I finished reading H IS FOR HOMICIDE and started to read I IS FOR INNOCENT right afterwards. I finished H feeling a bit meh. I started I, and the meh got bigger. H is not one of my favourites, but I don’t think it’s my least favourite. I don’t like the opening of I, but I can’t yet remember the story, so I’ll have to see.
That’s not what annoyed me, though.
I hit my desk and started to print a pdf that had been emailed to me. But the pdf reader couldn’t see my printer and wanted to save it to another pdf. Eh? I delved into it further, and Windows 11 wasn’t accepting any of the printer drivers that have been on there for at least a year. And guess what. Yep, Windows had run an auto-update. Did they remove my drivers?
This really, really annoys me. It’s not up to MS what I have installed on my laptop, and if it was already installed and working quite happily before their sodding update, who the hell do they think they are removing it?
I started to hunt for my backup Samsung folder…and that was gone too! How can this happen? I don’t believe for a moment that it was actually gone, because I’d saved it to my hard drive as well and it was missing from my hard drive too. How can that be? How about Windows is HIDING it? I don’t know this, of course, but it’s the only explanation I can think of. Why else would the files not be where I’d put them? Twice?
So then off I pootled to the website to grab the drivers again, but Samsung was taken over by HP in 2016 and HP apparently prefer to have their printers networked so they can be taken out of service remotely when HP think it’s time you have a new one. Again, I don’t know this, but I’ve seen it written about. If it is true, then guess who I won’t be buying my next printer from? Or are they all doing it now?
It was with some trepidation that I collected the drivers again, and still *they* wanted me to network the printer. I refused, but had to plug the usb cable directly into the laptop and not via the usb hub. It’s working again now, but it does annoy me that everything worked fine until the latest Windows update and I lost hours trying to sort it out. Hours.
I printed off my pdf and put it with the others, but it did knock me out of kilter for the day. I also had to restart my computer. Grr! I shared the gig list and the Monkey Dust poster for this weekend, I backed and shared the latest kickstarter from WMG Publishing, and I removed another 2 years’ worth of Tweets. But by this time many, many hours had passed, and so had my writing time.
Ah well, back to the editing then.
The poet came home from work, threw together a turkey casserole and put it on the hob, and went out again to band practice. I was going to make the dumplings later, when he was on his way home again, and a blueberry crumble. It was supposed to be a pie, but I wanted to see what a blueberry crumble tasted like. (Find out on Monday!)
The dog refused point blank to go out in the back garden, because it was raining. Instead, he insisted on going in the front garden (is it me?), where I had to supervise him as there are wriggle holes in the garden boundary.
We don’t have any vet appointments this weekend, but Monkey Dust do have a gig on Sunday and we’ll also be going to see the mother-in-law at some point, probably one side of the shopping or the other on Saturday, as we won’t have time on Sunday. Soon, we want to go to the MiL’s and put the tent up to either offer it to the kids or take pictures and put it on ebay.
As we’ve been having torrential rain again this week, it’s unlikely we’ll be putting the tent up tomorrow.
Whatever you’re up to, have a great weekend!
Yes, HP is messing with people’s stuff. It’s also “collecting” what you print to use it to train AI, according to some reports. I tend to only use the USB option and not the wireless to print. Back in my NY apartment, even though I did direct plug in, something went wonky, and anyone who printed via wireless wound up sending stuff to my printer. It was uncomfortable for all of us.
I no longer use HP printers. My laptops are HP, and I’m wondering what folderol they’ll come up wiht the scrape those next.
Also, check your anti-virus software. McAfee used to regular remove my printer drivers. And cause other issues. Once I removed McAfee from everything (and I had to dig, it’s like a parasite), everything runs better.
Have a good weekend!
McAfee is usually the first to go whenever I get a new pc.
I used to love the fact I could get a Samsung printer. I doubt very much I’ll be getting an HP next, but as his Canon has now packed up, we’ll be getting a colour all-in-one laser next. We have the printer positioned between us so we can both connect via usb if we want to. I hate it when the drivers try to force me to connect it via wi-fi.
Our last few desktops and my current laptop were/is Lenovo. I tried an Acer and it was pants and Ian has an Msi gaming laptop now. He doesn’t play games, he needed the memory and storage space. If Apple didn’t automatically force everyone to upgrade their pc every 3 years, I’d be using Macs by now, and I’m coming *this close* to seriously looking at the Linux OS.
Try again, bloomin computer! Anyway we have Epson for our printer and malwarebytes for virus stuff, there was a longer reply but the page refreshed and deleted it lol 😆
Malwarebytes is £17.99 for the year