PC Update – 2021 Index

Rob Brown Some small changes have been rolled out to the melbpc.org.au website to improve the user experience for new visitors to the site. The changes are around the top menu which currently looks like this   and Following the… Continue Reading…

Tim McQueen I, Warbot – the dawn of artificially intelligent conflict. Kenneth Payne Hurst & Company, London   Payne based his title for this book on Asimov’s famous short story ‘I, Robot’, with its three rules for robots: A Robot… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller   Host Paul Woolard opened the October meeting, once more joined by an increased audience, again from home via Zoom. Paul announced that starting this month, videos of each presentation will be available on the East SIG website… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Hello and welcome to the November 2021 edition of PC Update. It’s an interesting issue, with our feature articles being on the various types of solid state drives available today and how to understand Interner speeds, which is… Continue Reading…

Eric Smalley, The Conversation When you enter your personal information or credit card number into a website, do you have a moment of hesitation? A nagging sense of vulnerability prompted by the parade of headlines about data breaches and hacks?… Continue Reading…

Harry Lewis Members with Melb PC email accounts have been provided with access to their new mailboxes hosted by Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). From the introduction of this service up to the end of November 30th 2021 mail has… Continue Reading…

George Wright When deleting emails over six years of age you recognise you don’t trust anybody. When deleting emails under three days old you recognise you need get some new friends. When emailing yourself, you can’t believe a word they… Continue Reading…

Tim McQueen Daryl was frustrated. He’d left the job in Philadelphia, suspecting that international travel bans would come, but had risked going home via Cambridge to catch up with colleagues. He’d no sooner landed in London than the Australian government… Continue Reading…

The November 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 6th October 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guests: Yoko Fukuda, Kajsa Sjöman, Iqbal Samin Prithul Topic: Self balancing Robots and Covid Around… Continue Reading…

Tom Burt, Sun City Summerlin Computer Club Solid State Drives (SSDs) have been around for quite a while. However, prices have come down while capacities and performance have gone up. As a result, adding an SSD to an existing system… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Windows With the move of our services from Microsoft to Google based the use of Melb PC e-mail addresses for a Windows login will cease to work. Turns out Windows Home users aren’t affected as our Microsoft account… Continue Reading…

Joe Callison, Seniors Computer Club of Greater Kansas City   Wi-Fi technology and the routers and Wi-Fi adapters using it have advanced a lot in recent years. It is difficult to explain the nuances of Wi-Fi technology without getting geeky,… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the September meeting, with a significant increase in members joining again from home via Zoom. The first presentation of the night was George Skarbek presenting his normal Q&A segment. With most members in lockdown,… Continue Reading…

Hello and welcome to the October 2021 edition of PC Update. Exciting news – our Moorabbin headquarters can reopen soon! By about October 30 2021, Victoria will have reached the milestone of having 80 percent of the population aged over… Continue Reading…

Kurt Jefferson, Central Kentucky Computer Society Shortly before Halloween last year, I noticed my Internet connection was getting slower and slower. I would visit CKCS.org to check the latest newsletter. Then I would visit The Animal Rescue Site to give… Continue Reading…

George Wright I love my computer. I know it’s just a machine on my desk, but what can it really do?   What use is it when its presence dominates my life early in the morning from a focus on… Continue Reading…

The September 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 6th October 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guests : Mark O’Reilly Topic: Tips, Traps, and Trouble with Cyber Insurance… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson This is the last PC Update you will receive before the AGM on Wednesday 3rd November. That meeting will be online only, so votes will have to be done by email or snail mail. The details on voting… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald You might have received an older PC from someone and now you’re wondering what to do with it. I often get handed old laptops and desktop PCs that clients no longer want. Rather than these going into e-waste,… Continue Reading…

