Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

I have no intention of ever doing any banking on any machine connected to the interweb - that's how it is.  Once bitten.....I use a different credit card for internet transactions, with a low credit limit, or paypal.  As for Linux etc - no.  Too much farting on.  I just want it to work for simple things, word, e mail, interweb, pictures. A bit of XL occasionally.  

 

The old steam PC is managing to run quite a bit faster after its elderly care programme, but interestingly after a conversation at her work regarding working from home when having to care for me later in the year after my surgery, Mrs NHN came home with a brand new laptop work supplied out of the blue - for work but can be used for most personal stuff too, bar ebay.  So if she settles with that (its a bit uphill at the moment, Win10 is new to her) then the issue has resolved itself at no cost - chicken dinner, winner.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Mrs NHN came home with a brand new laptop work supplied out of the blue - for work but can be used for most personal stuff too, bar ebay.

Plug a flat panel monitor, keyboard and mouse into it and I suspect that (Windows aside) she will be delighted.

 

Or don't 'plug in' a keyboard and mouse. Bluetooth versions are fine.

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I know a couple of people who still run Win7 and haven't been bothered by hackers.

That is a bit like those people who say they have been driving for x years and have never had an accident. I wonder how many they may have caused though. 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

You may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve been not been on line for the few couple of days, this has been down to me being unwell and couldn’t seem to find the energy to do anything at all. And with so many pages (10) being posted since my last visit to this thread, I’ve no chance of catching up, so I’ll just have to wish everyone the usual congratulations or commiserations as appropriate. 

 

I started feeling off last Wednesday night, shivering but having a temperature, but by Thursday morning I was feeling much better. Then late Friday evening, I once again started to feel unwell, but this time no shivers o4 temperature. Like Thursday morning, when I woke up on Saturday morning I felt a little better. That unfortunately was short lived and by mid afternoon I was once again feeling unwell. It got worse during the evening so I had an early night. On Thursday my manhood had begun to swell up, the swelling continued to get worse as Friday, but by Sunday morning things had gotten so bad, I decided to go to the local hospital walk in centre. This thankfully is only a 15 minute walk from our house, I got there around 8:20 and was back home for 11:30. The doctor I saw prescribed me with some antibiotics for the swelling. Luckily, there’s a pharmacy opposite the hospital, so I called there on my way home to get the prescription filled. It’s still early days yet, but things do now started to be improve, but there’s still a small amount of swelling to go before I’m back to normal! The swelling was making moving about very uncomfortable, so I’ve mostly been sat about resting (dozing) or visiting the smallest room. 

 

This morning I had my 4 monthly check up with the Christie Clinic, I also got the results of my recent PSA test. Once again my PSA has risen, again more than doubling the last reading! Over the last 10 months my readings have gone from, 0.4 in March 22 to 4.1 this month. The nurse then consulted with my oncologist and they are now going to see me every 3 months instead of 4 and I’m being sent for another blood test, this time to see what my testosterone level is, as my current medication should be keeping this low. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Bluetooth versions are fine.

I agree. However I have learned where the spare batteries are kept, none of mine have docking stations!

Edited January 24, 2023 by Tony_S

[Winslow Boy]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Ancient - 10+ years, it's Win7 Home Premium.  H has declared it not really worth upgrading as the mother board is older than Father Time or something. Apparently the memory slots are old hat and more not really available easily.  it is running a lot better though, having being defraggled.  It'll do for now but the lack of security updates for Win7 is a concern.

 

Nothing wrong with running Win7.. I have it on my laptop. You just need to ensure you  some antivirus software as well. I use Avast which is free. Relative recommended it to me and he should know as computers are his thing.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Indiana Puppers is already for some comet hunting.   Venus (and Jupiter) are already out and playing.

 

 

Cue the clouds …….

 

Well I suppose it's better than a green splodge 'ey Puppers 

[zarniwhoop]

31 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

I have no intention of ever doing any banking on any machine connected to the interweb - that's how it is.  Once bitten.....I use a different credit card for internet transactions, with a low credit limit, or paypal.  As for Linux etc - no.  Too much farting on.  I just want it to work for simple things, word, e mail, interweb, pictures. A bit of XL occasionally. 

I'm a linux enthusiast (building from source, so old machines are regrettably no-longer practical for compiling), so feel free to disregard this comment. But word processing (libreoffice - in general use it is reputed to cope better than MS Word with old MS documents, although it might give issues with some firms' in-house standards that rely on MS macros if I understood comments elsewhere)  email - maybe thunderbird ?, browsing - firefox, picures - ImageMagick for basic manipulating or changing format, gimp for general manipulation of photos) are the easy things and any recent ubuntu-derived distribution should have no trouble installing on an old (BIOS, not UEFI) machine. For less old machines with UEFI (so called trusted computing and secure boot as in MS own the machine, not you) then installing can be a lot harder.

 

But I agree that using applications that are built to only run on some version of MS Windows is not an easy path for linux users.

 

[Gwiwer]

45 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

That is a bit like those people who say they have been driving for x years and have never had an accident. I wonder how many they may have caused though. 

