Adventures in Tech

A couple of weeks ago I saw an ad on my phone for the new Dell XPS laptop. Out of curiosity I clicked on it, and started configuring a couple of options just for fun. I read a lot of good reviews about the upcoming XPS laptop, how the design rivals that of Apple’s MacBook laptops, and how certain configurations come with Linux preinstalled. I played around with the options, and configured two beast laptops just for fun, then I left and have not thought about it anymore, since I am not in the market for a new laptop, being satisfied with my Surface 3 laptop and all. A couple of weeks later, I received a Dell catalog for the first time, addressed to me and not to the usual “Current Resident”, that has more details about the XPS laptops, gaming laptops, desktops, and peripherals that Dell sells. The catalog also included a 15% discount, which was a nice touch. I wondered how I got that catalog, even though I have not explicitly sign up for it, nor request one, nor provide any informat

I upgraded all my devices to the Windows May update, all but my new Surface 3 laptop. Whenever I checked manually for the system updates, I got nothing, apart from the occasional Windows Defender updates. For a week I checked religiously, and when I did not get any notifications, I started searching online to see if there were any issues with my device. It turns out that there were. There is an issue affecting the Surface 3 laptop, and other devices that use an always on, always connected networking. The issue blocks the update for these devices, per the Known Issues and Release Problems page since it leads to random restarts or crashes. The issue is currently under investigation, and once resolved, the surface will get the update. I will wait till then. Interestingly there are recommendations online to circumvent the block on the Surface, by using the Update Assistant Tool , or the media creation tool. I don’t recommend either, unless you enjoy bricking your laptop. Luckily the a