from a government just because their Windows XP computers are out of commission.

Hopefully, more people are aware of this crisis in the making so that it will be defused before major impact is felt when these Windows XP computers failing massively in the future.