My daughter, who runs a holiday let in the converted garage next door, had her tumble dryer and boiler breakdown on Friday. The water had to be turned off in both properties. Boiler parts on order but at least the water is back on now. A replacement tumble dryer was ordered but the wrong one was delivered. Replacement expected today- just as well, as she has a same-day changeover to do, so plenty of sheets and towels to launder.
I've just received the SIXTH refund in a year from various medical billing idiots, due to a cycle in which we visit the doctor, the billing people guess at an amount due (no more waiting for insurance, apparently!) and then threaten to haul us off to collections if we don't pay ASAP, even before the final amount is established--like, within a month or so? And then after we pay (because I'm not fond of having my credit destroyed), they eventually get around to sending us a refund of some seemingly-random amount. I darkly suspect I've paid some bills twice over. But it's almost impossible to tell, with the system they've got going.
The washing machine is still broken. The main board where the power cable comes in is dead so I require another engineer visit on Friday to replace it.
TICTH the government's identity verification service for getting a basic DBS. It wouldn't accept my debit cards, and I don't have a mobile phone contract in my name, so it wanted me to take a photo of my photo ID and a selfie so it could compare them.
Unfortunately the computer doesn't think that I am me, despite following all the instructions about legible photos. It rejected both driving licence and passport, so I will have to visit the post office in person to do it. Comparison with the passport will have the difficult bit where I wear glasses with strong lenses so my eye area looks different, but I am wearing them on my licence! I can only think that as both photos are getting on for 10 years old that my face must have changed more than I thought in the process of having the Dragonlets.
TICTH (but only gently) my computer's habit of telling me that, if I'm not connected to the Magic Electric Interweb, *the web isn't the same without me*.
TICTH the local fast-food restaurant which doesn't allow its patrons to eat inside. The state and local governments do not forbid it. The danger is minimal. The population of this county is 90,000.There have been a total of 97 COVID deaths.
TICTH the local fast-food restaurant which doesn't allow its patrons to eat inside. The state and local governments do not forbid it. The danger is minimal. The population of this county is 90,000.There have been a total of 97 COVID deaths.
I want to eat in a booth rather than in my car.
Me, too. There is a fast food place near me that I really like that still hasn't reopened their dining room. I'm hoping that when California puts in place their new reopening phase, this will happen next week. To be fair I don't blame their super-cautious policies. Their kitchens got closed down for quarantine several times last year by Covid-19 outbreaks. They've done well as a drive through.
My county is pretty large and we have the dubious distinction of being on the John Hopkins Top Ten of hardest hit counties in the US. But thanks be to God, there have been no deaths in the last week and only 50 cases in a population of 2.5 million.
Tradesmen who don't turn up. I need my shed/summerhouse roof re-felted before the next heavy rain (always a narrow window of opportunity in Scotland). After waiting two weeks the guy was to come today. 2pm and no show.
TICTH the estate agent appointed by our neighbours who have managed to block both vehicle access points to my house while they do a viewing 😡
And while we're at it, when the subject arose of an access strip to allow rear access to my house and the farm down the hill you were very snooty in turning it down: having contributed not a penny get the "benefits from separate rear access" taken off your house blurb.
I went into the bank to pay in five cheques and got whisked into an office to set up an app which would let me pay in cheques from home.
I don't have a smart phone, and my tablet was at home, so we had a completely baffling conversation, in which I realise that I sounded as though I am completely computer illiterate.
The bank person started talking in words of no more than one syllable, which didn't actually help. He didn't ask me "what is your tablet's operating system?" which I could have answered "Android" but phrased it in a different way (can't remember his actual words), to which I replied that I got it half-price by waiting till Tesco did their "double-up Clubcards" offer. I'm only thankful that I didn't tell him that it's purple.
It went downhill from there, and they are going to write me a letter explaining things. Apparently I can then take the letter and my tablet into the bank and they will show me how "apps" work.
Even more annoying, they paid my cheques in for me - my mother puts a stroke through her 7s, which the machine has misread as a 4 in the past, so I wanted to be the person feeding the cheques into the machine, to make sure my account was credited for the right amount. In the event the machine read the figures correctly, so no problem.
Oh, I’m so sorry. I loathe and despise those conversations, and it’s so impossible to correct their view of you after a false start! I fear I’m in much the same place after unwisely showing my horror at the idea that my company might make itself wholly dependent on cloud services and take down its own servers. Asked why, I was unwise enough to reference the Carrington Event—and got the same look I would have gotten if I’d suggested a pandemic as a possible risk back in 2018. Now they think I’m a Luddite.
Yep, though we had this conversation several months ago--and I did mention security issues, to which they were very eager to assure me they were entirely on top of it all. (I studied computer security, and ain't NOBODY that on top of it all.)
