[Richard]

While I agree with Dave, the best way is to simply tell them no more thank you:, surely the get out is that a company with a prior history of contact can claim that it is only keeping in touch without breaking any law? On the other hand, any contact prior to GDPR might need some degree of revalidation of the contact. Could this not also be subject to the fact that since you are an Ebay user and since after the GDPR came in, their permissions could still apply, so perhaps no offence has been committed?

[Richard]

Bob, I quite like the brake maker’s advert, (was it Ferodo?) along the lines of;

‘Without oil your car will stop, without brakes it won’t’ The cartoon showed the remains of a fence or hedge and the car disappearing into a field.

In the case of the 737 Max, the suggestion from Ed’s reports of the press speculation is that the issue could be less down to poor maintenance and more one of unsafe by design. The pitot tubes are coming in for a bit of comment stick since they judge the airspeed and could falsely signal to the stall kicker that trouble is brewing. I always though that a redundant system of polling was used in safety critical areas, (several device must all say jump before the machine says go for it). If one critical device, e.g. a pitot tube can shut the whole thing down, then that would be a critical design issue. They have been known to give problems in the past on a range of craft, so designing in failure points sounds less than brilliant engineering if this is the case. Speculation is always dangerous, but the aircraft was new so sloppy maintenance should not have become an issue yet.

Sadly the airline and location does not have a wonderful record, so the air safety report might be a bit of a lace curtain mess, i.e. more holes than fabric with negative implications for us all, passengers and ground based suckers.

[Richard]

I agree with all that was said above, we are all hoping that the best comes out of tomorrow.

[Richard]

Bob Williams wrote:

” With reference to the alleged spy round ups, I have said it before but it clearly stands to be repeated, the recruitment of unskilled and possibly unsuitable staff to the so called intelligence service in the USA is a real stain on their personal management abilities. Their performance reminds me too much of an old Navy Lark script, but is that Google’s fault? ” Definitely not Richard! A good reason why the USA rely so much upon UK Intelligence sources. As once expressed to me by a UK Int. spook in BAOR: “They could not find their (Rs’s) in the dark with a torch!”

More than 45 years ago in a land far away I lived very close to the then USA embassy. There had been a sales period in the local shops and several of us had bought long lenses. We were up on the roof trying them out when the embassy lowered their flag.

The next day we had several gentlemen with very short hair cuts call round and, after a long rather monosyllabic exchange from our side I decided that this was not being very friendly. So I gave them a short ‘welcome speech’  along the lines of;

‘If you want it intercepted, diverted recorded or blocked we are the team you need.’

They left shortly after that and  little while later the embassy moved.

[Richard]

I am unable to collocate the activities to which I referred with the crass ways in which the alleged spies and their alleged handlers allegedly allowed their alleged clandestine activities to be available for cross referencing.

Dodgy surgeons, money skimming scam artists, and a whole rag tag and bobtail mess of crooks have been beneficiaries of the permitted forgetfulness gravy trail and my safety, medical and financial is directly threatened by their activities.

With reference to the alleged spy round ups, I have said it before but it clearly stands to be repeated, the recruitment of unskilled and possibly unsuitable staff to the so called intelligence service in the USA is a real stain on their personal management abilities. Their performance reminds me too much of an old Navy Lark script, but is that Google’s fault?

[Richard]

I agree that the first step has to be to minimise your own on line footprint, though having said that the main reason is not state actors as such but the ‘crime state’, a bigger and more lucrative ‘state’ than most. While many become targets for on line fraud due to such as their gamer habit, that is one area that I have no contact with so I will abstain from comments except to say that, as ever care does need to be taken. I might go as far as to agree that a dedicated on line profile for the activity might be justified, though perhaps as ever the embroidery should be limited. To me of greater harm are some of the disinformation campaigns and there have been many. Very few are aimed at people as targets, most are scattergun efforts designed to undermine confidence, such as the ‘anti vaccination’ efforts or those designed to stir up ill feelings on any and all political topics.

You are correct to point out that targetting indirect targets in order to hit real targets of value is rife at the moment, though that is one where my value profile is probably on the negative side of the bar.

