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Notes from Zoom meeting – 20th January 2022

We received apologies from Ann, Margaret, Jenny ( who arrived later) and Don.

I asked if anyone would be willing to share their favourite app with the group bu way of a demonstration. Steve offered to do something with Trello – a work organisation application, and I asked Ted whether he’d be willing to do something on Ancestry. Steve also asked me whether I’d do something on LastPass – so I said that I’d do that as a return favour for his offer which we agreed he’d do at the next meeting.

I then did a demonstration of flickr and will write an article up on what I’ve found out in doing the preparation for it! This will be on my Just thoughts blog in due course!

Owen reported that he’d been working on ways to move the Cardiff u3a website over to WordPress, in conjunction with some other local groups which were doing the same, and away from the SiteBuilder software he’d been using to date. They all needed to find a way to get it to work with the Beacon membership system, but there was a problem that there was no api (application programming interface) for Beacon that would allow easy import/export of information between the two systems. As a first step a read-only access api would be valuable and would allow the two to be linked together. Owen was now learning how to use WordPress, and I offered to provide help if required.

Mike has discovered the the iPlayer app on his desktop which he is very happy with. Steve suggested he looks into the Sounds app as well. I queried whether people listened to Podcasts much – quite a few members did.

David Hughes recommended the Sounds app and podcasts and said he’d just recently been listening to one from a family member – Jon Ronson – I for one, will try and catch-up on this!. We then started a discussion on David’s IT-phobic friend who lived in the Marina and somehow was receiving more than one incoming call on two handsets – that’s different calls!. It appears his son had purchased broadband and OpenTReach had installed a landline and a router. His landline is now digital (see Jenny’s article) and it appears he can use two handsets off the broadband landline for incoming calls. Renee reported problems with interceptions, and conversations being repeated on her landline. VirginMedia engineers had replaced the the handset to a broadband connected router. Maybe (she suggested) David’s friend had a legacy connected analog line? Owen offered the information that you could buy two-line cordless phones, but they did have separate numbers. [In later conversations on Signal it was mooted whether it was possible to put n answer machine on one of the lines, or not.] I can see us returning to this one.

Sianed advised us of a scam asking a user by TEXT to update their PayPal account. Watch out for that one.

Paul reported that Amazon and Visa had come to an arrangement so that Visa Credit cards could be used with Amazon. Good news. He also recommended All 4 as another possibility for streamed TV. I mentioned BritBox as another source of good binging boxset TV.

Steve had started using LastPass and wondered whether I could do something on using it, and was also looking at Flickr. He reported that he wouldn’t have problems with Chrome updates as the renewal date was 1st March. [I think this note needs reviewing.]

Ted was off to Rwanda. I won’t say more, just read his wonderful blog post on this site, and go look at his website for more information. He had us all in stitches describing his challenges with getting Banana Beer and doubts as to whether his payment using PayPal had been a scam because of links to a sister company offering him handbags and selling chilli paste. The mind boggles, or at least mine did!

Jim was transferring information from photos that went back to the early 2000’s into a Comment field in the EXIF data held on the photos. He also reported the problems that American airlines were having with 5G and their altimeters s they approached airports. The switch-on had been delayed until problems were resolved. Apparently 5G in the US is on a higher frequency than in the UK and transmits more power. Whether the problem is in the airports, or the planes is uncertain.

John reported that Flickr was working well. He’d uploaded lots of p[hotos of clouds and created a few albums of them too!

Christine was now a happy Real Bridge user. All her difficulties had been resolved [insert solution here as note not clear] She, like others, had been finding the process for getting a digital Covid Pass from the NHS website, more than challenging and was now printing off a paper version.

Renee had solved the problem with her landline; she said she was receiving emails from Royal Mail re. tracking deliveries that she was uncertain about. We suggested that they be best ignored.