I'm routinely keeping local backups of the intellectual property I create / can get my hands on just so I can say "I told you so" (well, and not be tasked with re-creating it). The chances are small, but not zero. And I fear their backup system involves the cloud...
That needs monitoring as well, though. I've just had to go through the recovery of stuff from Iomega zip disks, when my drive had packed up, and all the files were created in Works* or a version of PagePlus which Serif decided not to be backwards compatible with. (Which I have the CD-Rom for, but it is a faff.)
*LibreOffice deals with those.
That needs monitoring as well, though. I've just had to go through the recovery of stuff from Iomega zip disks, when my drive had packed up, and all the files were created in Works* or a version of PagePlus which Serif decided not to be backwards compatible with. (Which I have the CD-Rom for, but it is a faff.)
*LibreOffice deals with those.
I supported those 25 years ago.
I'm absolutely amazed anything was recoverable this far down the line. Or that you have a computer that can talk to the drive...
discharging her without informing her, almost certainly for the second time;
discharging her without putting her forward as someone needing to be put on the clinically vulnerable lists for Covid vaccination, so booked into a high risk centre;
never listening, just informing from preconceived ideas, so that he only ever took on board that she had other underlying conditions (which is probably what discharged her, because she didn't fit into his area of interest) during the phone consultation last April, when I could get a word in edgeways;
not previously listening, so we couldn't get a word in edgewise with him to ask to write support for a request to suspend her PhD not crash out, which came as news to him when I told him that in the phone conversation, many months too late.
Why now? I'm just thoroughly pissed off with him after my daughter couldn't get a vaccine yesterday at the standard centre, and remembering all the other reasons I am not sorry she's going somewhere else in future. From the ease she was referred elsewhere, I wonder if some information is now common knowledge about that centre.
@Curiosity killed, so sorry to hear that about your daughter it seems we are now needing to follow up with those who should be backing us up. Good luck to her in the future.
But the security patches won't be up-to-date on XP.
That's the problem with the older systems that are no longer being supported. In all software there are vulnerabilities that are exploited by nasties various. If it is a package that is no longer supported, then Microsoft are not checking for these issues and creating patches to keep the software, and personal information coded therein, safe. For Windows 10, there are continuing patches as weaknesses are discovered and exploited and regular updates which include security updates, the latest was today. (It also included a weather/news on the task bar - not any more it doesn't).
XP stopped being supported in April 2014, so 7 years ago. Lots of security issues will have been exploited since then.
A minor item in the realm of the above, yet it needs venting.
So I go and order shedloads of Walkers Crisps multipacks on eBay, because our local provider, from whom I usually buy shedloads of UK foodstuff, says they don't have them right now.
So, there are a couple of British sellers on eBay for this, I choose one, and order and pay for 4 huge sets of crisps - which of course means huge parcels, although fairly light (been there, received that). So far, so good.
But then, the seller writes to me, saying, oh, I'm sorry, do you really want to buy 4 sets (yes, I do - for the studentses and for friends and myself - it's a long summer, and summer means crisps), because this is going to be very difficult to post (yes, I know - but no seller's ever complained about it before), and wouldn't I rather he send me just one and refund the 3 others (no, I don't, because you offered to send 4 sets over here, had all the detailed pricing listed on eBay, and have the number of packs I need). He then goes on to say, wouldn't you better check on Amazon, they're probably much cheaper, and yes, he could send them all, but he would need several parcels for this, and that would be very expensive (!) .... (you put that in your eBay offer, so deal with it)!
I finally get tired of this eBay-Basil Fawlty who keeps moaning about an actually good business opportunity, and I ask for, and get, a refund from him, ... which he says he trusts I find fair. (I don't. It's a pain in the neck, all of it. But hey.)
In the meantime, I'd already found and ordered from 2 alternative eBay UK sellers, ... and they both have already posted their (multiple) parcels, which service they had indeed listed on eBay, and which I had paid for.
But the security patches won't be up-to-date on XP.
That's the problem with the older systems that are no longer being supported. In all software there are vulnerabilities that are exploited by nasties various. If it is a package that is no longer supported, then Microsoft are not checking for these issues and creating patches to keep the software, and personal information coded therein, safe. For Windows 10, there are continuing patches as weaknesses are discovered and exploited and regular updates which include security updates, the latest was today. (It also included a weather/news on the task bar - not any more it doesn't).
XP stopped being supported in April 2014, so 7 years ago. Lots of security issues will have been exploited since then.
Also, I am not aware that there are anti-virus products that still protect XP. In all likelihood it's saying it's fully updated because there are no further updates available.
I spent a weekend mopping up the 2017 WannaCry mess in the NHS because people thought being supported and up to date didn't matter.
