If You’re Running Windows 11 24H2, This Is How You Stop Recall From Running On Your PC

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 1, 2025 by itnerd

If you’re like me, you always install the latest updates for whatever OS you happen to be running. But if you’re running Windows 11 and you’ve installed version 24H2, then you got something extra that you may not like. You got Microsoft Recall which is Microsoft’s AI “feature” that takes screenshots of literally everything that you do just in case you need it later. Now if this bothers you, and it should regardless of what Microsoft may say about it, here’s how you can confirm that it is running (more on this later) and how you can disable it. To check to see if it is enabled, do the following:

  • Click on start
  • Search for “cmd” (without the quotes)
  • Look for and click on the option “run as administrator”

At this point a black window should appear. From there you need to see if Recall is enabled. You do that by typing this command into the black window:

Dism /Online /Get-Featureinfo /Featurename:Recall

If you see that the feature is enabled, you can disable it by typing in this command into the black window:

Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall

Then to be safe you should re run the first command that I gave you to ensure that it is actually disabled.

Now if for whatever reason you want to enable this feature, and to be frank I am not sure why you would want to, here’s the command that re-enables Recall:

Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:Recall

Now every PC that is running Windows 11 24H2 has this “feature” installed. But Microsoft says that this “feature” is only enabled on AI enabled PCs. That may be true at the moment. But I can easily see Microsoft enabling this feature on every PC running Windows 11 and doing it silently as they have a bit of a habit of doing that. Thus you may want to periodically check to see if Recall got turned on via a software update every few months or so.

If you want to find out more about Recall and why I am no fan of it, click here for that. Now to be fair to Microsoft, they have pulled the feature to rework it. And they swear that it’s not as bad as it’s made out to be. But that still doesn’t change my mind about it. Thus in my opinion, you’re better off turning it off and leaving it off.

Happy new year!

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Founder And CEO Of Other World Computing Gives His Predictions For 2025

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 31, 2024 by itnerd

As 2024 wraps up, we’ve seen tech trends like AI, data management, and performance tools evolve in exciting ways. Looking ahead to 2025, Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO of Other World Computing (OWC), has made some bold predictions about how businesses and creatives will approach these technologies in the future:

Prediction 1: The Return of On-Prem Data, Compute, and Backup to Improve Performance, Strengthen Security, and Control Costs 

On-premises data storage and computing will become increasingly essential as companies prioritize security, performance, and financial control. With rising costs and growing vulnerabilities in the cloud, organizations and individual operators are increasingly moving back to on-prem solutions as the primary strategy for secure data management. Storing confidential data locally not only cuts costs and improves access speed but also greatly reduces the risk of exposure to large-scale breaches, making it a safer choice over public cloud options. Local data storage, especially in the case of smaller businesses, is a far less attractive target for cyber-attacks, offering a crucial security layer that cloud solutions cannot match. While the cloud can still play a role as an add-on or tertiary backup for external data sharing or less critical uses, on-prem data and computing are now the must-have strategy, with the cloud as a “nice to have” or specific use application in the mix.

“The cost of cloud storage in particular has gone from nearly given away to becoming significantly expensive. The freebies that drew people in have been slowly but surely pulled away and with a growing cost to the storage. I have spoken to some in the service space that a decade ago got into the business of driving customers to cloud storage services who are now finding good business driving them back to on prem.”

“It’s not that these distributed storage providers do not offer value – but it’s all about the right services for the right need.”

“There’s no reason to depend on the cloud for all or even a majority of your data needs. It’s not cost-effective to do so vs. easy-to-deploy, faster, on-prem options. The cloud also  requires and costs you bandwidth, and also time.”

“If your confidential data is on the cloud, you obviously have a greater risk of being part of a massive, large-scale breach… It’s less of a risk to use the cloud for external data sharing but not for corporate infrastructure. Keeping your data local, as a smaller target, is often more secure.”

“The cloud for backup really should be tertiary, in my humble opinion, whereas having a good backup strategy locally is going to be more cost-effective and give you much greater accessibility. If something goes down locally and you need to recover, it’s faster and more convenient if you do so locally, rather than having to pull it off the cloud.”

