Skype, my contact with the world has been destroyed by a nerd.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Skype, my contact with the world has been destroyed by a nerd.
EDIT. Found the dial pad. It's at the bottom still, but in a menu button with three dots on it. Phew! That was a deal breaker for calling doctors etc.
500 calls a month, for which I pay. Yesterday, the 12th Apl 17, everything has changed. I'm (almost) totally lost.
There are no sub directories like CARS, or Friends, etc., none. There are favourites, but how many favourites can you have? Even the side bar doesn't work properly so that dragging down the hundred or so contacts is on elastic.
All help is circular, bringing you back to a community. I don't want a community, I want a human to help me get my @$##%@#$%@ contacts back.
And then, when I've got those, after 30 mins I've failed to find a way into the microphone, camera, bla bla bla settings.
BUT WORSE
I HOPE THIS IS OKAY - NOW i'VE FOUND IT. There's no dial pad while talking to enable me to respond to a selection offered by a switchboard.
Get my violin out now. This is in the middle of a series of minor operations. One of them on my eye. The last thing I need right now is to be a stranger in a strange land.
No warning. Nothing. Just a screen that's all but meaningless.
Anyone lend a helping hand?
500 calls a month, for which I pay. Yesterday, the 12th Apl 17, everything has changed. I'm (almost) totally lost.
There are no sub directories like CARS, or Friends, etc., none. There are favourites, but how many favourites can you have? Even the side bar doesn't work properly so that dragging down the hundred or so contacts is on elastic.
All help is circular, bringing you back to a community. I don't want a community, I want a human to help me get my @$##%@#$%@ contacts back.
And then, when I've got those, after 30 mins I've failed to find a way into the microphone, camera, bla bla bla settings.
BUT WORSE
I HOPE THIS IS OKAY - NOW i'VE FOUND IT. There's no dial pad while talking to enable me to respond to a selection offered by a switchboard.
Get my violin out now. This is in the middle of a series of minor operations. One of them on my eye. The last thing I need right now is to be a stranger in a strange land.
No warning. Nothing. Just a screen that's all but meaningless.
Anyone lend a helping hand?
Last edited by Loose rivets; 13th Apr 2017 at 15:50.
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Skype ****e
I was about to submit a post asking whether anyone else was having grief with skype at present in the way of the connection erratically dropping in and out, this happening at dfferent times on three different machines and one android device. Particularly strange and frustrating as if I sign out of the non connecting account and immedately login in to a different account on the same machine with the identical settings, that account will work immediately!
And I share your anguish at only being able to access imbecile forums rather than a real person to help determine how to perhaps rectify the problem. (The suggestions on the forums have led to absolutely no change!)
As for your immedate problem of the key pad, I find that using the keyboard numbers works just like the on screen dial pad used to. Maybe try and see if that will work for you too...
And I share your anguish at only being able to access imbecile forums rather than a real person to help determine how to perhaps rectify the problem. (The suggestions on the forums have led to absolutely no change!)
As for your immedate problem of the key pad, I find that using the keyboard numbers works just like the on screen dial pad used to. Maybe try and see if that will work for you too...
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Sadly, no. A long time ago I found the on-screen keypad was the only one that created the tones. However, as per my edit (somewhere) I've found the pad under a circle with three dots. Yet to test it.
My laptop has an old copy. I also have a copy of the contacts list. Right now I'm looking for an old copy to install on this PC.
The replacement, is so bad, so childish with its damnable Bots and the bizarre trick of always going back to Recent called number list.
I've turned off the Auto Updates on the laptop, but fear MS's arrogance will not even let that protect me. Still not guaranteeing an old copy will even work if reinstalled at this date on this machine.
WHAT'S MORE, THERE'S NO MENU SYSTEM AT THE TOP. WTF ARE THEY THINKING?
My laptop has an old copy. I also have a copy of the contacts list. Right now I'm looking for an old copy to install on this PC.
The replacement, is so bad, so childish with its damnable Bots and the bizarre trick of always going back to Recent called number list.
I've turned off the Auto Updates on the laptop, but fear MS's arrogance will not even let that protect me. Still not guaranteeing an old copy will even work if reinstalled at this date on this machine.
WHAT'S MORE, THERE'S NO MENU SYSTEM AT THE TOP. WTF ARE THEY THINKING?
I used to have a Philips combined Skype / DECT phone with answering system. It worked fine until Micro$oft took over Skype, after which it wouldn't work properly. Philips blamed Micro$oft for refusing to provide details of the changes they'd made to the Skype software and Micro$oft refused to take any responsibility for fixing things.... So now I've thrown it away and have bought a couple of Panasonic DECT phones instead.
