RANT CORNER

[Derek27]

I recorded the first series of CYE on my VM box and somehow ended up with 30Rock instead - I watched a whole episode before I realized!

There's a really hot bird in it though, Katrina Bowden.

[Trader Pat]

I recorded the first series of CYE on my VM box and somehow ended up with 30Rock instead - I watched a whole episode before I realized!

There's a really hot bird in it though, Katrina Bowden.

How can you mistake 30 Rock for CYE?!

I thought you were cultured Derek!!

[Derek27]

I recorded the first series of CYE on my VM box and somehow ended up with 30Rock instead - I watched a whole episode before I realized!

There's a really hot bird in it though, Katrina Bowden.

How can you mistake 30 Rock for CYE?!

I thought you were cultured Derek!!

I:ve never seen either of them. American comedy has never been high on my list.

[weemac]

My non tech-savvy mother asked me to find an email address for the French pension service where she has a long-standing pension and where they keep getting her name wrong. So I accessed the website, saw some icons about contacting them including Twitter, Facebook and a little white envelope icon which appeared to be an email link. I clicked the little white envelope in order to see what email address would appear. So far, so good.

But who could have imagined that performing such an innocent action would directly lead, 12 hours later, to an entirely unwanted factory re-install of Windows on my laptop with the apparent resultant loss of every file I've ever had on my computer? You wouldn't believe it possible, but it happened.

That aesthetically pleasing little white envelope icon forces open (full-page) Microsoft's email service which I don't use, so I was forced to create an account, which I then couldn't use due to an endless issue of forgotten and incorrect passwords, not to mention that the email address I wanted was at no time visible (in fact the address line was always empty and the email app took up all visible space on my screen, leaving me unable even to quit it!), which led to me having to create a new User profile on my PC, which led the next morning to windows thinking I had a brand new laptop, resulting in a fresh install of windows without asking my permission at any point, which wiped out all my life's work, which then led to me having to use my phone to access the internet to ask google to ask Youtube how to re-create user profiles, delete faulty accounts and get back to where I was.

Why do these tech goliaths get away with treating us like imbecilic children incapable of deciding for ourselves what simple task we'd like a computer to perform without buying in (often at great expense) to every whim they seem to think we need? And why do basic systems, which were created to make our lives simpler, actually make them 10 times more complicated? What's the logical endgame? Just speak into your belly button and delegate every single part of your life to an already overblown, expensive, monolithic, controlling, non-co-operative, uncaring, all powerful, unresponsive and insidiously threatening so-called "technology" corporation? When that day comes you had better already be bowing the knee to Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple et al, or you just might end up hungry and on the streets. In fact, just microchip us all now and get it over with. It's coming anyway.

And all this from a little white envelope icon.

Oh, and the French pension system? I still don't know their email address, but they helpfully note that it takes them 6 months to change your name on a certificate if they get it wrong.

Vive la France!!

[Derek27]

Bit late now but keep a disk image (a carbon copy) of your system volume on another partition, hard drive or USB memory stick. Then you can quickly restore your system in half-an-hour or so.

Another tip, never keep your data on the system volume, have it in a separate partition. Those arseholes at Microsoft seem to think they need to provide us with folders for pictures, videos, documents, etc. as if we're incapable of organising ourselves but it's actually a bad idea. What idiot comes back from the supermarket and chucks all his tinned, fresh and frozen food in a cupboard labeled shopping?

[firlandsfarm]

Bit late now but keep a disk image (a carbon copy) of your system volume on another partition, hard drive or USB memory stick. Then you can quickly restore your system in half-an-hour or so.

Another tip, never keep your data on the system volume, have it in a separate partition. Those arseholes at Microsoft seem to think they need to provide us with folders for pictures, videos, documents, etc. as if we're incapable of organising ourselves but it's actually a bad idea. What idiot comes back from the supermarket and chucks all his tinned, fresh and frozen food in a cupboard labeled shopping?

