JJGraphics

We seem to have drifted a good bit from the subject of this thread. Nothing has changed my view on the subject and I’m sticking to the view I posted in this thread a very long time ago: SMART METER = DUMB MOVE. John

But at least the seats were not rock hard!

This has been discussed on and off before. See: John

OK, thanks. I'll have apply and see if I can make sense of that. John

But that does not explain the other issues that show up randomly such as the dwell when something has been marked read and the black banner sits for ages at the top of the page . . . John

We're with e.on and when we changed tariffs several months ago they started pestering about Smart Meters. I very firmly told them I DO NOT WANT A SMART METER and said that they may not to call me about the matter again. About ten days later we got another call. I firmly told them that they had been told not to call me about Smart Meters and stated that if they called me about it again I would report them for harassment. Not a word since then . . . John

Possibly straying a little bit from the OP, but I have a question about the display of CVs in the list in DecoderPro. I use DecoderPro on my Mac connected to my ECoS 50200 and it pretty much meets my needs when tinkering with my locos which are all fitted with ESU Loksound V4 decoders from various suppliers. I have been able to do things like adding the auto-uncoupling shuffle, move F keys around to make things as consistent as reasonably possible across my stud and make various adjustments to "fine tune" the running and sounds using the various setting panes without difficulty. I believe I understand that CVs above 255 are indexed and I know that if for example, I want to change CV451 (Random sound volume on a particular project) via my ECoS that I set CV32 to 1, change CV457 to the value I want and then set CV32 to 0. What I’m struggling to get my head around is the relationship between CVs above 255 and the numbers I see listed in the DecoderPro CV list such as 16.1.451, 16.2.451 and 16.3.451. Can someone explain in straightforward terms what the relationship between actual CVs and the index values is, please? John

Just logged-in on my iPad and got the "something went wrong" error message . . . but I’m logged-in and reporting it here. Seen this a few times now. Forum is running medium-slow today. Some long pauses after marking thing read. John

Not sure that is the issue as it's only RMWeb that seems to misbehave for me. John

Hi Andy, The slow loading problems seem to come and go. Sometimes the Forum is fairly fast and then the slow loading issue appears. It will be like that for a while and then gets quicker and then gets slow again and so on. Some days the Forum is fairly quick almost all day; on others it is slow all day. The log-in issue also comes and goes. One time the login will occur after a couple of seconds; another time it can take upwards of a minute to respond, again on the same day. There does not seem to be any correlation between the issues and time of day or day of the week, nor to the type of computer or mobile device or OS as far as I can observe. When posting my previous reply, it took almost a minute with the Saving . . . button showing before the Forum became active again. I usually visit the Forum in the morning and afternoon, but not in the evening. I'm on a very fast connection. John

Yes, I've noticed that it can take a very long time for pages to load sometimes. In particular, if I have just marked a topic as read, the black panel at the top of the page confirming will sometimes sit there for up to thirty seconds before the next page loads. I have also noticed that it often takes a very long time for the to sign-in to take place after entering my name and password and even occasionally delivers an error message, but signs me in anyway! I'm also a Mac user but have several contacts who are Windows users and they report seeing the same things. John

I'm all for erring on the safe side with things comestible, but sadly, it seems that many "mums" of today know nothing about anything if it doesn't come from Tesco or Amazon, etc., or if they can't "GooGoo it" and then instantly forget it. However they are happy to spout verbatim the dubious knowledge they glean from their "friends" on FaecesBook with their heads buried in their mobile whilst their offspring are ignored and, as we saw a couple of days ago, run off the pavement into the traffic nearly getting flattened in the process and giving an unfortunate but thankfully fully alert lorry driver a really bad scare. John

Hopefully they won't disfigure any rolling stock by doing that . . .

Never mind the lack of luggage space, the bum-numbing seats (which was beginning to cause me back problems), coupled with the lousy ride in some of the units (which seemed to be getting worse during the last few journeys I made) and the many other regular irritations have persuaded me to do just that. I used to really enjoy the journey to Bath or Bristol or Cardiff by train. Not any more. My regular couple of journeys a week on GWR have now dropped to zero and it will take a lot to get me out of my car (shared with an associate) and back onto those trains. I am a life-long railway enthusiast who would have chosen the train over the car just for the pleasure of it. I still continue to do other journeys by train and must say that recent journeys to Birmingham and Sheffield with XC on a Vomiter have been remarkably comfortable and trouble-free after my experiences on the IETs. I just wonder how many other people are doing the same and how many more will start to do so when they have experienced travelling in the peak season with a lot of luggage and the family? I feel really sorry for the customer-facing staff whom I witnessed to be on the receiving end of complaints about one thing or another on a fairly regular basis but I must say that they generally dealt with them pleasantly and maintained a polite and helpful manner. John

You might get more help if you post this in the DCC Help section. If you ask AYMod nicely he will possibly move this post for you. John

A lot of these collection companies as just a load of scumbags out to make money, mostly from vulnerable or gullible people.

