Hackers

 We have been locked out of a MyGov account because someone has tried multiple times to get into it. We have had a lot of activity in these accounts recently and it makes you think if someone notices that then this could be a time to try breaking in.  That website is huge and we have been in there linking it together with the taxman, with medicare and now with centrelink to get our health cards.  I had to do something new the other day with a two way medicare claim and it seems the $1000 that we were sent from BUPA never made it to our account.  So an investigation has been underway but we have not heard where the money went. Is it all a coincidence? Debbie was able to recover by setting new access.

20+ Yar Problem

 Subscriptions are like the ever growing money tree to companies that have them.  Microsoft has been switching everything it can to a subscription model and gaming was the start of that push. At that time our teenagers did not have credit cards so the $100 a year payment was made on our card.  Here we are 25 yar later still paying it and the total is well over $2000. The problem was that the Microsoft account access was lost.  The credit card has expired at least 7 or 8 times in that period but some companies like Microsoft have software that can ask banks for the updated details and then continue to merrily take your money. We tried a few things every now and then however this time we went to the ANZ to block the card payment. They investigated and got me the original email contact where we could then revive the account and finally login to cancel the subscription.  Now I just have to work on the other subscriptions.

Major Coniption

 My laptop was stuck this morning and it took a forced power down to restart it, which did not work so well as a windows repair procedure took over and it hasn't been the same since. I can update this blog but the biggest issue is getting my twin screens recognised. Windows simply says they are not there. Everything else attached to my expansion box is ok, except the monitors. I went across for a swim but am not submerging my face just at the moment.  It was calm for a change and the sea grass beds are stripped with mostly sand available now. This will change by the end of Summer however for now it is sandy straits.  Now that I have had my constitutional, I have downloaded the latest Intel Graphics driver and installed it, which has worked a treat. The Dell web page is very good, which was just as well, as the support period for this PC has expired last year.

It is interesting how this sign goes up two weeks back and then I start seeing echidnas

Dockery Dockery Dell

I have been using Dell since last century. This is one of those mega billionaire inventors who sits in the background, doesn't do anything flashy just sells products and emphasises service. I rang Dell about my faulty Docking Station and got thru to an engineer in less than two minutes. Because I quoted the part number that I own he already had my history in front of him.  We went thru the checks and it was still under warranty, so he arranged for a replacement to be sent out. This part was at most 30 minutes. I got an email one hour later saying the Dock has been sent. At 10:30 am the next morning it arrived. Why can't all companies do this sort of thing?

Transaction Disputes

We have spied some extra amounts being paid on our VISA card last month. There were four totally different amounts all under $50 dollars in a space of 10 days.  The company that charged us is called GetNomad who sell a travel SIM card. Now we have had a lot of travel in our time but have never bought a local SIM card, generally preferring to pay extra to use our phones on a roaming phone rate.  Some times bills take a while to catch up but our last travel was the Solomon Islands five months ago.  The ANZ are investigating and have refunded one of the amounts.  It seems to me that these small amounts can go under your radar and could keep going for a long period if you weren't watching. The main question is how did they get the card information? Most likely it was from another company we have bought something off.  Most of the time I try to use PayPal for all internet buying but not all shops offer that option.  

We now have a new card

2nd Floor Fibre

 "We are not allowed in the roof cavity and especially on a second story".  That is what the NBN techo said. So now we have to get a sparkey in to do some roof work before making yet another appointment to get the NBN man back again.  Good thing we know a sparkey. We were left a 20 metre roll of fibre cable. The other problem is that our pit out the front has been covered over sometime in the past. It is known where it should be and opening it is required to patch into the cable running along the street. This is going to take a while. At least I solved my missing CODEC problem. These are special files required by windows to reconsitute media types that have been compacted, like MP4 files, produced by phones and video cameras.  I installed a program called K-Lite which worked perfectly. After rebooting I could play video files again. Of course how does a CODEC file go missing in the first place? 

Outage

 This has to be the biggest outage effect from a small program update of all time.  When I was making changes at Melb Water, the first thing you did was test it on a totally seperate system, then when you are ready to run it, you never ever ever did it on a Friday.  The way forward here is to start in safe mode, apply the fix and restart normally. But down in the depths of server farms, the servers have no screens, they are just stacked in racks. Find the server, attach a screen, do the fix then move onto the next one. This could take the whole weekend.  Manual warfare is a thing of the past.

