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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 07 - 12 OCTOBER, 2024
Hello and Welcome,
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME STARTS on Sunday, 6th Oct, 2024 (TOMORROW)
When does daylight saving start and end in NSW?
Daylight saving 2024 start date:
Date: Sunday 6 October 2024
Time: 2 am Eastern Standard Time (EST)
What happens?: Clocks are moved forward by 1 hour to 3 am, giving you more daylight in the evening.
Daylight saving 2025 end date:
Date: Sunday 6 April 2025
Time: 3 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
What happens?: Clocks are moved back 1 hour to 2 am, giving you more daylight in the morning.
Meetings This Week
NO MEETINGS
Meetings Next Week
2024/10/15 — 10:00-12:00 — October, Tue — Tuesday Group
2024/10/19 — 14:00-16:00 — October, Sat — Web Design
SPCTUG Zoom Web Design Meeting
Time: Saturday, 19th October, 2024, 14:00 Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86141133224
Meeting ID: 861 4113 3224
Passcode: WebDesign
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:
Infopackets to Launch YouTube Tech Support Pilot Program
See the InfoPackets article by Dennis Faas on September 27, 2024, at 04:09 pm EDT.
Dear Infopackets Readers,
I want to introduce the launch of an exciting, new video-based tech support Q&A pilot program on YouTube that would benefit our readership and expand our presence online.
Starting today, I am asking all those in need of technical support to email me with their tech-related questions.
Here's how the new pilot program will work:
Visit our contact page to submit your question.
Select whether you want a Priority (paid) service, or a Non-priority (free) service on the contact page.
Submit the form, and I will contact you by email or by phone to discuss and better understand your issue. Priority submissions will receive the quickest response.
If applicable, I will schedule an appointment and/or connect to your computer remotely to fix the problem. Both phone and video of the remote desktop support will be recorded during our interaction.
After our meeting, I may post our interaction online on YouTube so that others can benefit from the solution.
Subsequent posted YouTube videos will be highlighted through our email newsletter and posted online on the website.
Terms and Conditions
For priority service, a nominal $75.00 fee applies for first-time users with up to 1 hour of support. If you refer a friend, submit a BBB review, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and like a video, I will credit you 50% off our full rate for your next visit.
For Non-Priority Service, feel free to ask your question. I will choose 1-3 lucky people per week to receive free technical support by yours truly for up to 1 hour (includes a phone call with remote desktop support — similar to priority service) for our YouTube channel pilot program. For highly technical or time-intensive non-priority issues, you may be referred to our Priority Service instead.
During our interaction, you can ask me whatever question you want. I will use my technical know-how to explain, demonstrate, and implement a solution. After our interaction, I will edit the video and then upload it to YouTube to share the knowledge with others and expand our reach online. Note that if I encounter anything sensitive during our interaction, I will edit it out of the video before posting it on YouTube, per our privacy policy.
Feel free to comment below.
Sincerely,
Dennis Faas
CEO, Owner, Infopackets.com
We are BBB A+ Accredited, Established 2001
Comments
tech support program — Submitted by ronangel1 on Fri, 27/09/2024 — 20:10.
You will have a lot of fun and wasted time with the free part of this program.
Tech users asking questions about their computer's coffee cup holder that keeps spilling coffee.
The foot switch does not work on carpeted floors, plus there are many other variables that you have not even heard of! And the even better questions that you are not sure are serious or not. Please publish them here anonymously to avoid embarrassment.
Good luck
Ron
Firefox Is Still Getting Updates on Windows 7 and 8
See the How-To Geek article by Corbin Davenport | Published Sept 27, 2024
Firefox
Mozilla confirmed it will continue supporting Firefox ESR 115 for an additional six months. That gives PCs still running Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and older versions of macOS a secure web browser until early 2025 at the earliest.
Mozilla released Firefox 115 in July 2023 as the final planned update for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. It was also the last Firefox update for Macs running macOS 10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra, and 10.14 Mojave. When Firefox 116 was released in August 2023, those older platforms were migrated to the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) channel, which receives regular security updates but less frequent feature updates. Firefox ESR is mainly intended for environments that need the most stable experience, and it can be supported on older platforms for longer than mainline Firefox since Mozilla only has to backport security fixes.
