Yammer Highlights November 2020 - Melbourne PC User Group

Dennis Parsons

Windows 10

Time for a rant! Why oh why do manufacturers sell Win10 devices that only come with a 32GB eMMC drive that’s soldered to the board & has no way of increasing storage?

And why does MS make it impossible to update Windows unless you have 6GB free & make it nigh on impossible to clear enough space? Indicates many GB of temporary files yet only a few MB are actually removable by any means provided by Windows.

I had to uninstall almost every installed program & remove my daughter’s profile to free up barely enough space. User friendly Windows is NOT. And don’t get me started on the people who buy them without consulting their knowledgeable other half…….

Then it got worse. The update failed & I ended up having to wipe the current installation, reinstall Windows & reinstate the user profiles.

So for heaven’s sake, don’t buy a laptop with only 32GB of storage or you’ll suffer the consequences.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=934176666124288>

NBN Questions and Comments

Ah, the joys of the monstrosity that is our beloved MTM (Multi Technology Mix) NBN. Members of a SIG group were testing their connections prior to using Zoom for a group video call with one of them reporting 7Mbps down & three figure ping times, which even on the slowest 12Mbps is appalling.

Turns out the connection in question did indeed use FTTN, which is susceptible to problems induced by excessive distance from the node, poor condition of the copper phone line between the node to the home & problems with the phone wiring internal to the home. Leaving the legacy internal wiring connected can cause interference with the FTTN signal resulting in degradation in connection quality – slow speed & long ping times. We don’t know if that was the actual cause here but it’s a distinct possibility.

The mixed technology makes it difficult to troubleshoot remotely as many users just know they have NBN but aren’t aware of the type. Fortunately knowing the street address allows you look that up on the NBNCo website.

Our resident licensed cabler also gave us a pro tip – with phone line splitters becoming increasingly hard to source you can utilise an old dual ADSL filter as a phone line splitter if you wish to run two physical phone extensions from your NBN router.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=926366349238272>

Computer Help

Fancy yourself as a keyboard warrior/wizard? Bruce found an article that might prove useful for those who mouse with their left hand (yes, some of us actually do!) – keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy & paste using keys on the right hand side of the keyboard:

Cut: Shift+Delete
Copy: Ctrl+Insert
Paste: Shift+Insert

Just be aware that the “cut” combination is also used in file managers (such as Windows Explorer) to irrevocably delete files, so use with caution.

The conversation then moved on to the various types of pointing devices people use – mouse, touchpad or trackpoint (to use the polite name for the doodad in the middle some business laptop keyboards). Some favoured the mouse & couldn’t stand a touchpad, others preferred the touchpad & most couldn’t stand the trackpoint.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=955152722681856>

Out of curiosity I’m running a poll to find out which pointing device people prefer to use, so feel free to join in the fun. Results published next month.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=968978150252544>