Daily Archives: July 28, 2014

Apologia della cattiveria by Teodoro Klitsche de la Grange

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I could not resist purchasing and reading a book that was attempting to make the point that there it is something good about being bad.

With only 32 pages (plus the notes) it is a pamphlet more than an essay.

The first important point of the author is the split of the behavior as private citizen from the one as a public officer.
The importance of being good in our private live is recognized and then the author moves on explaining why being bad as a public officer sometimes is not only acceptable but badly needed.

Then the book shows several examples of “bad” behaviors from public officers that led to a lesser damage and examples of “good” behavior that led to major public damage.
If the state, and as a consequence the people with public roles, is unwilling to use some degree of violence there it is no point at all in having a state because the individuals that disagree with the government decisions can’t be forced into accepting them.

Bad guys, without quotes, are born every day: a state that can be “bad” is needed.

Samsung S24A300B: firmware update

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3 days ago the monitor that I use in the desktop setup of my office notebook decided to abandon me and started to behave.
It was turning itself off without apparent reason and then refused tu turn itself on.
The apparent trigger was the connection on the DVI port of a second PC that I was configuring.

I had already start to look for a new monitor, using the tiny built-in 14″, when my engineer mindset jumped in and pushed me to give a try at fixing the old one.
Being already out of warranty for a while it was not a big risk.

Once opened I found out that the screen has a strange design, with the electronics floating on the back of the screen, but the solder on the power plug was perfectly good and there was no indication of mechanical wear that could explain my power issues.
To be on the safe side I re-seated all the connections and then closed the plastic shell.
For no apparent reason the screen was working fine again.

During my search on internet for possible fixes I’ve found a few blog posts and videos that mentioned firmware-related issues similar, but not identical, to mine: loss of signal and dark screen.
After prying the monitor open attempting a firmware update was a minor risk and I went for it.

It worked fine and now I have a new on-screen menu (good) and a color balance that even after several attempts does not match the old one (bad); I still miss the option to turn off the power light: it is very bright and annoying when working in the darkness.

Hopefully I will have some more years of useable life in the screen.