None that I am even remotely aware of. So far. 47 years licensed and not a point nor a parking fine to my name. Yet. 

[polybear]

On 23/01/2023 at 17:51, iL Dottore said:

A heavily insured Polina Bear “accidentally” falling down the stairs???

 

On 23/01/2023 at 14:21, Winslow Boy said:

Bear falling through the hatch from Beamland.

 

On 23/01/2023 at 19:31, monkeysarefun said:

Okay.... You got the mail in. "Ah ha! a package - that'll be the 1994 Iphone I ordered to replace my old phone!" you thought "I'll open that at the top of the stairs"  Which you did, but only to find that you'd actually bought "eye-phone 1994" an art installation by Tracy Emin, comprising a  dial telephone with sheeps eye glued to it, you fell back down the stairs in shock and landed on the heap of cakes and baked beans you keep there for when guests come.

 

Bear here........

Ok, so here goes.......

 

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaSplodgeFuggin'Piggin'Rattin'Turdycurses

 

- @iL Dottore's suggestion shows a somewhat worrying development  - there's a distinct possibility that iD has been mixing with Captain Cynical a little too often.......

 

- as for @Winslow Boy's guess - no, I'm very pleased to say; somehow the thought of scoffin' NHS LDC thru' a straw doesn't appeal.

 

- @monkeysarefun Chimpy's guess isn't too far off the mark - though dodgy artwork by Tracy Emin, cake and beans don't come into it.

 

Stunt Bear did indeed fall down the Rattin' Piggin' Stairs (it had to happen sometime); the "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek" bit being that "OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT" moment, knowing what's coming and there's nottalot that Bear can do about it. The "DoinkaDoinkaDoinkaDoinka" is the sound a Bear makes as he bounces off numerous stair treads on the way down, followed by the "Splodge" bit (that's where Bear face-plants the hall floor (still carpeted, luckily).

Immediately after the last "Doinka" but before the "Splodge" a certain Bear did enter that rather worrying area of psychic experience that precedes "The Big Lunch" (a.k.a very painful Sh1t Street) during which, whilst "On Finals" the Port Rear Undercarriage Paw collapsed backwards in a rather worrying** manner. 

 

(** Bear had images of PM'ing a certain Fraggle, asking for the name of a Recommended Ankle Surgeon....).

 

Very, very fortunately I somehow got away with the whole experience - no idea how.  Even the undercarriage was fully operational this morning, though I did have a brief spell of minor pins & needles but that soon disappeared.

And where was the Mobile during all this?  In the Kitchen, on charge....... 

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Not specifically, no. 
 

Which leads on to all manner of opportunities. 
 

Is the contract one which allows anything unless proscribed or allows nothing unless permitted?  
 

The contract also omits any mention of being required to work!  It specifies my duties, hours and days of attendance, standards of presentation and a few important things I am required to have about my person. It also specifies my rate of remuneration. But at no point does it say I must carry out those duties ….. 

 

Hmmmm 🤔

  

 

Yes but just think of all the forms you'd have to fill in. Then there's all the mess that'll have to be sorted as well. So on balance although it might give you a brief moment of delight I just don't see it being worthwhile to be honest.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Like NHN I will not do internet banking, also the same as him its only a low limit credit card or PayPal.

53 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

None that I am even remotely aware of. So far. 47 years licensed and not a point nor a parking fine to my name. Yet. 

 I passed my driving test (in the snow) 55 years ago and also have a clean licence, not even a parking ticket.

[New Haven Neil]

@Winslow Boy I use AVG, the full paid up one, it served us well in the business so use it at home too.

 

@polybear Bruising coming out in the sole is a classic sign of a Lisfranc Fracture, hence mentioning that to Warren the other day.  Many Lisfrancs are caused in falling/tripping down stairs (although mine wasn't) and believe me you don't want one.  The surgeon's summary was 'they don't do well' and my GP just said 'Yeurgh'.  They were both right. :-(

 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Nothing wrong with running Win7.. I have it on my laptop. You just need to ensure you  some antivirus software as well. I use Avast which is free. Relative recommended it to me and he should know as computers are his thing.

Up until late 2021 the RAAF here had a standalone system that we looked after  performing a specific task that was still running Windows NT.  There was no  real need  to upgrade it because it was self-contained and no way to do it anyway  because  the company that installed it were long gone so there was no upgrade path. It finally only got decommisioned because the  requirement it was fulfilling  went away. 

[monkeysarefun]

55 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

Bear here........

Ok, so here goes.......

 

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaDoinkaSplodgeFuggin'Piggin'Rattin'Turdycurses

 

- @iL Dottore's suggestion shows a somewhat worrying development  - there's a distinct possibility that iD has been mixing with Captain Cynical a little too often.......

 

- as for @Winslow Boy's guess - no, I'm very pleased to say; somehow the thought of scoffin' NHS LDC thru' a straw doesn't appeal.

 

- @monkeysarefun Chimpy's guess isn't too far off the mark - though dodgy artwork by Tracy Emin, cake and beans don't come into it.

