What's made you grumpy today?

[The Panda Nut]

Think we’re in the eye of the storm at the minute as the wind has dropped significantly…near Skippo, N.Yorkshire

I didnt know Skipton was a Roman town. Skippi skippee Skkippo Skiporum etc Funny what comes back to mind after 60 years. Sitting in the back of the class hoping it would go away is still an abiding memory. Like MOT fear...Noop goes in tomorrow for No 2. Thats about how I feel about it!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Today was the first sunny spring-like day in the last 8 days. Back to rain tomorrow, then a gorgeous day on Monday. Possibly for the entire week.

Hah youve surely cursed your weather saying that.

ANgel Gabriel said...
Here Sir, as a presnet from the Lord above, ...... and in view of your comments.... another ice age!

 

[Steveetee55]

Think we’re in the eye of the storm at the minute as the wind has dropped significantly…near Skippo, N.Yorkshire

Still blowing up here near howarth TV aerial has been blown in the wrong direction

 

[porta]

I didnt know Skipton was a Roman town. Skippi skippee Skkippo Skiporum etc Funny what comes back to mind after 60 years. Sitting in the back of the class hoping it would go away is still an abiding memory. Like MOT fear...Noop goes in tomorrow for No 2. Thats about how I feel about it!

Think Skippo is older than Roman…
As for bloody weather, today was supposed to be drier than yesterday but more windy, turned out to be wetter and just as windy…
@Steveetee55 was in Haworth on Friday having a few beers with friends, wet/dry/wet/dry the forecasters NEVER get it right in the Pennines!

 

[bugsymike]

Think Skippo is older than Roman…
As for bloody weather, today was supposed to be drier than yesterday but more windy, turned out to be wetter and just as windy…
@Steveetee55 was in Haworth on Friday having a few beers with friends, wet/dry/wet/dry the forecasters NEVER get it right in the Pennines!

My youngest grand daughter says we are not all Southern softees down here.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Still blowing up here near howarth TV aerial has been blown in the wrong direction

Brings back memories. I used to live in Earby. Im responsible for lots of white roses planted there, and many red ones in Colne and Nelson..... My southern humour..... Funny thing is nobody ever said anything.

 

[AndyRKett]

My youngest grand daughter says we are not all Southern softees down here.
View attachment 442710

Is she trying to drowned that doll ?

Does the doll owe her money ?

No way I would mess with her !!!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Doh! "Dumb" phone, so only does calls and texts I'm afraid!

You are worse than me! Smart phones really are worth having these days.

 

[Steveetee55]

Think Skippo is older than Roman…
As for bloody weather, today was supposed to be drier than yesterday but more windy, turned out to be wetter and just as windy…
@Steveetee55 was in Haworth on Friday having a few beers with friends, wet/dry/wet/dry the forecasters NEVER get it right in the Pennines!

Had a 1/2 decent day Saturday spent most of the day 12 foot up a ladder trimming a mahoosive conifer hedge was surfing a bit in the wind tho but yesterday ended up as usual wet and even more windy, now back to my day job fixing a fried electric clutch on a big ride o lawn mower

 

[Steveetee55]

Had a 1/2 decent day Saturday spent most of the day 12 foot up a ladder trimming a mahoosive conifer hedge was surfing a bit in the wind tho but yesterday ended up as usual wet and even more windy, now back to my day job fixing a fried electric clutch on a big ride on lawn mower

 

[bugsymike]

Is she trying to drowned that doll ?

Does the doll owe her money ?

No way I would mess with her !!!

The doll does have boots on that I bought her with the wet weather suit for her birthday. But somehow like grand daughter they don't seem to offer the full protection.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

You are worse than me! Smart phones really are worth having these days.

I know you're right but we've just been putting off the inevitable. Trouble is it seems so expensive? We were totting up what our existing pay as you go "dumb" phones cost and I thought I'd check up how much credit was on mine yesterday. Dialed 150 and was told seven pounds (approx) then it told me "you last topped up March 2023 with £20" - See what I mean about new phones being expensive? Trouble is stuff like car parking etc is starting to require a "smart" phone so we're thinking of getting just one which Mrs J can have but we can use when away from home for the likes of car parking etc.

