[Bob Williams]

Staying on topic, but diverging slightly and musing as I do: how busy is your local area? This occurred to me today as we had to shop, all necessities running out. Went into Louth, wife toured the town looking  for certain items, I went to the butchers and got my carnivore ‘fix’, plus their delicious individual egg custards, to which I could become addicted. SWMBO came back a little cross, having got everything except the dishwasher she likes, although of course the opinion of her Dishwasher (me) was not requested! Only available in one shop, which is closed. Then off to Morrisons for staples. Wearing the masks our lovely daughter made for us, Ed and using the sanitizer I made up from ingredients you previously listed. I think she is missing her one to one teaching, goes in twice a week then has to come home for 14 days, to a 14 yo daughter who is taking online studies and hates missing school.

Town is not as busy as before Covid, but still quite busy, until after around 1:45, when as if they were all subject to some Lemming directive, almost everyone disappeared. Within the space of 20 minutes, town was almost deserted. Our apartment block is about half a mile out of town centre and near the Riverhead, where the Lud comes to the surface after a short underground passage. We walk down there for exercise and it has become very popular, lots of small family groups taking the kids out, dog walkers too. Everyone is very courteous, there are no large groups and we all step aside for each other. There is one part here which   has a tree dedicated to the NHS: children have made a lovely feature, with messages of support on wooden strips, the tree also covered in dedications. (Pic below). I think it will be difficult for any government to misuse and cut NHS funding after this.

Incidentally, what is your prediction for the absolute end of this emergency? I forecast at least 18 months from next month. Pics of the Riverside dedications: town houses are full of rainbows and messages of support for NHS, shop assistants, truckers, you name it. My hope is that these feelings and sentiments, outlive the emergency itself and we become a more caring society.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

JayCeeDee wrote:

RSB wrote:

VFM Has been missing to for ages.

I’ve just looked at his profile and it’s showing as blocked, as is Richard. Can we unblock them pro temps and message them accordingly?? 🤞Tough times.

I second that, have tried to PM Richard but no success, obviously blocked. In view of his attitude towards cost as pointed out by Mark, he may well have abandoned the SS Forumite.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks again guys. Nolan, I must have missed that connectivity link on the Sony site, thanks for that. I will reformat the Hdd and try again.

JCDee, think you’re right but I will give it one last try.

Dave, my Fire TV box is still OK and is now my go-to. I will look at side-loading.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thought I had replied to this, it’s gone. Anyway, thanks for the answers guys.

JayCeeDee: Thanks for the offer, but reading below will show that the TV ethernet port is dead. No it isn’t that Sky device. I have trawled through Sony Support website, most of which gives the same info as the Manual, but it gives the confusing information that, even though their own device is ‘no longer available’, they expressly forbid using any other device as it may damage the TV. Well thank you Sony, when I buy another it will not be branded Sony.

Dave: I have two adapters already. One is Ethernet-connected to the router, the other is two rooms and three walls away in the PC room/spare room, running the desktop via ethernet, from the adapter paired with the one on the router. I bought two more (can’t buy one, only needed one!) and tried plugging in to TV ethernet port, then pairing with the adapter on the router. No Ethernet light. Tried pairing with the desktop room adapter, no ethernet light. However, the “pick a plug” light worked, which meant they were paired ready, but ethernet did not work.

Then I tried to connect the Ext. Hdd that I had formatted EXFAT* to the TV USB port. Attempted to Register it on the TV Settings: “This USB device is not recognised.” Pretty obvious to me now that the TV Ethernet and USB ports are screwed. However, Freeview all works and so does the Fire TV, via its own WiFi receiver (another clue regarding the TV WiFi?) I don’t watch it much, but SWMBO does, is happy with it as it is, so another TV will have to wait. TV is still not turning off with the remote after being on for a couple of hours. Yet another clue! Sooner or later the TV will be borked altogether I think.

*Choice was NTFS or EXFAT. Didn’t think NTFS would work, was I wrong?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

John if you use Wish, stand by for lots of emails and newsletters. I unsubscribed from them.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

JCD; ” It was fun getting my hands dirty again and being a DellOrto carb reminded me of my old Ducati 250. ”

OH, Yes!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

RSB wrote:

Can you send me a link to those speaker stands, please? I will be starting another thread explaining why.

