What gets your goat(down)?

[Sue Sanders]

So you think bikes are meant to be on the pavement, but you don't like them using it when you are.

As long as they use all correct provisions (helmet, hi-vis jacket, bell, etc.) then I don't mind.

You don't mind people breaking the law as long as you can see them doing it? Well, that makes a sort of sense I suppose.

If you reverse out of your drive one day and take out a cyclist who's come flying through your blindspot, you'll presumeably say that it's a fair cop if they put you away for causing death by driving.

[Phil Reynolds]

If you reverse out of your drive one day and take out a cyclist who's come flying through your blindspot, you'll presumeably say that it's a fair cop if they put you away for causing death by driving.

Sorry, I've read your post twice now and I still have no idea how it relates to the post you quoted.

[Clive Brooker]

The entrances/exits to the London Underground often have wide staircases divided in two with people swarming up and down like ants, trying to avoid bumping into each other (though I think ants just walk over one another) and it ought to be instinctive to use the right hand one (I know it's opposite to driving but it's because most people will want to hold a handrail with their right hand)

I've never understood this. I would have thought it more logical to keep the dominant hand free for important things like drawing a sword.

[Kirk Bevins]

Sorry, I've read your post twice now and I still have no idea how it relates to the post you quoted.

She meant to quote just James' and not yours, Phil. I thought this was fairly obvious.

[Sue Sanders]

Sorry, I've read your post twice now and I still have no idea how it relates to the post you quoted.

She meant to quote just James' and not yours, Phil. I thought this was fairly obvious.

Yeah, sorry - but I did think it obvious too

[Sue Sanders]

The entrances/exits to the London Underground often have wide staircases divided in two with people swarming up and down like ants, trying to avoid bumping into each other (though I think ants just walk over one another) and it ought to be instinctive to use the right hand one (I know it's opposite to driving but it's because most people will want to hold a handrail with their right hand)

I've never understood this. I would have thought it more logical to keep the dominant hand free for important things like drawing a sword.

Fortunately I'm left handed so I can keep my sword drawn and hold the handrail with my right (Don't want to fall on my sword!). Driving's more of a bugger but I've mastered giving the finger with my right hand

[David Williams]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 883065.ece

[Sue Sanders]

Good link, David - interesting read.

Right now my goat is being brought down by trying to install my second year of Kaspersky security protection including 3 phone calls to the helpdesk and numerous attempts to follow instructions that make no sense to the pc illiterate. Each call has elicited a different response and I've done what I was told to do - but the warning 'Kaspersky will expire in.....days ' continues to count down to zero. The latest offering from hitting the 'help' button, when the activation key simply won't type into the box, is select the file path for the key file with the .key extension.
I'm sure some of you are shaking your head in disbelief at the fact that I just don't know where to start with an instruction like that. If I had forgotten how to do it, and needed reminding, that instruction might help, but I don't know how to do it - and I don't know what a file path is. I've tried the browse button as instructed, and indeed the word 'key' appears in one of the little boxes but then what? If I click on it, it just makes it go blue. Which is how I'm feeling. Those of you who understand this stuff, think yourselves very lucky. When I was at school 'computer lessons' involved spending about 5 maths periods in the room next to the one that the computer was keep in and studying flow charts drawn on the blackboard! And I had to do a bloody 15 mile sponsored walk to raise the money to buy the sodding thing...which I never even saw

[Phil Reynolds]

When I was at school 'computer lessons' involved spending about 5 maths periods in the room next to the one that the computer was keep in and studying flow charts drawn on the blackboard!

You were lucky. The computer on which I did all the practical work for my Computer Studies O Level was about a hundred miles away, up in North Wales somewhere (we did actually once go on a coach trip to see it). Programs were initially handwritten on coding sheets which were sent off to the computer centre on a Friday afternoon to be entered and run and the output printed and sent back in time for the following Friday's lesson. Of course, the first version of any program never works, so we would debug the results, fix the problems and send the program back to be run again the following week. It could take most of a term to get a program (to do some fearsomely complex task like printing a set of multiplication tables) working properly.

