Author: David Harrison

I thought it might be a good idea (correct me if I’m wrong) if in addition to any posts that might be generated from the meeting – which I was delighted to see 14 members attended – that I wrote a couple of notes about it.

Covid-19: The main topic of conversation was the difficulty in getting deliveries arranged for shielded people. David H related how his wife had only just (after 6 weeks) received a letter to tell her that she should be considered to be vulnerable and thus shielded – we have other members who are also in that category. Anyway, the problem is getting in touch with a Supermarket to get you on the list for priority deliveries. In Wales that’s compounded by the fact that the letter does not contain a NHS number (as I understand it) and yet the supermarkets require that information. Duh!

It would appear in England that those in the vulnerable category are getting free drops of food – even if they don’t want, or need them and it’s impossible to opt out easily. [We have a friend that’s arranged to take them to the local food bank.] It also appears that the supermarkets are responding off the peg so-to-speak and are approaching customers to offer deliveries even if they’re not regular customers and they would prefer their regular supermarket to reach out to them. Again duh!

This is an unfortunate set of circumstances. On the positive side the number of click’n’collect slots from our local Sainsbury’s seem to have increased – even if the alternatives picked off the shelves for us, are not what we would have wanted – how do you interpret a request for an oatcake into a ginger biscuit????

I’ll put this into the Covid-19 Topic – so please comment there and update my understanding – if I’ve got it wrong!

[Update eConsult]: I forgot this when I wrote up the notes at first. Just a quick note for you to see if your GP Surgery’s website has a link to eConsult on it – as well as My Health Online which you can sign-up for to get repeat prescriptions and book appointments … sometimes! Anyway eConsult gets you to fill-in a form that explains your symptoms as best you can, and asks if you have a preferred doctor from the practice who you’d like to ring you back. My experience was that I got a call back within a couple of hours. Really much better for non-serious consultations that you think can be handled without a face-to-face session. I can see that things will never be the same again. I can see that I’ll be asking my doctor to “zoom” me after I’ve first filled in an eConsult referral. Interesting times!

Screen capture on Windows: Apparently there is piece of software called Snipping Tool in Windows that does the trick, here’s an article that shows a number of ways of solving that issue. On the Mac, you can use a combination of key strokes to Copy screens, or sections of screens to the Clipboard, from which you can Paste the contents to a program. Here’s an article that shows you how to do this on a Mac. On an iPhone you can capture your screen and take a picture that goes to your Camera Roll in this way, and can create a screen recording like this, on Android you take a screen shot this way.

Digital HDS Antenna: Well, it appears Christine that the Dragons Den might well have been taken in by this product sometimes called TV Fix, but also DigitalHDS and TV Brite. The reviews are not good. Let’s pass on …

Sharing Notes between iPhones: Yes you can do that Don, and yes it might be useful for creating shared shopping lists – always useful at a time like this – but my recommendation would be to use Evernote which means you’re not restricted to just a Mac, you can use it on a Windows and also from the web, and share notes that way as work on them collaboratively. Evernote has replaced a word processor for most of my notes taking and writing. Gets 5* from me, and I pay for it too now!!

Have I been pwned?: Another use case for this very handy website that tells you whether your email address has been hacked is a check on your password – just click on this link and supply your “favourite” password to see if it’s out in the wild!

Problems with Nest and Google accounts: An issue we couldn’t really provide an answer to. In fact, I had difficulty understanding (not Margaret’s fault, I’m just not familiar with the product). Paul suggested that maybe trying to use a different email account with the device might allow you to get admin rights back. I really don’t understand this, so I suggest that Margaret might put it up as a Topic in our Forum – perhaps someone outside the Group might be able to help?

[Update We will fix your PC]: Forgot this in the first write-up of the notes. I’ve put a “plug” for Neil in the Computer etc. Forum.

Creating a Zoom meeting: I promised to produce a quick video showing how you can Schedule a meeting as a host, rather than just be on the receiving end. Here’s the video.

New website: I demonstrated the features of the new website using the Screen Sharing facility in Zoom. In feedback to this it was suggested that perhaps there ought to be a facility to add a Photograph to a Profile – I promised to look into this. If you have a WordPress account, this gets picked up automatically, but it should be possible to optionally add a Profile picture. I also pointed at the way of creating a Movie using Quicktime Player (goto Method 2) on the Mac. I’m sorry, but I can’t find an equivalent, easy way of doing it on Windows – it must exist!

Finally, by way of light relief, here’s a video I had thought of showing with you at the end of the call. The Project Manager’s nightmare. Enjoy …