COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Tiz but I don't want to get too complicated.... I haven't time for everything!

[Tizer]

Nothing complicated Stanley and it takes only a few seconds to look and see what the two settings are, then you know what's going on in Thunderbird.

[Pluggy]

I just use Gmail now I still have Thunderbird but I never use it now, very efficient spam filtering without jumping hoops, and it gets very few false positives (1 in 6 months). It also gives me painless email on all my computers. If you've got a big downer on Google it might not be for you, but Google is one of the less in your face outfits out there IMO.

I was half pushed into upgrading my desktop (a customer had a dead board in his desktop and I didn't have a reasonable S/H one to replace it with - it didn't warrant a new one so I sold him my old board and processor and got myself new bits for mine). The new humble Pentium (G3258) is a lot faster than my 'high end' Core 2 Duo (E8400) circa 2008. I was toying with the idea of getting something meatier (an i5 was my original plan) but the law of diminishing returns kicked in and I went for cost effective rather than high end. The i5 was around 60% better performance for about £100 extra. (3 times the price) I didn't bother. The CPU fan is much quieter on this board, the computer is all but silent now. I love my desktop, using a laptop is 'slumming it' in comparison, can't beat a big screen and a proper keyboard.....

[David Whipp]

Think my family would agree with your PC preference Pluggy; Tom has built desktops for everyone(else) - somehow, 'mine' ended up being Alison's... Neither Tom nor Lucy has gone for a laptop.

[Stanley]

I've had my forays into laptops and whist they did the job I had trouble with all of them. Give me a big tower with acres of space inside for the lads to breathe! 27" screen and a proper keyboard are a must for me.... Especially the way my eyes are. The FM3 that Pluggy built for me is still silent, fast and efficient. As soon as he tells me there is something better we will move on to another, even faster machine....

[Tizer]

Desktops are our choice too. Another advantage is that if you've only got a desktop PC it deters you from trying to `be online' all the time, especially if it's up a set of stairs away from the living rooms (and helps keeps you fit too!).

[Pluggy]

For me to make a machine that is noticeably faster than what you have Stanley, I'd need to spend what you paid for the whole machine just for the processor. Extreme high end kit gets to be silly money. Staying out of the silly money bracket, I doubt you'd notice the difference.

[Big Kev]

For me to make a machine that is noticeably faster than what you have Stanley, I'd need to spend what you paid for the whole machine just for the processor. Extreme high end kit gets to be silly money. Staying out of the silly money bracket, I doubt you'd notice the difference.

I use Stanley's previous machine, with some fairly intensive IMPs, and it handles them with ease. Only thing I'd upgrade is RAM so, if anyone has 16GB (4x4GB) of 800mhz DDR2 RAM they no longer have a use for...

[Pluggy]

Hen's teeth Kev, but I think you're already aware of that.

I put 8GB in my recently upgraded machine (Up from 4). It can handle Linux with Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 10(beta) VM's running at the same time, It'll do me.

[Big Kev]

Hen's teeth Kev, but I think you're already aware of that.

I put 8GB in my recently upgraded machine (Up from 4). It can handle Linux with Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 10(beta) VM's running at the same time, It'll do me.

I am indeed, it currently has 8GB. I was just being greedy

[Stanley]

I am not an expert on the way computers work but one thing I have learned over the years is that the more RAM you have the better the machine runs and in my mind 16gb isn't greedy. I remember many years ago Big Harry (who knew his way round computers) ordered a new high end machine as manager at Nautronix and the supplier made a mistake and supplied one with three times the RAM they had ordered. Instead of sending it back they tried it first and even they were surprised by the improvement they got. I can still remember the day I got a new memory chip for my Amstrad which doubled the memory, was it 512kb? I was King of the Road!
On the IBM I had a little add on programme that managed the memory. It constantly scanned the RAM and cleaned out the parts that were clogged with redundant information. It worked, the machine was noticeably faster.

[Big Kev]

I was talking cash greedy. At between £500 to £600, to up the machine to 16GB, it's not a financially viable exercise

[Tizer]

BBC, 16 March 2015
`Customers of smaller broadband providers are happier - Which?'
"Customers of smaller broadband providers are much happier than those of the big three BT, Sky and TalkTalk, reports consumer group, Which? The three largest providers received customer satisfaction scores below 50% in a survey. Smaller providers such as John Lewis Broadband, Plusnet, Utility Warehouse and Zen Internet scored over 70%."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31901244

[Stanley]

When you think about it Kev there must be millions of RAM sets out there in old computers..... Are the recyclers missing out here or is it that the Ram units aren't in big enough increments? I seem to remember that we couldn't get any more ram in that board because we ran out of docking slots....

[PanBiker]

Apart from the size of the memory array there is the change in connection. If it not obsolete by the size of it it will be if the simm slot style has changed. Supply and demand, current technology drops rapidly in price then commands a premium as it gets older. A bit like antiques but over a two or three year span.

[Tizer]

Microsoft is ditching its Internet Explorer browser.

[Stanley]

About time.....
Do you remember Talktalk admitting they had been hacked and customers details lost? I got spam yesterday telling me that Talktalk 'classic email' was being superseded by another system and I needed to re-apply for it. Of course I marked it as junk and ignored it. At the same time their SMTP server has been (and still is) incredibly slow. Now just suppose the people who did the original hack have attacked the server, slowed it down and then sent out the phishing email... Or am I just a suspicious old bugger....

[PanBiker]

I have no problems with the mail server Stanley, it's as responsive as ever for me. If you go to your account on the TalkTalk website and click the link for service centre it will run a check on services for you. There are no errors for our area or exchanges currently flagged up in the service messages. Are you sure its nothing to do with the constant updates you seem to get for your chosen platform?

[Big Kev]

When you think about it Kev there must be millions of RAM sets out there in old computers..... Are the recyclers missing out here or is it that the Ram units aren't in big enough increments? I seem to remember that we couldn't get any more ram in that board because we ran out of docking slots....

There are 4 dimm slots on the board, currently holding 4x2GB sticks, to upgrade any further I need to replace with 4GB sticks. The board will support a maximum of 16GB. As you say, you would have thought there would be millions of sticks just laying around , in what are effectively obsolete machines.

[Stanley]

I think not the platform Kev. Most of my mails are to multiple recipients and I think I get rationed because of this. My first mail today was single recipient and instantaneous, second was to multiple recipients and took a lot longer. I think it's capacity on the server.

[PanBiker]

Your mails to multiple recipients will be sent through many different routers depending on destination, there could be a bottle neck anywhere. There are command line tools which you can use to trace hops through the network. How many is multiple recipients in your case Stanley?

[Stanley]

About 12 at once, that's all Talktalk will accept. I checked my mail settings yesterday and everything is fine. No problems with incoming mail either. Normally the mails go out just as fast as single recipients but at the moment Talktalk are struggling. They had a similar event recently and admitted finally that they had been hacked. I shall be patient, it will all sort itself out in the end.

[Big Kev]

I know it's a cliche but have you switched everything off and back on again?

[Stanley]

No I haven't, you're right, can't do any harm. I'll try it later.

[Big Kev]

Did it make any difference?