AMLinington

So THAT'S why the guy in the lift was wearing a SLAYER hoodie and playing the music so loud I could hear it as though he wasn't even wearing headphones....

I find that my usual results are somewhere slightly south of 'I deserve a Nobel Prize' but north of 'It sort of works now'. I follow the YouTube vids, rejoice when a thing goes the way it should, realise I've either skipped a step or done it in the wrong order, then the end result is usually an improvement on what I started with, but subtly broken in a way that doesn't justify starting again, but will annoy me every time I see/use the thing until I get so fed up of ignoring it that I replace the thing entirely. Example: Broken iPad Screen. I came into possession of a broken iPad. It had been dropped on a corner by a careless person and the screen shattered. Instead of sending for repair, said careless person said 'it's broken' and removed it from the iTunes account and dumped it in a drawer. Some time passed, things changed, and I came into possession of the drawer containing said broken iPad. So LeHusband and I bought a new screen on t'internets and set about 'fixing' it with a hair dryer and a scraper. Let me tell you, I am still finding tiny shards of glass all over the place. Removing a shattered screen from an iPad is deeply, deeply tedious. And Sore. My fingers were very sore by the end. Having removed as much of the glue as possible, we followed the video and successfully replaced the screen - YAY!. BUT. Because it was shattered on a corner, the aluminium case is slightly dented, so the new screen cover doesn't quite sit perfectly. So the glue in that corner doesn't adhere very well to the case and the corner of the screen cover pops up ALL. THE. TIME. It's not worth replacing it, but it's annoying enough that using said iPad irritates me beyond belief.

When I was at school and the internet was still barely even a thing, we had ONE internet-capable machine on a 56.6k connection and you had to queue for WEEKS to get a lunch hour on it. But we had a whole room full of Acorn computers that we were allowed to play games on during lunch on the understanding that no games were permitted during lessons. I don't think games should be totally banned, but it is better to 'control the narrative' so to speak by ensuring that students are only playing games during appropriate times.

You'll probably find that the issue is because the games are hosted on multiple 'sub servers' like 'client5.google.com' or whatever. So short of redirecting Google to another search engine, your answer is going to be to run a packet a dump in wireshark and take a look at the handshake URLs. Of course this is what we might have done back in the old days of Smoothwall Support, I suspect you're a bit more on your own now, so you might need to enable inspection and media content blocking for the whole google or web search category.... I doubt it's insurmountable, but it's probably going to be a PITA.

You know you work in a rough school when you have to call security to escort a pupil to in-school exclusion... - - - Updated - - - You know you work in a University when the internet is unfiltered.... XD

Disappointing. Nothing quite like the taste of chip-shop-chips eaten with one of those little wooden forks!!! It's an institution! I don't mind plastic cutlery if I knew 100% whether it can be recycled via the recycle bin or not. It also really annoys me that our local recycling scheme refuses to take plastic meat trays - even if we washed them! I understand why, but it's a huge amount of plastic that could easily be recycled. Still, one step at a time and all that.

It is depressing, but no less depressing than all the 'signpost' corpses on the side of Mount Everest. They aren't going anywhere either. There are countless discarded Oxygen cylinders and plastic-related debris up there too. :-( On the subject of plastic utensils, I was deeply annoyed by my Mother-in-Law at the weekend. We had a small family party for LeHusband's 40th birthday and she bought paper AND plastic disposable plates and plastic cutlery. When I suggested that we put all the plastic and cardboard into the recycle bin she said 'Oh I can't be bothered with that' and dumped it all into a black bag. I said 'aren't you going to wash and reuse the plastic spoons?'. The answer was a resounding no. So then I said 'we could put them in the recycle bin - it's better for the environment' and her response was something along the lines of 'I don't care about all that'. I despair. But I can't do much about it because I can't criticise my MIL in her own house in front of her own family. I can only make better environmentally conscious choices in my own life. Speaking of which - SUCCESS on the 'Passata in a glass bottle front'. Something of what I said obviously make it into LeHusband's brain - he brought home Passata in a glass bottle when he last stopped by the supermarket on his way home. I have also reached the conclusion that it is foolhardy to invest in any kind of vehicle from here on out that relies exclusively on fossil fuels. It's a finite resource. Over the next 10-20 years, I think the sensible choice is to invest in a Hybrid vehicle until battery technology in electric cars improves. Ideally, I'd like there to be a hybrid vehicle that runs on that 'recycled cooking oil' technology and Electric. Cooking oil is much more sustainable (although on a massive scale, the demand would far outstrip the supply so the electric side of things would need to take centre stage). Our next car purchase in the next 2-5 years is going to be a hybrid. I'm currently eyeing up the Ioniq. It's purdy.