They have been taken off the site Lee. I suspect as a result of my message to them with complaints about the packaging, faulty manufacture and delivery. These are closest to the ones I got, but mine had just one tube for each stand.

https://tinyurl.com/yayf2lpj

I suspect they will be just as bad as the ones I have. Anyone who wants the pair I have, can have them. I will put them on local FB tomorrow. Utter crap :negative: – If you search “Speaker Stands” you will see prices in the £hundreds. It’s not a problem for me any longer, I found another way to mount the speakers.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

On a brighter note Ed: soon there may be a lot less French people. :yahoo:

I once got into a fight with a French soldier on exercise in Larzac. He was deliberately blowing his foul-smelling crap into my face in a village Bistro. I told him that I would punch out his lights if he continued and asked my mate Phil (French mother) to translate. The guy sneered as only the French can, so I decked him. To my surprise, he got up again, so I gave him the benefit of my upper forehead with what in my birth city of Nottingham is called a “Carlton Kiss”. This time he did not rise again.

I was a bit surprised to learn that I had downed a French para from Légion étrangère. I had thought they were tough. Obviously overrated, or the debilitating effect of excessive French tobacco intake and the cheap, nasty Bistro Red.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Ed, unfortunately I have to wait until I find the Yodel truck turning up at my door (or someone else’s) before I know which delivery company the seller is using. Then I email the seller and tell them I will not buy from them again whilst they use Yodel. I have now done that 3 times after the only 3 Yodel deliveries I ever had, caused problems.

If everyone did that, they would either change their ways or go bust.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Good luck Mark, stay safe and the same to your family.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Wow Nolan, that was an eye-opener. My judgement now is to avoid using twice, any company that has Yodel deliveries for their goods, and telling the company why. There is a reason why companies use them: they’re cheaper than others. And there’s a reason why they’re cheaper.

I took particular notice of that confused driver and his battered, dirty van. I got very little sense out of him. If you cannot communicate, you cannot get any sense out of a transaction.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

The start of my new setup at Bullstuff Towers Mk.II. To add: another Netgear adapter with Ethernet to TV, Sony sound bar, speaker stands to give stereo separation. Anyone interested in the HiFi stand, find it here: https://tinyurl.com/y8f9zp7b

– But it is now unavailable, I must have bought the last one. If you can find it elsewhere, it’s a really attractive piece of kit, but ask me for advice on assembling it: I found some pitfalls.

A work in progress…

 

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

I have always had to be careful with ‘expelled droplets’. I have something called Barrett’s Oesophagus, which resulted from a hiatus hernia and severe reflux. This coats the gullet with a material akin to the stomach lining, which reduces the width of the gullet, traps food particles within the upper gullet, causing heavy mucous and coughing. I am never far from a box of tissues and a bin!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Slightly off topic but staying with health issues: my stoma supplier informed me yesterday that my last order will be delayed due to a shortage of products. I reminded them that they sent an email to all customers just 3 weeks ago, to the effect that there would not be any interruption in supplies. They have sent me an alternative product.

STEVE: warn the Duchess about this. My supplier is Coloplast and they actually make the stuff.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

How on earth do they stay in business, I wonder Nolan?

Speaking to a neighbour at the new home who has had similar experiences. I think their cost cutting by hiring obviously untrained and probably very low-paid drivers, is a sign of a company losing business.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Yes Ed, I suspect a corrupted database or a faulty programmer. Not a new experience for me: a few years before Yodel sent me the parcel for the North Wales resident, my widowed neighbour over the Close came to me in a panic: Yodel had dropped a damaged and resealed parcel at her door and made off, no signature asked. I eventually found the real recipient 3 streets away and he was not best pleased to see his expensive Chinese fire screen split in 3 places. He used my statement and my neighbour’s to force Yodel into litigation, paying for a new item and compensation. The recipient was a local restaurant owner, gave us and my SWMBO a very good meal.

Sometimes it really is an Ill Wind! :good:

IME, Yodel and Hermes give very bad service. Parcelforce are not as bad as they were nowadays.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Solved. I followed the Tracking map and saw that the driver was just 4 stops away from my old address. Went to my previous lovely next door neighbour’s door and (at social distance) asked her if any Yodel delivery had been to my old door. As we were speaking, a battered white van was slowly driving up the Close, hazards on. Stopped him and asked if he was a Yodel courier and had a parcel for me, showed my ID. He could hardly speak understandable English and was of Middle Eastern appearance, to my mind. Then he struggled to read my driving licence, I showed him that the name on the parcel was the same as on the licence and he gave me the parcel.