Prediction 2: The Rise of On-Prem AI for Democratization and IP Protection 

Bringing AI capabilities on-premises allows more businesses, especially smaller ones that may not have the budget for extensive cloud-based AI, to benefit from powerful data processing and analysis tools.  Having AI on-site also plays a crucial role in protecting a company’s intellectual property (IP). When AI is run locally, sensitive and proprietary data – such as customer insights, unique algorithms, and business strategies – stays within the company’s secure environment, reducing the risk of exposure or leakage that can happen when data is sent to and processed in the cloud – i.e., avoiding “data bleed” where proprietary information could unintentionally enhance third-party models or be accessed intentionally by external entities.

“On-prem AI will democratize some of the AI learning and capabilities that smaller businesses and institutions will have access to. AI in the cloud is already really expensive.”

“Having on-prem AI means that your data and IP gets to stay on-prem… There’s not one bit of risk that there’s any bleed-over from the datasets you provide for AI, ultimately helping other systems and potentially competitors learn and benefit from your private data and knowledge. You also have an ongoing benefit, not a forever cost expenditure.”

Prediction 3: The Performance Gap Between Locally Operated Systems and Cloud-Dependent Solutions Will Continue to Expand 

Higher-performance desktop storage and local networking is going to create a larger gap versus network-dependent data needs. For those that benefit from higher performance at their working location – for editing, ingest, backup, you name it – the advent of Thunderbolt 5 and continued improvements in Thunderbolt 3/4 40Gb/s capabilities on the latest crop and future Mac and PC/Windows systems means local data and interface capabilities have never been better. 

“When you are able to operate locally with interface speeds, on plug and play cabling or networking, at up to 7000MB/s vs. a typical at best of 100MB/s (1/70th the speed), suddenly you’re feeling even more so the drag of remote cloud dependency vs. what you can do internally and now externally on your system.” 

“Complex data sets, high-resolution imagery, video – all of these things can be manipulated and processed more and more efficiently on a local level with the cloud being a good distribution vector for the final works versus the raw.”

“The sheer improvements of the last few years and the leapfrog/jump of this recently with Thunderbolt 5 gives all of us great options for how we get it done on-site and how we balance the benefits of cloud capabilities for share and distribution as needed. When it takes longer to upload and then download a large data set site to site versus duplicating to a fast drive and shipping it… and for a far lower cost…. It’s all about finding the best fit and using all the available technologies for the workflow a given user/company finds best for them.”

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US Treasury reveals Chinese hackers stole documents in ‘major incident’

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 31, 2024 by itnerd

Reuters is among news outlets disclosing that the US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole documents in ‘major incident’, reporting that “The hackers compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said, calling it a ‘major incident.’”

According to the letter from the US Treasury to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, hackers “gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.”

Lawrence Pingree, VP, Dispersive had this to say:

“Beijing’s routine denial of responsibility for cyberespionage incidents raises diplomatic challenges with the US in addressing such breaches effectively since there’s lack of transparency and accountability/coordination. In this case, it’s hard to tell whether it was a breach of an application’s “secret” or some form of cryptographic key. Secrets and cryptographic key management are critical elements of managing software API access and thus if deficient in some way, or a compromise occurs via a developer’s endpoint, the breach of those secrets and authentication keys can create these types of epic breaches. It’s important that systems that developers and administrators use are properly isolated by zero trust technology controls, along with robust key and secrets management processes are tested and followed.”

Former NSA cybersecurity expert Evan Dornbush follows up with this:

“The cybersecurity world is reeling from yet another high-profile breach, this time targeting the clients of security vendor BeyondTrust. This incident joins a growing list of attacks on security firms, including Okta (whose breach directly impacted BeyondTrust as a customer), LastPass, SolarWinds, and Snowflake.

“In today’s interconnected landscape, your perimeter has all but vanished. A single zero-day exploit against a vendor can cripple your own operations. The BeyondTrust response, while remarkably swift, underscores this harsh reality.

“Discovered on December 2nd, the BeyondTrust hack saw the root cause identified by December 5th, leading to the emergence of two CVEs. Clients were notified on December 8th, and a patch was released by December 18th. Recent reports attribute the attack to Chinese actors.

“Sixteen days from discovery to mitigation, patching, disclosure, and attribution is impressive. However, this speed doesn’t negate the fundamental problem: their zero-days are your problem. While BeyondTrust acted quickly, the attackers likely exfiltrated data long before the patch was available. In smash-and-grab operations like this, data theft doesn’t take 16 days.

