John Ratsey

As one who lives in GDPR territory and runs a small website with a mailing list and forum, my understanding of GDPR is that it was aimed at two things which are relevent here (i) No trading of peoples' details without their explicit consent (companies used to make money from these) and (ii) take reasonable measures to keep peoples' details secure. It would be prudent to note on the registration form that the details entered will only be used for this forum and not shared with others and the members' details should preferably be encrypted. However, I'm not too worried if the hackers get my email address as the scammers and spammers have had it for years due to a hack on a major software site.

I was invited to join the NBR mod squad at a time when someone, presumably with a grude to bear, periodically tried to hit the forums with porn spam so the more moderators, spread across different time zones, the better.

My recollection is that it was started by Andrew Baxter and Brian. I joined NBR in April 2005 when it was rapidly growing and Andrew would accept and publish a wide range of reviews by forum members (who got $50) to supplement those he did himself. The quantity and variety, was in my view, a valuable supplement to standardised reviews and must have brought more traffic to the site. NBR was one of several sites (Brighthand.com, DesktopReview.com, DigitalCameraReview.com, NotebookReview.com, PrinterComparison.com, TabletPCReview.com) under the technologyguide.com umbrella. By 2008 a reviewer / editor (Jerry Jackson) had been hired. Jerry's email address changed from @technologyguide.com to @techtarget.com in 2013 so I think that's when the sale to TT took place. The reviews became less abundant which would tend to reduce the traffic.

I let Windows 11 install itself a few days ago to see what it looked like, discovered that I couldn't dock the task bar on the left side of the screen (which I've been doing for years to maximise the veritcal space), tried registry hacks found by Google but they didn't work and then restored Windows 10. If Microsoft fix the task bar problem then I might try it again but this may mean waiting for Windows 12. History shows that Microsoft have a habit of making a mess of alternate versions of Windows.

I recently bought a 256GB Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 (model NP935XDB) with a 256GB SSD but wanted more capacity. The SSD is the 2230 size which isn't very easy to find with 1TB capacity. After much searching I found that Dell UK (as that's where I live) were selling a Dell branded 1TB 2230 at a relatively reasonable price (about double the cost of an equivalent 2280 SSD). The SSD I received is Kioxia (who bought the Toshiba SSD business) with a Dell part number on the label. After cloning using Macrium Reflect with the new SSD in an external caddy, I opened up the Samsung. The first step is to remove the screws under each of the four rubber feet and then peel the palm rest and base apart. This process is probably most easy started at one of the front corners after which it's a matter of working along the joint using a spudger or strong thumbnail to separate the plastic clips. Once the base (amazingly lightweight) is off then the SSD is hidden under the silver cover. The yellow label contains a reminder to disconnect the power adaptor and disconnect the battery (prise the connector upwards from the socket). Care is needed to remove the cover over the SSD. I used a very small flat-bladed jeweller's screwdriver poked into the small gaps at each corner of the cover in turn to carefully lift it while trying to not bend it out of shape. The SSD swap was then easy - remove one screw, slide out the old SSD, slide in the new one and replace the screw. Refitting the cover was much more time-consuming as the bottom of each side sits in some very narrow metal grooves and getting everying lined up and seated isn't quick. I wonder what the cover is for? Is it radiation shielding? Something thermal would normally be black although if it's in contact with the computer base then colour wouldn't matter (but why not use a thermal pad?). I then reconnected the battery and checked that the computer booted OK before shutting down and refitting the base. In addition to the extra capacity there's also a speed boost. CrystalDiskMark shows the speed of the 1TB for most tests to be about 20% higher than the original Samsung 256GB PM991a SSD but, for some reason, Seq Q32T1 writing is higher by about 60%. Samsung PM991a 256GB Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1980.763 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1116.577 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 501.342 MB/s [122397.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 495.957 MB/s [121083.3 IOPS] Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1269.407 MB/s Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1154.674 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 43.412 MB/s [ 10598.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 164.910 MB/s [ 40261.2 IOPS] Kioxia BG4 1TB Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2377.243 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1833.285 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 616.300 MB/s [150463.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 503.722 MB/s [122979.0 IOPS] Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1438.888 MB/s Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1382.293 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 59.772 MB/s [ 14592.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 193.423 MB/s [ 47222.4 IOPS] Nothing else is upgradable on this notebook. I would have liked 16GB RAM but , in addition to being somewhat more expensive, they are in the mystic silver colour scheme and I know from past experience that those keyboards are less easy to read as it's white backlit lettering on a silvery background. Samsung should be more innovative here. How about mystic maroon?

This is an impressive accomplishment. I wouldn't know where to start. John