question:Letters 12 Tell us what’s on your mind What’s the Issue…? ?When did you explain how to add your landline to your smartphone? Ron Catherall CA SAYS In Issue 654, page 35. Buy the issue from our Back Issues store: www. snipca.com/47082. Did you say there was software that can convert spoken audio files to text in a Word document? Ian Thayre CA SAYS Yes, you can do this using Audacity or the online version of Word. See Issue 655, page 20 – buy it from www.snipca. com/47112. I recall you recommending a tool beginning with T that blocked tracking links in emails. What was it? Dean Hodgson CA SAYS You probably mean Trocker (www.snipca.com/47113) – see Issue 646, page 53. Read it on our 2022 Back Issue CD: www.snipca. com/44660. end of each working day, it obeyed my command to shut down my PC. But I noticed about three years ago that it was getting unreliable, and then I read that Microsoft was planning to abandon it. What a waste. It had so much early promise. I’ve yet to find another voice-command tool that had Cortana’s potential. Paul Newton AI can be a force for good New technology can scare people, which is why artificial intelligence (AI) is getting such bad press. But Issue 664’s story about AI cameras capturing drivers using their phones (page 9) shows how it can have positive effects for society. Despite the efforts of campaigners, there are too many people who still don’t take seriously the dangers of texting while driving. There were some high- profile cases a few years ago that I hoped would make a big impact, but it’s not happened. I’m not optimistic that we’ll ever make drink-texting as socially unacceptable as drink-driving, so instead we just need to convince offenders that they will be caught and punished. Using cameras powered by AI seems a step forward. Ken Allmann CA SAYS With AI developing so quickly, it’s only natural people are worried. In this issue alone we report on how AI can be used to ‘hear’ your passwords as you type them (page 8) and create deepfake videos to scam you (page 11). But it would be foolish to ignore the benefits it brings, as Ken points out. Huge advances in medicine, transport, manufacturing and energy production are all being driven by AI. The challenge for governments, companies and industry leaders is to maximise the advantages while minimising the risks – and that won’t be easy. Virgin Media’s customer service was ‘curt and rude’ Following your recent article and letters about Virgin Media making it hard to cancel, I was a very satisfied customer for about 20 years, getting fibre broadband to my desk. But that had to stop when they put the price up to over £70 a month. UK viewers still love BBC and ITV At first glance Issue 664’s news story (page 7) on changing TV habits suggests the public are falling out of love with BBC and ITV. But on closer inspection it’s more likely that it’s the viewing habits that are changing, and that our affection for these traditional channels remains strong. For example, while the number of hours watching broadcast TV has fallen sharply, a lot of that viewing has switched to BBC iPlayer and ITVX. What’s changed is that hardly anyone assumes that you need to watch a programme at the precise time that it’s broadcast. In some ways, these ‘catch-up’ services are simply modern equivalents of video recorders. Back in the 1980s I used to work late evenings, and would often set my timer to record shows like Blackadder, Question Time and anything that David Attenborough presented. Looking back, what was that if not a forerunner of ‘catch-up’ TV? Geoff Salcombe It’s not surprising that the number of viewers watching news bulletins has plunged. It’s a result of our 24-hour news culture, where websites and news channels are constantly updating stories. When I was younger, if you didn’t watch the news in the evening then you’d miss out completely on what’s happening. That’s no longer the case. I never watch the news now, and yet thanks to the news coverage on the internet I feel better informed than ever. Gary Hadley Why I’ll miss Cortana I expect to be in a minority of one, but I will mourn the demise of Cortana (Issue 664, page 6). For a few years after it launched it was better than both Alexa and Siri. My favourite trick was opening browser tabs using my voice. I could open the door to my office, tell Cortana which tabs to open, and they would be waiting for me when I sat down. I also used it to remind me of phone calls I had to make, and to create a news feed of subjects I was interested in. At thEmail: <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_EMAIL_ADDRESS> Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive (formerly Twitter): @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive 13 STAR LETTER Views expressed don’t necessarily reflect those of Computeractive The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug! Microsoft and Google are worst ‘bait-and-switch’ offenders I’m grateful to Daniel Booth introducing me to the term ‘bait-and-switch’ in Issue 664 (Ed’s Letter, page 3). I had never heard of it before, but it