Notes of Zoom meeting – 9th June 2022
So I did return!! As did eleven of you. So many thanks to Owen and Ted for holding the fort and particularly to Ted for two sessions, on Paint and using Ancestry. There was once a time when I arranged for the group to go to the Barclay Innovation Centre and Paul and I weren’t able to go. I felt much the same about missing Ted’s Talks (not this TED of course – although its really worth a browse if there’s nothing on TV you fancy watching).
Margaret, Ann, Christine and Owen weren’t able to join us and I had to interrupt Owen’s lunch to get a verification code for Zoom – apologies again, Owen.
I started by just reviewing the notes from the previous meeting highlighting just a few of them. I supported Jim‘s assertion that Windows Defender was sufficient for us for anti-virus control, but could see (once I looked up the details) the logic of Don installing Norton as part of his contract with BT as it was not an add-on that would have to be paid for at the end of a year. I noted that I’d need to follow-up the item on Software Discounts through the Third Age Trust – I think Owen said he’d make some enquiries. I supported the answer that Jim had given to Stella on where messages (and images) are stored in Signal (and WhatsApp) – they are stored on your phone. That’s why Renee had been unable to rebuild her message store on her computer a few months back. [I’d also had to look into this as my sister was getting alarmed at the amount of space photos were taking-up on her phone. Unfortunately there’s no bulk download facility available. You have to select individual media items, save them to your device, then download them to your computer. That’s encrypted security for you!]
I then referred members to my Reply to Ted’s notes of the meeting on 12th May and said I’d return to that matter at the end of the meeting.
I then went through the significant items (imho) that had seemed to have happened since the last meeting I facilitated. These are posted to Flipboard so I won’t go through them in detail.I did in particular draw your attention to the announcement at Apple’s WWDC event, that the next version of their Operating Systems with biometric Passkeys, could be a real game-changer as FIDO was a standard that was being followed by Google and Microsoft as well. Finally I highlighted some of the changes we could expect to see in the next release of iOS (v16) – you would be able to see the WiFi password of your connected network (useful when a trusted visitor asks to connect to your network); there would be improved methods of deleting duplicate photos; dictation would be improved (ie speech-to-text); the Home app would get improvements (ie more Smart Controls), [and incidentally Hive would better integrate with the Apple Home Kit]; you would be able to track medication in the Health app; you would be able to edit/recall iMessages (but not SMS Texts) up to 15mins after they had been sent; and finally you would be able to use your iPhone as a webcam.
Jenny advised us that her work on Digital Exclusion continues. She had a tight deadline to draw together threads and themes linked to Poverty and Digital Exclusion and asked for any help we could offer her on case studies or examples. [After the meeting I stumbled upon Jenny’s article in The Pensioner magazine – a rattling good read! Well done Jenny.]
David mentioned that he’d had an invite to join/use “passwordless” LastPass. I seemed to remember something about this, but suggested that he didn’t volunteer to be in the first wave of adopters. I said that it quite possibly might be connected to FIDO developments … but it isn’t. It’s connected to using LastPass Authenticator. Authenticator software is useful – I’ve used both Google’s and LastPass apps. It replaces the code sent to your phone as a way of verifying your identity. He then described a sad story of failing to learn to play bridge, and then when he had found a suitable online course (from u3a) he’d been unable to use it as the text on his iPad was so small. Various solutions for using your TV to see an iPad or Android tablet were proffered, and it was generally believed that it should be possible. [After the meeting he reported success having “googled” the issue.] I (with Paul’s help) will try and post a short article on the site in due course.
Sianed raised the issue of biometrics maybe not being the overall solution to replacing passwords as sweat on the finger has proven to be a barrier to correct identification, and anaesthetic (or a condition such as Bell’s Palsy) might make facial recognition challenging. I mentioned that Apple was now saying that its facial recognition could cope with masks – so there must be more attention being applied to eyes, perhaps. I also felt that, as with all new technologies, this would be an addition (at least initially) not a replacement. She also raised a problem she and her husband were having with network printer access from a shared computer. We suggested that she needed to look at the printer setup – to see if it was setup as a shared printer.