Firefox ESR was updated to version 128 this month, following the release of Firefox 128 in the stable channel in July. That version requires Windows 10 or later and newer versions of macOS, but Mozilla has also extended support for Firefox ESR 115 for an additional six months. Devices running newer operating systems have been updated to ESR 128 and the regular stable version of Firefox can also be used.
Mozilla said in a mailing list, "After reviewing that usage data, it was decided that we will continue to support the ESR 115 branch only for those previously-mentioned platforms for another six months. Users on newer platforms will still be migrated to the ESR 128 branch next month as originally planned. In early 2025, we will review the current usage data again and decide whether further extension is warranted. […] We recognise that ESR 115 is an increasingly difficult target for patch backports and, as such, will be limiting the scope of approvals to only critical security and quality fixes."
Firefox is the last mainstream web browser to support Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge both dropped support for those operating systems in January 2023, and most other web browsers followed shortly afterwards — many of them use the same underlying Chromium codebase. Those old macOS versions also don't have another supported web browser, as the last Safari update for macOS 10.14 Mojave was in 2021. Chrome and Edge require macOS Big Sur 11 or newer.
It's great to see Mozilla continuing to offer a reasonably secure web browser for people who are stuck using old computers. You can download Firefox ESR from Mozilla's website.
Source: Firefox Nightly News, Firefox Dev List
This Is The Best Way to Read Digital Comics, Manga, and Magazines
See the How-To Geek article by Bertel King | Published September 28, 2024.
Manga
Let's face it: phones are too small for digital comics and magazines. Tablets are great, but they're much less portable. Turns out, there's a perfect form factor that sits in between.
The Problem With Most Phones and Tablets
When it comes to digital comics and magazines, hardware matters. This is different from ebooks, which can scale up or down to whatever screen you want without changing the size of the text (one of the reasons I love reading ebooks on my phone). Viewing comics on a tiny screen means shrinking the page until you're holding your phone an inch from your face. Or you keep the zoom at an average level but spend more time panning left and right than actually turning pages.
It's not enough to get something with a bigger screen. A 10-inch tablet will be large enough to fit the entire page, and comfortable for your eyes, but it probably won't be pleasant to hold for extended periods. Most tablets are designed to be held in landscape orientation so that you can enjoy video. When rotated into portrait, they're awkwardly tall.
Even when weight distribution isn't a problem, tablets are still large devices. You must keep them in a bag or backpack rather than your pocket. Sure, this is comparable to carrying around a physical graphic novel, so I'm saying it's OK. I know reading manga on a tablet or eReader is fine; it's not something I tend to stick with.
Get a Foldable Instead
I didn't buy my Galaxy Z Fold 5 specifically for comics — I bought this phone to replace my PC. I discovered just how well-suited it is for the task after the fact. A book-style foldable phone is similar in size to a book. You can also compare it to an e-reader like a Kindle, Nook, or Kobo Libra. Holding a foldable is akin to having a manga. The interior screen is slightly smaller than the average graphic novel but still large enough to read dialogue without zooming in or panning around.
Book-style foldable can give anyone sticker shock. But here's the thing: foldables aren't as expensive as you think. They tend to hold their value slowly and drop in price quickly on the second-hand market. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 costs $1900 MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price), but it's already going for around $1100 open box or refurbished on sites like eBay. I bought my unused 512GB Z Fold 5 for under a grand, less than the cost of a new iPhone 16 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro.
You can buy a foldable and install an app with your comics, like Comixology, Google Play Books, or manga apps like Shonen Jump. Then you can stop there. Yet, for the best experience, you'll want to put in a little extra work.
Apply a Matte Screen Protector
Virtually all smartphones have glossy glass screens. They're bright and vibrant, and they're often the best screens in most homes. But using one doesn't feel remotely like looking at paper.
Companies are experimenting with making screens look more like paper, like TCL's NXTPAPER devices. Unlike E Ink, TCL's approach is a modified matte LCD.
Guess what? You can turn your existing glossy screen into a matte one by applying a screen protector. I was sceptical of trying this out, particularly on a foldable whose factory-installed interior screen protector isn't intended to be removed. Yet third-party matte protectors were available for the Z Fold, and enough reviews were positive, so I gave it a shot. I'm so glad I did.