Ann had updated her Zoom software. She had looked at her Firewall settings and chose to view blocking and now video not showing in Zoom. It was suggested that she look at her firewall settings and review Allow/Deny options. Jim suggested looking at the choices with Zoom itself that might be causing the problem. Owen suggested looking at another app that uses the camera to see if the problem was replicated.

Jenny (having managed to make the meeting after an earlier appointment) wondered whether she should get a replacement battery for her laptop – depends on whether she thinks £100-£140 is a good investment and whether she can do the replacement herself – perhaps get a view from Neil (our helpful IT fixit man!) and also said tht her external monitor was not working as well as she’d hoped.

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Armchair Travel Challenge

I’m a man who likes to set myself a challenge.  About 40 years ago I set myself the challenge of walking around the entire coastline of England and Wales.  It took me 20 years to complete but I did it.  Then I set of walking up all the mountains and 15 years later I finished that list.  At about the same time I set off trying to find a pint of Guinness in all 52 European Capital cities.  Fortunately I completed that challenge in 2019, just before Covid hit.

Completing my European Capital City Challenge in Dublin in 2019

Ever since then people have been asking me what my next challenge is. I kept saying I hadn’t got one as yet but I was beginning to feel under pressure to think of one.  And this is what I have come up with – the Armchair Travel Challenge.

Travelling at the present time is itself a bit of a challenge. Plus there are other factors to consider such as advancing age, cost and the environment.  So I thought do I need to travel?  Why not do it virtually.  There’s a lot I can do from home to take in the atmosphere of a destination such as the food and drink and music.  It would also have the advantage that I wouldn’t get robbed, lost or fall ill with and exotic disease.

There are around 197 countries in the world.  If I were to spend about a month in each that should take me about 16 years. I like the random nature I approached the Guinness challenge where my next destination was picked out of a hat by the person pouring me the Guinness in the previous destination.  In this challenge I would use a random number generator to pick the next country. 

So far my list of things to do in each country includes:

Try to eat and drink something typical of that country, either in a restaurant or making it at home.

Read something of the history, culture, politics, news etc.

Read something by a local author (or a book set in that country).

Read a travel book or travel blog based in that country

Listen to some of their music.

Watch a film made in that country.

Make a clock in the shape of that country (that sounds weird I know but believe it or not I used to make clocks in the shapes of different countries)

Try to meet someone from that country (and maybe give them a clock!)

Sporting – follow the football or cricket team or some other sporting event. 

Go on some ‘virtual trips’ within that country – using my vivid imagination.

Railways – I especially like train travel so a ‘virtual’ rail trip would be good.

Highest point – anther ‘virtual’ trip – to climb the highest mountain in that country.

Geocaching – solve a puzzle cache in that country.  That’s another fairly specialist one, but geocaching is a hobby of mine and they can be found all around the world.

Stamps – purchase some stamps from that country

Charity – find a way of helping someone out in that country in some small way

I’m wondering what you, my U3A friends, would if you tried to travel to a country ‘virtually’?

Progress to date

We started in mid-November and have so far spent a month in Burkina Faso and a month in Libya.  This month we are in Rwanda (the random number generator seems to like Africa!)

We met up with someone from Libya but are still trying to find someone in Cardiff from Burkina Faso and Rwanda.  If anyone in U3A can help put us in touch with someone from either of those countries then please let us know.

Remember lessons learnt form the U3A Computer Group

So what’s this got to do with the U3A Computer Group?  Well, last week I tried to order some Rwandan banana beer from a website, U&I Drinks.  I forgot some of the basic advice we had spoken about at some of our previous meetings, manly is the website genuine?  It looked genuine but the beer hasn’t arrived as yet.  What I forgot to do was to search to see if there were reviews of that company online, positive or negative.  Going back now and doing a search I can’t find any independent reviews.  The thing which raised my suspicions was that as soon as I placed my order I received 3 emails back, an order confirmation, a PayPal confirmation and an e-mail from a USA tracking company implying my luxury handbag was on its way! I’ll keep you all updated as to whether I receive some banana beer, a luxury handbag or nothing.

