Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: CLKD on August 14, 2014, 04:50:31 PM
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e-Bay etc. are having problems due to the over-use of the web etc.. We are unable to get various sites in the afternoons >:( even MM went down briefly just now.
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I think they may get it sorted CLKD.
Can't see it going anywhere soon.
Honeyb
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I don't think I'll add this to my list of worries quite yet ;)
Taz x
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Do you need to update your hub CLKD ?.
We recently got a new one and things are a lot faster.
Honeyb
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Everything has been loading really slowly here - Google, Skype etc - for the last few days. It was better this morning though. Makes you realise what a part of everyday life the internet has become.
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Here's the techy explanation http://www.itproportal.com/2014/08/13/ebay-amazon-and-linkedin-taken-down-by-huge-worldwide-internet-outage-ipv4-ipv6-bgp-routers-address-exhaustion/
Taz x
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I have BT Infinity. I reckon they throttle speeds at busy times although they say they don't. Throttling could be why certain sites are loading slowly for you? Also servers (not that I understand this stuff). I know I use french and South African websites and despite my connection being v fast, they take ages to load or need refreshing constantly.
It's amazing how the capacity of the web expands and copes, with millions of people tweeting their every waking thought. And all those funny cat videos.... ;D
I can still remember being shown "the internet" by an academic friend - not all that long ago - and being quite sceptical (Altavista search results being somewhat bizarre!). At that stage , it was designed for academic (and military ::)) uses.
I still think Wikipedia should get a Nobel Prize though.
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I was running a homework club in the local library, using Altavista and MSN mainly to find out info. My son came home from work one day and told me about this great new search engine called Google - what a revelation! Then a few weeks later he told me about Wikipedia. Homework aws never the same again. :D
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One needs to be wary of Wikipedia though ;) and it is the big sites that keep going down. Because there is so much use 24/7! It could knock out a lot of the sites for a lot of the time ……….. we've always been with BT, no complaints and have never considered moving to another company.
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Wikipedia is awful - it's the one site we are not allowed to use at school as anyone can edit the information and there is no verification that it's true. Tempting though.
Taz x
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Depends what you look up. Just read some brilliant stuff on the 1940s flying boats that flew from Beira to Europe. My 91 year old friend was one of the first passengers on then BOAC.
They landed on lakes throughout Africa.
Wikipedia publishes a warning when entries have been edited. I think it's an incredible, free resource. Kids need to learn to challenge what they're told or what they read, and cross reference with other sources of info, but beg to differ that it's "awful".
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There is a lot of very good information on Wikipedia, much better than on many other internet or paper based sources.
As you may possibly have gathered, I do not think it is "awful"
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I didn't mean to offend by the word "awful". I meant in the context of accuracy for school work. In school we are not allowed to use Wiki as a source of information for lesson planning etc. and it is also not encouraged for homework purposes. It does give us loads of info and is quick and easy to access but even Wiki themselves do say that it is not reliable as an academic source.
Taz x
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I can understand the concern for academic work, but as you say, Wiki themselves do point out it is not verified. Wouldn't it be good if people did go in to "correct" inaccuracies?
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Yes - people do that of course but again Wiki does say that they have no way of checking who is making the changes - apart from the IP address which doesn't give qualifications of course. There is a list of uncovered hoaxes though which make interesting reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia
Taz x :)
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Reading the above, it looks as if some of take homework a lot more seriously than used to be the case with the kids I worked with. They were all from deprived backgrounds (hence the club where they could use a computer and print out info) and the teachers were just happy if they could produce something appropriate to the topic. The subjects were also pretty random - I had no idea what capoeira was until loads of them had to do a project on it.
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I like Wikipedia but always look to see if anything has been edited.
You can always check from other sources besides Wikipedia.
Google Scholar is the best for accurate references.
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Re Wikipedia....
Took the discussion off forum, spoke to OH.
He uses Wiki to look at Mathematics and Science things, for these apparently it is trustworthy. His explanation, the matter is not subjective, it's easy to see where things are wrong, anybody writing about such things knows and cares what they are talking about (his words dear readers).
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I totally agree with your OH Limpy and I was going to say the same thing in my post, you can get a feel if it doesn't read correctly.
Though kids looking up things may not be so astute.
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When I worked in my kids primary ( I took kids for reading and computer studies) the local authority was very clear what web sites the kids could use. In fact at that point....quite a few years ago....it was locked down and very few sites could be viewed.
I think most education authorities are still the same. When my kids were at secondary school there were recommended web sites.
They do say that university students plagiarize a lot of work. Both my son and daughter had and have to run all essays through a plagiarize checking facility. They are only allowed a small percentage of their work to be lifted from the internet and that includes sites such as Wiki.
Honeyb
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Many people take info off the internet and quote parts of other works, because it appears relevant to the project they are working on. Sometimes they haven't even read it correctly ::)
Now - back to the initial issue ;) …… we have again had MotoGP drop out completely :cuss:
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CLKD that's what people did before the internet ;D
What site are you using for MotoGP?
OH has been using BTSport, which keeps on having hiccups.
When it's on I can't use the internet at all, so ladies I probably won't be on here till after 3pm ish tomorrow ::)
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We have not had any problems with internet or accessing websites at all and speed is normal, we are paying for a fast connection though.
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No problems here either. Mind you being in Scotland and fairly rural our choices of broadband is limited. I am with BT because it offers the best but not the cheapest service. We can't get Virgin or Sky broadband.
There is a price to pay for living up here.
If we go independent then I think it will be pedal powered internet ;D
Honeyb
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whoops, didn't mean to cause any arguments over Wiki. I love it. I also think it's massively important to teach kids to treat all media with healthy scepticism (although it complicates life!).
CLKD, what speed is your home connection supposed to be? Have you tried testing it on speedtest.net (or similar)? Ours has been fine, but we also pay for Infinity.
I also find my browsing isn't as fast if I've not cleared the browser cache recently. Sometimes it's just the peak time of day though too. Very annoying when it buffers - reminds me of the dear old days of dial up.
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This explains it in a less techy way http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2724495/Top-websites-crash-web-starts-run-space-Fears-major-technical-problems-regular-occurrence.html
Taz x
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DH checked the speed yesterday and has sent an e-mail to BTSports …….. it is not good enough for the BBC not to show well attended sports events and put them onto their web-site if they are unable to support them. >:( after all, there would be a public outcry should football disappear in this way :cuss: …………
Thanks Taz …….. doesn't help today though :'(
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There may be a forum about this under BT?
Taz x
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Couldn't find one :-\
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There might be something here https://community.bt.com/t5/YouView-box/bt-sport-recording-failures/td-p/1244643
Taz x
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CLKD don't know whether this helps but I can't use the internet if OH is watching MotoGP on BTSport, it knackers/slows down (ooops) his downloading, pictures go intermittent. I'me on now because there is a gap between races. I suppose I could go online but it mightn't be marriage enhancing.......
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Did he get to see MotoGP ? ours crashed :'( ……….. as did Cal apparently :o
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He did, I kept off internet so as not to disrupt his downloading ::)
He saw the MotoGP and the moto2 & moto3 races.
The race sounded good, I didn't watch, 2 huddling round a laptop doesn't entirely work......
Our broadband speed is dire, but we are 2 miles away from the exchange.
No fibre optic there, though there is at the coast, 8 miles away. No use to us though. :(
Do you know the race results?
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Yes thanks, they are on the laptop when I log in ::)
We have a gadget thingy to plug into the TV and laptop so that we can put MotoGP onto the Big Screen ……. of course, if it worked ……...