Behold! I bring you tidings of great joy, for this writer hath just finished bloody work for the year, after a massively stressful month. If she had her way, certain developers and project ‘managers’ would be strung up by the bollocks (in festively fetching tinsel, of course) and hung from the top of the big pine tree on the village green.
Now able to turn her attention to much more important matters, she finds that there is another round of the European Cups this weekend.
Since nearly all the home sides lost last weekend, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen this week, but let us hope that trend continues for matches featuring teams whose names end in ‘ster’.
Onna telly this week
Friday 18th December
| Pumas v Cheetahs | 17:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Castres v Newcastle | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Scarlets v Toulon | 19:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Wasps v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport ? |
Saturday 19th December
| Leinster v Northampton | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Gloucester v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Clermont v Munster | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Sale v Edinburgh | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bordeaux v Dragons | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Worcester v Ospreys | 20:00 | S4C |
Sunday 20th December
| Harlequins v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Connacht v Bristol | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Cardiff 28 Р0 Stade Fran̤ais |
Ovally Balls 
Radiators are a sod to fit right enough
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@chimpie
I wouldn’t worry too much. You’ll have managed to bleed all the gas out of the system by Christmas 2025.
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Am I alone in being completely mystified as to what on earth Chimpie is up to? Am I on the wrong side of a wealth divide, is it a perversion I’m too innocent to know about or am I just thick as mince?
The Real Internet just wants to tell me Urdu words for mulberries.
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Good old Boris gave us an extra couple of days notice with cancelling Christmas as the Middle One’s teacher has now had a positive test so Middle One has to self-isolate for ten days. She’s going to miss the swings, but is pleased that we won’t get to go for a nice walk in the country.
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Could one of you computery type people explain to me whether it matters that I keep getting messages about Flash Player being about to pack in? Do I need to replace it with something or do the clever people do it all for us now?
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I haven’t a clue either CMW. We are both in the same boat, so unfortunately that probably means you are thick as mince.
Sorry to hear about the middle one. Guess Santa can’t visit her either ?
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Regardless of self-isolation nobody can visit Father Christmas, but he has special dispensation to go in everyone’s houses. Have struggled to explain this a number of times in the last couple of weeks.
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Most of the upset is around not being able to go to stay at my mum’s in Hereford, Boris put paid to that, but now we wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. Obviously there is the concern that the child might have Covid. She says not, let’s hope she’s right.
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I can’t see that asking the Middle One if she’s got it is any less effective a way of finding out the truth of the matter than trying to stick a cotton bud up the Little One’s nose was back in the summer.
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@cmw
Upgrade your browser to the latest version. Might help. Might not.
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@OT – should I stick a cotton bud up her nose at the same time?
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@cmw
Probably not. Just give her some ice cream.
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I’ll do that. In between all the Shehtoots and Khurdani Phals the Big Wide Web is telling me websites don’t need Flash any more as they use something called html5. Is this right and does it mean I should get rid of Flash or just leave it sitting there?
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Or perhaps you were trying to help me work out whether I was too thick, too poor or not dirty enough to follow Chimpie?
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CMW – this may help.
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(With the Flash Player issue, not being dirty enough to follow Chimpie.)
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Also, best of luck with the Middle One. If she does have it, she’s fairly likely to be asymptomatic. So I’d probably shun her.
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So does that mean I get rid of it and don’t need anything else to enable this html5 thing as websites already do all that themselves for you? I have no understanding of how the internet works.
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As OT said, probably best to update your browser.
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What will that do? I think it’s up to date anyway – all I know on this matter is that the computer tells me periodically I should delete Flash and I don’t know if that’s true or, assuming it is, whether I need to do anything to ‘get’ this html5 to be able to watch shit rugby matches.
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Ah, well, it’s entirely possible that some of these dodgy streams will still require Flash in order to exploit the vulnerabilities in it.
I’d get rid of it.
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Just checked and I don’t have Flash installed on this, but occasionally watch dodgy streams.
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“these dodgy streams”
Mostly S4C Clic…
Anyway I’ll delete it. Do I need to replace it with anything?
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The most important thing is to have a good anti-malware package installed. I use Norton 360.
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No, you shouldn’t have to replace it with anything if you’ve got an up-to-date browser.
