Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Nasty bugs on airport security trays

IT is bad news for holidaymakers already dreading the slow trudge through airport security.

Airport trays, as well as being an annoyance, also harbour nasty cold and flu bugs from the thousands who use them daily.

Scientists who swabbed the trays found half carried respiratory viruses including rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, and influenza A.

Experts say ill passengers may be using handkerchiefs and tissues, which they put in their pockets, before removing metallic items such as keys and phones to put in the trays. This will then expose other holidaymakers to the bugs. Jonathan Van-Tam, professor of health protection at the University of Nottingham, which carried out the research with the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, said: ‘People can help to minimise contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times – but especially in public places.’ And Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘There is a risk of passing on these viruses, especially during flu season, to other people using the trays and more so to airport staff.

‘There may be other viruses on the trays, like norovirus, which can’t be tested for.’

Researchers found evidence of viruses on ten per cent of the airport surfaces they examined. These included shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport-checking counters and children’s play areas.

Swabs were collected at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, Finland’s main airport, at the height of flu season in February 2016.

Evidence of viruses was found on four out of eight airport trays tested.

The study, published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, concludes that security screening trays pose the ‘highest potential risk’ of any surface in an airport.

The researchers recommended that alcohol-based hand sanitisers be installed in airports for passenger use before and after security screening.

Think of the number of "card" payments at cash machines etc. and the buttons being pressed.

Have to use rubber gloves when I go out.

Good idea Fred, that'll help contain your germs and keep the rest of us healthy. :)

Just take your cleaning staff with you.

George.

Nah,

I will just sigh over the buttons as I press them.

Google is celebrating Chrome’s ten-year anniversary with a slick new theme, but there’s another big new change. The familiar green lock and “Secure” indicator in the address bar are going away.

Web users around the world have been trained to look for the green lock and the “Secure” wording before entering a password, credit card number, or other private information. The word “Secure” indicates the connection is encrypted with HTTPS security, preventing any snooping or tampering.

With Chrome 69, released on September 4, 2018, the word “Secure” is gone and the lock icon turns from a bright green into a monochrome gray.

Those encrypted websites are just as secure as they’ve always been, but Google is cleaning up Chrome’s interface. In Google’s opinion, every website you visit should be a secure website that uses HTTPS encryption. Chrome now warns you that standard HTTP connections are “Not Secure,” so you’re using a secure connection unless Chrome says otherwise.

PS. If you've read the above post, you'll realise Chrome now has an update available.

TIP: So....if you are now thinking of updating Chrome don't. Instead, download and install Patch My PC from HERE and let this program do it for you and also update all your other programs too.

Having duly installed Patch My PC, when you launch the program it will scan your machine and automatically update EVERY PROGRAM on your machine including Chrome.

It might need a bit of setting up to start with but not much.

Notice how the MoneyAM Investor's Room is NOT SECURE.

This means that everything you post on here is available to be read by the whole wide world.

eg. Just 'do a Google' for your MoneyAM Username.

All that 'faff' with logging into the site and it would appear to me, that you can read more posts on here by not logging in, than you can if you do. :-)

The £am site does have a security certificate, Doc. It's simply a case that http traffic on port 80 doesn't automagically redirect to the secure port on the server. If you don't believe me, try adding https at the start of your browser's address bar, and you'll get your green padlock. :o)

That said, a green padlock doesn't stop everybody on the interweb reading your content. Google and co can freely access and index sites regardless of whether there's a green padlock or not. The exception is that they can't index content on the pay per view side of websites unless the webmaster provides them with access (eg. as in the case of some news websites which operate via a subscription).

Thanks for the info, Hils.

On the topic of 'accessing the Internet' there is some 'fake news' doing the rounds about Chrome being insecure.

The news example tells you what can detrimentally happen if you use Chrome on a 'public' as against a 'private' WiFi link.

Obviously, it's the insecure 'public' link which is really the problem, not the browser being used on it.

How do you answer a question? So, answering a question, you answer a question by starting with so.

You answer a question by giving an answer or the answer.

So is that what you are asking and mean then? Or do you mean to ask something else?

So please tell us.

Try nodding your head and then denying it!




8-)

So, I will tell you when the answer is clear. At the moment the situation is fluid and the optics don't look good.

:-)

Somewhat cloudy, eh?

Hmmm? Clouds.....

