Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[Scurra]

It sounds like a combination problem rather than a specific browser issue to me - some permutation of background applications plus particular sites is interacting badly. These are, of course, the hardest to pin down because they are not only generally unique to a particular setup, but they only occur in certain circumstances and then mysteriously disappear (as you suggest happens here.)

You could try Google Chrome if you want an alternative browser, but I tend to think that you may well run into exactly the same problems there as well, albeit probably not immediately.

[eirian]

Thanks. Good to know it probably wasn't the browser. I've just run a C.Cleaner and was surprised at how much java junk it deleted. For some reason it's all running much faster now!

How often should I run the C.Cleaner? I hadn't run it before Christmas at all, so didn't think it'd make that much difference after just 3 months...

[clvrlad]

well the answer is it depends
regularly is a good answer too lol
i run it about once a week then have a look and delete stuff /check if any programs need deleting and then de-fragment my harddrive
but then my laptop is pretty basic and i do run a game or two which "need" a better one than i have

[eirian]

I don't defrag my harddrive because I've plenty of space left on it. Should I?

[SparkOut]

defragging is not as important as it used to be back in the days when the sectors were a significant proportion of the hard disk capacity, so it's not something that you need to do too often, but you should "periodically" - at a guess in your case I'd imagine once every 6 months would be plenty. It won't hurt to do it more often, but it won't make a dramatic difference in any case, so when you can be bothered to leave the computer on overnight and let it run a defrag, give it a go, but don't panic about it.
Of course, the time that you really *do* need to think about a defrag is when it's too late and you don't have enough capacity spare to let the computer do the sorting out it needs. (It requires about 15% of free space to use while shifting things around like a complicated game of freecell.)
When you run a defrag, make sure you turn off screensavers and background applications, as otherwise they can write temporary stuff to the disk which makes the defragger think it has to start again.

[katsmom]

What would a background application be? I defrag the thing once a week because my husband told me I should. He never mentioned background applications.

Computer geeks all assume everyone knows what they know. Well, my husband does anyway.

[Scurra]

An anti-virus scanner is an example of a "background application". It is always running but you don't specifically open it to do something. But you need to leave it running so that it can do its job. (Well, that's probably a bad example because sometimes you do open an anti-virus program!)

[clvrlad]

I defrag the thing once a week because my husband told me I should.

sounds like hes got himself a job
after all he knows about these things

[Laura]

Okay, I'm taking this thread in a completely different direction here, and onto a slightly more delicate subject.

I'm a bit worried about a friend of mine who is developing strange eating habits, like keeping a food diary and writing down every thing she eats, saying she needs to lose weight when she clearly doesn't, skipping meals, refusing to drink milk in her tea. Any of these things on their own wouldn't worry me, but the combination is starting to.

If any of you know anything about eating disorders, could you give me some advice on how to deal with this, and whether you think it could be serious, or I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill.

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not post on here.

Thanks. x

[gill216]

I don't know much Laura but anorexics and bulimics are usually secretive, so if she's being open then maybe there isn't a problem. Also, some slimming groups suggest keeping food diaries - is she attending one? If so she'll also be weighed and they would tell her if she had no need to diet.

[tricia]

I keep hitting caps lock half way through a message and have to delete what I have typed and redo - Is there any quicker way of doing this
Tricia

[Bunnylump]

Ah, now I remember MBH telling us a way to do that somewhere on here - but I can't find it now...sorry bro, memory like a goldfish...what was it again?

[Bunnylump]

Ah, this wasn't what I was thinking about (I know MBH had a different way of doing it) but it was Scurra and Gill's conversation:
http://www.puzzlebrains.co.uk/forum/vie ... ps&start=0 The only thing is I don't think this works on here unfortunately.

[MBH]

Good memory Sis - that conversation is over a year ago

It doesn't work here as it is 'programmed' into Word - but if you have a Word screen on the go, and you're nimble with your Shade-Copy-Paste then it may be worthwhile putting the words into the application that has the tool you want and then bringing them back.

[Bunnylump]

I'm just wanting to know if anyone else has had strange phone calls from Asian sounding people who say they are from the "technical support team" asking about computers? I've just had the second one and it's very strange. The first one knew my name and address, and said my husband had rung them about a computer, then something to do with having downloaded "corrupted software" (I couldn't tell you exactly what he said because his English was so very poor). He asked me to go onto the computer so he could "go through it" with me. Clearly I didn't. As soon as I started asking questions, he got all shifty and then gave me a dodgy phone number to ring back later.

I've just had another one - once again, as soon as I said that no one in the house had contacted a support team he rang off. He did admit that he had rung before (although last time his name was apparently "John", this time it was "Ben".

Is this some kind of scam? Has anyone heard anything else like this? I've e mailed the computer company we got our most recent computer from to tell them, is there anything else I should be doing?

[MBH]

A 'scam' for sure. Spreading the word (here, at work, friends & family) is the best you can do.

There are ways of tricking people into giving access to their home computer. Peer-to-peer systems and other things I know the names of but NOTHING about

As a general principle I challenge any phonecall coming in - it's great when you can hear them squirming on the other end of the line and their 'script' isn't helping them at all

[LAT]

Just found this which sounds as though it could be similar

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/35 ... phone-scam

[Bunnylump]

The thing which shocked me the most was that they've tried TWICE!!

[eirian]

only twice Bunny? we've had a sky box warranty scam tried on us at least a dozen times. That's where they phone and ask if we've had problems with our sky box. Then, if you say you haven't got one they apologise and say wrong number. But since I reckon everyone who's got one has problems with it as we do (due to basic weather interference at times), they must get quite a few people.

We're on the telephone preference service but it's not making that much difference to the number of junk calls (it doesn't stop calls from overseas apparently), but we do tend to just start by asking for their details (name of company, contact telephone), and curiously they hang up! (if we do get their details, we report them to the telephone preference service, but I doubt it does any good)

[Bunnylump]

Yes, I'm on that too. The thing is that the number they gave the first time was bogus!! I must say that if you say to salesmen "I'm on the telephone preference service, so you shouldn't be ringing me" they do stop the claptrap immediately and apologise.

I suppose this is the down side of being in the phone book - people can get your name, address and number. But I generally WANT people to be able to find me if they want to!! It's just people like this that drive me up the wall. I didn't know if I had logged on, whether they would have been able to get remote access to my pc (I can hear the gales of laughter from here, but I genuinely don't know if that's possible).