Well, it seems a long-time since I last wrote up some notes of a meeting. They are probably of more use to those who didn’t attend rather than those who did!

Anyway we had 17 members – including one new member (Sue) – which was a good number for a meeting that Ian pointedly advised me was taking-place actually before the programmed date for meetings to start! I must have had it in mind to get a meeting in before my absence on the 26th September. I advised that we would have to start with a meeting fee of £3 to cover the cost of hiring the room, but if we built-up a surplus we could hopefully reduce it, or have a “free” week!

I advised that my adventure with smart home and energy was still ongoing and that I’d updated the notes I’d prepared for the last meeting on September 6th with our experience of changing the Octopus tariff we were on. I also reported that the next project was to examine the possibility of installing a smart emersion switch. There are not many of these to choose from as they require a 16amp circuit from the distribution box, but it is a relatively easy DIY job to swap out the old clockwork time switch and replace it with a smart one. Why would we want to do that? Well, With Octopus Agile they have plunge pricing which means that on occasion they pay you to take electricity from the Grid, and there’s always cheap electricity from 02:00 to 05:00 every day. More about that later on … possibly!

We have replaced the front windows with triple glazing and that did create quite a lot of extra work, and did involve a limited amount of redecoration. Worth it though if not financially, then at least heatwise!

I also reported on the horror show that I’d had to go through with having to migrate all my domains and websites from one provider to another. An anxiety raising process which I’m glad is behind me, although I suspect there will be a couple of glitches ahead.

I then invited members to send me ASAP any ideas for subjects to discuss over the next few months, and one came up in the course of the meeting – we will look at TVs (and home entertainment in general) before Christmas. I also asked for volunteers to facilitate the next meeting as I wouldn’t be available. I’m pleased to say that Phil and Jonathan have agreed to do a joint show on smart watches and online retailing (esp. Amazon) – as usual I’m sorry to be missing it. More about that in the email I’ll be sending after finishing the is post.

And so I handed the meeting over to you. Here are some notes …

Ian was approaching the point where he was about to buy a replacement iMac with a M3 chip. Good choice. I reported that I’d also suggested two other alternatives – purchasing a monitor and a) buying an Apple MacMini, or b) buying a laptop. Both of these could be used with existing keyboards and mice. We also touched on the Refurbish Store that Apple puts machines/equipment on that is either off their current store offering, or alternatively has been returned to be re-packaged. Possibly only due to damage to the original packaging. These have a warranty/guarantee and are a much “safer” way of buying slightly older equipment at discount, rather than buying second-hand.

Anne asked what is Javascript, and should she install it – as it was being requested by a an online learning website. Phil assured her that it was entirely safe and was just additional code that made a website work better. She also reported what appeared to be a glitch on a NHS website where she couldn’t enter her personal details as it precluded anyone over the age of 70 putting a DoB in!! The general consensus was this must be a glitch. Sianed provided some very valuable additional information to the meeting about why you couldn’t get a root canal filling done at your local dentist unless they were registered endodontists, and gave the subtle advice that it was probably better to go private rather than wait for a NHS appointment (2 years) as it might well be done by a student (who she might be supervising). [At this point I related the experience I’d recently had of discovering that a Flip video camera I had purchased back in 2007-9 didn’t allow me to set the date beyond 2020 – built-in obsolescence in firmware even thought the device works perfectly.]

Tony raised a number of interesting points. He’d just been prompted that his service supplier was retiring 3G, and was happy that he’d been able to move to 4G. Was this always to be the case? Well no. The number of 3G masts were decreasing, the number of 5G ones increasing. Eventually, you’ll not be able to use a 3G phone, and will need to get one that uses 4G. You should never need the bandwidth that 5G gives you – mainly high-resolution video streaming and gaming, and it won’t be retired in the majority of our lifetimes. What is interesting is that 3G (introduced in 2001) will disappear before 2G.

He also felt that it was probably time to “retire” his iPhone XR – and he’s probably right (see this article).

