It's happened to me and some people I know. I'm convinced they send you there to offload some burden from the GP surgery, not because they think there is actually something seriously wrong. I've posted about it in this very thread here, so not going to repeat the story. But basically, they sent me on half-a-day trip to the walk-in-centre just for a two minute assessment.
As soon as they tell you to pay anything in bitcoin, that's a sure giveaway that it's a scam. Of course it's a scam. To be honest, not all spammers are also scammers. (Some spam is legit -- for instance, if you buy something in a store and they ask you if they can use your e-mail to send you special deals, etc. That's not a scam). On the other hand, all scammers are spammers too. They'd have to be. You think a scammer is going to send his scam email just to you? Why? 'Cos he loves you so much? Bullshit -- he's going to send it as far and wide as he can! Why? Better chance that someone would fall for it! Personally, I've had an e-mail address of one persuasion or another for a long, long time - ever since I started university, which is a long time ago now. I've seen lots of scams come and go, including some of the famous ones like the Prince of Nigeria who wants to give you money, or the Russian mail order bride who wants your money so she can fly over to your house, or my so-called grandson who's in jail and emails me to get bail money, etc. etc. (Hey, I don't even have kids. How the f*** do I even have grandkids now?!) You know what I say to these scams? Phhhhbbbttt, phhhhbbbbtttt, phhhhbbbbttt -- delete, delete, and f***ing delete. Into the trash can you go! And now they're sending me texts on my phone too. Buy this, get me that, I want the other. Texts telling me to get a life membership in a football club I don't even follow, telling me I won a million GBP in a lottery I'm not even eligible to enter ... and a text telling me to buy Estrogen pills! Hurray for estrogen pills! (If I was really concerned about the level of estrogen in my body, I'd see my doctor. But I'm not, so I won't). The very first e-mail I ever got was a scam. This was when Windows 95 first came in. (Yes, I'm a dinosaur.) Anyway, I never forgot it because of how funny it was. It went like this: Dear cur (note: unusual way to spell "sir" ... never mind) I can see you're using Windows 95, and I think that's great! That's why I want to show my appreciation by sending you $1,000. Please send me your bank details and I'll send you that $1,000 without delay. Your Friend, Bill Gates *cough* BULLSHIT! *cough* I don't know what's scarier: the fact that someone might actually fall for that, or the fact that someone thinks that Bill Gates actually is "their friend". Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm just sick of scams. Don't fall for them. Scammers are sorry, sorry excuses for lifeforms; I'd call them protozoa, but even protozoa look down on scammers. If it was up to me, every scammer in the world would be gathered into one place, where they would all be hung by the larger of their testicles until it jolly well hurt. There, I said it. I feel better. ==================== Anyway, so what's making me unhappy? So, I was making pasta tonight ... and, while putting slices of sausage on the pan, accidentally put my hand way too close and burned the tip of my middle finger on the pan. (Ow, ow, owww! Didn't mean to do that, obviously.) That was just over an hour ago, and after treating it with various things (running it under cold water, put some aloe vera gel on it, etc., none of which reduced the pain), I looked up various treatments online and took some non-anti-inflammatory painkillers. They couldn't hurt. I also treated it with some Voltaren cream, which is anti-inflammatory, so I tried it and it seemed to reduce the pain. But then I read online that I shouldn't use any creams or gels, so I washed it off and washed my hands in cold water. The good thing is that the initial very sharp stabbing pain dulled away, and is now almost gone -- what a relief, thank goodness. Also, the burn seems to be only first-degree, so I hope it will go away soon. Right now, it's more embarrassing than anything; I've been cooking for close on 25 years and never burned myself. First time for everything, I guess. @ self Does anyone have any ideas how long this shit will take to heal? Thank all the gawds the pain is gone, anyway ...
The actual Bill Gates actually called you a mutt? That is so rude, even with a 'dear'. Ohh, that that man.
My father is going to rent a small studio in the city. It has no phone line for Internet service so, because it's in the middle of the city, I suggested to get a small 4G router and buy a SIM card with unlimited data. A provider here gave me one for $22 a month, which is cheaper than landline Internet. So, next, I went to a shop to buy a 4G router. I bought one that, right on the box, was labelled as a 4G router. It even showed a little SIM card on the side. So, I purchased it for €30 and thought I was golden. But at home, I opened it and found that it actually wasn't a 4G router. It had no SIM card slot. Just a USB port with the "3G/4G modem" label, meaning that you were supposed to connect an external modem. In other words, it has zero 4G hardware. It's just a normal minature router with a USB port and software drivers to drive an external modem. Honestly, anything is a 4G router in theory with that logic. I can just take any old router that has a USB port, flash it with OpenWRT, and bundle drivers for the external USB modem. Boom. I just made a "4G router". I'm not sure how much I should blame myself here. I would think that something labelled as a 4G router will have 4G functionality built in. On the other hand, if I had checked the documentation, I would understand the catch. I'll go back to the shop and ask for a refund, or to have it exchanged for something that actually has a 4G modem built in. This really sucks. I've learned my lesson though to thoroughly check next time and to not trust labels. Hopefully they'll accept the request.
I think it's reasonable to expect that something labelled "4G router" is, well, a 4G router... Can he hot-spot a phone? I have an old blackberry which I use as a hotspot when travelling, works really well. At home I have a 5G router which I bought on eBay (and is actually a 5G router... it's the device that Three would send if you purchased their wireless broadband, only I went to a company called Scancom which is a fraction of the price!)
