Web User - UK (2019-10-16)

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Air your views, write to us [email protected] 16 - 29 October 2019 73

canstill switch suppliers as before,
whether or not they currently use smart
meters.They soon all will, anyway.
The scaremongering smacks of the
samefears people had when electricity
originally entered the home – people
were afraid of it, thought theycould
smell it andrefusedto have it.
Gary Olsen,Facebook

Wikipedia hasroom for
improvement
I read your Star Email fromRoss Dallas in
Issue 485, ‘Hopeless administrators ruin
Wikipedia’, with great interest and a little
sadness. I findmyself visitingWikipedia
several times a day, and although it’s
generallyvery useful I often get the
sense that it’s not fulfilling its potential.
Many articles on interestingtopics are
rather threadbare, while others are
needlessly long,considering their
mundane subjects, soyou ha ve to
wonder if theWikipedia administrators
are really doing their jobs properly. I’m
sure they don’t get paidvery much, ifat
all, but the sitewould undoubtedly
benefit fromregularreviews of its
contentby knowledgeablevolunteers.
If, as Mr Dallas suggests, the problem is
causedby Wikipedia beingstaffedby a
smallteam of “ignoramuses”, then
perhaps JimmyWales, whoowns the
site, needsto rethink its long-term
strategy. I’m sure there are plenty of
people whowould willinglycontribute
their time and judgmentto help improve
the content,
if the current
‘closed circle’
of moderators
could be
opened up.
Wikipedia
is popularfor
goodreason, and itremains an invaluable
free resource, but it shouldn’t take its
status for granted.
Brian Welsby, via email

W

ILLYOU PAY £62A

MONTHFOR VIRGIN

MEDIA’S GIGABIT BROADBAND

(bit.ly/gigabit486)?

Gigabit speed is great in theory, but

will you actually get these speeds?

Unlessyou’re a hardcore gamer, do

you really need a gigabit?

David P-Smith@david_p_s

Can’t see the point of that sort of

speedfor home users. Iwon’t pay

more than £25 per monthfor my

broadband.

Terry Harper

Virg in Media isn’texactlyreliable with

its current packages, so I’m not going

to fork out that much moneyfor its

latest wheeze.

Geoff Hines

Wish it was available in the Isle of Man.

MichaelCorlett

H

OWOFTEN DOYOU RECEIVE

SPAMCALLS ONYOUR

MOBILE PHONE (see page 48)?

About once a month. I don’t answer

and then I block their number onmy

phonestraight away. It ’s more

effective than the oldsystem of

registering with TPS, which didn’t

seemto work as well as it should have

done.

Rich Gr ove

Probably once or twice a monthat

most. I don’t generally answer

numbers I don’trecognise – I Google

themto see if they have been

previouslyreported as nuisance

callers. If they have, then I block the

number. Simples.

Mike Kuhl

I’ve certainly blocked afew but I don’t

get botheredtoo often.Cold calling

should be illegal, ofcourse, but the

authorities allow itfor somereason.

Russell Cox@RussWWFC

At least once aweek, but I use

CleverDialer (www.cleverdialer.com)

to block calls. It’s not as good as the

old TPS call blocker, though.

Martin Phillp

Not often but, when I do, Calls

Blacklist Profor Android (bit.ly/

calls486) does a good job of

preventing furtherrepeat calls.

Harvey Skipsey

I seemto have had lots of accidents

that weren’t my fault. When I tell them

my number is TPS-registered, they

don’t seemto care.

Simon Mellor@4KBacon

W

HAT AREYOURFAVOURITE

AND LEASTFAVOURITE

THINGS ABOUT GOOGLE?

It’s too nosy, so I avoid most Google

services.The good points are that if

you get a new smartphone,you only

have to log intoyour Google account

and – hey presto – all your contacts

and apps appearby magic.

Geoffr ey Boow

Google runsmy life – calendar, email,

contacts – somy favourite thing is

that it’s so integrated. My least

favourite is Google’s inclinationto

retire apps.

Nat Gr ove

When it comes to Google, I have

nothingto declare as afavourite anda

whole laundry list of leastfavourite

things.At the top of the listwould be

the various methods it usesfor

censorship.

Jarrod Ushkowski

I think Maps is the one Google thingI

couldn’t live without. And Search, of

course, but that goes without saying.

My leastfavourite thing is thefear that

it’s passing information aboutmy

intereststo advertisers.

Steve Horner

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