Embedded Files
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 09 - 14 SEPTEMBER, 2024
Hello and Welcome,
Meetings This Week
NO MEETINGS
COUNCIL ELECTIONS, SATURDAY, SEPT 14, 2024
Council Elections
Residents across 128 councils in NSW will cast their vote for their local government elections next month.
The NSW Electoral Commission will conduct the elections for 126 councils, while Liverpool and Fairfield City Councils will use a commercial election provider.
Local government elections ARE COMPULSORY and are held every four years on the second Saturday in September.
When is the local government election?
The election is on Saturday, September 14. Polls open at 8 am and close at 6 pm.
Pre-poll voting will open on September 7. However, voting will not be open on Sunday, September 8.
Telephone and assisted voting applications also open on September 7.
How do I vote?
If you are voting in person, you must vote in your enrolled council area at a polling place.
You can find your local polling place and early polling places using the NSW Electorate's address lookup tool.
You can vote from 8 am until 6 pm on September 14.
You can register for a mail-in vote here.
You cannot vote in person if you are interstate during the election. You must register for a mail-in vote.
— Ed.
Meetings Next Week
2024/09/17 — 10:00-12:00 — September, Tue — Tuesday Group
2024/09/21 — 14:00-16:00 — September, Sat — Web Design
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
----------
Go to the official Sydney PC Calendar for this month's meeting details.
----------
ASCCA News:Tech News:
Meta will no longer pay Australian publishers after refusing to renew Facebook deals
See the Forbes article by Samuel Hussey | March 1, 2024.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced it will cease payments to Australian news publishers, effectively ending its financial agreements when they expire later this year.
Meta/Facebook
This decision marks a significant shift in the tech giant's approach to news content on its platform and has drawn sharp criticism from some of Australia's biggest newsrooms and government officials alike.
The expiring deals also spell the end of the Facebook News Tab in Australia.
Meta signed deals worth millions of dollars, back in 2021 to pay some of the country's biggest publishers, including Seven West Media, Nine, and ABC, in response to the Australian government's News Media Bargaining Code. The code, introduced to address the power imbalance between digital platforms and news publishers, could force Meta into arbitration and potentially fines if it fails to compensate news publishers.
It's not the first time the Australian government has confronted billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire. In 2021, Facebook temporarily banned all news content on its platform in response to the proposed media bargaining code, a ban swiftly lifted after government negotiations.
At this stage, Facebook will not block access to Australian news content when the existing deals expire.
In a statement released on Friday, Meta defended its decision by stating that users do not primarily use Facebook to access news and political content. This suggests a strategic realignment of its investments towards the services and products valued most by its users.
"This is part of an ongoing effort to align our investments better to the products and services people value the most," the statement said.
Do Phone 'Drying' Videos Really Work?
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on September 4, 2024, at 01:09 pm EDT.
Wet Phone
YouTube videos claiming to fix a waterlogged phone can work according to a semi-scientific test. However, results are not guaranteed, which is not a reason to take excessive risks.
Numerous videos (and some dedicated phone apps) all claim to fix a soggy phone similarly. The theory is that the main risk is liquid getting into the phone through the speaker, which inherently can't be airtight — rather, quite the opposite.
The videos "work" simply by playing a specific oscillating tone at a deep frequency that causes the speaker to push air at just the right force to dislodge the water. In a perfect world, the audio will cause the phone to vibrate and dislodge water from other entry points, such as a USB port or under buttons. (Source: androidauthority.com)
Comments and reviews vary wildly, though it's certainly possible that people who've had good results are more likely to share their "miracle" eagerly. People for whom the approach did nothing may simply shrug it off and concentrate on what to do with their still-waterlogged phone.
Submerged For Science
The Verge and phone repair company iFixit teamed up to test four handsets by dipping them for a minute in a bath of ultraviolet dye. They then used the supposed "water ejection" video (filming with a close-up camera) and left the phone overnight. After removing the back covers, they were able to use UV light to trace exactly where water from the previous day still remained.
The results were mixed: "The Pixel 7 Pro was essentially bone dry, the Nokia 7.1 was more or less ruined, and the iPhone 13 and Pixel 3 were somewhere in between." The speaker was largely dry, with mixed results, but the liquid remained near other entry points. (Source: theverge.com)
Speakers Saved
The close-up video confirmed the sound and vibration worked best on the speaker itself, with limited effect elsewhere. It also showed that virtually the entire impact came from the moment the video started playing. Liquid, which remained after that initial blast, simply moved around rather than being ejected.
