List of Rants

At least the wiki package in Bitweaver works more reliably than the blog one, so this should save without problem.

Sunday morning and I've just been over the communal shower for my weekly all over clean. Have to go over there as the flat has no shower and the hot water supply is incapable of supporting one. A previous occupant had paid to have an electric one fitted, but that was removed after they moved out! What a waste of money. I'm using the kettle to get hot water in the kitchen as it take longer to get water through the pipes from the cylinder than boiling it. The other problem in the kitchen is that the water drains slower than the cold water tap can fill it! A design problem since the flats were built 40 years ago apparently. Will try and address both once I come off the 'one week notice' stage of my tenancy, but should the housing association be doing the work to sort the problems? The communal heating is also a little problematic. Flat dropped to 17ºC last weekend, and is 19ºC at the moment. Just a case of wrapping up but the occupants of other flats may struggle ...

I do my own medical checks each morning and my body temperature has dropped to 35.8ºC, and has been lower. I'm using monitoring tools from Lidl made by SilverCrest. All use Bluetooth to update the phone with the readings which should make life easy, but their operation is erratic as many have commented on the app site. On the whole I can get it to work, but will do a separate page on what and how at some point.

In addition to the niggles with the SilverCrest app, various other apps from the NHS and other providers provide other elements of monitoring my health. It is irritating that they all seem to compete with one another and give different results. For example the exercise apps always differ on just how long I have been on my walk and give different counts of distance. The fact that they rely on the phone's GPS system may be part of the problem since one totally ignores time spent in the Riverside shopping mall while another counts the steps taken inside. Given the bad weather, using the mall to stay dry would be useful if only the NHS walking app recorded it!

It is not only the health apps that compete with one another. Being an android phone from Samsung it is locked to Google as well and both of them keep trying to make their 'wallet' the default payment method. I would rather not use either of them for privacy reasons, but the absence of an independent option makes that difficult. Most of the time I use Paypal anyway and have for years, but just tapping the phone to pay is a saving even if currently both Google and the Bank message me about each payment. Another duplication to be sorted.

Just done a save to be on the safe side ... having copied the new text just in case. All went OK but should not have to worry. The problem of multiple packages all making 'security updates' which then cause onging niggles in one another is just the same as phone apps competing. And Microsoft keep hassling that my windows machine needs updating to W11 ... which it refuses to do because of 'hardware problems' ... do I really need to be held to ransom by them to buy a new computer. The few remaining programs I use it for are finally being replaced in Linux so time to just switch it off?

The LG TV has just switched off again ... "Need to restart app to free up memory" ... I'm watching TELEVISION so is it time to kick these smart TV's into touch like the windows machine? I only need a display and not all the hassle of even more applications on that box. Another rant that needs expanding later ...