COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[chinatyke]

Add-ons are small programs that personalize your browser, manage your passwords, prevent pop-ups, block ads, translate pages, and many other useful things. I had 2 ad blockers running so that may possibly have caused a conflict.

[Tizer]

On my Firefox I've used the Adblock Plus add-on for a long time and it works well in the background, stopping pop-up ads. I don't have to do anything, I just added it to Firefox by clicking the button and it's being doing its job quietly. The page for it is here: Adblock Plus

[PanBiker]

I have never had a problem with pop ups or ads in Firefox, I have no add ons at all.

[Stanley]

The only thing I have like that is something that 'blocks remote content'.

[Tizer]

Panbiker will probably enjoy this!
`Broadband over 'wet string' tested for fun' LINK

[Stanley]

Lovely......

[chinatyke]

And then there is internet delivered via lasers with no fibre optic cables or wet string involved!

From Yahoo: Sorry, it's from The Independent.
Alphabet is adopting laser-beaming boxes in favor of Project Loon's balloons for its latest internet-delivery partnership in Andhra Pradesh, India. The state government is snapping up 2,000 of the hubs, which rely on Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) tech, from Alphabet's X innovations lab. Next year, the light-beaming links will be placed kilometres apart on roofs and posts to plug network access gaps between cell towers and WiFi hotspots. "Just like fibre optic cable, but without the cable," according to X's Baris Erkman.
Less than 20 percent of Andhra Pradesh's 53 million populace has access to internet, with the state government pledging to connect 12 million households by 2019 as part of its AP Fiber Grid program. The high-bandwidth FSOC links will form the "backbone of [that] network," said Erkman. For Alphabet, it's all about grabbing more first-time internet users on low-cost smartphones as it looks to tap Google's next billion.

[Stanley]

Janet was right, they're taking over the world.... She told me also, years ago, that they were building a 1000mb connection at Nautronix but were waiting for a chip fast enough to support it......

[Tizer]

We've been used to private businesses ransacking and plundering the natural world for oil, coal, minerals etc but now we are faced with something similar happening to the atmosphere, near-space and the electromagnetic spectrum. It's a mad rush by companies that show little respect for the law or for national boundaries. We've managed to gain some international agreement over Antarctica and are trying to do the same for the Arctic; we need similar international cooperation for the deep ocean, atmosphere, space and the electromagnetic spectrum.
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I mentioned at the beginning of the month that Plusnet had sent me a message saying they were going to charge me £65 for the BT engineer's visit to sort my broadband problem even though the engineer said the fault wasn't my responsibility and I shouldn't be charged. I replied saying I thought they were wrong to charge me, and ticked the box for an email reply. I got a promo email from them today which reminded me that I hadn't heard from them. I went to their web site and looked at my account and found they'd responded there. The reply apologised for their `bad service' and implies that I won't be charged, although the message is written in such ambiguous language that I can't be sure until time passes and I find whether or not I'm actually charged. I've noticed something else that tells me Plusnet has become just one more of those typical broadband companies - they are now in MoneySaving Expert.com's Top Ten for haggling, the ten companies (all companies, not just telecoms) where you most need to haggle to get a reasonable price.

[plaques]

I notice that I'm frequently being advised that the link requested does not provide a secure connection and will not give me access. The latest is Tizer's mystery object ( www.archaeology.co.uk uses an unsupported protocol.). "Ref:- The client and server don't support a common SSL protocol version or cipher suite. This is likely to be caused when the server needs RC4, which is no longer considered secure." Nothing I can do only give it a miss.

[PanBiker]

The security certification on that link works for me P and all looks OK. I am using Firefox Quantum.

Googling the error will produce a number of suggestions, one of the most comprehensive, this from the Google Chrome support site:

"Just for completeness and initial review, the most common causes of invalid SSL certificate / red HTTPS slash errors are:

Incorrect year/date/time on your computer. Please ensure your computer year/date/time is set correctly, because that is used to determine the validity period of the SSL certificate of the website.
Make sure you are going to the secure website with the exact URL that the website provides. https://website.com is different from https://www.website.com because the exact domain URL is registered as part of the SSL certificate, and must be used exactly the same way.
Trying to access a secure website that only uses SHA-1 encryption. SHA-1 encrypted websites with certificates valid beyond Jan. 1, 2017 are marked as definitely insecure with Red HTTPS slash. Such websites need to update their security certs to SHA-2.
Check your antivirus or firewall program and make sure you disable any option like "encrypted/SSL scanning or checking".

There are similar results for Internet Explorer, have you tried a different browser?

[plaques]

Thanks PanBiker, Time and date OK. Using Chrome on XP, which in itself is not updated. Old setup which I'm very attached to. I'll try on the windows 10 lap top tomorrow. That's life.

[Stanley]

Dead right about control of exploitation Tiz. All it needs is all the nations on earth to agree with each other.......
P, sorry to have to say but no problems with Ubuntu and Firefox...... It may be getting near time for a change!

[plaques]

www.archaeology.co.uk No problem with the Windows 10 Chrome. Must be a function of XP dropping into geriatric mode. I tend to use it because it has got all my applications on it that would require replacing if I updated. I can live with it so far.

[Pluggy]

Chrome hasn't been supported on XP for a couple of years now. The last time I attempted to use chrome on XP it flagged up every time you started it, maybe they assumed everyone has got the message. There was some whinging because they also stopped supporting Vista at the same time, and at the time Microsoft were still supporting Vista. The infamous NHS cyber attack a while back was largely because they still had a lot of XP in the system.

Move on, XP was a dinosaur when Microsoft pulled the plug in 2014.

The mighty Windows 7 only has a little over 2 years of support left.

[Big Kev]

I am comfortable with Windows 10 (I took advantage of the 'free' upgrade from 7), I've got used to the frequency of updates and just consider them a minor annoyance now. All the MS noseyware is disabled along with Cortana. I use Chrome on my desktop, laptop and phone with a single sign on for continuity; famous last words but I've not suffered any security issues with this set up.

[PanBiker]

I am basically the same as you Kev. I upgraded the desktop machine, my smoothwall box in the radio room and my laptop all on the free deal. I use chrome on the desktop and up in the attic but am still on Firefox on the laptop. The latest version seems to be slower on here and it has another small annoyance depending on how you browse the site. I generally open a tab for Unread Posts and then middle click (to open in new window) each of the "last post" icons. Now this used to leave the last one clicked showing as greyed out so when you came back to the list you could tell where you had been. It doesn't do this now, not a big issue but annoying. Browser issue of course, nothing to do with Windows 10, upgrades are no different really to the regularly quoted "painless Ubuntu" ones that Stanley always thanks the lads for, (Linux world must not have any female coders).

[Stanley]

Point taken, it will be Lads and Lassies from now on!

[Tizer]

[re Plusnet]....The reply apologised for their `bad service' and implies that I won't be charged, although the message is written in such ambiguous language that I can't be sure until time passes and I find whether or not I'm actually charged. ..

No surprise - they've taken an extra £65 on my direct debit this month.

[Big Kev]

Great idea for Christmas

[Pluggy]

I love it. Absolutely dripping irony, the best

[plaques]

Is this the make of 'Log Book' that the Conservative Ministers were asked to keep on their desks at all times?

[Stanley]

Ah, but will the users have a pen?
Ubuntu surprised me this morning, the screen froze after the password. I just switched it off and restarted, all OK. Must have been having a brain fart.

[Tizer]

I mentioned this last Saturday but now Apple has admitted what it was doing...
`Apple apologises for Iphone slowdowns' LINK

[Stanley]

The power of social media when used responsibly.......