In the meantime, here’s a link to the Armchair Travel Challenge

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Zoom with a view!

Our last meeting on January 6th 2022

It was suggested that members might be interested in finding out how one group – the Computer Group – has handled and coped with the Covid pandemic by using Zoom. We haven’t actually met in person since the beginning of the 2020 session in September. We were quick out of the blocks however even before that and we held our first Zoom meeting on the 23rd April even before the Committee had taken out a subscription to Zoom I believe. Since then, almost without a break, we’ve met virtually every fortnight.

Supporting us in our meetings we’ve kept Notes and added them to our website – “Thought grazing” at https://thoughtgrazing.org – which any Cardiff u3a member is welcome to view by just sending an email message to computer@cardiffu3a.org.uk.

We’ve had an attendance of between 12 and 24 at our meetings with 16 being an average number, so that means probably 50% of the group have been able to participate at any meeting, but of course it’s not always the same 16!!! We’ve adopted a new way of organising the meetings to match with the virtual world, focussing on getting members to share issues and problems, matters of interest and general chitchat about matters digital. It’s become a much more social group with everyone encouraged and requested to participate – when it’s their turn at the very minimum. This has led to reduced time for presentations and facilitator-led talks. Some might say this is a good thing … I couldn’t possibly comment!

The pluses …

  • We’ve enjoyed each others company and supported each other through these difficult times.
  • The technology has really helped, since we’ve found screen-sharing to be an excellent way of showing and telling what we’re discussing. [Not having to rely on the venue WiFi has also been a real boon!]
  • The technology, I think, has actually made us much more inclusive as every member has a chance to make a contribution – far more so than when we met face-to-face.

... and the minuses.

  • Nothing can make up for meeting people face-to-face, the chance for casual chatter, the chance to add a cup of coffee or share lunch before (or after) the meeting.
  • Perhaps the number of informational presentations has dropped, but this doesn’t seem to have been a factor in attendance.
  • As a technology group we would hope that our members would find using Zoom relatively straightforward. Hopefully, we can still encourage some “lapsed” members to try this way of meeting, but we do accept that some memberts are perhaps “over-Zoomed” as well.

Could we manage so-called hybrid-meetings?

The occasional one-off event with some members remote on Zoom and some face-to-face might work but it would have to be a presentation-style meeting.

We have concluded that we might try an alternate meeting style when we are able to return to face-to-face, with Zoom meetings still being scheduled.

Would we miss meeting over Zoom?

In the end, probably not, because the benefits of face-to-face would outweigh any benefit from the new form of interaction, much as we like it. However, I think we’d want to take some of what we’ve learnt from our Zoom meetings into the way we organised our in-person meetings in the future. Roll on that day when Zoom doesn’t have that view!

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Out with the old … in with the new

This article is a place-holder to the progress of the planned switch-off of the analogue PSTN (public switched telephone network) by 2025, and its implications to all of us, as Openreach moves to implement a fully digital service. It’s a dynamic document that will change over the next few months and the next couple of years so please look back for updates and further information.

What implications might this have for older people?

  • Digital services are not universally good across rural areas
  • There will need to be a solution to the issue of digital services requiring power – what happens if there’s a break in power supply

What implications might this have for people with certain disabilities?

  • It’s been reported to us that certain people with visual problems have been experiencing difficulties in the Salisbury pilot area with the withdrawal of the 1471 service, with call-back not working, and with needing to install a new phone number

Here’s a link to the Progress Openreach has reported by January 2022. Much of this is very technical, so some of the following information might be more readable.

Here’s a briefing from BT on the project; and an update on what’s happening in Wales forwarded to me in my role sitting on the National Pensioners Convention. Which? have also published a briefing on the subject which I encourage you all to look at.

I’ve also written the article below, which will hopefully appear in the latest Cardiff u3a magazine …

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Ring, ring: Ready for the big ‘phone switchover?