I have no objection to minimising on line foot prints, whether it is the simple and obvious, e.g. not telling the world that you are or will be away on holiday leaving the house vulnerable, (and thus risking voiding your insurance into the bargain) or avoiding personal publicity activities all together. I totally agree that putting out personally identifiable information that could act against your interests in future is straight out dumb. However, none of this falls into the Google or customer-supplier trading information that has been the staple of good customer relations for years. In this context it is interesting to see how good customer-supplier relationship models have had their wheels come off in recent years, yes insurance industry I have you in my sights. Established customers should not be treated as tethered milk cows to be taken for every penny they have.

I wonder how much of the anti Google sentiment has been stirred up by those whose illegal activities would/could be exposed by a Google search or too? There have been a steady trickle of cases of dodgy traders trying to sue victims of their dodgy ways to suppress reports of their malfeasance, just look at the current bough ha ha about non disclosure agreements.

[Richard]

Bob, that is a view very close to my own. In the past and far away I have worked closely with an organisation trying to look after local stability. I learned that the only value they assign to ordinary people is that they have ordinary and largely boring lives that do not repay close scrutiny. Now I admit that the reason I regularly walk the ways I do could be that I need to make dead letter drops in several places, or it could be that with two dogs to look after from Sunday evening to Friday evening with sometimes weekends is that they are better for two walks each. This means that I get four walks per day. The boredom of visiting food shops, chemists, doctors and hospitals, should rapidly become apparent, frankly so what if Google ‘see’ all this activity, others do as well. HMRC no doubt have a pretty clear picture of what I spend, where the money comes from and where it goes, and if they don’t then the credit reference agencies can fill in many/most of the missing pieces. The ANPR cameras must get bored seeing me travel the same old routes, I know the cars and I do.

What worries me far more is that the likes of the Somali in Australia was known to be a source of concern before he ran amok, but there was no way to stop his attempt at a rampage before he acted out his sick fantasy.

As for one of ‘our’ local agencies taking an interest in me, now that would be a cause of concern since it would mean that they were at risk of taking their eye off a real threat. With the exception of sending ham fisted goons to murder or trying to manipulate events, Russia usually works in rather more mass market ways. They know that a deaths are good for their business of destabilisation. However, if enough people worry what caused the disturbance each time the lights flicker, that is a result for them; it achieves the one thing that they crave, a reduction in confidence in other governments.

China also wants to displace confidence, but it also wants to gain as much technological capability as it can as a lever to diminish the apparent skill level in none Chinese entities. Unless you have something of value to them, frankly why would they waste time on you?

So, while I have no obvious presence on any antisocial networks, I see no reason to have the slightest care about Google, or a supermarket, or an internet trader or 20, knowing what I have either taken an interest in or bought, they are just a few in a long line of data miners.

[Richard]

The Duke wrote:

Richard, I’ve seen a few tech channels strip down the sockets with usb sockets integrated, and alot, have not had good things to say about them. (I’ve Neot seen a positive review), most say terrible build quality, fire hazard. These was from proper ligit outlets, like screfix and B&Q, plus generics. Its kept me away form them. .

I would like to say I am surprised, but sadly I am not surprised in at least one way. The built in units are not cheap, with the USB function adding more than the cost of regular i.e Manufacturer’s own units, so it is disappointing to read of the bleak assessment of the built ins. Almost all of the consumer market stuff is built down to a price that leaves quality in the waste bin if it ever arrived in anyone’s head in the first place.

[Richard]

I recently fitted one of those two become three units in the kitchen. One socket is used for the kettle and another for the DECT phone charger leaving nowhere to plug in the rice cooker or the slow cooker, both are low power devices. The three way socket looks neat, has a 13 amp fuse and does the job admirably. Happily the wiring was just as it should have been so it only took a few moments to effect the change. It did allow for a test of the UPS I put in the support the DECT master socket. It works fine, but I wonder what it would be like if I put in another for the server and one for the modem. The sound of three or more telling me about a mains fail might be a bit much… unless I can silence the buzzer.

Changing a three gang two way switch was much more challenging as the new switch was very different to the old one, even though they were the same make; the way it had all been wired up was ‘odd’. Copious photographs from the mobile allowed a fair pass at the correct way to install the new item vice the broken one that was as likely to turn something off whenever you wanted to turn something else on. It was a relief when it all came back to life without a hitch when it was powered up again.

