[Richard]

I have a guest option on my router, as far as I know this is untrusted and has no access to the rest of the network. However, it has not been used or tested so I would need to do that before I worked on that basis.

[Richard]

Thank you, that will take some time to appreciate. It does sound like the law of unintended consequences biting the backside of those who let it come near to them. The question then becomes how hard does it really bite?

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

Richard, I think it is getting to be pretty difficult to buy non-Smart TVs. a) The public want them – so that is what vendors stock (roughly 50% are ‘smart’ at the moment.) The public want a Smart TV as British TV is fairly dire so people watch Netflix etc via their Smart box. b) The manufacturers are getting additional revenue streams from selling or pushing services etc.

Elsewhere it has been suggested that the public are frequently unaware of what they wish for, so I can understand point (a), hopefully I can dip into the pool of the almost 50% and find one that does not have such features. I have an Amazon Fire stick, but have yet to watch anything as the UI was too much hard work. For me the idea of subscription services is a total turn off, so I will happily be one of a small and perhaps dying herd

Given (b) I either avoid the misleadingly named ‘smarts’ and do not fall for the tricks or I do not connect the idiot box to WiFi or Ethernet. I need to retain my own revenue streams not help other richer ones increase theirs. Then at least I will not pay for smarts that turn out to have a short and possibly dangerous (to me) life.

I presume that the reprogrammable boxes in question should be put on a different LAN address scheme and avoid the interconnect with other home systems. Please pardon my ignorance, but do these TVs have access to credit or charge-card mechanisms for paid for services?

Scary.

Steve, Doesn’t everyone block premium rate numbers from their phones anyway?

[Richard]

There was another death on Saturday morning after a night club altercation outside a night club in Wales, I wonder what angle can be put on that murder? Sadly there is something bad about too many of the younger population but even more sadly it was ever thus.

[Richard]

Bob Williams wrote:

Please, FFS, let us not descend into this Brexit Slough of Despond again. Jason, I apologise if my comment seemed to ignore the tongue in your cheek. Has anyone seen the report of a 17 yo Kurdish Asylum seeker being kicked to pieces and badly injured in Croydon today? At least 20 people involved in this terrible crime. There are so many sites now that are involved in what they see as “Patriotism” but which is complete racist xenophobia. If these violent idiots only knew it, the boy is from a Middle Eastern people who oppose Assad and the Turks.

Bob, I totally agree your sentiments. Sadly these yobs who carried out the attack were some of the drunken local thickos who were looking for someone to assault. The area is not famous for currently only having the brightest hopes for the future and this lot showed their true potential, none.

I will not go out in the evening without a car to get there and back. Even then I will not visit some areas because I simply do not trust the ‘locals’. I am not sure this lot were bright enough to be called racists, I fear they are just a bunch of local Dutch Courage trash for whom any excuse at closing time would give them a reason to show their true colours.

Sadly the current press climate give them the name and their sought notoriety. I saw a few had been arrested, no doubt what passes for justice will see them back out again after tea and biscuits. A damned good kicking would be less than they should get.

Remember the area is close to where several south London crime families left their calling cards, it was grim and going down hill in the late 50s early 60s, it has not improved. It also spawned the Steven Lawrence investigation fiasco of a few years back.

[Richard]

Jason wrote:

I thought my view on Brexit was well-known, so I figured no wink or other signpost of humour was required. For the record, my post was satirical. I withdrew from debate on the matter some months past.

Which vote were you commenting on the one that took us into something different, the EEC or the one that takes us out of the political empire?

[Richard]

The Duke wrote:

I’m going to take control of all the tvs when X factor is on, get them to call my premium rate number when voting.

I thought that x factor was a good reason to turn the darned thing off, perhaps even pull the plug to keep safe from the excruciating performances.

[Richard]

Ed, my question was why even have a TV with those sorts of capabilities? I still do not have a clear answer to that point. I do understand that once an invader is inside the place they can run amok. I have even less idea why I would want one with voice listening abilities. It is not as though you can dictate anything useful such as emails or letters to the darned this nor can you have a conversation with it either.

Interestingly the plasma TV (that shows its age) has a very effective remote even at well over 25 feet, a more recent PVR is iffy at more than about 18 feet.

[Richard]

Assuming for one moment that you set up your transmitter and send out a message to all the TVs in an area, what happens then? All of the Tvs can maybe, perhaps send everything they hear to ? What would they then do with all the noise that can bumbling in?

This of course begs the question, what is so smart about a TV that will start off with several possible features, only for them to get disabled due to a lack of updates, withdrawal of services, etc.? Why even have voice responses, some ‘remote controls’ are pretty dire after a few feet’s distance on a good day, I can imagine that voice over 20 foot or so would be a nightmare.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

CNN have made a check list of Brexit promises link. It will be interesting to see how this pans out at the end of negotiations, and long term score keeping might be a good idea. One area that CNN touched on are the ‘Divorce’ liabilities – I’m not going to get into an argument about the scale or validity of these liabilities, but any liability must be balanced by assets and I have not got a clue what assets outside the UK could be deemed ‘British’. I do not even know what assets belong to the EU!

You are in good company, the EU has no idea and for good measure has always appeared to have no idea of what accounting means either. Mind you the phony war has brought out the best(?), while we are ‘not allowed to hint, let alone threaten any reaction’, the dogs of continental fury in the EU have been well and truly unleashed in a flurry of mindless silliness, e.g today’s folly over Gibraltar. Perhaps the UK might like to suggest that direct UK Spain holiday air routes are closed and that all holiday makers wishing to go to Spain should go via Gibraltar?

