Author: Owen Parry

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Notes of Zoom Meeting – 12th May 2022

Mario but no Fred
Fred but no Mario!

12 of us met although there were the odd appearance, re-appearance and disappearance of some members! Thanks to Jim for the screenshots.

Owen took the lead in David’s absence, mentioned the news that Apple was no longer the world’s biggest company, led a remarkably short moment of silence for that fact and also mentioned the demise of the iPod Touch.

David has a friend who had been locked out of Gmail. He was unsure whether this was a Google account problem or just spite. Renee mentioned that she had received prompts from Google to take extra security options.  David further lamented that his iPad was now too old to receive iOS updates (he’s locked on 12 when the current release is at 15) and that this was now beginning to case him issues with favourite apps that would no longer work.  Beyond commiserations, we were unable to offer much help.

Jenny then kicked off a discussion about discounts available through u3a or the Third Age Trust. Owen indicated that there were some software discounts available but needed to look into the scheme again. Fred added his weight to the call for national-level negotiations. Jenny is also speaking at the Age Cymru conference, her topic is digital inclusion.

Paul informed us that he had learned that the short phone number 159 can be used to report a banking scam (or attempt) [Thanks Rip Off Britain on the BBC]. He was unsure whether this was just a report or whether one then got through to one’s own bank to freeze cards etc.

Stella had received a scam message on Signal which she had not opened but wanted to delete. We demonstrated how to do this and also slim down the number of messages. We were unsure as to whether the messages were stored on a local device or just on a remote server. Jim interpolated later that with WhatsApp, images and videos are held on the local device when delivered and the storage this takes needs to be managed to avoid filling up the phone’s capacity. We presume the same is true with Signal.

Ralph needs to renew his driving licence having reached a certain age and enquired whether it was feasible to do this using a smart phone or would a PC/laptop be better. A PC/laptop was recommended as being more amenable to typing but we did think it could be done on a phone.  In response to Ted’s enquiry on this, it was indicated that no actual medical checks were involved but that there was some self-reporting required.

Ted started off a discussion on the future of the group in view of David H’s decision to step down as facilitator in a couple of months. We kicked around a few ideas, thinking that as no member had thrown their hat in the ring yet, it might be necessary to reformulate how the group operates to attract candidates. No decisions were made but the following ideas were raised:

  • Frequency of meetings: monthly or fortnightly or a fixed pattern (e.g. 1st and 3rd Thursdays of a month)
  • Content of meetings: round table with occasional longer talks (as now) or just main talks
  • Mix and match options: face-to-face or zoom or do each type alternately [hybrid was discussed]
  • More than one convenor, possibly one running Zoom meetings and another running F2F.
  • No notes to be produced – this was raised to indicate that note taking and loading onto the website clearly involves some effort and may be putting off candidates – members to take their own notes as they think fit.

Some members expressed preferences but there was little consensus at present.

Jim added to his points on WhatsApp that there has been a message re a upgrade within the next few days that will be advisable to take.

Steve had had some issues with new equipment. He also raised the recent reports on FIDO, the sharing of account details including passwords between Apple, Google and Microsoft, ostensibly to save money and hassles. It should be reported that there was a tinge of cynicism about comments on this.

Mario reported that he had borrowed the URC’s new laptop and obtained much better speeds on his home wifi than he did with his own equipment. He also indicated that URC systems were improving and still hoped for better soon.

In closing the meeting, Owen reminded members that he was not available on 26th May for the next meeting and Ted has agreed to start the Zoom session instead.

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Notes of a Zoom meeting – 28th April 2022

Thirteen of us met this week with Owen facilitating again in David’s absence in the Antipodes.


Ted provided an extremely interesting talk on the use of the various software he uses in ancestry research. He demonstrated the use of paid-for and free software, including Ancestry.com and Find My Past in the former category and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Free BMD, the General Register Office and the Welsh newspaper archives available from the National Library of Wales in the latter category.

Using a grandfather of David Hughes who was known to have died in the First World War as an example, he took us through the search process, moving from one application to another to add in material until we had a clear picture of William Hughes, his parents, wife and children. Ted was also able to add in the cause of death and location of his burial as well as background as to his work before the war and possible service in a territorial unit, perhaps in the Boer War or other imperial conflict.

