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Tech Help (Beyond This Forum)

CarlosTheDJ said:
You used to be able to use Netflix and the iPlayer on a Wii...they might have removed the functionality though. And it won't be HD.
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Thanks - hadn't thought of that, but yes, there are all sorts of options on the Wii's menu. Nonetheless, I think I'd rather do it "properly" than connect an ageing games console to the internet.

In the meantime, someone I spoke to mentioned Now TV in passing... there seemed to be some suggestion that it came bundled with line rental as well, but a quick peruse of the 'net suggests that it uses one's existing web connection. Possibly, I'm just confusing myself for no good reason, but does anyone have direct experience of Now, and can tell me whether it's better or worse than, say, Amazon or Google plug-in sticks?
 
Right, this is weird, but when I've arrived at the FTMB recently, my mouse has become very difficult to handle. Doesn't happen anywhere else, but after I've logged on here it affects the mouse. Anyone else had this?
 
GNC said:
Right, this is weird, but when I've arrived at the FTMB recently, my mouse has become very difficult to handle. Doesn't happen anywhere else, but after I've logged on here it affects the mouse. Anyone else had this?
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That's a new one on me ... :dunno:

Are you running something else in parallel / in the background?
 
Nope, though I sometimes play music on the PC while browsing. Naturally, since I've posted this the mouse is acting normally again. Maybe I need an update, Microsoft?
 
GNC said:
Right, this is weird, but when I've arrived at the FTMB recently, my mouse has become very difficult to handle. Doesn't happen anywhere else, but after I've logged on here it affects the mouse. Anyone else had this?
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Try a different browser? I keep Firefox, Chrome and Safari (Mac) at the ready.

Then also you could remove the cookies related to the Fortean website.
 
Peripart said:
In the meantime, someone I spoke to mentioned Now TV in passing... there seemed to be some suggestion that it came bundled with line rental as well, but a quick peruse of the 'net suggests that it uses one's existing web connection. Possibly, I'm just confusing myself for no good reason, but does anyone have direct experience of Now, and can tell me whether it's better or worse than, say, Amazon or Google plug-in sticks?
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As far as I know Now is Sky's version of Netflix etc. I signed-up to it on a month's free trial last year to watch Game Of Thrones, and it didn't need any subscriptions, special equipment. In fact, they make a big deal out of the no-subscription thing.
 
Yep, used Now for ages alongside Virgin as the the latter doesn't carry Sky Atlantic, among other things. For under eight quid a month you get a very good deal on the Entertainment package, plus you can opt in to the Movies or Sports one for a month (as we do over Xmas, for example) and then go back to just Entertainment afterwards. The box cost us about £20 as a one off, and works wirelessly or via Ethernet. Streaming quality is great.

Also like Netflix you can watch it via browser or tablet, too. I'd recommend it :).
 
stuneville said:
Yep, used Now for ages alongside Virgin as the the latter doesn't carry Sky Atlantic, among other things. For under eight quid a month you get a very good deal on the Entertainment package, plus you can opt in to the Movies or Sports one for a month (as we do over Xmas, for example) and then go back to just Entertainment afterwards. The box cost us about £20 as a one off, and works wirelessly or via Ethernet. Streaming quality is great.

Also like Netflix you can watch it via browser or tablet, too. I'd recommend it :).
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Thanks for the recommendation - for clarity, you need a separate IP (Virgin, in your case) alongside Now? I thought I'd heard someone say that Now, as a partner of Sky, was available bundled with line rental etc? I have done some very basic Googling on the topic, but you lot with direct experience are far more helpful!
 
genex17 said:
Try a different browser? I keep Firefox, Chrome and Safari (Mac) at the ready.

Then also you could remove the cookies related to the Fortean website.
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Deleted cookies and so far, the issue has not recurred... maybe it was coincidence and I need a decent mouse mat? Although this site does crash my computer sometimes.
 
Well, hopefully that fixed it. "Always try the free things first."
 
Hi All - haven't posted on here for along while but have been reading! The reason is that when I have tried to log, in the address bar says that this site is insecure; there is no https before the address and a lock with a red strike through appears - does anyone know if it really insecure or is it just my connection? - thanks very much! - Melon
 
GNC,

My laptop behaves rather erratically when tt is doing it's weekly security checks. Is yours doing something similar ?

Melon24,

How would we ever know if anything is secure ? We just have to take the companies word for it.

VPN would be a good example. maybe it is just a trick to make you think that no one can trace you when you are watching naughty things.

Yet how would you ever know ?

Always assume that someone is tapping the line.

INT21
 
Ah well - guess I'll risk it then......... we are all probably being watched after all. Don't know what they would make of it all tho!

Hey! I don't watch naughty things!
 
melon24 said:
reason is that when I have tried to log, in the address bar says that this site is insecure; there is no https before the address and a lock with a red strike through appears - does anyone know if it really insecure or is it just my connection? - thanks very much! - Melon
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That is correct.

Note that the hosted instance that is the Fortean Times website (including this forum) appears to use the older, insecure protocol type http and not https (wherein the letter "s" indicates a secure connection).

melon24 said:
Ah well - guess I'll risk it then......... we are all probably being watched after all. Don't know what they would make of it all tho!
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I think it needs to be viewed only as a theoretical risk. Our conversations here are not e-commerce transactions, with card and account details being sent 'in the clear'. Nor is it business-critical (or other, more vital) content: but it does matter to us, or we wouldn't be here.