“As we enter 2025, one prediction is unavoidable: Network Detection and Response (NDR) must become a cornerstone of both internal security and third-party risk management. It’s the clearest way to detect anomalous activity across the enterprise. Further, until defenders gain advanced warning of the exploits attackers wield, the playing field remains tilted sharply in the attackers’ favour.”

Given that this is the latest cybersecurity incident tied to China, it is becoming clear that they need to be held accountable for their actions in some way, shape or form. But at the same time, we need to do a better job of defending against them so that they are less of a threat than they are now.

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A Major Supply Chain Attack Via Hijacked Chrome Extensions Has Just Happened.

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 30, 2024 by itnerd

While I was spending my morning building a new virtual machine library on my MacBook Pro, a reader sent me a text message with this link that anyone who uses browser extensions in general, and specifically Chrome browser extensions should read:

At least five Chrome extensions were compromised in a coordinated attack where a threat actor injected code that steals sensitive information from users.

One attack was disclosed by Cyberhaven, a data loss prevention company that alerted its customers of a breach on December 24 after a successful phishing attack on an administrator account for the Google Chrome store.

Among Cyberhaven’s customers are Snowflake, Motorola, Canon, Reddit, AmeriHealth, Cooley, IVP, Navan, DBS, Upstart, and Kirkland & Ellis.

The hacker hijacked the employee’s account and published a malicious version (24.10.4) of the Cyberhaven extension, which included code that could exfiltrate authenticated sessions and cookies to the attacker’s domain (cyberhavenext[.]pro).

Cyberhaven’s internal security team removed the malicious package within an hour since its detection, the company says in an email to its customers.

A clean version of the extension, v24.10.5 was published on December 26. Apart from upgrading to the latest version, users of the Cyberhaven Chrome extension are recommended to revoke passwords that aren’t FIDOv2, rotate all API tokens, and review browser logs to evaluate malicious activity.

Yikes! At least this cybersecurity company took action quickly and notified their customers. Who looking at the list aren’t small.

But this story isn’t over:

Following Cyberhaven’s disclosure, Nudge Security researcher Jaime Blasco took the investigation further, pivoting from the attacker’s IP addresses and registered domains.

According to Blasco, the malicious code snippet that let the extension receive commands from the attacker was also injected around the same time in other Chrome extensions:

  • Internxt VPN – Free, encrypted, unlimited VPN for secure browsing. (10,000 users)
  • VPNCity – Privacy-focused VPN with AES 256-bit encryption and global server coverage. (50,000 users)
  • Uvoice – Rewards-based service for earning points through surveys and providing PC usage data. (40,000 users)
  • ParrotTalks – Information search tool specializing in text and seamless note-taking. (40,000 users)

Blasco found more domains that point to other potential victims but only the extensions above were confirmed to carry the malicious code snippet.

Cybersecurity researcher John Tuckner has found an additional set of extensions which also had the same malicious snippet injected on their code.

These are Bookmark Favicon Changer, Castorus, Wayin AI, Search Copilot AI Assistant, VidHelper, Vidnoz Flex, TinaMind, Primus, AI Shop Buddy, Sort by Oldest, Earny, ChatGPT Assistant, Keyboard History Recorder, and Email Hunter.

The additional set of extensions infected by the data stealing code have a collective download count of almost 380,000.

There have also been additional cases of compromise such as Visual Effects for Google Meet, Rewards Search Automator, Tackker, Bard AI chat, and Reader Mode, but these have been removed from Chrome’s Web Store.

This situation I acknowledge is a worst case scenario. But bad browser extensions can do anything from swipe passwords or steal data among other things. Having said that, supply chain attacks like this one are becoming more common. Thus this highlights why you need to be extremely careful about what extensions or software you install on your computer. Otherwise you might be on the wrong end of something that’s really, really bad.