Oh this is an age-old question. I think we did it for the first couple of years - it wasn't all that frequent. It wasn't until bailiffs started knocking at the door and threatening me that I starting paying attention to the stuff we were getting for the old occupants - SO MANY DEBT COLLECTION AGENCIES! SO. MANY. A couple of years ago we went through a spate of issues with debt collection agencies - they all seemed to happen at once. I contacted the banks that had started to process and filled in ENDLESS forms - still no joy. In the end I made a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman and they dried up pretty soon after that. Now anything that comes in for the old owners gets shredded. That being said, we recently received a chunky letter from a bank containing a booklet, so we opened it to extract the booklet so we could shred it. In doing so, we noticed the subject of the letter and discovered that one of the old occupants of our house has attempted to take out a loan secured on OUR HOUSE. I say 'attempted', but in truth they succeeded - they took out a 'homeowners loan' secured on our property!!! Understandably LeHusband and I freaked out and contacted the bank's fraud team. As far as I'm aware, they've dealt with it, but I'm terrified that in another couple of years we're going to be fighting the banks when they try to repossess our house. So to answer your question, If it's not too frequent, the first couple of years seems reasonable - that covers all the stuff that maybe comes in every 6-12 months. After that, shred it. But just check you're not getting property seizure notices or court summons - those are a PITA to deal with when the authorities come knocking on your door threatening you with prison and threatening to seize your car or forcibly evict you.

Physically, my work is not demanding. I don't work particularly long hours either. But an hour and half commute each way in solid stop-start-traffic drains me. When I get home I just want to crawl into bed and pull the duvet over my head. Instead I have to deal with my neighbours and pretend to be functional when LeHusband gets home.