I thought about the USB inclusive socket but on balance I will stick with the plug in chargers as there is only one room where mobiles are charged and everything is set up for them. A couple of largely forgotten readers and tablets are not exactly main stream activities. The mobiles get charged in the office, where they are often out of sight, out of mind until needed. Mind you, my wife’s mobile Bluetooth connects to the house DECT system and that has been a huge bonus for her phone use. She can answer a call in any room without dashing to the mobile that is an oxymoron as her reduced mobility makes dashing anywhere unlikely; due to ongoing mobile reception issues, the landline is the preferred option.

[Richard]

Yes our lot have been running early morning through to the late afternoon/early evening and on Saturdays for quite a while, generally for urgent cases as first choice but then for others to keep the expensive technology running at full occupancy. It was a shame when they changed the postal system to save a few bob, only to find that no one got their appointment letters… When that came to light, (yes I complained loudly) their postal system was rapidly improved.

[Richard]

I have been clearing out some old computers and checking the hard drives before I decided what to do with them. I loaded Windows 7 vice XP onto one of the old machines and it went straight in without needing a number, giving me 30 days to continue. It then did several hundred updates, connected to the network and performed automated backups (all for nothing in the event). It was all amazingly smooth, though after the initial study which lasted about 5 days it was all torn down and the main carcase was sent off for ‘re-cycling’ following in the footsteps of several other machines.

Work was interrupted by refitting a drinking water tap, rewiring some lights where the switch had failed and had to be replaced then replacing a two way socket with a fused three way version, (a very nice neat solution to a messy problem). The three gang two way switch replacement was a right pig, it was wired in an odd way, the old switch had a very different terminal layout and the pinch down screws basically did not want to pinch down without a fight. The mobile phone camera was my friend for that job. Clearly computer operating systems are not the only thing sent to try our patience – and language.

 

[Richard]

I have barely been out of the house today, a trip to the chemist to collect a prescription for new support socks, only to be greeted with a surprise large bundle of other supplies. With that done I have been in the house watching the temperature display failing to move upward all day. I had my fill of drizzle yesterday, I was a little slow taking the dogs out for a walk, the very light drizzle turned into something far wetter and organised for dog walk 1 and was really organised for dog walk 2, so I only managed about 2 miles in the morning. The afternoon was brighter and almost warm, so with a bit of striding out with them I managed a shade over 3 miles, however nothing today and a doubtful distance tomorrow. The dogs are at home over the weekend and back with us on Sunday night.

[Richard]

Les. wrote:

Richard, I am only thinking of one of these as a suitable enclosure, one of which is already empty. In fact I now see another finishing tomorrow at £1.04, a worker but could similarly be gutted. I gather the Pi has been used for backups somehow, but have no idea how. I do have a Pi which could live in such a case. Les.

I found it but he is in Dagenham and does not want to post the item. It is almost interesting, though finding the time to go down there and facing the concern about whether it is on the level or not are real issues for me. What would be said when I arrived home with another box is a different issue! I have just had an old P4 running a semi pirate copy of windows 7, (loaded but not activated). It was good to have a don’t care mule for a few days and allowed me to try out a few old bits and pieces, but I finally stripped it down tonight and the remains will go to the PC promised land tomorrow. Along the way I did manage to get the USB function accessible from my normal Windows 10 PC for all of today – which was more than it would do before. I mapped the drive and since then it appears to lose its computer version of Alzheimer, forgetting its connections whenever it likes.

The Pi sounds like a possibly bitty solution with different boxes tied together and a deal of work if you are never sure how long you can devote at any one time. I do not know what motherboards you could fit into a shuttle case so the power demand is for me a totally unknown quantity, so is the issue of how many drives could be stuffed into the case, etc.

[Richard]

There is another one that you might have ignored currently at £16 and said to be working, the one you linked to is dead or seriously broken according to the listing. I think that the auction finishes quite soon so you might need to decide in a hurry.

[Richard]

It is a pity that the same sorts of prices no longer apply to the slightly larger drives such as 3.5 and for IDE/Pata as well as SATA because I am scrapping a few PCs, several with very lightly used up to 500 GB drives. The prices I have found for enclosures make a new 1 GB portable external package appear to be a bargain.

