Christopher Piontek - Page 2 of 3

Project Odeon: Reports of the Control Panel’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Microsoft is once again trying to get rid of the old Control Panel: a test app called Project Odeon has turned up in the Microsoft Store. It looks like the Windows 11 Settings app, but it is a standalone app in the Store. Windows Latest stumbled across it first, Pureinfotech picked up the story shortly after, and ever since, the old Control Panel is once again being carried to its grave.

I have to be honest: I’m attached to the old Control Panel. After all these years you know it by heart and you know where everything is. In Settings, on the other hand, after many a major update I first have to search for where Microsoft has hidden the function this time. It’s like the supermarket after they’ve rearranged the shelves. Still, I was curious and installed the app in a virtual machine of my own to try it out. Who knows, maybe it turns out to be the pure wisdom of UX and UI after all.

Which Power Bank Can You Take on a Plane?

In a few days I’m off on vacation to Spain, and not long ago I bought a new power bank with 20,000 mAh and 60 watts so I can also charge my laptop via USB-C. Am I allowed to take it on the plane?

The short answer for my Eurowings flight: Yes, the power bank can come along. At 3.7 volts, 20,000 mAh works out to roughly 74 watt-hours, and up to 100 Wh Eurowings doesn’t require any approval. The 60 watts don’t matter, that’s just the charging power. But: the power bank must not go in the overhead bin, and on board I’m neither allowed to use it nor to charge it.

ArtCraft vs. Adobe: I Can’t Wait to See How This Plays Out

Someone just went ahead and rebuilt Photoshop. And Premiere, Lightroom, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat while they were at it. Free, open source and largely programmed by an AI. Under the name ArtCraft, the project is causing quite a stir right now. Probably because of the good old David versus Goliath story, since what AI coding makes possible these days should be on everyone’s lips by now.

Time for a New Logo

After almost ten years, it was high time for a new logo. Or at least a “modernized” one. The power button made of 0 and 1 stays, and so do the light and dark petrol colors. This time, though, it comes as a scalable vector graphic. In my view, that’s a must these days if a logo is supposed to look good across the whole range of different displays.

Dell Vostro 1500: Turning on WiFi

I’m currently enjoying refurbishing an old Dell notebook to make it suitable for the garage, where I can quickly look something up without having to take off my work gloves or worry about getting the laptop dirty. That’s why I’ve installed Lubuntu on this 16-year-old machine, and I was a bit desperate when the WLAN wasn’t working. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get it running because there might not be a Linux driver, but it was simply a matter of the switch being set to “off.”

AV RCA to HDMI Converter tested

If you are like me and occasionally get into a retro frenzy and want to indulge in some nostalgia, you’ll encounter the problem of connecting old consoles like PlayStation 1 and 2, the first Xbox, or one of Nintendo’s numerous consoles like the N64 or Wii to newer or smart TVs. That’s why I purchased an generic AV2HDMI converter from Amazon.