Well, PC World did not call me back!
I phoned again - this time as a non-business customer - but I could not find any automated option for "returns" or "guarantees". I eventually got to a person (in Nottingham) who assured my that all I needed to do was go to the store with the memory module and its sales receipt and they would replace it.
Watch this space!
I did not take to memory back to PC world because, when I removed it, it was covered in dust. So I have cleaned it up to see it the problem goes away!
30 March 2006
PC World customer service
I have discovered that there is a problem with the memory on one of my PCs. This causes Windows to hang and occasionally to corrupt sub-directories of the C:\WINDOWS directory. Luckily, for the latter, I take regular backups and am able to restore the directories.
The memory is PNY 256MB PC2700 DIMM 184 pins DDR 333 MHz and it carries a 10 year guarantee.
Yesterday, around 9am, I telephone PC World in Orpington (0870 2420444) - as that is where I bought it about 18 months ago. I selected their "Business Customer" option from their automated system. But it seems that, as I bought it in the store and went through the tills and did not use a business account, that is not a "Business" transaction. The said they would pass my details to their service department so that they could call me back. It is not 24 hours later an still no phone call!
The memory is PNY 256MB PC2700 DIMM 184 pins DDR 333 MHz and it carries a 10 year guarantee.
Yesterday, around 9am, I telephone PC World in Orpington (0870 2420444) - as that is where I bought it about 18 months ago. I selected their "Business Customer" option from their automated system. But it seems that, as I bought it in the store and went through the tills and did not use a business account, that is not a "Business" transaction. The said they would pass my details to their service department so that they could call me back. It is not 24 hours later an still no phone call!
24 March 2006
Opening a Word Document tries to connect to the Internet
Sheila had a problem with her laptop in that every tfime she opened a Word document the PC tried to connect to the Internet at least 6 times before she could start editing the document!
See Symantec
I just cleared the check mark on "Check for Publisher's certificate revocation" and the problem went away!
See Symantec
I just cleared the check mark on "Check for Publisher's certificate revocation" and the problem went away!
10 March 2006
Apache SSL and gnupg and PERL
What a day. I was having a lot of problem with invoking gnupg from a PERL script running under Apache SSL.
I was getting the error message
gpg: fatal: ~/.gnupg: can't create directory: No such file or directory
Everything looks fine. The PERL script was running under the correct ID and the .gnupg directory and the files in it had the correct permissions (700) so what was wrong.
I found a few hits on the web but the solution looked a bit unsafe (give gnupg world access!). So I started to experiment with gpg --homedir /home/yyy/xxx and even when the xxx directory was only accessible by the owner, gpg created the files in it OK. So, I set gpg --homedir /home/yyy/.gnupg and, surprise surprise, it worked.
I did not like hard coding the homedir in the PERL script as it could fail in the future should the files get moved. So I used the following code to make it general purpose:
I hope this helps others.
I was getting the error message
gpg: fatal: ~/.gnupg: can't create directory: No such file or directory
Everything looks fine. The PERL script was running under the correct ID and the .gnupg directory and the files in it had the correct permissions (700) so what was wrong.
I found a few hits on the web but the solution looked a bit unsafe (give gnupg world access!). So I started to experiment with gpg --homedir /home/yyy/xxx and even when the xxx directory was only accessible by the owner, gpg created the files in it OK. So, I set gpg --homedir /home/yyy/.gnupg and, surprise surprise, it worked.
I did not like hard coding the homedir in the PERL script as it could fail in the future should the files get moved. So I used the following code to make it general purpose:
# for some reason gpg does not work unless you specify the home directory explicitly!
my @pwArray = getpwuid($>); # get info from password file for this effective ID
# password entry [7] is the home directory
my $gpgOptions = "--homedir $pwArray[7]/.gnupg --batch --yes -a etc
my $encrypted = `echo "$toEncrypt" gpg $gpgOptions 2>&1`;
I hope this helps others.
07 March 2006
I hate spammers!
I run many web sites and today a spammer has attacked the forum on
www.derbyshireguide.co.uk
They have posted lots of messages to advertise a poker site with the words:
- online
- poker
- kiszka
- blada
in it!