Totally agree Derek … what is it other than arrogance that makes MS think it knows better than me how I want my folders arranged. The last time I sought help from MS their so called 'professionals' could only advise me to do what Windows wanted me to do, they didn't seem to be able to comprehend that I might want to do my own thing and their attitude towards OneDrive beggars belief. They seem to want me to save everything on OneDrive so that they are in control and command of all my docs and data!

[Derek27]

When will my flipping cat realise that her bum needs to be in the litter tray, as well as her feet?

[spreadbetting]

Bit late now but keep a disk image (a carbon copy) of your system volume on another partition, hard drive or USB memory stick. Then you can quickly restore your system in half-an-hour or so.

Another tip, never keep your data on the system volume, have it in a separate partition. Those arseholes at Microsoft seem to think they need to provide us with folders for pictures, videos, documents, etc. as if we're incapable of organising ourselves but it's actually a bad idea. What idiot comes back from the supermarket and chucks all his tinned, fresh and frozen food in a cupboard labeled shopping?

Any recommendations? I'd backed mine up ages ago, probably with system restore or EaseUS, and when it came to reinstalling it it was no longer compatible with the current windows 8 or version of EaseUS I had on the PC

Just looking for a simple clone of the drive not scheduled backups surprised there aren't a load of them around as it can't be that hard to copy byte by byte the HD image and then rewrite it.

[Derek27]

Bit late now but keep a disk image (a carbon copy) of your system volume on another partition, hard drive or USB memory stick. Then you can quickly restore your system in half-an-hour or so.

Another tip, never keep your data on the system volume, have it in a separate partition. Those arseholes at Microsoft seem to think they need to provide us with folders for pictures, videos, documents, etc. as if we're incapable of organising ourselves but it's actually a bad idea. What idiot comes back from the supermarket and chucks all his tinned, fresh and frozen food in a cupboard labeled shopping?

Any recommendations? I'd backed mine up ages ago, probably with system restore or EaseUS, and when it came to reinstalling it it was no longer compatible with the current windows 8 or version of EaseUS I had on the PC

Just looking for a simple clone of the drive not scheduled backups surprised there aren't a load of them around as it can't be that hard to copy byte by byte the HD image and then rewrite it.

You get backup utilities that backup a system volume while Windows is running using a VSS that logs changes to the volume while backing up but I prefer to create a Windows PE image and do it offline. In case you're not familiar with them, Windows Pre-installation Environment is a mini version of Windows that's small enough to load into memory on a virtual hard drive so you can boot off a USB and run it on a computer without a hard drive.

You can download a ready-made version full of utilities here: http://windowsmatters.com/

BootIt and/or Image for DOS is another good one: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

[spreadbetting]

Thanks, I'll take a lot after racing

[jamesg46]

Can someone help me out with this, firstly I have not had a problem until today, I've recorded 2 screens for some time with no issue. This morning for some reason I just had a black screen and now i've sorted that, the source "Laptop" ia recording both screens and it's pi**ing me off.

[jamesg46]

Nm, I got it.... I was caught in the illusion of the screen looping (I Think), Either way it works now and i'm no longer pi**ed/

[firlandsfarm]

Any recommendations? I'd backed mine up ages ago …

For a moment I thought you were referring to Derek's cat and it's bum!!

[Dr Ginhog]

As were all part of the one family we should laugh at ourselves sometimes.I certainly do.
Thanks John Boy,Thanks Jason,Thanks Mary Ellen,Thanks Ben,Thanks Olivia,Thanks Erin & of course my favourite Jim-Bob.

[Derek27]

I often switch on the news ten minutes early and don't pay much attention to what's on before, it's usually Pointless (didn't realise the pun until I typed ), but the show just finished on ITV, The Masked Singer US, made me feel physically sick!!! What flipping mentality does it take to watch, or even worse appear in the audience?