Travelling On

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Karmacat said:

This morning, I've been researching the use of face masks, sigh ...  

I think the proof that I need my cup of tea is in the fact that when I read face masks I thought of beauty treatments (and wondered what the government had to say on the matter!!), rather than protective wear!

I love that!  I want to do a hula hula dance around that
Fair enough about the hard drives - it was just an idea.

And it was a good one, absolutely - its something I'd ask of friends, for sure.

Packing has started **happy jumpy smiley**

MisterPym

themadvix said:

Karmacat said:

This morning, I've been researching the use of face masks, sigh ... rather than articles even in respectable news websites, I'm going direct to government and research websites, and the situation isn't nearly as cut and dried as the advice on newspaper and broadcast websites.  Bookmarked everything, and I'll try to get something coherent going later today.

I need my cup of coffee!  

I think the proof that I need my cup of tea is in the fact that when I read face masks I thought of beauty treatments (and wondered what the government had to say on the matter!!), rather than protective wear!

Fair enough about the hard drives - it was just an idea.

themadvix said:

Karmacat said:

This morning, I've been researching the use of face masks, sigh ... rather than articles even in respectable news websites, I'm going direct to government and research websites, and the situation isn't nearly as cut and dried as the advice on newspaper and broadcast websites.  Bookmarked everything, and I'll try to get something coherent going later today.

I need my cup of coffee!  

I think the proof that I need my cup of tea is in the fact that when I read face masks I thought of beauty treatments (and wondered what the government had to say on the matter!!), rather than protective wear!

Fair enough about the hard drives - it was just an idea.

Me too, I thought beauty mask!!!!!

[Deleted User]

I'm feeling very disappointed and embarrassed by how paranoid I've become in my 'old age'.  I spent what seemed like an endless day yesterday in the hospital Ophthalmology clinic undergoing  yet another battery of tests.  The main doctor I saw yesterday was a new one to me, a youngish woman who looked and sounded Chinese and definitely had a Chinese name.  Nothing wrong with that, I'm full of admiration for the expertise of anyone in the medical profession who I've encountered recently.  But she had a cough and kept wiping her nose. We were in a fairly small consulting room and she was pretty much 'in my face'. All I could think of was whether she'd been to China recently. 

 I also noticed as I entered Reception that the hospital has a Coronavirus 'pod'.  I understand that all UK hospitals have set them up ready for any potential spread of the illness but it's a bit disconcerting and makes the threat seem all the more real.  At least our Government is being pro-active.

Suffolk_lass

I thought the advice on erasing data had changed when we started to use solid state drives so I have had a quick look and found this link - when I worked in IT on confidential systems we had a three-option approach to the disposal of data.

1. For removable media (data holding things like tapes and disks; back in the day) we got them incinerated - not so easy - we used three options, two of which I cannot talk about but there is a secure disposal facility in the middle of England. Now very easy in domestic waste in Suffolk as 100% gets incinerated (and the precious metals extracted and sold)
2. For mechanical hard drives, we used to remove them from the device and smashed them to bits in the car park (taking turns - extremely good for stress relief!)
3. For solid state drives we overwrote them but probably did not need to  and smashing them with a hammer is just fine.

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

I thought the advice on erasing data had changed when we started to use solid state drives so I have had a quick look and found this link - when I worked in IT on confidential systems we had a three-option approach to the disposal of data.

Thanks for this, SL - the laptop I want to get rid of *now* is very old, like 2004 old, so its definitely mechanical.  Even this one I'm typing on is mechanical, 2010 or so, so the same applies.  Thats a really interesting link - I'm still not sure how to wipe?  As opposed to deleting files.  But I can certainly learn, and that gives me more confidence, ta muchly.

Karmacat

Delichon said:

I'm feeling very disappointed and embarrassed by how paranoid I've become in my 'old age'.  I spent what seemed like an endless day yesterday in the hospital Ophthalmology clinic undergoing  yet another battery of tests.  The main doctor I saw yesterday was a new one to me, a youngish woman who looked and sounded Chinese and definitely had a Chinese name.  Nothing wrong with that, I'm full of admiration for the expertise of anyone in the medical profession who I've encountered recently.  But she had a cough and kept wiping her nose. We were in a fairly small consulting room and she was pretty much 'in my face'. All I could think of was whether she'd been to China recently. 

 I also noticed as I entered Reception that the hospital has a Coronavirus 'pod'.  I understand that all UK hospitals have set them up ready for any potential spread of the illness but it's a bit disconcerting and makes the threat seem all the more real.  At least our Government is being pro-active.

ETA - I completely missed the fact that you'd been to an opthalmology appointment - so sorry!  stressful, very stressful, I hope you're okay today, and didn't have any drops that alter the size of your pupil etc.  How are you? 

Delichon, we're still in *ordinary* flu season, so if somebody has a cough and keeps wiping their nose, I'm edging away from them, I don't care what their ethnicity is.  Remember there are plenty of ethnic Chinese living here long term, and plenty of westerners living over there, some of whom have come back very recently.  Twelve years or so ago, one of my younger nephews spent two years in China teaching (at some regional high school, there were dozens of Chinese kids with Liverpool accents, for a while!).  Or some westerners have returned from somewhere that Chinese or Italian people living in China and Italy go on holiday, like Thailand or Spain.  Honestly, its gone beyond being a Chinese problem.  And if someone is snuffling badly like that, I have no qualms whatsoever about asking them if they've got a cold/flu/lurgy - pretty often, I get the reply "no, I'm allergic to this/that/the other".  

Honestly, don't focus on Chinese people any more, but I don't think you're at all paranoid to back away from a snuffler.  Especially a medical person who may need to touch you!  When I was quite ill I had to go into a finance place, and some woman licked a brochure to separate it from the pile and handed it straight to me.  I asked her to give me another one, and told her why, she was very apologetic. 

