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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 18 - 23 SEPTEMBER, 2023
Hello and Welcome,
Meeting TODAY
2023/09/16 — 14:00-16:00 — September, Sat — Web Design
Our Web Design meeting is at the SMSA, today, on Saturday the 16th at 2 pm.
Last month, we looked at the W3 Schools free Web Sites; see the August report. Did you know your Google account comes with its own website? So, this month, we will look at how to access Google Sites, look at the range of templates and how to build your site and then publish it.
I have some old photos of Hyde Park, and we can create a site on Sites.
Google also has a paid version, costing $8.40 to $25.20 Aus.
We need to finish our clean-up of the cupboard by trying to get our food container into the filing cabinet to satisfy the SMSA. Then I hope we can arrange for Leaders to have a key to the cupboard and the computer box. The food will be in the filing cabinet, and the key will be in the computer box. Bob has spare keys for the computer box, so we will see what we can arrange.
If you can't make it to Pitt St, here are the Zoom details:
SPCTUG Meeting Host is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: SPCTUG Web Design Meeting
Time: Sep 16, 2023 14:00 Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82634658712
Meeting ID: 826 3465 8712
Passcode: webdesign
Hope to see you all today, Saturday.
Steve South
Meeting This Week
2023/09/19 — 10:00-12:00 — September, Tue — Tuesday Group
Meetings Next Week
NO MEETINGS
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.
ASCCA News:Tech News:
WordPad to Disappear from Windows
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on September 5, 2023, at 12:09 pm EDT.
Microsoft is to ditch WordPad after nearly three decades finally. It will add a few new features to Notepad for lighter word-processing tasks.
WordPad first appeared as a free tool in Windows 95. Microsoft says it will no longer update WordPad and remove it in a "future release of Windows." It could be more evident if that means a potential Windows 12 or one of the major updates to Windows 11.
Announcing the move, Microsoft perhaps unwittingly pointed out one of the significant flaws of WordPad. It says: "We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents like .doc and .rtf and Windows Notepad for plain text documents like .txt." (Source: theregister.com)
Neither One Thing Nor The Other
Indeed, WordPad was always something of a middle-ground tool that needed a prominent user base. It didn't have the bare-bones simplicity of Notepad but needed more valuable features of Word (along with many that most users would find unnecessary).
Arguably, its main advantage was being free of charge, though plenty of third-party word processors were as straightforward and helpful as WordPad. That's even more the case with the emergence of online cloud-based tools such as Google Docs.
The demise has been a long time coming. Depending on what counts as a significant update, WordPad has mostly stayed the same since Windows 7 or 8.
Notepad Gets Autosave
Perhaps believing there's still a market for people who want a free word processor with some basic features, Microsoft is adding a few features to Notepad. Earlier this year, it added an option to open multiple tabs in the text editor, while in the coming months, it will add a version of an autosave feature. (Source: independent.co.uk) [ AdBlocker MUST BE DISABLED — Ed.]
It remains to be seen if that attracts any users. It doesn't make much difference to people who mainly use Notepad for a minute or two as a quick way to write and edit text, such as computer programming code, without the risk of unwanted formatting when it's cut and pasted.
What's Your Opinion?
Do you use WordPad regularly? If so, what will you use to replace it? Is Notepad sufficient for basic word-processing tasks?
User Comments:
Good riddance
Permalink Submitted by Dennis Faas on Tue, 09/05/2023 — 12:34
I only used WordPad if a file I clicked on wasn't already associated with a program that would read it. In 99% of all cases, this usually happens after I've completed a fresh install of Windows, forgot to install MS Office and tried to load a .DOC file. In the simplest sense, WordPad is a massively crippled version of MS Word. Even so, when I've used WordPad to load a .DOC or .DOCX file, it usually chokes on it, which makes WordPad pretty much useless. Most people use MS Office anyway; if not, there are plenty of alternatives.
I need WordPad
Permalink Submitted by ron_weiskopf on Tue, 09/05/2023 — 14:14
I'm not sure what the issue is, but when I get some txt files and try to open them in Notepad, it won't recognize the line breaks. I need to open them in WordPad and then it works. They can be huge log files where I do not want to use Word.
Don't NEED it, but WANT it
Permalink Submitted by russoule on Tue, 09/05/2023 — 15:55
Here's the thing: all this messing around with software is designed only to increase MS income. Is WordPad equal to Word? Nope! And who needs Word? Most homebodies don't use a word-processor for anything other than letters to ourselves or our families. So what if Word can print in Arabic? I don't use that function. There is no actual function in the Office Pack that I require. WordPad is a sufficient app to write my snail-mail with and not have the immense memory use of Word. Not to mention, it is FREE!
But that is why MS needs to get rid of it. They don't make any money by maintaining software from before, only by selling you NEW software.
WordPad Works!
Permalink Submitted by jimain on Wed, 09/06/2023 — 18:33
I need Word only when I want to do something exotic. WordPad has done everything (of the word-processing variety) for me since I discovered it. I can't imagine learning Word again after 25 years of forgetting it. I use WordPad at least once a day and often use it to build emails because it's convenient. It will be hard to teach the old dog another new trick!
Lifecell installs 800 new base stations despite Ukraine-Russia war
See the iTWire article by Kenn Anthony Mendoza | Monday, 11 September, 2023, at 09:52 am.