Of that 50%, how many refer to 'Lady Time' as something pejorative that rhymes with 'Snow Blob Week'? I was just illustrating the scale of @nicholab's observation about the excessive amount of plastic in 'Lady Time' products. I have to admit that I don't know why the individually wrapped pads can't be packaged in a easily recyclable cardboard box - instead they are wrapped in plastic. I assume it has something to do with shipping - the plastic-wrapped packs are all squishy so you can cram more in a box, ergo cheaper shipping. I'd be interested to see the analysis comparing the ecological cost of 'Less packaging, easier shipping, more plastic waste' versus 'less plastic waste, more difficult shipping, recyclable packaging'. I wonder if the current solution has a lower carbon footprint once you take into consideration the cost of producing and processing cardboard vs plastic wrap, then the difference in carbon cost of shipping - smaller packets mean lower shipping 'footprint'. It's possible that from a long-term ecological perspective, the current solution might be less harmful - but I don't know enough to be able to assess that. It's such a jaunty blue shade! Cartwheels and bicycle rides are mandatory. If you buy the RIGHT brand you'll go from slobbing on the sofa with a straw stuck in a box of wine like a Capri Sun and an industrial-sized bar of Dairy Milk laced with opiates (or is that just me?) to a fun, free-spirited yoga expert wearing skin tight spandex, smiling blindingly with the sun reflecting off your perfectly clear skin. Well now I'm intrigued.... Actually... On second thought.... Although moving the topic on, we make the assumption that current plastic-heavy solutions are 'the worst' for the environment - and there are absolutely certainly ultra-low impact options, but I have to question whether on a larger scale, some of the solutions might not be WORSE. Factors to consider: Transport costs and the carbon footprint and effect of logistics - is it better for the environment to transport produce a small distance, package it, then transport those packets in-bulk (Mushrooms or Apple for example), or is it better to have a greater quantity of smaller lorries carrying less produce (such as loose-packed Apples for example). I don't know the answer to that question, but it's worth considering. What about plastics - what proportion of packaging plastic comes from recycled sources? How does the 'cost' of this ecologically speaking compare to deforestation or large-scale tree planting for paper and cardboard production. Is recycling plastic less harmful than recycling paper and card? Is Waste a factor? Does the use of plastics reduce waste? Does using plastic mean greater quantities of viable product reach the consumer, resulting in lower overall manufacture 'costs'? Food especially is something this is likely to apply to. As a nation, I think we've taken well to the 5p bag 'tax' - we all now have stashes of reusable bags, jute bags, and bags made of other materials, but what happens to them when they inevitably wear out? Are we able to put them in for recycling, or are they, too non-recyclable? Many Jute bags are lined with plastic anyway. I like the idea of making better choices to lessen my own impact on the environment, but real change can never happen until it becomes a priority all the way up the chain. Supermarket packaging and stock choices affect the choices we are able to make (for example). I had this conversation with LeHusband last night over the Tetra-paks of Passata: Me: We're out of Passata. When we go shopping next we really ought to look for Passata in tins or glass bottles. It's better for the environment. We can't recycle these tetra-paks. LeHusband: I'm not being funny, love, but we buy those because they are cheaper. We can't afford the fancy &$%£ in glass bottles. Me: We already buy tinned tomatoes - the tins are recyclable, if we buy a big glass jar of passata we can split it and freeze it. LeHusband: If we did that with everything we'd never have enough freezer space! Which for me raises a couple of issues that this thread has made me think about a lot: 1) The choices we make on an individual scale are governed 50% by what we can afford and 50% by the place we are buying them from. If there was a whole aisle of Passata and all containers cost exactly the same per 100ml, we would be able to make our choices based on other factors - like how recyclable the packaging is, or how eco-friendly the manufacturer is. 2) We don't have a glass collection where I live. All our glass bottles go outside into a plastic bin with holes drilled in it until we have enough to justify the 30 minutes it will take to queue to get into the tip and go to the bottle bank. This does not exactly encourage me to make better packaging choices. Which takes me back to what I said about changes having to be systemic - local governments have to support these changes with schemes like glass collections etc, which in turn make better choices more sustainable long-term. 3) Local recycling schemes vary MASSIVELY in terms of what they will and won't take. The rules are so complicated that half the time people just ignore them and think 'it's plastic, it's recyclable' then the whole load ends up in landfill because the waste isn't being sorted. 3a) WHY are recycling rules so complicated? 4) How can you separate the recyclable components of a thing from the non-recyclable components when they are fused together?

I will admit, that is pretty adorable, but I guess the adorability quotient is inversely proportional to the size of said Snake? Kinda like Cats - the bigger the cat the less 'adorable' and the more 'IT'S GONNA EAT ME' the yawn becomes. Kittens? *SQUEE*, Adult house cats? *Aww*, Lynx? *Um... cute?*, Mountain Lion? *Er....*, Tiger? *RUUUUNNNNNNN* Rabbits on the other hand do this adorable nose-lip-twitch after a yawn, and a Rabbit yawn is cute regardless of the size of the bun. Although rabbit kits yawning are so cute your brain will melt!