Another consideration is that I've just gone through the protracted and "silly" 18 monthly negotiation with our internet provider to renew our contract. We're with Sky, having previously had the TV too but cancelled it, we now have the internet and land line with them. I find their service very good and have no desire to change but I'm fed up with having to do this silly negotiation every 18 months. Anyway this year, as I was doing nothing else at the time, I pushed them as hard as I knew how to, arguing every point and, whilst being very polite, making a general pain in the **se of myself. I've ended up with what I think is a pretty good deal, better than what I expected and, to clinch the deal, they offered, at the last minute (probably to just get me to go away) to instal full fibre ultra fast for free including a new router and one of their engineers to attend to set it all up for me, free of charge! This will mean installing a completely new cable across our front lawn, but he assures me it'll be done virtually invisibly. When it's all done it means we will be "future proofed" for probably the years left to us now. But my copper cable for my old landline will cease to work and the phone will work through the new router. The down side is, He tells me, the land line won't work if the internet goes down so if, at some time in the future, we get emergency personal alarms (red button round your neck on a string when your so old you can't wipe your own bottom - maybe not that far away?) We have to have some sort of modification. Anyway, our internet almost never drops out so I think we're Ok for now. However, with this in mind, a modern smart phone would still work when/if the new fibre internet went down?

Of course, with all the protracted negotiations going on - as mentioned above - the very pleasant and patient Sky person I was talking to took the opportunity to try to get me to take their TV again, which I quickly dismissed, but he also mentioned their mobile phone packages which, apparently "roll over" unused data. This seems like a good idea for someone like me who almost never uses their phone but would like the security of having a modern smart phone and the facility to access stuff like apps etc when needed for car parking etc? Or would we be better with another phone provider?

 

[vexorg]

There are plenty of second hand or nearly new phones about.
And even lower spec andriod are cheap (yuck - andriod). You dont need a contract. Many now dont offer this phone with it as it went against the rules now. You can still get the same sim card type you use as now, set it to not you mobile data and only wifi and it shold be hte same runnign cost.

 

[bugsymike]

I am even more in the dark ages than you Jock, just use a land line and hard wired internet.
Though I see they are trying to force digital which as you are finding means any sort of landline fails in a power cut. So much for advancement.
Also the thought of being at everyone's beck and call where ever you are and tracked also, doesn't fill me with glee.
I am not against technology and was building computers back in the days of 286 PC's and even taught a neighbours son how to build a computer (he is now very high up in Siemens Electronics and yes they all drive EV rentals etc.) But no , I don't want my life ruled by them.
I fore see a day of no cash when a third World Country wipes out all electronic proof of any money we have, now that would cause a disaster!
It has happened on a smaller scale already for a day at a time with supermarkets, hospitals, air traffic control etc. So no one can say it's impossible.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

There are plenty of second hand or nearly phones about.
And even lower spec andriod are cheap (yuck - andriod). You dont need a contract. Many now dont offer this phone with it as it went against the rules now. You can still get the same sim card type you use as now, set it to not you mobile data and only wifi and it shold be hte same runnign cost.

Thanks for that. Yup, Leith Walk is "swimming" in second hand phone shops and I had wondered about going down that "road". Trouble is neither of us has the slightest idea what to buy and/or how much memory is needed. Maybe a used iphone would be a good idea as Mrs J has an ipad so might get on better with it. I've always had windows laptops and get completely lost on her ipad.

 

[porta]

Thanks for that. Yup, Leith Walk is "swimming" in second hand phone shops and I had wondered about going down that "road". Trouble is neither of us has the slightest idea what to buy and/or how much memory is needed. Maybe a used iphone would be a good idea as Mrs J has an ipad so might get on better with it. I've always had windows laptops and get completely lost on her ipad.

My switch from Microsoft to Apple has never been regretted…you can sync everything and, once you get used to it, it’s far more intuitive to use. The only thing I do regret, but that’s the manufacturers fault, no matter where I’ve been on the planet, my Motorola would get a signal anywhere, something my past Nokia, google, Alcatel, erricson failed miserably at no matter what network we were using!

 

[Cheest]

I use it all; Android, Apple, Microsoft but mostly Android. I will never have another Microsoft phone again, but that's beside the point.

Having traveled for my job for the better part of the last 25 years, my smartphone has been indispensable. I could book a month of airline tickets, hotel, and rental cars in a couple of minutes. I could use the phone to check in for the flights because my ticket was on my phone. I could get hold of the guys in the European factories by voice, email, or text if I had a question and vice versa. Best part about that is I could bypass the onerous bureaucratic channels and get hold of the one person I needed directly.

Since I've retired, my data usage has dropped to the bare minimum. My phone is also tied to the home wi-fi, so no cellular data is used when using an app. If I'm working in my garage and I need a tap drill size or a torque spec, I just reach into my pocket and open the app I need right where I'm standing. The rare times I need to go into Chicago by train, I get my tickets via an app. (Don't have a choice on that one as Metra canned all their ticket agents)

My Dad, who is almost ninety has a smartphone. He has issues with it, partly due to his age, but mostly due to fat fingers, and impatience.

 

[AndyRKett]

All land lines are now switching over to VOIP phones (voice over Internet) it’s not something you can avoid, and the switching off of the old land lines will open up extra bandwidth for speeding up internet access. If they are putting in a new cable it’s probably a fibre optic cable and therefore there will not be a wired phone connection any more.