Later on we had the luxury of a dial-up link via teletype. You could prepare programs offline on punched tape, then dial up the computer on an ordinary phone and insert the handset into an acoustic coupler connected to the teletype and away you went. You'd load in your program off the paper tape, run it and see the output (printed out at an awe-inspiring 30 characters per second) immediately. Ah, the white heat of technology.

[Brian Moore]

Ah, the white heat of technology.

I hope I never cease to marvel at what compooters can do, mostly in the twinkling of an eye. When I started secondary school (mid 70s), it was programming, either in basic, or for the clever ones, Fortran. I never got beyond about 5 lines of basic.

Then, gee whizz, at university, they had BBC micros on which you could do word-processing, and print out via a daisy-wheel printer. Boy, those BB micros - they were amazing:

Processor 6502A
Speed (MHz) 2
Ram (KB) 16
Ram expandable to (KB) 32
ROM (KB) 32
Weight (g) 3700
Cost £299.

That's what I call white heat. At least you could play Frogger on them, when inspiration was lacking.

[Alec Rivers]

... and I don't know what a file path is.

A file path gives the location of a file. A couple of examples on my computer:

• "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\iZotope Ozone.dll" is the path for the file 'iZotope Ozone.dll'
  "D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

[Kai Laddiman]

"D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

Britain's Got Talent?

[Alec Rivers]

Boy, those BB micros - they were amazing:

Processor 6502A
Speed (MHz) 2
Ram (KB) 16
Ram expandable to (KB) 32
ROM (KB) 32
Weight (g) 3700
Cost £299.

lol. A little more recently, I remember when the top processor speed in PCs was 120 MHz and the guy in the computer shop tried to convince me that 600 MHz ones were on the way, with the possibility of them doubling it to 1200! Knowing a little about the inner workings of CPUs made this a mind-boggling prospect.

Around the same time I was delighted to buy 8 MB of RAM for my Amiga for a discounted £200.

[Alec Rivers]

"D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

Britain's Got Talent?

It certainly is.

[Sue Sanders]

... and I don't know what a file path is.

A file path gives the location of a file. A couple of examples on my computer:

• "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\iZotope Ozone.dll" is the path for the file 'iZotope Ozone.dll'
  "D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

That's really really sweet of you Alec. I have know idea what I would do with that information to make my Kaspersky work as I have an 'activation code' so why would I need to know where any of my files are?!!!

I remember once being amazed watching a telly programme where comedienne Lucy Porter demonstrated that she knows nothing of cookery. So a simple instruction like 'par boil the potatoes, dice and saute in a knob of butter after caramelising the onions' would mean absolutely F-all to her. She didn't even know what a knob of butter was, because you could quite reasonably sumise that that might be about half a 250g packet, cut lengthwise.

Horses for courses.

[Alec Rivers]

... and I don't know what a file path is.

A file path gives the location of a file. A couple of examples on my computer:

• "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\iZotope Ozone.dll" is the path for the file 'iZotope Ozone.dll'
  "D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

That's really really sweet of you Alec. I have know idea what I would do with that information to make my Kaspersky work as I have an 'activation code' so why would I need to know where any of my files are?!!!

I'm guessing that there might be a 'browse' button that you can click to locate the file containing your key. This would be "somename.key" and might be located somewhere in "C:\Program Files\Kaspersky\". To find it, click Start (bottom-left of the screen) then click Search. Select "All files and folders" and type *.key in the first box. Then click the Search button.

The 'extension' of a file name is simply the ".key" or ".jpg" or ".dll" bit at the end, which indicates what type of file it purports to be.


p.s. I have no idea what par boiling is.

[Kathleen Batlle]

I've given up trying to work out how to use my little MacBook properly and have settled for writing basic e-mails, no fancy stuff like attachments (what are they?) browsing Amazon, QVC, and M&S, clicking onto this forum (because I love it but don't always have the time), checking bank accounts and finding solutions to crosswords ...... hang on, that's a lot more than I ever thought I'd be able to do 2 years ago when I bought it, so I'm happy. When I first started work in a bank in 1956, we didn't even have a calculator, so I rather think I've done quite well with the computer. I'm just waiting until my small grandson gets to the grand old age of 12 when he can then enlighten me on all the other marvellous things my MacBook can do. I've got a gigantic list of personal 'hates', from supermarket checkouts to idiots behind the wheels of cars, but I won't go there today or you'll all be bored out of your minds!