perfectly sums up the behaviour of some so-called reputable companies in the past. Daniel mentions LastPass and CCleaner as two infamous bait-and-switchers. To that list I’d like to add both Microsoft and Google. I think they are the worst offenders. Back in 2015, Microsoft cut the amount of free space OneDrive offered from 15GB to 5GB. I was outraged by this betrayal and moved all my files immediately to Google Drive, which was offering 15GB. All was fine with Google, but then in 2020 it declared that all new photos uploaded to Drive would count towards your free 15GB of storage. This was despite saying a few years earlier that uploading photos to Google meant “a lifetime of memories”. I’ve reluctantly stuck with Google because I thought it would be too much hassle to switch (which is precisely what it was hoping for). But after reading your feature on free online storage in Issue 663, I’m considering moving to Mega’s free 20GB (www.mega.io). It sounds like a decent service, but I guess it’s a matter of time before it pulls its own bait-and-switch trick. Dennis Pilling CA SAYS Dennis is right that both Microsoft and Google have been guilty of ‘bait-and-switch’ tactics. This is where companies lure you in with a tempting offer, knowing that later they’ll start charging for a service or feature that was previously free. We’ll continue to expose these unfair practices. Please let us know which ones you’ve been affected by. O&O AppBuster (www.snipca.com/46027) to get rid of OneDrive (see screenshot above). But that was only partially successful because OneDrive still appears in File Explorer, and there are two grey (OneDrive) folders that aren’t completely empty. OneDrive should be an option, like Office 365, when first setting up a new PC. The way Microsoft forces it on users, with such dreadful consequences, is nothing short of bullying and extortion. Thank goodness your magazine has enabled me to resolve just some of these problems, even though it has taken many hours. Colin Gray Forcing OneDrive on us is ‘bullying and extortion’ Following Issue 660’s Cover Feature on mini PCs, I purchased the Geekom Mini IT11 (£479 from www. snipca.com/46362) with Windows 11, to replace an ageing Windows desktop PC. I’m delighted with my purchase, but far from delighted with Windows 11. I wish I had read Issue 663’s ‘Make Windows Great Again’ Cover Feature, but it arrived three days after I bought the PC. After transfering all my files from an external hard drive, Microsoft told me I needed to pay for more OneDrive storage. I wasn’t even aware that my documents were being duplicated in OneDrive. Frankly, File Explorer in Windows 11 is so unnecessarily complicated that it’s difficult to tell what documents are filed where. I’ve lost a lot of the valuable data I transferred, deleting it from the external hard drive too soon. As you suggested in Issue 663 I used It then took me almost three weeks to extricate myself from the contract. I suffered all the reported delays, long waits, silly offers and several cut-off calls. I was also blatantly lied to about the BT package I was moving to. When they did eventually agree to terminate my contract, they were curt, rude and offhand. BT may not be the greatest company, but they’ve delivered what was promised and are pleasant to deal with. Virgin Media lost a loyal customer, and I now won’t buy any Virgin-branded product unless I have absolutely no choice. As someone who spent 40 years in marketing for blue-chip companies, I can assure you that Virgin’s attitude is no way to run a company anywhere except into the ground. Philip Howells CA SAYS We’ve had many emails from readers unhappy with the service they’ve received from Virgin Media. It would be interesting to hear from customers of other providers, whether the service has been bad or good. Am I entitled to a broadband rebate? We live nearly four miles from the nearest fibre cabinet and have no prospect of fibre replacing copper before VoIP arrives in 2025. Smartphones receive a weak, intermittent 4G signal here, so we rely on Wi-Fi from our ‘broadband’ modem with its 200-250Kbps second download speed. The connection drops out several times a day, and though 4G may drop in occasionally, it’s seldom there when it’s needed. Next month, I’ll be 76. My state pension is £55.20 a month so it’s just as well I’m still fit enough to go on building dry stone walls – one of two small businesses I run from this communications black hole. I read that VoIP requires about 100Kbps – around half our current bandwidth – and, like dial-up, is likely to render the internet unusable during phone calls. We pay £18 a month for 0.2Mbps, and yet for £20 a month, those on the fastest social tariff get 350 times that speed. Is any other commodity allowed to be priced in this way? Dividing our broadband cost by 350 produces a figure of five pence a month. That should amount to a sizable rebate after all these years. Peter Goodwi Please make a quick summary of all these letters

question:What kind of fallacy or lie is this phrase: “a 100% of the studies I've seen prove my point.”

