All members may view the Melb PC newsgroup at https://websec.melbpc.org.au/webnews/ after logging in with a Melb PC username and password (available at no
cost as part of membership).

Adobe Flash Cookies

Privacy concerns were raised by Bob Traynor in the news group, melbpc.general on the capability of Adobe Flash Player to store information on your computer in a similar manner to the information stored by web browser cookies. Any web site which initiates an Adobe Flash Player on your computer, may store information of your visit to the web site using an unlimited amount of storage on your computer. Web browser cookie storage is limited to 4kb of space per cookie. There is no time limit that these Adobe Flash Player cookies (or more formally Local Shared Objects) are stored on your computer. Many sites use a very small flash player object (so you may not know Adobe Flash Player is being deployed), solely for the purpose of maintaining these Adobe Flash cookies. There are settings in web browsers and many other programs which will display and delete browser cookies. However, for Adobe Flash Cookies, these remain hidden on your computer and can be displayed only by a program run from the Adobe Macromedia site itself from the URL:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

More than 98% of computers have Adobe Flash Player installed, so if you run the Adobe Flash Manager from the URL, most likely it will display many Adobe Flash Player cookies on your computer. The Flash Manager allows you to delete all Adobe Flash Player cookies for all web sites stored on your computer. It also allows you to set the Storage Settings Slider to zero and not to allow third party flash content cookies to be stored on your computer. These settings are not the default and it is most likely there are already many of the cookies on your computer.

More detail of the issues associated with Adobe Flash Cookies can be read from the forum at:
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-news/200742-adobeflash-silent-privacy-killer.html

A number of members in the newsgroup asked the dangers of these cookies. The general consensus was that these cookies raised similar or greater privacy issue to that of web browser cookies. As they're hidden from normal viewing and unlimited amounts of visit information may be stored on your computer for an unlimited time, the privacy concerns were considered to be greater.

PCI to SATA

In a follow-up to his posting reported in the February issue of this column, Pat Marley reported that the PCI card that he'd installed to allow the use of a SATA hard disk with his older motherboard is working well. He was now using both an IDE disk and a SATA disk on the computer. One limitation that he did report was that as the motherboard BIOS would not directly recognize the SATA disk, he could not use the SATA disk as the boot disk. It was necessary to boot an operating system from the IDE disk. Then the drivers in the Windows operating system (XP or VISTA) allowed the SATA hard disk to be used with the system.

Wireless Broadband

A relative of George Skarbek had recently moved to the Dandenongs and found that neither ADSL nor cable broadband was available to the location. George asked in the news groups for alternatives to these forms of broadband. A number of members reported on their experience in using Telstra wireless broadband during their travels around Victoria and Australia. Some were using the relatively new Telstra pay-as-go USB pendrive-like wireless data modem, and others were on Telstra data plans using slightly larger and equally portable USB wireless data modems. A User Group member loaned George a USB wireless data modem which operated on the Optus mobile phone network. This data modem was successfully trialled from the Dandenong location. The relative was able to obtain an Optus USB data modem and plan which enabled download data speeds from 500 to 1000 kbps. This was much faster than dial-up speeds of a maximum of 44 kbps.

In subsequent postings Richard Solly drew upon his amateur radio experience (as shown by his Amateur radio call sign in one posting) in explaining that the modem used by George's relative was an older type utilising only the Optus 2100 MHz 3G phone band. Newer Optus USB "slim-line" modems utilize both the 2100 MHz band and the 900 MHz "YesG" band. Telstra USB modes utilize the 850 MHz "NextG" band. "YesG" and NextG" are trade names for what are effectively alternate 3G cellular phone data bands. Theoretically and practically, the lower the frequency, the greater the wireless range. Optus is actively expanding its "YesG" band to compete with the Telstra "NextG" network.

Both now cover much of Victoria. James Cox concluded that a short term pre-paid wireless broadband would be more convenient than finding and using Internet cafes while on holidays away from his normal ADSL broadband. (Pic USB wireless data modem though it's low res.)

