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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 22 - 27 JULY, 2024
Hello and Welcome,
Meeting TODAY
2024/07/20 — 14:00-16:00 — July, Sat — Web Design
Hi All,
I can't log in to Zoom, so I have cancelled today's meeting.
See below.
Steve South
-------- Forwarded Message --------
...
I'm sorry, but I must CANCEL this month's Web Design meeting.
I had to log out of the Sydney PC Zoom account to attend another meeting. Now, I cannot log back in as Zoom requires a passcode.
Unfortunately, I cannot access the email with the code, so I can not run the meeting on Zoom. I have contacted Alex, who set up the Zoom account, but we are still looking for a solution.
As most attendees are on Zoom, I will not attend the SMSA either.
My apologies for the inconvenience.
I hope to see you all next month.
Steve South
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86141133224
Meeting ID: 861 4113 3224
Passcode: WebDesign
Meetings This Week
NO MEETINGS
Meetings Next Week
NO MEETINGS
Schedule of Current & Upcoming Meetings
First Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Main Meeting
Third Tuesday 10:00-12:00 — Tuesday Group
Third Saturday 14:00-16:00 — Web Design
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Go to the official Sydney PC Calendar for this month's meeting details.
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ASCCA News:Tech News:
Meta AI Image Warnings Backfire
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on July 10, 2024, at 01:07 pm EDT.
Facebook and Instagram's attempts to prevent users from being misled by AI-generated photos have backfired. Several users report photographs they took being falsely labelled as made by AI tools.
Meta, which owns both sites and social discussion tool Threads, has started adding a "Made with AI" label to images. Sometimes, this is because users have ticked a box to say they used AI to make the image. In other cases, Meta's detection tools have flagged the image.
The site has felt pressure to indicate AI-generated images that could be designed to fool and mislead people. In particular, it has explored the potential for misleading images portraying events that didn't happen being used to influence voters or sow distrust during election campaigns.
Meta can't yet reliably detect an AI-generated image simply from its appearance, such as an unnatural look or unlikely content. Instead, it relies on metadata produced by various AI generation tools.
Adobe Cropping May Trigger Warning
Wrongly labelled images include an official photo of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team celebrating a win and a basketball shot taken by professional photographer Pete Souza.
Mr Souza believes the mistake is likely because he used Adobe software to crop the image and that this was wrongly detected as using an Adobe AI tool. (Source: theverge.com)
Kolkata Celebrates
Not a Binary Issue
Meta hasn't explicitly commented on these claims but told TechCrunch it was reviewing its policy. It said, "Our intent has always been to help people know when they see content made with AI. We are considering recent feedback and continue to evaluate our approach so that our labels reflect the amount of AI used in an image." (Source: techcrunch.com)
Part of Meta's confusion and problems seem to be distinguishing between three types of images: those where the content is entirely "real" and the only change is cropping or adjusting characteristics such as colour balance; those that started as genuine images but have used AI to remove content (such as strangers in the background of a group photo); and those that are not true photographs and instead were created from scratch by AI tools.
What's Your Opinion?
Should Meta label AI images at all? Do you believe it is possible to detect such photos accurately? Should the rules be limited to unavoidable circumstances, such as images involving public figures or election candidates?
Comments — Submitted by LouisianaJoe on Wed, 10/07/2024 — 15:29.
Frequently, if I post a photo on a site such as Facebook, I will at least crop it, and sometimes, I will use prototype elements to enhance or tweak the photo.
If you are on a Windows PC, use Windows Explorer to look at a photo's properties. You will see information including when it was made, When it was Modified, the Program used to modify it, the Camera used to take it, exposure, and ISO, and many other properties.
If you open the jpg in Paint, you can copy a part of the image, paste it to a new file, and save that. The new file no longer has all of the original properties.
Automakers Need to Stop With All the Touch Screens
See the How-To Geek article by Sydney Butler | Published July 14, 2024.
Touch Screens in Cars?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Touch screens have downsides, like requiring drivers to take their eyes off the road.
Physical controls are safer, simpler, and more reliable than touch screens.
Expect future cars to have a balance of touch screens and physical controls for safety and usability.
Giant touch screens give modern vehicles a real sci-fi vibe, but there's a reason old-fashioned knobs and controls have been the go-to choice for controlling your car's features for a century. Touch screens have their place, but automakers are going overboard.
Touch Screens Have Many Downsides
While a touch screen is acceptable on a phone or laptop, operating one while driving isn't the best idea. Because there's no tactile feedback, you have to look at the screen to make your selection. Any control system that requires a driver to take their eyes off the road is logically a safety issue.
I don't know if Tesla is officially the brand that started the trend of having almost all controls on a touch screen, but it's become more fashionable over the years. It makes more sense in a vehicle with advanced driving assists such as a Tesla. AutoPilot users have made a habit of looking at the big touch screen instead of what the car is doing in lots of videos you'll find online. Still, this will remain an issue until autonomous vehicles become a reality (if ever).