Larger Fonts

 I have struggled to see the small font on the details panel since the last Windows 11 upgrade.  The text there used to be black on a white background now it is grey text that tends to merge into the background. I left a complaint (suggestion) in the Windows feedback page about putting it back the way it was. I'm not holding my breath. I use the details panel everyday, putting info into those fields and creating a psuedo database out of the file system for image files.  I have now used the Accessibility options in the Windows settings area to increase the font size by 20%.  This takes effect immediately across all text everywhere and has made a huge difference.  Whilst it is still grey I can see the text better due to being larger. 

Database Update

Just spent two days getting my stamp database back online after some windows updates broke it.  The guy who developed the Microsoft Access database that I bought from  him, was at a loss.  We tried all types of repair and reconfiguration but in the end it no longer worked.  The underlying freebie software called Access Runtime 2003 is now out of date, although the Gates Guys didn't mention that. So after installing Access Runtime 2010 which is the next available, it all started working again.  Mind you at 14 yar old it is probably on the countdown to obsolescence as well.

Cool Day Stamp Day

 Haven't done much stamping lately and I did not do too much today either, as I could not get the database to open. There was a  windows update message from overnight that said reboot to finish the updates. After that no database. I spent some hours working thru stuff with no result. I did a full shutdown with a five minute wait before rebooting and hey presto it is working again.  I am writing it down here so it might stick in my brain for next time. I did do some document scanning as part of checking what was working and what wasn't. For some reason only the database stopped, everything else I tried was fine.  

Email scams

 Ever since Optus got hacked I have been getting extra emails.  It hasn't been a lot but I am able to block some as Junk and ignore the rest. Yesterday were two more. Someone bought a laptop on Ebay but I got the notification.  This one I am ignoring as there is no reference to me anywhere.  I also got one from Nespresso. This one confirms my order, except I did not make an order.  I used to have a Nespresso account back in Essendon but it has now lapsed.  There are no charges from Nespresso on the VISA card so this one we are watching to see if coffee pods turn up.  The emails look authentic and there have been scams involving Nespresso before.  Just finished with the Nespresso man and it seems my email has been put into the other guys account.  It's hard to get good help! I bet this is not the end.

Devices have ears

Our TV at Williamstown often picks up words in our conversation trying to act on what it thinks is a command.  We have been talking about Ibuprofen lately as something to take for some back pain inflammation. We mentioned it a lot as we rummaged to see if there was any at Williamstown. It is a unique word easily recognised and now I am seeing it as ads when I log on. There is also a video being advertised when I go onto Youtube.  We did not type it anywhere it was only mentioned in audible conversation.  There are many devices with microphones that can hear better now. There is a chatGPT wearable pin that can see and hear and works on voice but can also project onto your hand for other commands.  Be careful what you say.

If in doubt swap it out

The long running screen flicker problem is still running.  The Dell guys have come to the end of software options for stopping this flicker so now they are coming tomorrow to change over the motherboard for a new one. It seems to me it was a new one in the first place.  You can't fault the service time they have put in to track this down.  Maybe this is the answer.

Dell Man

 Had the Dell man logging in remotely to my new laptop this morning. This monitor off/on business is perplexing them.  He poked around and found a driver that was out of date, despite the maintenance tools saying otherwise.  This was duly updated and soon after seen to have made no difference as the off/on is still happening. An old hard drive I had been using is also causing some trouble so I went straight into Geelong to get a new one and am copying it now.  Office works also sell these plastic carpet slabs that you can place under your chair.  So I am walking out of the store with this large wind sail like structure slicing at people as they pass.  I located a bicycle store at the opposite end to where the car is parked and the meter is ticking with 20 minutes left.  I  got the plastic sheet back to the car, then fast walked it to the bike store, bought two tubes and got back to the car with 5 minutes to spare. We have had the Geelong Parking Police on our tails before.  They will stop writing the ticket if you call out. 