Ukrainian telco operator Lifecell has launched over 800 new base stations nationwide, providing citizens connections despite war with Russia since February 2022.
Lifecell is owned by Turkey's biggest mobile operator, Turkcell.
Two hundred and fifty-nine stations were installed since the war started across Ukraine's western region — around Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, and Chernivtsi — which became a refuge for Ukrainians fleeing and fighting in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Mobile Europe reported that the cell sites are continuously rebuilding damaged infrastructure even as the war rages.
Lifecell said 3,506 sites were modernised. The company increased the battery capacity and throughput to allow more subscribers to connect with their mobiles.
4G stations improved coverage for 542 towns and villages, which, Lifecell claims, equates to better coverage for more than 16 million Ukrainians.
X wants your biometric data
See the MalwareBytes article Posted: on September 6, 2023, by Christopher Boyd.
X Wants Your Bio Data
Users of X (formerly Twitter) paying for a checkmark under what used to be called Twitter Blue (now X Premium) have some biometric-related decisions to make. The BBC reports that Elon Musk, having dismantled the old checkmark system to replace it with the all-new Premium, is (re)introducing identity verification.
The old verification system typically verified users by requesting a copy of a government-issued ID, like a passport scan. This system is now returning but with some additional features for the ride.
People signed up for the subscription service can now choose to provide an image and photo ID for verification. Concerning the updated privacy policy, X had this to say to the BBC:
X will give the option to provide their government ID, combined with a selfie, to add a verification layer.
"Biometric data may be extracted from the government ID and the selfie image for matching purposes. This will additionally help us tie, for those who choose, an account to a real person by processing their government-issued ID. This will also help X fight impersonation attempts and make the platform more secure."
That's not all. Users can submit additional information like employment and education history. The policy continues:
"We may collect and use your personal information (such as your employment history, educational history, employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on) to recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find potential candidates, and to show you more relevant advertising."
As with so many proposed changes to how the platform operates, there are frustrating gaps in how this would work with specific possible issues. If the concept behind ID verification for paying users is to "fight impersonation attempts", making it optional may not help unless X clearly shows which paying users have confirmed ID.
As a proposed solution to impersonation, it may be needlessly messy. At the time of writing, we have a blue badge, a grey badge for Government officials, and gold badges with square profile pictures instead of circular ones for business entities. Some are paid, some have been given to users free of charge depending on popularity, and others are entirely bogus and appear in rogue adverts.
Yet more badges or qualifiers to wade through when trying to establish the genuine nature of an account could be a hassle. You knew exactly where you stood with a single blue badge under the old system. More quirks, wrinkles, and caveats for "at a glance" assessment feel like needless friction on a fast-moving platform.
The general response from paying users could have been more positive, so it remains to be seen if there'll be a big push for biometric sign-ups. Under the old system, verified accounts could be compromised and used for nefarious purposes. If you could steal an identity-verified Twitter account back in the day, would you also be able to steal an identity-verified X account? The smart money will be on "Yes".
The oft-stated desire from Elon Musk to turn X into the "everything app" managing everything from job applications to banking and payments may largely depend on a big biometric uptake. Given the many issues prevalent across social media, I suggest holding off to see how things turn out before handing over this valuable data.
Fun Facts:
Radio 2RPH, We read the news, views and stories you need to hear. Explore our program!
See the 2RPH Radio Reading Service.
Radio 2RPH
Find us!
Greater Sydney: 1224 AM, 100.5 FM and Digital,
Newcastle and Lower Hunter: 100.5 FM,
Wollongong and Illawarra: 93.3 FM,
...or listen online now!
Computalk
This half-hour talk is broadcast each Monday at 3:30 pm and repeated on Sunday at the same time.
It is read by Garry Stevenson, usually from The Guardian Newspaper, The Washington Post or The New York Times.
It's a quirky and informative program.
This week, there was a story about Noise-Cancelling earphones. One odd comment was when listening in a quiet location, the brain compensates for the low noise by amplifying the signal and thus possibly inducing some hearing loss or sometimes, tinnitus.
"If you stop putting sound into your ears … your brain overcompensates by turning up its internal gain," McAlpine says. "It completely alters your neural pathways — we know this. Monkeying around with the sound energy going into your ears is monkeying around with what your brain evolved to be doing."
See The Guardian article by Donna Lu | @donnadlu | Tue 29 Aug 2023 01.00 AEST.
A very interesting article.
FAKE Shots of Ukraine Jet Hitting Russian Ship
See the 8m06s YouTube video
This is a shot of a Ukraine Jet after hitting the Russian ship Moskva with missiles.
How, in real life, can anyone get a picture like this?
[ FAKE ] Ukraine Jet Hitting Russian Ship
Recently, many "entertaining" videos have been taken from Combat Games Videos pretending to be from the Russia-Ukraine War.
The comments are quite critical of these deceptive videos. You can see the fake smoke pouring out of scenes of war.
User comments:
@Sacto1654
The Moskva was particularly vulnerable because of all those EXPOSED missile launch tubes. One direct hit on any of those launch tubes loaded with a missile and the resulting explosion could cause massive damage.
@ydiesel2214
This is why I love this channel!! Watching actual life tactics that could have or would be used in modern warfare was fascinating and casually showed breakdowns of the situation. At the same time, while we get to watch the situation play out physically. Thank you for the dedication and the effort you put into all your content.
See More »
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