Digital

Tag: 2022

  • Notes of Zoom Meeting – 12th May 2022

    Mario but no Fred
    Fred but no Mario!

    12 of us met although there were the odd appearance, re-appearance and disappearance of some members! Thanks to Jim for the screenshots.

    Owen took the lead in David’s absence, mentioned the news that Apple was no longer the world’s biggest company, led a remarkably short moment of silence for that fact and also mentioned the demise of the iPod Touch.

    David has a friend who had been locked out of Gmail. He was unsure whether this was a Google account problem or just spite. Renee mentioned that she had received prompts from Google to take extra security options.  David further lamented that his iPad was now too old to receive iOS updates (he’s locked on 12 when the current release is at 15) and that this was now beginning to case him issues with favourite apps that would no longer work.  Beyond commiserations, we were unable to offer much help.

    Jenny then kicked off a discussion about discounts available through u3a or the Third Age Trust. Owen indicated that there were some software discounts available but needed to look into the scheme again. Fred added his weight to the call for national-level negotiations. Jenny is also speaking at the Age Cymru conference, her topic is digital inclusion.

    Paul informed us that he had learned that the short phone number 159 can be used to report a banking scam (or attempt) [Thanks Rip Off Britain on the BBC]. He was unsure whether this was just a report or whether one then got through to one’s own bank to freeze cards etc.

    Stella had received a scam message on Signal which she had not opened but wanted to delete. We demonstrated how to do this and also slim down the number of messages. We were unsure as to whether the messages were stored on a local device or just on a remote server. Jim interpolated later that with WhatsApp, images and videos are held on the local device when delivered and the storage this takes needs to be managed to avoid filling up the phone’s capacity. We presume the same is true with Signal.

    Ralph needs to renew his driving licence having reached a certain age and enquired whether it was feasible to do this using a smart phone or would a PC/laptop be better. A PC/laptop was recommended as being more amenable to typing but we did think it could be done on a phone.  In response to Ted’s enquiry on this, it was indicated that no actual medical checks were involved but that there was some self-reporting required.

    Ted started off a discussion on the future of the group in view of David H’s decision to step down as facilitator in a couple of months. We kicked around a few ideas, thinking that as no member had thrown their hat in the ring yet, it might be necessary to reformulate how the group operates to attract candidates. No decisions were made but the following ideas were raised:

    • Frequency of meetings: monthly or fortnightly or a fixed pattern (e.g. 1st and 3rd Thursdays of a month)
    • Content of meetings: round table with occasional longer talks (as now) or just main talks
    • Mix and match options: face-to-face or zoom or do each type alternately [hybrid was discussed]
    • More than one convenor, possibly one running Zoom meetings and another running F2F.
    • No notes to be produced – this was raised to indicate that note taking and loading onto the website clearly involves some effort and may be putting off candidates – members to take their own notes as they think fit.

    Some members expressed preferences but there was little consensus at present.

    Jim added to his points on WhatsApp that there has been a message re a upgrade within the next few days that will be advisable to take.

    Steve had had some issues with new equipment. He also raised the recent reports on FIDO, the sharing of account details including passwords between Apple, Google and Microsoft, ostensibly to save money and hassles. It should be reported that there was a tinge of cynicism about comments on this.

    Mario reported that he had borrowed the URC’s new laptop and obtained much better speeds on his home wifi than he did with his own equipment. He also indicated that URC systems were improving and still hoped for better soon.

    In closing the meeting, Owen reminded members that he was not available on 26th May for the next meeting and Ted has agreed to start the Zoom session instead.

  • Notes of a Zoom meeting – 28th April 2022

    Thirteen of us met this week with Owen facilitating again in David’s absence in the Antipodes.


    Ted provided an extremely interesting talk on the use of the various software he uses in ancestry research. He demonstrated the use of paid-for and free software, including Ancestry.com and Find My Past in the former category and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Free BMD, the General Register Office and the Welsh newspaper archives available from the National Library of Wales in the latter category.

