August 26

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 28 AUGUST - 02 SEPTEMBER, 2023

Hello and Welcome,

Meeting This Week

2023/09/02 — 13:00-14:00 — September, Sat — Penrith Group

Meeting Next Week

2023/09/05 — 18:00-20:00 — September, Tue — Main Meeting

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 meeting is in November 2023.

See the other Tech stories as well as the Fun Facts article, in SWAY format.

ASCCA News:Tech News:

$10m penalty for Dell Australia for 'misleading representations' about discount prices of computer monitors

See the iTWire Article by Gordon Peters | Monday, 14 August 2023, at 13:24.

Penalty Stamp

The Federal Court has ordered Dell Australia Pty Ltd to pay $10 million for making false and misleading representations about discount prices for add-on computer monitors on its website.

In enforcement proceedings brought by the ACCC, Dell Australia admitted that it had misled customers about the price of a selection of monitors available to 'bundle' with a purchase of a desktop, laptop or notebook. The add-on monitors were often advertised with a higher 'strikethrough' price, indicating a significant saving if purchased with other computer products.

In a statement issued today, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says that Dell Australia admitted that it overstated the discounts customers received as monitors were not sold for the strikethrough price for most of the relevant time. Consumers often paid more than if they had purchased the monitor as a standalone product. More than 5,300 monitors were sold to consumers with overstated discounts.

The ACCC notes that Dell Australia also admitted that it misled customers about the discounted price of the add-on monitors with various statements including "Total Savings", "Includes x% off", "Discounted Price", and "Get the best price for popular accessories when purchased with this product".

"This outcome sends a strong message to businesses that making false representations about prices or inflating discounts is a serious breach of consumer law and will attract substantial penalties," ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.

"We took this action against Dell Australia because consumers rely on accurate information about prices and discounts to make purchasing decisions."

"It is important that businesses are careful when advertising discount pricing to ensure they do not mislead consumers about the savings on offer," Commission Carver said.

The ACCC says: "Earlier this year, the Court ordered Dell Australia to offer refunds, issue corrective notices to every affected consumer and review its compliance program. Dell Australia was also called to contribute to the ACCC's costs.

"Dell Australia co-operated during the proceedings by admitting that it had contravened the Australian Consumer Law and made joint submissions with the ACCC regarding penalty and other orders. It also commenced offering refunds to some consumers before the Court making orders."

The ACCC instituted Federal Court proceedings against Dell Australia on 4 November 2022. In June 2023, the Federal Court declared by consent that Dell Australia made false and misleading representations on its website about the prices of add-on monitors and in 'strikethrough' prices shown on the website.

By way of background, the ACCC notes that Dell Technologies Inc is a US-based technology company that operates globally primarily through its website and develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products — and Dell Australia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dell Technologies, with headquarters in New South Wales.

To read the statement by Dell and see an example of statements on Dell Australia's website when consumers were offered an add-on monitor to desktop purchases, click here.

[ In one ad, the price appeared as "+ $2,389 + $955.60" — Ed. ]

Linux is now the 'de facto standard' for running business-critical workloads

See the iTWire Article by Sam Varghese | Monday, 14 August 2023 at 09:42.

Vojtěch Pavlík: "With Edge and IoT,
the usage of cloud computing will become an enabler
for our global sharing economy."

As the Linux kernel gets set to mark 32 years since its public announcement, a senior developer from German open-source firm SUSE has reminded the world that it is the de-facto standard for running business-critical workloads.

Vojtěch Pavlík, SUSE's newly appointed general manager of Business-Critical Linux, said on Thursday that it would be difficult to find any hyper-scaler who did not offer Linux for the enterprise or one that did not run their services on Linux.

Pavlík's comments come after some ructions in open-source business circles. Red Hat announced a move in June to restrict access to the source code of its enterprise Linux distribution only to paying customers.

In response to this, SUSE chief technology and product officer Dr Thomas Di Giacomo said on Thursday that his company had formed the Open Enterprise Linux Association along with Oracle and CIQ, the last-named being the company that is behind Rocky Linux, an RHEL clone.

His statement said OpenELA would encourage the development of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux by providing open and free Enterprise Linux source code.

SUSE also said, on 11 July, that it would invest more than US$10 million (A$15.39 million) to fork the publicly available RHEL source code and make it available with no restrictions.

The German firm is the biggest independent open-source vendor after Red Hat was acquired by IBM in 2019.

Pavlík has been behind many of the innovations that SUSE has brought to Linux: when iTWire first interviewed him in 2014, he had been responsible for the technology that allowed for patching a live kernel, technology called kGraft, and creating a means for booting openSUSE on machines locked down with Microsoft's secure boot technology.