The experiment suggests that the mixed feedback and apparently wildly varying results for users are largely down to where the water has gotten into the phone. It can genuinely fix the problem but certainly isn't a reliable enough safeguard that users can not keep phones safe from an unwanted bath.
What's Your Opinion?
Has your phone ever suffered water damage, and did you fix it? Have you ever tried one of these videos or apps? How important is a phone's resistance to liquids or other risks, such as dust, when you choose a new handset?
Comments — Silica gel — Submitted by Dennis Faas on Wed, 04/09/2024 — 13:58.
I haven't dipped my phone into water (yet) — thankfully — however, if I had to try a method, I think that putting the phone into a bag of silica gel would be the best option to suck the water out because that is what silica gel is used for keeping things dry and remediating humidity.
Microsoft Is Fixing the New Outlook's Biggest Problem
See the How-To Geek article by Tony Phillips | Published September 5, 2024.
Outlook
Microsoft is currently developing and testing a much-anticipated update to Outlook that will allow users to open or restart the new Outlook for Windows without an internet connection.
Given it's been over a year since Microsoft launched its newest version of the email app, it's somewhat surprising that this still hasn't yet been implemented, especially since offline support is afforded to Outlook on the web, the old Outlook for Windows, and the soon-to-be-axed Windows Mail app. As one Reddit user added, "You'd think that would be the core starting point for the app, not something to develop as a "feature" later on." A Microsoft Community contributor agreed, saying, "Working offline mode is an essential feature for enabling focused work."
Offline access is only supported when Outlook is open and goes offline (provided you have enabled offline access through Settings > General > Offline). In this scenario, you can read, draft, organize, and send emails to your outbox, view calendar events and contacts, and rename folders. If you try to do something that's unavailable offline, you'll get a handy error message that will let you know. However, if you close Outlook and try to reopen it again without an internet connection, it simply won't work.
This update means you'll be able to perform all of the above actions, even if you close and reopen the app on your laptop in the desert.
Unfortunately for those of you who work on the go, this update is still only in its "in development" stage, meaning it still has to get through the "rolling out" phase before it's available to all — and there's no word from Microsoft as to how long this will take. With Microsoft only adding this update to its roadmap on September 3, we guess that it'll still be a while before its implementation.
Source: Microsoft Roadmap, Microsoft
Fun Facts:
Do you remember DOS in Windows ASKING if you'd like to COPY a file over an existing file?
Wouldn't it be nice to have it again?
You can't easily do this in File Explorer because you can only Copy and Paste, and you finish up with "filename - copy" instead.
But in DOS, I'm sure the default was "Overwrite [output-file-name]? (Yes/No/All):" Do you remember?
Help for the copy command shows:
>copy /?
This command Copies one or more files to another location.
COPY [/D] [/V] [/N] [/Y | /-Y] [/Z] [/L] [/A | /B ] source [/A | /B]
[+ source [/A | /B] [+ ...]] [destination [/A | /B]]
source Specifies the file or files to be copied.
/A Indicates an ASCII text file.
/B Indicates a binary file.
/D Allow the destination file to be created as a decrypted file.
destination Specifies the directory and/or filename for the new file(s).
/V Verifies that new files are written correctly.
/N Uses a short filename, if available, when copying a file with a
non-8dot3 name.
/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/Z Copies networked files in restartable mode.
/L If the source is a symbolic link, copy the link to the target
instead of the actual file the source link points to.
The switch /Y may be preset in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line. Default is
to prompt on overwrites unless the COPY command is being executed from
within a batch script.
To append files, specify a single file for the destination, but multiple files
for source (using wildcards or file1+file2+file3 format).
>
The easiest way is to use the environment variable.
If you just type "environment" in the search area of the Taskbar, the System Variables are grey-ed out.
Environment Variables Grey-ed Out
To fix this, go to Start > Settings > System > About > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables > New...
Enter the System Variable name as "copycmd" (lowercase) and the Variable value as "/-y" (lowercase).
Then click OK, another OK, and a final OK.
Environment Variables
To activate it, start a new copy of the DOS Window. The latest Environment Variable will take effect whenever you reboot. You can now copy files using the famous PROMPT.
— 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.
Sydney PC & Technology User Group's FREE Newsletter — Subscribe — Unsubscribe
Go to Sydney PC & Technology User Group's — Events Calendar
Are you changing your email address? Would you please email your new address to — newsletter.sydneypc@gmail.com?
Disclaimer: We provide this Newsletter "As Is" without warranty of any kind.
The reader assumes the entire risk of accuracy and subsequent use of its contents.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse