Breathe life into that old laptop/PC

[Glenn]

http://9to5google.com/2016/02/17/neverware-chrome-os-pc-macs/

Can run off a memory stick or be installed.

I tried it last night, it works very well from the memory stick.

[john]

I've recently bought two Toshiba Chromebooks, one each for my wife and myself, and think they are brilliant for web browsing, emails and basic documents. they boot up and you can log in in less than 30 seconds. I like the idea of a memory stick to dual boot old laptops as I have a couple I no longer use. The with them is, and it's the same with my current Windows laptop, is that after a while the battery loses the ability to keep a charge and I have to rely on using the mains adaptor all the time. That itself is not a problem as I only use the laptops in the house but the power sockets eventually work loose and the connection is broken. It's possible to buy new sockets quite cheaply but it's usually quite a job to disassemble the machine to the point where its possible to de-solder the old socket and solder in a new one. I'm sure they could make the connections to equipment more robust.

[Technical Ben]

You can lengthen the battery life by using the battery less. So some models with removable batteries you could take it out and use it once a week, instead of every day (or once a month instead of every week).

Those in constant use get around 18 months.

Sockets though... arghy. Those and screen hinges have some of the worse design choices I've ever seen. Some good ones put the socket on a cable, so impossible for it to snap the motherboard/PCB and an easy swap. Others put the LCD hinges on the smallest bit of metal drilled into a tiny plastic clip that snaps after 6 months.

[john]

After watching some YouTube videos that show how to replace the power connector socket on a Samsung laptop it they all appear to have the socket soldered directly onto the motherboard so I suspect my particular model will be the same. I don't mind de-soldering the old connector and re-soldering the new one but it usually entails removing most of the internals to get the motherboard out to be able to do so. I might have a go at it because since getting the Chromebook I don't use my Windows laptop much now.

Talking of Windows I got a call from a 'lady' with an Indian accent today to inform me that I had a critical problem with my Windows computer. This is unusual because we recently bought some BT8500 telephones which have a built in call blocking feature. We've configured it to block all calls where the number is withheld and International calls. It's been very effective at doing this but a few unwanted callers, like the one today, don't withhold the number and we allow these through but block the number for the future. It's stopped the vast majority though and we were getting several calls a day from people trying to sell PPI claims, boilers, solar panels etc. Actually looking at the call log they are still calling but the phone doesn't ring and the caller gets a message to say they are blocked. Certainly one of my better purchases.

[Technical Ben]

Yeah. The crims are always one step ahead, possibly because they are the ones paying BT and it's easier for BT to then "not know what you mean" when you call for a solution.

The spam calls now spoof local numbers. If they are clever, they can literally spoof your next door neighbour. And as there is probably 100+ lines locally, try blocking them all, without blocking everyone who actually needs to call you. 

BT (or more precisely the phone line infrastructure) facilitates this scam. How? It allows certain businesses to show a different caller line identification (CLI) for business purposes. Say for example the branch in Lincoln called you because they are closest and you posted some paperwork, but they want you to call back on the national number. So the local branch changes the CLI to the national number of the business.

So what happens when companies outside of BTs reach (outside of the UK) then buy phone time and lines to resell to other businesses outside the UK? Yeah, you guessed it.

The solution is to either cut the cables in the sea, or cut the stupid allowance of spoofing the number... I know which one is more likely from BT (or whoever are behind such systems as CLI).  

[john]

Numbers in our address book always get through and we could configure the phones to block all other numbers. We don't choose to block non-withheld numbers as we sometimes need to receive calls from genuine callers who are not in our address book and the number of unwanted calls from them are few and far between.

[colirv]

Our Trucall announces something along the lines of "If you're a cold caller or ringing concerning a fault on our computer, please hang up now. Otherwise dial x to speak to The Xxxxxs". No computer fault calls in two years!

[Technical Ben]

Yeah. "True Call" would work as legit callers will still be happy to hold and leave their real name. Hopefully someone saying "Natwest bank" would be an obvious scam?

[john]

My phones do use TruCall technology and when I first set them up I incorrectly configured it so that callers who were not in the address book but didn't withhold their number would be asked to state their name and if they gave it we would then be asked if we wished to accept the call. Unfortunately not long after the phones were installed we had a couple of calls from people we know but as they rarely phone us I hadn't put them in the address book. They therefore heard the message asking them for their name which if they had given it we would be asked if we wished to accept the call. However because they were unfamiliar with this call blocking feature they both declined to give their names. We only knew they had called because they had my wife's mobile number but if they are typical then it seems that genuine callers are also reluctant to give their names to an automated system as well as those who are trying to scam you or sell you something.

[colirv]

This is why we set our Truecall up the way I describe, using the Shield option rather than the Whisper that you started with. No-one has ever, to our knowledge, found being asked to enter a single digit to be put through off-putting (they don't have to say their name), whereas a number of callers have asked us where they can buy a machine like ours!

[Glenn]

Back to the original topic, anyone used Cloudready?

[Clive]

The spam calls now spoof local numbers. If they are clever, they can literally spoof your next door neighbour. And as there is probably 100+ lines locally, try blocking them all, without blocking everyone who actually needs to call you. 

The CPR Callblocker I use will identify spoofing and block it.

[stevenrw]

This is interesting stuff Glenn, I have an old HP Mini Netbook that was creeping along so slowly I consigned it to the loft. I'll dust it off and give this a try.
But...
1. I assume you still need Anti-Virus
2. Would Windows-suitable AV's work such as Avast for example, and what about other programs? Do you just download "apps" as if it were an Android O.S.?
3. I've wiped the old drive on the netbook so presumably a clean install of Chromium would reformat the disc to whatever is needed. I wouldn't take the dual boot route with this.
Any further info would be greatfully received.

[Glenn]

Make sure that the laptop is on the list of compatiable models or it may not work, https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1oaFfS3QZia17FE8UBMEF4xNKhz6U2iAtbPmxZTethF0/pub  I tried using my HP Mini 9 it loaded, but the keyboard and mouse were not recognised.