I do not have a robot to clean it up so it took me over an hour to remove around 50 posts!
I have now had to close down my forum. If I find the b****ds that did this I will send them a bill for my time!
I did a google search on "online poker kiszka blada" and got 202,000 English hits. Obviously the spammers have an active robot adding filth to law abiding site!
www.derbyshireguide.co.uk
They have posted lots of messages to advertise a poker site with the words:
- online
- poker
- kiszka
- blada
in it!
I do not have a robot to clean it up so it took me over an hour to remove around 50 posts!
I have now had to close down my forum. If I find the b****ds that did this I will send them a bill for my time!
I did a google search on "online poker kiszka blada" and got 202,000 English hits. Obviously the spammers have an active robot adding filth to law abiding site!
06 March 2006
Shropshire Weekend
Met up with friends from Derbyshire at Bishops Castle in Shropshire.
Bishops Castle boasts two micro breweries, so on Friday night it was off to the The Three Tuns Inn to sample their brew. There were three of their real ales on draught so I choose the one in the middle of alcoholic strength. A very enjoyable drink. After our drinks we went to The Poppy House for a meal. The menu was varied with some interesting choices - I had the Russian Chicken. This was reasonable value and the staff were friendly. Some more friends joined us at The Poppy House for desert. The staff had not problems with this! We had started with a booking for five people but by the end of the meal there were about 15 of us!
Next day we went for a 7 mile circular walk with 300 metres of climbing. We started at Bishops Castle and ended up at the Powis Arms at Lydbury North for lunch. There were no hot meals available, but their cheese sandwiches were very good. It has new owners and they do set a very high standard for food - even sandwiches! They had Big Nev's beer which is brewed at the Six Bells in Bishops Castle - and very good it was!
Despite to low temperature of the day (5 degrees Celsius) the lack of wind made it a very pleasurable walk and we ended back at Bishops Castle around 4pm.
Our walking group (23 of us) were booked in for a meal at the Six Bells for 7:30pm so a few of us went a little early to sample some of the other beers brewed by the Six Bells. But this is a place that could not cope with a party of 23. We were prepared for the meals to arrive over a period of time but two people - my wife and her friend - had to wait over two hours. It was clear that the cook had not looked closely at the orders and missed these two! The problem was compounded as my wife's friends choice was no longer available! In fact her second choice was not available. So she had to have something that she really did not want to eat but as it was after 9:30 she was very hungry!
That evening was marred by the pub not begin able to cope with a party of 23. We will not go there again!
Next day we went to Stokesay Castle for a look around. Although it was warmer than Saturday, the wind was a good deal stronger and the wind chill was severe. So we spent a long time in there tea shop to warm up after going around the castle.
Then we started to make our way home. We went to Much Wenlock for a quickly lunch and ended up at Carole Anne's Coffee Shop. What a very pleasant way to spend an hour with treacle pudding, chocolate sponge, other cakes and hot drinks. After the debarkle of Saturday night, it was refreshing to find helpful and attentive staff - all of whom smiled!
Having been refreshed and warmed at Carole Anne's Coffee Shop we visited Wenlock Priory. It was freezing again. So we saw it all as quickly as possible before returning to the cars to warm up and make our way home.
Bishops Castle boasts two micro breweries, so on Friday night it was off to the The Three Tuns Inn to sample their brew. There were three of their real ales on draught so I choose the one in the middle of alcoholic strength. A very enjoyable drink. After our drinks we went to The Poppy House for a meal. The menu was varied with some interesting choices - I had the Russian Chicken. This was reasonable value and the staff were friendly. Some more friends joined us at The Poppy House for desert. The staff had not problems with this! We had started with a booking for five people but by the end of the meal there were about 15 of us!
Next day we went for a 7 mile circular walk with 300 metres of climbing. We started at Bishops Castle and ended up at the Powis Arms at Lydbury North for lunch. There were no hot meals available, but their cheese sandwiches were very good. It has new owners and they do set a very high standard for food - even sandwiches! They had Big Nev's beer which is brewed at the Six Bells in Bishops Castle - and very good it was!
