July 01

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 03 - 08 JULY 2023

Hello and Welcome,

Our July Main Meeting, 6 pm Tuesday the 4th of July

There will be no face-to-face meeting at the SMSA. Our July Main Meeting will be held online only. Alex will be sending the members a link to the Zoom meeting. Unfortunately, I will be away on the day.

Due to a lack of attendance at the SMSA, the committee has discussed our face-to-face Main Meeting and feels it would be better only to hold our Main Meetings online.

Before I cancel the remaining Main Meetings, I would like your opinion.

If you have one, reply to this e-mail.

I agree. Yes.

I will attend face-to-face.

However, I propose an end-of-year party on the 5th of December to meet and celebrate.

I hope you enjoy the meeting and I will see you next month.

— Steve South

Meeting TODAY

2023/07/01 — 13:00-14:00 — July, Sat — Penrith Group

Meeting This Week

2023/07/04 — 18:00-20:00 — July, Tue — Main Meeting

Meetings Next Week

2023/07/11 — 18:00-20:00 — April, Tue — Programming

2023/07/15 — 14:00-16:00 — April, Sat — Web Design

Schedule of Current & Upcoming Meetings

First Tuesday  18:00-20:00 — Main Meeting

First Saturday 13:00-14:00 — Penrith Group

Second Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Programming

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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Penrith meetings are held every 2nd month on the 1st Saturday from 1-2 pm.
The following meetings are in July, September and November 2023.

ASCCA News:Tech News:

Phone Batteries Must Be Replaceable

See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on June 19 2023, at 01:06 pm EDT.

Phone manufacturers may soon have to offer replaceable batteries in handsets. The rules have been approved by European politicians but could create enough hassle for manufacturers that they follow the measures worldwide.

The change, approved overwhelmingly by the European Parliament, is part of an overall package to reduce the environmental impact of batteries. Other measures include minimum requirements for the levels of recycled material in new batteries along with the amount of material that can be recovered when the batteries go to waste.

The precise wording has yet to be finalized, but the announcement of the vote referred to a requirement of "Designing portable batteries in appliances in such a way that consumers can themselves easily remove and replace them." (Source: europa.eu)

Move Follows Charging Port Changes

The vote was on a regulation meaning that once it's formally published, it automatically has legal effect in 27 countries. However, it's likely there will be a delayed deadline before the replaceable battery requirement takes effect in new devices.

Phone manufacturers will be left with three choices: abandon much of the European market; produce different handsets for Europe and elsewhere; or make batteries replaceable for all handsets. Apple already faces a similar choice over forthcoming European rules that require a USB charging port rather than just Apple's proprietary Lightning charge format. (Source: techspot.com)

Vehicle Batteries Also in Spotlight

The topic of battery replacement has proven controversial, with manufacturers arguing that they don't want the risk of people putting low quality third-party batteries in phones and creating a safety risk. Critics believe manufacturers are more interested in making money by requiring users to pay for an expensive replacement service or even buying a new handset when battery life starts degrading.

Being able to hold on to phones for longer could extend the environmental benefits of the new rules as it could reduce demand for all materials in handsets, not just the battery.

The new European measures also have special requirements for high-capacity batteries such as those used in electric vehicles including bikes and scooters. They'll need to come with details of their carbon footprint plus a "digital passport" that tracks how they were manufactured.

Read More »

Canada passes online content law, Meta says no more publishing of news

See the iTWire article by Sam Varghese | Friday, 23 June 2023, at 09:42 am.

The Canadian parliament has approved a law that will force digital platforms such as Facebook and Google to pay publishers for the news they use.

A Reuters report said the Online News Act was approved by the Senate, the upper chamber of the parliament, on Thursday and was expected to be approved shortly.

In response, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said: "Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect."

Google spokesperson Jenn Crider told iTWire in response to a query: "We're doing everything we can to avoid an outcome that no-one wants."

"Every step of the way, we've proposed thoughtful and pragmatic solutions that would have improved the Bill and cleared the path for us to increase our already significant investments in the Canadian news ecosystem."

"So far, none of our concerns have been addressed. Bill C-18 is about to become law and remains unworkable. We are continuing to urgently seek to work with the government on a path forward."

"The law forces digital platforms to negotiate with publishers and work out deals to pay them for their content. It is similar to the law that was passed in Australia in 2021."

In February, Google indicated that it was testing blocking news to some users ahead of the legislation being voted on.

And last October, Meta threatened to block the sharing of news feeds in Canada — similar to what it did in Australia — if Canada went ahead with putting the law in place.

When the Australian Government tried to push through its News Media Bargaining Code in 2021, digital platforms, chiefly Facebook and Google, lined up in opposition.

The code was derived from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Digital Platforms Inquiry report which was handed to the government in June 2019.

Negotiations between digital platforms and news organisations went on for a while, with the provisions for the code being passed into law in February 2021.

But there was plenty of resistance from the digital platforms and though Google took a more low-key stance, Facebook upped the ante and blocked the ingress of news content into Australia.

