Blog posts

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Ever wanted to keep a TV programme from ITV or the BBC longer than the standard download allows?

Well you can using “iPlayer Automator”. It’s been around a while for the Mac but unfortunately, having just done some research, I’ve found out that it is not available on a Windows PC (sorry for the mis-information this afternoon). There is a similarly titled piece of software, but I wouldn’t want to recommend it as I don’t know anything about it.

The software has been produced as OpenSource, supported and developed by enthusiastic “coders” and is Free. Don’t be put off by the rather austere interface you’re presented with at this link …

https://github.com/Ascoware/get-iplayer-automator

… select Clone or Download; then Download Zip and follow instructions. Enjoy … if you’ve got a Mac!

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Munzee, munzee, so good to me

If you want to wow your grandchildren with your knowledge and expertise in using your smartphone, this may be the app for you!
It uses QR codes, those strange square maze-like images that you’re increasingly finding on packaging, books and even television advertising to provide the basis of a treasure-hunt game. Click on the Munzee logo above to get started.
The idea is that you search for “munzees” in your local area, shown on this map thus  …
 
 

There’s a Munzee somewhere here – Devonport, Auckland, NZ

… and when you find them, you record that find on your smartphone by scanning the QR code that is on a lamp post, or even under a bench.
If you then want to get really adventurous you can start “hiding” your own munzees and adding to the fun of others.

Anyway, just a bit of fun that I thought I’d share with you to illustrate how QR Codes can be used.
Scan this one and it’ll take you straight to Wikipedia.

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Specialist areas of interest or expertise??

At the end of the last meeting I “floated” the idea that some members in the past had expressed an interest in more specialist areas, or answers they wanted to specific questions about what they wanted to do.

Obviously there’s always the possibility (or probability) that there may not be anyone else able to provide advice, but on the other hand there might be more than one person interested in that area, or someone who wants to learn.

I can remember Jeff for instance enquiring about sound editing, and I’ve never got my head around video editing, and then there’s how you handle getting photos onto your computer – a question that was raised on Thursday, and one that’s a really good topic for discussion with so many variants … Smartphone, DSLR, etc etc.

After the meeting I approached Joel and he indicated that he was happy for us to continue to use the room until he left at 5:00pm – if we were interested, and there would not be any additional charge. So, if we’re interested in pursuing this idea further, there would appear to be no obstacle other than finding “experts”.

So as a first step, perhaps we could compile a “register of expertise”.

I’ll kick-off with a pretty long list as the first comment below, but please remember I did work in IT at the university so I should have some expertise. Please add your offers below, don’t be shy, they could be quite specific, eg doing a Powerpoint presentation, or preparing labels for Christmas cards, or (and Jeff will like this one) using Excel to run a small group’s accounts.

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Quantum computing and the Internet??

I don’t begin to understand much of this, but what I do pick up from it is that Marie Christen’s question yesterday posed as a hypothetical “how does the digital internet handle quantum computers, or computing”, is being addressed.

As I read it, the transport of data between computers, around the world, could continue to be digital – ie the internet as we know it – but that users would communicate with distant quantum computers through Application Program Interfaces (APIs), using scripting languages (such as Python).

This is not dissimilar from the way current super-computers (such as the one in Cardiff Uni that I hope to set up a visit to see) connect to the current university network, and then on to the Internet.

The speed of data transmission will always be limited to three things. Firstly, the speed of light – the ultimate ceiling for the speed of data transmission on optical fibres; secondly, the speed at which the switches and routers can pump the bits and bytes through their electronics, and thirdly the speed at which the electronics in the interface between the computer and the network edge device can operate.

So, in practice the Quantum Computer is no different from any other computing device – it will be limited in its capability to communicate with the outside world by the electronics that it uses.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2017/03/quantum-computer-programming/?lnk=hmhmhmhmhmhmhm

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Here's one for the Mac users, but it's not a problem unique to Mac users.

Fed-up with selecting the wrong contact from you address book? Time for some tidy-up. This article also shows how you can sort out duplicates held on your iOS (iPhone/iPad) device by using iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage, where you can hold your contacts, so that means that if you’re an iOS/PC user you should be able to clean your iPhone contacts as well.

https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/09/how-to-remove-merge-duplicate-contacts-macos-ios/amp/

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Loads of discussion about Broadband speeds, WiFi routers (their type and security), and extenders or boosters.

[Health warning: some of the links in this post may not be reachable.]

A lot to cover here. I’ll try and make it as readable as possible.

We found a great variety in the broadband speeds being experienced by members, but not surprisingly the best performance was obtained from those using BT fibre connections to the Cabinet at the bottom of the road (provided by a lot of Internet Service Providers – ISPs), or those using VirginMedia which delivers fibre to the property. I mentioned that it’s important to record your interest in having a VirginMedia Fibre Connection to Virgin – that’s how you’ll influence their infrastructure build.

[I was asked how much my VirginMedia connection cost. It’s difficult to provide a definitive figure as it’s bundled together with TV Services which includes a HD Recording Box. So £100.22 a month includes £50-£60 of TV services, I would guess.]

Follow this link to get a better idea of what you might have to pay …

http://www.virginmedia.com/shop.html

The question of whether one had a ‘n’ or an ‘ac’ router was asked. I promised to research that. Here’s a link that explains the difference between the protocols and when they’re most appropriate.

http://homenetworkadmin.com/wireless-b-vs-g-vs-n-vs-ac-difference/

It’s important to remember that the same protocol needs to be used at both ends (router and device) so it will always be the slowest and usually oldest protocol that a router-device connection defaults to. Often however a router can operate in more than one mode, so you need to look at your router to see whether you have to configure this. For instance my routers allow me to connect at 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (these are the wireless bands,). These are different from the channels which we discussed before and which I wrote about under flaky WiFi.