    Using a grandfather of David Hughes who was known to have died in the First World War as an example, he took us through the search process, moving from one application to another to add in material until we had a clear picture of William Hughes, his parents, wife and children. Ted was also able to add in the cause of death and location of his burial as well as background as to his work before the war and possible service in a territorial unit, perhaps in the Boer War or other imperial conflict.

    It was a trouble-free demonstration and Ted has provided a slideshow to accompany his talk for Thoughtgrazing members …

    There were some contributions from members: Jim mentioned WikiTree to which you can add your own family tree to help others find connections – their ultimate aim is to connect all living people on a single tree – and Jonathan mentioned Family Echo which enables one to draw up a tree – but not to do the searching.


    We moved on to our usual round-table discussions. Several members had nil returns but here are the others:


    David H has battery-life problems with his mobile phone and Ann and Jim were able to offer him advice on both identifying and ameliorating the problem.

    Christine had been selling things on Gumtree and eBay and was surprised by the level of scam offers she received. We discussed the difficulty in establishing the bona fides of purchasers. Christine has firmly decided on local and cash-only arrangements. Renee recommended the use of NextDoor for this.

    Don had received a letter from a charity he supports informing him of a data breach and is monitoring his accounts. He had also received a few scam phone calls using what appears to be a Cardiff number 029 2240 4135 and felt the ‘22’ was unusual. Some Penarth numbers use this, apparently.

    Renee has finally had a problem fixed by Virgin Media. She has lost incoming calls due to a problem which appeared when Virgin Media switched her phone to a hub. Of course, she didn’t know she had a problem until her callers informed her of failed attempts and she thinks three months have passed until the problem has been resolved.

    Ann has found a workaround of her printer problems using a smart phone app but still has signal problems.

    Owen closed the meeting reminding members that in David’s absence, substitute facilitators were required. He was able to do the next meeting on 12th May but not on 26th so asked for volunteers to contact him. He also reminded the group that David had indicated that he wished to step down from the role entirely after the Summer break and that someone was needed to take over if the group is to continue. Owen indicated that he was not in a position to offer to do this.

  • Android 12 Issues

    I recently had this message from the Royal Television Society, which David thought was worth passing on:-

    We have become aware that there are issues with the latest Android 12 version that is affecting the RTS app along with many others.
    The most common issues are that the App will not transfer to a new phone or will not download from the PlayStore.
    It appears that Android 12 has elements of incompatibility with a number of app development platforms including the one RTS uses.
    We are very sorry about the inconvenience and frustration this is causing.
    We have been informed it is not possible to de-bug the App in the platform to avoid the incompatibilities, the solution being for Google to patch Android 12 to negate the issues.

    A search has shown the range of issues arising.

    With possible fixes suggested but not with 100% success.

    Step 1: Clear the cache & data of the Play Store

    This gives the app a fresh start and can help fix issues.

    1. Open your device’s Settings app Settings.
    2. Tap Apps & notifications and then See all apps.
    3. Scroll down and tap Google Play Store Google Play.
    4. Tap Storage and then Clear Cache.
    5. Next, tap Clear data.
    6. Re-open the Play Store & try your download again.

    Step 2: Restart your device

    If you still can’t download after you clear the cache & data of the Play Store, restart your device.

    1. Press and hold the Power button until the menu pops up.
    2. Tap Power off or Restart if that is an option.
    3. If needed, press and hold the Power button until your device turns on again.

    Regrettably we will need to wait for an update to Android 12 but we will contact you again as soon as we have news of a patch to Android 12 and that the RTS App is working on that operating system.

    

  • Notes from Zoom meeting – 14th April 2022

    Members attending 14/4/2022

    We were much depleted this week with only nine members attending. Owen was facilitating as David was away on a break.

    In lieu of meeting notes from last time, we moved swiftly on to a round-screen chat.

    Sianed reported that she now had a new iPad (9th generation) to replace her old one which was now no longer receiving updates and therefore not of much use for her online activities.

    She had also updated per PC to Windows 11 but found it to be running more slowly, with a noticeably longer boot-time. Jim chipped in to say that his upgraded PC was actually running better under Windows 11 and recommended that Sianed implement any updates and see if that helped.