It was a trouble-free demonstration and Ted has provided a slideshow to accompany his talk for Thoughtgrazing members …

U3A-Computer-Group-Ancestry-talk

There were some contributions from members: Jim mentioned WikiTree to which you can add your own family tree to help others find connections – their ultimate aim is to connect all living people on a single tree – and Jonathan mentioned Family Echo which enables one to draw up a tree – but not to do the searching.


We moved on to our usual round-table discussions. Several members had nil returns but here are the others:


David H has battery-life problems with his mobile phone and Ann and Jim were able to offer him advice on both identifying and ameliorating the problem.

Christine had been selling things on Gumtree and eBay and was surprised by the level of scam offers she received. We discussed the difficulty in establishing the bona fides of purchasers. Christine has firmly decided on local and cash-only arrangements. Renee recommended the use of NextDoor for this.

Don had received a letter from a charity he supports informing him of a data breach and is monitoring his accounts. He had also received a few scam phone calls using what appears to be a Cardiff number 029 2240 4135 and felt the ‘22’ was unusual. Some Penarth numbers use this, apparently.

Renee has finally had a problem fixed by Virgin Media. She has lost incoming calls due to a problem which appeared when Virgin Media switched her phone to a hub. Of course, she didn’t know she had a problem until her callers informed her of failed attempts and she thinks three months have passed until the problem has been resolved.

Ann has found a workaround of her printer problems using a smart phone app but still has signal problems.

Owen closed the meeting reminding members that in David’s absence, substitute facilitators were required. He was able to do the next meeting on 12th May but not on 26th so asked for volunteers to contact him. He also reminded the group that David had indicated that he wished to step down from the role entirely after the Summer break and that someone was needed to take over if the group is to continue. Owen indicated that he was not in a position to offer to do this.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 14th April 2022

Members attending 14/4/2022

We were much depleted this week with only nine members attending. Owen was facilitating as David was away on a break.

In lieu of meeting notes from last time, we moved swiftly on to a round-screen chat.

Sianed reported that she now had a new iPad (9th generation) to replace her old one which was now no longer receiving updates and therefore not of much use for her online activities.

She had also updated per PC to Windows 11 but found it to be running more slowly, with a noticeably longer boot-time. Jim chipped in to say that his upgraded PC was actually running better under Windows 11 and recommended that Sianed implement any updates and see if that helped.

Paul related a prospective battle with TalkTalk over increased charges an we had a discussion of just how they arrived at both increases and the figures upon which they were actually based. A new branch of mathematics perhaps…

Jim is still pursuing the perfect image catalogue without any duplicates…

Ralph was interested in our discussion but felt unable to contribute at this time.

Don had downloaded Norton Anti Virus as it came packaged with his BT broadband offering. He had had some issues with browser extensions but felt he was now OK. He had also implemented a password manager.

Jim referred us to an article which said basically what has been raised before, that Windows Defender was adequate and that paid-for anti-virus should not be necessary on top of it… but as Don said, it was free to him at present.

We also discussed the efforts Don was undertaking in making grant applications for his church, which involved considerable downloading, loading into Word, editing and re-uploading.   He was also waiting for a new iPhone and planned to use it for the Signal group.

Mario found his latest monthly meeting Zooming plagued by screen freeze and on investigation had discovered very poor connection speeds for downloads. We queried the age of his router and Paul suggested a battle with TalkTalk to see if upgrading was feasible for him.

John talked about his iPhone photography and also that he was experiencing startup issues with his Dell PC. He is considering Windows 11 as well and was referred to the Microsoft site for the PC Health Check software.

Fred has speed issues too and was interested in the discussions that had preceded him.

Owen demonstrated the current state of the web redevelopment project using WordPress.

We closed at around 3pm with Owen indicating that next time (28th April) Ted Richards would be leading on the use of ancestry software.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 14th October 2021

Thanks as ever to Jim for the screenshot and hoping the ones looking down are not actually asleep!

In David’s absence, we went straight to the round-table session.

Margaret had found a very useful site ‘Plotaroute.com’ which describes itself at an ‘Outdoor route Planner’. Margaret recommends it for journeys as well.

