COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

I had a funny turn this morning. I was responding to a post by Gloria and my keyboard failed completely. Went through all the usual repair modes including re-fitting an old keyboard and rebooting the system but no joy. So I put the original keyboard back on and posted by editing her post. No problem. Then I tried the reply box and it was working normally. God moves in a mysterious way and so do computers!

[PanBiker]

No problem Tiz, I wish I had a pound for every toner refill I did when I was working in school. I did the colour lasers as well. Does your Brother cartridge not have a refill plug, they always used to have one in the end. I guess not if they gave you the melt tool with the toner refill.

[Tizer]

To be honest I never even looked, I'd just assumed they didn't have them!

Stanley, I'd had my Logitech keyboard for about 20 years but it failed recently so I bought a new Logitech K120 wired keyboard, very cheap but works well. Ebuyer [Other sellers are available!]

[plaques]

Dug out an external disc drive for backing up my files. I've had it long before the flash drives got to the capacity they are now. USB connection, all my old XP files now on it so I can view on the laptop without clogging it up. Actually acts as a third backup system as well, belt and braces as they say.

[Whyperion]

I am finding that the computer/s have a hard time accessing the files on some backup drives - takes time to draw the file tree and preview if pix or pdfs. ( That is still a relative speed compared to internal drive , with pictures I keep remembering the time it took to do the mona lisa. or hand print b/w photos on paper compared with a scan and save )

[Stanley]

I'm a believer in back ups on external drives Ken. You've reminded me, it's time I did my six month save, Only takes about five minutes.....
Have a look at THIS BBC report on a widespread scam. A £5 USB stick for £340 that 'protects you from 5G radiation'. Are you going to rush out and buy a pack of 3 for £958.80?

[Stanley]

As you all know I am not a fan of swapping and changing contracts like the one I have with my ISP, Talktalk. However I stretched a point yesterday and changed my contract saving £18 a month.
Yes, I know, I should have done it earlier but there you are....

[chinatyke]

That's £216 a year extra in your pocket, a nice bonus. Well done.

[Stanley]

Thanks China. The silly thing is that I have known for a while that it needed looking at. Much of it comes from the sneaky trick of giving you free boosts when Talktalk were in deep shit after the hacking and then those boosts reverting to extras on your account after a year and attracting charges. It took me a while to twig what was happening. All is well now, I am back on a very supportable package.
One thing, I'll bet I am now on a new contract and locked in again!

[Tizer]

You have to accept a contract to get the cheapest packages, Stanley.

`Tech takeovers feed into China Cold War fears' LINK
The UK government is planning new measures to restrict foreign takeovers on national security grounds. But security experts caution the UK has been late to the issue. It comes amid growing concern about the risk of China buying high-tech companies, especially in the economic turmoil resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. At the height of the crisis, a boardroom manoeuvre nearly went unnoticed. And it flared up into a row that goes to the heart of on an increasingly contentious issue - has the UK failed to stop high-tech industries passing into Chinese hands?
`In 2017, Imagination Technologies, a Hertfordshire-based company at the cutting edge of computer-chip design, whose tech is used on iPhones, was bought by Canyon Bridge Partners, a private equity firm based in the Cayman Islands. But 99% of the funds for the purchase came from China Reform, backed by the state in Beijing. And this spring, Canyon Bridge Partners tried to install new directors linked to China Reform. One of those to raise the alarm, Sir Hossein Yassaie, a former chief executive of the company, feared assurances it would not be moved to China were at risk of being broken...'.

[Stanley]

"You have to accept a contract to get the cheapest packages, Stanley."
Or even to get a connection.
"The UK government is planning new measures to restrict foreign takeovers on national security grounds."
And about time too! Many of us have thought this a no-brainer for years. Remember Nye Bevan and 'the commanding heights of the economy'? If he knew this over 70 years ago why did we let it happen?

[plaques]

Going back a couple of years China started their facial recognition tracing technology. Millions of cameras throughout the city, all 1984 stuff, Individuals can be found and tracked within a few minutes.China Tracking. all very scary stuff. And we, the epicenter of white hot technology can't make a viable tracing app.

