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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 01 - 06 APRIL, 2024
Hello and Welcome,
Main Meeting News Details for Tuesday, 2nd April.
Dear Members,
Our Main Meeting is on Tuesday, April 2nd. Alex has been in Bangkok with Lenovo so we may have some exciting things to discuss.
The Zoom details are
SPCTUG Zoom Main Meeting
Time: Apr 2, 2024, 18:00 Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84608773479
Meeting ID: 846 0877 3479
Passcode: SydPCMain
Nominations for our AGM
Our AGM has been delayed in part due to my becoming ill in late January and early February with Bronchitis and again in the first weeks of March with a haemorrhage in my eye. I apologize for the delay.
At least one committee member cannot continue this year; our Constitution requires four office bearers and one ordinary member.
The club is in an excellent financial position, so we can continue to hold face-to-face meetings for at least the next two years. However, if we can't raise a committee, we will close, as did the Hurstville Group last year. That would mean we must gift around $12,000 to another computer group.
All our committee meetings are held via Zoom, so Committee Members are not too inconvenienced. We must only hold three in a year unless we have a problem.
Please consider joining the Committee. It is not a great burden. If we have a Committee, we can continue to spend our money for our own use. We have great meetings with interesting information and great fellowship; let us continue our great club.
Steve South,
President SPCTUG
Meeting This Week
2024/04/02 — 18:00-20:00 — April, Tue — Main Meeting
Meeting Next Week
2024/04/09 — 18:00-20:00 — April, Tue — Programming
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 next scheduled meetings are in May, July and September 2024.
ASCCA News:Tech News:
Google To Weed Out Low-Quality Sites
See the Info Packets article by John Lister on March 15, 2024, at 02:03 pm EDT.
Google says its next search algorithm update will dramatically reduce the low-quality results people see. It's mainly targeting sites that prioritize getting high search rankings over providing helpful content for readers.
The company says tests of the new algorithm showed that, when combined with a similar update in 2022, it reduced "low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%." Of course, that measurement involves a subjective measure of what content qualifies as low-quality. (Source: gizmodo.com))
Quality Over Quantity
According to Google, the algorithm update tackles three ways in which website creators attempting to get high search rankings work against readers' interests. The first is what it calls "scaled content abuse." That's any form of automation that creates low-quality content "at scale."
Google now says it will pay less attention to whether it thinks humans or computers (including AI tools) created the content and more on the results. It says it's targeting sites with a large number of pages that offer little to no value, such as "pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content." (Source: blog.google)
Reputations At Stake
The second tactic under fire is what Google calls "Site reputation abuse." That's where respected and credible websites host a section with low-quality content from third parties. This tactic aims to take advantage of the weight that Google's algorithm gives to a website's reputation. This can be based on the organization that runs the site and how many other reputable sites link to it.
Google says it will start downgrading such content, overriding the fact it's hosted on a site with a strong reputation. Sites have until May 5th, 2024, to change or remove such content before facing the consequences.
Finally, the update will tackle "expired domain abuse." This is when people buy a domain name that used to belong to a reputable, high-profile website and use it to publish low-quality content. They hope to get unfair credit for the site's past reputation — something Google says will no longer work.
What's Your Opinion?
Are these sensible changes? Will they make much difference? What factors would you like to determine search results?
Comments — If you own a website — Submitted by Dennis Faas on Fri, 15/03/2024 — 14:35
If you are a webmaster, this "quality" update may unfairly target your site, speaking from experience. I guarantee there will be sites that will be unfairly punished and have the majority, if not all of their traffic taken away as a result of this update. This is the sad reality of how Google enforces its infallible "one size fits all" approach whenever they release these types of updates.
We could soon see an end to OLED burn-in — here's why
See the TechRadar article by Roland Moore-Colyer | published on 20 March 2024.
A blue OLED breakthrough could be the future for OLED TVs
If you happen to have one of our picks for the best OLED TV, then burn-in might be a nagging concern that sits at the back of your TV-appreciating mind; but there could soon be a panacea to this problem.
That's because the University of Cambridge (via research published in Nature) have designed ultra narrowband blue emitters that avoid the undesirable energy transfer current blue OLEDs output that can lead to burn-in.
In simple terms, blue OLEDs, which are critical components of RGB displays, are problematic for the longevity of OLED TVs due to their construction and being the least stable of subpixels. Energy transfer from a sensitizer component to an emitter module can affect the efficiency and stability of a blue OLED, both of which can lead to the OLED ageing and the panel falling foul to burn-in.
However, by making use of diodes that emit a blue light along the narrowband spectrum, with an emissive core insulated with alkylene straps, blue OLEDs can be produced that can suppress undesirable energy transfer leading to better efficiency and stability. And using this technique the need for a sensitizer component with a high energy gap matrix (used to curtail energy transfer from the sensitizer to the emitter module) can be bypassed.
In short, this could lead to OLED panels that have a longer lifespan, are more resistant to burn-in and require less complex fabrication. And removing unwanted energy transfer could make for OLED displays that consume less energy leading to TV, phones and tablets with screens that are more energy efficient.
Of course, these new blue OLEDs are at the research phase and would need to be incorporated into future OLED panel manufacturing. But there's a lot of potential here to bring burn-in-resistant OLED TVs with a long lifespan to the market.
For what it's worth, I use both an LG C1 OLED TV and the Alienware AW3423DWF monitor with a QD-OLED panel, both of which haven't shown any signs of burn-in. But these have smart features to help with pixel refreshing and burn-in, whereas less advanced displays might not be as robust.