It's also an open question whether these screens need to be so large. I owned the KIA Sportage model just before the series got a massive touch screen in the 2023 model update, and honestly, I wonder if I could live with such a huge screen long-term. My car's small central touch screen (so I can use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay) feels like a much more sensible balance.
Physical Controls Are Safer for Drivers
While the primary safety benefit of physical controls in a car is that you can operate them without looking, that's not the only reason they are safer. For one thing, touch screens are more complex, more fragile, and more prone to failure than a physical switch or toggle. You can also develop muscle memory to control your car while putting zero cognitive load on yourself. The controls will always be in the same place and operate similarly.
Putting Everything on One Screen Is a Mistake
The main strength of a screen is that you don't have to be locked into a specific user interface layout or design. However, the last thing I would want is to hunt through several menus to operate the AC or have all my controls changed after an overnight update. Vehicle controls and readouts should be understandable at a glance, and finding controls should take a second or two with minimal attention.
At the very least, a touchscreen should offer redundancy for critical controls. So, while it's OK to access things like the AC or your car's warning messages on the touch screen, these should be duplicated with traditional controls or gauges where possible.
Some Lawmakers Are Taking Notice
While we haven't seen much movement against touch screens as a safety issue in the United States, Euro NCAP will require fewer touch screens in vehicles from 2026 onward to qualify for a 5-star rating. Car makers are encouraged to use physical controls for devices like wipers or turn signals. While these regulations won't directly affect regions outside of Europe, they will likely affect car design worldwide since it's hardly economical to design cars with fewer touch controls just for the European market.
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So, expect cars in the future to have both touch screens and ample physical controls so you can keep your eyes where they belong: on the road!
How to Fix: 2024-01 Security Update for Windows 10 Fails to Install
See the InfoPackets article by Dennis Faas on July 17, 2024, at 11:07 am EDT.
Infopackets Reader Jack L. writes:
"Dear Dennis,
For the last 4-5 months, "when I try to do a Windows 10 update to download and install '2024-01 Security Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64 based Systems' (KB5034441) the update downloads, but when it starts to install (before I restart the computer) it constantly gives the following error code (0x80070643). Are you able to remedy this problem?"
My response:
I asked Jack if he would like to use my remote desktop service, and he agreed.
Below, I will discuss my findings.
How to Fix: 2024-01 Security Update for Windows 10 Fails to Install
Unfortunately, many forum posts suggest that the security patch KB5034441 could not be installed by many people. The patch addresses a vulnerability in the Windows Recovery Environment that would allow attackers to bypass BitLocker encryption on the hard drive.
Jack did not have BitLocker encryption on any of his drives and technically didn't need the patch, but I was determined to make it happen because if you hire me to fix anything, I will do my damndest to make it happen.
After more research, the KB5034441 patch attempts to write information to a hidden Windows Recovery partition. In Jack's case, the partition was almost 1 gigabyte large, which seemed 'large enough' to make the patch work, but I needed to find out if it was, in fact, nearly out of space.
I needed to assign a drive letter to the recovery partition to check available space. To do so, I used the freeware program MiniTool Partition Wizard to assign a drive letter. The recovery partition was almost full.
Disk Management
[ Go to Disk Management and see the "Free Space" column — Ed. ]
After that, I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to reduce the size of the adjacent partition (in this case, the Windows C drive), and increase the size of the recovery partition, then applied the changes.
Next, I went to Windows Update and checked for new updates. That's when Windows attempted to apply the patch — and it worked this time. Mission accomplished!
I hope that helps.
Comments — BlockAPatch — Submitted by Stuart Berg on Wed, 17/07/2024 — 15:26.
I used BlockAPatch (https://blockapatch.com/). It is simple to use and essentially blocks any Windows patch you choose from showing. I recommend BlockAPatch for this problem to anyone who does NOT use Bitlocker.
NOT-FUN Facts:
Microsoft Major Outage July 2024
See the SyxSense article by SYXSENSE authors on July 15, 2024.
Microsoft Patch causes Blue Screen of Death
Microsoft Major Outage July 2024
Breaking news – updated
Multiple customer calls have reported global blue screen crashes on all devices since early this morning.
It appears to be the csagent.sys used by Crowdstrike.
Microsoft Major Outage July 2024 — Workaround Steps:
To resolve the issue, please follow the steps below:
1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.
2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.
3. Locate the file matching "C-00000291*.sys" and delete it.
4. Boot the host normally.
Implement these steps immediately to mitigate the impact on affected systems.
Crowdstrike has corrected the update causing the issue, so automated updates will work on systems that have not already been affected.
The manual steps above will still be necessary to fix impacted systems.
See the https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2024/07/19/huge-windows-blackout-hits-banks-airports-and-more/ Forbes.com writeup.
Do you need help keeping up with patches? Syxsense's automated patch management capabilities help enterprises patch faster and more accurately. Please schedule a consultation with us to learn how we can help you.
[ PS: My local Woolies had one of their Self-Checkout Screens showing the Windows Blue Screen of Death tonight — Ed. ]
Meeting Location & Disclaimer
Bob Backstrom
~ Newsletter Editor ~
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1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.
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