[PanBiker]

I would imagine in coding circles a tracking app for mobiles which all have the feature built into core firmware anyway would be relatively easy. Unless you are one of Boris and Doms protege's. As stated elsewhere Google and Apple have a cross platform working app ready to go which has already been used by other countries.

You could transpose the antics of this government quite easily to the Old Vic with Brian Rix making a better job.

[Tizer]

"You have to accept a contract to get the cheapest packages, Stanley."
Or even to get a connection.

No, you can get a connection without being on a fixed term contract but you will have to pay a lot more for it.

[Pluggy]

Heres who I signed up with last month:

https://www.1pbroadband.com/

Fibre broadnand (up to 40 down, 10 up - I get 37 down 9 up )£20 a month. Including Line rental No contract,

Caveats,
£30 to join
Calls are 1p a minute + 10p call connection.- a tad pricey if you make a lot of calls.

Leave when you want. No regrets runs like a train. Piggybacks on talktalk,

[Tripps]

We've been on the end of a sustained campaign by County Broadbandthat wishes to cable the whole village with super fast fibre all the way to the house.

They say they need 270 or so households to sign up, and seem to getting increasingly desperate. They have had two public meetings, and now are having an 'webinar' which they say is our final chance to avail ourselves of this exciting facility.

To get what I have now by way of phone and broadband (a lot faster) I estimate, would - after the initial offer period cost me about £60 per month. I guess for multi user households with high demand for the service that would be Ok, but for me I'd say it was too much.

I recently upgraded from ADSL to 'fibre to cabinet', and get similar figures to yourself - about 36 down and 9 up. Can't say I get a lot of benefit from it all except that Stanley's daily workshop update thread, with lots of pictures loads a lot quicker, and I can bid later on ebay. 10 seconds before the end was plenty last time.

[Stanley]

I agree David and would have made the same choice if it was presented to me. Reliability is the key and in that respect there is much to be said for sitting with what you already have if it works.
As for world-beating apps. Noticeable that the delectable Dido has been keeping her head below the parapet!

[Tizer]

Heres who I signed up with last month:
https://www.1pbroadband.com/

Judging from the web page design it's the same outfit as 1p Mobile who I've been using for my phone connection. They've been fine and I've no complaint with the service. The web site is easy to use and they're very transparent about their charges etc.

[Pluggy]

It is. I've used their mobile for years.

[Tizer]

It sounds a good broadband deal and we don't use the phone much. I'll keep a note of it for when our current Plusnet deal ends.

[PostmanPete]

Heres who I signed up with last month:

https://www.1pbroadband.com/

Pluggy, did you get the free 'premium router' or the £2 a month 'super router' ? Is the free one a decent quality? (We only have a small house..!)

[plaques]

Is the free one a decent quality? (We only have a small house..!)

I found with my routers its the relative positioning that governs what you perceive to be good or bad. Thick stone wall between the router and TV or computer can mess things up. The more power in the router the better.

[Pluggy]

I got the free router, its very decent, 5GHz wifi, all mod cons, range is at least as good as the one it replaced, Its a Technicolor DWA0120. I live in an old terraced house with the usual brick interior walls and thick solid stone walls. I get a signal in the garden.

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products ... fications/

[PanBiker]

When I set up the PayPal donation account, I created an exclusive email address on my TalkTalk account. As I do most of the admin on my laptop and not on my desktop machine I kept this email account separate and use Windows Mail for all the traffic, everything in one place. It's been perfectly fine for over three years. For the last couple of weeks I have been getting notifications that "your TalkTalk settings are out of date". Bit of a non descriptive error message! This is reference the OneGuy email account, nothing has changed but I checked the account anyway but can't find anything wrong so I asked Google.

Theoretically it's down to one of two things, the account password or the security settings. This is from Windows support. I have changed the password on the account and also set the security as advised by Microsoft but to no avail. Notifications are still logging the error, every time the Windows Mail Client syncs the email, Grrrrr.

The account works, I have tested it both with incoming and outgoing mail, it's annoying.

[Whyperion]

Didnt talktalk do some kind of email 'upgrade' I suspect it is in the SSL or port settings bit, on the windows mail (?DHCP? handler - its not quite that but around that kind of area)