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Follow Up Review: BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX Gaming Monitor

Posted in Products with tags on December 29, 2024 by itnerd

I’ve had a number of requests to do a follow up review of the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX Gaming Monitor to find out if I still had positive feelings about it. Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is a bit more complicated. Let’s start with the fact that the get the most out of this monitor, you need to update the firmware. BenQ has shipped five versions of their firmware according to their US website. But in reality, they got a sixth one that they haven’t documented anywhere except in this Reddit thread. While that’s an area that they clearly need to improve upon, their firmware have improved in areas like the USB hub functionality, display flickering. The latter I noticed if I was going from a really dark screen to a light one. The other thing that I should point out is if you use the KVM functionality, you should apply the KVM fix as that fixes a very persistent issue that has been around for users since day one and is described in this Reddit thread. Now I never noticed this as I don’t use that functionality, but I am glad that BenQ has addressed this.

Now one side effect of the firmware updates is that this monitor now seems to support EDR which is Apple’s implementation of HDR. In short, EDR or Extended Dynamic Range is a holistic approach that gives developers and content creators a clear-cut idea of how to achieve the best HDR results on Apple hardware, software and services. The main advantage of this is that this display seems to behave like Apple’s own monitors like the built in XDR display on my MacBook Pro where HDR content can be side by side with SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content and both look perfectly fine. That’s another huge plus for this monitor.

Is there anything that I would change? Well, if BenQ is reading this, I would like to have the next iteration of this monitor support 10Gbps USB-A and C rather than the 5Gbps that it supports now. That would make it better for people like me who use this monitor as a USB hub.

I’m pretty happy with this monitor and I look forward to using it for years to come. Or whenever Apple decides to put out a monitor that supports ProMotion or Variable Refresh Rates and HDR. Whichever comes first. Until that monitor appears, this one will be on my desk.

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Experts From Dispersive And AppSOC Share What They Expect In 2025

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 28, 2024 by itnerd

Today Lawrence Pingree, VP with stealth networking leader Dispersive (formerly Research Directory, Gartner Inc.) and Willy Leichter, CMO with AI cybersecurity innovator AppSOC, share what to expect in 2025.

Lawrence Pingree, VP, Dispersive:

Increased Sophistication: Hackers will likely continue to refine their techniques, leveraging advanced tools and strategies to exploit vulnerabilities and bypass security measures. This includes utilizing AI and machine learning to automate attacks and make them more effective.

Targeting VPNs: VPNs will remain a prime target, as they provide access to sensitive data and systems. Expect to see more attacks aimed at exploiting VPN vulnerabilities and compromising user credentials. It’s more important than ever to educate users about phishing threats: phishing remains the primary cause of data breaches (80-95%).

Lateral Movement: Once inside a network, hackers will focus on lateral movement, seeking to gain access to additional systems and data. This could involve techniques such as privilege escalation and credential theft. Meaning that Zero Trust network access and technologies like dispersive become required to address the latest threats.

Data Exfiltration: The ultimate goal of many attacks will be to exfiltrate sensitive data, such as customer information, financial records, and intellectual property. Hackers may employ various methods to steal data, including malware, phishing, and social engineering.

Disruption of Operations: In addition to data theft, hackers may also aim to disrupt business operations, causing downtime and financial losses. This could involve launching denial-of-service attacks or deploying ransomware to cripple critical systems.

Evolving Tactics: Hackers will constantly adapt their tactics to stay ahead of security defenses. This means that organizations must remain vigilant and proactive in their security efforts.

Here are some additional events & insights from 2024 that demonstrate what needs to happen in 2025:

  1. The Check Point Quantum Gateway vulnerability (CVE-2024-24919) highlights the importance of patching vulnerabilities but also upgrading to VPN technologies that eliminate the attack surfaces exposed promptly.
  2. The rise of AI and machine learning in cyberattacks poses a significant challenge for security professionals, expected to continue in 2025, but be increasingly multi-dimensional powered by AI.
  3. Organizations need to adopt a multi-layered approach to security, combining technology with strong policies and employee education, focus on Preemptive cyber defense technologies, instead of being so reliant on detection and response.

So, what to do? Lawrence notes that 2025’s threat landscape will likely be even more challenging than in previous years. Prioritizing cybersecurity and investing in robust defenses is the only way to protect their data and systems. He recommends the following:

1. Prioritize VPN security: 56% of organizations experience VPN-related cyberattacks and 91% share concerns about VPN security. Implementing robust next-generation VPN security measures is imperative. 

2. Adopt zero-trust strategies: 78% of organizations plan to implement zero-trust strategies, and this is an excellent opportunity for practitioners to adopt a more secure approach by verifying the identity of all users and devices before granting access to sensitive resources. No one wants to be the weakest member of the herd and therefore the easiest target.