Stuart James, Edith Cowan University On October 23, 2001, Apple released the iPod — a portable media player that promised to overshadow the clunky design and low storage capacity of MP3 players introduced in the mid-1990s. The iPod boasted the… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Windows   Windows 11 was officially released on October 5th and while most of us probably aren’t brave enough to use it on our main system quite yet, some of us might be keen to at least have… Continue Reading…

Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University and Bogdan Ghita, University of Plymouth What is my IP? It’s an odd question in most people’s minds, yet it’s one of the top ten most-searched questions on Google. Those who know what an IP… Continue Reading…

If you enjoyed the September 2021 monthly meeting on citizen science, then you might be interested in attending the annual conference which is coming up,  Please join us in October 2021 for “CitSciOz21: Celebrate, Communicate, Co-create” in a brand-new event… Continue Reading…

Shazia Sadiq, The University of Queensland and Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas, The University of Melbourne Digital technologies are now at the heart of our everyday lives, as anyone who has swapped their office for a videoconferencing screen, or downloaded a contact-tracing… Continue Reading…

  DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally ‘feature’… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the August meeting, again with all members back at home joining the meeting via Zoom. The first presentation of the night was George Skarbek presenting his normal Q&A segment. Q. On John Hall’s recommendation,… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Last month in PC Update we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the IBM PC with an article. This month, if I’d had more time, I would have done a similar article on another momentous anniversary in the history… Continue Reading…

Harry Lewis In his intriguing article ‘Elephobia’ in last month’s PC Update we were transported to Planet Wright where George (of that ilk) introduced us to folk with interesting traditions regarding backup. The standout for me was the practice of… Continue Reading…

The September 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 1st September 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guests : Dr Alice Motion and Michelle Neil Topic: Citizen Science   Dr… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson This may be the last PC Update you read before submitting your proxy votes for the November AGM. That meeting will be online only, so votes will have to be done by email or snail mail. You should… Continue Reading…

George Wright (with maths advice from Ann Lawry) Humans can identify complex relationships with each other and their habitats. I’ve come to think that the ancient Greeks who invented numerical theories were actually laying the groundwork for a study into… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Technology News While last month saw the 30th anniversary of the announcement of Linux, this month marks 30 years since the first actual kernel (0.01) was released. Linux has come a long way since, from its humble origins… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson The Committee has decided not to accept any new subscriptions for the printed version of PC Update. Here’s why: The large, fancy colour laser printer we use in the office is costing us well over $6,000 p.a. on… Continue Reading…

Christopher Wenn, The University of Melbourne How does music get onto a cassette tape? — Paul, age 9, Adelaide   Hi Paul! That’s a great question. To answer it very briefly, music is recorded onto a cassette tape using electricity… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the July meeting, again with all members back at home joining the meeting via Zoom. The first presentation of the night was George Skarbek presenting his normal Q&A segment. Q. I have a question… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald The twelfth of August 2021 marks forty years since the IBM Personal Computer was first released onto the market. It is widely regarded as a seminal moment in computing history because it spurred on many other companies to… Continue Reading…

Hello and welcome to another edition of PC Update. On the club front our activities have been back online this month. We had an interesting monthly meeting where two speakers, Jacky Barker and Zach Morris discussed their experiences of setting… Continue Reading…

Katharine Kemp, UNSW I spent last week studying the 26,000 words of privacy terms published by eBay and Amazon, trying to extract some straight answers, and comparing them to the privacy terms of other online marketplaces such as Kogan and… Continue Reading…

George Wright My wife loves an Apple. I like apples too, but I like eating mine. My computer is Android. Hers backs-up automatically, several times a day. I’ve pointed out that backing-up to a drive in the same computer is… Continue Reading…

Greg Skalka, Under The Computer Hood User Group Everyone wants some control in their lives. Having the ability to control things in our homes can provide added safety, security, and convenience. Technology to enable consumer home automation and control has… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons NBN Questions and Comments Steve posed the question of whether it was possible to use the 4G fall-back capability of a Telstra Smart Modem to tide his father over for a few days while broadband was connected during… Continue Reading…

