In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 25 Apr 2022 13:04:20 +0100, "J. P.
Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

>On Mon, 25 Apr 2022 at 05:13:59, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote
>(my responses usually FOLLOW):
>>In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 23 Apr 2022 07:42:30 -0400, Big Al
>><Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>>On 4/22/22 23:42, this is what micky wrote:
>>>> I thought I brought a nifty mike/speakers to USB adapter with me. I was
>>>> sure of it, but I can't find it.
>>>>
>>>> What I did learn is that I need headphones/earbuds with a TRRS plug, iow
>>>> for a phone, to use with the jack on the laptop. I jumped from the fact
>>>> that there is already a built in microphone to thinking I could use MP3
>>>> player earbuds. Not on this Acer.
>
>You mean the Acer laptop doesn't _have_ 3.5mm sockets for
>mic/headphones? I'll have to keep an eye out for that next time I buy a
>laptop!

This one has only one socket but it's several years old. My friend used
it for his business and gave it to me about 10 months ago.

It's E5 or E15-73-35AQ. Both are on the label. I don't know how it can
be E5 and E15 at the same time.

>>>> Not sure if plugging in the headset does anything to disable the
>>>> built-in mike or enable the headset mike. It doesn't seem so.
>
>(Hmm, Id have assumed it would, but never really thought about it for
>the mic.; it usually does for the speakers.)

In one particular situation, I think it was, when I was using a
bluetooth speaker and I plugged in the earbuds, iirc I had to go to
Sound to switch to the earbuds, but if I were using the built-in
speakers I bet that would not be necessary.

I was on a zoom meeting with the built-in mike recently and it worked
fine, but anything more complicated than that was months ago. I believe
a USB mike/speaker worked well. And when I wanted to use amplified
speakers with a TRRS plug on them, I got a thing the size of a postage
stamp, plugged it into USB and it had mike and speaker outputs. I only
used the speakers.

Now I realize a TRS to TRRS adapter would have worked also.
>
>>>Have you tried any of the bluetooth earbugs. I got two pair,
>>>different fit in the ear, and they work great.
>>>Unfortunately I haven't tried the mike part yet but the earbuds do
>>>have a mike since they are for a phone too.
>>
>>I have some wired earbuds for the phone that I bought 2 or 3 years ago.
>>Very good price, and the insulation started breaking off a year ago.
>
>Do you think it's because you've been using them - i. e. just repeated
>flexing has done for the flexibility of the insulation - or do you think
>it has decayed, i. e. the plasticiser has evaporated (making them
>brittle) so would have happened anyway?
>
Definitely not the first. I'd only used them for 1 to 3 hours total, and
I never bent them tightly. After I liked the first set, I bought the
last 2 or 3 sets he had. I think that's a reason they were so cheap and
he, an ebay guy iirc, wasn't stocking them anymore because of
complaints, or he used one and found the same problem.

>Sometime in the last year or so, just looking round a poundshop, I saw
>some earphones for 50p - new! I bought a pair, wondering just how grotty
>they would be to be sold new at that price; I was favourably surprised.
>OK, they're not perfect - little things like they're not identified so I
>had to work out for myself which was left and right, and I think the
>joints (where the wires disappear into the units) might be a weak point
>- but certainly, if someone had told me they cost five pounds, I'd have
>believed it, and next time I went back I bought all the ones they had
>left.

In the USA, 40 years ago, they had 69 cent stores, at least in NYC. For
the last 20 years, dollar stores have been burgeoning here. (One chain
charges a dollar for everything, another charges up to 10 dollars, maybe
more, and I can't keep track of smaller chains or, if any, independents.

But in the flea market section of NYC 40 years ago, Chambers St., I
found double edged razors for only 10 cents each. 10 cents wasn't any
money then either. I bought two, liked them and went back and bought
10 more. I thought that should be enough. But they were all plastic
and eventually all but one broke or got lost (one or two might be in
suitcases.) I with I'd bought 30 more.