    Paul related a prospective battle with TalkTalk over increased charges an we had a discussion of just how they arrived at both increases and the figures upon which they were actually based. A new branch of mathematics perhaps…

    Jim is still pursuing the perfect image catalogue without any duplicates…

    Ralph was interested in our discussion but felt unable to contribute at this time.

    Don had downloaded Norton Anti Virus as it came packaged with his BT broadband offering. He had had some issues with browser extensions but felt he was now OK. He had also implemented a password manager.

    Jim referred us to an article which said basically what has been raised before, that Windows Defender was adequate and that paid-for anti-virus should not be necessary on top of it… but as Don said, it was free to him at present.

    We also discussed the efforts Don was undertaking in making grant applications for his church, which involved considerable downloading, loading into Word, editing and re-uploading.   He was also waiting for a new iPhone and planned to use it for the Signal group.

    Mario found his latest monthly meeting Zooming plagued by screen freeze and on investigation had discovered very poor connection speeds for downloads. We queried the age of his router and Paul suggested a battle with TalkTalk to see if upgrading was feasible for him.

    John talked about his iPhone photography and also that he was experiencing startup issues with his Dell PC. He is considering Windows 11 as well and was referred to the Microsoft site for the PC Health Check software.

    Fred has speed issues too and was interested in the discussions that had preceded him.

    Owen demonstrated the current state of the web redevelopment project using WordPress.

    We closed at around 3pm with Owen indicating that next time (28th April) Ted Richards would be leading on the use of ancestry software.

  • Immobilise App

    Immobilise is a free register of home items. It is available to the police if you are burgled.

    Immobilise System set up 2003

    1. Largest free system to register household property.
    2. Used for public and businesses.
    3. Police online checking service used 1000 s of times a day.
    4. Returns property to owners.
    5. Recommended by E-Bay to reduce fraud.
    6. Funded by the sale of marker pens and stickers.
    7. Displayed stickers mean you are less likely to be burgled.

    Benefits of Registration.

    1. Immobilise helps police identify the owners of recovered property.
    2. Property updates immediately available to the Police nationally.
    3. Combats the sale of stolen items in the second hand trade.
    4. Simplifies insurance claims and police reports.

  • Notes from Zoom meeting – 3rd March 2022

    Not one, but two images from our last Zoom meeting which took place 4 weeks ago – can you believe it. This must be a record for the delay in preparing notes, but we have had a social meeting at the Castle in between, and I have had a few other things on which I know you’d excuse me for – if I was to list them!!!

    So let’s go backwards, first, so-to-speak. It was great to see a few of you in the cafe at The Castle, and especially good to see Ralph, who I do hope manages to join us on Zoom from now on. The staff in the cafe were very obliging allowing us to move inside when rain threatened, and even helped us move a couple of tables so that we were all in the same place. So, a successful meeting, and one we’ll repeat … promise!

    Now we’ll go forwards, next, so-to-speak. I won’t be around to facilitate the next meeting due on April 14th as we’re having a family holiday in the Forest of Dean that week, but I think that Owen has agreed to cover that one. However, looking further ahead it’s looking increasingly likely that we’re going to jet off to Australia in late April – just because we can (now Covid rules have been relaxed) and because our son over there has said come now because who knows what will happen later in the year. So although we were (and still are) planning to go in November for Christmas, we’re going to do a quick dash for a couple of weeks to see our family over there who we haven’t seen since May 2018 – that’s a long time. So although we haven’t booked our flights yet it looks increasingly likely that I won’t be able to facilitate a meeting possibly on April 28th, definitely May 12th and then May 26th (when we will have returned, but are committed to a trip to the North East for a family homecoming). So we/you need to discuss what we should do about meetings. After that, no plans that clash with Group dates until the end of July – and I hope to keep it that way.

    Finally let’s go back, properly to March 3rd and our Zoom meeting on that date.

    Owen reported that the work on the new WordPress site for Cardiff u3a was progressing, and I offered advice, or assistance, if required.

    Don had bought a dual USB-A wall-charger for £20 (you can never have enough of them, but it’s the missing pesky cables that get me). He had found a solution to a problem he had with sharing with his iPad on YouTube – always the first port of call I find.