The point, as others have said, is that you can print your ticket and present that and there is nothing to stop a ticket being printed multiple times. It is the system that is a fault in not being able to validate a ticket immediately as is done in other countries. John

That is absolutely scandalous. Once the passenger had sent evidence of the payment, that should have been the end of the matter. These officious "collection" companies need to be taught a lesson. If that happened to me and they pursued me after I had provided evidence of payment, I would warn them that they would be reported to the Police for harassment if they made any further contact and then do so if they did. I know this works from experience in helping a neighbour to deal with the bullying tactics of a collection company acting on behalf of a well-know national energy supplier after their billing system screwed up and tried to charge her more than four times her actual bill. Once threatened with the Police the collection company backed-off rapidly and she ended up with a full apology and compensation from the supplier. John

As Classic T said . . . and also remember that Macs can read a hard disk or USB stick formatted for Windows or Mac (and some other formats, too); Windows machines cannot read a Mac-formatted device. If you want to continue to use an external device on your Mac only, re-format it for macOS. It will work better that way. Taking the functional HD out of a Windows machine which is otherwise beyond economic repair and popping it into an external disk caddy connected to a Mac has let me get a number of users' treasured photos and other things over onto their new Mac on a number of occasions . . . John

A Mac may initially cost more than a PC, but if you actually study the Cost of Ownership then over time that is what matters and comparing specifications of Macs and PC is like comparing Apples with Oranges; you need to compare performance rather than just configuration. Another thing that many people also fail to understand is that a Mac comes with a selection of good quality software and other services, some of which are an additional cost for a PC user. Yes, there are games and software that are not available for the Mac, but for the average user that is not a major issue. You can find what you want on Google: IBM have a different professional take on the subject of Macs and their cost of ownership. See: https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-open-sources-mac-sysadmin-software/ John

What a load of drivel!

That has no relevance in the market place that normal users belong to, no more that we would buy a £3000 gaming PC to run JMRI . . . John

You are far from alone in this continuing saga where some people see almost no problems whilst others struggle with endless issues. Microsoft have an endless battle to try to keep Windows operating on a hugely varied range of hardware made by many disparate suppliers and they sometimes lose the plot more than somewhat with the results you see. Let me tell you a little bit of my personal experience . . . I worked with computer-related things for many years, running my own business to do with graphics, printing and web design. My clients owned about 1700 Macs between them and I was in most cases their only source of technical support and because of the general high reliability of the Macs, I was not stretched to keep all the kit running. I live in a cul-de-sac with 18 houses with friendly neighbours and it became well-known that I worked with computers. I used to be plagued with requests for help from neighbours who were having problems with their PCS . Not being particularly au fait with Windows, and not having either the time or inclination to learn more, I persuaded one or two to get Macs and now all bar two of the houses are Mac users. I rarely get asked for any help. Some of the Macs are around seven years old and are running the latest version of macOS without any trouble. The macOS updates are far less frequent than Windows updates and are quick to download and install, rarely taking more than 30-40 minutes for the major updates (depending on the speed of internet connection being used) and much less for the minor ones. The point of this? The two remaining households are forever moaning about problems with their PCs. They have both replaced their PCs at least twice in the time the others have owned one Mac and are still experiencing issues, despite one of them knowing an IT specialist who helps them out. Unless you are doing something that can only be done on a Windows machine, I suggest that you seriously consider getting rid of your PC and getting a Mac. Don’t fall for the old argument about the cost to buy a Mac. That is not what matters. Cost of Ownership over a period of time is what matters . . . and that cost is lowered even further by the absence of frustration that comes with owning a Mac. John

Just signed in again and, despite the sign-in being successful got this:

Further to my previous post: Very varied time to load pages again right now, especially when I click on the button or star to see the latest post in a thread. Taking 20-25 seconds to load some pages. Other pages load almost instantly. Marking post as Read is again producing a long hang of the banner at the top of the page. Come back and fix it Andy . . . you are missed! John