Mike sang TalkTalk’s praises after they spontaneously provided him with new routing equipment and an engineer to fit it on the day stated. Not only that, they reduced his monthly cost. Steve concurred about their quality of service but indicated that their prices need to be monitored and compared.

Stella and Sianed had no issues of which to speak but Steve came back in with a question about hybrid meetings. Owen explained that he had run a low-level meeting of the Writers 2 group with 4 attendees in the room and 2 on Zoom, which did seem to work well using a basic laptop, separate camera and separate microphone but that Wi-Fi quality appeared to be the critical factor.  The History Group was having a larger hybrid meeting on 27th in the City URC Sacristy so he would report back on 28th. The AGM was also being held there on 9th November.

[There is now a U3A Facebook Group for help with hybrid meetings “u3a: Let’s Talk Tech”]

Jim had no issues but Don had a question about Zoom recordings and how could he pass on the files (MP4) to others. Zoom recordings can be saved either in the cloud (Zoom itself) and shared from there or, if recorded locally, a couple of options were suggested: WeTransfer as mentioned a few meetings ago or possibly uploading to a private You Tube channel. The size of file precludes it form being sent as an email attachment.

Don also mentioned that he had an Amazon Firestick and as a result of using it, his remote control now did more than he had thought…

As Ann, David and Fred had no issues to raise, there was a brief discussion on Windows 11. Owen recommended obtaining the Microsoft PC Health Check software (an ‘.msi’ file) via a Google search and running that first. He had done so on his own PC and laptop and neither of them could take Windows 11. He shared screen images from the report. He did incidentally realise that his PC is now 7 years old!

The group generally concurred that this was the appropriate first step and no-one was too keen to upgrade as yet.

Owen then gave a (rather rushed) presentation on building a small business network and the meeting closed thereafter.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 8th July 2021

Owen led the meeting as David was on holiday. We did the usual round table followed by short presentations on Windows 11 and the Cardiff U3A website.

Fred: reported continuing problems with TalkTalk especially their email offering.

David H: David has bought a Samsung TV but struggles with multiple remotes. Jim mentioned an article in ‘Computer Active’ magazine describing an app to handle all TV activity.

Barbara: had an issue with her iPad failing to change screen orientation on rotation. There is apparently a ‘setting’ option to handle this but well hidden. She closed down the machine and restarted to solve her problem. [Jim chatted: To control the orientation of my tablet’s screen I use an app, Rotation-Orientation Manager, available in the Android Play Store. Jim]

Renee: was supposed to give a Zoom presentation but ended up in A&E! She has taught herself to use PhotoBooth to video herself and WeTransfer to send the file to others.

Don: is getting used to his new Dell PC. DH has encouraged him to use LibraOffice but every time he uses it he gets a popup about MS Office. He also wanted to reorder the email accounts that he uses to see a particular one first. No obvious solution was suggested except that he might remove all the accounts from his email client and re-add them in the order he wanted, but there was no guarantee this would actually work.

Sianed: asked for advice on the Brave browser as when trying to login to her online banking she receives a message which prevents her progressing. Others mentioned similar issues with other browsers.

Paul: has continuing battery drain problems on his phone. There appears to be an app or service ‘RCS’ which takes most of the charge. It was noted that the NHS Covid app also takes considerable battery usage as it is constantly scanning. [Renee chatted: iPhones don’t support RCS. They use iMessage instead.]

Jim: has been attempting to control his camera using his phone. He noted that when images are transferred to disc they no longer contain some of the desired information embedded in them.

Steven: Looking into removing duplicate files. Jim recommends ‘AllDup’.

Ann: mentioned that Zoom options seemed to have changed and her camera comes on automatically rather than asking her first. Owen said he would check if there had been any recent updates which might have altered this.

Christine: mentioned that emails don’t seem to archive properly. She has had a message from a spoofed email address but realised it in time and did not open any links. Celebrated receiving a date to have an extender from Virgin.

Owen then walked the group through the recent announcement by Microsoft of Windows 11 which seems to have a style revamp and the addition of a number of tools and features. Link is https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-11 .

Owen then followed on with a demonstration of some of the features of Google Sites which is the software he uses for the Cardiff U3A website. He demonstrated layouts, images, formatting text, the inclusion of calendars etc. In response to a question, he indicated that one shortcoming was the inability to give editor permissions at page level and had therefore had to restrict editor to himself until Google changes matters.

