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Letters<br />
Tell us what’s on your mind<br />
Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk<br />
Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive<br />
Twitter: @ComputerActive<br />
www.twitter.com/computeractive<br />
Broadband or rural idyll –<br />
you can’t have both<br />
I’m glad Mark Littlewood had the<br />
guts to say what many of us<br />
privately think (News, Issue 463). He’s<br />
right that people living in the countryside<br />
have made their own choice about living<br />
away from busy cities and all their<br />
amenities. If you ask them why they like<br />
the countryside, they almost always<br />
answer: ‘Because I love the peace and<br />
quiet’. But that tranquility comes at a<br />
cost – the absence of fast broadband.<br />
You can’t have both.<br />
Simon Ashwood<br />
Mark Littlewood is overlooking<br />
one crucial factor, which is that<br />
not everyone has a choice over where<br />
they live. I’d love to move to the city, with<br />
its faster internet, but it’s too expensive.<br />
Despite what you may read, not all<br />
villages are property goldmines. Some,<br />
like mine in Cornwall, are quite poor,<br />
with house prices that can’t keep up<br />
with cities. So until I win the Lottery I’m<br />
stuck on 2Mbps internet.<br />
Frances Allison<br />
I seethed when I read Mark<br />
Littlewood’s views. He sounds<br />
like the classic cynic - somebody who<br />
knows the cost of everything, but the<br />
value of nothing. I think he should calm<br />
himself, though. Th e Government hasn’t<br />
a hope in hell of getting everyone in the<br />
UK on 10Mbps by 2020. His precious<br />
free-market principles can remain<br />
undisturbed.<br />
John Bairstow<br />
Lucky to get TalkTalk<br />
compensation<br />
Well done for making TalkTalk<br />
‘Villain of the Fortnight’ in Issue<br />
463, but frankly I’m amazed the customer<br />
you mention got any money back at all. I<br />
had loads of trouble with my TalkTalk<br />
broadband a few years back, and was<br />
promised compensation no fewer than<br />
four times (by phone and email). I never<br />
got it. I’m no longer a TalkTalk customer.<br />
Tony Armstrong<br />
Windows update was an<br />
emotional rollercoaster<br />
If Microsoft can really read my<br />
emotions (News, Issue<br />
463), then I would love to<br />
know what it would have<br />
made of my experience<br />
trying to install the Windows<br />
10 update. My fi rst emotion<br />
was annoyance. Why does it<br />
blinkin’ well even need an<br />
update so soon after launching?<br />
Updates are nothing but a pain in the<br />
backside. My second emotion was<br />
frustration, because the update took ages<br />
to install. My third emotion was anger, as<br />
I realised the update had removed loads<br />
of my favourite programs, including<br />
SpyBot and Speccy. And my fourth<br />
emotion was fury when I realised it had<br />
reinstalled loads of built-in apps I had got<br />
rid of (such as the useless browser Edge).<br />
So, quite an emotional rollercoaster. It<br />
has a happy ending though, because my<br />
fi nal emotion was relief at giving up with<br />
the update, turning off my PC, and going<br />
to bed with a good book.<br />
Susan Chadwick<br />
In Issue 463, Editor Daniel Booth<br />
asks us for our opinion on the new<br />
Windows 10 update. I would gladly give<br />
him my views if only I could update. I<br />
I read your warning about using<br />
unfamiliar USB sticks with<br />
interest (Protect Your Tech, Issue 463),<br />
and thought readers would like to hear<br />
about how I became a victim of one.<br />
When I moved house about five years<br />
ago I placed all my USB sticks into a<br />
kitchen drawer. But I was careless, and<br />
didn’t check to see if there were any<br />
USB sticks already there, left by the<br />
previous owner.<br />
You can probably guess where this is<br />
going. A couple of months after moving<br />
in, I inserted a USB stick into my PC,<br />
thinking it housed lots of portable<br />
programs. Instead it crashed my<br />
computer. Shocked, I took it out, and<br />
tried four times to update, and each time<br />
it froze on 44 per cent. Perplexing, to say<br />
the least. I searched for help online, and<br />
found this on Microsoft’s forums:<br />
www.snipca.com/ 18789.<br />
Apparently, the glitch is the<br />
result of an inserted SD card,<br />
so I took mine out and… guess<br />
what? Th e update froze at 24<br />
per cent! I’ve given up for now,<br />
and will try again in a few weeks.<br />
Richard Lawrence<br />
Upgrade to Windows 10?<br />
It’s a no-brainer<br />
I can’t understand why some of<br />
your readers continue to be so<br />
anti-Windows 10. Let’s look at the facts.<br />
Assuming we believe Microsoft’s claim<br />
that this is the fi nal ‘new’ operating<br />
System they will release, that means they<br />
will update it like Google and Apple<br />
update Android and iOS. So for the<br />
foreseeable future Windows 10 is here to<br />
stay. It’s being offered free to most users,<br />
so why would you not want it?<br />
I can understand people preferring to<br />
wait until all the bugs are ironed out, but<br />
in the longer term it’s a no-brainer. Some<br />
may object to Microsoft’s “aggressive”<br />
approach but, come on, just go with it<br />
– you know it makes sense!<br />
John Lattimore<br />
Beware leftover USBs when you<br />
move house<br />
realised it wasn’t one of my own, even<br />
though it looked similar. It hadn’t been<br />
left by any visitors, so it could only<br />
have been a nasty welcome present<br />
from the previous owner (I don’t blame<br />
him though - it wasn’t intentional). My<br />
PC did recover, but I learned my lesson.<br />
I now mark all my USBs with little<br />
stickers, with my initials on them.<br />
George Astley<br />
12 9 – 22 December 2015
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