The whinge thread

[giraffe]

My little computer man (who resuscitates it when it dies) told me to use AVG. I've had no problems with it either. Some Mcafee thing keeps popping up on my computer recently, not sure how to get rid of it, I didn't put it on on purpose, I think it arrived with adobe when I clicked the update thingy on that because I couldn't get it to work.

[SparkOut]

Well, I have to confess that I don't use any anti-virus software at all here. At least not "permanently running" ones. I run a scan every so often, but given how much security is built into things nowadays, and as long as you actually do the security updates on your Operating System and Browser when they tell you to, it's very hard to catch anything by accident.

Now deliberately chosing to download and install a piece of software you know nothing about from a source you have never heard of... well, that's a whole different story.

That works well for you, as someone who knows exactly what's going on with the computer when you're making it do its stuff. I would strongly advise anyone else not to do the same, unless they are at least as technically savvy. Personally I user Avast! anti-virus software, which is free and effective. AVG is another free option, which is equally good and sound.

I really would rather nothing on the computer at all than McAfee, it's that bad (as in a pain, as well as being very weak at protection). Norton is "good to a point" but very resource hungry and prone to problems. Panda I have only one (very nasty) experience of years ago. I used to like Kaspersky as my preferred paid option, but it turned into a computer hog and became a much more "commercial" experience than a "service" (their focus seemed to change from protecting the computer to getting me to pay more). Trend I've not used, nor the Microsoft Security Essentials offering you can get nowadays, although interestingly I read that it is quite unobtrusively and efficiently effective).

My advice as of the moment : no need to pay, Avast! or AVG are effective and free.

[eirian]

I used McAfee, and now, because I get it free with my BT broadband, I'll be continuing to use it.

we have kaspersky at work and it drives me nuts. (although that's probably more to do with the IT settings for it (scanning our pcs 3 times a day) and lack of decent memory on the computers (so the whole thing freezes every time it runs a scan)).

[Biscuit]

have just subscribed to kasperski (or something like that) oh uses it at work and it was cheap on the student software site and as i am still a student - might as well take advantage.

[giraffe]

AAAAAAGGGGHH!

Blasted buses.

I thought we were supposed to be encouraged to use public transport.

We used to have a bus service that ran from within a mile of home to right outside the girls' school, and about a mile from F's . Last May they changed the timetable, so that it only comes to about 3 miles from home, which is fine in the mornings, but a total pain in the evenings as they can't walk home. (Country lane with no pavement for most of the way)

Then last week they changed the service again so that it runs once an hour, instead of twice an hour, so F can't get a bus until 5 o'clock and isn't getting home until nearly 6pm. Then this morning they got on the bus and were told that the fare had gone up from £1.40 to £1.95 each. So it's going to cost nearly £12 a day for them to get to school and back. And what sort of a stupid fare is £1.95, why not £2. It's a whole lot easier to have the exact money.

Just AAAAAAGGGGHH! (Sorry, had to get that off my chest.)

[Biscuit]

we had the same problem getting my son to school - they have a train but they do not run a service at a sensible time for him in the morning so we have a 40 minute journey that we have to take him and then to get home they were forever cancelling trains to our local station meaning he gets stuck at stevenage station for ages (not the sort of place you feel safe hanging around believe me) and to cap it all we had to buy a season ticket which cost £600 with discount which was still cheaper than dailies but we had to pay for the journey both ways. really puts you off the trains.

[giraffe]

They started messing around with the buses just after Lally got into the school, so I still have six and a half years of this to look forward to. The buses sometimes drive past without stopping to pick them up, meaning they have an hour's wait for the next bus. I pick them up by car several times a week, when they have something after school that they have to get to on time, or several large musical insruments and a cricket bag the size of a small whale. Even with diesel the price it is it's almost cheaper to take them. I take a friend's daughter when I take mine, so that's £8 saved towards diesel.

