Manonight Computers

Hey folks! Hope to be with you soon!! I'm taking care of some business and will get with you as soon soon as I'm better...

Yet, given that working from home has long been my lot in life, I need a decent phone signal at all times and T-Mobile can't yet guarantee that.

So, Mr. Sankey of AT&T, I know that your phone stores are likely a sad pimple on the chin of your brand perception. I know that you want to take AT&T to "a new place." One, I imagine, that's blissfully virtual.

But you might want to learn a thing or two about customer service from T-Mobile. Just as T-Mobile might want to learn a thing or two about security from, well, just about anyone who knows a thing or two about security.

It may well be that all phone brands will soon shut their stores and force customers to shop entirely online.

It may well be that they'll leave the likes of Best Buy to provide actual physical experience and advice. But customer service remains something that matters to, you know, real humans.

This particular salesman got nothing out of our conversation. I asked him to please hurry the signal improvement near my house. (He said he'd get right on it.)

But, as I walked out of the store, I felt so good about the interaction that it genuinely lifted my day.

Then I looked at my phone and thought: "Hey, it's still five minutes before anyone at the AT&T store will talk to me."

AT&T says it has big problems. A T-Mobile salesman showed me how big | ZDNet AT&T's CEO says he's not happy with his brand. A visit to two phones stores shows the chasm he may need to bridge.

So what's the bottom line?

One thing I'm asked regularly is whether or not ExpressVPN (or any other VPN) is going to share information with the FBI (or name your favorite intelligence agency). The prevailing wisdom is that VPN vendors located outside the various "Eyes" intelligence sharing treaties are somehow safer for those hiding information from government access. This is generally not true. As I discussed in my analysis of NordVPN, most VPN providers have enough of a footprint in MLAT treaty countries that if a three-letter agency wants your information, it'll get it.

So, unless you're a very serious dissident (or, I guess, a criminal) on the run from the government, the whole issue of jurisdiction is merely VPN theatre for the benefit of good marketing hype. And if you are relying on a VPN service to protect your life and freedom, why are you relying on something you read online for your truth? I just showed you that the biggest VPN review sites are owned by a VPN conglomerate. You need to do some very serious investigation and testing on your own, if you want to be truly safe.

If you're currently using ExpressVPN for general-purpose safe computing (like checking your mail at the local coffee shop) and you like it, I wouldn't say you should give it up. If you're relying on any of the Kape brands for a life and death situation, I'd say it's probably not worth the risk.

If you're shopping for a VPN, read all the reviews and try them out. Most give you thirty days, so see how they actually work for you. Again, I wouldn't necessarily dismiss ExpressVPN out of hand because of these reports, but it's up to you to gauge your risk level.

In the mid-1980s, US president Ronald Wilson Reagan was preparing for a summit with Soviet president Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and wanted to bond with his Soviet counterpart. When Reagan spoke with Russian history scholar Susanne Massie, an American, she introduced him to the phrase doveryai, no proveryai. In English, that's trust, but verify. Reagan apparently liked the phrase so much, he overused it, much to the annoyance of Gorbachev.

In any case, that's how I recommend approaching ExpressVPN: trust, but verify. We'll keep an eye on how the company behaves. Does Kape do anything else that indicates their moral compass is askew? Does Gericke's access become more limited or does he leave the company? Does data secured by ExpressVPN turn out to be less secure?

I don't believe we need to pillory ExpressVPN just yet. All the bad news is tangential to its operations. But I'd advise the company to walk very carefully, to hold its new masters at Kape accountable, and to both know where the line is and stay firmly on the angels' side of that line.

Trust, but verify: An in-depth analysis of ExpressVPN's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week | ZDNet In light of ExpressVPN's double-whammy of troubling news, we take a deep dive into the facts, and whether you can feel safe or suspicious about using one of the world's most popular VPNs.

When will Windows 11 be released to the public?

Microsoft says the official release of Windows 11 (what the company calls General Availability, or GA) will be available to the public beginning October 5, 2021. It will arrive on new hardware beginning in late 2021.

The process of updating Windows 10 PCs that meet Microsoft's hardware requirements will extend into 2022, Microsoft says.

What do I have to do to test Windows 11 today?

As of July 2021, Microsoft is making preview versions of Windows 11 available for anyone who opts into the Windows Preview Program and signs up for the Dev Channel. More polished versions of Windows 11 preview releases should arrive in the Beta channel in August and September.

What happens if my system doesn't meet the minimum system requirements?

In advance of the official release of Windows 11, Insider preview releases can be installed on devices that don't meet the minimum hardware requirements. When Windows 11 is generally available in October, PCs that fail to meet the minimum system requirements will not be eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 using Windows Update. Their owners will be required to reinstall Windows 10.

Those who are not running preview releases will be able to download an ISO file and perform a manual upgrade or a clean install, although Microsoft warns that machines running Windows 11 that fail to meet minimum hardware requirements will not be officially supported. I expect that older PCs in this fashion will continue to receive updates alongside supported hardware, but that's not guaranteed.

How much will Windows 11 cost?

On any PC with a properly licensed copy of Windows 10, the upgrade to Windows 11 will be free.

Microsoft hasn't announced prices for Windows 11 retail editions yet, but it's reasonable to expect they will be identical to the prices of corresponding Windows 10 editions.

Will Windows 11 run in a virtual machine?

Yes, you can install Windows 11 in a VM. In fact, you can create a virtual TPM in a Windows 11 virtual machine that will satisfy the hardware requirements of the new operating system. On a Type 1 (bare metal) hypervisor like Microsoft's own Hyper-V, you'll be constrained by the same CPU requirements that govern installations on a physical PC. On a Type 2 hypervisor such as Oracle Virtual Box or VMware workstation, you might be able to spoof that requirement, but the effort is probably not worth the risk.

Will my existing apps and hardware devices work with Windows 11?

Most apps and devices that work with Windows 10 should work as expected under Windows 11. The new operating system is sufficiently similar to its predecessor that the differences shouldn't pose a problem for most apps. Of course, answering that question is why we have preview releases, so the best way to check compatibility for a device or app is to install the latest Windows Insider preview release and try running it. (If you encounter an error, be sure to use the Feedback Hub app to file a report.)

Windows 11 FAQ: Release date, requirements, price -- plus when and how to upgrade | ZDNet What's new in Windows 11? What are its minimum hardware requirements? When will your PC be eligible for the upgrade? We've got answers to your Windows 11 questions.