COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

Upgrades told me that a new support package was available as the old one is unsupported from here on. Haven't the faintest idea what it meant but I did it. It was a biggie and needed a restart. Looks like yet another new OS! All seems to be well.....

[Tizer]

How long before they go Star Trek and the phone does the surgery.....

Almost there - they're developing machines that will do surgery with the equivalent of a steadier hand, that can make minute, very accurate adjustments and which are easier to keep sterile. Yes. Star Trek it is!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a different note...
There is an increasing need for a way to provide access to `safe' web sites for elderly folk who would be unsafe on a normal broadband connection. My father-in-law is a good example - trained as a scientist and with a wide interest in the world, he now has Parkinson's and some dementia and would be too vulnerable using email and having open access to the Web. But he wishes he could access all that information on the Web, especially pictures, relating to his interests in science, engineering, industrial archaeology etc. We need a way for such people to safely access such information on the Web or to have it on a computer which is not connected to the Internet. I've looked at various ways of setting up a computer and broadband connection using the parental contol you would have for children but nothing really fits the bill or is secure enough. There's an opportunity for someone out there to fill this important niche with a suitable device or method for these people. Remember when the Blackberry came out and I said there should be one with bigger buttons for old folk and called an Elderberry?

[Steven Chorkley]

"every Android phone I have purchased " surprised me. You need more than one?

New phone every two years with contract! I stick with the flagships.

[Steven Chorkley]

http://www.projectara.com/

[Steven Chorkley]

I

He's young Stanley, all different mindset. I get a new phone when the old one gives up the ghost, if you don't have the absolute latest model, you're not cool when you're young. He'll probably have a top of the range Android and a top of the range iPhone.....

I know that's the view of my generation.. but actually no, or at least my friends couldn't care less. I don't have a phone to be 'cool', I have a phone as i'm passionate about technology, it's what I enjoy.

Granted when I was younger I wanted the iPhone in 2007, just to have an iPhone, I saved the money I earned (Yes, I had a job on farm when I was 9.) and payed £270 for the phone upfront and then paid £35 a month thereon. My parents always refused to put money towards my phone, so I have had to work for it since. I switched to Android as I got a older whilst realising the amount of power they had (Also knowing I needed to learn Java), and not switched back since. And yes, I always have had the latest phone. I had the Original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Dell Streak, HTC One X, Galaxy S3, S4 and now S5. That said, I have paid and pay for each phone myself.

[Stanley]

There was a good programme on BBC2 last night devoted to 'planned obsolescence'. How the manufacturers encourage us to throw products away and buy the latest model. There was one clip of a large warehouse devoted to scrapping and recycling goods. Many of them in their original boxes, brand new and straight from the manufacturers who had judged they could make more money by scrapping the last model and pushing a new one.

[Pluggy]

£270 and £25 a month ?, About half the cars I've owned cost less than that......

[Big Kev]

£270 and £25 a month ?, About half the cars I've owned cost less than that......

I have a contract with Orange, £10.50 a month with a Galaxy S6500 phone. I have never used all the minutes, texts or data available each month

[Pluggy]

I had something similar on my last contract, but it was £12 and a Galaxy Ace. It was CPW riding on Vodaphone and the 3G sucked around here. When the 2 years was up I cancelled it and was going to get a 3 contract (which I knew worked well around Barlick) , but when I went to 3's site they were advertising their PAYG and it was cheap enough to make me think. On the CPW contract I got 200 minutes, 3000 texts and 1GB a month and generally had around 120 minutes, 2990 texts and 900 MB of date left at the end of the month. Plugging the figures in 3's PAYG rates, I came up with circa £3 a month. So I went PAYG, when the ACE gave up the ghost 6 months after the contract had finished, I considered a contract again, but I found I can buy a similar phone (The Galaxy Fame) unlocked and SIM free for £90 outright. If it lasts 2 years its about £3.75 a month for the phone and £3.00 PAYG. I won't be going back to contract, unless I suddenly start using a mobile a lot more than I do now. The only downside is that I have to buy a fivers credit every 6 weeks or so, but its pretty painless on their site. I generally buy a fivers worth when it gets down to a fiver so I don't run out. I used to get a tenners worth at once but they give you 150MB of data when you top up whatever amount, it only lasts for 30 days, and it generally expires before I use it all, so 2 X 150 on a shorter top up is better.

[Pluggy]

On an entirelely non related subject that still fits here, I've been having a bit of difficulty with OGFB since Friday, it sometimes doesn't respond or it runs very slowly, I tried it elsewhere today and it was fine, so I've fudged a wireless connection into my desktop and hooked it up via tethering from my phone, the problems disappear. I was testing out a customers computer and facebook was behaving similarly, again switching it over to my phones connection cured it. Time to give EE some flak I feel......

