The Millennium Bug and Life with a Computer

[www.midlandspubs.co.uk]

Hi Everyone

 

I'm sure you have all had a bad computer experience at some stage. Many people think that because I am fairly proficient with some computer software that I am free of such things. Wrong. My PC plays up all the time. It's part of my relationship with electronics in general. My radio plays up, my stereo plays up, the lawnmower plays up - even my car radio has packed up!

 

Emma bought her mum a digital photo frame for Christmas and asked me to set it up for her. Just by touching her PC when pushing the SD card in the slot I managed to wreck the whole interface. After an hour of trying to fix it I gave up and picked up the phone to call Dell. As is the case these days, I went through several phone selection procedures until I got through to an engineer in southern India. I only know his location because during our two hour phone call I talked to him about all sorts of things from cricket to bollywood movies and we sort of got to know each other a little. Anyway, the key reason I was on the phone for two hours is that as soon as he tried to fix things from his end the whole Dell system crashed. Coincidence that it was me on the phone - I think not.

 

Given my track record of breaking things, I knew that when I set up a discussion forum on Google that something just had to go wrong.......

 

John Midwood e-mailed me to point out that, although he is receiving messages, he is flagged up as being not a member on the group's page at http://groups.google.com/group/midlands-pubs To be honest, I'm not really sure what the heck is going on here but I think John can still send messages via e-mail and everyone will get them OK.

 

The whole thing would possibly work better if myself and other members could attach images to messages. As it is, one has to upload a file to the files section and then make a reference to it in the message. I don't think you have to log in or sign in to Google to view these files but if you want to use the group online and send messages without the use of your e-mail then I think you have to sign in to Google. It is another third party to hold some information on you but in this day and age nearly everyone does.

 

If you do sign in it might be a good thing to give yourself a nickname - even it is your real name. That way, only your nickname is displayed when you send a message. It might be a default of the Google system to show part but not all of your e-mail address if you don't do this. On the secure side - only e-mail addresses are visible to members and I moderate this to prevent spam.

 

New members are also moderated at first - simply for security reasons as I have to ensure that the integrity of the group is maintained and is only used by pub goers and pub lovers, not people trying to sell you something!

 

The group is new so some other problem is bound to crop up. Stick around for an IT white knuckle ride with me!

 

Kind regards and, just in case I forget or my PC crashes on the 31st, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR in 2010.

 

Kieron

 

 

 

[John Midwood]

Just checking here on Kieron’s comments as the site won’t let me reply direct so here goes nothing……..

 

John

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