I’m afraid I can’t find a definitive way of finding which of ‘b’, ‘g’, ‘n’ or ‘ac’ a router is operating in. This article and the links it has should tell you a bit more about your home network.

http://lifehacker.com/5830886/know-your-network-lesson-1-router-hardware-101

It also covers WiFi security and snooping, which is not a problem if you use the most secure protocols, eg WPA-2.

Then there was a discussion on WiFi extenders and boosters. Essentially, from what I’ve read, a booster is a device that receives your WiFi signal from the router using WiFi and amplifies it to allow you to be further away from the router. A booster will often work by using the electric power circuit of your house (as long as it’s a single fusebox) to connect Ethernet over Power devices – sometimes called PowerNet. The equipment I use is from TRENDnet, called Powerline adaptors, and I purchased from Amazon. Here’s what I purchased in June 2015 …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TRENDnet-TPL-410APK-Powerline-Wireless-Extender/dp/B00K4XO3VU/ref=pd_bxgy_147_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1CAFRZYZPPNK3TCA2RA6

… it gives me WiFi in the kitchen as well as a wired connection there, if I wanted it. I could connect up to 8 Powerline devices through the electrical mains.

That’s about it. I think I need a glass of whisky!!

http://www.virginmedia.com/shop.html

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Today some of us used WiFi Hotspots created by our Smart Phones to connect our laptops to the internet.

This called tethering. [Health warning, some of the links may not be working.]

How do you do it? Well if you’ve got an iPhone you go to Settings > Personal Hotspot and switch it on. On that screen you’ll see a Password – note it, because you’ll need to supply that on your laptop/desktop/iPad when you attempt to connect to the internet.

Next you go to your laptop/desktop/iPad Network Settings and look at the WiFi routers that are available to you. If all has worked correctly then you should see your iPhone in the list of possible network connections. Click on it, supply the password you got in the previous stage when requested, and you should be set to go.

If it doesn’t work, you may find this link (for iOS devices) of some help …

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203302

For Android phones, the process is very similar and is described here …

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/how-tether-google-android-phone-image-3279408/

For a general view of how to tether your laptop to your smart phone, you could look at this …

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/how-use-phone-as-wi-fihotspot-internet-tethering-for-laptop-tablet-3441165/

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203302

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What's app doc?

Another U3A Computer Group meeting, another terrible experience with flaky WiFi, much more flaky than any experience any of us might have experienced anywhere else; a second attempt to discuss Facebook – failed because of the aforementioned WiFi problems; a reasonable attempt to get members registered into our Google+ Community and a discussion of WhatsApp – which is what this post is really about.
WhatsApp is a multi-media Messaging Application, owned now by Facebook (with potentially all that might involve), which allows the sharing of videos, photographs, as well as enabling voice and video calls, document sharing and straight-forward text messaging between mobile devices on WiFi. That’s about it in a nut-shell – if I’ve missed anything out, go to the link above and find out more for yourself. However the purpose of this short post is just to point you to another couple of links.
Members mentioned that there wasn’t a WhatsApp App for the iPad (or other tablets), well here’s a link to how you might be able to run WhatsApp on an iPad as long as you have a Smartphone, and here’s another one from MacWorld which explains the same workaround. Neither of these are truly satisfying, but at least it allows you to use the app from your iPad. If all you want is Chat, there is an App that you could install on an iPad, but I have no experience of using it.
If you want to install WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac device, there appears to be an App to allow you to do it, but again I can’t give you any advice on how good it is. This blogpost from WhatsApp explains where they are with the desktop version(s) of the App.
And that’s about it. I don’t use WhatsApp. Perhaps I should, but other tools I use such as Facetime and iMessage in my Apple ecosystem do the trick well for me, and I do still like Google Hangouts.

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Another Christmas lunchtime chat … re. shared Google accounts

Another Christmas lunchtime chat … this time with John and Philip.

We got to talking about missing address books, contacts and calendars … as you do at Christmas with perhaps labels to be printed and menu choices to be remembered.

I started off by saying that I’d decided to store my menu list in the Notes field in my calendar event – something so obvious, but something I’d never thought of doing before. This led to a mention of losing your paper-based address book – calamity.

I described my solution to the latter, and explained how I also enhanced the calendar experience to share both with my wife.

The trick is to setup a separate shared Google account for the two of you. I’ve previously suggested this is a good idea because you can use this address when you’re asked to supply an address by any retailer or utilities’ provider. Doing this means not only is the information shared between the two of you, but potential “junk mail” is all in one place.

So having your new Google account, you import all the contacts in your personal account into the new one. On your device you then disable (depending upon the device and email service) any contact list other than the new one. You do the same on your partner’s device(s). Any changes in Contacts on one device will change the same on the others. Bingo! You don’t need to worry about losing your paper-based Address Book again, and you should be relatively confident that your Contact list is up-to-date.

A different strategy for Shared Calendars. This is a really useful feature in Google Calendars. You can create multiple Calendars within an account, and share them with whoever you might want to.

Finally, all the above is predicated on the decision NOT to use the native calendar and contacts facilities supplied with your device. None of my far too many Apple devices use anything other than Google accounts. I may use the Apple application, but they only reference Google accounts.