Kevin Gray Dear David, This is a short note of thanks to the Melbourne PC User Group. I’ve been a member for just on 30 years. One of my moves into a different vocation over my lifetime involved writing database… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald On June 24 this year, Microsoft somewhat surprised everyone by announcing that a new version of Windows, called Windows 11, was coming This was a surprise because after Windows 10 was released, Microsoft announced that it would be… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the June meeting, this month with all members back at home joining the meeting via Zoom. After a short introduction outlining his aborted travel plans, George Skarbek presented his normal Q&A segment. Q. Windows… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Welcome to another edition of PC Update. On the computing front this month, I take a first look at Windows 11, David Stonier-Gibson explores the changing nature of computing and we look at Pegasus spyware. On the non… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson Moorabbin renovations: Can you help? The process of upgrading and reconfiguring Moorabbin has been continuing, even during Covid. A small band of volunteers have worked on the Maker Room (was Training Room) and Lounge areas. The Borrett room… Continue Reading…

Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University and Roberto Musotto, Edith Cowan University A major journalistic investigation has found evidence of malicious software being used by governments around the world, including allegations of spying on prominent individuals. From a list of more… Continue Reading…

Steve Costello PSA: Gmail Has Your Old Chat Logs From Google Talk (And Hangouts) https://www.howtogeek.com/711404/psa-gmail-has-your-old-chat-logs-from-google-talk-and-hangouts/ Did you use Google Talk and or Hangouts? If so, your logs are still stored in your Google account and taking up space. Check out… Continue Reading…

Heather Stonier-Gibson This rain fits. It fits the dull, bleak swarm of Melbourne winter. It fits my growing bitterness and sits well with the anxiety that this time, it will be worse. I live in a place without education. Yellow… Continue Reading…

The June 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 7th July 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom and another 20 at Moorabbin. This was the program for the evening: Guest Speakers: Jennifer Daddow Topic: Support Services fo Carers… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson The Virus struck close to home today: It was in Coles at Southland, 10 minutes walk from home, last Monday. And I know my wife was in that very shop earlier this week. Fortunately she conscientiously scans in… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson The world is changing rapidly, not least of all in the realm of computing. Computing today is vastly different to what it was when Melb PC was established 37 years ago, with terms like The Cloud, The Edge,… Continue Reading…

George Wright Last year, unverified rumour says that North Korea’s Supreme Leader ordered a nuclear strike on Darwin because he figured that Australia’s response would at best, be with boomerangs. Unfortunately, the missile dropped into the Java Trench in Indonesian… Continue Reading…

Windows (formerly Windows 10*) We were able to help Jan with a major learning experience this month – using a bootable Linux USB flash drive to recover files from a Windows computer with a failing hard drive that would no… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Last month in PC Update we published an article by Dan Douglas on backing up in Windows. While this presented a method that would work if members followed the advice, there are more up to date methods that… Continue Reading…

David Kretchmar, Computer Technician, Sun City Summerlin Computer Club Sooner or later this happens to all of us. You continuously receive unwanted emails, (spam) from an individual or organization. Legitimate organizations usually have an Unsubscribe button within their message, which… Continue Reading…

Dave Williams This is the second part of a series of articles on Dave Williams’ experience of building a CNC (computerised numerical control) router, which is an automated cutting machine that can be used on materials such as wood, composites,… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Welcome to the June 2021 edition of PC Update. As Melbourne has once again found itself in Covid lockdown, there is not a lot to report this month from a club perspective. The Monthly Meeting transitioned back to… Continue Reading…

David Tuffley, Griffith University Australian and US law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced they’d sprung a trap three years in the making, catching major international crime figures using an encrypted app. More than 200 underworld figures in Australia have been… Continue Reading…

Steve Costello The Two Types Of Cloud Data Threats And How You Protect Yourself https://askleo.com/two-cloud-data-threats/ Leo Notenboom explains the two types of threats for having your data in the cloud and suggestions for protecting yourself from them. (Note: I have… Continue Reading…

