Rant of the Day v2.

[OFSO]

Yesterday: success. Decluttered wife's internet laptop using Autorun. Much faster.
Today: disaster. Laptop keyboard not working on startup so couldn't put password in to start laptop. Finally used external keyboard. Now to rerun Autorun and tick some of the boxes I unticked yesterday.

[Woody]

Quote from a HAL spokesman

A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport said: "We recognise that the baggage system in T2 is old - that's why we want to replace it and have urged the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] to allow us to invest in a new system as part of the next regulatory settlement.
"There is no shortage of airport workers - all parts of the airport are operational and we have the same capacity in security as summer 2019.

Makes you wonder why they built a new terminal without a new baggage system

[PHXPhlyer]

Coming to you thanks to the Hot Spot feature of my phone.
Spent an hour Friday and an hour yesterday on the phone with TMobile tech support in the Philippines.
Problem was that my new 5G internet gateway decided that it was in California and not AZ. I was thus unable to access baseball game of California teams' games. My streaming TV service also limited the number of connections because it thought that I was not at home.
No amount of resetting or remote fiddling could rectify the situation. I was advised a new gateway was needed and would be shipped. I told the tech supporter that I was less than ten minutes away from at least three of their retail stores where they stock the gateways.
Went in and wound up spending an hour plus going back and forth between the clerk and his phone support trying to get new one.
Once I got home with the new and supposedly better model. it wouldn't connect to their network.
Driving 500 mile roundtrip today to return D#! to school, so today is shot as far as dealing with the problem.
The good news is that when this stuff works I don't need a router or link extender to get full coverage through the house.

PP

[OFSO]

Ran Autorun, ticked everything that looked as if it might be affiliated with laptop keyboard. Restarted, everything fine.

Next job, the switches and cameras brought back from Islington N1 two years ago which have assumed Spanish identity have to be persuaded they are English and in Richmond TW11 and then renamed. Fiddly, but done.

[OFSO]

The ITV commentators for the Tour which finished today were the worst ever. Two blithering idiots chattering on about everything and anything not connected with the race. Utter boredom, I had many an hour of sweet sleep while they driveled on.

[Pinky the pilot]

for the Tour which finished today

The Tour de Frog is finished?

Oh goody!! That means that the TV news 'services' here in South Oz will finally return to what could be classed as normal.

[Wodrick]

Do you not get the Commonwealth Games ?

[OFSO]

I woke at 3 to find the living room lights on. The smart plug responsible for turning them off had changed its location from Europe to the USA. Needs resetting. But why?

[Boac]

Smart plug not so smart?

[Pinky the pilot]

Do you not get the Commonwealth Games ?

Probably, but I can, and do, ignore such events. Had avoiding watching/listening to the last Olympics down to a fine art!

NFI when the Irrelevent Games are on anyway.

[OFSO]

Reset smart switches. No longer thinking they are in the USA. Now - wait for it - they restarted up in Iberia but think they are in London. No problem. I can set them for London time.

[PHXPhlyer]

Same issue with my 5G interrnet.
Finally got it working thanks to level 2 tech support, USA based for once. They had to have me remove the sim card from the gateway and reseat it. then they had to update it.
Success at last.
Amazon streaming stick still thought that I was away from home and app wouldn't support multiple streams. Finally was able to update location.
Still holding my breath to see if the other app that thought I was in California figures itself out.

PP

[Woody]

Purchased a Firestick during the Prime sale, cancelled my Virgin TV package, even after paying for a couple of streaming services,reckon I’ve saved about £400 a year, bit of a pain registering for all the apps, but no problems

[PHXPhlyer]

My cable TV/internet bill was last at $210/mo. After I cut the cord they came back with an offer of $165/mo. I told them that they were welcome to match my internet/streaming service price if they wanted my business so badly.
New 5G internet through my mobile service: $30/mo.
Streaming TV service Direct TV Stream: $90/mo. $15 higher because they are the only streaming service that carries my local sports teams.
$120 all in. They said that sadly they couldn't match.

PP

[Smeagol]

Recently bought a new laptop as the previous one was elderly (8 or 9 years at least) and kept crashing, probably due to chip overheating, and now find that the new m/c will not accept the driver for my (not quite as old) printer! Tried various suggested fixes from t'internet...but all to no avail. Presumably I will now have to buy a new printer as well. Fortunately printers are almost as cheap as a set of ink cartridges but this, apparently, built-in obsolescence doe piss one off.

[CharlieOneSix]

I hate insurance companies and their hidden get out of jail free paragraphs.