3. Monitor for ransomware attacks: ransomware is one of the top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities (42%), it is crucial to stay vigilant in monitoring networks for signs of ransomware activity, such as unusual network traffic or suspicious user behavior. 

4. Do regular security audits and penetration testing: The threat landscape is growing, as the 30% increase in malware attacks between 2023 and 2024 indicates. Security audits and penetration testing can help identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers. 

5. Invest in incident response planning: With over 7 billion records exposed in data breaches, a robust incident response plan is essential for minimizing breach impacts.

6. Implement security measures to prevent DDoS attacks: DDoS attacks are another top threat exploiting VPN vulnerabilities (30%), and implementing security measures such as rate limiting and IP blocking can mitigate these types of attacks. 

7. Monitor data breaches closely: The average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88 million, highlighting the importance of monitoring for signs of data breaches and taking swift action when they occur. 

8. Keep up to date with security patches and updates: With an increase in malware attacks between 2023 and 2024 (30%), it is essential to stay current with the latest security patches and updates for all systems, including the latest generation of preemptive defense VPNs that Dispersive provides, to reduce the attack surface and prevent exploitation of known vulnerabilities. 

9. Develop a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy: By addressing these statistics and implementing robust security measures, organizations can reduce their risk exposure and protect against diverse types of cyber threats.

10. Educate users about phishing threats: Phishing remains the primary cause of data breaches (80-95%). It’s essential that your users know how to recognize and avoid phishing attacks, including those that may be launched through VPNs. 

Willy Leichter, CMO, AppSOC said:

  • AI offense will have an edge over AI defense: We know that AI will be used increasingly on both sides of the cyber war. However, attackers will continue to be less constrained because they worry less about AI accuracy, ethics, or unintended consequences. Techniques such as highly personalized phishing and scouring networks for legacy weaknesses will benefit from AI. While AI has huge potential defensively, there are more constraints – both legal and practical, that will slow adoption.
  • AI systems will become targets: AI technology greatly expands the attack surface area with rapidly emerging threats to models, datasets, and MLOps systems. Also, when AI applications are rushed from the lab to production, the full security impact won’t be understood until the inevitable breaches occur.
  • Security teams will have to take charge over AI security: This sounds obvious, but in many organizations, initial AI projects have been driven by data scientist and business specialists, who often bypass conventional application security processes. Security teams will fight a losing battle if they try to block or slow down AI initiatives, but they will have to bring rogue AI projects under the security and compliance umbrella.
  • Supply chain exposure will expand: We’ve already seen supply chains become a major vector for attack, as complex software stacks rely heavily on third-party and open-source code. The explosion of AI adoption makes this target larger with new complex vectors of attack on datasets and models. Understanding the lineage of models and maintaining integrity of changing datasets is a complex problem, and currently there is no viable way for an AI model to “unlearn” poisonous data.

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Xerox To Buy Lexmark

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 27, 2024 by itnerd

Over the holidays, Xerox agreed to buy Lexmark from its current owners for $1.5 billion. Here’s why: 

  • Strategic fit: Xerox and Lexmark have complementary sets of operations, offering strengths and end-market exposures. Combined, the companies form a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and provider of print equipment and MPS, covering all geographies and client types with a well-rounded portfolio of print and print services offerings. 
  • Growth opportunities: Lexmark is a leader in the large, growing A4 color print and supplies market and has an opportunity to expand its OEM platform within the A3equipment category. Once combined, Xerox expects to have a more comprehensive portfolio of products to enhance its offerings and reinforce its value proposition to clients, enabling growth across the portfolio of equipment and MPS, as well as incremental opportunities to increase penetration of its advanced Digital Services and IT Solutions. 
  • Financial benefits: The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share and free cash flow. Xerox expects this transaction to accelerate the realization of its Reinvention financial targets of revenue stabilization and double-digit adjusted operating income through an improved competitive position and exposure to faster-growing segments within print, as well as more than $200 million of identifiedcost synergies to be realized within two years of transaction close.  
  • Improved balance sheet: The transaction will immediately reduce Xerox pro forma gross debt leverage ratio, from 6.0x as of Sept. 30, 2024, to approximately 5.4x before synergies. Pro forma gross debt leverage will be reduced to approximately 4.4x with the benefit of $200 million of cost synergies. With improved free cash flow and a priority of repaying debt, Xerox expects to reduce its gross debt leverage ratio to below 3.0x over the medium term. 

