Sod that EL get one of those cheap "magic" baskets from Argos , chuck the washing in and two days later turns up washed and ironed in the wardrobe.

Bloody marvellous :-)

If you want magic baskets or rather magic basket cases then you are on the wrong thread. Try the "MP"S expenses, laughing all the way to the bank" thread!

You ever get bored Haystack go see what you can find out about the Blaenau Gwent constitueny MP , biggest Labour majority in the UK in 1997 I think and now Independent.

Fantistic example of how the electorate can turn on those taking them for mugs.

LOL :-)

PS. What's an iron?

It is what an Irishman puts to his ear when the phone rings and he is ironing.

Paypal have just asked me to verify my account.

I am direct debiting to my bank current account - so nothing has changed.

Odd - or likely?

EDIT. It must be a scam as it asks me to fill in and send a form with credit card details and, as I said above, my PayPal works through my bank account.

Cheeky whatsits.

TP

TP

It could be legit, it could be a scam. Don't follow any links in the email but type the proper PayPal address into the browser. That should keep you safe from all but a keylogger or DNS trojan.

If you're really suspicious, change all of your passwords from another machine, prefferably running a live Lynux OS.

Opt.

Thanks.

I have looked that the links for the form and one goes to angelonline.biz

Google tells me that is a phishing site.

I bet this fools a fair number of people as it looks so convincing.

But not us wise old folk lurking around MAM. We may not be making loads a' money - but we spot a phisher from a mile away...

TP

A good Outlook addon for checking suspect emails is PocketKnife Peek. My thanks to Spaceman for originally putting me on to it.

Opt,

Thanks for the link. But....

I was advised, a while ago, to avoid Outlook altogether if possible.

Consequently I use nPopW as a scanner to check what is in my mailbox every ten minutes. It downloads nothing other than the first hundred or so lines of text.

I prune the obvious junk and then download with Virtual Access.

With Avast running all the time.

Touch wood, no problems within my (eroding) memory.

TP

I know a few of you use AVG .. has anyone noticed it slowing down their computer more than usual? I'm running the free version 8.5.421 on XP.

PlanB,

I abandonned it about a year ago. Not able to take measurements - but on the basis of a gut reaction.

Having said that I now use Avast and that little rotating A hardly ever seems to rest. It is particularly annoying on the machine that I use for photography and where I have told Avast to ignore my own picture folders.

TP

I'm looking for a good backup/cloning utility. One that I want to avoid is Acronis - it fouled up my laptop bigtime. I've heard mention of Macrium Reflect. Any users here?

I use Acronis and find it works well, with one exception. I backup to a separate disk and according to what it says on the tin, as it were, when the disk is full it is supposed to knock of the earliest backup to make room for the latest. Only it doesn't. That means that every three weks or so I have to clear out the Acronis secure zone and start again. Irritating. I wonder where I'm going wrong.
Any Acronis users out there?

Klal

Wait till next week and upgrade to Windows 7. It is worth the upgrade anyway and the backup is superb although you may need to go for the Ultimate version.

TOK, Optimist - thanks. I bought my HP Laptop about 4 months ago. It came with Vista Home Premium - I guess I am entitled to a free Windows 7 upgrade. Been hearing really good things about Windows 7.

TOK,

Acronis.

Yes and mine works.

I am no guru I don't know what to suggest.

But feel free to fire any questions.

TP

TP - Thanks for your interest but there's not a lot more I can say.
The problem is as stated. I'll try the Acronis forum if nobody else pops up here. Regards, ToK

TP - thanks. I'll be buying a new desktop soon when Windows 7 is officially out. I'll have to review AV programs then I think. AVG seems to be stifling my current machine, (which is admittedly a little old now).

PlanB
running 8.5.421 with no probs