[Richard]

Yes, I was put off the idea of trusts when Gorgon Brown did all sorts of nasty things to them. Then the banks got a fit of the willies and expected trusts to complete paperwork for the US government (WTF) and various tweaks to trust have followed. My mother was the beneficiary of a trust run by a well known solicitors in the town where she was born. Father could not work out what the trust accountants had done with her money and asked me to look at their back of a fag packet accounts. They were garbage and that was why father could not understand them. I appeared that at least 20 years of accounts had been screwed up and when the solicitors heard my of my analysis they promptly sold their accountancy team and folded themselves into someone else. Of course it could all have been a co-incidence that they wrapped themselves up that way, but it did not make me want to set up a trust anytime soon. Though we possibly need(ed?) one and my wife is keen to settle one on our disabled daughter. The big problem is that they now look like a brilliant way to give money to a shark or HMRC and probably both, (are they really that different?) so she would not benefit.

[Richard]

I am trying to stay with the spirit of my earlier thoughts on the subject. You can see how everyone has put forward their own personal situation specific views on the way forward. I had little or no need of the lump sum for a range of reasons. One being that my years of saving had already accumulated a pot that I have had to look after in various ways. Unfortunately my current situation would leave no time for active managing anything requiring detailed and careful preparation so professional assistance is/was the answer. I have two such ‘lumps’, the pension and ‘the other’.

The early pension option was on the table and was the right one the one for me and on that basis I opted to ‘stuff the fund’ with cash before I left. At the time in spite of my age I had two smallish children and believed that cash flow was valuable to me/us with a window’s pension also playing a hand in my thinking. One I had not taken into account at the time was the effect of annual pension reviews, those have seen my pension go up quite regularly with a compounding benefit and have protected the cash flow.

As I said this is a personal position for me, everyone will have their own position and it is vital to include the personal factors affecting your case and disregard those factors applying to others should they not overlap.

A good adviser should, (must?) help you to sort through the collection of aspects and come down to the vital and important, note they may not be the same. However, they should only ever be a facilitator not a Sargent Major.

[Richard]

It sounds as though both you and the hair are doing very well on the chemo diet. It must be something different but I think that every course is tailored to the issue it treats. My wife dealt with the hair issue with a brush and dustpan though since the chemo ended it has started to think about making a limited appearance. The latest twist is that her blood count has dropped into the low orders so she will need a transfusion, or rather an infusion before her 6 hour operation.

A close relation was expected to move into a supported/assisted living situation in good time but a key worker went on holiday just adding more grit to those works.

See what I meant in BL’s thread about having plans, only for the ‘life shredder’ to take them in hand and laugh in your face. Keep smiling, by the way your big bee might be a queen, but I have seen a number of huge bees this year, the first one was at the end of January and I have seen them quit often since then, I think they might be one of our UK residents such as the solitary bee – the name could well be wrong. Seeing them at work while snow lay about the place was surreal.

[Richard]

I retired in 2002, or rather I should say I ‘was retired’ in 2002 as the company was being dedicated to stoking up the bonuses of those who could take the lion’s share. As you can realise it was not a wonderful experience seeing the place get run down and yes most of us could read the writing on the wall for a long time. The only thing that kept me going in was the knowledge that every day added about £5 pa at then prices to the pension.

Back then the rules will have been different, I opted to take no lump sum and managed to get the pension enhanced and divert all of the redundancy money into the pension, I was older than than you are now so that brings me onto the real point at issue, every case is personal and everyone’s situation is different. I can see what others have said about accountant and IFAs, see if you can get the company to pay for some outplacement guidance, mine did but an accountant/IFA might have been better and possibly cheaper for them.

Some points to ponder, they may not be relevant to you.

Many people have an almost paid off mortgage and closing it by paying it off  that might be worth considering.

As JayCeeDee said there can be a temptation to think of projects, new car/extension/holiday, you name it, but most of those things are over in a short time, at 52 you have some mileage left in you, but, getting another job might be challenging. Think seriously about options for your productive use of your future, remember it could be 30 plus years, so rush s l o w l y, you will be stuck with the results of mistakes for a long time.

Whatever your thoughts and plans are today, events will change what happens, so do not box yourself into a rigid situation.

Above all keep positive and try to see something positive and productive from every day going forward; Good luck with your plans.

[Richard]

Bob, what I suspect we all feel is that one of the sparks to light our fire has been missing from our ‘camp fire’ gathering, so the fire has reduced. Welcome back, you have been missed.

[Author]

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