I have to admit, the events of the past few weeks have made me look much more seriously at paying more for the IT services that I’ve taken for free up until now. Of course they’ve never been free, I’ve had to put up with the adverts and the email messages I don’t really want – alerting me to this deal, or that deal, and I’ve willingly put up with that as a price worth paying for the service I’ve been receiving. But two events have changed my mind, and moreover I feel the IT world is actually changing slowly as a consequence of the mistakes (to be exceptionally generous) of Facebook and Google; and the decision of Apple to switch more attention to Services, targeting this as their main income stream for the future, and not relying on Hardware alone.
So what were the earth-shaking events in the Harrison-IT-world? Well the first was Google’s announcement that having hidden the news of a potential security weakness in an API, for several months (presumably to secure their stock-market price at the time Facebook was struggling, and presumably also after ensuring that the potential breach was secured) they used this as an excuse to kill-off (sorry “sunset”) Google+ next August. Now this service was not the success Google hoped it to be, and most definitely has not generated the revenue they hoped it might, but for me, my family and for many communities (particularly of photographers – because of the close linkage to Google Photos) – it was a hugely valuable tool. Now, we have to look for another social media platform. It could be Google Photos – Google may have plans to “enhance” it to take on features from Google+, or it could be another platform, but it’s just a pain in the neck having to move off something we’re used to! Google have real history with “sunsetting” tools that people get used to using [Thanks to @MrSimonWood for this link.]
The second was Flickr’s announcement that they were going to limit their Free account to 1000 images – excluding those that were licensed under Creative Commons, which a lot of mine are. They are encouraging users to take out a Pro subscription to remove restrictions and allow more and larger images to be uploaded. This didn’t meet with the same “horror” feeling. I immediately felt that this was a decision that would secure the future long-term of the service under the new owners – SmugMug. [A feeling that I didn’t have when 500px made changes to their platform which led me to delete my account.] So I immediately subscribed and took advantage of the first-year discount price (still available for a few more days I believe).
So what am I saying. I’m saying that if there’s a service that I really want, and I really need some feeling that it’s going to be around for a while, I should pay for it. I wasn’t given that option by Google – shame on them; it appears I’ll never be given that opportunity by Facebook. Both of them are essentially marketing and advertising platforms. I don’t see either of them being able to develop a hybrid model as Flickr has been able to do.
This all makes Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan and Microsofts’ Office 365 seem so much more sensible. I’ll continue with the former, but decline the latter as my roots are now firmly planted in the Apple world where I look to see how they will develop their Service offerings in Music, TV, Home and Car fields.
Interesting times.
Category: Archive
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Is it time to move to more paid subscription services?
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Getting started with digital photography: Part 3
Finally, and for another day, a few resources I use and can recommend …DSLR Tips – http://www.dslrtips.com/ and Camera Labs – http://www.cameralabs.com/ – really good for tips, equipment reviews and UK-based too.DxOMark – http://www.dxomark.com/ – rather technical reviews of equipment and cameras but interesting to look at when you’re considering which lens to buy.The Photographers’ Ephemeris – http://photoephemeris.com/ – I really ought to use this site, it’s a miscellany of information that advises you on sunrise/sunset at locations, etc etc – so that you can do some planning before you go to a location.
… and the following books …
The Digital Photography Book (parts 1-5), Scott Kelby, Peachpit Press -
"It's getting to be a bit like Christmas" – 22 Nov 2018
Boot-up
These were the suggestions from last time that you came up with …
Password Manager [Aelfryn] Creating and updating a website [Martin] Google settings [Paul] Facebook settings [Me ???] Windows settings [Don] Backups (and archiving) [Stella] Labels (next session) [David] Photos – organisation and folders (finding) and editing [Toni] Video-editing [Toni] Building an internet browsing computer using Linux from an old laptop [David – Digital Projects maybe] Have I forgotten any? Send me any further suggestions.
Charging your phone overnight
News
Not much …
Facebook execs deny knowing anything!
YouTube video-streaming in Europe may be curtailed due to EU Copyright legislation.
Google runs into “problems” with use of health data.
Black Friday, Voucher Codes, etc. etc.
… anything else???
Labels
You need a printer! If you’re using an iPad/iPhone – you need a printer that supports AirPrint.
Sorry … nothing I could try out for Android tablets, or phones – does anyone want to research this?
Finding a solution that works on every machine is challenging. Using Google suite the best bet – Contacts, Sheets and Docs with an add-on from Avery.
Start with Contacts. If you don’t use gmail for contacts, go to the Contacts in your eMail application – you need to Export chosen Contacts as a .csv file.
So for Google (gmail) – go to contacts.google.com …
You also need to add the Avery Label “add-on” to Google Docs
– docs.google.com
Then in Google Sheets (sheets.google.com), you Import the .csv file
Back to Google Docs and choose new merge from Avery Label Merge Add-on …
Select the Avery Product Code – L7160 – 21 labels is a pretty good starting point …
… and then the .csv file you want to merge …
Select the fields that you want to print from the panel on the right-hand side of the Google Docs screen …
… and then Merge at the bottom of the Panel. A message should appear telling you that a new document Avery_L7160 has been created, and it should look something like this …
… which you should then be able to print – once you’ve loaded the Label Printer Paper!
