PC rebooted every time user flushed the toilet...

Meet “Gary”, who once had an IT support ticket land on his desk stating that “the PC would reset every time the customer flushed their toilet.”!

Gary's first thought was that this was “probably static from the customer walking across their carpeted floor, touching the keyboard before sitting down, static discharge doing the rest.”

But then he read more closely and realised the PC was on a farm. Once he visited that farm he found that “the floors were all hard-wood, so that shot that idea to hell.”

The user then suggested Gary observe the PC as they walked to the bathroom. Gary heard the unmistakable gurgling that resulted and watched as the PC did indeed reset itself about two seconds later...

Read the full story at: www.theregister.co.uk

Winery tour: Three Choirs Vineyards, Hampshire

For my birthday, my dear stepdaughter Rosie bought me a couple of tickets for a tour and tasting at Three Choirs Vineyards, Shedfield, Hampshire. This, rather usefully, is "just down the road" from where we live! Kim isn't a huge wine fan, but Brian & I are, so courtesy of the "Tracy & Kim taxi company PLC" - off we went!

We had a great time: a good look at the vines, a potted history of the winery, a sampling of four excellent wines - paired with various cheeses. Our host, Sam was friendly and informative. Click here to view some photos of the lovely setting. 

I do hope that you too will be able to enjoy a visit, and partake of some of their marvelous wines. Our favourites were:

Classic Cuvée (sparkling).

Wickham Dry 2014.

Wickham Rosé 2014.

Cheers!

www.three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk

Got a Virgin Media Super Hub 2? Read & action this ASAP!

Virgin Media has told 800,000 customers to change their passwords to protect against being hacked.

An investigation by Which? found that hackers could access the provider's Super Hub 2 router, allowing access to users' smart appliances.

Virgin Media said the risk was small but advised customers using default network and router passwords to update them immediately.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reading for today: Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

www.biblegateway.com

The top 1000cc bikes for around £1000 - bag a bargain!

Thank exchange rates, the economy or spiralling R&D costs but new bikes are getting ever more expensive. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some jaw-dropping deals on the secondhand market.

These days, £1000 the sort of figure some people will pay for an iPhone that they’ll ditch in a couple of years. But for the same money you could get a bike that, within relatively recent memory, was somewhere near the top of the range. And unlike an outdated smartphone, they’ll still do much the same job as their brand-new equivalents.

We’ve checked out verifiable, recent sold prices for useable bikes to compile this list, focussing only on machines with long MOTs and no serious problems. At the sub £1000 level, you can expect them to be scruffy – with scrapes and maybe some cracked plastics – but you should be able to get a reliable, road-legal example of any of these bikes if you’re prepared to hunt them down.

Read more on what to buy: www.visordown.com

Big bikes @ bargain prices: www.ebay.co.uk

Criminal gang says that they shut down Skype, says Steam is next

An online gang calling itself CyberTeam has claimed that it orchestrated an attack which saw Skype users in multiple countries around the globe unable to use the service for some hours earlier this week.

The popular video chat app suffered a serious outage from 7pm GMT on Monday, which prevented many users from successfully logging into the service.

The CyberTeam gang, which has the motto “We are Cyber Team. We do not forget. We do not forgive” – has previously engaged in website defacements, and has threatened to be “even more ‘aggressive'” than the notorious LizardSquad that infamously disrupted websites belonging to the likes of Activision, EA, and the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The CyberTeam group, which claims to be based in Portugal, has posted images on social media suggesting that the online gaming service Steam is its next target for a DDoS attack.

www.hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com

"Personal" cooling solution. Certainly works for me!

Strewth, it's hot in England!

OK my readers in "sunnier" parts of the world might scoff, but it's hot for us!

I saw a "lifehack" that showed an electric fan blowing on a frozen bottle of water, thought I'd give it a go: little or no difference. Meh...

While thinking about that, I thought I'd try ice packs in my shorts - it works!

Just freeze the ice packs (of course!), pop them in the side pockets, and feel the relief!

You might experience condensation wetness on your pockets, but hey: I can live with that!

Enjoy!