COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tripps]

All quite straightforward. . . .

[Stanley]

If as I suspect you are being ironic David I am with you.....
The thought that comes into my mind is 'eggs in one basket'........

[PanBiker]

The thought that comes into my mind is 'eggs in one basket'........

When Open Reach run a new fibre to premises (FTTP) line it is a completely new installation from your nearest fibre enabled pole (just about all of them). The old copper service is not touched but is left terminated in the first junction block in the house. From here all the old internal infrastructure can be removed as the connection from the fibre port is on standard CAT 6 cable to the router. The router has a 4 port switch built in as well as a WAN socket for the input, a through port broadband socket and the VOIP socket for the phone.

The fact that the copper is still in place and still terminated in the house means that the internal infrastructure could simply be reinstalled if a future user doesn't want the fibre option? That is until they terminate the copper service completely which is only a couple of years away. It makes no sense to pour resources into maintaining a 150 year old twisted pair infrastructure with all it's inherent problems when you have a 21st century much more reliable option available.

I am still on copper connection. I ignored the offer of free fibre from Talktalk the last time they did an upgrade.....

I cant see why anyone would refuse a free upgrade to a better and current state of the art option. It's more resilient, tidier and faster, no brainier in my view.

75Mbps down 20Mbps up

Better to get it done at earliest rather than wait until they disconnect the service when a LOT of folk will have to swap.

[Tripps]

Who knows where we will be in just a couple of years time?

Oneweb

"The 36 spacecraft went up on an Indian LVM3 rocket from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
Their deployment 450km above the planet takes OneWeb's total in-orbit constellation to 618.
It's less than three years ago that the UK government took the decision to buy OneWeb out of bankruptcy."

[Big Kev]

cant see why anyone would refuse a free upgrade to a better and current state of the art option. It's more resilient, tidier and faster, no brainier in my view.

75Mbps down 20Mbps up

Better to get it done at earliest rather than wait until they disconnect the service when a LOT of folk will have to swap.

I'm patiently waiting here I have FTTC and a temperamental copper landline with no sign of 'full fibre' yet.

[Stanley]

I agree with David. With the added variable of will I be alive in two years time? I doubt it actually....
In addition, so far my copper service has been entirely hassle free. Any problems have been with the provider.

[Tripps]

I'm one of the few dozen people still using Skype. It's on my tablet and I use it very occasionally and for a specific purpose. I noted yesterday that the Tablet battery was flat. That's unusual. I also notice that a thing called Bing was sending me lots of messages urging me to be its friend and ask any question I wanted. It even offered to write me a poem using the latest AI. Perhaps that's a factor in battery use? I tried ignoring it, but it wouldn't stop calling me and was annoying.

OK I give up - finally I asked a question. "How do I remove Bing from my Tablet?"

It didn't answer the question, and took me back to the opening screen - but might have got the hint and has sent no more calls yet.

[PanBiker]

Bing is Microsoft's search engine. It sometimes has the habit of changing your default search engine. Check what your tablet defaults are set to.

[Tripps]

They say you can't tell Artificial Intelligence from a human being these days. Must be true - it's gone away without hijacking anything - still on Firefox.

I think I've hurt its feelings, and it's sulking.

[Stanley]

Good!!!
Msoft's predilection for taking executive actions without consulting me was what finally pushed me over the edge into Ubuntu land. No surprises since....

[plaques]

HELP, anybody with a Moto G7 play mobile phone.
Years ago when I inserted the SIM card I seem to remember that the SIM tray was located on the top left hand corner near the front camera. There is certainly a hole to accept the removal key but no outline of any tray that could pop out. Pushing the key into this hole does nothing to release any catches.

I'm trying to retrieve the SIM to use in a new phone.

Any Ideas.

[Tripps]

Yes that's where the sim lives, and that's how you get it out.. I have a Moto and there is no marking on the 'drawer' - just a hole for the pin.

Try again is all I can suggest.

