Belated notes from our meeting, I’ve been unavoidably occupied elsewhere – thanks for all your kind wishes.
I started the meeting by reminding members that using the Forum/Topics was a good way of recording issues/problems that you might wish to look-up at a later date. That’s what we used to do when we had the Google+ Community available to us. I then said (incorrectly, and I’m grateful to Jim for the correction) that it was impossible to search on WhatsApp and Signal. It is, possible, but it’s not easy, and certainly you can’t pick-up a topic raised and discussed in a thread easily. I had added a few items as a result of queries raised at the previous meeting as Topics in the Photography and Computing and all things Digital Forums. I also noted that Marie-Christine had raised a Topic, which I’d been unable to answer – but during the course of the meeting that followed, Owen, and others, came up with a possible answer to her question. I also drew attention to a slight correction to my notes from the previous meeting that Paul had made on his TalkTalk Broadband contract.
I then referred to the latest articles I’d added to the Thought grazing Flipboard magazine.
We then went “round the screen” starting with …
Owen who noted that the Committee had discussed mixed-mode meetings but there was nothing much further to report, but our comments had formed part of that discussion. He also noted (worryingly) that URC now did not have a working lift, so use of it as a venue for future meetings must be under threat.. He noted that the Third Age Trust were offering online IT “tutorials” in conjunction with Barclays’ Digital Eagles. He gave a doubtful update on any future version of Beacon for our membership system [this was later updated by email to … “not in the near future, if ever and legal process was being followed with the contracted supplier”]. In the meantime Owen was putting his coding-skills in operation to look at ways of enhancing the interface between Beacon and the Cardiff U3A website.
David had recently done a switch from O2 to Sky on his mobile services. Not sure whether that included broadband as well?
John reported that he used Google Photo Books, and was pleased with the results, he thought that 144 photos cost in the order of £79 for a book (soft cover) and £99 (hardback).
Steve informed us he had been loking at Google Keep, Trello, and had starting using Flipboard. I agreed with him that Trello was a very good app to help with planning and organising things – my son relies on it a lot.
Paul was looking at his Google storage plan and advised us to go to Google Drive on the web (through a browser) to do the deletions. He also wondered how to delete Google Accounts AND delete content. That’s not so easy as it sounds as Google likes to hold on to information. On the other hand Google is very good at passing content on to others when your account has become dormant because of death. We suggested that the “simplest” solution to an unwanted account might be just to delete the content and change the password.
Because of an issue with RAW photos in the Photography group, Jim had researched ways of changing RAW images into JPEGs, and discovered MS Photos (and RAW Image Extension) as an easy way of doing that. He’d also discovered that his installation of the Outlook mail client had a very long safe senders list and he was looking at ways of “pruning” it, as well as adding certain users to it (ie me!!!!)
Jenny updated us on the submission she’d been working on for the National Pensioners Convention to OFCOM on the switchover from copper to fibre, representing the need not to leave a vulnerable community excluded on the basis of cost, or availability. She had also been involved in a letter from the Gen Sec of NPC toOliver Dowden on the need for more skills training, and updated us that Jenny Philips (Digital Communities Wales) had recently given a talk to the Wesh NPC.
Christine informed us of a scam text message she’d received – I advised the meeting that typing a telephone number in a browser search box would ofter give a quick indication of whether the message (or call) was a genuine one, or not.
I then gave a presentation on types of USB cables, interfaces and standards. The relevant links to videos I showed are given below …
From Kingston Technologies (recommended), What’s the difference between USB 3.1 Gen 1, Gen 2 and USB 3.2?
Understanding USB Cable Types and Which One to Use
USB-A vs. USB-C: What Is the Difference?
Making Sense of USB-C and Thunderbolt Cables and Ports on Your MacBook