Only three years until 2025 when all telephone providers will do the big “switchover” moving landline customers from the country’s traditional telephone network to digital technologies and analogue services are finally shut down. 

Though BT published a timescale back in 2019, many older people’s organisations have expressed concern that the public have not been given enough information about the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) moving to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), what it really means and how it could adversely affect older and vulnerable people.

Among them is the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), which represents 1.5 million members in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. 

Among the big questions is what happens if there’s a break in power supplies and people need to access emergency services – because the new system will run off broadband – and handsets will have to be plugged into an electricity socket.

Providers say solutions will be found – which will include the provision of emergency battery-powered backups for phones and routers.

This scenario became a reality last November when Storm Arwen hit the UK, causing widespread power outages and left 9,000 homes without power for more than a week.

Jan Shortt, NPC General Secretary did interviews with Talk Radio and other stations, and heard from affected listeners.

She said: “They raised the issue of not being able to charge mobile phones and other devices and therefore not able to summon help. It is clear that the majority of the population had not heard of the digital switch.”

In January Ofcom held an online public meeting to give an update on the “switchover” rollout throughout the UK and provide an opportunity to ask questions.

Jeff Richards, an NPC Wales executive member and a retired Swansea BT engineer, attended. He said: “Unfortunately they did not answer any questions that I raised regarding vulnerable customers nor anything on power supply. I felt that my questions were merely swatted away.”

BT have agreed to meet the NPC to address their concerns – which include, who will pay for the battery packs (some around £160) – the customer or provider?

Virgin Media has already promised that vulnerable customers with “accessibility needs or don’t have a mobile phone” will be given an emergency backup line at no extra cost.

Unsurprisingly, customers in various areas have reported teething problems as the system is being rolled out. For example, people in the Salisbury pilot area with visual problems have experienced difficulties with the withdrawal of the 1471 service and the need to get new phone numbers. 

Hopefully, in the three years left of the rollout, teething problems will have been sorted. But be prepared: only an estimated 1.5million out of 29million landlines have so far been converted – and one day those old phones will stop ringing!

For further information:

Jenny Sims is a Cardiff U3A Computer Group Member, Chair, NPC’s Digital Working Party and an NPC Wales Executive Member

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 6th January 2022

We start a new year much in the same way as we ended the old one. I invited members to volunteer any digital gifts they’d received. Somewhat surprisingly there weren’t many. David Hughes had given his wife a smart watch so that they could monitor things like heart rates and blood pressure; Sianed had been promised an iPad and we discussed possible options – I was looking at doing the same with a present from my Jenny; Paul had bought some replacement Dect phones and wondered whether they would work when the PSTN switched to digital (more later); Jenny had got an Apple Watch and I “appointed” her as our specialist/expert moving forward; Steve had got a Chromebook and was looking to get the most out of it whilst concerned about what we’d discussed last time in respect of the possible problems with ongoing support of the operating system and finally Christine was looking at the possibility of a webcam as another possible solution to her ongoing bridge game issues. I had been given a Wacom Intuos tablet but hadn’t started using it.

We turned to issues.

Ann had other pressing issues as a lath and plaster ceiling had collapsed; Fred shared an amusing story dating from when he was working in London relating to a ceiling collapse as well.

Christine was looking at possibly trying to return her Lenovo laptop and she was advised where she could find the AEU date.

Don had started storing passwords in his Google Chrome browser. We expressed some reservations about doing that, our strong preference is for using a password manager, but for the Apple fraternity there might be a possibility of using Keychain.

Sianed mentioned that she’d started using an ecologically friendly/green search engine – ecosia. I said I would be interested in looking at it.

Ted had started a migration from his personal blogspot (Google) website to one based on using WordPress. I offered advice and assistance if required. I also told members that Phil had recently migrated this website – for the clog team his wife organised – to Google sites.

David H reported that after guidance from a friend he’d been advised of a system that allowed multiple calls to come into the same landline. I was surprised and had never heard of such a possibility. It would be interesting to find out more about such a system.