The government hurried to placate Facebook and made numerous changes to the legislation after which the social media company reversed its block on content.

Read More »

Satellite internet is coming after an Arctic fibre cut unplugs part of Alaska

See The Verge article by Emma Roth | Jun 24, 2023, at 3:00 am GMT+10.

The region could be without internet for six to eight weeks.

Satellite internet competitors OneWeb and SpaceX are in the running to reconnect Alaskans after ice damaged a sub-sea fibre-optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, as reported by numerous local outlets. While repairs are expected to take an additional six to eight weeks, satellites could help locals weather the widespread outage.

Last week, residents in the rural towns of Utqiaġvik, Point Hope, Wainwright, Kotzebue, Nome, and other communities found themselves without internet or cellular connectivity when the 1,200-mile fibre cable owned by the Alaska-based broadband company Quintillion suffered a break. Quintillion says the cable broke as "a result of an ice scouring event."

"Our sub-sea system is currently out of service," Quintillion states. "Our dedicated team of experts is actively engaged in diagnosing and resolving the issue. They are coordinating with our partners and undersea cable maintenance teams to restore the services as soon as possible."

While Quintillion completed laying its fibre-optic network in Alaska in 2017, the company initially had more extensive plans of creating a trans-Arctic data cable that would improve global connectivity — but it never panned out. Elizabeth Pierce, Quintillion's former CEO and the person picked by former FCC chair Ajit Pai to run the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), was charged with wire fraud in 2018 after faking signatures and contracts to convince investors to put millions behind the lofty goal. She pled guilty and received a five-year prison sentence in 2019. The company has since been acquired by the investment firm Grain Management.

The outage has caused regional disruptions, hampering 911 calls, closing businesses, and even impacting credit card transactions. While Quintillion says it's working on getting a repair vessel to the area, it could arrive as early as August, depending on weather and ice conditions. In the meantime, Quintillion is looking to satellite connectivity to hold residents over.

The company's June 21st update says it has ordered user terminals capable of 500 Mbps connections from OneWeb, a low Earth orbit satellite internet company. Neither Quintillion nor OneWeb immediately responded to The Verge's request for more details on how the terminals will help reconnect service for locals. Starlink also says it's "coordinating with the State of Alaska, various local governments & Native communities to help provide connectivity where it's needed most."

With rural areas across the US still struggling to get a reliable internet connection and war-torn countries like Ukraine suffering from service disruptions, satellites have become an increasingly popular solution to poor connectivity. OneWeb, which currently has about 600 satellites in orbit, competes with giants like SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper. Last year, the company merged with Eutelsat to bring satellite connectivity across Europe and later completed its initial constellation after launching its previous group of satellites over India in March.

Read More »

Fun Facts:

Paid Online by Credit Card? Can You Trust All the Green Ticks? Definitely NOT.

When paying online at a website, you enter your credit/debit card details:

— The 16-digit card number,
— The two-digit expiry month and year, and
— The CVV from the back of the card.

Each number you enter results in a little green circle with a tick inside.

How is the site verifying all this so quickly?

They know whether your card is a Mastercard or a Visa card.

From Lloyds Bank:

The first digit indicates the provider:

Mastercard numbers start with a 2 or 5.

Visa card numbers start with a 4.

American Express numbers start with a 3.

The first six digits help to identify the card issuer, known as an Issue Identifier Number or 'IIN'.

But after that, they have NO IDEA whether your card is genuine.

All they can verify is that each field has the RIGHT NUMBER OF DIGITS.

I was sitting in my Computer Room, using the ceiling lights, and made a mistake with the expiry date. I thought it was 03/25, but it was 08/25."

Well, the shiny punched digits were confusing in standard lighting.

I should have used the desk lamp to be sure.

But I was still getting the little green circles with the ticks!

Of course, the transaction didn't go through, thankfully.

With the correct expiry date, it worked.

The Moral? ALWAYS use your desk lamp for reading those shiny credit/debit card numbers.

— Ed.

How to Copy & Paste Large Blocks of Text : Computer Basics

See the (1m16s) YouTube video by Expert: Brian Santucci.

Copying and pasting large blocks of text will require you first to select that text with your mouse. Copy and paste large blocks of text with help from a web and graphics specialist in this free video clip.

Begin with your long text on a webpage or in an editor like Word or Notepad. Start with the mouse pointer where you'd like the selection to begin; select just a few characters; press and hold the shift key, navigate to the end of the passage (scroll down if necessary) and finish the selection.

Take your finger off the shift key, then right-click in the selected area to choose the text.

Now you can go to your second task and right-click to paste the large selection.

Wasn't that easy?

It beats copying and pasting one page at a time.

This is how I produced the long, sorted list of Sway Newsletter topics.

Now you can search easily for any past Sway articles.

— Ed.

Meeting Location & Disclaimer

Bob Backstrom
~ Newsletter Editor ~

Information for Members and Visitors:

Link to — Sydney PC & Technology User Group
All Meetings, unless explicitly stated above, are held on the
1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.
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