OneGuyFromBarlick

There is a price to pay for my habit, but I accept it.

I didn't quite believe this when I first discovered it. Quick Cat Food

No wonder the High Street is on its last legs.

O brave new world,
That has such people items in ’t!

Not at all surprised David, Janet told me a long time ago that they were one of the four companies that were aiming to take over the world..... Possibly one of the worst things you could feed your cat on as well....

Amazon now accounts for 27% of the S&P 500. Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix make up more than 50%, which is beginning to worry market commentators:
`Amazon Is Taking Over the Stock Market, Too' LINK

Oh joy, another Amazon connected device to spy on you. Wassup can't Alexa order it for you ?

I will not knowingly allow any such device inside the house!

In a further small step towards digital emancipation - I closed my Facebook account yesterday.

I only had two 'friends' , but it had to be done.

One friend ' waved' to me recently so it seemed only polite to 'wave' back. Since then all the material on friend's site was immediately put on mine - or so it seemed to me. What if I had say 200 friends, and they all waved at me - doesn't bear thinking about.
Now I know why everyone seems to walk around looking at their phone.

I think the turning point was getting this on my account.
attachment=0]onions.jpg[/attachment]

I don't think that's actually true is it? If it was I'd be dead by now.

They didn't make it easy, and tried hard to get me to stay, even offering to freeze the account until I changed my mind, but I resisted and closed it. Now all I have to do is not go there for 14 days, and I'll be free.

Tripps wrote: ↑08 Mar 2018, 13:16 I don't think that's actually true is it? If it was I'd be dead by now.

Poisonous Onions Hoax

David, I did the same thing a few months ago. I only joined because it was a useful medium when Janet was dying and she used it as an easy way of contacting her many friends. I became uneasy after she died by the fact that they were making so many automatic links and I was snowed under with crap. Like you, I have this vain hope that keeping my online presence away form mass membership sites can only be a good thing. It has not diminished my quality of life. (Neither does deleting almost all the emails I get. If it's something important I will get to hear about it eventually!)
As for the onions, there used to be an old wive's tale about them being a mild disinfectant which is true and somehow someone has translated this into being a magnet for infection. There are a lot of people out there who aren't exercising their brains.....

David: re: onions. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet! Or should that be don't believe anything you read on the Internet?

Facebook is weeded out by the Great Firewall of China but they have their own version. I don't subscribe to any of them. Time consuming and dangerous.

If Donald Trump sees that notice about onions he'll want to drop onions on North Korea - oh no, forgive me, I forgot, he's just become best mates with Kim il jong or whatever the latest NK leader is called!

Did you see the reports about Alexa having to be scolded for laughing too often and at the wrong times? A lot of people have got very angry about it. I'd say it's the same as social media - it's your choice, you don't have to use it. If you don't like it, dump it. A BBC man said he was watching University Challenge and Alexa suddenly said `I do not know the answer to that question.'

Wonder how long it takes for a computer with internet access to solve an Only Connect wall

Onions probably should be in the useful tips, I think they are part of the garlic family and yes their defences do make eventual juices that could in high doses give ones innards a run for their money. And they would work as a mild disinfectant against a few (all?) bacterial and viruses. But I wonder why they do rot, even though they can continue to grow and bud, must be an airborne mold.

More about why garlic makes your breath smell - and why drinking milk may help get rid of the smell! Garlic

Back to the computers or printers in this instance. My USB connected Brother multifunction Laser (LED) printer reported that there was a firmware update available with a launch box for the download presented on the desktop. A simple download/install button to click and away it went. Warning message given not to switch the printer off during upgrade. Two minutes and a couple of cycles of the drum unit and the job was done, seamless firmware upgrade routine and all functioning perfectly.

My old Epson printer/scanner/copier gave up on any kind of update at 32bit Windows 7. It still scans and prints with generic drivers but I've lost most of the functionality, neg scanning being one...

Ringo gave me an old HP laser printer that was being discarded at work many years ago. I found a dirt cheap replacement cartridge for it because they are obsolete and gave it a new one when the existing one gave up and it sits there upstairs connected to the old IBM Activa and is like a rock. You can leave it alone for three months and then switch it on and it still runs like an old slow speed steam engine. God knows how old it is.....

Early to mid 90's probably. It will have a real laser in and rotating mirrors, the equivalent of the brick.......

I gave up on printers about 3 years ago. My daughter had just destroyed my last one after losing her temper after borrowing it and it jamming. My wife works at a church, I throw them a few bob the odd times I want hard copy. Not having one means I'm not a target for printer abuse any more

I sent you mail yesterday Pluggy. Did I use the wrong address?

It arrived but I missed it Stanley, I was busy. Message received. I'll order the part and organise a time when it arrives.

Good man. (Good service as well..... I love my IT support in Barlick.)

In case anyone is wondering..... Having seen the quantum leap forward in the speed of the FM3 after putting the OS and programmes on to SSD I have decided to do the same for the data. It's a minor miracle. I do like a machine that responds quickly! And I shall get Plugs to address my missing spell checker in Libre Write at the same time.... It annoys me and even a major upgrade from Canonical recently of the whole of Libre Office failed to cure it.

Pluggy has been and we now have the new SSD installed. He had done some digging and found the fix for the spell check. He says it is a bug in Ubuntu but I now have spell check! I am a happy bunny with an even faster FM3.......
PS Now I have the new drive installed I realise that what I thought was the low whirr from the fan was actually the old hard drive. Totally silent now......

I wrote two articles yesterday and the spell check in Libre Office 5 works fine. Thanks Pluggy for improving my life!