The June 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 2nd June 2021, with almost 100 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guest Speakers: Dr Kirsten Ellis, Nathan Sherburn Panel discussion “Learning in Lockdown”… Continue Reading…

Katharine Kemp, UNSW Five antitrust laws proposed in the United States aim to aggressively rein in the market power of “big tech” companies and change the way they do business. The set of bills, introduced on June 11, targets the… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons In Memory of Judy Bednar We had a terrible shock when we heard that a long-time member, Judy Bednar, had been murdered in her home and her son subsequently arrested. She was well known to many members through… Continue Reading…

Dan Douglas, President, Space Coast PC Users Group Two types of files are required to be backed up. There are your personal files, normally stored in the following folders under your login account in Windows: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Music,… Continue Reading…

Tim McQueen This is how they tell me the world ends – the cyber weapons arms race Nicole Perlroth Bloomsbury 491 pages   On 10 May 2021 The Age carried a story ‘DarkSide, ransom group linked to Colonial Pipeline hack,… Continue Reading…

Dave Williams This is the first part of a series of articles on Dave Williams’ experience of building a CNC (computerised numerical control) router, which is an automated cutting machine that can be used on materials such as wood, composites,… Continue Reading…

Phil Sorrentino, Sarasota Technology Users Group Most modern computers have HDMI outputs so it is easy to display your computer screen on a big-screen TV, but what about displaying your smartphone screen on that same big screen? Most phones do… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the April meeting again presented via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting commenced with George Skarbek presenting Q&A. Q: I have a problem with printing. I’ve done all the maintenance tasks on the printer… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Hello and welcome to another edition of PC Update. This month the highlights include: Dave Williams with the first part of his series on building his own CNC Router Dan Douglas with tips on backing up your Windows… Continue Reading…

Steve Costello What Is Archive In Gmail And How To Archive And Unarchive Emails https://www.guidingtech.com/what-is-archive-in-gmail-how-to-archive-unarchive-emails/ Do you know what archiving in Gmail is? If so, do you know why and how to use it? The answers to these questions are… Continue Reading…

The May 2021 Monthly Meeting was held in person and online on Wednesday 5th May 2021, with over 20 members in attendance at Moorabbin and over 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guest… Continue Reading…

David Stonier-Gibson Successful Covid-be-gone party Sunday 18th April I think I can confidently declare the Party at Moorabbin on Sunday 18th April a success. We all had fun with frivolous games, pizza, and a lot of socialising. Email Transition The… Continue Reading…

Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University Apple recently launched the latest version of its operating system, iOS 14.5, which features the much-anticipated app tracking transparency function, bolstering the tech giant’s privacy credentials. But iOS 14.5 also introduced support for the new… Continue Reading…

Cassandra Steer, Australian National University Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest bidder. Blue Origin and its two greatest competitors in the “space tourism” field, SpaceX… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Coronavirus Discussion & Comments   The use of QR codes for “checking in” to many businesses and venues for COVID tracking purposes, including Melb PC for those physically attending our premises for meetings, raised some discussion around the… Continue Reading…

Frank O’Loughlin Last Monday I participated in an online course on Gimp photo editor. I haven’t been game to try this previously as my memory is quite poor and I find it hard to remember much from courses. My motivation… Continue Reading…

Jeff Wilkinson, President, Sun City Summerlin Computer Club I have become more interested in Chromebooks as an alternative for our club members who need to replace an outdated desktop or laptop computer. Many, if not most, of these users don’t… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Dave Botherway opened the March meeting again presented via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting commenced with George Skarbek presenting Q&A. With no questions forthcoming, George proceeded to give the first presentation of the night. The presentation,… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Pleasingly, life is beginning to return to normal at Melbourne PC User Group. Everytime I walk into the club these days (usually on the weekends) it is a hub of activity, often with members of the Microcontroller Workshop… Continue Reading…