    Margaret told us about the latest NHS scam; advised us that she’d come across some free WordPress webinars and tips; had discovered a voice-to-text facility/app called “otter”. She also told us that she found that you could turn on live captions in many applications from the device settings. Ted asked whether you could capture text from live-capture; he advised us that he’d found that when the volume was switched on the only capture recorded was from the device, not the stream.

    Ted had now got fibre broadband from BT – initial results were looking favourable.

    Steve was still evaluating password managers, but thought that he might plump for an open source offering – Bitwarden. It will be interesting to see his decision – as he has done quite a lot of investigation. He also told us that Immobilise (a database linked to an app to record household possessions, etc) was also used by Neighbourhood Watch and the Police.

    Renee commented on WiFi extenders. She’d had good experience of using them. We then had a discussion of the merits of Proprietary WiFi Booster systems vs. Extenders vs Mesh vs Powerline. All have their place and merits.

    John had been having iPhone problems. Hopefully he’d got some way to resolving some of the problems, especially with email, and receiving it on his new phone. We did advise he to go back to JLP for assistance in getting things set up the way he wanted them.

    Christine told us about a Facebook scam that had nearly trapped her, but she’d exited quickly without any apparent harm.

    Ann had been having problems with opening Gmail accounts. She’d also cause to speak to Sky customer service, they were unable to help as she was out of contract. She’d been suffering a poor signal on WiFi, had deployed a WiFi analyser and had then found she needed to configure the Router as she had found that using the 2.4Ghz bandwidth was better for greater distances, and the 5Ghz was better for shorter distance and gave greater throughput. [We probably could do a revision session on Routers; always a good topic and sensible to re-visit.]

    Fred commented upon a NHS notification – that’s all my notes tell me, so apologies for lack of detail!

    Paul told us about a saga he’d had recently with Virgin Money and an ISA account that they’d moved to another provider that he then couldn’t access. The problem seems to have something to do with Vodafone(???) [Renee had experienced the same] – the Ombudsman had taken a year to reply. [Don had also had a problem but had managed to get £50 compensation as a complainant.] The problem seems to be connected to some building societies not being in the “transfer scheme”.

    David told us about his new internet bandwidth speeds obtained from Sky Superfast 35 – I smiled at the download/upload speeds of 23Mbps / 9Mbps and 30Mbps / 9Mbps but they are certainly better that the 11Mbps / 1Mbps he’d been experiencing before. He is now going to check the cost matches up to performance. He updated us on the question of EV charging points – a survey is going to be done 4th April. Christine suggested that he should make sure that FastCharge was being provided.

    Did I say anything? No idea – it was probably not worth recording anyway. However Jim has posted an article on his EXIF data project which I encourage you to go and read.

  • Who is that in the photo? Where was I when I took this?

    When I first started taking digital photos, seventeen years ago, I kept a written record of the subject of each shot, the date and time it was taken, and the exposure details. When the photography group started, seven years ago, I began to take many more photos, and it became too much of a chore to keep records. I also realised that the technical info was stored with each image anyway, in the ‘Details’ section of the ‘Properties’, otherwise known as the EXIF data, (Exchangeable Image File). However that meant that I no longer had any information about the subjects. (I’m talking about Windows, but Apple computers must have something very similar. I can’t see an equivalent with Android though.)

    As I have mentioned in the meetings, it occurred to me recently that I could actually add that info to the EXIF data. There are five headings I can add text to. From the top they are Tags, Title, Authors, Comments, and Subject. The upshot is that I have been able to throw away (so far) about 120 pages of my original records, covering about 4,000 images.

    One other thing. My camera records information about some of the settings I have used which doesn’t appear in the EXIF data, possibly because it is specific to Panasonic Lumix cameras. Things like the mode (P, A, S, or M), HDR, and highlight and shadow settings. I now use the Comments heading to record that info.

    Incidentally I store the images in folders just numbered consecutively. I don’t need to have folders labelled by subject, for instance, as I can create virtual folders on the fly using ‘search’.

    I’m not as good as David at explaining things face to face, but I hope you can now see why I am so keen on the idea, and wanted to share it.

