Haven't used doze this century or not on my own machines at any rate. Would blocking the M$ domain(s) in the router be a way of stopping automagical updates?

It is W7, so it can be shut off, but there is an idiot who insists on surfing the web off the machine, so it does need updates.

Reminds me of the idiot boss from XP days who used his desktop (taskbar) clock as a holiday planner. As Boss, he had to have an administrator account (of course), so all the orders he processed for the rest of the day were dated a month or few into the future.

We eventually bought him a Windows Domain Controller, and locked everybody's clocks to NTP.

you have the correct idea

Getting a little fed up with my mobile phone provider, Vodafone.
When I bought my new phone in October, I paid it in full. Got myself a new subscription with it and there the troubles started.
In November they tried to get me to pay my phone again, by adding €20,- a month for two years to my subscription for paying off the phone - which was already paid off.
In December another mysterious payment of €1,29 a month for two years was added.
Now I just got my bill and they've added €219,36 as 'additional costs' without specification anywhere as to what these may be.

Of course my bill came in moments after their help desk closed for the weekend. So I guess another trip to the store is in, ah, store on Monday.
Grrrrr.

F'in doze update last night, broke file sharing!
then after undoing the downdate, it erased the custom firewall settings!!!

It isn't just me ...
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-kb4480960-and-kb4480970-updates-causing-network-and-license-problems/

We recommend this workaround until a fix is available in a future release.

And you have the prospect of a, "fix" to mess things up further.

Apparently my mobile ISP can't believe I paid off the phone when I bought it and is trying to get it paid (again) left and right. That's what the extra cost of 220 euros was for on my phone bill this month.
Can't wait what it'll be next month...

Apparently my mobile ISP can't believe I paid off the phone when I bought it

As in: "No one in their right mind would buy a phone from us" ?

Their record keeping must be an appalling mess if they don't have a record of the sale.

The contractor is currently deconstructing the bathroom as in remodel. So far it is glory. After a few days a grumble may appear.

Their record keeping must be an appalling mess if they don't have a record of the sale.

At the first bill, the helpful guy at the store sent in my contract on which it says that I paid off the device. It seems someone isn't reading their mail. Now, in the past three months I have been paid back everything every time, and all times they haven't taken my actual subscription fees. So I am expecting problems from that as well...
I always seem to get my bill at 10 past 6 pm on a Saturday around the 10th of that month, outside of closing time of the store. It's going to be interesting what they're going to do in March, as you'll see I get another big charge to be had, but I can't go to the store on Monday then because I'm on a ferry to Britain then. Oh well.

I'm on a ferry to Britain then. Oh well.

At least you have warned Richard, Boinc on.

Not sure if it is a grumble or if it is a glory but ...
Got the month end bank statement for the company and a check for a levy payment mailed on the 14th hadn't cleared. Now tell me of any tax agency anywhere that sits on a check ...
Called the bank, now the 10th and yes check # 1234567 cleared on the 9th ...
Uh, WTF?
Is it them? Is it the Post Office? Are they going to say we didn't post it on time and demand pound of flesh?

To make it funnier, got another levy notice today. This one is much easier, the service provider quit five months ago and closed his business. I think he saw the handwriting on the wall. He had had several other levys but from the feds not the state. He eventually got all of those released. All the time of them he had refused to send us a bill, so as soon as he had it released, bill and OBW I am closing at the end of the month. I'm pretty sure I know what happened, he classified his employees as independent contractors and the government didn't agree.

sigh

Not sure if it is a grumble or if it is a glory but ...
Got the month end bank statement for the company and a check for a levy payment mailed on the 14th hadn't cleared. Now tell me of any tax agency anywhere that sits on a check ...

First time ever this has happened to me. My local County Property Tax Assessor did not deposit/cash the check for my home's property taxes due December 31, 2018 until 12/29 even thought I had mailed it November 19th.

Usually the check is cashed/deposited within a week of me mailing it. Guess they have more than enough money in the County Treasury or someone misplaced a day or multiple day's worth of mail.

....... It's a little chilly here in the SETI cafe. Wonder if some of the PC's got "borked" with the latest round of M$ updates that was mentioned a few post ago.

Probably more like they don't work at Christmas and one or two days around that.

At 06:30 Xmas Eve, was woken by an massive bang. Checked everything & no sign of any damage. It sounded similar to a psu exploding. Went back to bed & woke at 8. Entered the bathroom for a wash & shave & raised the blinds, saw this:



No problem. These things happen.

Contacted the repair centre at 08:09. They took all the details & stated that they will get back to me with a date for the repairs. This was done later that afternoon & I was surprised to get the call from their London office. Appointment booked for 14/1/19 PM.

Received text message at 15:30 Friday. Also received another at 15:32 Sunday. Both confirming the appointment for Monday.

Ain't technology grand. :-)

17:00 yesterday, no sign of contractors, so called them. Got told that the appointment is on their systems & transferred me to the glaziers.
Glaziers knew nothing about the appointment & stated too late now but they will get back to me.

Edit. Just go off the phone after a "lovely" 18 minute call. I called them not the other way round. :-)
Nice "musical chairs" on who is to blame. The final comment had me chuckling. "There could have been a chip in the glass & with the heating on, the difference in temperature could have caused it".
When they got told that heating is rarely used due to lovely heat provided several computers with none running in a bathroom, topic got changed.

Appointment booked for a "survey" on Friday PM to ascertain the damage (pic already e-mailed to them).

No wonder the Grenfell tragedy occurred. Just wondering how many more to come in future years!
Just after editing this, received a text message (16:03) from Glaziers confirming appointment.
Ain't technology wonderful. :-)

Searching a list of B&B's in the UK with one filter for Internet/WiFi set results in:

No results were found.
Your search was a little too specific.We suggest reducing the filters or searching for a different city.

Sigh.

More glory here, the bathroom is almost done, the sliding glass door to the patio is done and the kitchen has been started. This is going better than I anticipated.

Try these for starters

That's London. Go to www.booking.com to find others in other cities.

Grumbles over @ Einstein, uploads have been stuck for well over 6 hrs, no glory there.

Grumbles over @ Einstein, uploads have been stuck for well over 6 hrs, no glory there.

A repeat of a previously known and understood problem. It might clear in the next few minutes, if Bernd has set the script to run every 12 hours: if he's set it for 24 hours, he'll get an email from me first thing tomorrow morning (UTC).

Thanks for that. I'll be avoiding London though, probably a marvelous city but not to drive in.