The Johnson Blog

Tag: Tech

  • Surface 3 and Windows 10 “Touch is Right Click” Workaround

    After upgrading my Surface 3 to Windows 10, a very annoying bug surfaced where I’ll be writing with the pen and all of a sudden any and all touches (pen or finger) are interpreted as right clicks. For a few days, my only recourse was restarting. I have since learned that you can avoid a…

  • Surface 3 on Vacation

    I’ve had my Surface 3 (4GB of RAM model) since the day it was released, use it heavily daily for both work and home, and love it.  This past week it has taken its first road trip, vacation, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Devices, Devices, Devices Replacing my laptop on a trip isn’t an easy…

  • Centering a WPF Window in an Outlook 2013 Add-in

    I recently came upon the need to show a WPF window in an Outlook add-in, preferably centered on the Outlook window (WindowStartupLocation = CenterInParent).  Easy enough, but without setting Window.Owner, it will appear in an uncontrolled location when calling ShowDialog(). Setting Window.Owner is where things get a little tricky. Searching online produced a few variations…

  • Kindle Voyage

    Kindle Voyage

    Yesterday I received my new Kindle Voyage. I’ve been a first-gen Paperwhite user since shortly after it was released and I have been nothing but pleased with it.  It was miles ahead of the other Kindles we in the household have owned. The Voyage is another big step forward.  I was expecting an improvement, obviously,…

  • Ugh: Windows 8, Metro and Desktop

    First I’ll say that every PC I use these days is running Windows 8.1.  That’s my home desktop, laptop, Surface RT, and work PC. Windows 8 is actually very good on the tablet form factor.  It’s fine on PCs if you’re wanting to stick to the new Metro style apps. But it’s horrible when mixing desktop…

  • 3 Weeks with the Surface RT

    Now that I’ve had the Microsoft Surface RT for 3 weeks, I think it’s a good time to go over a few things. First, I’ll say that I really like this device.  Before owning one, I thought both the kickstand and touch keyboard were rather gimmicky.  But now, whether it’s sitting on my desk or…

  • Brother HL-1440 Driver for Windows RT

    Now that I have a Microsoft Surface, one of the things I should be able to do from my tablet is print.  Our iPads don’t support printing to our old (almost 10 years) Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer, so I was a little skeptical that I would be able to find a driver for Windows RT (ARM-based).…

  • Internet Explorer 10 Skipping Keystrokes

    I’ve been running Windows 8 for a while now on my laptop, and ran into a very frustrating problem with Internet Explorer 10. When typing on a webpage, I often found it skipping keystrokes. It seemed to get progressively worse over time, to the point where I found myself having to hit a key 3…

  • Lumia 920 not Recognized by Windows 8

    Today when I plugged my new Lumia 920 into my Windows 8 desktop, noting happened. Odd, it had worked the day before. I unplugged and retried a couple of times, to no avail. Checking Windows’ Devices and Printers showed it was Offline, so I wasn’t imagining that it was installed and working at one point.…

  • Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8

    After several years with Apple’s iPhone (3G followed by a 4), I’ve made the switch away from Apple. Yesterday I picked up a new, black Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8! First impressions, I really like this phone and OS. I’ve played around with Windows Phone 7.5 before, but have never used it as…