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Home Broadband using 5G

I have for the years of my retirement chafed under the yoke of slower Internet access compared with when I was at work. Although I have had fibre from the cabinet as soon as it became available, I have rarely had more that 18-20 Mb/s download speed and commensurately slow upload speeds. I have also suffered with intermittent halts on the network where a succession of routers have decided to drop the connection back to the ISP, sometimes for several hours. And not just one ISP either. We have also had problems with Apple devices (iPad and iPhones) which frequently dislike the wireless network and have to have their lease renewed or their wireless function turned off and then on again.

As my most recent contract was coming to an end in January 2021, I took the opportunity to explore other options. Fibre to the premises was my hope but not available and no prospect in sight. I had signed up to receive an indication of when it might become available but OpenReach has lived up to its reputation for impenetrability and Virgin Media have no interest in cabling up my end of Penylan.

I did remember a member of the Computer Group had mentioned non-cabled access although my faulty memory suggested the word ‘radio’ and I couldn’t track that down. But the concept stuck and I looked at whether it was feasible to implement home broadband using mobile technology. The answer is of course, yes.

I spent some time looking at the three possible providers – 3, EE and Vodafone. They all had different offerings: 3 the cheapest, EE possibly the most flexible and Vodafone another option. They all provide useful ways of determining just what service you can get at your address. 3 quickly dropped out as they did not provide 5G cover in my area. Then I investigated volume usage and checked with my existing supplier (Vodafone) as to what sort of throughput I was currently using. It turned out that EE’s highest level contract was an allowance of 300Gb per month and that if, as my wife and I do, you watch a number of subscription services over the Internet and do a lot of Zooming, you can approach that level quite easily.

So there I was, Vodafone was the remaining option: the most expensive but offering unlimited usage. I struggled with their online system for investigating any further despite being a current customer but eventually came up trumps – I wonder if that’s a phrase that will fall out of favour now?? – using their chat system. A piece of advice : use the chat system from the sales page not the general or technical support page. The financial imperative means they give better answers and don’t want to send you to any other group!

I quickly gained an assurance (in writing) that their 5G service would reach my house and provide good and consistent connections and importantly, there is a 14 day trial period to check it all out. I placed my order and on hearing of the difficulties I had had with the existing connection from Vodafone, have a £10 per month discount for 2 years. It’s still twice what I was paying, though.

The Gigacube and SIM came the next day by courier. It took me 10 minutes to install, plug in my two Ethernet cable to the sockets; then 2 or 3 hours to visit every networked device and change it over to the new wireless network. My iPad is now downloading consistently at 170Mb/s and nothing in the whole set-up is slower than 45 Mb/s. Every room in the house has a good signal including the attic room two floors up.

Issues? Yes, one. I distribute a wired Ethernet connection via powerlink devices (you connect one to the router, plug it into the mains and then get a network connection from similar devices plugged in elsewhere in the house). The main one is to my study for my PC and laptop. The new network didn’t seem to like this at first but after a few hours of head scratching and for no apparent reason, it suddenly started working. I haven’t worked out why yet.

Verdict: well, it’s early days isn’t it? But I’m certainly very pleased so far. I’ll monitor usage and maybe ‘unlimited’ was a bit of a luxury.

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My first encounter with computers

I used SPSS a statistics package at university but all that involved was writing coding sheets and receiving back printouts of analyses so not what I’d call real computing at all.

That came later in 1978 when I was working as a research assistant at Sheffield Poly as was. I was developing a reading test for school leavers and not only had data to analyse but also wanted to see if I could set up a computerised question banking system from which different tests could be extracted.

The Computer Services dept were very helpful, listened carefully and then told me to go to the library, get out McCraken’s book on Fortran and do it myself. I taught myself Fortran and got on with it.

I’m still programming – the calendars that appear on the U3A website for each group are derived from Beacon and added into Google Calendar using the Python programming language.

Owen Parry, June 2020

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Cardiff U3A Website needs you!

Any contributions for the Cardiff U3A website gratefully accepted – things to do, useful tips, what you’re watching/listening or just a message to keep in touch with fellow members.
Email to website@cardiffu3a.org.uk
Owen Parry
Chair, webmaster and beacon admin.