Like many things in life, it boils down to currency (in both senses: financial cost, and degree of updatedness). Secure HTTP (ie https:// internetwork addressing) is now in the majority. Insecure internetworked intercommunication protocols are now the (reducing) minority.

It may well be the case that there is a long-term plan to sort this (either pro-actively, or as part of the current web-hosting service's generic presumed upgrades path).

What say ye @stuneville @MercuryCrest and associated great ones?
 
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Ermintruder said:
That is correct.

Note that the hosted instance that is the Fortean Times website (including this forum) appears to use the older, insecure protocol type http and not https (wherein the letter "s" indicates a secure connection).


I think it needs to be viewed only as a theoretical risk. Our conversations here are not e-commerce transactions, with card and account details being sent 'in the clear'. Nor is it business-critical (or other, more vital) content: but it does matter to us, or we wouldn't be here.

Like many things in life, it boils down to currency (in both senses: financial cost, and degree of updatedness). Secure HTTP (ie https:// internetwork addressing) is now in the majority. Insecure internetworked intercommunication protocols are now the (reducing) minority.

It may well be the case that there is a long-term plan to sort this (either pro-actively, or as part of the current web-hosting service's generic presumed upgrades path).

What say ye @stuneville and associated great ones?
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Everything you've written is accurate but there are no plans of which I'm aware to rectify/improve the current situation, because we're a bit rubbish, technically speaking.

Melon, entirely up to you, but the risk is--as Ermintruder says--tiny and theoretical. An older browser wouldn't even alert you to the fact.
 
Yithian said:
Everything you've written is accurate but there are no plans of which I'm aware to rectify/improve the current situation, because we're a bit rubbish, technically speaking.
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I run my own vanity project on the inter-web and it is technically 'not secure', but it sets no cookies and involves no commerce and/or interaction. One reads it. I can foresee a time where if I don't make it 'secure' it will be essentially blacklisted.
 
Well....my laptop still shuts down if I close the lid....have to hit the power button to turn it back on...but it isn't a long wait. But my old laptop......never did that ...it always stayed in sleep mode no matter what I did and I only had to move the l mouse or hit any key to bring the screen back on.
 
melon24 said:
Hi All - haven't posted on here for along while but have been reading! The reason is that when I have tried to log, in the address bar says that this site is insecure; there is no https before the address and a lock with a red strike through appears - does anyone know if it really insecure or is it just my connection? - thanks very much! - Melon
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I've had no security problems that I know of (so far).
 
INT21 said:
GNC,

My laptop behaves rather erratically when tt is doing it's weekly security checks. Is yours doing something similar ?

INT21
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Thanks for the suggestion, but my PC acts up all the time, security checks or not. I'm starting to think my year old PC is incompatible with my 15-year-old monitor. Could that be a "thing", tech folks?
 
GNC said:
Thanks for the suggestion, but my PC acts up all the time, security checks or not. I'm starting to think my year old PC is incompatible with my 15-year-old monitor. Could that be a "thing", tech folks?
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I shouldn't think that's the issue, unless the monitor is really non-standard.
 
GNC said:
It was very reliable before, so it must be the PC having issues with Windows 10, I suppose?
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wont be your monitor

one thing ive noticed is that the reply text-entry box can be erratic, presumably a lot of scripting is handling the input (checking for tags maybe or somesuch ?) ... depending on your browser/settings might introduce lag sufficient to result in mouse crawl, just a thought ...
 
The mouse has been fine for a couple of weeks now, but I still get the message "Application has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware" that sometimes crashes the PC. Otherwise it keeps pausing my browsing of the site until that message comes up.
 
Peripart said:
Thanks for the recommendation - for clarity, you need a separate IP (Virgin, in your case) alongside Now?
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Sorry for the delay - yes, you need a native broadband package upon which it piggy-backs. Not sure that Sky users would need Now, but the box itself does give you BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, UKTV Play and full All4 access (a lot of the carriers only give you catch-up, for a week or month at most: I've spent ages re-watching Channel 4 goodies from 20 years ago!)
 
Yeah! All the C4 Comic Strips are on there too - including the less mentioned ones, like (my favourites) Didn't You Kill My Brother?, with Alexei Sayle as not the Kray Twins at all, and Mr Jolly Lives Next Door. with Rik and Ade in immediately pre-Bottom phase, with a splendid cameos from Peter Cook and Nicholas (bloody) Parsons. Glorious :).
 
I watched far too many "Drop the Dead Donkey"'s' as well, although I had seen some at the time. We could do with that program now.
 
Andy Hamilton was talking about it on t'wireless late last year - as has been said about many programmes, the problem is the satire has been overtaken by reality. Ianucci said the same about The Thick of It (my fave of them all.)
 
stuneville said:
Andy Hamilton was talking about it on t'wireless late last year - as has been said about many programmes, the problem is the satire has been overtaken by reality. Ianucci said the same about The Thick of It (my fave of them all.)
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I hadn't thought of it in that way, that the parody would be too close to the reality it mocks. Huh. Perhaps all of politics is the ultimate reality TV show, to keep us all from thinking.
 
GNC said:
The mouse has been fine for a couple of weeks now, but I still get the message "Application has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware" that sometimes crashes the PC. Otherwise it keeps pausing my browsing of the site until that message comes up.
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Sounds like there's a problem with your graphics card.
 
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