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For all of us who hate Google spying on us.....

Dan Dubeau said:
The other day I visited a guy that collects antique hay trolleys, and got a nice tour of his sheds and barn. Quite a collection, and all nicely preserved and displayed. Anyway, we're talking about the various ones he's got, and ones that elude him (I know nothing about them). My facebook market place is now filled with hay trollies for sale. My phone was in my pocket the entire time, I never took it out, took pictures or anything.....Now, there are theories about the devices talking to each other, like my phone got near his, so our interests must align etc, but he's old school. No smart phone, no cell phone period.

I've never searched for a hay trolley in my life (except for now to make sure I spelled it right lol). Funny stuff. Everything is listening.......
Click to expand...
I mentioned VGA cable only on CHMW&M in regards to wife's broken laptop screen.

Facebook marketplace is now putting VGA cables into my feed. That's how deep their spying goes... I dont use a facebook single sign on credential for this forum.
 
Tom O said:
Hmm maybe we are going about this all wrong maybe we should sit in front of our favourite device and describe our perfect woman.
Click to expand...

Everything is listening... that includes the wife. That's a sure fire recipe for an early graveyard permit or an expensive legal exercise.
 
YotaBota said:
I'm gonna hate to see the ads that come up when I start talking about the bitch (dog) chasing my ass (donkey) around the yard and that my G string (guitar) is always to loose.



Isn't that an invasion of privacy?
Click to expand...
They have signed releases.

Disney even tried to avoid a lawsuit by stating that the plaintiff had agreed to mediation in the event of disagreement when they signed up for free disney plus trial

Corporate psychopathy has defeated humanity
 
So a little off topic here but I think that is the tradition around here.
I have used Excel quite happily in the past but it has changed to 365 or something and my language is starting to upset the dearest.
I'm not sure if it is my phone (samsung a5 ?) (also with language generation installed) but my biggest beef is
A) the f'ing thing isn't on my phone so a I can't use it away from wifi and
B) that's my file not theirs, bastards. Bic sold me a pen but they don't insist every thing I write is theirs.
So my question is, is there a spreadsheet available, similar to Excel but is on my phone and respectful of my privacy ?

The grumpy luddite.
 
jorogi said:
So my question is, is there a spreadsheet available, similar to Excel but is on my phone and respectful of my privacy ?

The grumpy luddite.
Click to expand...

You might not like these answers so get a beer and have a seat.

First off, MSoft Office including excel will run on your phone. But not really well.

A desktop license allows you to run a phone copy at no extra charge.

I don't believe MSoft claims to own your data. But I'd love to be convinced otherwise cuz I don't love them.

You might be thinking about cloud based data. There is no obligation to have your data on the cloud. It's your option. But they do make it difficult to keep your data yourself.

A decent alternative to excel is google drive. Not a lot less onerous. But free and portable.

Another is office suite. There is a free version but it will beat you to death with ads. We'll respected by those who use it.

LibreOffice is a descendent of OpenOffice which I used to like. Apache OpenOffice is another descendent of OpenOffice. I can't speak for either one.

You should probably do some online research of these and other alternatives. There are quite a few.

I mostly use MSoft Office myself because I used to need 100% compatability. I don't really need it anymore but haven't given up the soosoo yet.
 
On my desktop I use old versions of Excel that I have a developers license for.

I use my phone for calls, and little else... The thin edge of the wedge is photographs. I have begun taking photos with my phone.
 
Susquatch said:
You might not like these answers so get a beer and have a seat.

First off, MSoft Office including excel will run on your phone. But not really well.

A desktop license allows you to run a phone copy at no extra charge.

I don't believe MSoft claims to own your data. But I'd love to be convinced otherwise cuz I don't love them.

You might be thinking about cloud based data. There is no obligation to have your data on the cloud. It's your option. But they do make it difficult to keep your data yourself.

A decent alternative to excel is google drive. Not a lot less onerous. But free and portable.

Another is office suite. There is a free version but it will beat you to death with ads. We'll respected by those who use it.

