I've been able to install Abiword, but not LibreOffice. Same problem as before, with the Installer not being recognized.
I also had the same installation problem with both MicroSoft's Word Viewer, and MicroSoft's Powerpoint Viewer, as well. Surprising, given that MicroSoft write and publish both viewers, plus Windows 7 as well. I had thought that MicroSoft would have made sure, that all their software would work on any new version of Windows. At least I was able to install Excel Viewer.
I've got a question about our router and I was wondering what others thought. We're with Orange (EE) and our router is supposed to allow up to ten things to be connected at a time. In practice we rarely have more than two things connnected - our computer and our son's X-Box (on which he can play online games with friends). Anyway, there are often problems with the X-Box connection (lagging or sometimes inability to connect at all) even though the computer connection is generally fine. The problem with the X-Box connection can usually be solved by changing the router channel, though it has to be done almost daily which is annoying.
Yesterday I phoned Orange (EE) about the situation and was told that the problem wouldn't occur as frequently if we left our router on overnight instead of switching it off when we go to bed. That's because the "firmware" for the router (some kind of software?) is updated automatically at night, and if your router is turned off you miss the updates. The man on the phone took me through the process of updating the firmware manually yesterday, which seemed to help, but I'd like to know whether it's really necessary to leave the router on every night and whether other people here have been told the same thing. Apart from being a slight fire risk (though we do have smoke alarms), isn't it costly? We're constantly informed that if you leave your TV on standby overnight, your electricity bill will increase significantly. We've always turned off our TV and that only has one light, whereas our router has five.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
My router is a BT Home Hub, Anita, and this is the advice they give on their website to the question about leaving it switched on:
Should I have my BT Home Hub switched on all the time?
Ideally, yes. The BT Home Hub needs to be switched on for the following services to work:
BT Broadband Talk
BT Vision
BT FON
Automatic Hub firmware updates
So if your Hub is switched off, you might miss calls, not be able to benefit from all the features of BT Vision or miss automatic updates. Only the BT Home Hub needs to be switched on to use these services - your computer can be switched off.
I never turn mine off - not even when I go on holiday. I don't think it poses a fire risk and the cost of keeping it on permanently is less than £10 per year, according to BT. I hope this is helpful, Anita.
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.
We never turn our BT Home Hub off either. It's constantly on, even when we're away. I don't think they burn that much electricity to worry about, or set fire too, as it's just like leavin your phone plugged into the phone socket.
We don't turn off our Satalite dish or TV, and only unplug the TV when we go away in case of lightening.
I think it would be fine if you left your internet connection on all the time, Anita.
Julian gave an exclamation and nudged George.
"See that? It's the black Bentley again. KMF 102!"
We've got a sky broadband router and we never turn it off. We've never even thought to turn it off at nights or when we're out to be honest. As there are 3 - 5 adults in the house depending on the day/time of year we could never be sure who would want on the internet at any given time! Besides that I'm the only person in the house who really understands how it works seeing as I set it up so I wouldn't trust anyone else to touch it.
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
Thanks very much for all the replies. It does seem that it's standard practice to leave routers switched on, then, and that there's a good reason for doing so.
Going by what you said, Eddie, it appears that not leaving one's TV on standby overnight probably results in a less than spectacular saving of about £2 a year, which is roughly the price of two loaves of bread! Mind you, being lax about that may lead to being lax in other areas, and all these little things mount up.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
We would never leave our TV on standby over night but the router is always left on. I'm sure I heard or read recently that a TV on standby uses almost as much power as when it is on. Like Aurélien we occasionally need to unplug the router as it sometimes refuses to play!
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.
I used to switch off the power panel of all my PC and related devices like my router. This didn't work too well because of the old electricity system switching on the power panel frequently resultet in blowing the fuse. It also proved to be not beneficial for my router to shut the power supply down every evening - after some time it wouldn't start properly, and I had to do a cold reboot again. I had to realize that switching these devices completely from the power supply might result in a lower electricity bill but will probably result in higher expenses on replacing the devices that would have worked much longer.
All this has got me thinking about "green" issues. Have those gone out of the window to some extent now, with all these new devices like routers, i-phones, e-readers, etc.? You never hear anyone advising people to borrow books from the library rather than reading them on an e-reader (to save having to charge the e-reader), or to limit phone calls or texts only to what's absolutely necessary (to save having to charge the i-phone). And secondary schools now expect pupils to do a lot of their essays, projects, etc. on the computer and print them off. Several times I've had to get my children to reduce the size of fonts or images before printing, to save ink.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
While I much prefer books to ereaders, books aren't exactly 'environmentally friendly'.
There's the cutting down of trees (plus the fuel used to transport the trees/run the chainsaws etc)... the energry that goes into the production and transportation of paper, the energy for the production of the book itself as well as the ink. There's fuel to transport the book to the shops plus someone had to make the cardboard boxes and plastic wrapping they're transported in.
Is that better or worse than charging your kindle? Though of course the kindle had to be manufactured and transported itself - but only the once.
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
Actually producing kindles, PCs and the like isn't that environmentally friendly either. There are elements of half of the known perodic table in them, and to gain them requires a lot of energy as well.
It's also scandalous that Apple and Smasung makes it very hard to replace the accus - if you do it yourself you lose the warranty of the device. If people use things like an iphone permanently and have to recharge them all night the accus won't last much longer than one year with an acceptable charging capacity, and replacing it will cost almost as much as a new device then (which probably is the idea behind it).