Skype works OK on my laptop, apart from the greed of Micro$oft and its wretched adverts. But with the last 'update' it screwed up the 'ringing' option; normally I use a wireless headset and Skype rings using the laptop's speaker - but it had reset itself to ring through the headset, which is damn all use when the headset is switched off! It had also messed up my lady friend's microphone settings...
Micro$oft, will you PLEASE stop your geeks fiddling!
Skype works OK on my laptop, apart from the greed of Micro$oft and its wretched adverts. But with the last 'update' it screwed up the 'ringing' option; normally I use a wireless headset and Skype rings using the laptop's speaker - but it had reset itself to ring through the headset, which is damn all use when the headset is switched off! It had also messed up my lady friend's microphone settings...
Micro$oft, will you PLEASE stop your geeks fiddling!
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
I have an Android phone with Skype. The point is that my office, such as it is these days, revolves around Skype's communication system which I could never manage on a squitty screen.
I spend hours, often sharing screens, and getting great value out of something that I'm aware was too cheap. £5.99 per month for landlines in UK and Ireland + Canada and the US. Skype itself is of course free to use - and I guess that's the problem.
If one day they'd said, We can't keep giving this away, it's going to be x cents per min, I'd have understood, but now I'm totally #$%$ed with not one moment's warning.
My laptop is set not to update, but it's not going to be that easy. Indeed, on the PC, I could find no way to check out of the new Skype, finally killing it with Task manager - Uninstall - and Task Manager again. A sequence I'd learned from the past. Trying to load the old one did not fool them for a minute, bulking the install and offering a new program...
Every few minutes I'd realised just how different the new one is. It's like a phone app - a cheap or free one written by some spotty-faced **** that's . . . I've deleted what I said but it had a lot to do with the parent that obviously mated with a vegetable.
I don't know why I can't revert to an earlier time in windows. It says none are set and I know there is a fairly recent one.
when you think about it, even one cent per minute would have netted hundreds of millions. Just to have been given the chance to LEAVE THINGS ALONE IF THEY AIN'T BROKE.
I spend hours, often sharing screens, and getting great value out of something that I'm aware was too cheap. £5.99 per month for landlines in UK and Ireland + Canada and the US. Skype itself is of course free to use - and I guess that's the problem.
If one day they'd said, We can't keep giving this away, it's going to be x cents per min, I'd have understood, but now I'm totally #$%$ed with not one moment's warning.
My laptop is set not to update, but it's not going to be that easy. Indeed, on the PC, I could find no way to check out of the new Skype, finally killing it with Task manager - Uninstall - and Task Manager again. A sequence I'd learned from the past. Trying to load the old one did not fool them for a minute, bulking the install and offering a new program...
Every few minutes I'd realised just how different the new one is. It's like a phone app - a cheap or free one written by some spotty-faced **** that's . . . I've deleted what I said but it had a lot to do with the parent that obviously mated with a vegetable.
I don't know why I can't revert to an earlier time in windows. It says none are set and I know there is a fairly recent one.
when you think about it, even one cent per minute would have netted hundreds of millions. Just to have been given the chance to LEAVE THINGS ALONE IF THEY AIN'T BROKE.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
ORAC may have hit the nail on the head on Jet Blast. Time will tell.
I'll tidy the double thread up tomorrow if that's okay.
I'll tidy the double thread up tomorrow if that's okay.
Fortunately .... all my grandchildren are on Apple devices, and I have a mini iPad so we can use FaceTime, which works most times, sometimes the picture drops out but not the audio, Doesn't solve the problem of Skype telephone calls of course but I use a local VOIP service for that, not totally free but bearable.
I kicked Skype into touch years ago, still have an account but almost never need it now.
I kicked Skype into touch years ago, still have an account but almost never need it now.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Skype is free. Press a button and just start talking while hands free. Writing or showing pictures or walking around the room, just too good to expect for nothing, yet I've spent hour upon hour chatting to family in various countries.
I've never understood why it was free when by now billions could have been made.
I've never understood why it was free when by now billions could have been made.
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Cleaning up the JB thread to here.
I replied and will now just leave the above warning on JB
I went through that, and it did what it said on the tin, except starting Skype took me straight to the new one which is unaffected.
What I'm feeling is there's a new breed of Skype which has taken over - and is more embedded into the OS.
It does run, and it does have many of my phone numbers, but it's like stepping into a 777 cockpit and finding there's only ten knobs to twiddle.
I dare say there's a way of forming groups of contacts - well there is - but the groups are not sub-categories of phone numbers, they're lumped together for reasons I'm not clear about just yet.
I've no doubt I'll be working on this all night. I have another PC in the other room though not sure if I'd loaded skype on it.
What I don't know is if I have a virgin copy of an uninstalled download. As mentioned, the exe file I tried just put me to the new server's product .