It is April the first after all!

Oh and best not to go to the land of the slaves (USA) as there your internet history will be up for public auction to the highest bidder, oh joy.

[Richard]

Bob Williams wrote:

Just been flamed on MSE site for posting this. Several have said that there is a ‘cancel’ option, completely missing the point that there are others who would miss that in an eagerness to take cashback, and continue to lose £15 a month. Just 2 people realised that and posted thanks accordingly. That is a Money Saving site!? I suspect the ‘Flamers’ have already been caught. What a funny thing is self-pride!

Two points:

1. The flame throwers might well be in on the act and are trying to discredit you. Defaming lurkers are known to inhabit such sites to discredit those who call them out.
2. I you can find them many ‘Cancel’ buttons do not work anyway. Many people call them more accurately ‘Yes I am real, please scam me’ buttons.

Happily for me, I have not seen the ‘offers’ you mentioned but I well believe that they are lurking somewhere. My office has been ripped apart so I have not spent much time on the PC.

Phone scammers are another part of the same murky pool. If I do not recognise the phone number and if I answer I used the greeting; ‘<span style=”font-size: 10pt;”>Fraud department, how can I help you</span>?‘

That really ‘P’s the scammers off and tests their very limited vocabulary.

 

 

[Richard]

Well only if I down load a program that I tried only to find it had the same two/three links that showed without the program. I removed it as it added nothing much.

I will add another access point, hopefully at the other end of the house t improve coverage at that end.

[Richard]

Wow, I cannot draw the pretty pictures you can, but not much point, most of the time I can get two WiFi points on the mobile and both are mine. There are one or two others that pop and and go down again but its a pretty silent place otherwise.

[Richard]

Dave Rice wrote:

You can now run 2 apps side by side, which may be useful on a tablet but on the phone it’s a bit small.

I will need the never to be announced magnifier option for the side by side double application game. Getting one to be readable can be something of a challenge!

But thank you for that clarification, I will keep on trying it out.

[Richard]

I am not sure how long it took in the end but those figures sound about right. The windscreen man came this afternoon vice tomorrow. They phoned first and I was happy to clear things away from tomorrow.

The EE derived over WiFi speed might have made a small difference to download speeds. I have not seen that much that is new on the phone; though (wishful thinking gland kicks in) it might be just a little faster and slicker now. As I am still learning what it can do and how it can do it, I am a terrible judge of performance.

[Richard]

Not certain that is what it is but My G4 is also getting something bigger than all the other updates have been so far, it says that it has 17 minutes left with 30% done.

[Richard]

I shied away from any Nazi reference as it both offends some due to frequent over use and is somewhat over narrow, but they were included within my reference to the ragbag of past dictators.

I tend to regard all news outlets with some jaundice, the BBC like all of them tends to, shall we say ‘tailor their headlines’. Yes the latest claimed some allegiances, but I suspect he was available to the first bidder to accept him.

Few will mourn his passing though some in his family may mourn his behaviour for how it reflects on them.

[Richard]

Others will tell you where I go wrong, but to keep you going, the road wheels are those on the car that are in contact with the ground, in this case it would be the front wheels that need to point straight ahead, with the steering wheel centralised. The clock spring will be the way that the self cancelling works, there are several possible ways that the indicators can be made self cancelling and all use some form of contact between the column and the switch mechanism.

It may not involve the airbag at all, unless you make an error, I believe that the battery should be disconnected and that it may be important to earth the right parts before working to avoid the risk of static triggering the airbag.. As you are not confident of the ways of the particular car, it may well be best to get an auto-electrician to do the work.

[Richard]

Or bigger claims via a desk check with a dash of optimism? I have known second tier players offer services that are not available via Open Reach as next door found. Even BT can offer services that are not yet available on the ground with delivery pending.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

I’m sorry that the UK powers that be have once again perpetuated the ‘Islamic’ smear. It is akin to a terrorist act by a Ku Klux Klan member being called ‘Christian terrorism’. Salafist Wahabbis have no claim to the great body of Islam, and it is only our Government’s fear of offending some of the Arab States that stops us naming names as done by nearly every other country in Europe for example Germany. Instead we smear and offend the whole of Islam.

No, this is where we really diverge. The official statements I read/heard were far more measured saying that initially it was a suspected terrorist attack and then that it was a radicalised (fill the blank) any blank filler will do. It is now clear he was no believer in anything except violence, he was a tool, a stupid dumb tool of hate merchants and could have been co-opted by any bunch of thugs at any point in his life, perhaps even the Cray brothers had they still been in business. Though he was possibly too unstable for them.

Blacklion1725 had it right, the feeble minded and life failures are being used by puppet masters the world over as they are too afraid of being picked off to go out and do their dirty work. They try to achieve a double effect, (1) clear out the feeble minded who they really despise (rather like any dictator squad always pick on the mentally weak) and sit back and (2) enjoy the show their rambling crap has created. He was no different to Timothy Mcveigh or any other sad criminal nut case.

In this case ,Adrian Elms, was a career criminal with a history of violent knife crime. In short a loose canon just waiting for someone to make the bullets for him to fire. His most recent crime was no different to any of his previous crimes; he simply hated people.

I am inclined to feel sympathy for those who say do not ‘watch’ such trash, neutralise them. The methods to be applied to neutralise them is the only point open for discussion. Was he a sociopath? I am not qualified to diagnose, he was and clearly had a problem for years..

[Author]

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