COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tizer]

Don't worry Stanley, we know the scammers are quite capable of finding people with Sheffield accents to try and con us into thinking they are from Plusnet.

[Stanley]

You're right.... as it turned out it was a useful experience, I shall be even more wary in future.
Got my email from Talktalk telling me my information wasn't hacked and that the free offers are going to be announced shortly, they will be in effect from Dec 1st to the 31st. They mostly TV and mobile phone related but there is one for free any time calls which interests me....

[Tizer]

I'll be interested to see if I get something from VW as compensation for the defeat software scam. The car will have to have the software removed and fuel injectors fitted and it may not run the same afterwards and the trade-in value may be lower. VW has offered $1000 compensation to each US owner who is affected and the UK transport minister is pressuring the company to do the same for UK owners

[Tripps]

I'm still puzzled by all this. If you are perfectly satisfied with the car as it is - and it sounds as if you are - why not just do nothing?

[Tizer]

Fair comment Tripps, you're always good at dissecting the kernel out of the nut. I've asked myself the same question and here's what I told myself.

I think the Golf, especially the recent models are excellent cars and I'd like to keep on owning one. There are a few flies in the ointment though. I'm now more concerned about the high levels of emissions from diesel cars. I switched to diesel because the very low fuel consumption was so good for my wallet and for cutting down on fossil fuel usage and it was being encouraged by the government. Since then we've realised that carbon particulates are a bigger problem than we thought and we now find that diesels are spewing out more nitrogen oxides than we were told by the manufacturers. And in VW's case, they were blatantly fiddling the figures by a very large margin. But I could change to a petrol car and still have a VW Golf; most of the petrol models are not involved in the defeat software scandal - I'm looking at that option now.

The other aspect is specific to my present model of Golf. It's one of the `cheat' cars and will be called in eventually for corrective work. This involves two things: the removal of the cheat software and the fitting of new fuel injectors (it involves even more in the US where urea tanks - known there as pee tanks - have to be altered too). Opinions vary on how these changes will affect the car. There are independent experts who claim fuel consumption will rise and performance will be compromised. VW says this won't happen because it has told its engineers that they have to find a way to make the car have the same mpg and same performance as before yet meet the quoted emissions values. (I can't help but wonder if these are the same engineers as those who solved an earlier problem by cheating! But that's unfair - they've been sacked...haven't they?) My reaction to this depends on how much I trust VW. If I switch to petrol then at least I will have a car that doesn't need to be altered with who knows what consequences.

As for compensation, my concern is that I should be able get the same trade-in value as would have been offered if the emissons scandal hadn't occurred. If that value is going to be a lot lower (as some claim) then I think it would be fair to expect compensation. As I would like to stay with a Golf model, that compensation would be simply to give me the original `emissions-free' trade-in value.

A factor which clouds all this discussion is that it's difficult to get any reliable information out of VW. I'm trying to get the VW dealer and VW UK to answer questions...but to no avail. Either they don't know or won't tell. For once I feel sorry for the dealers, but then again I wonder: hadn't they ever thought `How does VW manage to get these cars through the official tests when on the road emissions are so much higher than claimed?".

I'll let you know more if ever I manage to squeeze information out of VW. There's some information on their web site but it's often out of date and some bits are contradictory.

[Stanley]

It's a consequence of how news is managed these days that the current messages are all designed to whip up angst as a result of the IS attacks. Other serious matters like your problem with VW, the doomsday scenario with anti-biotics etc are deleted from the agenda even though, in simple terms like body count, they completely eclipse terrorist attacks.

[Tizer]

`Dell admits security flaw was built in to computers' LINK
"A security hole that could allow attackers to access users' personal data was inadvertently placed on Dell computers, the company has admitted. The hole represented a "profound security flaw" that could allow access to bank details and other personal data, experts said."

Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey, told the BBC it "means that you could think you were looking at, say, your bank's site. But, actually, it is a spoof site. The flaw means that the certificate could fool you into thinking you were looking at a site that normally uses a secure connection. You would check for the padlock in the browser - see it - and, unless you checked further, you would simply trust the fake site.".....He said that some firms were now so suspicious of the certification processes run by some manufacturers that they were no longer allowing their browsers to trust the websites certified by the computers' operating systems and, instead, were relying on their own. "It is a profound security flaw because, when a browser says you can trust something, the general user thinks they can. It is so fundamental to the trust and security needed to deal with people through your browser - you have to trust that the manufacturer has checked it all out."

[PanBiker]

Surely this would be a security issue in the software and not hardware platform specific. Everyone else using the same software would be in the same boat, probably Dell were the first to spot it.

[Pluggy]

It will be one of the many lumps of crapware the manufacturers install on new machines. The first thing I do with a new prebuilt computer is wipe it and install a clean OS on it. It always improves the performance, the positive security implications are a bonus. Desktops I built myself and always have an uncompromised OS put on them. Customers are prepared to pay for me to do it for them.

Crapware

[PanBiker]

Indeed, I used to do exactly the same when I was system building and servicing. When Network Managing I commissioned and maintained a Ghost server on the network so that I could flatten and re-image at will. I normally did timed refreshes overnight on the IT suits but could push refresh on any individual machine on the network if required. Best bit of hardware and software investment I ever procured and deployed.

[Stanley]

It comforts me to know I have a Pluggy installed and assured system. Another reason why he is good value!