I love the look of my matte screen protector, which reflects less light and makes the screen visible in even more conditions. Images look a tad less crisp, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since it gives them a closer feel to that of looking at a print magazine. The text isn't as convincing as a proper E-Ink display, but it's closer in that direction.
Warning
Different foldables have different warranties, so double-check your phone's terms before peeling off your built-in screen protector. I haven't yet experienced any issues with my third-party protector, but others have.
Matte screen protectors also provide a more tactile experience. It's not rough, but there's more friction. You can more audibly hear your finger swipe against the screen.
Matte screen protectors can be polarizing, so don't assume you'll like the experience more because I do. Install a screen protector on the conventional outer display first and try it out before deciding on your interior one.
Download Moon+ Reader
An eReader is only as good as its software. The same is true of smartphones and apps. Unfortunately, there aren't as many comic options as for ebooks.
Many comic apps leave you with customization options. You can view the entire page on your screen and swipe to turn pages. Maybe you get the option to view one panel at a time, which, to me, generally feels gimmicky in execution.
Fortunately, one of the most feature-packed ebook apps is also one of the most comprehensive comic apps. That's Moon+ Reader.
Moon+ Reader can open PDF, EPUB, CBZ, and many other formats. The app controls how you want to scale a comic or magazine to your screen. Moon+ Reader lets me fit a comic across the entire screen width and remove any margin between one page and the next. The result is a continuous, seamless scroll that feels like a webpage. I've been surprised by how much more immersive I find this than flipping pages. It's not ideal for those panels that stretch across two pages, but I like this approach enough to accept that sacrifice.
Moon+ Reader also lets me swipe horizontally, giving me control over the exact amount of zoom and what colour to make the background. This allows me to make the background colour match the background of the comic, so it looks like the panels are floating on a solid black or white screen rather than viewing a page with black or white margins on both sides.
The point is that Moon+ Reader lets you fully configure precisely how you read your comics and magazines, much like ebooks. Find DRM-Free Sources.
There's a catch to using Moon+ Reader: the inability to read DRM-restricted PDFs. Many digital comic apps don't let you export their comics in the first place. That means you'll need to seek out sources of DRM-free comics or magazines to make the most of this experience.
I've gotten much of my collection through Humble Bundle, which regularly releases digital comic bundles. I've managed to get the entire run of series like Saga, Montress, and Wayward. You can often get over dozens of volumes of manga in one swoop.
Some publishers, like Image Comics, release all of their comics DRM-free. I purchase their comics through Google Play and then export them to a comics folder on my phone.
Can you get every comic DRM-free? No, sadly. You must stick to the major apps if you're into Marvel and DC. But I prefer to think of things this way — even if I limit my comic-reading habits to DRM-free sources, I still have access to far more comics than I can read.
Building one can cost quite a lot of money if you don't already have a library of comics. Here's where apps like Hoopla and Libby come in handy. Hoopla's selection of graphic novels, in particular, is quite huge, so you could become a prolific comic reader without spending any money as long as you have a library card.
I can't recommend book-style foldables enough for those who are already digital comic fans.
Fun Question:
Have you ever sent something Back to Amazon, and how did you do it?
I ask because there doesn't seem to be an orderly way to do it.
The online Amazon web pages hint that there's a way of returning goods, but I've never seen it spelled out clearly, which makes the process confusing.
If it were a low-cost item, most people would discard it and go on to their next purchase.
This time several months ago, in January 2024, I bought a $1,000+ computer from Amazon with Windows 11 Pro.
GEEKOM IT13 Mini PC
It worked very nicely for many months, but it's lost power lately.
The strange thing is that the power pack's power-on light is on. But, the computer's power on button is not lit up, and pressing it does NOTHING.
This means the computer's BOOT-UP power-on sequence fails, not the power pack.
Any hints or advice are very welcome.
— Ed.
PS: I just found the Amazon "Returns & orders" button.
GEEKOM Return
I ordered this item on 16 January 2024, so, unfortunately, the return window has closed.
So, it's OK to return "defective items" soon after receiving them, but not if they "expire" subsequently.
— 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
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