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I’ve never paid for anything like that as I don’t know what I’m doing. Will look into it for the new Christmas computer Mrs CMW has bought.
Regardless, at risk of repeating myself, when I delete Flash am I going to get asked by websites to install something to do what it used to do or does it all happen by magic now?
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Thanks Thaum, that puts my mind at rest.
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I got something right! Quick, someone tell the missus.
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You may get some websites that ask you to install Flash. They are probably not very secure websites. But if you really want to use them, you can always install it again; it’s free, if dodgy.
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(I wouldn’t.)
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Ah Ok, I see. When I first got this computer ‘normal’ websites asked me to install Flash so I did. Dodgy streaming ones often ask me to update it (not so much now), but I just try a different stream until one works or doesn’t (or in the past asked Refit for one).
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I should add that me giving advice on what to do with PC clients is a bit like a gastroenterologist giving you advice on what to do about your ingrowing toenail. There is some basic knowledge, but it isn’t my area of expertise.
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Fuck knows what you need to install to get S4C Clic to work consistently.
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If you’re getting a new xmas computer, this problem should magically solve itself. :-)
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*The Flash problem
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Hopefully. I don’t know what Mrs CMW has bought or whether it’s any good and neither does she.
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Any attempts to stream rugby matches not on normal telly will still take place on this computer of course.
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Well, it’s probably safe to say that it’s got up-to-date software, unless she’s bought a used one off eBay, or something.
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Anyway what the devil is Chimpie up to?
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Sourcing Viagra, I should think.
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As for the Middle One I can’t really shun her as the established tradition is that self-isolating in reality means hanging out with me all the time while everyone else gets on with what they want to do. You then get to say “Me and daddy are friends” a lot and whenever you’re in trouble you try to deflect it by asking me if we’re still friends.
That’s the Little One’s game anyway and the Middle One is well aware of it.
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It’s my experience (as the eldest of three daughters) that Middle Ones are big trouble.
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The Middle One supports the White Witch of Narnia and regularly accuses us of ruining her life by not sending her/being able to afford to send her/ever dreaming of sending her if we could afford it to boarding school. By and large she’s considerably less trouble than the others though.
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This reminds me of a story I might possibly have told before.
There was a French pâtisserie near my house in Michigan, owned and run by actual French people. One day, near xmas, I went in to buy an almond croissant that the pusher-like Madame had addicted me to by previously offering a free sample, and asked her how she was.
“Ah,” she said, “My daughter is visiting, with my grand-daughter. I adore my grand-daughter.
“Now, my daughter I have not always got on well with.”
Being slightly unsure how to respond to this information, I said that I’d always got on extremely well with my grandmother.
“Ah yes,” she replied, “This is because you have a common enemy.”
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Well, now the boarding school question is interesting to me. My mother got sent to boarding school when she was four – yes, four – and hated it. (This was in India.) When we were moving to the US, I had been accepted to a grammar school that took boarders, and was just around the corner from the aforementioned adored grandmother, and I begged to be allowed to stay. Probably dad’s work would have paid the fees.
Because of her hatred of boarding school, I was exiled to the US.
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I have no idea why they’re allowed to hang out with me when they’re self-isolating and I am still allowed to mix with other people, think it’s along the same lines as the Father Christmas thing.
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In a roundabout way Chimpie is just telling us what he does with all that one-sided cheese on toast. Not surprised he is having problems with erections and radiators.
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Not sure how well llamas survive without an erect neck.
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I believe they normally cope OK as long as you bleed the gas out of them often enough.
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I’ve always been advised against using anti-virus software, as far as I understand it Windows defender, or whatever it’s called now, does exactly the same job, as long as you keep your version up to date and download each patch etc.
Your internet provider provides another level of security and if you are worried you can always use clean up free programmes like CCleaner which cleans up your system and gets rid of unwanted files.
This is just my experience, but I’ve had more problems with antivirus software than without.
Because I do use vip box and suchlike on this computer I never do banking or make any purchases on it, just to be super safe, I use an ipad or iphone for that.
I used to use a Linux boot for those things on this ‘puter – the banking and purchases – but since I “upgraded” to Win10 it wouldn’t load Linux, for reasons best know to itself.
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