Practical
Electronics
Editorial offices
Electron Publishing (Aust.) Tel +61 2 9939 3295
Unit 1, 234 Harbord Road Email pe<at>pemag.au
Brookvale NSW 2100
Web www.electronpublishing.com
Australia
Address mail to:
Electron Publishing (Australia)
PO Box 194, Matraville NSW 2036
Australia
Advertising enquiries
+61 2 9939 3295
pe<at>pemag.au
Editor
Nicholas Vinen
Publisher
Nicholas Vinen
Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 01202 880299
Online Editor
Alan Winstanley
Web Systems
Kris Thain
Production
Bao Smith
Technical staff
Tim Blythman, John Clarke
Print subscriptions
Practical Electronics Subscriptions
PO Box 6337
Bournemouth BH1 9EH
Tel
01202 087631
United Kingdom
Email pesubs<at>selectps.com
Technical enquiries
We regret that technical enquiries cannot be answered over
the telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use,
purchase, repair or modification of commercial equipment or the
incorporation or modification of designs published in the magazine.
Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor
by email: pe<at>pemag.au
Projects and circuits
All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and
data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee
it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it.
Some projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics
employ voltages that can be lethal. Do not build, test, modify or
fix any mains-powered equipment unless you fully understand
the safety aspects involved and you use an RCD (GFCI) adaptor.
Component supplies
Silicon Chip Publications may offer kits or other parts for making
our projects, but not in all cases. When kits are not available,
readers will need to find and source parts themselves. We advise
readers to check that all parts are still available before commencing
any project in a back-dated issue.
Advertisements
Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take
reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by
ensuring as far as practicable that advertisements are bona fide,
the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings in
respect of statements or claims made by advertisers, whether
these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in
inserts. The Publishers regret that under no circumstances will
the magazine accept liability for non-receipt of goods ordered,
or for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture.
Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment
We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and
telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages
cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law
before buying any transmitting or telephone equipment, as a fine,
confiscation of equipment and/or imprisonment can result from
illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country;
readers should check local laws.
2
Volume 54. No. 3
March 2025
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
Microsoft’s constantly moving target
Because I like to feel that I own my computer, and I want to be free
to do whatever I want with it, I run Linux at home. I’ve been using
it for probably 20 years now and it certainly has come a long way.
When you know how to use it, it is extremely capable.
Unfortunately, I can’t really do that for my work computer. While
there are other packages, most large publishers use Adobe products
like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop etc. I also need to use Altium
Designer for PCB design work and CorelDraw too. None of these
programs are available for Linux, nor do they run well in emulation.
So basically my choices are macOS or Windows. Altium Designer
only runs natively on Windows and CorelDraw runs very slowly
on macOS, so Windows it is. I don’t have a major problem with
Windows 10; I feel that it is inferior to Linux in many ways (mainly
in terms of performance and configurability) but I am used to it.
Of course, now that I’m used to it, Microsoft is threatening to end
support for Windows 10. They’re certainly trying to get people to
move to Windows 11, but I’ve tried it, and it’s miserable – definitely
an overall worse experience than Windows 10.
The Fox Report in this issue goes over some of the trials and
tribulations involved in ‘upgrading’.
I’ve been forced to migrate several times thanks to Microsoft, from
Windows 2000 to 7 to 10. Each time I felt like it was basically
pointless and I got nothing out of it, other than not being ‘left
behind’. So I’m not keen to do that again.
Happily, I discovered the website https://0patch.com
This is a Slovenian company that provides security patches for
Microsoft Windows. Unlike Microsoft’s patches, apparently you
don’t have to reboot to install them. They say they will continue to
support Windows 10 for at least five more years (I suspect it will be
longer than that).
The service is free for personal, non-profit educational and testing
use. Otherwise, it costs €24.95 (about £21) per computer per year. I
don’t know about you but I would gladly pay that to avoid dealing
with any more of Microsoft’s shenanigans and forced reboots for a
few years.
Nicholas Vinen, Electron Publishing (Australia)*
Publisher & Editor,
Practical Electronics Magazine
* a division of Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd.
Practical Electronics | March | 2025
