COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[PanBiker]

SNAFU

[Stanley]

I'm not worrying but another small glitch popped up this morning as I was logging on and opening up my programmes, when I went for the browser the screen went blank and I was into a restart. No problem, it did it OK and no wobbles since. Mind you, there have been some quite major upgrades lately on Ubuntu and they often need a small bug fix the day after.....
On the whole, stable and very satisfactory.

[Tizer]

Is it possible now to buy stuff on Ebay without being logged in and perhaps even without being a member? It happened to me accidentally last week. I haven't used Ebay for over a year but I have Firefox bookmarks for some sellers' shop pages that I've used before and I used one of these to look for a particular mineral specimen that I wanted. I saw several items I wanted to buy from him so I went ahead, put them in the shopping basket, made the usual checks that the web page had full security then put in my credit card details and paid. The items were free delivery but by 2nd class post. The seller mailed me to say he'd put them in the post and they arrived the following morning which seemed odd for 2nd class. I was pleased, he always packages items very securely and I wanted to give him feedback. It was only then that I realised I hadn't logged into my Ebay account when I made the purchase! For a moment it gave me a fright but I went back over the details and my memory and realised that everything I did was safe and correct, I was definitely buying on Ebay.

I logged into Ebay and mailed the seller to explain what had happened and to apologise that although I was, once again, very pleased with his items and service but I couldn't give him any feedback because the details of the transaction of course were not in my account. He replied that he'd been wary because Ebay had given me a username made of a string of gobbledegook characters and that username didn't have any feedback. He has never encountered that before and never heard of anyone being able to buy without being logged in. In the end he sent the goods on `signed for' which is why they came fast. Luckily he understands my error and, of course, that I'm not going to let it happen again. Another disadvantge is that there is no record of the transaction in my Ebay account. Have any of you heard of people being able to buy on Ebay without being logged into the site?

[Stanley]

No experience of Ebay Tiz but Amazon recognises me immediately I log in. These sites are too smart for their own good these days.

[Stanley]

66mb of Linux code from Canonical this morning...... As usual. quick and no problems.
Looking at the weather forecast, it might be a good idea to isolate your computer from the mains this evening and tonight as there is a distinct possibility of some thunderstorms.

[Tizer]

No experience of Ebay Tiz but Amazon recognises me immediately I log in. These sites are too smart for their own good these days.

That's because they've dumped cookies on your PC and they know your IP address.

`Lancaster University students' data stolen by cyber thieves' LINK
The story doesn't seem to mention that students at other universities have already been attacked with this scam.

[Stanley]

They're welcome to mine....

[Stanley]

The site is slow this morning. I wonder whether the hot weather over the channel is affecting the servers?

[Big Kev]

All good here

[Tizer]

No problem here.

[Stanley]

Maz has mailed from Oz to say the site is slow. It seems to be OK here now.

[chinatyke]

Not noticed any problem here either.

[Pluggy]

They are probably doing updates, backups and maintenance during the quiet times of the day, when everyone is asleep. Otherwise known as 3 o'clock in the morning which is when Stanley is posting.

[Stanley]

Quite possible. The email servers do the same and are sometimes AWOL when I am active. Perfectly normal this morning.

[Wendyf]

It was definitely slow to stop at times through the morning..... my morning that is, between 6.30am and midday.

[Stanley]

Seems to be OK this morning Wendy....

[Tizer]

This sounds like a worthwhile project...
`The quiet scheme saving thousands from ransomware' LINK
`A free scheme to prevent cyber-attack victims paying ransom to hackers claims to have saved more than 200,000 victims at least $108m (£86m). The No More Ransom project offers advice and software to recover computer files encrypted in ransomware attacks. Founded by Europol, police in the Netherlands, and McAfee, it now has more than 150 global partners. With 14 new tools introduced in 2019 alone, Europol says it can now decrypt 109 different types of infection.'

[Stanley]

That's welcome news and it reinforces the need for international cooperation in these matters.
The site was slow again first thing but has improved in the last hour. Maintenance again as Pluggy suggested?

[Stanley]

Same slowness early this morning but it has improved now.
Lots of small adjustments coming in from Canonical for Ubuntu.....

[Cathy]

Hi, could someone please start a new topic for me called IT'S SOMEBODIES BIRTHDAY ON TUESDAY.
My phone won't let me do it. Aargh.
With thanks. Cathy

[Wendyf]

Done.

[Cathy]

[Tizer]

I've just had a patch of OG being dead slow, like others have said. My broadband speed was OK at 37Mbps and other sites were as fast as usual.

[Stanley]

Tiz is right, really slow at dinnertime. Definitely the server.

[Stanley]

Slow again first thing but it has improved and is now close to normal.