Meeting 5: 27 April 2022

Agenda - Meeting 5

• Make coffee/tea

• Demo of Google Chromecast - make your TV smart

• Introduction to the Cloud

• Q & A

• Meeting photo

The main topic was an introduction to the Cloud. With so much to discuss on this topic there will be follow-up segments in future meetings. As a summary:

• the Cloud consists of software and services that run on internet servers, instead of locally on your phone or computer

• Cloud services are accessed through a browser like Chrome or Safari on mobiles, tablets, laptops and desktops

• Some Cloud companies offer dedicated apps to provide convenient access

Some Cloud storage examples are Google One, iCloud from Apple, Dropbox - a respected independent, and OneDrive from Microsoft. There are a good many others to choose from as well. All offer free accounts with a respectable amount of storage in the 5 to 15 GB range, enough to store thousands of documents. However photos, music and videos take up a considerable amount of space that require you to pay a monthly subscription for additional storage. For example 200 GB on Google One costs $4.50/month.

For example many utility bills, bank statements, and email attachments of all kinds can be transferred to the cloud and stored in a folder structure. These documents can be retrieved at any time on any internet-connected device. More importantly you can search for document names across your whole Cloud storage - something that is hugely inconvenient if not impossible in the drawers of your filing cabinets.

The article on accessing weather information in a recent newsletter raised a question. To access the data we visited the Bureau of Meteorology site and navigated through some links: Qld, Latest rainfall ... clickable map, and Rain and River Data. From there access the River Height Data for the Gold Coast to find the water height at the Boobegan Creek Lock, or the Gold Coast streams 24 Hour Rainfalls to show the falls at the Boobegan Creek Lock.

A copy of the meeting slides are available.