Also a demo of using Label Printer for iPad/iPhone.
Here’s a good summary of how to do it in Word, Pages (Mac) and Google Docs
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Creating a "magazine" – 25 Oct 2018
Boot-up
Meeting – 11th October. Ted Richards was the Convenor of the Group that day looked at Family History software – any questions or issues arising?
Changes to Thought grazing – https://digital.cardiffu3a.org.uk/
Logging in to Thought grazing – any problems or issues.
Password: Ca3rdyddU3A
Sextortion!!!!
Email scam threatens to show you watching pornography to your friends
An old scam with a new “flavour”
How safe are you online? 10 Questions to ask yourself
Another Facebook security breach
What to do if your Facebook account has been hacked
Google gets itself into trouble too by not telling users of a security hole and kills off Google+
The Brave browser – follow-up
also The best secure browserNews
Apple and Samsung fined for slowing-down older smartphones
Deleting your search history if you use Google
Fake review factories on Facebook
How to spot a fake five-star review on Amazon
Creating a magazine using Feedly, Pocket and Flipboard
Public article will follow – “Creating a Lightroom magazine”
Curating the web
Step 1 – create a Feedly account
Step 2 – select websites you want to get an RSS feed from [What is an RSS feed?] Step 3 – check periodically to see what has “popped-up” in your feed reader.
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Feedly] Saving for another day, or for off-line reading (bookmarking+)
Step 1 – create a Pocket account
Step 2 – save to Pocket from your browser (perhaps using a browser extension), or from a feedly sharing icon
Step 3 – tag your articles, and read at your leisure, or when you want to
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Pocket] Creating a magazine to share with others
Step 1 – create a Flipboard account
Step 2 – create a Magazine, and decide whether to make it Private or Public
Step 3 – add articles to your magazine from Pocket, or from your web browser
[NB You can also download an app for your phone or tablet for Flipboard] -
Starting to Trace your Family Tree (meeting notes from 10th Oct 2018)
Start by writing down what you already know of your family history.
Gather together any birth, death and marriage certificates your already have for the family.
Talk to other family members about their knowledge of the family.
Take copies of any certificates or family pictures they may have.
Then you are ready to start using online resources to help expand that knowledge.
Most important sources of information:- Births, death & marriages cartificates
- Census information 1841 – 1911
Useful Websites- Ancestry.com – subscription site / free at library
- Find My Past – subscription site / free at library
- General Register Office – Free – needs registration
- https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/
- Births up 100 yrs ago, deaths up to 50 yrs ago
- Can order certificates via this site
- FreeBMD – Free
- https://www.freebmd.org.uk up to 1983
- Family Search – registration
- https://www.familysearch.org/
Accessing ‘Find My Past’ and ‘Ancestry’ in Cardiff Libraries- You will need your library number and a library PIN number.
- Log into one of the computers in the library – note you may have to reserve a computer at busy times. At other times you will be able to walk in and start using one.
- Double-Click on iBistro Library
- Double-click on e-Reference
- Double-click on either Ancestry or Find My Past
Recording your Family Tree
As you build up your family tree you will start to want to record all the information you have. There are various ways of doing this:
The various websites (subscription and free) now enable you to record your family tree e.g. Ancestry.com. You can sometimes choose to share that information with others but sometimes it is the default setting to share the information so take care. Some sites automatically make information on living members confidential, others do not.
Many people purchase a bit of family history software to record their family tree. I personally use Family Historian.
I also sketch out my family tree in Excel. -
Floppy Disks
Just a bit of trivia for you. When I started using computers at work, over twenty years ago, I would store my files on a 3 ½” floppy disk. These had a capacity of 1.44 megabytes, which means that these days I wouldn’t be able to store just one of my photos on one.
If I have managed to insert a photo from those days there, it is 600×480 pixels, and a mere 37 kilobytes.
(How did I type “½”? I didn’t, as I don’t have that key on my keyboard. I clicked on ‘Insert’ in the toolbar, and then on ‘Special character’.)
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Thoughtgrazing, Brave and DuckDuckGo – 27th Sept 2018
Boot-up
Email problems – two members do not like the new gmail interface. They advised the Group that even though they could revert back to the old interface, this would be removed shortly. It was suggested that they read their Gmail through a mail client on their device. This would be called Mail for iOS and MacOS (Apple) devices, and through Outlook on Windows devices. Just set up the Mail client to pull the mail down from Google. Instructions follow.
Use of Security Programs such as McAfee or Microsoft Defender. For users like us who are unlikely to play games, and know how to avoid scams, and are easily frightened off installing any strange software on our devices – it is certainly a good strategy to use Microsoft’s Defender progam which is part of Windows, rather than paying for anti-virus and security software. Always be mindful that downloading programs from the Internet has an inherent risk. Research the software before you download and install it just using a search term like “<software name> malware security”. Read the posts that come up and make your decision based on those reviews.
Online banking. One member was having problems reading online statements and balances linked to from an email. My advice was to go to the bank website, or use their app, rather than try and open a link in the email, or read text in the email. Distrust mails from banks anyway is good advice (Ted). They’ll always contact you again if it’s important.
Office applications (free). A member asked the question whether they should purchase the Office 365 suite – initially offered for free after buying a machine. Generally my advice is no – don’t purchase Office, unless you really have to. It’s just too bloated and is geared towards corporate use. The Google suite of apps is free, and the file formats are compatible with Microsoft as they use a common Open Source standard (Open XML). Another option would be to use Microsoft’s Office Online, which will work as long as you’re connected to the Internet, or alternatively to install LibreOffice on your device. Both of these also use the Open XML format to store the document, so one saved in one applications, should be readable in another..
Feed-back on using Evernote with Calendar. I posted a Comment under the Meeting Notes which gave a link to the following integration that Evernote has with the Outlook calendar – https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208314168-How-to-integrate-Evernote-with-your-calendar
If you want to integrate Evernote with any other calendar you may have to use IFTTT – which I’ll come back to another day!!!
Meeting – 11th October. Ted Richards will be the Convenor of the Group that day and will be looking at Family History software.News
Twenty years of Google.
Google proposes data protection legislation!!!!
How to check the health of your Windows 10 PC (and keep it in shape).
How safe are you online? 10 Questions to ask yourself.
All this and more in the Thought grazing magazine (on the Home Page)How to use “Thought grazing …”
Browsers and Search Engines
There is still confusion over what an internet browser is. It’s the software that you can use to “surf the web”. There are a number of browsers around.
The first (in 1993) to gain widespread use was called Mosaic, which then was re-badged as Netscape Navigator when the developer broke away; it then morphed into Firefox, as it changed ownership from Netscape (the company), through AOL, to Mozilla. Essentially it is open source software financed through making Google it’s default search engine. [For a while it was financed by Yahoo when Yahoo had its own search engine.] You can download Firefox (safely) here.
Microsoft launched its Internet Explorer (in 1995) – it caught on to the internet rather late – and replaced it with Edge with the release of Windows 10.
The next entrant was Apple’s Safari in 2003 – up until then they’d been supporting Netscape – and they have stopped providing a Windows version now so that it’s only available on Apple devices.
The final and most successful browser (nearly 66% adoption) is Google’s Chrome browser. It was developed from an Open Source project called Chromium funded by Google to provide the code-base for Chrome. It continues as a separate browser on Linux, and forms the basis of a number of other browsers such as Opera and Brave, which is what we will discuss next.
In the post about Google and the difference between the Google app, on your smartphone, and the use of an internet browser such as Chrome (from Google), Firefox, Safari, Edge (or Internet Explorer, from Microsoft) I mentioned that I was using Brave. As I suspected, Brave is financed in crypto-currency, with an opt-in model for advertising that the user wants to receive. A subject for another day?!?!?
So let’s download it and set it up …
I referred to alternative search engines in the article – eg DuckDuckGo and I am now using and testing that extensively. The combination Brave + DuckDuckGo is faster, does not track where I go – thus no annoying ads; there is an ad blocker built-in and pop-ups are prevented as well.
DuckDuckGo earns revenue by serving ads from the Yahoo–Bing search alliance network, and through affiliate relationships with Amazon and eBay.
Spread the word – if you like it, or learn a little more if you’re contemplating doing the same as me by looking at How to live without Google.
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iPhone Battery Replacement
I was in conversation the other day with someone who was complaining about the short battery life of their iPhone. I remembered that I’d put an alert in my calendar for later this year to take my 6s, and Jenny’s SE down to the Apple Store to get a battery replacement under their “special offer” scheme.
This came about as a result of them changing the way the operating system (iOS) worked on older models – slowing them down – to retain battery life. This caused a bit of a stink at the time, and so Apple responded with a replacement programme that means a replacement battery would cost £25, as opposed to £79, through 2018.
Apple also issued an advisory note to tell users a little bit more about how batteries would cease to work at full performance in this note which also explained how you could manage performance – which is of course what they should have done before they implemented it in the background without telling anyone. This article tells you how you can monitor and manage your battery health.
So … if you have one of the affected models (iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus) you should consider taking advantage of the Battery Replacement Offer, but for a few people with a 6S, it could be a free replacement.
The Apple Store calls … -
New Mobile Phone
This photo comes under the heading of Digital, rather than Computing, for three reasons.
I am holding my first mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy J3. I haven’t felt the need for one until recently, and even now I use it more as a small tablet.
I had just ridden a bicycle for the first time since I came to Cardiff. As you may be able to tell, it is one of the new nextbikes which have appeared in the city. I used their app on the phone to hire it at Pontcanna Fields, and then rode it to Llandaff via footpaths. The app read a QR code on the bike, and then provided a code number to unlock it.
I am using the phone to remotely control my camera, a Lumix TZ200. I can do things like adjust the exposure, zoom in and out, and obviously click the shutter, while seeing what the camera sees on the phone’s screen.
I hope some of that is of interest.