Okay, so I went through ORAC's procedure and it may have helped, but I don't know. It must have cleared certain files out of the equation.
Anyway, I pulled an old exe installation file off the laptop and tried to run that. Again it got intercepted and I was offered a new download. No option left but to try it, though I was assuming this new piece of crapola would be the end product. However, to my astonishment, I got a running copy in the old style.
The version is 7.35.0.101
Now, I don't know how or why the disruptive (useless) one appeared.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else gets hit with this offering.
I replied and will now just leave the above warning on JB
I went through that, and it did what it said on the tin, except starting Skype took me straight to the new one which is unaffected.
What I'm feeling is there's a new breed of Skype which has taken over - and is more embedded into the OS.
It does run, and it does have many of my phone numbers, but it's like stepping into a 777 cockpit and finding there's only ten knobs to twiddle.
I dare say there's a way of forming groups of contacts - well there is - but the groups are not sub-categories of phone numbers, they're lumped together for reasons I'm not clear about just yet.
I've no doubt I'll be working on this all night. I have another PC in the other room though not sure if I'd loaded skype on it.
What I don't know is if I have a virgin copy of an uninstalled download. As mentioned, the exe file I tried just put me to the new server's product .
Okay, so I went through ORAC's procedure and it may have helped, but I don't know. It must have cleared certain files out of the equation.
Anyway, I pulled an old exe installation file off the laptop and tried to run that. Again it got intercepted and I was offered a new download. No option left but to try it, though I was assuming this new piece of crapola would be the end product. However, to my astonishment, I got a running copy in the old style.
The version is 7.35.0.101
Now, I don't know how or why the disruptive (useless) one appeared.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else gets hit with this offering.
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I think it is a little hard to blame it on the "nerds" and "geeks". People don't often realise how removed we, the people actually writing the code, are from the decision making and how many people are involved. The request for change will have come from on high, the UX and UI guys will have come up with loads of wireframes and we'll be expected to implement them along with any other bug fixes or "technical" changes.
I'm not excusing Microsoft but this is what you get when you use proprietary software...
If it bugs you that much get a VoIP account with someone like Sipgate and download some open source VoIP software. If something changes or doesn't work, submit a bug report on Launchpad... Sorted.
I'm not excusing Microsoft but this is what you get when you use proprietary software...
If it bugs you that much get a VoIP account with someone like Sipgate and download some open source VoIP software. If something changes or doesn't work, submit a bug report on Launchpad... Sorted.
Do remember that anything you got for nothing is worth exactly what you paid for it. That applies to services as much as goods.
If you don't like a free product or service you have the absolute right to dump it and buy something better...
PDR
If you don't like a free product or service you have the absolute right to dump it and buy something better...
PDR
Psychophysiological entity
Thread Starter
Well I covered that in my initial rant. Skype went worldwide in almost no time. Court cases called witnesses via it and news items occasionally had the Skype logo in one corner. Slowly people were drawn in. Yes, one day there had to be a cost.
But not suddenly withdrawn in one update after a decade of heavy use. That's just plain destructive entrapment.
As I said, I pay them monthly for my phone calls, and really, it was those that were most severely affected. 'Skyping' is fun and as I also said, I'd have been fine with paying x per min for use. But I was never asked to do so. In fact, they just kept upping the tools to play with.
However, now I've seen the option to choose the old screen - which was not offered the first horrible moments - I'm just wondering when that choice will come to an end.
I'm bewildered by the sheer data transference worldwide. People talk for hours. Millions of people. How can this be? What was the plan? Sell it to MS, well okay, that should have been the time to get worried, but still nothing happened. In whose interest is it to have something that can carry tens of millions of conversations, and then suddenly B@#$%er it up?
I suppose I'll have to pluck up courage and reboot my PC. Haven't dared yet. Might get that horrible screen but with only one button. No daren't. Going to leave it on forever.
But not suddenly withdrawn in one update after a decade of heavy use. That's just plain destructive entrapment.
As I said, I pay them monthly for my phone calls, and really, it was those that were most severely affected. 'Skyping' is fun and as I also said, I'd have been fine with paying x per min for use. But I was never asked to do so. In fact, they just kept upping the tools to play with.
However, now I've seen the option to choose the old screen - which was not offered the first horrible moments - I'm just wondering when that choice will come to an end.
I'm bewildered by the sheer data transference worldwide. People talk for hours. Millions of people. How can this be? What was the plan? Sell it to MS, well okay, that should have been the time to get worried, but still nothing happened. In whose interest is it to have something that can carry tens of millions of conversations, and then suddenly B@#$%er it up?
I suppose I'll have to pluck up courage and reboot my PC. Haven't dared yet. Might get that horrible screen but with only one button. No daren't. Going to leave it on forever.