Renee had wanted to extract messages from her iPhone to make them a document. I promised to investigate a solution I’d used for my Jenny. This I found to be called iMazing.

We then had a brief discussion on the withdrawal of the PSTN service by the telcos by 2025. Jenny and I were going to write something for the Magazine on it, and were also to provide Tony Baines with a briefing to take to Region. Paul told us about the problems a cousin (in the Salisbury area where the initial trials were being carried out) who was blind had experienced with 1471 not working any more; he’d had to change his number and there didn’t appear to a call-back facility which he’d relied upon before.

Jenny then told us she’d received a note of briefings on good use of Zoom, and I offered to put a link to them on this website. You’ll see it here.

The meeting finished with a demonstration of the 1921 Census to be found on Find my past. I suggested that all members might offer to demonstrate a website they found useful. At the next meeting I would show the photo sharing site Flickr and how it works..

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 10th December 2021

Two shots from the meeting. Ted had to leave us to attend to an urgent matter.

Apologies: Fred, Margaret, Sally Semlow – who hoped to join us again in the new year, Mario and Jonathan.

I suggested that we might list the successful and perhaps least successful presents/purchases we’d received/made in 2021. I kicked off with the Apple HomePod I’d bought for Jenny last Christmas which has turned out be one of the best bits of kit I’ve ever bought as a gift. The least successful was the Apple iMac 21.5″ (2015) I’d bought for her and which was under specified – criminal mistake on my part! In-between were FitBits, and Tags (which you connect to keys etc); maybe AirTags will be more successful – I need to investigate them more fully.

I reported that Which? have done a survey and written an article on the replacing of the PSTN Landline by 2025. Here’s a link to the article. Renee had requested help with transferring PDF to Pages (or Word) format. You can do it online from Adobe for free, or there are other online tools to do it as well. Otherwise, using the Brave browser, you can Open the PDF file, Save it in Document format; then Open, Select and Copy text onto the application you are using. This can’t successfully handle tables, however they can be treated as graphical images.

Jenny reported that she’d been over-successful; in getting a monitor in that a colleague had managed to buy 20 surplus monitors for £20!!! I said this was quite normal with surplus public sector equipment as they couldn’t be disposed of in other ways at zero cost.

Owen reported that he’d successfully employed an old USB speaker he’d got from a UCISA conference for his laptop. He felt that the purchase of an electronic PhotoFrame had been a bit of a failure due to the need to keep updating it from a USB stick, or WiFi, or SIM card.

David H said something about Heath MOT, a watch for testing blood pressure – I’m sorry I can’t remember the context.

Paul reported a failure (he felt) in the lifetime support for a Google Chromebook. You need to check the lifetime support span for these devices – they may be surprisingly short. [NB Apple’s tend to be longer on average.]

Jim felt that a table mount he’d bought for his phone had not matched his expectations.

Sianed reported that the pulse oximeter (for blood oxygen levels, and pulse readings) they’d bought had been a good investment – I agree.

Stella told us about the failure she’d had in doing some recordings off-screen of some films which had resulted in the sub-titles taking up 3/4 of the screen. On the other hand, she felt her purchase of an iPhone 8 on eBay for £200 had been a great buy.

Steve had been delighted by the purchase of his iPhone but had been alarmed by the heat generated during some activities which had led him to take the case off on occasion.

Ann was delighted with her Lenovo IdeaPad (£320) and said the switch to using SSD for external hard drives was a great success. She had been less pleased with a Toshiba laptop which had problems with the BIOS battery; difficulties in servicing but fortunately she’d not lost the hard disk in the repair.

Renee reported that HER stand for her iPhone had been a success (unlike Jim’s).

Don had started down the road of the “smart home” and reported that his smart plugs were a great success. [Another topic for a later meeting maybe.] His DashCam was a bit of a problem however and the updating of software was not easy – I believe he’d sought external assistance and had it done.

