North America Trip–YYZ to SEA

So I’ve actually been home for a week, but I’ve only now had a chance to sit down and work on the remaining posts for this series!

I had a fantastic time in Toronto. It was great getting to know all the wonderful people who work for RL Solutions there. There’s nothing like sitting down face to face to get to know people better. Well except maybe doing that over a meal – and there was certainly a few of those!

I did feel the effects of jet-lag kick on on the Monday, so managed to get a little rest in the afternoon before catching up with the Metro Toronto .NET group, where I was the guest speaker. Great to share with them.

Toronto is a big city, but quite beautiful too. The weather was cooling – a definite chill in the air, and the leaves were turning to wonderful autumn colours.

Another highlight was going to my first NBA game – a bonus that the Toronto Raptors won their season opener over the Indiana Pacers.

My accommodation in Toronto was “down-town”. Right next to the Air Canada Stadium in fact (where the basketball and ice-hockey is played). It was also just a short walk to the office each day. Most days the weather was overcast and cold, though one day it was quite stormy and wet, so I made good use of the Toronto PATH underground and covered walkways

Friday (being the day before Halloween) was a bit of a crazy day in the office. Everyone dressed up and decorated all the work areas. This culminated in a company lunch and staff meeting. Definitely great timing to be in town to be a part of these.

But eventually my time in Toronto was at an end, and the flight to Seattle began, via a stop-over in Minneapolis. Nice bakery in the airport there by the way 😀

Windows 10 and dodgy ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 drivers

My old Dell XPS 1645 laptop is still kicking along. Sure, I might have nick-named it “Big Iron” due to the fact that it single-handedly technically put me over the carry-on baggage weight limit on my recent trip overseas, but it does the job, and runs Windows 10 quite well.

Except that earlier this year Microsoft (or AMD/ATI) updated the video drivers (15.200.1060.0 [15/07/2015]) and introduced a bug that causes the maximum resolution to change to 1280x1024, which looks ridiculous. The only solution I’ve found is to revert back to the older driver.

1. Open Device Manager
2. Right-click on the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
3. Choose Update Driver Software
4. Select Browse my computer for driver software
5. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
6. In the list, select the older version (8.970.100.9001)
7. Click Next
8. The screen will flash a few times, and a few beeps later you should be returned to your regularly scheduled 1920x1080 resolution again.

The Windows Feedback tool shows that this error has been reported by a number of people, but unfortunately I suspect it hasn’t registered as a high enough priority to fix (and may not be considering the age of the video hardware).

North America Trip–LAX to YYZ

I had a few hours break at LAX before my connecting flight to Toronto. Just as well, as I forgot that it was actually a code-share with Air Canada and had to walk to a different terminal (fortunately not too far).

I didn’t sleep very much at all on the flight from Sydney, and I tried not to doze too much in the waiting lounge at LAX in case I missed my flight! I slept a little more on the Toronto flight. Probably being quite tall doesn’t help matters. I remember the last time I few to the USA, I got seats next to the galley, so we could stretch out – but maybe they don’t have seating in that configuration anymore.

Leaving Los Angeles. Looks very dry – don’t seem to have many parks or gardens in the suburbs I flew over. Just the occasional golf course. Quite a contrast from home.

A pretty sight of the setting sun lighting up the clouds on the way to Toronto.

Our flight arrived into Toronto right on time. Unlike LAX, clearing customs & immigration was a breeze (I guess it isn’t quite as busy). Always a relief when your bag shows up on the baggage carousel too. Tom (who’s also over from Adelaide) met me at the airport and drove me back into town to where I am staying. We then went out for some tea and a chat (had some nice burgers). I’ll see Tom (and the rest of the RL Toronto crew) at the office first thing Monday morning.