COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Wendyf]

Not allowed to say the name "A***e" in this house.

[PanBiker]

Sold now on name rather than functionality. Wouldn't have one thrown at me. Overpriced in this day and age and always have been. Other tablets and phones are available, get an Android marque with change to spare.

[Tizer]

It's Tripps being his usual adventurous self - a Samsung is too easy and he likes a challenge!

[chinatyke]

Not allowed to say the name "A***e" in this house.

Arise? Arose? Above? Alive? Agate? Afore? The penny drops: It's Amore?

[Wendyf]

Not allowed to say the name "A***e" in this house.

Arise? Arose? Above? Alive? Agate? Afore? The penny drops: It's Amore?

Not allowed to say!

[PanBiker]

[PanBiker]

Just been chatting with Frederick on Talk Talk Support. Line noise is back with a vengeance and intermittent drop outs on the line with router re-booting. Thankfully their line tests have shown something up. Maybe Open Reach will be able to find it this time, it will be their third visit. My money is on the line at the bottom of the street that runs through the trees, (I have mentioned this). It's been the source of all problems on more than one occasion. OR seem reluctant to investigate. Anyway they say they have raised another ticket on it so will wait and see, we live in hope. Router been down to 10Mbps, currently 29Mbps, normally solid at 39MBps, can hardly hear a conversation on the land line.

[Tripps]

It's Tripps being his usual adventurous self - a Samsung is too easy and he likes a challenge!

Quite the opposite in fact - it's me trying not to be the odd one out with the quirky solution. Everything I had heard about iPad indicated that their owners loved them and they were the market leaders.

I did consider unpacking it and trying again, since I've found that sometimes computer problems seem to resolve themselves next day - but having read the comments - especially Mr Colin's - I've sent it back. I couldn't get eBay 'return' to work, so phoned them (Tesco Outlet) and arranged it all. I confirmed it in an email, and they've replied to that too. Superb customer service, and they answer the phone very quickly too.

Re the credit card - I reset it to 'factory settings so assume it has deleted all details of that, and the Apple ID and cloud etc. Hope so.

I feel as if I've had a glimpse into the pit of 'big data' - and I didn't like what I saw.

[Stanley]

Ian, from the sound of it (sorry!) I'll bet you are right....
David, sorry to hear you had a bad experience. My kids are all on Apple but like Ian I have always thought their stuff is overpriced and they are always chasing innovation. The only major brand I bought after the Amstrad was IBM and the old Aptiva I paid £1,000 for years ago is still running on Windows Professional upstairs. It seems to be bullet proof!

[Stanley]

The site has thrown its wobbly on formatting again. My cure is to use the 'view' button in the tool bar address section and just cycle through it until normal service is resumed....

[Tizer]

I feel as if I've had a glimpse into the pit of 'big data' - and I didn't like what I saw.

Then watch out for HMRC on the phone!...
`Thousands tell HMRC to delete voice data' LINK
`More than 160,000 people have told HM Revenue and Customs to delete biometric data it gathered during phone calls. The tax authority captured millions of callers' voice data after launching its Voice ID system in 2017, but originally gave people no easy way to opt out. Privacy group Big Brother Watch said people had been "railroaded into a mass ID scheme by the back door". HMRC now lets people opt out or decline Voice ID and delete captured "voiceprints". But it has kept millions of Voice ID records in a database held by a third party. Big Brother Watch said the tax authority had "created one of the largest known state-held voice databases in the world". About 7 million people are currently enrolled in the database, which lets taxpayers use their voice instead of a password when calling the helpline....'

[Tizer]

The site has thrown its wobbly on formatting again. My cure is to use the 'view' button in the tool bar address section and just cycle through it until normal service is resumed....

I wonder if that problem is linked with my `ghost quote' experience yesterday? LINK

[Stanley]

Couldn't say Tiz, it did it again this morning and three clicks on the view tab in the address bar cured it. I have changed my home page to another page to see if that cures it. Runs OK once I have adjusted.....

[Stanley]

The adjustment of the home page in preferences seems to have had an effect, no problem with text size and format this morning.

[Stanley]

Pluggy, Margaret has asked me to recommend a free anti virus programme for a Windows system. Any suggestions?

[Tripps]

Windows has its own anti virus built in. Called ' Windows Defender'. I use that - I assume. I seem to recall that Pluggy said it was OK once.

I have also installed the free version of Avast. Just take care they don't change your default browser (to Chrome I think) during installation. Easy enough, just untick the box..

I have used it for over ten years - never had a problem. (I think)

[Pluggy]

Windows 8 and 10 use the built in Windows Defender.,uninstalling all other Anti Virus should enable it) Windows 7 - Microsoft Security Essentials which is a free download and the same as defender on 8 and 10. MSE will stop working in January 2020 when Microsoft cease support for Windows 7. If you're running a 'dead' windows (Vista or XP) use the freebie versions of Avast or AVG.

[Pluggy]

If anyone is still in love with A***e (common fruit) you could do worse than watching a few videos from Louis Rossman on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZ ... Lax4Yisf6w

He mends macbooks for a living but hates A***e.

[Tizer]

`The Pitfalls of Facebook Merging Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp chats' LINK

[Stanley]

Thanks Pluggy, I'll pass that on....
Tiz, I read the link but it's above my pay grade!

[plaques]

A little tip for those who use the snipping tool to capture images. One of the features of this method is that it also records the embedded image title. This is a giveaway if you are trying to use it as a mystery object using an image from your personal files as an attachment. The answer is to upload it into the gallery and then from the gallery as normal into your post. The picture then appears without the title. It doesn't stop people cheating but OG readers don't do that do they?

[Stanley]

I think that's what I always do P. Are mine 'safe'?
BTW.... Changing my access page seems to have cured the text size and format glitch.....
Pluggy, Margaret sends her thanks, she took your advice and Jo's computer is now sorted and protected. (Jo is Mick's mother and M is staying with her at the moment.)

[plaques]

I think that's what I always do P. Are mine 'safe'?

I would imagine all the gallery records are safe as any storage system can be. What I was eluding to was that the snipping tool picks up any embedded reference. If the snipped image is stored only in your personal files then if you posted them straight from the file to the web it may still carry this embedded info. Using the gallery gets rid of this feature. I suppose you could always re-snip it from the gallery and get a clean personal file. There could be other ways of doing it but as you often say 'its beyond my pay grade'.

[Tizer]

The other way is to not use the original image file. Open it on your PC and make a screenshot of it then post that into the Gallery.

Will nothing ever surprise us about these tech companies?
`Facebook paid teenagers to mine device data' LINK

[Stanley]

I saw that report as well Tiz. Didn't someone say that Big Data was the modern Gold Rush? Janet warned me about the dangers ten years ago and identified the major firms that are active in the field. It turns out she was dead right.
This is reinforced by THIS BBC report about Facebook profits which despite all the troubles and criticism is up 39% in 2018 at $22billion. This is more than many independent countries and one wonders where all this skewing of profit distribution is going.
Talk talk incoming server is AWOL this morning but outgoing is working so could be worse!