If the broadband goes down then yes the phone will go down too, so if there was a power cut as an example your router would lose power then you’d have no phone, but that being said so many people have cordless phones in the house if they even still have a land line and so any power cut still would often leave you without any phone.

Technically speaking if there was a power cut the mobile phones shouldn’t go down unless there was some mass power cut covering a whole city and then the power would be cut to all the cell sites for relaying the mobile phone signals.

This sort of problem is pretty rare these days.

I’m with sky or should I say me and my wife are with sky for our mobile phones, and yes it rolls over all your unused data so you don’t lose any, if you ended your contract act you can spend your unused data on things

This is our current rolled over data

So I use an iPhone 11 I got new in 2019 it works perfectly still and I should add it has 128gb of storage which is plenty for pictures and videos I take.

I think my total expenditure on my phone is less than £10 a month which I know is still quite a bit more than the £20 jocks phone has cost in the last year but I do use it a lot with all the various apps and other online stuff I use.

 

[The Panda Nut]

There are plenty of second hand or nearly new phones about.
And even lower spec andriod are cheap (yuck - andriod). You dont need a contract. Many now dont offer this phone with it as it went against the rules now. You can still get the same sim card type you use as now, set it to not you mobile data and only wifi and it shold be hte same runnign cost.

You may find you get more use than you think as you can get maps and navigation, useful when walking if you go away, camera and the ability to take and send photos and video clips plus being able to google for phone numbers and addresses when you need supplies. The waze app for the Panda does the radio and can store music on the phone and play on the car. If you are sent to rpison for 10 say or may be 20 years you would have time to learn how to use it, so it gives free rein to go bank robbing as well.... I find one of the best things is the public loo finder! If you only want calls you can still get pay as you go.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

All land lines are now switching over to VOIP phones (voice over Internet) it’s not something you can avoid, and the switching off of the old land lines will open up extra bandwidth for speeding up internet access. If they are putting in a new cable it’s probably a fibre optic cable and therefore there will not be a wired phone connection any more.

If the broadband goes down then yes the phone will go down too, so if there was a power cut as an example your router would lose power then you’d have no phone, but that being said so many people have cordless phones in the house if they even still have a land line and so any power cut still would often leave you without any phone.

Technically speaking if there was a power cut the mobile phones shouldn’t go down unless there was some mass power cut covering a whole city and then the power would be cut to all the cell sites for relaying the mobile phone signals.

This sort of problem is pretty rare these days.

I’m with sky or should I say me and my wife are with sky for our mobile phones, and yes it rolls over all your unused data so you don’t lose any, if you ended your contract act you can spend your unused data on things

This is our current rolled over data
View attachment 442778
So I use an iPhone 11 I got new in 2019 it works perfectly still and I should add it has 128gb of storage which is plenty for pictures and videos I take.

I think my total expenditure on my phone is less than £10 a month which I know is still quite a bit more than the £20 jocks phone has cost in the last year but I do use it a lot with all the various apps and other online stuff I use.

Thanks Andy. Yes it's a complete fibre optic installation right up into the house. In fact open reach will be physically installing the cable and they were round at our door doing the survey just the other day. Then the Sky man comes and connects up the router and makes sure all the other stuff networked to it, NAS, Blue ray, AV amp, Freeview box, is working. Last time the router was updated the Freeview box had a wee hissy fit and insisted on a dedicated connection of it's own. The new router only had two ports so one goes to the Freeview reciever and the other goes to a splitter box which has leads from the other 3 devices. I like these devices connected via a physical wire rather than wirelessly. Anyone know if the new fibre sky router has several ports?

One inconvenience is that the bedroom phone, which is a wired extension, won't work any more. However our living room phone, although it's the type you can wander around with, is quite old now and looks really grotty so I think we'll buy a new one with base station and remote extension which can be positioned in the bedroom. Or maybe we should just do away with a landline altogether and both make the move to smart mobiles? I'm guessing that when we're at home and can link them to the new router then we could make calls at no extra cost? Or maybe not? I still don't really understand how all this works.

We've been talking about what mobile to buy as this thread has been progressing and Mrs J says she thinks we should buy an iphone of some sort as she has her ipad and finds she can't get on with my windows laptop at all. My old laptop, which I'm actually doing this on right now, has a faulty connection to the screen which sometimes corrupts the display. A googly whack has so far sorted it but I know it's just a matter of time 'till it fails permanently. I also still have my old Vista Toshiba - which hasn't been fired up for maybe 4 years but was working fine. So I'm wondering if I should use that as my auto diagnostic tool - so many of the diagnostic stuff that interests me runs on Windows - and finally succumb to buying an Apple laptop for everything else? The extra expense and the fact I know absolutely nothing about working an Apple worries me quite a lot though.