Windows 7 Beta

The release of Windows 7 Beta for public trail was actively followed in the melbpc.general newsgroup. Malcolm Miles and Dennis Parsons reported information of the download site and means to obtain the product key. Initial excitement was slightly dampened as the sites became overloaded and first downloads of the large 3.5 gigabyte ISO file were delayed. All members who wished to download the beta version were able to so and several reported their experience in running the product. In general the comments were favourable.

Scouse reported that it was faster at starting and shutting down than XP. He also commented that the resolution is much better and graphics and photos render almost like 3D. Even the noted penguin (Linuxphile) Roger Brown, agreed Windows 7 used resources better than XP, although his experience was from a virtual computer of a Linux operating system.

Many members had seen the comments of the User Group President, Keith Younger, as reported in the Herald Sun and other newspapers. The words as reported were that as a Beta version, it could be "glitchy" and "risky" for non-technical users. All commented that this was good publicity for the User Group. Keith responded in the newsgroup that his comments as given to the newspaper reporter were not in the same order as appeared in the article. His opinion appeared more negative than was actually the case. Towards the end of this thread, Malcolm Miles reminded members that public downloads of Windows 7 Beta will not be available after the 10th February. However registration keys will be available after this date. Microsoft has reported that the registration keys for Windows 7 Beta version will expire at the beginning of September 2009. Within this limitation, trial disks and registration keys may be obtained upon personal request to members in the newsgroup.

On-line Interest Group Meeting Calendar

An on-line calendar was announced in melbpc.thinktank based upon data input to Google calendar by Stan Johnstone. Interest Group convenors had the opportunity to forward corrections to Stan and the on-line calendar is now available from links on the Melb PC home web page and the Melb PC ISP page ( http://melbpc.org.au/isp ). As may be seen from the calendar URL, from the "where" section of the description for a meeting, it's possible to link directly to a Google map of the location. This is particularly valuable for meeting that are held at locations other than the User Group Chadstone meeting rooms. In some cases thanks to Google maps, you can almost see in the doors of the meeting room. For members using their own Google calendar, the On-Line Interest Group Meeting calendar is a public calendar and indexed by the Google search engine. It can also be included in personal Google calendars, either per event or in total. It can be located from a search of public Google calendars with the search word MelbPC..

Moving House

In melbpc.general a member sought the views of other members on moving from a current apartment in St Kilda to possibly a free standing house in Geelong. Funds were available to renovate the apartment (for which it was necessary to move out) or to combine with proceeds from the sale of the apartment for the purchase of a property in Geelong. The members had investigated the services for people no longer working and facing increasing age in Geelong and found from the Geelong Council that they were better than many Melbourne suburbs. Surveys of properties for sale indicated that some were available in reportedly better Geelong suburbs in the required price range.

For such a personal topic, the many comments were largely directed to factors that should be considered in such a decision, rather than direct advice. There was a general consensus, that proximity to current friends and relatives should have a high weighting in such a decision.

Victorian Bushfires

Members expressed their sympathy in melbpc.general to those with losses in the Victoria bushfires. This was made more personal from knowledge of those living in the affected areas. A member responded that that he had lost his house in Yarra Glen, but fortunately all his family were safe, but two pet cats were still missing. Another member reported that the home of 20 years of an aged relative in Marysville had been destroyed along will all personal possessions. Fortunately, the relative was not at home of the day of the fire, although the personal loss was greater from having contributed to the construction of the house.

From relating their experiences, the impact of these disasters is shared amongst the news group community in a sympathetic bond.

Boat Puzzle Solution

The Puzzle from last month: "A fisherman went upstream in his speedboat for one mile, where his hat blew off. He did not notice this for five minutes, and he turned around. He caught up to the hat at his camp. Assuming that he was at full throttle for the entire journey, with no time lost for the turn, how fast was the river flowing?"

The Answer: Simple logical provides that as both the hat and the boat are on the river (after the hat blew off), it would take the boat five minutes to reach the hat after turning round. The speed of the river is determined by the distance (one mile) that the hat travelled in 10 minutes (the time for the boat to reach the hat after it blew off). Thus the speed of the river is six miles per hour.