There’s a catch though. Bloomberg says that American and Chinese regulators must approve the purchase as Lexmark is currently owned by a Chinese company. Given the political tensions that are sure to appear the nanosecond that Donald Trump becomes president of the US, that may not happen. But I am free to be surprised. This will be something to watch in 2025 as these are two iconic brands that have agreed to merge. And the world will be watching to see how this goes.

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My 2024 Home Office Setup

Posted in Products on December 26, 2024 by itnerd

It’s been a couple of years since I last did an overview of my home office setup. And since then, I’ve made a fair amount of changes that I would like to cover here. Now unlike the last time where I pretty much blew up my home office and did it from scratch, this is more of an evolution. Let’s start with the cable management.

Underneath the desk I use a combination of stick on cable clips and cable raceways to keep all my cables under control. I also moved the power bar that was on the left leg of the table to underneath my table. Then I route a few small power bricks that power some items on my desk along with the power brick for a wireless charger that is built into my desk to it.

That results in the only two cables being visible. A Thunderbolt 4 cable at the top and a power cable for my desk phone at the bottom. The former is like that to accommodate the desk moving up and down as it is a standing desk. More on the desk later. I really want to do something about the white wall as I’ve repainted it a year ago and it’s looks like this. But I am still trying to work out what exactly to do.

All of the cables route down a stick on cable raceway on the right side of the desk.

Then they get bundled up and plugged into an APC BackUPS 600. In my condo, I have UPS units all over it to protect my various electronics as a UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply will keep your gear running if there is a blackout thanks to the built in battery. Plus it will protect you from power surges (too much current) and sags (too little current) thanks to said battery. It also has a USB-A cable that connects to your computer so that if the UPS needs to shut down your computer due to a power event, it can use that cable to send that command to your computer. Though I should point out that UPS based shutdown doesn’t work on portable Macs. Which is still fine for me as it still protects my gear. The white cable is the power bar that you saw earlier. I don’t plug the power bar into the UPS as you should never do that due to the fact that it can confuse the UPS and not deliver the level of protection that it should.

On the back of my monitor stand, I am using a bunch of stick on cable clips to keep the cables under control. On top of that, there’s a USB-A hub on the back to plug all my gear that does USB 2.0 speeds into so that I can feed one cable to one of the USB-A ports on my monitor. There’s a second USB-A port on my monitor that has a memory card reader plugged into it as it runs at USB 3.0 speeds. That way all devices can run at the best speed possible. I will touch on the gear that is plugged in here in a moment.

Moving up is a Gry Mattr Three Drawer Cabinet that I got at Staples. On top of it is a plastic tray from Amazon and most of my every day carry stays in here when it’s not in my pockets. I can push it out of sight, but still have easy access to it. And as a bonus, none of these items occupy any desk space which reduces clutter on my desk. There’s a second smaller tray from Amazon which holds my AirPods Pro, the Taotronics SoundLiberty 79, and the Creative Outlier Air V3 earbuds along with the receiver for a set of over the ear headphones that I will touch on later.

On the left is an Alex drawer from Ikea. I used to have a pair of Ikea Kallax shelves with drawer inserts. but I gave one to my wife and got the Alex drawer instead. You can see the other one just to the left of the drawer unit. The Alex drawer holds more stuff, and at the same time it opens up space for this.

I now have my desk phone along with my 16″ M1 Pro MacBook Pro located here in clamshell mode. After 2 keyboard replacements under AppleCare, I didn’t really want to have a third one. Thus I have reconfigured my desk to allow me to use an external keyboard. If you look at the right corner of the MacBook Pro right next to the speaker, there’s a cable clip where I put the Thunderbolt cable that connects the MacBook Pro to my Monitor. It’s a single cable connection that supplies power and connects all my desktop gear to my monitor as the monitor acts as a USB hub for me. The MacBook Pro sits in a Ugreen Laptop Stand that I have stuck double sided tape to it as a means to ensure that it doesn’t move.

