At least in Europe cards are not stored by retailers - card tokens are. And tokens can only be used by same retailer - they will not work it different merchant ID. It is actually so secure that tokens are considered non-sensitive. I've emailed a spreadsheet full of them to payment provider once.
Also majority of retailers use hosted payment pages - they redirect you to payment provided page or use iframe and they cannot even see your card info. They only get back bunch of codes and token (if requested and part of contract). Any follow up payments can be done using token.
Nobody wants to touch card info - too much hassle for no realistic gain. There are some that used to due to legacy reasons, but are moving off it. I helped design migration like this for one of them.

Physical payments are other issue. There are practical attacks - most common are skimmers installed on/in cash machines. Damn common - i've seen few of them just around my place in London. Thus I never use street facing cash points - always ones inside shops or banks.
There are also replay attacks for contactless ones. The only thing to protect yourself is to keep your card in metal wallet. Or just use your phone - it doesn't transmit until screen is on - thus makes it much harder to skim.
There is also PSD2 that is slowly coming in EU (and UK). That pushes security up - for example requiring strong customer verification (PIN or biometric) every 5th transaction.

That is correct. In UK one of the big charities (30-odd hospitals, 100+ gyms), Nuffield Health is offering long covid rehab as clinicians actually recognise it as a problem. Few thousands of people went through it - and that is just this one charity.
Also PACS is an aweful name - it is also used in medicine for picture archiving and Comms systems - where you store x-ray, MRI and so images. Google will go mental with it as both will point to same websites...

To be honest, I've seen this rubbish at UK IT consulting companies a lot. Hiring people for a project, with a very specific skill set, knowing that they will let them go afterwards. It was cheaper than getting a contractor, even including 1 month resignation period.
Or getting some kids fresh off uni to fill the seats on a project and 3-6 months later when their probation period comes to an end letting them go as bad fit. Not because they were bad, just because it was cheaper to let them go and hire somebody else in few months than keeping them on a bench.

Or you can install Firefox mobile with Adblock and Noscript and just add shortcut to desktop? As a bonus - if you switch to "Desktop view" you can even read messages without Facebook Messenger. So far I found 1 website that does not work with this combo - NewsThump...

Android is quite good actually - install Firefox, there are AdBlock and NoScript add-ons for it. Not sure about DoNotTrackMe as I haven't looked for it.
Well, now try to install Firefox on iOS :)

You connect second router (or access point) to one of LAN ports and switch on wifi power saving on the BT hub. You have access to free access points and you do not share yours. Which doesn't matter all that much as those BT WiFI and OpenZone hotspots are slow and suck donkey's balls. 3G is faster than most of them and with better coverage.

Since server is always on, use it for media centre. Put cheap video card - Nvidia G210 is more than enough and supports VDPAU. Then connect it to TV directly using HDMI or if not available (walls, server conveniently hidden, too far away, etc), use HDMI over CAT5/6 extender. Add wireless keyboard and you're set. For added fun, put MediaTomb on it, if you have some DLNA clients on the network.

Logmein.com is the simplest I found. Web-based and free. Try it. There are other options but this one looks easiest for non-IT inclined person.

I feel little sorry for MSFT. Just a little...

I also find it annoying. If you add that thick bar in Win 7, and then Ribbon from Office and some assorted stuff like window borders and status bar, there is suddenly no space to do any work. That is so ridiculously silly. I cannot call it progress, rather walking backwards.

Then there is netbooks' 1024x600. Thanks to MSFT for mandating max specifications for netbooks.

Damn that should be a new RickRoll ;)

>>What we need is a "you don't want to use C: right now, trust me" signal. Ever tried to use Firefox while copying something big? Why does it take ages to display a webpage when it does not need to use the disk?

It only works like that on Windows. I think it's mostly about bad system design. I have no such issues on my Linux machine, but lots on my wife's Windows one. Both are the same Thinkpad laptops, so fault can only be on OS side.

Half this on eBay ;)

That's the reason I'd like to have option in Adblock to load ads but do not show them on the page for whitelisted sites. This way everybody wins.

Sadly nobody cares...