COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

It's all above my pay grade! I shall swan on in ignorance, I seem to have managed so far.

[plaques]

LED bulbs. Not really computers but if you open one up and look at the driver circuits they're complicated little beasts. The old adage of buy one and it lasts for ever is coming under attack from the cheap shops. They are reducing the number of LEDs in the bulbs but winding the current up to get the same brightness. Slightly more expensive to run but with a shorter life. You get what you pay for.

[Stanley]

I'm hoping double LED tubes in the kitchen and the shed last for ever! I paid for the best and the Sparks said he had never seen one fail.

[Tizer]

`Schools hit by cyber attack and documents leaked' LINK

[Tizer]

What a surprise!....
`Smart appliances could stop working after two years, says Which?' LINK

[Tripps]

Anyone know anything about 5G?

I ask - because I went to Cambridge yesterday, and on the way, in the centre of a village, saw a very impressive and brand new mast . It was very tall, and seemed to have a lot going on at the top. There were two or three cabinets at its base. Later I saw another very similar in the town. I think it was a 5G mast.

I've had a Google - and like garlic bread - I thnk it will be the future. It seems that a 5G enabled phone is reasonable money, but as for a wireless modem to use at home I know nothing.

They say 300MBs is possible and it may not be too expensive.

[Stanley]

I heard the report about the software running 'smart' appliances not being supported by the manufacturers and was not surprised. A handy way for inducing built-in redundancy and higher sales!
Incidentally I also noted the news item about smart meters being used by the energy companies to put customers on penal rates if they got behind with their payments and remembered what David said on the subject of smart meters a while ago. Looks as though he was right.
David, I looked at your query and because of my bad eyes saw 5G as SG and wondered why you were enquiring after me...
I have no idea what the answer to your question is.....

[plaques]

I heard that the 5G frequency range is just below that used for weather predictions where the satellites measure the water content in the atmosphere. This is particularly important at ground level where the intensity of 5G is greatest. Although there is some frequency separation leakage from 5G may cause a problem.
What could go wrong.

[Tizer]

Over several months now we've had repeated visits to our local streets by sub-contractors working for BT, tearing up our pavements, digging trenches putting in cables, fibres whatever, for the brave new world of full fibre. The tarmac pavements now look like jigsaw puzzles. They were here again last week and, guess what, many of us now have landline phone problems. Our incoming calls are covered in sharp crackling noise and those we phone tell us they can hardly hear us. Often they've ended the call, not able to understand what we are saying. I saw an OpenReach van nearby with the man in a hole where some of the work had just been completed. He told me the contractors have caused damage to the line to a house. I told him about our problem. He said he didn't have time to look at ours and said to contact our supplier. Now we find other neighbours have problems too. I contacted Plusnet and they've done remote checks and find no problem with our line but after hearing about the work done here they said they'd send an engineer on Tuesday. I hope other people's problems and ours get grouped together or there'll be a great waste of time for engineers coming and going to this locality next week. Literally a case of lack of joined up thinking!

[Stanley]

I think the BBC must have had those same contractors working near their landlines (If they have any) as they don't seem to be able to get a clear signal from anyone outside the building. Far worse than old days with none of the new all singing all dancing digital technology.

[PanBiker]

Can't fault my FTP or the VOIP phone line, solid.

[PanBiker]

On another matter computer related. My wireless keyboard started playing up with one or two sticking keys. Closer inspection showed that the keyboard needed a good clean. I pulled it apart and as the keys are all captive I gave it a good scrub in the sink with a brush. Keyboard came up fine and a dry off with the hair-dryer finished the job. I removed the contact membrane at the same time so that I could give that a going over too. Reassembling I ran into a problem, I seem to have lost a bit! the switch membrane has its edge connector connected to its small PCB board for the battery supply using a compression joint with a top bar secured by two screws to a retaining bar underneath. Problem is I cant find that bit, looks to be missing! Can't understand where it has gone, looked under the table and all around to no avail. I have temporarily pinched the Logitech keyboard and mouse from my radio station PC until I either resolve this or give up and order a new one.

I gave it proper cleaning as well, it would be good as new if only.....

Grrrrr....

[Stanley]

I clean my Keyboard regularly by blowing it out with compressed air but have learned to be careful. You can blow the keys out of the board and it's a fiddle replacing them.