I've just received my insurance documents for a new car insurance policy and as the car is also new I looked at Vehicle Replacement GAP insurance with ALA Insurance who I have used before and who have an excellent website and who were easy to deal with. Compared with GAP insurance from a car dealer they are very competitive. It initially looked as though my Direct Line policy would replace my car in the first year of ownership from new should it be written off or stolen. Excellent, I thought, I'll take out ALA Insurance just before the end of the first year of ownership.

On reading ALA's FAQ's I found this on their website (my bold) in respect of car insurers' statements to replace cars:

Please consider the possibility that there may be instances where your insurer reduces your settlement to market value only. This can be for various reasons including exceeding the annual mileage limit pro rata, the condition of the vehicle, if the vehicle has been stolen rather than being involved in an accident or if a replacement vehicle cannot be sourced with a certain number of weeks of the incident. if you have not purchased GAP insurance you could be left with a shortfall.

As a result of the above fortunately I found a small paragraph in the Direct Line policy which stated that a similar car had to be available in the UK. The word "available" is not defined in the policy glossary so is open to interpretation. If it was not "available" then they would pay the market value of the car at the time it was stolen or damaged beyond repair LESS the £450 excess I selected for the policy!! Due to chip shortages etc it's taken 9 months from ordering the car until it will be in my grubby hands next week. The new car is like gold dust and there are none sitting in UK dealers' showrooms waiting for customers - the present time from ordering to delivery is now 12 months.

So I shall have to take out the 4 year ALA GAP insurance from the day I collect the car instead of after one year's ownership. I suppose Direct Line's way of thinking is that they can negotiate a thumping discount if they replace the vehicle so they only offer market value if a replacement is not available.

If anyone is looking for GAP insurance in the UK then use the code MSE25 for a 25% discount with ALA Insurance. Presumably this is a limited time code.

[llondel]

You may find that the market value of such a scarce vehicle exceeds the price of a new one, so you could always try that on them if the worst happened.

I did once have to use the "replacement new vehicle" clause in a policy. The vehicle was stolen off my driveway after I'd had it a month, and was recovered with a crease all the way up to the roof on one side. The police officer dealing with the case told me how it's done, and I can see that with practice, the car could be driving within 30 seconds. The annoying thing is that they knew who did it, they caught them walking away from the vehicle, but because they didn't catch them driving the vehicle, the perps' claims that they just happened to be walking along a narrow country road at 3am when two vehicles whizzed by (mine wasn't the only one stolen that night) so they went to investigate and saw two people running away from the vehicles as they approached, was enough that they got away with it.

The first I knew of it was when the police knocked on my door that night because they'd apparently taken the car to fill it with petrol and driven off without paying. The registration plate was noted, so they came to see me.

[Woody]

Purchased a Firestick during the Prime sale, cancelled my Virgin TV package, even after paying for a couple of streaming services,reckon I’ve saved about £400 a year, bit of a pain registering for all the apps, but no problems

If I can persuade MrsWoody that we don’t need a landline anymore, saving could be even greater

[ExSp33db1rd]

......The vehicle was stolen off my driveway after I'd had it a month............

Visiting my mother in Doncaster when I was working overseas in the mid '80's I hired a car from a local outfit. Took my Mother shopping and afterwards couldn't find it in the multi-storey carpark, memory? No, stolen. Rental company gave me another. Next trip I asked the same company if they would still rent to me ! No problem, and gave me the same car that had been recovered by the Police some time after I had left from the previous trip. That was stolen again from my Mother's driveway that night.

Later that same day the Police advised that the car had been located in a distant village, and I could collect it. How, I haven't a car ? OK we'll take you there, and I got a ride in a passing Patrol Car to achieve this. The rental company suggested that I remove the rotating commutator arm ( spelling ?) every time I left the car. This I did, PITA.

[llondel]

Later that same day the Police advised that the car had been located in a distant village, and I could collect it. How, I haven't a car ? OK we'll take you there, and I got a ride in a passing Patrol Car to achieve this. The rental company suggested that I remove the rotating commutator arm ( spelling ?) every time I left the car. This I did, PITA.

When I got the replacement, I discovered that the XR2i fusebox was under the dashboard on the driver's side and I could easily reach it. Furthermore, there was one empty slot in the line of fuses. Even better, the fuse next to the empty slot was the one for the fuel pump. Solution was to get a blown fuse, put it in the empty slot. On arrival somewhere, reach under the dash, remove the empty fuse (quite easy) and the one next to it and swap them over. Before departure, reverse the process. I could do this without looking. The net effect was that if an attempt was made to start the car before the fuel pressure had dissipated, it would fire and then promptly stop again. If the pressure had dissipated then the engine would just crank over with no hint of ignition. Very cheap immobiliser and not at all obvious unless you knew exactly where to look.