Kurt Jefferson, Editor, Central Kentucky Computer Society I keep telling students in my CKCS classes that they need to start using a password manager. You should be using a password manager on your iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows PC, and Linux… Continue Reading…

Steve Costello Proxy Vs. VPN: When To Use A Proxy Server And When To Use A VPN? https://www.digitalcitizen.life/when-use-proxy-and-when-use-vpn/ Have you heard about Proxies and VPNs. Do you know the differences, or when you should use which and why? Check out… Continue Reading…

The March 2021 Monthly Meeting was held in person and online on Wednesday 3rd March 2021, with over 40 members in attendance at Moorabbin and over 70 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for the evening: Guest… Continue Reading…

Ritesh Chugh, CQUniversity Australia If you’ve ever gotten your phone wet in the rain, dropped it in water or spilt liquid over it, you’re not alone. One study suggests 25% of smartphone users have damaged their smartphone with water or… Continue Reading…

Ben Egliston, Queensland University of Technology and Marcus Carter, University of Sydney Microsoft has reportedly been awarded a ten year contract worth close to US$22 billion, to provide 120,000 military-grade augmented reality (AR) headsets to the US Army. Popularised through… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Windows 10 Merv, our loud and proud purple dinosaur (if you see his Yammer profile pic you’ll understand), has been on a rather steep learning curve with using a new Nokia C3 Android phone as a 4G hotspot… Continue Reading…

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to Chit Chat and vote each week. Thanks to those of our members who occasionally… Continue Reading…

Neil Muller Host Frank Maher opened the first East SIG’s meeting for 2021 again hosted via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting then commenced with George Skarbek presenting Q&A. The first question of the night related to connecting to the… Continue Reading…

Hugh Macdonald Hello and welcome to the March edition of PC Update. Our magazine this month covers a range of topics: A discussion of various types of ads that annoy us as we’re using our devices, a look at the… Continue Reading…

Steve Costello, SEFCUG Gmail’s New Quick Settings https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/04/gmails-new-quick-settings/ https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/05/gmail-quick-settings-part-2/ https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/06/gmail-quick-settings-part-3/ If you use Gmail, you should know how to use its quick settings feature. Cyn Mackley explains the quick settings in the three blog posts above.   Mind The Metadata… Continue Reading…

Expert tuition and assistance needed in using software to improve vinyl records and cassettes. I have a basic knowledge of Adobe Audition 1 and hope to use Izotope RX 8, X Click, and Samplitude – some of them anyway. I… Continue Reading…

The March 2021 Monthly Meeting was held in person and online on Wednesday 3rd March 2021, with over 75 members in attendance. This was the program for the evening: Guest Speaker:  Colin Pudsey Topic: Virtual Reality for Seniors Colin Pudsey… Continue Reading…

Roger Patulny, University of Wollongong A recent nationally representative survey has shown Australians are willing and able to pull the plug on social media. But it turns out the generation you were born in, as well as your level of… Continue Reading…

Carsten Rudolph, Monash University On March 2, 2021, Microsoft published information about four critical vulnerabilities in its widely used Exchange email server software that are being actively exploited. It also released security updates for all versions of Exchange back to… Continue Reading…

Jim Cerny, Help Desk Host, The Saratoga Users Group You’re going along just fine, enjoying a fun game on your device, you don’t know how it happened or maybe you touched the screen just a teeny bit out of place,… Continue Reading…

Jim Quinn, Vice President, Under the Computer Hood User Group In 2008 we (my wife & I) decided to do the 5-year plan to retire in 2012. We calculated our retirement income and expenses (including taxes) to make sure we… Continue Reading…

Dennis Parsons Computer Help Occasionally members raise the issue of readability of the Yammer posts, no not the quality of the content, but the combination of the dark grey text colour on light grey background. For most of us (presuming… Continue Reading…