Bill Gates met God, and God said, "Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this one. I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or to Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in the world, and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."

Bill Gates said, "What's the difference between the two?"

God said, "It might help you decide if you took a peek at both places. Shall we look at Hell first?"

Bill was amazed. He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful men and women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect. "This is great!" said Bill. "If this is Hell, I can't wait to see Heaven."

God said, "Let's go!" and off they went to Heaven.

Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky, with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Bill thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. "God, I do believe I would prefer to go to Hell."

"As you wish," said God.

Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming amidst the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being tortured by demons with pitchforks. "How ya doin', Bill?" asked God.

Bill responded with anguish and despair, "This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?"

"Oh, that," said God. "That was the screen saver."

Good on yer, Mrs Boston. Since you already had a receipt, it wasn't 'criminal' it was 'civil.

House of Fraser customer shortchanged £715 TAKES SOFA from store ‘It’s British justice!’
A HOUSE of Fraser customer who was left without a sofa after the chain went into administration, despite paying hundreds of pounds, got her own back when she sent a team of strongmen to claim what was rightfully hers.
By HELEN BARNETT, Express
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Fri, Sep 7, 2018 | UPDATED: 13:02, Fri, Sep 7, 2018

Fiona Boston could not wait to get her hands on her brand new sofa after paying the designer department store in Darlington £715 cash, years after she first spotted it but when the retail chain went into administration she was left massively out of pocket and sofa-less.

With no help from staff the Stockton mum devised a plan to get what was rightfully hers. With the help of some friends and a van, Ms Boston, 52, marched into the store, dismantled the sofa and walked straight out of the front door with it.

She said: “On July 26 I bought the sofa and chair. I’d had my eye on it for a couple of years, it was a perfect fit for my home.

“I paid in cash and three days later I went back to buy some extras on my debit card which cost £715. My husband Alan had an aneurism last year and it’s taking him a while to get back to full health, but he’d been sitting on deck chairs at home as we were still waiting. He deserved to be comfortable. I kept asking the manager and staff but they were saying everything was out of their hands.”

The delivery dates for Fiona’s purchases were continually put back and she went back to the store on several occasions to ask when she would get them and to check the sofa was still in store.

But then House of Fraser went into administration and Fiona lost her money, along with the sofa.

She added: “They told me I would be put on a list of creditors and to wait to get my money back. I knew that the chances were I wouldn’t be getting it back. They even told me I could take finance out on the sofa - but I refused to pay for it twice.”

So with the sofa she’d paid for sitting in the Darlington store, Fiona decided to take matters into her own hands on September 1.

“I got some of my family together, some strong lads and a van from Scott Bros in Haverton Hill, and decided to go to the store late in the afternoon when it was quite empty. We went up to the second floor, took the sofa apart and walked right out the front door. No one batted an eyelid.”

But as soon as the sofa was loaded onto the van, staff surrounded the vehicle.

“They told me that they’d call the police as it was theft. I said I’d paid for it and had a receipt.”

Fiona, who works as a market trader, drove off but was soon pulled over by the police where she explained what happened.

“I showed him my receipt and that it was rightfully mine. He wasn’t happy but called his inspector who said it was a civil matter and to let us drive off."

Fiona says she is still owed £716 by House of Fraser but her husband Alan, 66, can now relax comfortably on the sofa they’d waited so long for.

Express.co.uk has contacted House of Fraser for comment.

House of Fraser’s stores in Middlesbrough and Darlington were both under threat when the firm went into administration.

However their new owner, Sports Direct’s billionaire founder Mike Ashley, said he would try to keep 80 percent of the chain’s stores open after he bought the company out of administration.

It was announced last week that both stores would remain open.

Blair sticking the boot in today.

Corbyn has ruined the Labour Party just like Foot and the lefties did in the eighties.

Or did Blair cause the problem by supporting Bush in the Iraqi war on false pretences, which in the view of many was one of the precursors to the present world instability?

Of course, ID Smith was a strong proponent of the up and at "em" brigade.

Similar ilk to the mindset of many neo-cons, UKIPPERS and narrow-minded nationalists of the present time.

Ha!Ha! Narrow minded, take a look in the mirror Fred

I have done and do so frequently and then questioned my own views frequently.

Do you?

What springs to mind is "Do unto others as you would have done to unto yourself."

I don't necessarily live up to that standard.