Serious question - is that because of the likelihood of many and various internet viruses having invaded the machine?
Presumably any existing firewall would be long out of date.
Exactly that. And you'd probably not know they're there, as they send your keypresses to the other side of the world and use your machine to attack others.
Except that most of the time it's off.
Actually, I think this sort of proceeding is bad practice. Obsolescence of things that work is not good for the planet.
TICTH the estate agent for next door which is holding an Open House today. Gate to rear access blocked by two cars, front access blocked by Range Rover 😡
I am a bit confused as I know Microsoft provided the updates to move computers on to Windows 10 for free for ages. It's been the standard operating system since 2015/2017. I know some people were reluctant to move across after the experience of Vista. I wouldn't update from XP to Vista and I know that others avoided the systems that I've worked on, like Windows 7 and Windows 8, but Windows 10 isn't awful.
Prompted to run a scan on the XP - nothing intruding. I think 4 viruses since 2013. Nothing more recent. And it has stopped rather more attempts. It's off line at the moment, while chuntering through.
What I do have concern about is my Seagate central storage device, connected by ethernet cable to the router. The router has a password, and nothing I don't know about is connected to it, but that's all. There is no obvious way to put a password on the Seagate, or any protective software, though McAfee keeps offering.
Some assembly required should be replaced by a whole lot of assembly required and it will take you two days and a trip to the hardware store for the missing bolts that were not included. Just spent several days assembling a raised flower bed with self-watering system, that arrived with instructions that had pictures that did not match what was in the box.
@Curiosity killed Love it! That farmer obviously felt as I did this morning.
My lodger went to see the offending estate agent at lunchtime and pointed out it wasn't just access for us but also the farm - no more problems with the gate being blocked so I assume the house-seller has seen the same clip 😈
My goodness, catching up on all the frustrations and annoyances here puts my little one into perspective!!
If I start to put in: DT 2...., the predictive text, when Synthetic Dave reads it before I've had time to put in the number, it's nearly always not the right number. I've taken to opening a new Word doc and typing what I want, copying it and then pasting it into address bar.
I assume the farmer had asked the nasty little idiot to move first? His behaviour seems a bit odd - the idiot, that is. I'd have moved the car as soon as I saw the forklift approaching, not started filming and kicking.
According to various sources on social media, the car had two flat tyres so couldn't be moved, the person in the film is the passenger and the driver is filming, but according to the Daily Telegraph the car is near to Low Force in Teesdale, there have been lots of problems with people in the area, and the driver had crashed the car into the driveway.
Comments
TICTH the government's identity verification service for getting a basic DBS. It wouldn't accept my debit cards, and I don't have a mobile phone contract in my name, so it wanted me to take a photo of my photo ID and a selfie so it could compare them.
Unfortunately the computer doesn't think that I am me, despite following all the instructions about legible photos. It rejected both driving licence and passport, so I will have to visit the post office in person to do it. Comparison with the passport will have the difficult bit where I wear glasses with strong lenses so my eye area looks different, but I am wearing them on my licence! I can only think that as both photos are getting on for 10 years old that my face must have changed more than I thought in the process of having the Dragonlets.
Tosh.
I want to eat in a booth rather than in my car.
Me, too. There is a fast food place near me that I really like that still hasn't reopened their dining room. I'm hoping that when California puts in place their new reopening phase, this will happen next week. To be fair I don't blame their super-cautious policies. Their kitchens got closed down for quarantine several times last year by Covid-19 outbreaks. They've done well as a drive through.
My county is pretty large and we have the dubious distinction of being on the John Hopkins Top Ten of hardest hit counties in the US. But thanks be to God, there have been no deaths in the last week and only 50 cases in a population of 2.5 million.
And while we're at it, when the subject arose of an access strip to allow rear access to my house and the farm down the hill you were very snooty in turning it down: having contributed not a penny get the "benefits from separate rear access" taken off your house blurb.
I went into the bank to pay in five cheques and got whisked into an office to set up an app which would let me pay in cheques from home.
I don't have a smart phone, and my tablet was at home, so we had a completely baffling conversation, in which I realise that I sounded as though I am completely computer illiterate.
The bank person started talking in words of no more than one syllable, which didn't actually help. He didn't ask me "what is your tablet's operating system?" which I could have answered "Android" but phrased it in a different way (can't remember his actual words), to which I replied that I got it half-price by waiting till Tesco did their "double-up Clubcards" offer. I'm only thankful that I didn't tell him that it's purple.
It went downhill from there, and they are going to write me a letter explaining things. Apparently I can then take the letter and my tablet into the bank and they will show me how "apps" work.