By double edged I don't mean two edges facing the same direcction. I
mean this: https://battlebrothers.com/products/double-edge-razor-blades

The others are called twin-blades iirc and while they are great for not
cutting the skin, they don't do as close a job iirc .

But when I used my father's all metal double edge razor, I sometimes cut
myself. Then I used my college roommate's with a plastic handle and it
worked better. Finally all-plastic worked best, I don't know why.

I looked to buy more years ago without success. A few years later, I
noticed them in use in medical offices to shave some place where there
will be surgery, or even an EKG. I would ask for a few, but I have a
beard now.

When double edge blades were becoming hard to get, I found 100 for sale
on ebay from Turkey for a good price. Much cheaper than the 28 dollars
in the ad above. 200 were only a little more. Maybe $10 for 100 and
14 for 200, but if turkey is switching to those new fancy blades, my
kind of blade may be getting harder to get. So I have 180 of those, and
I still have one all-plastic razor.

Do you think blades get dull just sitting there?

>>1/2" sections with only wire, now 8 sections like that, and it's amazing
>>how thin the wire is underneath.
>
>It's probably multistrand for flexibility, which will make the
>individual strands very fine.

Yes, but it still seems likely to fail, especially without the vinyl to
hold it together.

>>I bought them just in case, but now that I'm using them, I need some
>>that won't break any minute. (For one thing, I had the sound on so loud
>>at 11:30PM the upstairs n'bor complained, so I used the earbuds after
>>that. !! My gosh, it's 5AM and I'm using the speakers. I'm not quick
>>learner. And just as I wrote this there was knocking on the door, and
>>this time he was mad at me. I woke him up. And it's a work night. I feel
>>terrible. What can I buy him to make up for this?

I went to the grocery store just for this reason today. I would have
ggone to a bakery but I don't know any around here. The supermarket had
only 1, maybe two kinds of cake, so I bought one, about $17. Everything
is expensive here. I got back at 5 and waitd until 6:50 when I thought
it likely he'd be home, and he was. I offered him the cake but turned
me down because one of his kids has celiac disease. I thought it was
all whipped "cream" and custard, but he lives here and knows better.

So now I have a whole cake to eat myself.

>
>(Reminds me of a very old sketch - Tony Hancock's "The Radio Ham"!) No
>suggestions for the gift, but I'd set a reminder on the PC to plug in
>the 'phones/'buds at whatever time in the evenings appropriate. (I use
>System Scheduler https://www.splinterware.com/products/scheduler.html
>which I brought over from XP, because I'm used to it; if you're happy
>with Windows' built-in one, fine. There are plenty of other such too;
>that one suits me fine - I use it for example to remind me to take my
>insulin at midnight.)
>>
>>Just today, earlier today, went to a big mall, the biggest fanciest
>>around here. First thing I see in the space between the stores would
>>be called a kiosk. They have earbuds with USB3, but none with 3.5mm
>>plugs. Say they don't think anyone sells them anymore. Next kiosk
>
>Well, they probably cater mainly to 'phone users, if they're like such
>kiosks/stalls here (stall festooned with 'phone cases in many designs?),
>and more modern 'phones (especially Apple) _are_ moving away from the
>standard connectors; if you have your local equivalent of our
>poundshops, try those.
>
>>pretty much the same thing, but then I found a store, and he had 3
>>qualities. I bought a pair from Sony, wire still thin but the
>>insulation reinforces it and probably won't fall off in only a year.
>>
>>Now I regret a little bit not buying the ones sold at gas station
>>convenience stores. I'm not driving as much, taking the city bus or
>>walking, but I may buy some of those too. The wires looked thin to me
>>but they were thicker than what I just bought. (That means they won't
>>store in a little "thimble"-sized space, which has been nice for the
>>other ones, their taking up next to no space in the compartment at the
>>bottom of the car door.
>
>The very fine ones do tend to get irretrievably tangled more easily (-:

I spent fully 5 minutes last night untangling them. I thought folding 3
or 4 times made that less of a problem then rolling in a cirlce, but
last night it didnt' seem to have worked.