Paul had to earlier drop out of the call because he was getting a message saying that he was running out of resources for audio. After closing Chrome, all was well. Chrome is a particularly “hungry” app, and members are advised to use Brave, or Bing – both based on the same code-base (Chromium) as alternatives. He advised us that you code use the textno. 7726 to report spam text, and telno. 159 to report bank scams.
Mike had TV problems which had led eventually to getting a second new TV (one would be returned) whilst Budd Electrical and Beam Rite getting involved. They both seemed to suggest there was “no obvious problem”. However Paul gave some useful advice on certain channels appearing to pixelate more than others – my apologies, I didn’t jot down the reason/solution.
Renee reported that her VirginMedia problem appeared to have been resolved and a refund given. She enquired as to whether anyone knew anyone who might repair the power socket on an Internet radio – we suggested Budds Electrical, or to go to where sh’e bough it (JLP) and see if they could repair. Alternatively, rechargeable batteries might be a workaround and acceptable solution.
Stella enquired about how she could get the complete details of her computer (including serial number for instance) before she attempted an upgrade to Windows 11. Jim guided her to Windows 10 > Settings > System > About which hopefully would provide the information she needed. WE reminded her of the need to do a proper backup before attempting the upgrade.
Finally Jenny advised us that she’d recently attended a meeting at Cardiff & Vale College where the facilities were very good. I said I’d follow that up, but indicated that cost was going to very likely drive our choice of venue for September when we restarted face-to-face meetings.
The Future of the Group.
I restated what I’d written in my reply to Ted’s notes of the meeting of 12th May. I corrected the impression I’d obviously left with Ted that I wanted to step down. If I’d said that, even inadvertently, I hadn’t meant to.
I felt that taking Notes and maintaining the website was “a good thing” and I wanted to continue doing that, but also to be able to do more presentation-like stuff, like we used to do, whilst still retaining the intimate “round-the-screen” sharing stuff we’d developed during the pandemic.
I felt that with Owen doing the calling notice, if members could take it in turn to “chair” the “round-the-screen” material, that would relieve me from doing that at the same time as taking notes. Similarly, if members would step forward and do short presentations, for instance on software they use – they don’t need to have slideshows, or Powerpoint; that would also help to refresh the group a little.
I think it was generally felt that the taking of Notes did help, it provided a useful resource to go back to when issues re-occurred. I am pleased that Sianed “volunteered” to facilitate the “round-the-screen” part of the next meeting and am hopeful that others would follow subsequently.
What a surprise!
Great article Jenny! I missed this when the mag. came out a couple of weeks back. Our Jenny has an article in “The Pensioner” – the magazine of the Civil Pensioners’ Alliance (which I joined because of the good deals on Insurance products).
Notes from Zoom meeting – 4th February 2021
A large attendance yesterday, touching nineteen as shown above. We started with this – The Blue Ball – it’s mesmerising; the digital equivalent of those steel balls that swung on a cradle on execs desks in the seventies, remember them?
I mentioned the emojipedia which I referenced in the last notes and offered to help anyone who wanted to get onto Signal at the end of the meeting. Then it was “round the screen” to find out what members had been up to, or were having difficulties, or issues, with.
Margaret reported on two scams, one from Lloyds Bank (spelt Lloyd) and an “internet interruption” call/text which on traceback (which David H had done having received the same one) appeared to come from Caerphilly! On a more productive note she had been able to transfer a lot of treasured photos from her old laptop – which she’d been unable to upgrade to Windows 10 unfortunately (for a number of reasons, lapsed time, lack of memory) – to their desktop. I mentioned that Linux was still a possibility to revive the old laptop, we could look at that agin when we were all together in person. She also told us about a very pleasant experience attending virtually the Destinations Travel event, and informed us about the Stanfords Travel Writer Festival and the videos from the event which finished yesterday will be online from that site.
Owen reported that following the last meeting, he’d replaced his Powerline Adaptors with new ones and was now getting much improved wired connection speed for his study.
Don had been decorating for the past three weeks, that is when he wasn’t standing in the garden at a safe distance from the lead gas pipe he’d fractured in a wall, thinking it was redundant!
Jim had got himself into “trouble” with Flickr for displaying a photo of some aubergines – this caused much mirth. He reported to me today that Flickr had apologised for slapping an “unsafe” rating on the picture, and it was now visible to everyone. He had also upgraded (on his new laptop) his copies of Audacity (audio editing) and PaintShop Pro (photo editing).