I literally cannot praise my cup enough. I mentioned it to my sister and the look she gave me was like I had suggested she drink a glass of toilet water. When I was researching pad and tampon-free options (sorry if this is a squicky subject for some, but I feel that it's not something that we as a society should be afraid to discuss openly) there was so little information about what 'certain things' actually LOOKED like that I really do feel that the biggest hurdle to promoting cups (which are a MUCH safer alternative to Tampons!) is one of education - education about your own body and it's basic, necessary functions. Not gonna lie - the first few times I used my cup were a steep learning curve and I learned a LOT about myself, but I quickly came to the realisation that instead of being faced with something scary and weird, it was like opening the door to a room I'd only seen through the keyhole. Cups ARE great, but realistically, they simply CANNOT be a one-stop-shop - they are not really suitable for younger women - especially ones with less 'ahem' experience (if you catch my drift), and nor are they ideal for the entirety of Lady Time - I still find myself needing 'old school' products from time to time, but if you do a bit of simple maths the point becomes abundantly clear: Assume a 5 day 'bleed' with 2 extra days of 'uncertainty' (Lady Time isn't a case of turning a tap on or off - it's a process, and that process doesn't always stop... cleanly). Assume for the first 5 days you wear, say, 3 pads per day on average? Depending on individual circumstances, you might use more than that at some points and less at others. So an average of 3 over a working say is a new pad every couple of hours or so (and lets be realistic, with the cost of these things, we can't afford to throw one away unless we really need to). So 3 per day is 15 'day time' pads. Plus 5 'overnight' (which are typically twice the size) So that's 20 pads of cotton and plastic and whatever else they are made of. (I'm excluding tampons from this calculation because for the purposes of generalisation a tampon/pad can be considered interchangeable) Then you have your extra 2 days where you might wear a thin liner (basically a sticky-backed bit of absorbent paper) - you'll probably wear what, 2 of these per day? Maybe one 'daytime' pad over night just to be safe? So we're at 21 pads and 4-5 liners. A packet of Bodyform pads is usually £1 in Asda (£2 for night time ones - so it's best to buy in bulk when they're on offer). Depending on brand and type, you get 10-14 pads per pack. Let's split the difference and call it 12. So to cover one cycle, you will need to buy at LEAST 3 packets of pads - at least 2 packs of daytime and one pack of night. One pack of night lasts 2 cycles, so let's call these £1's worth per cycle. So you spend about £3-£4 PER CYCLE on disposable items - and that's taking into account the 'overlap' of packets between cycles and the cost of the liners. 365 days in a year, divided by 28 (average cycle) is ~13 lady times per year. So you spend at LEAST £52 a year on 'lady stuff'. A cup is about £20 but it lasts indefinitely. They suggest changing it every couple of years, but let's say you use one for 4 years before replacing it (and they can last a LOT longer too, it just depends on how you look after it), so the cup itself is £5 a year, or about 38p per lady time. Then if you use, say, half a pack of pads per lady time @£1 a pack (generous estimate tbh - I use way less than that), then the cost of lady time for a cup wearer is less than £1 - 38p + 50p. Cups can be worn to sleep in and to swim in, so there are no limitations to using them from a practical perspective and that is 273 less plastic sanitary items going into the environment per year per lady. I am very interested in making my own 'reusable' items for those fringe moments where the cup is just overkill, but I would be MORE interested in an eco-friendly biodegradable option in mainstream supermarkets - I hear they are doing a lot with bamboo fibres these days - a biodegradable bamboo fibre pad would be interesting, but the biggest problem is getting hold of them - ordering them online can be really expensive. I'd like to see them in mainstream supermarkets - I'd like to see a selection of cups in supermarkets and pharmacies too - I had a look in Boots a while ago and I saw them stocked in maybe 1 of the really HUGE stores but in the smaller or more local stores they are nowhere to be seen.

Oh yeah 'The Look™' When my cat is sitting on the stairs, the hall rug or the lounge windowsill waiting for me when I get home. When my nephew gives me a big two-dimple smile when he sees me. When my cat meows incessantly at me until I sit down and let him jump up into my lap for 'Sits-n-snuggles'. When my cat brings me a dead present. Less so when he brings me an alive present. Basically any event involving my Cat. When Rockster (one of my Rabbits) licks me. When Rockster yawns - bunny yawns are the cutest. When I make an adjustment to a sewing pattern and it fits beautifully.

Exactly - the problem here is that we simply don't have the resource to dedicate to installing and updating everything for every user that needs it. It's worth mentioning that 9 times out of 10, the Service Desk can remote on and install it for them, so they don't actually NEED admin rights, so in probably 80-90% of requests, they are closed as 'not required', but there are legitimate situations where admin rights are needed but we have a policy the users must agree to over and above the acceptable use policy, and if a user installs something that breaches this, it's a matter of misconduct. My work is less about 'making this happen' than about 'processing the tickets more efficiently' - I am not involved with the 'front end' - I'm a 'Service Improvement Analyst' - my job is about making our department handle incidents and requests better. So the work I did was to create a form for users to complete online to request admin rights that basically demands all the correct information (because we all know how poor users are at supplying information first time) and has an automatic workflow that sends an approval request to line managers saving our Service Desk a bunch of time in poking the user for the right information.