Above all of this are a pair of hooks which are attached via 3M Command Strips where I store this Panasonic headset for my desk phone on the left, and the HyperX Cloud Stinger 2 Wireless Headphones that are intended for gaming, but I will sometimes use for Zoom or Teams calls.

Now we get to what’s on top of my desk. I use the Apple Magic Keyboard With Touch ID And Numeric Keypad along with the Apple Magic Trackpad which has a decal on it to break up the all black theme that I have going on here. Even though I have been known to swap the track pad out with the Kensington Pro Fit Ergo Vertical Wireless Mouse from time to time, I keep coming back to the trackpad as I find the trackpad to be easier to use for me. I also use a generic wrist rest from Amazon to ensure that I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome. Above that are a pair of Creative Pebble Pro Minimalist 2.0 Speakers which are plugged into the audio jack at the bottom of the monitor. You can’t see the speaker cable in this picture, but I will show you how I hid it from sight in a moment. Also on the desk is an Apple Watch charger that’s mounted to this Spigen stand that sticks to my desk without using adhesive. Besides that is an Apple MagSafe adapter that is in a Elago MagSafe Stand that also allows my iPhone to work in Standby Mode. I do have to admit that the white cables from both of those items bug me. Thus I wish that Apple would make them in black or grey to complement my dark themed setup. To the right of that is a Ugreen memory card reader that comes in handy whenever I have a need to do something with a memory card. The problem with having a black desk is that it picks up fingerprints and dust is an issue. To mitigate some of that, I got this desk mat from a Toronto company called Uncrowned Kings. It’s made of vegan leather, it doesn’t move around on the desk, feels very upscale, and best of all only cost me $21 CDN on Amazon. Unfortunately the company doesn’t seem to be around anymore.

To hide the speaker wire so it is not visible, I swapped out the stock cable from the speakers with this one which is a flat 90 degree angle cable. If I didn’t tell you that it was there, you would never have known. Which means it serves its purpose well.

On the right side of the the desk, I have a number of items. The bottom right corner has an InvisQi wireless charger which is placed under the desk so that I can charge any wireless device that I need to without having a charger take up space on my desk. Behind that, I have a holder for my pens and other items, and my Ember Mug 2 for coffee, A new addition is this desk shelf from Ikea which has everything from Apple Watch bands to random cables in it. You might note that I have a mug in the shelf. That’s the original Ember mug that I got a few years ago as I got the grey one because it holds more coffee. But I keep the black one around in case I really need a coffee fix and the grey one hasn’t been washed or is being charged. I also have a red stapler which is a bit of a shoutout to The Office along with a notebook and some coasters.

Now onto the star of the show which is my BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX Monitor. It’s marketed as a gaming monitor, but with the fact that it can be used as an USB hub, and has really great HDR performance on top of really great colour accuracy, I bought the review unit that I was sent and have been happy ever since. Instead of using the stand that came with it, I use the Vivo Monitor Mount which takes up very little space on my desk.

On top of the monitor is the Logitech For Creators Litra Glow which acts as a key light for Zoom and Teams calls where I need to be on camera, and the Kensington W1050 Fixed Focus Wide Angle Webcam which is a very good 1080p webcam. Both of those are plugged into the USB hub behind the monitor that I showed you earlier. On top of that, I used double sided tape to mount the camera to the Litra Glow light so that it is a single unit that is easy to adjust when required.

The most important part of an office setup is the chair. And in my case, I am using  the ergoCentric tCentric Hybrid Task Chair. Now this isn’t a cheap chair as this particular one cost me $971.50 CDN when I got it. But it’s worth every penny as it is the most comfortable office chair that I have ever owned due to the broad range of adjustability that it offers. Along with the fact that when my back issues act up, I can sit in it, work comfortably and feel marginally better as it is adjusted perfectly to take the stress off my lower back. Take it from me, if there’s one item that you want to spend money on, it’s your chair. Finally there is the desk itself. This is the FlexiSpot Electric Height Adjustable Standing Desk which has the ability to raise or lower at the push of a button. That means that I can dial in my perfect position that is ergonomically correct.

The last item that I want to touch on is lighting which is taken care of via a pair of GE Cync Full Colour Direct Connect Smart Bulbs which are Matter compatible. Meaning that they work with any smart home ecosystem. I use them with Apple HomeKit and dialled in a number of settings to easily increase of decrease the amount of light that I need.

