Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[gill216]

Does this help? I found it on yahoo ask:

What is the music used in the bbc 4 advert for A History of the World in Three Colours called?
The show has not been broadcast yet but it has a classical piano piece playing as the soundtrack to the advert
4 weeks ago Report Abuse

Bastable
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

It's Gnossiennes No.1 by Erik Satie
4 weeks ago

[MBH]

I haven't heard the advert so obviously went for a Youtube search on that. Interesting - but I did spot a title I knew but couldn't mentally link to a 'sound' - so I'm now enjoying Gymnopédies playing in the background Cheers Sis for asking the question.

[Bunnylump]

Yes!! That's the one. Thanks, Gill. I think it's a beautiful, haunting melody. I'm almost tempted to see if I can get the music for it on line and try to learn it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyFhsG8Ip4E

And yes, MBH, I love Gymnopédies as well. I hadn't realised this was also by Satie.

Just told my son (who had also liked it). He was impressed. I told him - yes, Puzzlebrains is not only a site of puzzles and chatting, it's a mine of information, filled with people who are stuffed full of useless information and brilliant research skills. I'm trying to think of a question that's been asked on here that HASN'T been answered, at least in part.

[LAT]

As some of you know, my daughter is about to go to China for a year to teach English there.
Skype seems an idea to keep in touch with her but I've never used it and don't know much about it.
What do we each need? And what should we be doing to get it sorted?

[MBH]

A couple of years ago I helped a friend with this. Blind-with-a-white-stick leading the blind a bit

She had bought a combination headphones/microphone kit with SKYPE software included and she already had web-cam on the computer. [Cam is technically optional if you don't want video-calls].

The software consisted (to the outside user) of a contact managing screen for her SKYPE contact names. I thought of it as the 'telephone number' list on my phone. She create her SKYPE name through the same software and then she was able to 'call up' her Sister

After that I just thought of it as a telephone cal but using the computer. You 'call' your selection from the contacts list, and if they are there at their computer they can 'answer'.

I think that when you are available to take SKYPE calls you switch the software on and then minimize it. If a call comes in it pops up and tells you. Just like a phone call you can take it or ignore it.

Hope this helps. I 'installed' everything simply by going through the instructions and it worked like a charm.

[supersleuth]

LAT Will pm you re Skype.

[SparkOut]

Pretty much it relies on a decent internet connection to carry the voice data. If this is available in the place your daughter will be in China (it should be) then it should work OK.

There are stories about the Chinese authorities having made Skype illegal, but I think that they have rather directed people in China who want to use Skype to get it from TOMonline, the approved Skype partner in China. What I believe they are trying to do is to monitor use and (in the case of using Skype as a text message service) monitor content. If you exchange private messages via Skype they may not necessarily be "private" - there are reports of Skype messages being cached by the Chinese and searched for politically sensitive words.

Having said that, many millions of Chinese and international visitors use Skype within China with no ill effects at all.

[LAT]

Thanks all! Especially to a very helpful cauliflower who explained everything I need in words I understood!

She has been told that she will be able to use Skype there (she will be in Shanghai - not exactly a backwater!) but I had indeed wondered if it would be blocked. I'm not sure if she will have access to the internet in her appartment or only at the school where she will be working. I shall just have to remember not to pass on any state secrets to her while using Skype to communicate! But that has actually reminded me to get any private details from her before she leaves so she won't need to tell us via either email or Skype.

[giraffe]

I have been asked if I know anyone who is good at writing smartphone quizzes. (I have asked for clarification as to what they mean, as I don't know how a smartphone quiz differs from any other quiz. In fact I'm not all that sure I know what a smartphone is, my phone is as thick as two short planks! )

[Scurra]

I imagine they mean a quiz where Smartphones are used to register answers, rather than checking handwritten answer sheets. Which is better in some ways and worse in others.
The answer to your question is no though.

[SparkOut]

ahem...

er...

can I have some more info please?

[giraffe]

She's in Japan, so it might be a while before she wakes up, but I'll see if she gives more info. (Not sure which way the time difference works, but she is usually online in the early hours)

[giraffe]

Reply to request for more detail:

Ooh! Sorry I was marking papers and didn't see...what I want to do is make bilingual vocabulary quizzes for use on smartphones. I'm looking at a Japanese thing called QuizGenerator, but want to try one or two others.

It would be nice to be able to vary the format, but not essential.

I also like to put in occasional "bombs", so instead of getting "Wrong Answer" you get something like "WHAT kind of answer was THAT!" "Shallow grave at dawn for you" (well not really) etc.

They need to be quick to make as ideally a new one would be available to download every week, on the vocabulary they did in class.

One reason why we need such a thing is because the textbook is English-only, but students don't know enough to even tell whether they have picked the right meaning for a word out of their dictionaries, hence the need for some bilingual back-up!

A colleague and I are on a major vocabulary drive, trying to get our university to standardize a basic "need to know" pool, so this year and next we will be hard at work testing and creating materials.


The reason I ask, even though there are various quiz-making apps out there, is that I wonder whether some of them might run very slowly or cause phones to freeze.

Quizzes are a great way to test vocabulary, because the feedback is so fast. And ironically, the spread of smartphones means that fewer and fewer students have computers.

Some quizmakers allow you to have students collect up all their wrong answers and work on them, but one day (when I'm 80 or so and have nothing else to do) I'd like to make quizzes in layers, so that a wrong answer takes you to a subset of easier tasks designed to reinforce weak areas, and then returns you to the quiz.

Is that any clearer?

[giraffe]

Does anyone know how you set parental controls on a pay as you go mobile phone?

Lally seems to have manged to give her number out to someone / something and it has taken a large chunk of her credit and was threatening to do it every 3 days. I have contacted them and managed to get a refund (I hope), but I just hope she hasn't given it out randomly. Their reply said that I should have set parental controls to stop her from subscribing to premium rate numbers. I didn't know that was possible, and I think she was naive rather than deliberately stupid.

[clvrlad]

try here
http://phone-shop.tesco.com/parental-control.aspx

it basically depends on which type of phone/ which network its on

[giraffe]

Thank you. Unfortunately for Orange it says it can be activated for pay monthly contracts, but says nothing about PAYG.

[clvrlad]

http://www1.orange.co.uk/safety/mobile/152/155.html

http://www1.orange.co.uk/safety/images/ ... arents.pdf

have a read

[giraffe]

Thanks. As far as i can see they allow you to block internet access, but not to prevent subscription to premium rate services. She doesn't use it for going online. I'll go into the orange shop when I'm in town next, but they are a bit useless in there.

[gill216]

I'm going back a few years now but OH used to have a pay as you go mobile (orange). Every time he topped it up his credit disappeared at any alarming rate. Something like £5 per day and there was no stopping it. We went down every line possible and the eventuality was to throw the sim card in the bin and get a new number.

Hhe used to get get messages from someone he'd never contacted or subscribed to and each time his money would disappear. He was told there was nothing he could do about it unless the other side agreed to stop. Of course, they didn't.

[giraffe]

I have received an amazon voucher from them for £10 to replace the £10 they took. Lally has admitted now that she applied for whatever this thing was. She didn't realise it cost money because they had quoted the cost as ten GBP and she didn't know that means pounds! She has had a talking to and I think gave herself a bit of a fright that it was so easy to get into hot water. Hopefully lesson learned.