[giraffe]

Following on from last week's whinge about the bus fare being put up from £1.40 to £1.95 without warning it turns out it was a computer error and it hasn't gone up at all! So having been to the bank and stocked up on £2 coins I now need £1 and 20p s I just wish they would stop messing around and get their act in gear. In the past they have sent the wrong number bus along, and when I complained they wrote to me and said they had given the drivers a different timetable to the customers.

[Bunnylump]

Oh for goodness sake!! P up and brewery comes to mind!

[giraffe]

The woman in the bank thought I'd gone mad when I withdrew £80 in £2 coins. I think she was new, they normally don't bat an eyelid anymore when I ask for that much in £1 and 20 ps. She'll think I'm barking if I go and change it into smaller coins.

[chazzie]

Do Giraffes bark

[giraffe]

Only when they completely lose the plot.

[Bunnylump]

Yep, they're right noisy lot, those giraffes. I seem to remember we've had this conversation before...http://www.puzzlebrains.co.uk/forum/vie ... stle#p7877

However, the ones you REALLY need to watch out for are the penguins...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY9FRdl7dq0

[gill216]

What I want to know is did you get a refund for the overspend? Or have you not got that far yet?

[giraffe]

I don't know. My three managed to blag their way on for the old fare the first day, by saying that was all they had, but another child used her lunch money to make up the difference. Bus driver reckoned they should all know the fare was going up, and even phoned his boss to see if he could let mine on at the old rate. Friday he didn't have the 15p change from £6 for them and told them to ask for it as they got off, but he still didn't have it then, so there was excess on the excess! I know bus drivers aren't necessarily the most intelligent of people and I don't blame them (except for the times they have driven past the bus stop without stopping, in one case when the passengers were knocking on the door to get on after he had let people off) but the management should have a bit more responsibility. Using the wrong timetable and charging the wrong fare are fairly big problems when you rely on them to get you children to school and back safely and not leave them stranded nearly 20 miles from home in the dark.

[gill216]

In Leeds we have several underpass/overpass structure problems which are quite major and are being rectified all at once. Hence there are major road closures/diversions around the city. One of the office blocks I go to regularly also happens to have the canteen for First West bus drivers in it. I asked one of them where my bus was now stopping and he confessed he was a driver of that bus and that that day was his first day on the diverted route and he hadn't a clue. He also lived in Bradford as opposed to Leeds so was only familiar with the old route and didnt know where the new roads he had to travel down were. He said he felt like he needed a training course and was going to have to rely on passengers to tell him if he was going wrong. Which helped me not a jot. I got a different bus that goes a completely different route and haven't attempted the other route since!

[giraffe]

The children's bus doesn't always follow the same route. It depends who is driving!

[giraffe]

Bloody buses again! Today F was charged £2.25. Phoned bus company and they agreed it should be £1.95 (which it went back up to a week after it last went down)

They offered me "a voucher", so I whinged a bit more about how incompetent they are and they said they would send me "some vouchers". And have said they will reprogram the driver (or his ticket machine!)

It just makes me so cross because they have a long journey and could be stranded with no way of getting there.

[Bunnylump]

Surely they wouldn't leave a kid behind if they didn't have the right money? Having said that I almost got stranded at Harpenden with a whole group of school kids because the driver said he was running late and would have to leave us there!!

[giraffe]

I had my bus pass stolen when I was at school, not the plastic wallet that it was kept in, just the ticket, and I kept my lunch vouchers behind it. I got home from school without any trouble (2 buses and a train) and got the bus and train the following morning into Birmingham, and when I showed my pass on the second bus the driver saw my lunch voucher and thought I was trying to cheat and nearly threw me off the bus. It was only when I burst into tears and my big sister came and assured him that I was not a cheat that he let me get on the bus and said he'd be sacked if an inspector caught me.

One of the girls in my class was later suspended for stealing some money from the cloakroom.

The drivers have deliberately driven past them at the stops in both directions before now, so I wouldn't put it past them to leave the kids stranded.

(I seem to post rather a lot on this thread, so perhaps I'd better shut up!)