[PanBiker]

You can push the keys out on this design but essentially if you are careful they are captive. I have always found soap and warm water effective for lots of cleaning jobs.

Anyway, not found the missing piece and I have decided not to let it vex me too much so I will order a new replacement. Cant really complain its about 8 years old.

[Tripps]

Anyone know anything about 5G?

I just had a phone call from EE. I took it at first to be a scammer, but he had a scouse accent, and was genuine. He had got my number from my entry on the EE website when I was looking to investigate 5G coverage in my location. I remembered they said there may be a follow up phone call. Fair enough I suppose'

I didn't take it too far, I didn't want the full sales pitch, and was polite throughout. He was curious as to why I was interested in 5G and I said because it was a lot faster, not disruptive - no new cable to be installed - and perhaps no more expensive. We didn't get to actual costs but he implied it would not be cheaper.

One of the better unsolicited marketing calls I've had.

[PanBiker]

If at first...

Or using the old service trick of putting a troublesome job on one side for a while then looking at it again with a different head!

I employed this as a last chance for the original keyboard. Looking at again the penny dropped that I removed the membrane from the back of the keyboard and not from the baseplate where I was trying to re-fix it! There were two mounting posts in plain sight that were the anchors for the keyboard matrix edge connector fixing. Five minutes later and we have a fully functional, (and clean) keyboard back.

[Big Kev]

If at first...

Or using the old service trick of putting a troublesome job on one side for a while then looking at it again with a different head!

I employed this as a last chance for the original keyboard. Looking at again the penny dropped that I removed the membrane from the back of the keyboard and not from the baseplate where I was trying to re-fix it! There were two mounting posts in plain sight that were the anchors for the keyboard matrix edge connector fixing. Five minutes later and we have a fully functional, (and clean) keyboard back.

Good job it never went in the bin

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the latest position in the Post Office ransom ware attack which means all international post going out is suspended.
Could it possibly be that the firm who managed the Horizon software was also looking after this and it was neglected/not financed adequately?

[Tripps]

A problem solved.

I've been troubled by a drop down dialogue box opening all the time, without any apparent action from me.
It got worse after I fitted a wireless mouse and keyboard, which decluttered the desk, but became the prime suspect. Using the web became a trial.

Solved after intensive research - much swapping of mouses, but the common factor was me. It's the worsening arthritis in my fingers. I was contacting the right click button without realising it.

Solution - wedge the right key with a bit of double sided tape - first thing that came to hand in the kitchen drawer - and disable it

I'll learn to manage with one key on the mouse.

Phew. . .

[Stanley]

David, when I started rubbing arnica oil into my shoulder I noticed how the arthritis in my hands improved. I reckon it's the oil. Just a thought......

[Big Kev]

Microsoft's Office 365 cloud services are impacted by a global outage, that'll put a 'spanner in the works' for many who rely on it to operate. It'll affect those who use online MS products such as Outlook and Teams.

[Stanley]

I thank God that my worries about outages are confined to a little box under the table and not the Cloud!

[Tizer]

Russia's scammers seem more able than their military...
`SNP MP Stewart McDonald's emails hacked by Russian group' LINK

[Stanley]

That thought struck me also Peter.
Mind you, I am wary of putting too much credence on reports we are fed telling us how incompetent the Russians are. There are many allied videos on the web banging the same drum.
I am reminded of the strange bearded young men who used to lecture us in Berlin after the war telling us how pig ignorant the Russians were and assuring us that they washed fish in the lavatories.
Despite their best efforts, in private discussions about our prospects if any of our allies turned against us the unanimous verdict was that the French and the Americans would be no problem but the Russians were a different matter altogether. I don't see any reason to radically alter that view now.

[Tizer]

The truth is that the Russian military in its Ukraine venture really has been incompetent. I follow the story in The Times from its war correspondents and the information also gathered from captured Russian soldiers. It will probably change as we come to the next wave of invasion on the first anniversary of the invasion on 24th February and with their new military leaders. If you've watched the TV documentary about HMS Queen Elizabeth's trip to the Eastern Mediterranean a few years ago it showed how the RN were surprised that the Russian air force and its navy failed to work together.

Back to computers....
We need Tripps's German word for schadenfreude again...
`Google's Bard AI bot mistake wipes $100bn off shares' LINK