Don't forget, I work in Higher Education - for a University in fact, so the policies are considerably more relaxed. Plenty of staff here need admin rights on their work machines for a variety of legitimate reasons - we see it commonly among academic staff and PhD research students - especially in fields involving high level IT work - Computer Science and programming, many MANY physics reasons, pretty much anything electronic or aeronautical and anything with massive amounts of computer analysis involving complex and bespoke software programs. Then you have us in the Professional Services IT department - developers and network admins especially. In most cases, we only grant temporary rights to allow the users to install the software they need, but for stuff that is not in the (already VAST) cache of network-installable software or stuff that needs admin-level permissions to run (usually anything the computer science guys need) we grant admin rights. But the user has to provide a legitimate business case and get approval from their Line Manager - it's not like Salt-bae - ALL THE ADMIN RIGHTS - we have a pretty rigorous process in place and local admin rights doesn't grant users any access to anything sensitive. Ha ha, no, unfortunately not....

Without going into too much detail, part of my job is implementing solutions that save time and improve the end-to-end customer experience. I have just put in a project to improve the process when users want to request local admin rights to their machines. I've been asked to post an internal blog article about it and I'm looking for a funny caption for the Dr Evil Quote meme. Something vaguely innuendo-ridden that hints about how most users want admin rights so they can install P2P software or other dubious software clients they don't want us to know about. My brain is failing me today and all I can come up with is this lame attempt: So my question to you all is: What are the most ludicrous, blatantly fake or funniest reasons you've seen/heard from users asking for admin rights?

I suspect it may have something to do with a) the glue used to hold the tubes together and b) the fact that cardboard tubes are a better breeding ground for bacteria than a plastic tube. Although Tampons are already pretty sketchy as it is - Toxic Shock Syndrome seems like a crazy risk to take when a Silicone cup is so much less dangerous and uncomfortable. It kinda bugs me that people just assume #allwomen use tampons - a good chunk of us HATE them and refuse to wear them - they are drying, the string is annoying and rubs, they leak like mad. Buying a Mooncup was the best thing I ever did. It's revolutionised my lady time experience.

I love this idea, although my Nan always used to get stuff wrapped in butcher-paper - I don't know why this isn't still a thing. I find this frustrating too. It's not just the quantity thing either - fresh Jazz apples in Asda aren't all that fresh, go off quickly and are usually all bruised. A pre-packed bag of 6 are crispy, juicy and fresh. I'd rather buy the ones that are going to last longer and taste nicer than the loose ones that are all damaged and gross-tasting. Ditto Mushrooms. :-7 At some point they replaced the cardboard tubes for Tampons with Plastic (not all of them, but a good chunk). You can't flush them any more and they don't biodegrade. BUT, that being said, 'Women's products' is a dangerous category to start criticising - especially as a man. If you had to spend a week with your 'intimate parts' wrapped in absorbent material wouldn't you want it as sanitary as possible? Whilst there are plenty of eco-friendly solutions and reusable pads etc, few of them are comfortable or reliable. Menstruation is one area where I refuse to let a MAN shame my choices. Of course I actually choose to use a Mooncup (reusable Silicone cup worn inside) - they are ridiculously comfortable and eco friendly to boot, but that was a comfort and lifestyle choice, the eco-benefits were secondary. Women's menstrual products are already subject to excessive taxation or price hikes in certain parts of the world and are deemed 'luxury items' for what is an essential bodily function. How about you men stop shaving entirely and go full-beard? Shaving is a luxury is it not? It's not essential to your survival to shave is it? Those tins of shaving foam in landfill? Bottles of Shave oil? Plastic razors or the metal blades? All that could be removed entirely if men simply didn't shave. Unfortunately women can't just 'stop bleeding' and I can't say I'd be terribly keen on putting something near a bleeding bodily oriface that wasn't at least a little bit sanitary and protected by some kind of wrapper. In our house we take a large bin upstairs and separate the recyclables before we empty the bins - it's usually the bathroom and toilet that generate the most - cardboard toilet roll tubes, shampoo bottles, etc. We use hankies where we can so most of our 'bedroom waste' is stuff like cotton wool pads I've used to remove my makeup, which aren't recyclable, or the annoying plastic packaging that is on almost everything that can't be recycled.