LibreOffice is a descendent of OpenOffice which I used to like. Apache OpenOffice is another descendent of OpenOffice. I can't speak for either one.

You should probably do some online research of these and other alternatives. There are quite a few.

I mostly use MSoft Office myself because I used to need 100% compatability. I don't really need it anymore but haven't given up the soosoo yet.
Click to expand...
Mmmmmm.......time for another beer.
 
terry_g said:
TorontoBuilder does the broken laptop have a video port? HDMI or VGA? you could plug a desktop monitor into it and boot it up. It might recognise the new monitor allowing you access to the files on the hard drive.

Terry
Click to expand...
I finally found a vga cable in a box in the garage...

Plugged it into the laptop, and the monitor comes on for 1/2 second and then goes off... guess I need to do this the hard way
 
Before you give up, press F5 during the boot sequence. In most laptops this will boot the computer in 'safe mode' - low resolution, only the minimal device drivers (such a video adapter, etc).

IMO the monitor and the SVGA adapter are not agreeing on the resolution and the monitor won't display under those circumstances. I have seen this before...

The other path is to press F1 ( or F2 on Compaq motherboards), which will give you several boot options. One of them is usually 'safe mode'. One manufacturer, I think Toshiba, needed F6 IIRC...
 
Some computers require you to toggle the monitor function key in order to enable a monitor on the external monitor port. I usually disregard what happens automatically when I plug one in. Often the external monitor button will cycle between the built in monitor, an external monitor, both, and back to built in.

Sometimes even a TV will work as an external monitor.

Dabbler said:
The other path is to press F1 ( or F2 on Compaq motherboards), which will give you several boot options. One of them is usually 'safe mode'. One manufacturer, I think Toshiba, needed F6 IIRC...
Click to expand...

I keep a note on my phone with all the boot options on my various computers over time.

Here is a summary that includes those @Dabbler listed and a few others.

Common keys used to access the boot menu include F1, F2, F3, F5, F8, F11, F12, Esc, and Del. When you turn on your computer, pay attention to the screen for any instructions or prompts that tell you which key to press to access the boot menu.

Sometimes you have to repeatedly press the key during startup. Sometimes you have to hold shift while you press them.

Usually, you have to do it before the logo shows up, sometimes afterward. And SOMETIMES during a short time slot window. Patience rules.

A few computer makes have a dedicated key, and I've seen one that can be accessed even after the computer has booted.

If all else fails, google your computer model and "boot" and "restart". Eg "Asus k1220 laptop boot restart"

The old way of accessing the data on a hard drive sucks........ I have a kit I use that allows me to access the various drive technologies. I'm usually in a very bad frame of mind when I grab that box......

Good luck John.
 
let the laptop boot up (disk light stops flashing solid), then press the function key, usually on top row, that looks like a monitor. Your might have to press and hold the Fn key at the same time. This tells the computer to enable the extra monitor port.

Nothing to do with boot sequence.

Worst case, take the drive out and insert it in a USB case and get the files off that way.
 
To clarify, I repeatedly tried the display function key, and a few other things like plugging and unplugging the VGA cable to no avail. The display wont stay active.

I couldn't try the bios method because I didn't know the proper key strokes to affect the change I wanted.

But before giving up I thought, maybe its the external monitor. I had it in storage and wife has abused my electronic stuff in storage because she hates it all. But that's another story. So I brought out monitor 2.

Bingo.

Thanks to everyone for your assistance. I have enough goodwill from this fix to buy a new machine. Just kidding... my wife is as bad as my brother's GF when it comes to new machines.

IMG_20240830_115338599.webp



OH and for those curious as to the nature of the most important files needing rescue, it is 100,000 photos of her dogs,
 
This is why I use OneDrive, photos go from camera/phone directly to the cloud as long as I have WiFi available where I take them, and then auto syncs to my PC's and tablets. I still do daily backups of the desktop computers (because the downloads directory intentionally doesn't go to the cloud ) nor do all the app settings etc.
 
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