… and thought that perhaps it was time to replace his current HP Pavilion laptop and asked for recommendations. I suggested Dell as a reliable (but unexciting) choice, Phil suggested Acer and Asus were good, others felt that HP were good. I suggested that it must be a very personal choice and it would be best in this case to go to Currys/PC World and get some advice remembering that you shouldn’t buy a machine that has low RAM as RAM is more important than the new whizzy processor.

Finally he praised the “outrageously” good Octopus Customer Support but was frustrated by the billing linked to smart meters. I advised that this resolved itself after a short while. At this point Ahmed reported issues with getting his gas meter changed to a smart meter by Octopus. [There’s a lot of pressure on smart meter installations at the moment, so perhaps the work had got “lost”. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.]

Chris asked for help in getting old negative film into digital format. I advised that I had a Veho slide scanner that I was very happy with. Phil (after the meeting) shared this YouTube link.

Sheila was also thinking about replacing her iPhone 11, so the link above may help her come to a decision. She also caused much mirth and hilarity by describing her robot vacuum, which Stella then augmented by her own experience. Obviously a lot of fun to be had! She also suggested that all members not on Smart Meters should read their meters before 30th September before the new energy pricing came in.

Stella was thinking of replacing her TV, which prompted me to suggest I did a session before Christmas on TVs (and home entertainment generally).

Ralph was having real problems with the billing/invoicing from his energy supplier – Ovo. They suggested they owed him over a £1000, and he knew that not to be the case. Phil suggested strongly that he write to the company, and if a satisfactory response was not received to write to Ofgen. [On reflection, I would suggest MoneySavingExpert and Citizens Advice as well.]

Jim had purchased a new external SSD (2Tb) for his laptop (Lenovo – not recommended) as the 1Tb one he had for back-up was now full! Perhaps a session on Back-up and Archiving might be a good idea???

Lynette and Yvonne were both also considering replacing their iPhones – perhaps it might be a good idea to have a session on that. I can’t widen it to Android as I don’t have any experience of those devices. I suggested that the iPhone 14 (still a current model at c.£599 would be a good choice, but again see the link above).

Renee reported that she’d been quite impressed by her use of the AI software Perplexity in producing sensible answers to well-crafted questions.

Sue reported that she was somewhat unhappy with a recent upgrade she’d done to her Samsung phone, but was very concerned at the rise of scams, and in particular one that had hit her daughter hard.

Ahmed – I have just one word in my notes CostCo, but I can’t remember why? Please help and I’ll update.

Fred was continuing his journey out of health setbacks and was now “enjoying” the results of successful cataract operations on both eyes so hoped to be able to see his screens better soon 🙂

All the time had then be spent so I didn’t have time to do an update on News items. If I had I’d have highlighted the following links which are on Flipboard.

Ian has shared articles from The New York Times – you can get a free registration to read, and Iain has shared articles from Medium – which again you can get free access to (I believe). He also encouraged me to subscribe to Benedict’s Newsletter, which has some interesting points each week.

So my “news” – interesting article on how it’s now much easier to transfer photos from iCloud Apple Photos to Google Photos. Thank goodness.

Some information on what Single Sign On (SSO) is, and how to use it – I’ll cover this in our next security/privacy session, and then also advice on why you shouldn’t use Facebook or Google for SSO.

Iain had shared on Flipboard this article from the Guardian – ‘Never summon a power you can’t control’: Yuval Noah Harari on how AI could threaten democracy and divide the world – with other posts on Signal from Ian and Phil I think as well, I guess we ought to have an annual “Review of AI” session.

Another theme over the summer has been the conflict between Big Tech – Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google – and government. Huge fines being imposed, and requirements (particularly from the EU) to change the way that companies operate. Some of it good, some of it perhaps ill-thought out. Another session maybe – perhaps a debate???

There were more links I’d bookmarked to discuss – but they’re all on Flipboard, so please go and have a look at what your fellow members have added, and become a contributor yourself. It’s very easy to add articles to the Thought grazing magazine.