 

Stunt Bear did indeed fall down the Rattin' Piggin' Stairs (it had to happen sometime); the "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek" bit being that "OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT" moment, knowing what's coming and there's nottalot that Bear can do about it. The "DoinkaDoinkaDoinkaDoinka" is the sound a Bear makes as he bounces off numerous stair treads on the way down, followed by the "Splodge" bit (that's where Bear face-plants the hall floor (still carpeted, luckily).

Immediately after the last "Doinka" but before the "Splodge" a certain Bear did enter that rather worrying area of psychic experience that precedes "The Big Lunch" (a.k.a very painful Sh1t Street) during which, whilst "On Finals" the Port Rear Undercarriage Paw collapsed backwards in a rather worrying** manner. 

 

(** Bear had images of PM'ing a certain Fraggle, asking for the name of a Recommended Ankle Surgeon....).

 

Very, very fortunately I somehow got away with the whole experience - no idea how.  Even the undercarriage was fully operational this morning, though I did have a brief spell of minor pins & needles but that soon disappeared.

And where was the Mobile during all this?  In the Kitchen, on charge....... 

 

 

Now I can go to bed!

[Winslow Boy]

15 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

@Winslow Boy I use AVG, the full paid up one, it served us well in the business so use it at home too.

 

@polybear Bruising coming out in the sole is a classic sign of a Lisfranc Fracture, hence mentioning that to Warren the other day.  Many Lisfrancs are caused in falling/tripping down stairs (although mine wasn't) and believe me you don't want one.  The surgeon's summary was 'they don't do well' and my GP just said 'Yeurgh'.  They were both right. :-(

 

 

Look Neil when you post  injury 'porn' can you like issue a warning before hand. I'm now not going to get any sleep because I'll have images of mangled toes rolling around inside the old bonce and it's not like there's much else in there to start of with.

[New Haven Neil]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Look Neil when you post  injury 'porn' can you like issue a warning before hand. I'm now not going to get any sleep because I'll have images of mangled toes rolling around inside the old bonce and it's not like there's much else in there to start of with.

 

Sorry - but at least I didn't post the real photos again....

[pH]

37 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Look Neil when you post  injury 'porn' can you like issue a warning before hand. I'm now not going to get any sleep because I’ll have images of mangled toes rolling around inside the old bonce and it's not like there's much else in there to start of with.

That would be some injury! 🤕

[Tony_S]

One of the UK papers was reporting today that our household appliance could be spying on us and reporting back to China. Does this mean we need to play music loudly to confuse them. Also the article said the data would be transmitted by the 5G network which doesn’t actually exist here in our postcode yet. I think any data originating from our oven and dishwasher would be very boring.  Though perhaps our German appliances don’t have Chinese chips.

[Mark Saunders]

5 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

One of the UK papers was reporting today that our household appliance could be spying on us and reporting back to China. Does this mean we need to play music loudly to confuse them. Also the article said the data would be transmitted by the 5G network which doesn’t actually exist here in our postcode yet. I think any data originating from our oven and dishwasher would be very boring.  Though perhaps our German appliances don’t have Chinese chips.

You never had this problem with a mangle but the little old dear who operated it had you under total surveillance and knew everything about your comings and goings and exchanged information at the local bingo!

[Winslow Boy]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

One of the UK papers was reporting today that our household appliance could be spying on us and reporting back to China. Does this mean we need to play music loudly to confuse them. Also the article said the data would be transmitted by the 5G network which doesn’t actually exist here in our postcode yet. I think any data originating from our oven and dishwasher would be very boring.  Though perhaps our German appliances don’t have Chinese chips.

 

Bear had better watch out then. He scoffs chips left right and centre. God knows what they'll make of that when they his print report off. I think our swiss medical practitioner should be okay as all his chips are hand made.

[PhilJ W]

30 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

One of the UK papers was reporting today that our household appliance could be spying on us and reporting back to China. Does this mean we need to play music loudly to confuse them. Also the article said the data would be transmitted by the 5G network which doesn’t actually exist here in our postcode yet. I think any data originating from our oven and dishwasher would be very boring.  Though perhaps our German appliances don’t have Chinese chips.

Let me guess, the Daily Wail or the Daily Excess, must be a slow news day.

[TheQ]

Evening Awl,

No internet enabled white goods in this house and I intend to keep it that way. No Alexa either..

I too don't do internet banking, but life is getting more and more difficult without it.

 

 5G? you can't get 1G in this house.

 

As I mentioned before it wasn't long ago my final place of employment got rid of its last DOS system, no budget to rewrite the software on a legacy system. It just wasn't allowed on the intranet.

 

Just back from the MRC, well actually the pub, where we had out quarterly meeting, everything went well and our next meeting  in April was booked for the same place. You can do that in a pub that occasionally serves food, not in a restaurant that serves beer.

 

It was actually a good choice to have an away evening, as I did a little work in the MRC before hand, as we came out from that, a man from the site owner said we were about to lose power for an hour...

 

Muggachoccy consumed,

 

Goodnight Awl.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all