Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

Letters

12

Tell uswhat’s onyourmind

What’stheIssue...?

Irememberyou recommending?

somecheap braidedHDMI

cables,but whichones?

Bruce Palmer

CASAYS Yo u’re thinkingofthe

AmazonBasics cables,priced £7.

fromwww.snipca.com/3 9457 (see

Issue616,page61).

Ineedtorenameseveral

thousand photos, andknowyou

recently suggestedaprogramthat

soundedideal.Whatwas it?

KarenLocke

CASAYS That

wouldbeBulk

RenameUtility (www.

bulkrenameutility.co.uk). We

explainedhowto useitinIssue 615

(page19).

Didn’tyou explainrecentl yhow

to make PDFs open aut omatically?

Ican’t findthe instructionsanywhere

–it’sdriving me mad!

Stuart Ball

CASAYS Ye s, when solvingEric

Webb’s problem(Issue 614, page 65).

tale.Noone,includingAmazonwho

deliveredit,waswillingtoshipitbackto

thereturnsdepot.Theygavemedetails

ofcouriersIcoulduse,buttheyall

refusedbecauseitwasnotinsidea

pieceofelectronicequipment.Ittook

mealmostamonthofnegotiationsto

getsomeonetoagreetotakeit.Even

thenthecompanycontactedmeto

saytheyhadchangedtheirmind,but

bythenitwasonitswaytoScotland!

Ithinkitiswrongthatconsumers

canbuyabatteryeasilyenough,but

cannotlegallyreturnitshouldtheneed

arise.Iwonderhowmanyotherreaders

havehadthisproblem?

GaryGoldring

CASAYS Gary’srighttohighlightthe

importanceofrecyclingoldlaptop

batteriessafely.We’llcoverthisina

forthcomingissue,alongwithadviceon

howtodisposeofotherunwantedtech.

Peoplewillsay‘No thanks’to

full-fibrebroadband

Weoftenreadaboutthe‘digital

divide’intheUK,whichassumes

there’saprivilegedeliteonincrediblyfast

speeds,whiletheunderclassstruggleson

dial-up.ButtwonewsstoriesinIssue 622

suggestthetruthismuchlessdramatic.

Onpage8yousaythatVirginMediaO

hashititstargetofdeliveringgigabit

broadbandto 15 .5millionhomes.On

page 9 youreportOfcomsayingthat7 6

percentofpeopledon’ttakeupfull-fibre

broadbandwhenit’s offeredtothem.IfI

Justupgradeto‘fast,smooth

andeasy’Windows 11

Myanswertothe

dilemmaofwhether

youshouldupgradeto

Windows1 1 isan

unequivocal‘yes’.Why?

BecauseMicrosofthas

finallyfollowedApplein

updatinganoperating

systemwithoutchanging

thewayitlooks.OK,so

therehavebeenafewwhingesabout

missingicons–mostlyfromadeptusers

whocaneasilycorrectthis.Windows 11 is

fast,smoothandeasytouseanditcan

runonoldercomputers(despitereports

tothecontrary),suchasmyAsusK 30 AD

TowerPC(picturedabove),whichhasan

IntelDualCoreG3 22 0processorat3GHz.

Also,despitewarningsthatmany

toolsandsoftwarewon’tworkonolder

‘non-authorised’machines,myold

programsworkfine.Iloggedintomy

MicrosoftaccountandOneDrivedidall

therest.

Wealsohavea 202 1AsusE4 06 Nlaptop

todoourbusinessaccountsandwe

upgradedfrom1 0 to 11 withnotrouble.It

absolutelyfliesdespiteonlyhavingalowly

CeleronDualCoreN3 550 processor,

runningat1.10GHz,andjust4GBof

RAM.Somyadvicetoanyonewondering

whethertoupgradeis: justdoit.

AndyCook

Howcanwedisposeofold

batteries?

Ihavereadandsubscribedto

your publ icat ion formanyyears

andhavelearned an awfullot,but I

wassurprised when thearticle about

replac inglaptopbatteries (Issue 621,

page 60)gavenodirec tionfor disposing

of theold battery.

Yes, they must be recycled,but some

staff at recyclingcentres simply put them

into non-recyclablewaste.I’m sure there

hasbeenatl east oneoccasionwherea

landfill hasburnedfor aprolonged

periodbecause it co ntainedlithium

batteries!WhenIreturned my first

lithiumbattery,Imadeapointofs eeking

out theappropriate bininspite of being

told ther ewasn’t one.

However, sometimesthe batterysimply

needs replac ingbecause thewrong item

hasbeenpurchased,whichismysecond

interpretthatcorrectly,isn’tVirgin’shuge

(andpresumablymassivelyexpensive)

gigabitprojectgoingtobeignoredby

millionsofpeople? Alargemajorityof

householdswilljustsay,‘Nothanks,

I’llstickwith 5 0Mbps,thankyouvery

much’.

IhaveafeelingtheGovernmentand

broadbandprovidersareinforanasty

shockwhentake-upoffull-fibreturns

outtobefarlessenthusiasticthanthey

thinkit’llbe.Indesperationtheymight

tryaCovid-stylemarketingcampaignto

encouragepeopletoupgrade,thoughthat

wouldbeacolossalwasteofmoney.

RogerMallory

IagreewithKatherineNewsome

(StarLetter,Issue 621 ), whenshe

saysshesimplydoesn’tneed 300 Mbps

broadband.Ilivewithmypartner,and

ourspeedisanaverageof 3 5Mbps.We

regularlydownloadSkyQcatch-up

programmesanduseouriPadsand

laptops,allatthesametimewithout

problems.Wecouldhave5 00 Mbpswhere

welive(spendingmoreeachmonth,of

course),butwhywouldwebother?Not

everyoneneedsthefastspeedsthatthe

Governmentthinkswedo.

KenBoard

Full-fibrewouldhave

wreckedmygarden

Iwasrecentlyofferedanupgrade

tofull-fibre(Fibre-to-the-Premises,

FTTP)bymyproviderTalkTalkata

speciallowprice.Inaturallyjumpedat

19 Januar y–1February 2022 •Issue

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