The rest of my home office has remained the same. As in the same networking gear, the same charging station, and the same pegboard from Ikea that I had in my last setup. Thus validating that this latest iteration of my home office is an evolution and not a revelation. I’m open to suggestions as to how that I can make my setup even better. If you’ve got suggestions, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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Review: Targus 15-16 Inch Classic Laptop Backpack

Posted in Products with tags on December 25, 2024 by itnerd

This year I needed to replace my laptop bag which I had used since the mid 2000’s and has served me well along with a backpack of the same age that briefly replaced it. I wanted something compact but would not only fit my 16″ MacBook Pro, but would also fit my tech sling. After some research, I settled on something that wasn’t flashy as I didn’t want to stand out with something that would attract attention. My choice was the Targus 15-16 Inch Classic Laptop Backpack, as it had all the space and features that mattered to me.

It has a very classic look to it so it fits my requirement to not attract attention.

On each side is an expandable section for water bottles. I tend to use those for compact umbrellas if I am going out in the rain.

On the back there’s a strap that allows me to slide it over the handle of rolling luggage. That way I am only rolling one thing through an airport. The back along with the shoulder straps have a lot of padding and some mesh to make this backpack comfortable.

The front compartment allow me to put things like a pen, notepad, or whatever else I need to carry with me on a daily basis. There’s also a strap for keys that you can’t see in this picture.

The rear compartment is padded and easily fits my 16″ MacBook Pro along with my tech sling. Plus there’s a couple of pockets for anything else that I might need.

One handy feature is that the rear compartment has zippers with loops in them so you can lock them using a TSA lock for example. That’s a handy feature.

The build quality of the backpack seems very good as I didn’t find anything to complain about like loose threads or stitching that wasn’t quite right. Now I will admit that this backpack might not be the choice for those who need to carry anything and everything as the capacity is just 19L. But for me, this will work because whether I am going across town or on a flight, anything that I need will fit without an issue. I picked this up on Amazon for $61 CAD which is a killer price for a quality backpack like this one. You should have a look at this backpack if it fits your use case.

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Rogers Is Being Sued Over Unlimited Data Plans

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 24, 2024 by itnerd

Something that caught my eye last night is the fact that Rogers is being sued by the Canadian Competition Bureau over the fact that the telco makes claims that they have unlimited data plans, but in fact have plans that severely restrict data once you reach a certain threshold.

Now according to this CBC News story, Rogers is pushing back on this:

A spokesperson for Rogers said it disagreed with the bureau’s assessment of its phone plans, which were introduced in 2019, adding the company would fight the claims.

“These plans represent the norm in Canada and the Bureau’s decision to single out Rogers after five years is quite concerning,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Rogers has a point here. Let me explain. First, let’s look at how Rogers markets their data plans:

So Rogers uses the word “infinite” in the marketing their plans. And they state that you get a given amount of data, and after you use up that data, you get throttled. The Competition Bureau has an issue with the word “infinite” as it could mislead consumers.

The thing is, Rogers isn’t the only one of the “big three” who have a plan like this. If I have a look at TELUS, I see this:

And if you read the fine print, you see this:

TELUS is using the word “unlimited” even though it isn’t an “unlimited” plan. Yes they clearly state that you have a certain amount of data, and once you use that data up, you’ll be throttled. In my mind, this isn’t any different than Rogers and their use of the word “infinite”.

And if I have a look at Bell, I see this:

If you look at the amount of data you get, you will see that they clearly state that you get 100GB or 200GB of data, and then your speeds are throttled after that. So it’s the same scheme as TELUS and Rogers, but the word “unlimited” or “infinite” is not present.

Here’s where I’m going with this. Based on looking at these three telcos and how they market their data plans, I have the following observations. Bell for one has nothing to worry about when it comes to the Competition Bureau as this telco clearly markets their plans to avoid any impression that they offer unlimited data plans. However, using the Competition Bureau’s logic, TELUS should have been sued along with Rogers, or they should be expecting to be sued as on the surface they appear to be doing a version of what Rogers is being sued over. But strangely they are not being sued. At least not yet as a lawsuit might be inbound as I type this. I would love to hear from the Competition Bureau as to why Rogers is in the spotlight here and TELUS isn’t. They likely won’t comment. But they should as this looks kind of suspect to me.

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