[Tizer]

Me too! About 12 years ago I bought a PC by mail order from a new small business that had been featured in the newspapers for its entrepreneurial approach. When it arrived it had problems and I found it was infected with viruses and I think it had already been used by someone in the company. They refused to take it back and give me a refund because it was `custom made' and therefore not covered by the usual regulations. I had to start a Small Claims Court process but they backed down at the last minute, refunded my money and collected the PC. So I got my money back but it was a long drawn out affair and quite stressful. A bunch of cowboys!

This article is interesting because it tells us what retailers are facing in the run up to Black Friday and Christmas - things that they won't tell us themselves for fear of frightening away customers. The harvesting of credit card details from tills, spammers racking up their campaigns etc. I like a comment near the end: "No-one should ever buy anything offered via unsolicited email". LINK

[Stanley]

I forget where I came across this (Could be this week's PE) but advertisers are incorporating a high frequency whistle in their adverts so that they can monitor whether the advert was being seen during a phone call on smart phones. Sounds a bit like the subliminal messages in adverts that were banned long ago.

[Tizer]

'Li-fi 100 times faster than wi-fi'
A new method of delivering data, which uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves, has been tested in a working office. Li-fi can deliver internet access 100 times faster than traditional wi-fi, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn. Velmenni used a li-fi-enabled light bulb to transmit data at speeds of 1Gbps. Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of up to 224Gbps. It was tested in an office, to allow workers to access the internet and in an industrial space, where it provided a smart lighting solution. Speaking to the International Business Times, chief executive Deepak Solanki said that the technology could reach consumers "within three to four years". LINK

The report notes that the technology cannot be used outdoors in direct sunlight, because that would interfere with its signal, and it cannot travel through walls so "initial use is likely to be limited to places where it can be used to supplement wi-fi networks, such as in congested urban areas or places where wi-fi is not safe, such as hospitals." It could also be used in aeroplanes. The report doesn't mention security.

Talking of lights, any sign of lights in the East?

[Stanley]

Do you know I have been wondering about that.....

[Tizer]

As you all know, I'm not smartphone literate and once again I've got a question. How well are smartphones and Ipads protected against malicious hackers stealing data? I'm not asking from an owner's point of view but instead as someone who frequently sends email messages to smartphone owners and therefore my messages and any attachments will sit on their phone, perhaps for the life of the phone. I'm more concerned about close friends and relatives to whom I have to send personal data such as bank account details and who probably already have other information on the phone such as my street address, email address, and phone number as well as my birthday and names of relatives. Conversations in email messages would allow someone to put together a detailed picture of my day to day life, places visited, people met, dates, employment, interests, hobbies etc. All the information required for stealing my identity rather than the phone owner's identity. I'm very cautious about security when using my PC but I can't control what others do with the messages I send to them. When the message arrives on a smartphone or Ipad it's more vulnerable due to the size and mobility of the gadget compared with arriving on a PC.

[Tripps]

" I'm not smartphone literate "

Me too - and proved it yesterday. I finally paid for some internet time on (one of my many) mobile phones. Spent a lot of time - (when not dreaming of going to Romania ), trying to get it to work. Total failure.

Suffice it to say - I have now given up, in a gentlemanly manner, and resigned myself to never having the joy of looking at Facebook, whilst walking and bumping in to people on the pavement. Who needs it anyway? Luckily the deal is just a monthly 'bundle' for £7.00 which I can cancel after one month - so no damage done.

"At peace with his inadequacies"

Leonard Barras - Up the Tyne in a Flummox.

[Big Kev]

As you all know, I'm not smartphone literate and once again I've got a question. How well are smartphones and Ipads protected against malicious hackers stealing data?.

It's all down to the user of the phone, if they choose to install AV, whether they leave their bluetooth/wireless/data connections open...

[Tizer]

Oooer! In that case, with some of the people I know, my data on their phone isn't going to be secure at all! Aaagh! I'll keep it in mind now when sending out emails.

Tripps, I sympathise...it's what seems to be defined these days as `challenging' but we used to call it difficult. Never mind, keep on dreaming of Romania, they can't charge us a monthly fee for dreaming...well not yet! When I watch TV programmes like Coast and the Portillo Railway Journeys I console myself with the fact that I would never be able to get the views they achieve, so it's better to stay at home and have it brought to me instead.

[Stanley]

Thank you all of you for reinforcing my aversion to any kind of mobile device....

[PanBiker]

I think you might be in a minority there Stanley and I already know you will say you are not bothered.

Mobile Device Usage

[Tripps]

"There are officially more mobile devices than people in the world"

Why am I not surprised - I've got eight.

[Stanley]

You are right Ian. I find my life proceeds quite nicely without the added complication and expense. I have quite sufficient on my plate as it is.

[Big Kev]

The transition from Windows 7 to 10 was painless. The turning off of Microsoft noseygitware is done and the very annoying Cortana has been disabled.

[Pluggy]

Repairing Windows 10 upgrades that have gone wrong has been a mainstay of my work recently. I suspect Kevs computer wouldn't have the shed load of crapware that most have. Its often that or stuff that found its way since on that breaks it.

I'd still stay put if you have Windows 7 though. Given that the product key for whatever windows won't Work for Windows 10 (Its given a new one as part of the upgrade process), what happens when Microsoft stop offering the free upgrade and the HDD dies ? I generally use some hacking software to make a note of it, so that 10 can be put straight back on in future.