[Alec Rivers]

... but I won't go there today or you'll all be bored out of your minds!

That doesn't stop the rest of us.

[Ralph Gillions]

Films where the opening credits are either very slow or delayed, to the extent that they are only completed 15/20 minutes into the film.
Too arty-smarty for me.

[Sue Sanders]

Films where the opening credits are either very slow or delayed, to the extent that they are only completed 15/20 minutes into the film.
Too arty-smarty for me.

Hmmm. I see a lot of 'arty-smarty' films on account of being an usher at an arthouse cinema. Not really aware of many films with delayed opening credits - unless they've got some long involved plot line to set the scene for - and arty-smarty films are NOT normally overly 'story-led'. IMHO

Oops - edited typo

[Derek Hazell]

Films where the opening credits are either very slow or delayed, to the extent that they are only completed 15/20 minutes into the film.
Too arty-smarty for me.

Hmmm. I see a lot of 'arty-smarty' films on account of being an usher at an arthouse cinema. Not really aware of many films with delayed opening credits - unless they've got some long involved plot line to set the scene for - and arty-smarty films are normally overly 'story-led'. IMHO

I find films that don't have any opening credits at all much more annoying. I like to know things like who is in a film, and who wrote it or perhaps directed it before I watch it. Opening titles also can do a good job of setting the scene for a film, in their style or the music included. It just looks ridiculous when they appear at the end followed immediately by the closing credits.

Obviously all credit-squeezing and other disrespectful crap on TV as well.

[Ralph Gillions]

Obviously all credit-squeezing and other disrespectful crap on TV as well.

Ah yes! The squeezing so that it cannot be read, while a voice-over does a trail for another programme.
I hate it.

[Phil Reynolds]

Films where the opening credits are either very slow or delayed, to the extent that they are only completed 15/20 minutes into the film.
Too arty-smarty for me.

Never heard the Bond films described as 'arty-smarty' before.

[Ralph Gillions]

I don't mean the films are "arty-smarty".
I mean I suspect the film-makers think they are arty-smarty.
A touch of pretentiousness.

[Marc Meakin]

... and I don't know what a file path is.

A file path gives the location of a file. A couple of examples on my computer:

• "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\iZotope Ozone.dll" is the path for the file 'iZotope Ozone.dll'
  "D:\BGT 2009\Images\BGT Logo.jpg" is the path for the file 'BGT Logo.jpg'

That's really really sweet of you Alec. I have know idea what I would do with that information to make my Kaspersky work as I have an 'activation code' so why would I need to know where any of my files are?!!!

I remember once being amazed watching a telly programme where comedienne Lucy Porter demonstrated that she knows nothing of cookery. So a simple instruction like 'par boil the potatoes, dice and saute in a knob of butter after caramelising the onions' would mean absolutely F-all to her. She didn't even know what a knob of butter was, because you could quite reasonably sumise that that might be about half a 250g packet, cut lengthwise.
Horses for courses.

That reminds me of my favourite t shirt "Nerves of steel, heart of gold, knob of butter"

[Alec Rivers]

When an eco-nut moans at you for not unplugging a phone charger (0.4W = 35p/year) then boils a full kettle to make one mug of tea! (150 secs @2500W, 5 mugs a day = £19.02/year; my method (one mug of water in kettle): 20 secs @2500W, 5 mugs a day = £2.54/year, and it's fresher, and I don't have to wait so long.) [Using an electricity cost of 10p/unit.]

[Jon Corby]

Since I've been deluged with PMs about this:

I must ask what the latest is.

I did ask, but I kinda switched off while he was telling me the answer. Ultimately no charges were pressed, but the guy had to pay (to the tune of £1500) to go on some kind of driving and/or anger management course. I think he said the police asked him if he was happy with this outcome, or if he wanted to press charges, and he said he didn't. I think.

[Marc Meakin]

People who say " He turned round and said "
I normally respond by enquiring if he was in a swivel chair at the time

[Charlie Reams]

People who say " He turned round and said "
I normally respond by enquiring if he was in a swivel chair at the time

My dad turned round and got diabetes. That's middle age for you.