Despite to low temperature of the day (5 degrees Celsius) the lack of wind made it a very pleasurable walk and we ended back at Bishops Castle around 4pm.
Our walking group (23 of us) were booked in for a meal at the Six Bells for 7:30pm so a few of us went a little early to sample some of the other beers brewed by the Six Bells. But this is a place that could not cope with a party of 23. We were prepared for the meals to arrive over a period of time but two people - my wife and her friend - had to wait over two hours. It was clear that the cook had not looked closely at the orders and missed these two! The problem was compounded as my wife's friends choice was no longer available! In fact her second choice was not available. So she had to have something that she really did not want to eat but as it was after 9:30 she was very hungry!
That evening was marred by the pub not begin able to cope with a party of 23. We will not go there again!
Next day we went to Stokesay Castle for a look around. Although it was warmer than Saturday, the wind was a good deal stronger and the wind chill was severe. So we spent a long time in there tea shop to warm up after going around the castle.
Then we started to make our way home. We went to Much Wenlock for a quickly lunch and ended up at Carole Anne's Coffee Shop. What a very pleasant way to spend an hour with treacle pudding, chocolate sponge, other cakes and hot drinks. After the debarkle of Saturday night, it was refreshing to find helpful and attentive staff - all of whom smiled!
Having been refreshed and warmed at Carole Anne's Coffee Shop we visited Wenlock Priory. It was freezing again. So we saw it all as quickly as possible before returning to the cars to warm up and make our way home.
03 March 2006
Ming Campbell elected Liberal Democrat leader
It was good to see that the new leader has a comfortable majority.
He said the party would champion freedom, fairness and environment protection, would be a party of democratic revolution, would tackle the secrecy which still pervades far too much of Britain, would be a party which looks beyond our shores, seeking the prosperity, security and sustainable development which is dependent on international action, would be a party which pledges to take power from Westminster and Whitehall to give it to people in their own communities.
I agree with most of those ambitions although I would put prosperity first as without prosperity, we cannot afford to protect the environment or provide the public services.
He said the party would champion freedom, fairness and environment protection, would be a party of democratic revolution, would tackle the secrecy which still pervades far too much of Britain, would be a party which looks beyond our shores, seeking the prosperity, security and sustainable development which is dependent on international action, would be a party which pledges to take power from Westminster and Whitehall to give it to people in their own communities.
I agree with most of those ambitions although I would put prosperity first as without prosperity, we cannot afford to protect the environment or provide the public services.
02 March 2006
Parish Council meeting
Last night was a Parish Council meeting.
We have a PSCO that we pay 50% of the cost - the other 50% met by the Home Office. Kent police are trying to get an agreement with us but they keep insisting that they have total control of the PSCO. The Parish Council does not have a problem with Kent Police having control over the day-to-day operations of the PSCO but the Parish Council does feel that it - as paymaster - should set the PSCO's priorities. Otherwise, we are just being taxed again for a Kent Police resource.
If Kent Police want total control, they should pay for the PSCO!
We have a PSCO that we pay 50% of the cost - the other 50% met by the Home Office. Kent police are trying to get an agreement with us but they keep insisting that they have total control of the PSCO. The Parish Council does not have a problem with Kent Police having control over the day-to-day operations of the PSCO but the Parish Council does feel that it - as paymaster - should set the PSCO's priorities. Otherwise, we are just being taxed again for a Kent Police resource.
If Kent Police want total control, they should pay for the PSCO!
01 March 2006
Birth of a blog
As if I did not have any spare time to start a blog!
Well, today has been sunny so I have been splitting a few logs in preparation for the very cold night - BBC says -5 degrees centigrade but their new weather map seems to be far more inaccurate than before. I suppose it could be the climate change making the weather models out of date.
Well, today has been sunny so I have been splitting a few logs in preparation for the very cold night - BBC says -5 degrees centigrade but their new weather map seems to be far more inaccurate than before. I suppose it could be the climate change making the weather models out of date.
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