A cause for celebration concerning TalkTalk?

A handful of short snippets for you today, rather than a big long article. Starting with something that cheered me up in a strange sort of way!

Ofcom fines TalkTalk/Tiscali
I’ve written before about shady tricks Tiscali use to get you to sign up for things you don’t want and to get you to pay more than you should. So I was pleased to hear that not only do Ofcom agree, they’ve actually fined TalkTalk for it. (Here’s more info: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2102684/ofcom-hits-talktalk-tiscali-gbp3m-fine )

It’s not that I’m cheering at TalkTalk having to pay the fine – it’s that I’m hoping it’ll make them realize they can’t get away with this sort of thing and they’ll smarten up their act.

I can hope, can’t I?

More on Family History (and why I’m not a film star)
I mentioned last time that I’m working on a book about researching your family history on the internet. It’s not finished yet but in the meantime I’ve recorded a short video about some of the things you can find out on the web – you can watch it here: www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/NL010911video.htm

(I’d like to think this makes me a film star but I know I’ll be upstaged by the picture with Alastair in, near the end)

Windows 8 – (don’t panic yet!)
Microsoft haven’t yet announced when they’ll be bringing out Windows 8, the next version of Windows. But rumours (possibly leaked by them) suggest it’ll be late in 2012.

My advice is not to worry about it for now. Microsoft have often been later than they said with versions of Windows (Vista was years late) and even when it does come out, my advice will be to wait for 6 months or so until they fix any bugs!

So don’t panic yet!

Quick tip if a webpage won’t load
I think I’ve mentioned this before but it was a long time ago and I know we have lots more readers since then: If you click on a link on the web and it is taking for ever to load, it might have “jammed”.

If you press the escape key (usually labelled just “ESC”) on the keyboard it should stop trying to load it. Then if the link is still on screen, try clicking it again. Chances are, this time it’ll work. If the link has disappeared and you have a blank (or half loaded) screen, press the F5 key at the top of the keyboard and it’ll reload the page currently on the screen – then you can click the link again.

I suddenly thought to include this after I was checking something about Windows 8 for the snippet above and the webpage “jammed” – but pressing escape then re-clicking the link sorted it for me.

Hope you found that interesting – that’s all for now.

Yours
Tim Wakeling

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