Tunnelling

 We were up early for Ellie to be dropped off. I had forgotten to slice the ham yesterday so that was the first task once I had made coffee. (Ellie loves sliced ham for breakfast along with some fruit). Out came the slicer, thickness was set, power was switched on and a chunk of ham was gradually reduced to several dozen slices. Ellie was happy.

We dropped her off at school and then came back for breakfast before starting on our chores. My first task was to steam-clean the floors while Di started on the laundry. When that was done I retired to my study.

When I worked at IBM we would tunnel into the internal network using a form of VPN (Virtual Private Network). I have been considering installing a VPN to secure all my network traffic by encrypting it and tunnelling all the traffic to its destination. This is of particular interest when connecting to the internet via public networks, or when travelling. 

I spent several hours reviewing some of the big providers in the personal VPN marketplace and narrowed it down to three. I then asked AI (using Gemini) to compare the three. It did a pretty good job and its comparison gave me enough to rule one of them out. I then went back to the read reports on the remaining two. I chose SurfShark and opened an account. Within a few moments, I had downloaded and installed the software. My iMac, MacBook, iPad, and iPhone are now protected and the software seems to be completely transparent. If I find no issues over the next few days I will install it on Diane's devices.

We had some Kindle time after lunch and then picked Ellie up from school and took her home as Zoe had managed to finish early.

Ring tone

It was time.

The Silver Vixen's mobile phone needed an upgrade. Th battery life was shortening, the clock wouldn't keep time, and it had no features such as Bluetooth, Picture Messaging, or even a camera. (All of which seem de riguer for the modern cellphone).

GF headed to Worthing and parked overlooking the old Lido. On a grey winter's morning it looked a bit quiet. No band in the bandstand, no kids on the rides, even the tide seemed lazy as the waves slumped lugubriously upon the sands.

The first stop was the Carphone Warehouse where a helpful young lady guided the GF (as if he was senile) through the features of the phone he had selected. It was only on completion of this diatribe that she thought to check the stock and found that she didn't have said device. (Helpfully she checked the stock at Bognor, Hove and Brighton and found they all had some).

Before heading across Sussex to another outlet GF decided to try the O2 store. What can only be described as a parrot came up to him (his comb arrayed in several vibranmt colours) and asked:

"Can I help you, Sir"

GF replied, "Yes, I wish to buy a parrot, I mean a Motorola XYZ"

"Oh no Sir, that is an old phone" squawked the parrot. "It must be 2 years old now"

"Do I look as if I give a damn?" questioned the GF. "The phone was chosen because it was simple, inexpensive, and had the minimum features that we require".

"I see Sir. Well we don't have that model." he sidled over to the left, looked in a little mirror, and then sidled back to the right. "We do however have its replacement, the Motorola SXYZ. Would you like to take that?"

Gorse Fox wondered briefly if birdcages had ringtones nowadays, or still relied on the trusty bell. (Obviously the little ladder would have been outlawed by Health & Safety). He summoned a withering look. "Let me just check, you are suggesting that I subtitute the phone I had selected, priced at £49 on your network by your competitor over the road, for a newer substitute, costing £279?"

"Errr, well if you put it like that it's probably not such a good deal" the parrot concluded.

Gorse Fox left the shop chuckling to himself, and making a mental note to return with some birdseed and cuttlefish.

A trip to Bognor resolved the matter, and Silver Vixen now has a sparly new phone.