Apple M-Series CPUs Affected by "GoFetch" Unpatchable Cryptographic Vulnerability
See the TechPowerup article by AleksandarK Saturday, March 23rd 2024, at 04:40 am.
Apple's M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max Chips
A team of academic researchers has uncovered a critical vulnerability in Apple M-series CPUs targeting data memory-dependent prefetcher (DMP) that could allow attackers to extract secret encryption keys from Macs. The flaw, called GoFetch, is based on the microarchitecture design of Apple Silicon, which means that it cannot be directly patched and poses a significant risk to users' data security. The vulnerability affects all Apple devices powered by M-series chips, including the popular M1 and M2 generations. The M3 generation can turn a particular bit off to disable DMP, potentially hindering performance. The DMP, designed to optimize performance by preemptively loading data that appears to be a pointer, violates a fundamental requirement of constant-time programming by mixing data and memory access patterns. This creates an exploitable side channel that attackers can leverage to extract secret keys.
To execute the GoFetch attack, attackers craft specific inputs for cryptographic operations, ensuring that pointer-like values only appear when they have correctly guessed bits of the secret key. By monitoring the DMP's dereference behaviour through cache-timing analysis, attackers can verify their guesses and gradually unravel the secret key. The researchers demonstrated successful end-to-end key extraction attacks on popular constant-time implementations of classical and post-quantum cryptography, highlighting the need to thoroughly reevaluate the constant-time programming paradigm in light of this new vulnerability.
As the flaw is hardware-based, Apple cannot directly patch the vulnerability. Instead, third-party cryptographic software developers are responsible for building defences into their applications. However, these mitigations could come at a cost, potentially degrading the performance of M-series chips when executing cryptographic operations, particularly on earlier generations. In light of this discovery, Mac users are advised to exercise caution when running untrusted applications and to keep their systems updated with the latest security patches. While this vulnerability poses a significant concern, it is essential to note that exploiting the flaw requires the attacker to have access to the targeted system.
Fun Facts:
Choice Magazine Car Insurance Comparison
See the Choice Magazine article, last updated: 22 February 2024.
Car Insurance
Compare more than 40 comprehensive car insurance policies to find the best coverage for your ride. Select cover that includes your choice of repairer, rental car after an accident, or no excess cover for windscreen replacements from the biggest brands on the market — Allianz, NRMA, RACV, Coles, GIO, Youi and more.
Compare all, displaying all 45 products.
Club Member John Lucke mentioned this link after receiving a car insurance renewal bill of over $1,600.
He checked out the Choice Magazine article and found a company that brought the amount down to the region of $900.
The companies listed include:
01 AAMI Comprehensive Car
02 AHM Comprehensive Car
03 Allianz Comprehensive Car
04 ANZ Comprehensive Car
05 Australia Post Comprehensive Car
06 Bank of Melbourne Comprehensive Car
07 BankSA Comprehensive Car
08 Bankwest Comprehensive Car
09 Bingle Comprehensive Car
10 Budget Direct Comprehensive Car
11 Budget Direct Comprehensive Low KM
12 Budget Direct Gold Car Insurance
13 Budget Direct Gold Low KM
14 CBA Comprehensive Car
15 CGU Comprehensive Car
16 Coles Comprehensive Car
17 GIO Comprehensive Car
18 GIO Comprehensive Platinum Car
19 Huddle Comprehensive Car
20 Hume Bank Comprehensive Car
21 ING Car Insurance
22 Kogan Comprehensive Car
23 NAB Motor Insurance
24 NRMA Comprehensive Car
25 NRMA (NT, SA, WA) Comprehensive Basics Car
26 Peoples Choice Credit Union Comprehensive Car
27 QBE Comprehensive Car
28 RAA Comprehensive Standard Car
29 RAC Comprehensive Car
30 RACQ Comprehensive Car
31 RACT Comprehensive Car
32 RACV Comprehensive Car
33 Real Comprehensive Car
34 ROLLiN' Comprehensive Car
35 St.George Comprehensive Car
36 Stella Comprehensive Car
37 Suncorp Comprehensive Advantages Car
38 Suncorp Comprehensive Car
39 Suncorp Comprehensive Extra Car
40 TIO Motor Insurance
41 Virgin Money Price Promise Car
42 Virgin Money Price Saver Car
43 Westpac Comprehensive Car
44 Woolworths Comprehensive Car
45 Youi Comprehensive Car
John adds:
Be mindful that when you buy insurance coverage, whether for home, hospital, travel, car, or any other purpose, you usually deal with the re-selling agents of large national and multinational insurance companies. It pays to shop around.
If you use the Choice Magazine's car insurance site at https://www.choice.com.au/compareproducts/money/insurance/car/car-insurance, these tips may help:
1 You will be presented with a complete list of insurers. Use left and right arrows to navigate.
2 Under "Cost, NSW price comparison," insurers are rated with "circled $", 1 is the best, and five is the worst. This will help you choose a short list of about five companies.
3 To get a quote (not a policy) click on the company's logo and fill out the standard form with the start date, vehicle information (including car registration plate number, does magic), driver's history, etc.
4 You can select to get an immediate reply or have it sent via email.
The procedure for obtaining a car insurance policy is as above, but you must follow through with your payment option.
Good luck finding a deal as great as John's — 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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