[PanBiker]

Moto G7 Sim Removal/Fitting

[plaques]

Ian the new moto g22 is exactly like that. No problem spotting where the tray is and opens up as show. The old G7play has no side tray and if I look on an old manual it shows it at the top. but there is no indication of any tray. Pushing the key in the hole does nothing.

'

moto g7 play.jpg

[Tripps]

The old G7play has no side tray

Neither has my Moto G5 - Just take the whole back off then and all will be revealed.

[Tripps]

I've had software problems today which resulted in resetting my browser, and running without an ad blocker for a while. I think if I had not restored it, I'd have given up altogether on the web. I think I'm back to land now.

Memorable was the very convincing scheme from Sir David Attenborough,no less, who gets £18,000 per annum from a failsafe cyber currency site. You just need to start with £200 from a credit card - and the cash will roll in on a regular basis. They buy and sell in a instant when the market is favourable. You must use a card to start and accept a phone call from the organisers though. Your gains are readily payed into Paypal. Sounds really good.

[plaques]

Neither has my Moto G5 - Just take the whole back off then and all will be revealed.

Taking the back off will reveal the motherboard cover. If you then remove this cover the SIM tray is exposed but still fastened to the motherboard. How this is fastened in I don't know. Could be the odd wire or two involved.
I think I'll pass on this idea.

[Stanley]

I think that one of the reasons why I am perhaps safe from scams like the one David revealed in his post is that all this technology frightens me because I don't know how it works and I can't pop it in the lathe to modify it....

[PanBiker]

The old G7play has no side tray

Neither has my Moto G5 - Just take the whole back off then and all will be revealed.

Ken, if all else fails just find a kind 10 year old and ask them to sort it for you.

[plaques]

Tripps wrote: ↑25 Apr 2023, 13:06
plaques wrote: ↑25 Apr 2023, 12:52
The old G7play has no side tray
Neither has my Moto G5 - Just take the whole back off then and all will be revealed.
Ken, if all else fails just find a kind 10 year old and ask them to sort it for you.

Yesterday I suffered the ultimate in high tech embarrassment. When Mrs P had organised the phones she handed over a phone complete with SIM installed and a Catchy case to protect it from my ham fisted proddings. Always one not to fix things if they are not broken that's how the phone stayed until she got a new one. Now to the embarrassment. The case peeled off from the phone proper to expose the sides of the phone along with its SIM tray.
Red faced and blustering I now declare myself retired from anything involving buttons or passwords.

[PanBiker]

Sorry Ken!

[Stanley]

That made me smile Ken. Did Mrs P assume a patronising face when your mistake became obvious?

[Stanley]

See THIS report of worries about AI.
The boss of OpenAI, the startup that developed ChatGPT, has told US lawmakers that he welcomes and is strongly calling for more regulation to prevent the “harms” of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large-language models (LLM) like generative AI. "My worst fear is that we, the industry, cause significant harm to the world. I think, if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong and we want to be vocal about that and work with the government on that,” OpenAI’s chief executive Samuel Altman told Congress on Tuesday afternoon.
Here the government has said that there will be no new regulator, existing regulators must deal with AI.
Are we looking at the growth of something that will eventually be unstoppable and damaging? Do we really understand the dangers?

[Tripps]

Chap rang the door bell this morning. Said he was from County Broadband and they were just finishing work in the village, and were checking that we had all heard of them and giving me a last chance. He said they can do 300 Mbs full fibre to premises for £37.99 per month. A phone on PAYG was free or free calls to local and national numbers was £6 pcm.

I said that I had just committed to a 2 year deal elsewhere - paying £43.49 pcm -but he said they could fit their service and defer payment for up to two years until that expired. Then their two year price would then kick in, and there would be no RPI + 3.9 % increases. I found no reference to that in their literature so I rang them. Immediate answer, and an email confirming it all in about five minutes.

Impressive.

He assured me that they have full access to Openreach ducting and fitting would be painless.

I'm tempted. . . .

[Stanley]

My Talktalk bill after the recent price increase is £31 a month and the service does all I ask. I don't do any calls via them, I use the mobile on an EE pay as you go card.