Just went there today. Well, they accepted an exchange without any problems... but... they still managed to make this a completely painful experience. When it was accepted, one of the employees lead me to their selection. I chose another 4G router that had an actual modem this time around. But the employee told me that it wouldn't work. I asked why, and he insisted that it didn't have one even though the box indicated that it did so very clearly. I insisted back and he took me to a sales desk, where he phoned the central offices in Athens to ask whether it really did. They said: no, it doesn't. Questioning my sanity, I just asked for a refund to go elsewhere. While the employee disappeared somewhere to process the refund, I looked up the model number and located the datasheet. The datasheet very clearly said that it had an LTE modem inside! So, when he returned, I insisted again, and he gave in and let me have it. Screw the Athens office, I thought, they don't know what they are talking about. Nobody in that store seemed to do so. Annoying, but whatever, right? It didn't end there. I go to the checkout desk to pay. The new router costed €40, while the previous one costed €30. I would therefore have to pay a €10 difference. But the lady tells me that the difference is €40. WTF? I questioned my sanity again (ugh, what a common theme these past few days) and went back to the aisle, expecting to see an €80 price tag. Maybe I mixed it up or something. But no. It actually was €40. There wasn't even an €80 anywhere near. So, that employee from before shows up and questions why I'm still there. I explain the situation and he disappears. He returns along with some manager-seeming figure. The manager tells me that he is happy to sell it for €40 but claims that it isn't suitable for my needs. So, I recall that datasheet, question my sanity again, and finally find it in me to trust myself. I insist, there is a bit of back and forth, and he agrees on the condition that I can't return it. I trusted myself and got it anyway. Then I went home, hooked everything up, and it works perfectly. I don't know how I literally outsmarted a whole company. Either I am some kind of genius (ha, I wish) or they don't know jacks***t about networking gear. To be honest, I still don't exactly know what they were disagreeing with me over. I explained how the first router needed an external modem while the second had one built-in and they just didn't get it. I'm pretty sure the manager didn't believe me even by the end. He just let me have it so I could go away. Oh well. All is well that ends well, right?
My brain hurts from reading that. What on Earth is wrong with all those people? I'd be questioning my sanity, too. Glad it's sorted, though. Damn.
The insanity of today's commercialism and mindless corporate drones. As Crocodile Dundee (or Mel Gibson) would say: Good on ya for sticking to yer guns!
As a guy who runs one, I can attest that all companies of any ilk have the collective intelligence of a squirrel. And not those clever squirrels hiding their nuts and deking out the other squirrels, but the stupid ones who fall out of trees.
In the states, a router is labeled a "router" and a modem will always be labed a "modem" , either standalone or with router capabilities. I can definitely see how that could be a confusing shopping experience, products not clearly labeled. I love Greece, my favorite place besides home. I used to spend a lot of time there. Didn't care much for Athens, just flew in and out. Wouldn't even stay in the downtown area, I'd hold over at the Astir Palace nearby which was secluded enough to go for a safe morning jog. I discovered Nafplio and that became my go-to place, made friends there, almost bought a house to open a cafe and nightclub on the harbor. But one thing I learned about Greece was that the shopping experience is very different from the states, especially for electronics. Lovely people though. I've never visited another country where I get invited into strangers homes for dinner, or to join along on a locals own personal adventure.
It's a Greek shop, obviously, so you are not likely to go there. They are a big electronics chain that has shops all throughout Greece though so maybe you would if you were here for a holiday and needed a phone charger or something. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to name it. I've certainly never seen anyone here doing any naming & shaming.
Well, McDonald's deserves it for selling cheap cardboard crap and calling it "food". *shudder* As for Disney ... *hands on hips, taps foot sternly* How dare you besmirch the good name of our owners and proprietors, the Diz-Knee Corporation, and owner of such beloved characters as Licky Louse and Monald Muck! All hail the benevolent Diz-Knee Corporation, forever and ever, Amen ... Ah, forget it.
Not long ago I posted on the site about my false alarm of a heart attack and the 4-hour stay in the ER while they ran tests and such. Grateful as I was and am that things turned out okay, it all seemed so unnecessary and annoying -- I "knew" I was okay just wanted to be sure, but the doctor's office insisted on the full workup. Not long afterward I talked about it before class with my yoga teacher, a longtime yogi and gym rat who had become a close friend, and we laughed about being "elderly" and how much fun it is not to be treated that way in the ER. He mentioned that while bicycling recently he had suddenly gotten weak and short of breath, and figured he'd not hydrated enough. Said he would maybe make an appointment with his doctor and raise the issue with him. The next class I asked the teacher how his weekend had been, he said fine, he'd gone on a nice bike ride. I asked if he had properly hydrated and he said yes, but still felt that tightness after while, and said he'd talk to his doctor but didn't want to go through the ER charade. Well, last Sunday he had a fatal heart attack while on his bicycle. The entire class gathered at the usual time for an informal memorial session -- only a few knew ahead of time that he had died -- and it was amazing how many lives he had touched. I will miss him greatly and will always wish I'd insisted he go to the ER to be sure. If he had he might still be alive, and I could have visited him in the hospital as he recovered. If you feel "funny" about your heart in any way, please take it seriously, even if you "know" it's not really serious. Because it might be really serious.
Had a phone call scheduled with a friend. They're not reading texts and didn't pick up the phone. I hope everything is okay...
It luckily turned out to be a false alarm. I'm sorry about your yoga teacher. Sometimes anxiety comes with caution, but it's necessary.