Marie-Christine reported she was having a problem with her version of Lightroom and Windows. I offered to raise the matter on the Lightroom Queen Forum if she told me hat version of Lightroom, and the precise version of Windows she was having problems with.
Fred reported that a switch to Signal was not getting any traction with his friends, and that he’d had an instance of PayPal phishing to contend with.
David H added to Margaret’s description of the “internet will crash” scam. Someone asked where you should report such scams. The preferred method would appear to your ISP, in this case Sky, but Marie-Christine reminded us of Action Fraud (0300 123 2040) – is it a scam in itself? No it’s run by the police. Other tricks are to type the phone number of a caller into a browser and you’ll get an indication from Who Called Me? or Should I answer? Of course for an email you should look carefully at the email header address and type the domain into a browser to see if it’s genuine. David also asked whether it was possible to use WiFi for making telephone calls as the O2 signal in his apartment was so bad. The answer appears to be to activate WiFi calling for Android or iOS. David also reported that he was still not having any joy with his Times subscription on his iPad although it was working on his wife’s machine. I suggested that perhaps the subscription was limited to a fixed number of devices, and that perhaps deleting it from both machines and then re-installing it in order of preferences might solves the problem. Just a thought. Finally, he mentioned the possibility of adding people to a Netflix account and that his daughter had added them to her account and he was paying her £3 a month in gratitude – this being the cost of the extended subscription. It was pointed out that there was a similar option for Spotify, and the launch of Apple One scheme just recently was very similar. [NB The Spotify Family requires address verification; I’m not sure how this works but all members have to have “the same address” – work that one out yourself.]
Mike had nothing to report.
Renee reported some alarm issues ; problems with her satellite TV which required a factory reset eventually as the Italian channels had changed polarity (??) and just re-tuning didn’t solve the problem.
Stella had nothing to report.
John told us about the problems that have dogged them since he lost a bank card and the issues of not knowing whether a request to change details for a direct debit (because it use the former 16-digit number) was a scam or not. Just a nuisance. He wondered whether there were more scams at large currently because of Covid. Not sure. He reported with some delight success in transferring a SIM from an old phone to a new iPhone XR. There were some problems initially (with O2) but these were now resolved and he was getting the service he wanted at the reduced price of the service on the old phone. My standard advice is never to buy a phone on a plan, but to always save up for “the next one” when you purchase outright a new one. Also look at the plans that are available for SIM-only, or Pay as you Go. Measure up what you can get against the ones offered by GiffGaff (running on the O2 network and owned by them), which is my personal recommendation.
Paul had nothing to report, having been too sore to think of anything else but finding a comfortable place to sit since his accidental encounter with his loft.
Phil told us about a Facebook page – Strange things found in walls, including a safe and a gothic arch. He also told us about his experience (relating to Jim’s Flickr episode) of the poor performance of content-filtering for schools internet when he was working.
Ted told us about Just Watch – a really useful website that tells you which streaming service you should look on to find films, etc. He also mentioned how useful he was finding the Snipping Tool in Windows to cut-out an element from an image. I was able to say that the Screenshot Utility in MacOS did the same thing, but there were also short-key sequences for the Mac that did the same thing.
Sianed relayed the sad story of the Smart TV that had lost its smart functionality. For many of us that’s a cause for celebration as the smart functionality decreases with the age of a set as manufacturers don’t keep their apps up-to-date. So now she is in the happy position of using possibly an Amazon Firestick, a Google Chromecast (although Paul doesn’t rate it as there appears to a lot of US-content), a Now TV dongle, a Roku device or an Apple TV. Here’s a recent review of all of the ones available in the UK.
Finally Jenny described the National Pensioners Convention (Wales) event that she was participating in on Tuesday (9th February). You are encouraged to sign-up and take part in the webinar – I’ve circulated details by email earlier. She particularly noted the work of the Good Things Foundation and the Carnegie Trust in supporting digital inclusion activity and projects. She recommended looking at the former’s website.
I concluded the meeting with a gallop through home networking and router configuration which is all written up in this article which builds upon earlier ones.