We generate so much recyclables that we actually have 2 Green Recycle bins at home - I asked the council for a bigger one and they just gave me a second one XD

This is a great thread! I am by no means brilliant at getting rid of plastic, but we buy a lot of stuff on Amazon which comes in wildly oversized but recyclable cardboard boxes. We let the cat play in them for a while then cut them up and recycle. I refuse to pay 5p for a carrier bag - if we've forgotten a reusable bag we buy a new one - they are usually around the 50p mark and I call it my 'stupidity tax' and LeHusband and I keep a pile of folded bags in the boot of each of our cars so we always have some handy. I have a Starbucks Travel Mug I bought a couple of years ago and this thing is AMAZING - stuff stays hot for HOURS! I drink my first cup of the day while commuting to work, then make another at around 8.30. It's still hot at well gone 11. I've accidentally left it at home before now and got home 10 hours later to find the contents still hot. I'd recommend Starbucks travel mugs! The only thing that kinda bugs me is how travel mugs and reusable coffee cups are really bulky and not collapsible. Although I did come across this the other day: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0794W7PNS/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_9905632998?_encoding=UTF8&creative=22146&creativeASIN=B0794W7PNS&hvadid=231890503428&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045792&hvnetw=g&hvpone=&hvpos=1o2&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvrand=2075688990237274240&hvtargid=pla-421173097409&ie=UTF8&linkCode=df0&tag=googshopuk-21 I always have a foldaway bag in my handbag too. I don't understand how places like Primark and Monsoon use paper bags that are recyclable, yet places like M&S won't! Something else I'm trying to do is to use fabric handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues - apparently in Japan it's really unusual to find paper napkins as they are so wasteful and generate so much trash, so there are beautiful handkerchief shops all over the place. I'm trying to do something similar. I try to upcycle too - I recently converted a beautiful Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle into a washing up liquid dispenser by reusing the pump from a plastic soap bottle and recycling the leftover bottle. It looks amazing. I noticed recently that the Johnson & Johnson brand of ear bud now have rolled paper tubes instead of plastic. We try to reduce the amount of plastic refuse sacks we use by putting compostible food waste in our compost bin and putting bunny poops and bedding in the compost as well (we get GREAT compost from bunny poops!) but there is a limit to how much we can put in there lol. I also buy big 1L bottles of shampoo and put a reusable pump head on it to reduce the number of plastic toiletry bottles we have in the house. IKEA sell reusable silicone 'Calippo' ice lolly molds - these are great for making your own ice lollies - Apple Juice works brilliantly in them!

Is it sad that my main reason for wanting to download these is to find a less annoying message alert tone? LOL

I'm South-Central based - not far from @GrumbleDook actually, but I have no idea of my summer availability at present because I'm waiting for a date for surgery. Waiting list suggests I'm looking June/July for the surgery then 3+ weeks of recovery. Edited to add: Although the mutated giant ants sound like fun - we could hold an 'Ant Rodeo'... Just sayin'

No! Somehow I managed to miss this entirely!!!!

Buying direct from Dell is pretty reliable and I have never personally had issues with Ebuyer - I buy most of my kit from them. I disagree with the SCAN returns policy. https://www.ebuyer.com/ I assume you thought I meant Ebay? Because I definitely did not - Ebuyer have been around for years.

I've purchased laptops directly from Dell before - it still performs well as a basic internet and desktop publishing machine. It struggles with anything more strenuous than Minecraft. My mother in law bought a Lenovo and it's like wading through molasses... There are some pre-built machines on E-Buyer that are worth a look too. Depends a lot on what you want I guess.