Better Bluetooth Sound Quality on Microsoft Teams in Windows 11


Screenshot of a Windows setting screen.

Here's the problem: the current Bluetooth spec doesn't allow high-quality audio to be sent to a headset when it is also sending audio from the microphone. Instead, it switches to the Hands Free Profile (HFP) which only streams low quality mono sound. It makes Teams calls sound like garbage. The usual solution in Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams is to manually tell the app to use Bluetooth for…

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Certified in The Art of Hacking - Day 3


Logo for QA's certified in the art of hacking course.

This is a diary of what I've learned. Hopefully it will let other learners know what the course is like, and if it is worthwhile. Oh, and it might just help me remember what I'm learning! Day 3 - the day I was dreading most of all… Windows! I've been avoiding M$ WinDoze (LOL!!!) since long before it was fashionable. Even at my earliest jobs, I'd find a way to convince the IT department to let m…

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Run Internet Explorer 5 in your browser!


About screen for IE 5.

This is a slow, and very silly, way to experience an ancient browser. I'm aware that you could spin up a virtual machine, or pay for a browser testing service. But there's something nice about running a browser in a browser. Like wheels within wheels and fires within fires. Using Copy's v86 it's possible to recompile x86 code to browser native WASM. This means you can load up Windows 98 in your …

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Why Do Companies Still Use Microsoft Windows For Displays?


As I was exiting Oxford Railway Station, I glanced at this screen showing the bus departure times. Notice anything odd about it? sigh Yet again someone has shoehorned Microsoft Windows into a product it is completely unsuitable for. Why does a screen which displays a fairly basic set of information need to be running on an expensive Windows licence? Moreover, why is such a machine connected …

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Windows Phone 7: Mango. So what?


I was recently invited to the Windows Phone 7 Mango preview (no, I didn't get a free phone) - here are a few thoughts. The first thing to note is that WP7 still looks gorgeous - the front tiles (aka widgets) are smart and add a real feeling of fluidity to the phone. Juicy The second thing is rather more depressing. Windows is still playing catch-up. It's a standard joke that neither the…

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Hate Microsoft - Love Windows Phone 7?


A Windows 7 phone.

I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft. Both my original Xboxes now run Linux, I've converted my laptop and computers to Ubuntu, and I generally laugh in the face of Microsoft's increasingly desperate attempts to stay relevant. So it was with great mirth that I went along to a BizSpark event a few weeks ago. Microsoft were going to be showing off their latest "innovation" - Windows Phone 7. I…

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