Christine was still experiencing the mammoth failure of her Bridge software, the Lenovo, and the WiFi extenders – I don’t know what else to say!!! On the other hand she was pleased with the Smart TV they’d bought.

John reported that he’d taken the camera he’d bought from JLP back – it was faulty. He was going to look into this again in the New Year – I offered to help.

Happy Christmas everyone.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 25th November 2021

I can’t find a Screenshot for this meeting – I think Jim said that he’d not taken one, but I could be mistaken. Some brief notes because it’s mostly history now.

Jenny raised a general issue about recording a meeting in Zoom and whether she was able to get a copy of it. We felt that was down to the group in the meeting to decide. Also … if anyone didn’t want to be recorded they should leave the meeting. She had been scammed with the inducement of a Google Play card, felt a bit embarrassed that she’d initially fallen for it – it appeared to come from a work colleague – but had realised that it was an email hack just in time.

Owen had been having problems with his son’s 5G router using a tablet and headset. In the end he had to tether the tablet to a phone and use the inbuilt 5G router. He also commented on the problem of WiFi systems not working when nearby networks were using the same channel – this probably needs to be the subject of a re-visit at a later meeting.

David H was being challenged with the need to renew a Covid Pass. We went through the process and agreed the paper version was easier than the online “passport” – a QR-code.

Stella told us about BT’s plans to replace PSTN analogue landlines by digital services by 2015. This was something most of the group knew nothing about. This might mean that several services needed to be changed – Lifelines; alarm systems – and there was the need to have back-up batteries for vulnerable people

Jim was having problems with grey boxes on Zoom screens – this was resolved (see Owen’s post on this blog).

Margaret was also having difficulty with the Covid app, and the way it worked with your NHS No, which you had to set up separately to then return to the Welsh NHS website. [Not great software architecture imho.] She also told us about the price differences she’d encountered by chance between Argos and Amazon on Black Friday – it’s always worth checking!

Paul told us about VOIP and alarm systems, they wouldn’t work without upgrades. Recommended Google Mesh system (£140) and told us about a BT scam call from India .

Mike mentioned the proliferation of 4G/5G masts in north Cardiff. At least we have the technology, not the case in a lot of rural Wales. [Also worth noting that the telcos have given notification of the switch-off of some 3G (and earlier) services where 4G is now available. Means some handsets may become redundant.

Don was having difficulty lining up his Avery labels for his printer. I can’t remember how we resolved this one for him.

Christine continued to try different solutions to her problem of playing bridge on two machines in the same house on the same network when using WiFi extenders. We’d tried a number of things already – turning off the security channel hadn’t worked; neither had turning off Norton. Could using a different WiFi channel be he answer – perhaps there was external interference? [No is the answer!!!]

… and that was about it.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 11th November 2021

A shortened meeting due to your host not having prepared anything to present for which I apologise. It’s been a bit hectic in the Harrison household just recently!

Steve, Owen, Margaret, Christine and Sally presented apologies. We wish the latter a continued good recovery to her broken shoulder and hope to see her in the New Year. We had an attendance that shall we call was fluid as we had members who had to leave to attend to taxi duties and others who arrived towards the end again due to other considerations. Our mug shots (thanks Jim) reflects the comings and goings.

There wasn’t much to review from the previous meeting but we await the outcome of Margaret’s discussions with TalkTalk and Christine’s experiments with using different email addresses with interest.

For today it was very much a “no issues”, “nothing to report” sort of day. Quite a change from normal, so the notes are relatively brief and as I hadn’t added any news stories to Flipboard that part of the meeting was also brief!

David‘s contribution was focussed on the use of his lookout on the Esplanade to watch the painting of the pier and the fireworks. Time well spent!