The parcel showed my new address in Louth, with the postcode from my old address. :wacko: Now this driver was already confused before he got here: he had been driving through several tiny villages along the Lincolnshire Wolds and was hopelessly lost. I suspect he was a city or large town resident and not at all at home in our rural area. What he did not need was a confusing address label and had obviously been trying to find an address by cruising the area. When I left the Close, his van was blocking the exit and he was waving his arms about in conversation on his phone.

The parcel contained the speaker stands I had ordered from   vidaXL.co.uk   – that is my first order from them and it could possibly be my last! “Haba” is the parent company and vidaXL are an importer based in the Netherlands. If the Yodel Tracker had shown as vidaXL instead of Haba, I would have known exactly what it was. I am left wondering which part of the chain had cocked up my address: I suspect Yodel, because as a new company to me, vidaXL were given my new address, with correct postcode (I checked on their Orders). As I last had Yodel deliveries 3 years ago, they would have had my old address and postcode. How they managed to mix them up, is not a proposition that I intend to tax my brain with. :negative: :scratch:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for the replies guys: as usual, much interesting and useful information. Sorry I have not responded sooner, Been busy building up the new HiFi stand, installing the record deck and HiFi. Waiting for 2 speaker stands now.And today we went for some short exercise, then found another part of Louth that brought us out where we lived 17 years ago. Short became almost 2 hours.

I should also have mentioned that I paired up 2x Netgear PLP1000-100UKS adapters* to my network. One is connected to the router and one to the desktop here in the spare room, both giving me the Ethernet option now. It has given me much better service to the desktop and the option for Ethernet to SWMBO’s laptop, should that be necessary. I have been trying to source one more single adapter, but no one does them, which is a pita. Why not split a pair, it would actually be more cost efficient for them? They always charge more for ‘one of’ anything anyway! So I have ordered another pair, because I cannot get the TV to connect to the internet wirelessly, it just will not work although I followed the Sony manual instructions and TV is just about 12 feet away from the router, line of sight. There are two double power sockets behind the TV and an adapter there will give me Ethernet to TV, which has an Ethernet socket. Another power socket has a 4 gang extension for everything else.

JCD: my  TV is a Sony Bravia, but only a KDL 40RD45 and just HD, which is fine for us. 2x USB 2.0 ports, neither has a Hdd REC label. Thanks for the instructions, I printed out relevant pages in the manual too. I also found ‘Register – Deregister‘ when trying to get the USB stick to work: it was greyed out. Next para is why…

Dave: thanks for the explanations regarding SCSI and why the USB stick would not work. I have saved the Rufus link and will format as FAT32, unless the TV can format it for me. Although I will have to format the USB spinner before connecting it to the TV USB port as storage.

WoF: interesting info, my PC is not UEFI and the spinner Hdd has MBR.   ” Does the “registration” process also partition the disk JCD ? ” – As JCD says, no idea, but it does show “Register” or “Deregister”. I would think that if it Registers the Hdd, it actually sets it up with an MBR and a partition. I shall suck it and see, watch this space!

Nolan, I think there are proprietary differences between makes of TV. When I had a Hitachi soundbar for example, I could not get Sony Bravia Sync to work with it. Now I have a Sony soundbar, it all works seamlessly.

*I really like these Netgear adapters, pricey but better than a pair of TP-Link ones I once had, which were smaller and ran hot, then gave patchy service. The Netgear ones are larger, pass through and are hardly warm to touch. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Wow TCB, your problem is much more complex to treat than mine. At least I don’t have the flammable creams to contend with. But all the increased Covid-inspired hand washing is drying up my hands. After shaving and using Nivea aftershave balm, I use a little on my hands. Seems to work well.

Incidentally, I have to laugh at the Liverpool players using it on the TV ads. They pour a big puddle into their hands, which tells me they don’t actually use it! only a couple of fingertips is needed for my face and hands. Although I do have a chin beard and ‘tache now.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Whatever the outcome I hope he is OK. Richard does not have an easy life in ‘normal’ times, he and his OH have health problems and so does his daughter.

But if you are able to contact the Forum Richard, a quick sentence would let us know you and yours are OK.

All best wishes from Forumites.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

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