[Big Kev]

EE have been "tweaking" I think. I had issues with my VOIP phone a while ago, it was EE blocking ports. I'm with Sky now.

[Pluggy]

Just been talking to John (you, know, the one with the thick indian accent) and he says there are issues in the 01282 area and they are looking into it. It should be resolved by the 16th. Somewhat ironically its working fine now.

[Big Kev]

Just been talking to John (you, know, the one with the thick indian accent) and he says there are issues in the 01282 area and they are looking into it. It should be resolved by the 16th. Somewhat ironically its working fine now.

A very helpful chap is John

[Stanley]

Reading all that makes me glad I'm a dinosaur..... Is it true that you can't easily replace a dead battery in these new phones?

[Steven Chorkley]

Reading all that makes me glad I'm a dinosaur..... Is it true that you can't easily replace a dead battery in these new phones?

iPhones mainly, yes. One of the major flaws with Apple. It's unfair to call apple out singly as HTC and a few other manufacturers do too.

My laptop has the same issue. I dread to think of what I have to do to sort my laptop out when it drops charge :/

[Stanley]

Aha! The dinosaur may be able to help you. I tripped over this during the programme on BBC2 on built in obsolescence. It's an outfit called Ifixit in California. (LINK) They sell tool kits which include screwdrivers for the unique screw heads used by Apple and other companies. Also instructions for specific models and sources of replacements. If Pluggy hasn’t come across them he should have a look as well. Looks like a very useful site to me. I'll bet Apple love them!

[Pluggy]

Aha! The dinosaur may be able to help you. I tripped over this during the programme on BBC2 on built in obsolescence. It's an outfit called Ifixit in California. (LINK) They sell tool kits which include screwdrivers for the unique screw heads used by Apple and other companies. Also instructions for specific models and sources of replacements. If Pluggy hasn’t come across them he should have a look as well. Looks like a very useful site to me. I'll bet Apple love them!

I've come across the funny 3 pointed screwdrivers, if you buy an IPhone digitiser screen to replace a broken one, they generally supply one of the said screwdrivers with it. No doubt some Ebay vendors will supply you with one with a new battery. There are sites on t'internet to tell you blow by blow how to open up iPhones and other gadgets to replace parts. You pretty much have to dismantle the phone into its component parts to replace the digitiser, batterys are a lot easier. Boring old 'Android Landfill' Samsungs you can replace the battery by clipping the back off. I'd probably buy a new phone if I broke the digitiser screen.....

[Tizer]

Never mind phones, I had to buy a special set of screwdrivers just to swithc the handle on my Bosch fridge/freezer from left to right a few years ago! Not very unusual screwdrivers mind you, but of a type that a not-very-practical bloke like me doesn't otherwise need in his toolkit.

[Pluggy]

Not 'Torx' screwdrivers Tiz ?. I have a set, some laptops, hard drives and cars use them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx

As their name suggests you can apply a lot of torque to them without rounding off the screw or the driver, they have a use besides just being awkward like the Apple screws.

[Tizer]

That's it Pluggy. I haven't used them since the fridge arrived but you never know, if we move the fridge I might need them again!

[Stanley]

First time I came across the problem was with the tiny Philips head screws that Nikon used. Than I hit the Torx problem. I still have the sets of screwdriver bits I got then. Always pays to have a cheap set of jeweller's slot head screwdrivers about your person as well. On a larger scale, Caterpillar engines had bolt heads inset in recesses that normal ring spanners wouldn't fit in. Britool made special sets of Caterpillar spanners.

[Stanley]

Susan has her Ipad Air and I have no doubt has been having a bit of a play.... No word from her yet! I must admit, it looks a tidy little piece of kit!

[Stanley]

The bad news from Susan was that her Ipad Air wouldn't charge. Apple suspected a bad or fake connecting cable. She tried using a friend's cable and all was well, luckily her friend had a spare cable and gave it to her. As soon as I have the bum cable I shall attack the supplier.... Apple charge £25 for the cable.....

[Stanley]

Thank you to those nice people at Canonical. 135mb of Linux upgrades downloaded and installed including restart in less than 4 minutes. How do they do it? Does this mean I have the most up to date OS in the world?

[Pluggy]

Not quite computers, but telephone, my old school landline is dead today, no dialtone , nothing, but unusually the broadband piggy backing on it is working. Aftrer swapping stuff around to make sure its not my phones that are on the blink. (I have a business line on VOIP, which is working and plugging the main phone into the VOIP adaptor it still works so that phone at least is fine). I rang Lisa with the thick Indian accent (John's sister) on the VOIP line. Apparently everyone's on EE is dead in this area and told to wait for 24 hours......