Stella reported she’d had a scam message from WhatsApp – very similar to the one that Jim had reported to the group on Signal. These are very upsetting and annoying but easy to notice – perhaps changes introduced by Ofcom will limit them in the future. One hopes so. She also advised us that she’d learnt last week of a process to check more rigorously for fraudulent claims involving online activity. This was bound to happen one day as the banks have been paying out large amount of money in compensation. Perhaps it would be a good idea if we all checked the Terms and Conditions of service providers more closely instead of just check-boxing them through in the same way as we’ve had to accept cookies, etc. She also told us of a funny interlude when she’d been unable to set a password for an account she was setting up with a bank. Eventually a clerk had created the account with a very basic password. She’s been unable to change it, so needs to go back to the bank for them to change it – if they can!!!

John was puzzled by the Covid Password Passport application procedure and whether voice recognition was being employed as the process requires you to video yourself whilst saying a number. I suspected that it was more facial recognition that was being used. I couldn’t imagine where my voice was kept on file. Others mentioned the online banking where “My voice is my password”. John pondered on whether Big Brother was alive and kicking in Covidland. He also reported that he’d gone to John Lewis with the possible intention of purchasing a new MacBook Pro but had decided that the purchase of a new Fuji Camera would be much more worthwhile – can’t disagree!

Don had purchased a U-Green USB smartcard adaptor for his Micro-SD card for his in-car camera system. He has yet to try it out. It cost £15 and has ports for CF, MS and standard SD cards as well. He also told us about the trials and tribulations of trying to delete an email address from his contacts in Gmail. It is a bit more convoluted than with other systems as Contacts in Googleland are part of Gmail. Elsewhere they’re a standalone application. So you have to follow a different process than you would have to in Microsoft or Apple worlds.

Jim reminded us that two-factor authentication (2FA) was being rolled out to Google accounts. He and Don had yet to have their chat about the user interface of AllDup.

Ann wanted to congratulate Owen on the splendid presentation and use of technology for the u3a AGM on Tuesday. [I had to admit I’d forgotten it was taking place, such is the happenings currently in my life.] She had been stimulated by the excellent experience and the prodding from Owen at a previous meeting to try and document her solution to the connect a printer by WiFi to a Sky router problem. So far she’s failed unfortunately because thinking the best way of documenting it would be to repeat the process, she’s been unable to reconnect. All is not lost however because she has a cable connection to her router which is working satisfactorily. She has said she won’t give up however and will try again. I commended her on her devotion and service to the group … but please don’t lose sleep over it!

Renee asked me whether it was sensible to upgrade MacOS to Monterey now. I said that was the version that had been supplied to me on my new MacBook Pro and it seemed OK. Some small cosmetic changes to the appearance of Finder and Safari; some rather larger (and worthwhile) changes to the way MacOS and iOS would work together. [I’ll share a link to a document on Signal for Mac users that describes what’s going on, the shortfalls and the benefits of the routeway between the two technologies.]

Fred had problems connecting to the meeting; it would appear that it was a problem at his end as no one else had experienced any difficulties. In general discussion in response to Sianed’s experience (see below), he reported that he’d been surprised to find £4k had appeared in his bank statement this week, which he’d reported to NatWest. It’s still there!

Sianed reported the unpleasant and worrying mistake that HSBC had made with her bank account – a withdrawal to go to the Halifax. She was concerned that if she hadn’t checked her account roughly twice a week, she might not have come across it. She (like John who had also experienced a mistake by a bank) was offered £50 compensation. Notwithstanding this, I reiterated that online banking was generally very safe, and that using banking apps on mobile apps even more safe because of physical measures such as fingerprints or facial scans.

Jenny arrived just before the end of the meeting and gave us a very brief and pleasing summary of her discussions with Irish journalists on getting broadband to older people. She advised them to use OpenReach’s Postcode checker and to use that information in lobbying for accelerated rollout of service.

And that was that. Mike, Paul and Jonathan had nothing to report.

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Notes from Zoom meeting – 28th October 2021

The last shot of me in the loft!

Thanks Jim for the screenshot. One to treasure as I’ve now moved into new luxurious accommodation! The small front bedroom!