question:How is this phrase misleading: “a 100% of the studies I’ve seen prove my point.”

question:HPI: The patient presents for annual physical. She is due for her Tdap which she will receive today in clinic. She will have her Pap today. She was sexually active in the past but not currently. Her last menstrual period was middle of 07/2023. She is G0P0. Reports irregular menses, was on the depo shots and states that her menses were regular before she was on the shots. Her thyroid panel done in 06/2023 showed a high TSH of 10.720 and a normal free T4 of 1.3. I started her on the levothyroxine 50 mcg 1 daily. She unfortunately did not pick up her thyroid medication. Advised starting on the medication. No blood work will be repeated today; it will be rechecked in 6 weeks’ time and orders provided today. She has gained 3 pounds since her last visit, current weight of 198 pounds, reports working 5 days a week 12-hour shifts and pretty much sleeps on her off days. Of note the patient checked feeling down, depressed, hopeless nearly everyday on her PHQ9 questionnaire. She did not mention this during our interview. My nurse pointed this out to me. I went and talked to her again about this and she admits to feeling down and depressed often and would like to try medication for it. Denies any SI or HI. She follows at America’s Best for eye examinations; last eye examination was beginning of the year. She got her glasses in February. Her visual acuity in clinic today was OS 20/100, OD 20/70 and OU 20/50. Denies sleep issues, denies chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, bowel or bladder complaints. PE: Overweight. A and P: Given her script for escitalopram 10 mg 1 daily. Advised it will take 4-6 weeks to be effective. Most common side effects can be nausea and fatigue and advised taking at dinner time. Also encouraged her to set up appointment with a mental health therapist, handout for names of the therapists were provided today and she was encouraged to call and set up appointment with them. She is aware if she has any problems or concerns prior to her next appointment to call. She denies any negative thoughts or thoughts of self harm. Name: Shian CC: HPI: : Patient presents with complaint of panic attacks x 2 weeks ago she states she had 2 episodes of chest tightness,SOB,felt she could not catch her breathe when she was at work she states she was very stressed out at work when symptoms started. She only takes hydroxyzine but avoids taking it during the day as it makes her feel sleepy. Reports increase in episodes of panic attacks of late. Follows with a therapist via telehealth every 2 weeks. She works full time does 2 jobs and has 2 kids at home and is stressed out. Her husband also does 2 jobs. Reports feeling nervous and anxious on a daily basis, denies any element of depression. She has not taken any preventative medication ever only has gone along with as needed mediations. Denies any SI or HI. The patient was hesitant to start on a preventative medicine; was wary about the fact that she become dependent on it. She wanted my opinion on this. I did advise her to start taking a daily medication and if in the future her symptoms improve we can taper her off of the medicine. Cautioned patient to stop mental health medications cold turkey. She finally agrees to try on a medicine. PE: A and P: I started her on Lexapro 10 mg 1 daily. It will take about 4-6 weeks to be effective. Common side effects includes drowsiness and nausea and hence advised to take it at dinnertime. Continue on the hydroxyzine as needed and also continue follow up with the mental health therapist. She is aware if she has any problems or concerns prior to her next appointment to call. She denies any negative thoughts or suicidal ideations. Name: s CC: HPI: Patient presents with right knee pain. He was playing soccer and collided with another player, stumbled and did not fall. This happened on 08/31. He played the rest of the game, continued to run. He then sat down for 10 minutes and felt soreness and stiffness to his left knee. Reports having difficulty with walking and the stiffness. He has iced the area. He has been unable to run. He has also taken ibuprofen which helps with the pain. He did practice for soccer on Tuesday but was limited in some movements. PE: Full range of motion to the left patella. No redness swelling or deformity present. Negative patella apprehension test. Negative anterior and posterior drawer test. Negative McMurray test A and P: Probable sprain/strain to his knee Advised a Neoprene or Ace mobilizer for knee stability making sure it is form fitted. Rest and take it easy and advised to sit out of the practice and playing soccer for the next 1 week. Can take Advil bid or ibuprofen 400 mg for the next 2-3 days to help with the pain. Gave him handout for knee exercises, advised doing the elastic band exercises for his knees. correct the errors, keep mostly the same, but keep it professional and also segregate CC, HPI, ROS, PE, and plan