Yammer Highlights February 2021

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 the lack of complaints reflects acceptability) Yammer and similar pages look perfectly fine and aren’t difficult to read, but for a few the text appears faint and hard to read. 

Unfortunately there’s no simple solution as I suspect the problem is a combination of monitor settings, monitor and user eyeballs. Without actually sitting side by side with the individuals having the problems and trading seats by directly comparing their screens with one that another person finds easily readable I don’t think we’ll be able to progress the situation.

I did create a configuration file for the Stylish add-on that displays Yammer message text in bold and black which helps with legibility.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/threads/inGroup?type=in_group&feedId=4798907&view=all>

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=183401267437568>

NBN Questions and Comments

Not all issues with Internet speed can be laid at the feet of NBNCo. You also need to consider the networking technologies used in your home as anything other than Ethernet cabling introduces the possibility of interference or limitations that may reduce the speeds achieved and the reliability of the connection.

If you’re wanting to test your connection speed it’s best to use a network cable to connect your computer directly to the router. WiFi can suffer from range issues such as distance from the router and attenuation by walls reducing signal strength, and interference from neighbouring WiFi or other electrical devices. Ethernet over power line or EoP (adaptors you plug into power points that provide networking over your electrical cabling) suffer from electrical interference.

On a 50/20 connection Bill was only getting 35/9 on one system through one EoP adaptor and 20/5 on another system after going through a second EoP adaptor. After a visit from Kevin, our resident cabler, who ran Cat6 cable to replace the EoP connections Bill was getting 50+Mbps down and 18+Mbps up and rather happy with the new situation.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1095110760169472>

Market Place

The question was asked on behalf of the proverbial friend about where to source a couple of monitors from – the usual suspects ranging from eBay to OzStock to Hardly Normal were suggested, and then Sean came along with one that surprised most of us, namely ye olde Sunday Computer Swapmeet for recycled computer gear. Many of us had thought they’d gone the way of the dodo and were no longer running but they’re still alive and kicking, albeit no longer in places such as Box Hill, Camberwell or Malvern. Might just have to cart the kids along for the memories and explain what a floppy disc is at the same time.  

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1046745279594496>

Security, Scams and Phishing

Cedric relayed the sad tale of a friend who unfortunately doesn’t understand modern technology or how scammers work and was scammed out of over $2,000 by a cold caller from “Telstra”. Not only was he scammed but he gave them full ID details, bank account details and remote access to his computer leaving him wide open to identity theft and further financial damage.

It’s sad that people are still getting caught by these scammers but it’s clearly all too easy because enough are falling victim to make it worthwhile.

Changing his e-mail password and activating 2FA if possible was suggested to prevent further access by the scammers along with formatting and reinstalling Windows from scratch via a USB drive to remove anything the scammers may have installed.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1073233684094976>

Malcolm mentioned that Telstra is actively blocking 6.5 million suspected scam calls per month which has got to be a good thing.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1085869902807040>