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I have a Surface Pro. An original. It's been sitting around as a tester machine for a while but I recently upgraded it to Windows 10 and have been finding it more and more useful. OK, from "Not really useful" to "Dammit I forgot my laptop - I'll plug in a keyboard and display to the Surface and use it today" sort of useful.
And it's working well. It's old, it only has 4 GB, but it's handling everything I'm throwing at it so far. I was thinking maybe I could use this when travelling. No more bringing the laptop out of the back at airports, no more heavy macbook in the backpack. Let's see how it likes VS 2015 and SQL Server.
And then I saw the battery life: 91% and 2hr 13 min remaining.
I though it was a mistake until I thought back to when this thing was released and the typical battery life we used to consider "adequate". Sure, even when the Surface was released people complained about the battery life but I was amused to find myself automatically reacting to a battery life of less than 10hrs as "useless to me".
I can't help but wonder if the latest advances in batteries[^] will make us look back and think "Wow - only a day of battery life. Anything less than a month or so of charge is uesless to me".
cheers
Chris Maunder
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The contractors who work with me have surface pros and they have nothing but praise for them - if you can afford one, they are definitely the machine to go for when travelling a lot.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Quote: I saw the battery life: 91% and 2hr 13 min remaining.
Well at least it gives you a clue as to how long it will last!
Several times I have seen 91% battery and though 'I don't need to charge it' only have a couple of things to do and 'fuppt' after 15 mins it dies! (more than one long walk in the cold was caused by that, ahh analogue mobiles how thee are missed, NOT!). I agree though, wouldn't it be nice if the battery was changeable for new tech when needed. 
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i love that the Kindle can run for a month on a single charge.
obvs, a Kindle is not doing any hard work.
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And if it's a "paperwhite" screen, it's literally doing nothing until you turn a page.
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it's burning the LED backlight!
very hard work.
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Ah, so it's not a paper white screen. No backlight on those.
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there's a light on current paperwhites. but it's shining from the side of the display, not from behind. so they officially call it a "sidelight". but that's a stupid name.
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There is? Hmm.
Oh, well. I see no need to replace my EZReader, anyway.
Although I may have to hunt up a battery. Dang thing is 8 years old and only holding a charge for a week or so, instead of the month or 6 weeks it used to.
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The biggest advances isn't in batteries, but rather in processors and led backlit monitors.
My previous laptop lasted at the best a bit more than two hours.
My current laptop has a battery that's only two thirds of the size of the old one, but it lasts up to ten hours.
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That reminds me. They had a battery keyboard on the Surface accessories site that apparently was double fit with an extra battery so the external one would go flat before the internal one. It was out of stock when I found it. Maybe have another look!
<sig notetoself="think of a better signature">
<first>Jim</first> <last>Meadors</last>
</sig>
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That would make it as heavy as my Macbook (and still have only half its battery life)
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Good question about the battery life. My wife went out and bought a Surface, she loves it. One day she complained about the battery not charging. No real way to change the battery out (unit is glued together). Some things should be replaceable, but you know the story behind that.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I just got a spam email that got through the normal filters into my inbox. It looked to be from someone I know; though when I read again it was not who I had thought of first. It was a spoof google doc share, I get quite a few from daughter for her homework, and it looked completely correct until I paused over the link. The link was obviously wrong, leading to a .ru url.
Just be careful out there.
veni bibi saltavi
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Homework assignment: phish your father!
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Wow!, doesn't that look like a '70a SciFi star ship hitting light speed!
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Hi All,
Had a weird bum weekend. First my trusty Win 7 box broke it self, the project I am working on at the moment stopped working this morning, when I was going to demonstrate around midday, the standard cursing and throwing of things to make it work. Decided not to sacrifice the neighbors cat. Looked at what was working, released it was the USB Hub I plugged into, tried plugging in to a couple of ports at the front. Started working  . Note to self always check the connections before blaming something unrelated. Demo worked people were happy got paid some more  .
Went back to the flat in search of the DVD to do a restore to the Win 7 box. now I can't find the dang thing. Does anyone know of a site which will let you down load the ISO if you have key for the update version. Microsoft will let you down load the ISO for Win7 but not for the updates or at least that is what I could see, mind you the hunt has led to me finding a kingdom of lost Lego bits...the odd thing I only have two small Lego kits that are fully assembled .
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If you have MSDN subscription, on "Subscriber Downloads" enter "windows 7 service pack" into the search box.
Decrease the belief in God, and you increase the numbers of those who wish to play at being God by being “society’s supervisors,” who deny the existence of divine standards, but are very serious about imposing their own standards on society.-Neal A. Maxwell
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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I will try I think my MSDN got canned when I left my previous employer and entered 'ThePub'!
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There is a MS download page: Windows 7[^]. But that will be only SP1 and does not work with retail keys. Having only an old DVD without SP1, I was at least able to get an ISO with SP1 from there.
To install all updates to a new system I'm using WSUS Offline Update - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection[^]. It requires downloading the updates before (allows copying to USB stick and creation of ISO images) but installs the updates much faster than via Windows Update.
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Dang!, I have tried that page before entered the key from the PC's case and received the below " Error
The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options." clicking the FAQ I think this applies " Upgrades and pre-installed media are not currently supported by the tools on the site.", the machine was a second (or third user by the case) user from Amazon. I mainly used it as a way backing up making sure Win 8 did not kill any projects I was working on. It seems according to page I should approach re-seller, which I did and received nothing from them...
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That is what I meant by retail key (and described it incorrectly; you need one). On that page you need an OEM or retail key, not a key from a pre-installed version.
Then the only option is to find your DVD or ask someone who has a matching retail / OEM version (32 / 64 bit and Pro / Home). With such a DVD you can then also activate using the key of the pre-installed / recovery versions.
The tool from my previous post can also install the SP1 but that requires much more time and additional reboots.
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Rats, I knew what you meant. It's OK, I have manged to get a human on the phone who has given me a telephone number for tomorrow. They close at 5:00 pm UK time (light weights!).
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Thanks for the bit about WSUS Offline Update!  I just need a fresh VM to do some testing. I don't have MSDN subscription, but do have a retail DVD of Win7 from 2009. If this works, I should be able to patch without activating. I repeat, this is just a test.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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