Apologies for the delay in posting these notes. I’ve been rather busy on multiple fronts. Hopefully things will begin to settle down now that holidays are out of the way, new Macs, new office setup, etc will become distant but pleasant memories.

We started the meeting reviewing the experience of the History Group’s Hybrid (face-to-face plus zoom) meeting. Generally felt that it worked reasonably well, and once the issue of microphones and cameras were resolved and the need for an external zoom admin added, the format could work well for presentation-style meetings. This raised the possibility of attempting similar meetings for this group, which we discussed and agreed to try after Christmas. The format to be trialled would be a monthly hybrid presentation meeting with a zoom meeting in between. Ann offered to help anyone after the first hybrid meeting try and join the zoom meeting afterwards. Paul offered some help as well, I believe.

Margaret had been experiencing frustration with TalkTalk (Tiscali) and as of the meeting her contract was not to her liking. This seems to be a perennial problem with broadband suppliers.

Owen had been struggling with Google’s changes to the way it enables publishing of Calendars to web pages, but thankfully this had now been resolved.

David had been caught in the gas/electricity supply problems and was now looking at Octopus as a possible supplier. He’d also been caught in the Tesco outage. Apparently that hack had cost the company £16m!! He’d also been engaged in trying to help an IT-scared person attempt to use new equipment. He also asked for advice on cataloging art material. Currently using Powerpoint, and after discussion we agreed that although a database would have been the most suitable platform, the number of records probably didn’t justify changing, or indeed using webpages – my suggestion (of course). Steve also mentioned using Imobilise as a possibility which was linked to insurance, but there might be a registration fee.

Paul quoted his TalkTalk experiences of late which meant that he would be moving to Fibre 150 for £28pm once OpenReach had installed a new socket and modem (£42). He also reported on a recent Gadget Shop programme that had reviewed Mesh systems ranging in cost from £100 to £350. The cheapest came out the best. TPLink was recommended.

Stella had been having problems with email with attachments, realising that she needed to change the message once she’d started it. Paul suggested right-clicking on the attachment to copy and paste it to a new message.

Sianed advised that booster jabs could now be sought by contacting CAVC on 02921841234.

John told us about his saga with using Trainline to book rail tickets and the scandalous £3.60 a minute phone charges he would have had to pay to get a refund on tickets. General advice from the group was to use a train-operating company rather than a ticketing company. So GWR, TfW or VirginRail are good alternatives.

Christine is trying to make their house eco-friendly had been switching things off. The surprising by-product had been that her Powernet devices seemed to work as they were supposed to. However she now felt that the problem with her and her husband playing bridge(?) in different rooms with other remote participants might be due to using the same email address. This she was going to investigate further.

Don told us that he had a TPLink system and that he was satisfied with it.He’d been trying out Alldup (advised by Jim) and had so far saved 28Gb of disk space. He was unsure of the interface and I suggested that he contact Jim offline for a chat. He also requested advice on a USB adaptor for different sized SD-cards. These would tend to be better than the micro-SD to SD-card convertors you usually get with the smaller format cards.

Jenny‘s mouse was broken! She’d had some discussions on Covid-Passports, and had been asked to give some advice to some journalists in Northern Ireland on the subject. We felt that it was up-to-them to investigate this as their local position was different to us in Wales.

All I have recorded for Ann is “booster letters” and “energy advice” – I’m afraid the “little grey cells” can’t translate that into a meaningful note!!

Jim reported that he’d learnt something about the way that Dropbox shared folders worked. The size of them was added to both the host and the users’ local storage allocation.

Steve added to the TalkTalk discussion. He was going to pay £27pm as opposed to Margaret’s £26pm. He was also looking at the possibility of getting a Chromebook as his PC was 8 years old and might be needing a rest!

I then went through the Flipboard articles I added highlighting Apple’s new machines, operating systems and the like; the controversy surrounding Facebook after the whistle-blower episode (still ongoing); and the proposal to block scam calls coming from overseas hiding behind UK mobile phone numbers.