Even more annoying, they paid my cheques in for me - my mother puts a stroke through her 7s, which the machine has misread as a 4 in the past, so I wanted to be the person feeding the cheques into the machine, to make sure my account was credited for the right amount. In the event the machine read the figures correctly, so no problem.
The banks are trying to close down as many actual RL branches as possible, I suspect, so that peeps simply have to use Apps (or whatever).
This is all very well, until the whole of the Magic Electric Interweb fails en masse...as will happen one day, You Mark My Words...
Index cards and pencils, anyone?
*LibreOffice deals with those.
I supported those 25 years ago.
I'm absolutely amazed anything was recoverable this far down the line. Or that you have a computer that can talk to the drive...
Why now? I'm just thoroughly pissed off with him after my daughter couldn't get a vaccine yesterday at the standard centre, and remembering all the other reasons I am not sorry she's going somewhere else in future. From the ease she was referred elsewhere, I wonder if some information is now common knowledge about that centre.
And there is a market on ebay for people buying Zip drives. Auctions are competive.
Please tell me the XP machines have no internet access...
Is that because of the difficulty in buying the right sort of coal (or coke!) to provide the steam needed to work them?
Presumably any existing firewall would be long out of date.
I could have sworn it was squirrels in hamster wheels.
Possibly ants?
(Discworld)
Hear, hear.
That's the problem with the older systems that are no longer being supported. In all software there are vulnerabilities that are exploited by nasties various. If it is a package that is no longer supported, then Microsoft are not checking for these issues and creating patches to keep the software, and personal information coded therein, safe. For Windows 10, there are continuing patches as weaknesses are discovered and exploited and regular updates which include security updates, the latest was today. (It also included a weather/news on the task bar - not any more it doesn't).
XP stopped being supported in April 2014, so 7 years ago. Lots of security issues will have been exploited since then.
So I go and order shedloads of Walkers Crisps multipacks on eBay, because our local provider, from whom I usually buy shedloads of UK foodstuff, says they don't have them right now.
So, there are a couple of British sellers on eBay for this, I choose one, and order and pay for 4 huge sets of crisps - which of course means huge parcels, although fairly light (been there, received that). So far, so good.
But then, the seller writes to me, saying, oh, I'm sorry, do you really want to buy 4 sets (yes, I do - for the studentses and for friends and myself - it's a long summer, and summer means crisps), because this is going to be very difficult to post (yes, I know - but no seller's ever complained about it before), and wouldn't I rather he send me just one and refund the 3 others (no, I don't, because you offered to send 4 sets over here, had all the detailed pricing listed on eBay, and have the number of packs I need). He then goes on to say, wouldn't you better check on Amazon, they're probably much cheaper, and yes, he could send them all, but he would need several parcels for this, and that would be very expensive (!) .... (you put that in your eBay offer, so deal with it)!
I finally get tired of this eBay-Basil Fawlty who keeps moaning about an actually good business opportunity, and I ask for, and get, a refund from him, ... which he says he trusts I find fair. (I don't. It's a pain in the neck, all of it. But hey.)
In the meantime, I'd already found and ordered from 2 alternative eBay UK sellers, ... and they both have already posted their (multiple) parcels, which service they had indeed listed on eBay, and which I had paid for.
Honestly! Some people.
Also, I am not aware that there are anti-virus products that still protect XP. In all likelihood it's saying it's fully updated because there are no further updates available.
I spent a weekend mopping up the 2017 WannaCry mess in the NHS because people thought being supported and up to date didn't matter.
Exactly that. And you'd probably not know they're there, as they send your keypresses to the other side of the world and use your machine to attack others.
Actually, I think this sort of proceeding is bad practice. Obsolescence of things that work is not good for the planet.
@Penny S - there's a law due to come into force this summer (link to the BBC) which gives consumers the right to repair for a number of goods to limit built in obsolescence.
I am a bit confused as I know Microsoft provided the updates to move computers on to Windows 10 for free for ages. It's been the standard operating system since 2015/2017. I know some people were reluctant to move across after the experience of Vista. I wouldn't update from XP to Vista and I know that others avoided the systems that I've worked on, like Windows 7 and Windows 8, but Windows 10 isn't awful.
What I do have concern about is my Seagate central storage device, connected by ethernet cable to the router. The router has a password, and nothing I don't know about is connected to it, but that's all. There is no obvious way to put a password on the Seagate, or any protective software, though McAfee keeps offering.
My lodger went to see the offending estate agent at lunchtime and pointed out it wasn't just access for us but also the farm - no more problems with the gate being blocked so I assume the house-seller has seen the same clip 😈
If I start to put in: DT 2...., the predictive text, when Synthetic Dave reads it before I've had time to put in the number, it's nearly always not the right number. I've taken to opening a new Word doc and typing what I want, copying it and then pasting it into address bar.