COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Big Kev]

Same here, it's either carry on using it free, with ads, or pay £3 a month to subscribe without add. I've chosen for free but if the ads are too intrusive it's in the bin.

[Gloria]

I’ve opted for free. I couldn’t get out of it without carrying on, and didn’t want to do that if I’d got into something fishy. Thanks to the help on this site I am back happily on Facebook.

[Stanley]

Like Peter, none of this applies to me, I ditched Facebook many years ago when I realised how they were running the site. I wish you all a good experience....

[Tizer]

When Facebook launched about 20 years ago I thought about trying it out but they wanted too much personal information so I never joined.

[Stanley]

That was what drove me out Peter and the fact that they wanted 100% ownership and control of everything that was posted. Too high a price for the utility of the app.

[Stanley]

Ubuntu update this morning was almost 450Mb. No problems and very fast. Thanks to Canonical for looking after us for free like this.

[Big Kev]

I'm sure the Firefox users on here will be making use of this feature to turn off AI

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[Stanley]

I would if I knew where to find it! Remember, I am digitally illiterate!

[Tizer]

You have to be on Firefox v.148 to have the option and I'm on v.147 at present. I'm glad they're offering the option and I'll be trying it out when available. The present AI I find useful when I need some concise information instead of having to choose from a plethora of web sites but only when it's something I'm very familiar with and will know if it's fibbing. What I find most annoying is when the AI info that appears at the top of the page seems to direct all the subsequent offerings in one direction. For instance if I search for info by entering the names of two chemicals which I want to compare it will often choose one and ignore the other; and all the responses further down the page then relate to the one chemical. But I guess they'll soon have to prevent that happening!
(Stanley, if you want to know your Firefox version open it, click on Help and choose About Firefox.)

This is what the v.148 will offer... `Block generative AI features with Firefox AI controls' Firefox

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

I find AI helpful and very quick when I have this a sort of problem to solve...
I bought two power banks for charging our phones etc. Both with the same spec, in the same purchase from the same seller and only differing in colour. They arrived very quickly in one parcel, each bank in its own box. I opened them up and put them on charge. One of them did full charge in about two and a half hours. The other was extremely slow so I then tried it using the same USB cable and mains outlet that I used for its twin. No difference. Tried various other combinations but no better. So I want to send it back to Amazon for a replacement. They want it to be packed in its original box - but by then I wasn't sure which bank came in which box. Most of the details on the boxes and the banks were identical and had the same maker's code, something like A6610. I looked at the relevant Amazon pages but they too gave the same identical codes. Amazon can be very fussy about such details.So I then asked google what was the specification code for the black [details entered here] and it gave me something like A661020. Did it again for the other colour and, for example, got A661035. So now I can send the duff bank back to Amazon in the correct box.

[Stanley]

Nice to hear of a genuine good use for AI.....

[Big Kev]

I use it quite a bit at work, it's useful for checking long lines of code

[Cathy]

I’m wanting to add a New Topic.
Instructions say - To post a new topic in a forum, click “New Topic”. Where do I find “New Topic”.
Do I just go into any topic and can the topic name be changed?

[Big Kev]

Hi Cathy, choose a forum you want to put the new topic in, as an example I clicked General Miscellaneous Chat and Gossip

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and the new topic button is in there

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[Stanley]

It's easy when you know how.....

[Cathy]

Thanks Kev, I have posted my new topic.

[Big Kev]

Thanks Kev, I have posted my new topic.

And I've commented on it.

[Stanley]

And it is very interesting.

[Big Kev]

We had a DDOS attack on the site last night, I believe I've successfully blocked two offending IP ranges. If anyone is aware of any members, who have been inadvertently swept up in the block, please let me know and we can whitelist them.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that Kev. Bad day yesterday on the interwebthingy. Problem with my wifi connecion - kept informed of progress and later restored - and the malfunction on this site. All very confusing for a few hours. The depth of the addiction was revealed.

[PanBiker]

I am toiling with an PC upgrade problem. Our Desktops SDD boot drive is full so I ordered one four times as big. First problem, not enough SATA power connectors to connect the new drive into the system. I intend to clone the drive directly, I have the software loaded on an additional drive in the machine, its an older SATA HD spec but still runs fine. Our Jack is still engaged in the IT sector so I asked if he had a gender changer for the PSU to create two SATA PSU connectors, No joy there but he has gifted me an updated tower PC with a better spec than the desktop it also has 4 times as much RAM (16Gb). He has also given us a bigger monitor to go with it, good lad. One small problem, the PSU is a 650W job and has more SATA output connectors than you can shake a stick at, no problem there, ideal really apart from the fact that it doesn't run! Upshot, I still cant connect all the drives in the replacement tower.

Looks like it just needs a new PSU which is no great shakes in the overall scale of a freeby upgrade.

[Big Kev]

Looks like it just needs a new PSU which is no great shakes in the overall scale of a freeby upgrade.

If you can hang on until Sunday teatime I can take a look in my box of bits, I'm sure I have one.

[PanBiker]

Thanks Kev, it needs to have a minimum of three SATA power connectors plus the multi-way for the mainboard and a separate 4 pin CPU feed. Our Jack hasn't got back to me yet, he may have a spare.

[Wendyf]

You should come and have a look around the computer parts/spares section here.