And seeing a coronavirus pod ... yikes.  That's definitely bringing it home, as you say.  I wonder how the NHS will cope with it, seeing how record numbers are already lying on trolleys in hospital corridors before being seen. 

The government being proactive?  I'm awfully sorry, we'll have to agree to disagree on that - I've got used to switching the sound off when Trump is on the news channels, but I have to do that with our cabinet members too now.    I hope that doesn't put you off posting here!

[Deleted User]

Karmacat said:

Delichon said:

I'm feeling very disappointed and embarrassed by how paranoid I've become in my 'old age'.  I spent what seemed like an endless day yesterday in the hospital Ophthalmology clinic undergoing  yet another battery of tests.  The main doctor I saw yesterday was a new one to me, a youngish woman who looked and sounded Chinese and definitely had a Chinese name.  Nothing wrong with that, I'm full of admiration for the expertise of anyone in the medical profession who I've encountered recently.  But she had a cough and kept wiping her nose. We were in a fairly small consulting room and she was pretty much 'in my face'. All I could think of was whether she'd been to China recently. 

 I also noticed as I entered Reception that the hospital has a Coronavirus 'pod'.  I understand that all UK hospitals have set them up ready for any potential spread of the illness but it's a bit disconcerting and makes the threat seem all the more real.  At least our Government is being pro-active.

Delichon, we're still in *ordinary* flu season, so if somebody has a cough and keeps wiping their nose, I'm edging away from them, I don't care what their ethnicity is.  Remember there are plenty of ethnic Chinese living here long term, and plenty of westerners living over there, some of whom have come back very recently.  Twelve years or so ago, one of my younger nephews spent two years in China teaching (at some regional high school, there were dozens of Chinese kids with Liverpool accents, for a while!).  Or some westerners have returned from somewhere that Chinese or Italian people living in China and Italy go on holiday, like Thailand or Spain.  Honestly, its gone beyond being a Chinese problem.  And if someone is snuffling badly like that, I have no qualms whatsoever about asking them if they've got a cold/flu/lurgy - pretty often, I get the reply "no, I'm allergic to this/that/the other".  

Honestly, don't focus on Chinese people any more, but I don't think you're at all paranoid to back away from a snuffler.  Especially a medical person who may need to touch you!  When I was quite ill I had to go into a finance place, and some woman licked a brochure to separate it from the pile and handed it straight to me.  I asked her to give me another one, and told her why, she was very apologetic. 

And seeing a coronavirus pod ... yikes.  That's definitely bringing it home, as you say.  I wonder how the NHS will cope with it, seeing how record numbers are already lying on trolleys in hospital corridors before being seen. 

The government being proactive?  I'm awfully sorry, we'll have to agree to disagree on that - I've got used to switching the sound off when Trump is on the news channels, but I have to do that with our cabinet members too now.    I hope that doesn't put you off posting here!

Thank you for being the voice of reason.  I said at the very start of my post that I was embarrassed and disappointed that I'd become paranoid.  My paranoia about the Chinese/coronavirus link is a case in point!

As for your comment on our agreement (or not) on the government's being pro-active I wasn't really making a general political point.  I just feel that, unlike many countries' shambolic approach to  current coronavirus spread/testing procedures, our government (for once) seems to be ahead of the curve, however marginally.  It won't stop me posting on here whatever views or opinions you express.  It's your diary after all and I love being here.  I seem to have found some kindred spirits and would love to read and participate for as long as you'll have me.

I would have added some appropriate smilies but I don't seem to be able to get to grips with the new ones.  I'm having eye trouble and the smilies all look the same to me.  No colourful or animated ones among the meagre list that were offered now.  Boo!

Karmacat

Thank you for being the voice of reason.  I said at the very start of my post that I was embarrassed and disappointed that I'd become paranoid.  My paranoia about the Chinese/coronavirus link is a case in point!

As for your comment on our agreement (or not) on the government's being pro-active I wasn't really making a general political point.  I just feel that, unlike many countries' shambolic approach to  current coronavirus spread/testing procedures, our government (for once) seems to be ahead of the curve, however marginally.  It won't stop me posting on here whatever views or opinions you express.  It's your diary after all and I love being here.  I seem to have found some kindred spirits and would love to read and participate for as long as you'll have me.

I would have added some appropriate smilies but I don't seem to be able to get to grips with the new ones.  I'm having eye trouble and the smilies all look the same to me.  No colourful or animated ones among the meagre list that were offered now.  Boo!

I can't get to grips with the smileys either, but if I could I'd post a huggy happy one, much better than the ordinary    Kindred spirits ahoy, finding them on the web is very precious, find a nice comfy seat and have a cuppa tea.

And actually, I do agree that the contact tracing in this country seems to have been really, really good, which is what I think of when you mention contact/testing procedures.  Hurray!

I popped online to report a small victory: I want to take a pack of cards, and I *know* there's at least one pack in the house, and for environmental/ money reasons, I don't want to buy one when I know I've got one.  Found it!  In a little box of oddsandsods, where I've already looked, but they're so tiny, I overlooked them.  They're about a quarter of the normal size, they're a travel pack, they're in a plastic case, and they're from NASA my happiness is complete

themadvix

Yay to finding something you know you've got! And NASA cards too - how cool!

Grogged

I bet the NASA cards are collectors items...
If you don't want to take a hammer to your disk drive (go on, it is very therapeutic 😇) then delete your files and then choose to wipe the free space. In ccleaner*, go to the options first and choose the number of times to over right, choose 7 or more. MI6 wiped 😎. 
*other products are available and just as good.
We're going prepping shopping at weekend for staples. Only because we know the media will whip it out of proportion and suddenly all the shops will be empty. 😕