WebUser – 04 April 2018

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Airyourviews, writeto [email protected] 4-17April 2018 73

restrictingdownloadsto Windows Store
items, probablybecauseits Storeitems
areinadequate.
Whydoesn’tMicrosoftdo acomplete
about-face, dumpits apps altogether
and issue aversionof Windows 10
withoutall the apps and other
bloatware? And stop doinghalf-yearly
system upgrades thatjustmessup
people’scomputers. Continuallytryingto
makeasilk purseout of asow’s ear does
not work.
Thewhole
system is so
convoluted,
with essential
items (such
as the
Control Panel
and Restorefunction)so hiddenaway
thatWindows 10 is no longersuitable
foreverydaycomputing.
I’m an ex-Windows 10 user and am
proud to have left.
roy5051uk,WebUser Forums

Smartmetersare safe
to use
Your SecurityHelpdeskitem aboutsmart
meters wastimelybecauseon the day
Ireceived Issue 444 ofWebUser,my
newsmart meters were beinginstalled.
Iread your expert’s answertothe
question on smartmeter securitybut
Imustdisagree with his analysis.
Ifail to see howsmart meters, which
connectusingatotallyseparatesystem
from the internetin my house,could
affect anyofthe appliances Iown. They
do not have anyaccess to my network
and theycommunicate with their servers
usingaSIM cardsimilarto the type used
in mobilephones.
Afew minutes of diggingaroundon
the webwill provide someinteresting
information thatshouldallayusers’ fears
aboutusingsmartmeters. And to imply
thatbyhackingasmart meter,acriminal
could cream off moneyfrommybank
is pretty farfetched!To do that, the
criminalwould needto have access to
my owncompletely separatenetwork,
hack my bankaccount and adjustmy
Direct Debitto my energy supplier!
Formoreinformation on these
matters, read the smart-meter security
reviewfromthe NationalCyber Security
Centre, whichis part of GCHQ,atbit.ly/
smart446.
Jeff Brown, via email

E

EISGIVINGLONDON

CUSTOMERS1GBFORFREE

(bit.ly/eelondon446).WOULD

ANYNON-LONDONERSCARE

TOCOMMENT?

So onceagain only Londoncounts.

Thank God I’m not acustomer of this

awful companyanymore.

JoanneEvans

With the plethoraofWi-Fi hotspots

availablearoundthe capital,I’m not

sureitmatters if you’renot an EE

customer.

NatGrove

Ask and thou shalt receive. I’m with

EE –not in London–rang themup

and said “Pleasesir,Iwant some

more”. And theyreplied“MORE,

boy?”. Imanagedto get not one but

fiveextragigabytes out of them.

Gary Olsen

Ihaveunlimited data with Three

so I’m not missing anything.

Pamela JAnderson

1GB of data is nothingthesedays.

What can anybodydo with it, really?

Tasiru Hassan

H

AV EYOUEVERFELTFORCED

INTOBUYINGEXTRAS

WHENPURCHASINGA

COMPUTER?

Inever felt forced. If theytry to sell me

the extendedwarranty,then Ijustwalk

out and buy the item from elsewhere.

Phil Graham

Ihad atruly awful experienceat

PC World lastyear whencollecting

areserved laptop.The amountof

pressuretoup-sellmademe complain.

It wasthatbad.

Si Mellor

Iwas oncetold if Ididn’t buy Microsoft

Word,Iwouldn’tbe able to open

emails.At leastthe shop assistant

had the decencytoblush when

challenged.

RichardMorgan

WheneverIbuy tech, Ialways ensure

Iresearch prices first, then ask for

apricematch and ask themto throw

in someextraitems forfree.

Sam Higgins

A

PPLEHASPATENTEDA

CRUMB-PROOFKEYBOARD

(bit.ly/crumbs446).HOWMANY

CRUMBSAREONYOURS?

Enoughto makeasandwich.

Colin Wallace

None,Iuse agel cover.

Paul Wallace

I‘m thankfulmy keyboardiswashable.

It’s not justcrumbs,it’s got the odd

blob of jam.

JennyJacks@JenJacks3

Idon’t have anycrumbs.Ivacuummy

keyboard(plus Idon’t eatnear it).

Jason ‘Boz’ Bowyer

T

HEGOVERNMENTHAS

DELAYEDAGE-CHECKING

RULESFORPORNSITES(bit.ly/

govtage446).DOYOUTHINK

THEY’LLEVERWORK?

No.IfIwereateen and wanted to look

at porn,all Iwould do is takeapicture

of aparent’s credit card, then put the

detailsin wheneverIvisited aporn

site. Parents wouldn’tfind out as

no paymentis beingtaken.

Gavin Green

Not unlesstheyintroduceDNA testing

whereit’staken at birth and is used

to test anumberof things,including

aperson’sage.So, no!

AnthonyHigham

It’s the ideal real-world use case for

blockchaintechnology,inmyopinion.

Chris Howse

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