"With Edge and IoT, the usage of cloud computing will become an enabler for our global sharing economy, driving innovative use cases with massive economies of scale," he said Thursday.

"But why is Enterprise Linux essential for our customers' transformation to cloud-native? SUSE continuously innovates and invests in ensuring we deliver the most secure open-source software stack, and customers know they can rely on any of our products across our entire product portfolio to rapidly and securely transform to cloud-native environments — Enterprise Linux, cloud-native technology, and NeuVector for zero-trust full lifecycle security, all in lockstep.

"SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is certified for Common Criteria in EAL 4+, which includes that software production and delivery processes follow a secure software supply chain.

"This is a huge advantage for customers in light of NIS-2 regulations, as this certification significantly reduces legal liability because the scope of the evaluation includes the entire security of the software supply chain, which can therefore be verified by the German Federal Office for Information Security.

"In addition, with live patching for the Linux kernel and user space, SUSE customers can run critical security updates and serious bug fixes without service interruption. With the help of SUSE Manager, customers simplify and secure their mixed Linux environments — on-premises, on the Edge or in clouds — to maintain infrastructure security and compliance at any scale."

Fun Facts:

'Don't Charge iPhone Overnight' Claim Overblown

See the InfoPackets Article by John Lister on August 17, 2023, at 02:08 pm EDT.

Apple has issued a warning about safely charging iPhones. However, reports in which the company said users should never charge their phones while they sleep are incorrect.

At least one newspaper reported the story with the headline "Why you shouldn't charge your iPhone while you sleep." Another site used the slightly more accurate but potentially misleading "Apple warns people should never sleep next to their phone while charging."

From those headlines, you might think Apple is making a surprisingly open revelation about handsets spontaneously combusting and taking out everything in a six-foot radius. That's not the case.

Ventilation Is Key

Instead, the statement warns against charging the phone on the bed, particularly under a blanket or pillow. The phone could overheat while charging if it isn't properly ventilated.

Apple further notes that users should "take special care if you have a physical condition that affects your ability to detect heat against the body." It also suggestis making sure there are no liquids near the device while charging, for example, a glass of water on a bedside cabinet by the phone. (Source: mirror.co.uk)

It's not clear if any specific incident prompted the statement or if Apple intended to get the word out to all users or do a routine update to its guidance. The report also warns users that if they use third-party cables and power adapters, they should look for the 'Made for iPhone' badge that shows it meets Apple's safety standards. It also suggests checking chargers are compliant with USB standards, with USB 2.0 as a minimum.

Battery Charging Issues

In the past, some users have feared that leaving a phone to charge overnight can damage the battery by "overcharging it". That's not the case with modern lithium-ion batteries, which will stop drawing power from a charger once they reach 100% capacity.

Instead, the battery will receive a trickle charge, meaning once the phone's background activities have drained it a little (to 99% or lower), it will top up to capacity. Keeping the battery at 100% for longer can slightly reduce its lifespan, but not to a significant extent. (Source: wired.co.uk)

Trying the W3Schools Hosted "Spaces" Websites.

Create a Free Website.

Code websites directly in the browser with W3Schools Spaces.

GetStarted for Free.

Powerful Code Editor.

Front-end, Back-end or Full-stack — the choice is yours.

Practice Makes Perfect.

Sharpen and Master your development skills with these technologies using Spaces.

Ed: We first heard about this from Steve South at a recent Web-Design SIG.

A few of us have tried it out. Some successfully, others NOT.

Steve says:

W3 Schools is renowned as a free educational resource for all web-related matters. They have material on all aspects of web coding, from HTML and CSS to courses on JavaScript and other codes. A few years ago, they created their own comprehensive CSS style sheet, which you can link to and use on any site you make.

Now, they have expanded into providing web hosting with everything you need to get a site up and running. You don't need to pay for a domain name. Name your site, and W3 Schools adds it to their domain, e.g. mysite.w3spaces.com. If you have a domain name, it appears they will host it.

You get a range of templates — a blank space with a basic HTML code, or you can upload your HTML. The basic package includes HTML, CSS and JavaScript with an online editor, which you can preview as you create. You can check your code using the famous W3 Schools "Try It" checker.

Steve was successful with the Free version of "spctug-webdesign," which uses:

https://spctug-webdesign.w3spaces.com

I've tried setting up the PREMIUM version of "bobsfactors," which knows how to open the website, but that's about all!

https://bobsfactors.w3spaces.com

I've sent a "Help" message to w3schools, and they replied:

Your request (33659) has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff. You will receive a reply within two weeks.

TWO WEEKS! We'll let you know how it goes — eventually.

NOT impressed so far — 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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