  • A welcome addition to Signal – usernames as well as telephone numbers

    You will soon be able to keep your mobile telno. private on Signal by using a username

  • Notes from Zoom meeting – 17th February 2022

    No photo of attendees this time as Jim presented his apologies as he was attending a re-scheduled and re-arranged Poetry and Prose group. I will need to find a “deputy” for those meetings he can’t attend, or alternatively Owen perhaps could prompt me to take a shot myself 🙂 I also had apologies from Ted and John who were not able to make the meeting.

    We started with a quick review of the last meeting. Renee had downloaded Trello, and was going to look at using it, as was Jenny – who hadn’t yet had time to download it. Thanks Steve for the presentation again. I’m looking for more offers but during the meeting Stella told us about MapQuest which certainly is worth a look. I believe I’ve got it on my phone, but I also have Strava, PlotaRoute and Walkmeter, for walking – none of which I use to much I’m afraid to say.

    I mentioned that I’d seen an item on the Welsh News on the “disappearance of copper from Ceredigion” – a reference to the PSTN switch-off and move to digital. I also mentioned that I’d move the post under Jenny‘s authorship to the public Thought grazing site where I will try and keep news up-to-date as the project proceeds. I also referred to Jenny‘s article in the Magazine (Page 81 she tells us).

    Then we had a reference to Sianed‘s article on Printing Digital Photographs – which I found very interesting and which left me wondering how and why they do it for free! Finally I welcomed Jim‘s amplification as a Comment under the Notes on what he’d described at the last meeting in reference to deleting items from trash on external hard disks. I asked everyone to look at my notes and correct them in a similar way. Thanks.

    I then reviewed a more interesting set of News which I’d sent to the Flipboard Magazine. I encourage you all to take a look occasionally.

    We then went round my screen – I’m just picking up those that contributed in this part of the meeting.

    David Hughes told us about his travails in negotiating anew contract with Sky, which ended with an upgrade to his Broadband speed from early March without an increase in cost. S0mething others (including me) commented on with VirginMedia and TalkTalk as well. He then told us about an interesting issue/problem the residents of his apartment block were facing – how to get EV charging points in shared landlord-owned buildings. He referenced this website which provided some guidance, and he’d been in touch with someone from Pontyclun who had some knowledge of installing EV-points in similar situations. Someone mentioned that there might be a WiFi solution that linked back to your apartment. Definitely a case of “watch-this-space”. He then finished with a mention of his grand-daughter’s website that worked perfectly on his phone and web browser, but not his iPad. After a bit of scrabbling about, I advised that he need to tell her to investigate Responsive web design technologies – this is often a feature of themes in WordPress for instance.

    Owen advised us that his wife was recovering well after the shock of a hospital admittance at the time of the previous meeting. He had progressed with his investigations of using WordPress for the Cardiff u3a website, was re-visiting his knowledge/use of PHP as a programming language and had come across a piece of software called LocalWP that allowed website developers to build a fully-blown WordPress website on a local machine without need for hosting. I offered when he wanted to trial a hosted site that I could provide a sub-domain on my hosted account for testing purposes. This environment might be of interest to Ted and Philip as well as me. I saw the possibility of archiving all my sites onto a machine for posterity!!!! [Or at least my family’s attention]

    Paul had been “hit” by a scam suggesting he invest in Anti-virus software – that didn’t go too far!!! He then advised us that within the browser-version of Gmail, you could click on the three dots above a message and Report it as a Scam. This could be very useful to members. In similar vein (but later) Don told us he’d used the Print function under the “three dots” to print an email out, rather than get a screenshot with sidebars added.

    Steve updated us on his “negotiations” with TalkTalk which had also led to the cancellation of his NowTV. He had also spent sometime looking at LastPass.

    Stella was beaming!!! She’d purchased a replacement 2-in-1 machine from eBay but it had come without being cleaned-off and she found out she would need to re-set it back to Factory Settings. This she had done successfully and she thanked members of the group for giving here the confidence to attempt it herself. She then did the same thing to an older machine. It took longer but she was impressed at how easy it had been to do the task just by watching a YouTube video. Well done Stella.

    Renee had a conundrum which hadn’t been resolved by Apple. The number of photos on her phone and laptop didn’t coincide. This was disturbing because sjhe wanted to move the photos off her phone and through the laptop to an external hard disk. I said I’d had a similar experience recently but couldn’t for the life of me remember what I’d done to resolve the problem – but I had. I said I’d try to get the little grey cells working a bit better and let her know if they came back with anything of any use!!!

    Don told us he’d been reading a Customer Satisfaction report from Which? on Broadband suppliers. He noted that some of our members would not be that impressed by some of the suppliers (no names, no pack drill). He’d also come across a definition of phishing and had been amazed by the different flavours and terms used.

    Christine had also been talking to their broadband supplier (VirginMedia) and had been advised to change their mobile contract (part of the package) to O2 – which were partners of VM to get a better deal – you can’t make up these stories can you! She had also pulled-out of a Lloyds Bank scam when it asked her for the “number on the back of the card” – no, that’s not right!!!!

    Ann reported that she’d solved the camera on her Lenovo not working. She inadvertently must have toggled the F8 key on the machine which is a “privacy feature” to switch-off the camera. Glad that one’s been resolved.

    Fred reported that he’d been puzzled by a GreenCard Travel email that would appear to be a scam. Something to look out for now that we were all perhaps looking to start driving abroad again.

    We then had a discussion on the LastPass video which Sianed thought had been quite good. Several questions were asked and I attempted to answer them as best I could. Some of these I answered subsequently (mainly on subscription costs) on Signal. I refer everyone to their website which has a quite good set of FAQs.

    Lastly we went round the screen again to find out if anyone had used, or discovered, useful speech-to-text applications. Owen reported that he’d discovered the wonders of CarPlay on their new car. Messages went from the iPhone to appear as text on the screen of what we used to call the SatNav – but it’s far more now. Paul told us he used the microphone in Text, WhatsApp and Signal (and Notes and Word, etc) to prepare messages, which were surprisingly accurate. I tried to do a demonstration, but failed – I must do some revision on how you can switch to share an iPhone screen over Zoom. That was not the case for Sianed. She found the speech-to-text failed miserable with a Welsh accent. Ann agreed. I suggested they try speaking in Welsh as there might well be a more accurate result. It will be interesting to see. Steve on the other hand was more interested in text-to-speech and he’d been looking at Speechify, but it was costly. I investigated other options and sent a message to Signal. Renee had tackled Siri – she’d meant to do that for some time and found it acceptable, and did arithmetic well!! She also advised Steve to have a look at text-to-speech on Safari – one for me to check out as well. That plus Reader View is making Safari my browser of choice at the moment. Finally, Don had been trying out talking to Google (using the Google Assistant) – we must have another go at this really useful tool again.

  • Non Digital Photographs

    Most people now use digital photographs on our phones/tablets/laptops. But If you still like to have some printed (at a reasonable price) there are apps available which you can download onto your smart phone. – “FreePrints” (also a similar deal with the PhotoBox app and the Snapfish app)

    They work by downloading the app and set up a free account with them – the app is free from the Google Play Store on an Android phone or the App Store on an iPhone.

    You can choose up to 45 (or 50, depending on the app) standard-sized photos to print each month.  The prints themselves are free you just pay for the postage.  The FreePrints app postage is roughly between £1.49 and £3.99 depending on the number of prints ordered in a month.    Exact postage costs will vary a bit from app to app.

    There’s no subscription, so there is no need to order every month.  The small downside is, that if your free photo allowance for one month is not used, you can’t carry it over to the next month. These apps are useful if you like to order a small number of prints regularly, rather than a load in one go.  

    If you’ve saved up a big batch of photos to get printed all at once, maybe stored on your computer or a service like Google Photos, it may be worth looking at deals on websites like Snapfish, Photobox or Boots Photos (there are others too).  They’ll often have free photo deals for new customers, or give you free postage if you spend over a certain amount with them.  They usually charge around 10p per print.

    Both the apps and these websites are also handy for other photo products to put on your wall – poster-sized prints, canvases, mugs, T-shirts, calendars. Prices vary quite a bit between the different websites.