Windows Gripe

I am still chasing my monitor problem.  I have proven that a monitor directly attached to the laptop is fine but  when attached via the docking station  has the issue.  I asked the Dell man if he could send a whinge back to Microsoft about the changes they made yesterday to Windows 11 File Explorer. He said try their feedback hub. This is an online form to type in your complaint/suggestion.  I put in my 2 cents worth but not sure what that will do though.   In the meantime I have one monitor that works and one that goes black for 2 seconds. 

Dymock's Data

Who's data is it anyway?  I got an email from Dymocks saying my info was stolen along with a lot of other people's, like 1.2 million customers.  The Australian Computer Society, of which I am a member, have been berating companies for a number of years about taking better care of data.  Pure Bookkeeping puts more and more 'stuff ' online and rely on companies like Google's security.  I turned on McAfee's dark web monitoring service and they sent me a confirmation that my email, name and phone number were out there.  I already get scam calls and scam emails, so I suspect it was known way before this latest issue.  So far I have found it fairly straight forward to spot a fake.  

Maybe scammers will read this and know I am onto them

I'll monitor that

 Today's activities have worked OK and not OK.  First up I had an online auction at 10:00am and my only bid was on Lot 19, so I need to be attentive for the first 5 mins.  My new laptop has a problem where both screens have an intermittent blackout for up to 5 seconds but each screen does it seperately and randomly.  It seems to start about an hour after starting the machine.  I waited til just 30mins before the auction before logging in.  There is a message that they are delaying the start for 30 mins.  This brings the start of the auction to the start of the blackouts.   Each lot remains biddable for 6 seconds and the blackouts are up to 5 seconds.  Sure enough the right hand monitor blacksout just after the auction starts but I have the bid window on the other monitor.  I was the only bidder when I checked late yesterday but overnight someone tried a late snatch and grab so I know I must bid to get it back.  Fortunately the monitor kept working and I got in a bid of $90 which beat off the opposition and won the day. 

I have now logged a call with Dell.  I was on the phone for 30 minutes. We checked the model numbers, the Drivers, the BIOS versions. Everything checks out on the laptop as for the latest versions.  So attention turns to the Thunderbolt docking station which is inbetween the monitors and the laptop.  I was supposed to get a program via email for updating the docking station but it has not arrived.  I told him I would monitor the situation.  That dad joke went over his head. While typing this my monitor has had a blackout three times in 15 minutes but not on the other one. 

Quadruple Screens

We spent time and money getting four Samsung screens two weeks back for Williamstown.  In the meantime, I had to get cables via the internet, with two different plugs at each end ( DisplayPort & HDMI) and also two different cables for each monitor, due to the vagaries of Samsung standards connecting to Dell standards on their docking station.  Two solid hours of removing temporary monitors, unpacking new ones, putting them together with the base and positioning powerboards for six extra power leads and I was ready to turn everything on.  Nothing happened.  The error said, 'cannot detect monitors'. I could see a blue LED telling me there was power connected.  That was my mistake, the blue LED tells me the power is connected but the monitor is NOT switched on.  After a while I found the secret, black, could hardly be seen, power button and everything worked.

2 x 2 workspace

Cable Crazy

 I am still trying to get the best setup going here for my new laptop. Dell did not have cables to connect my old monitors to the new docking station, so they sent me some converters to put in between the ends to allow for connection. Ever since then, the monitors go black for three seconds at random times.  And now I have purchased two more docking stations for Williamstown, except there we have bought four new monitors which are all Samsung. They use HDML to connect monitors and the docking stations, being Dell,  have two Displayports and only one hdml port. So I have now ordered four separate cables to get around all this for an extra $100.  

Notice the two short connector cables coming out top left that I want to remove

Wand Scanner

 After my quick drop off dash to the airport which seems to be a regular occurance these days, I made my way back to the beach, the Geelong beach that is.  I have been keen to try the new wand scanner but have been hanging back to get the new computer running first.  That is working ok but there are still some glitches. As for the wand scanner, it is a sorry mess.  My first scans only show glimpses of the area I scanned. I installed the software and it tells me I have to calibrate the device.  The instructions are scant and hidden deep. There is also a missing TWAIN driver which is why the software doesn't see the device but they are not saying which driver to download.  It's not like when that Wascally Wabbit is being chased by a Twain Dwiver. I need a particular Twain Driver.  May these twains never meet.  YadaYada starting to ramble.