PC Update – Melbourne PC User Group

A Change to PC Update Subscriptions

David Stonier-Gibson The Committee has decided not to accept any new subscriptions for the printed version of PC Update. Here’s why: The large, fancy colour laser […]

Curious Kids: how does music get onto a cassette tape?

Christopher Wenn, The University of Melbourne How does music get onto a cassette tape? — Paul, age 9, Adelaide Hi Paul! That’s a great question. […]

DOTW Winners July 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report July 2021

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the July meeting, again with all members back at home joining the meeting via Zoom. The first presentation of the […]

Forty years of the IBM PC

Hugh Macdonald The twelfth of August 2021 marks forty years since the IBM Personal Computer was first released onto the market. It is widely regarded as […]

From The Editor August 2021

Hello and welcome to another edition of PC Update. On the club front our activities have been back online this month. We had an interesting monthly […]

How one simple rule change could curb online retailers’ snooping on you

Katharine Kemp, UNSW I spent last week studying the 26,000 words of privacy terms published by eBay and Amazon, trying to extract some straight answers, and […]

Member Short Stories: Elephobia

George Wright My wife loves an Apple. I like apples too, but I like eating mine. My computer is Android. Hers backs-up automatically, several times a […]

Smart Home, Smarter Home

Greg Skalka, Under The Computer Hood User Group Everyone wants some control in their lives. Having the ability to control things in our homes can provide […]

Yammer Highlights July 2021

Dennis Parsons NBN Questions and Comments Steve posed the question of whether it was possible to use the 4G fall-back capability of a Telstra Smart Modem […]

A Life Changing Monthly Meeting

Kevin Gray Dear David, This is a short note of thanks to the Melbourne PC User Group. I’ve been a member for just on 30 years. […]

A Look Through Windows 11

Hugh Macdonald On June 24 this year, Microsoft somewhat surprised everyone by announcing that a new version of Windows, called Windows 11, was coming This was […]

DOTW Winners June 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report June 2021

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the June meeting, this month with all members back at home joining the meeting via Zoom. After a short introduction […]

Editorial July 2021

Hugh Macdonald Welcome to another edition of PC Update. On the computing front this month, I take a first look at Windows 11, David Stonier-Gibson explores […]

From The President July 2021

David Stonier-Gibson Moorabbin renovations: Can you help? The process of upgrading and reconfiguring Moorabbin has been continuing, even during Covid. A small band of volunteers have […]

How does the Pegasus spyware work, and is my phone at risk

Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University and Roberto Musotto, Edith Cowan University A major journalistic investigation has found evidence of malicious software being used by governments around […]

Interesting Internet Finds

Steve Costello PSA: Gmail Has Your Old Chat Logs From Google Talk (And Hangouts) https://www.howtogeek.com/711404/psa-gmail-has-your-old-chat-logs-from-google-talk-and-hangouts/ Did you use Google Talk and or Hangouts? If so, your […]

Lockdown

Heather Stonier-Gibson This rain fits. It fits the dull, bleak swarm of Melbourne winter. It fits my growing bitterness and sits well with the anxiety that […]

Monthly Meeting July 2021

The June 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 7th July 2021, with about 70 members in attendance via Zoom and another 20 at Moorabbin. […]

QR scanning is important

David Stonier-Gibson The Virus struck close to home today: It was in Coles at Southland, 10 minutes walk from home, last Monday. And I know my […]

Whither hobby computing?

David Stonier-Gibson The world is changing rapidly, not least of all in the realm of computing. Computing today is vastly different to what it was when […]

Why Darwin Survived

George Wright Last year, unverified rumour says that North Korea’s Supreme Leader ordered a nuclear strike on Darwin because he figured that Australia’s response would at […]

Yammer Highlights June 2021

Windows (formerly Windows 10*) We were able to help Jan with a major learning experience this month – using a bootable Linux USB flash drive to […]

Best Practice Backups for your Operating System

Hugh Macdonald Last month in PC Update we published an article by Dan Douglas on backing up in Windows. While this presented a method that would […]

Blocking Unwanted Emails

David Kretchmar, Computer Technician, Sun City Summerlin Computer Club Sooner or later this happens to all of us. You continuously receive unwanted emails, (spam) from an […]

Building a CNC Router (Part 2)

Dave Williams This is the second part of a series of articles on Dave Williams’ experience of building a CNC (computerised numerical control) router, which is […]

DOTW Winners May 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report May 2021

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the May meeting again via Zoom. This month he was seated with a small audience at Eley Road Hall, our […]

Editorial June 2021

Hugh Macdonald Welcome to the June 2021 edition of PC Update. As Melbourne has once again found itself in Covid lockdown, there is not a lot […]

How an app to decrypt criminal messages was born ‘over a few beers’ with the FBI

David Tuffley, Griffith University Australian and US law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced they’d sprung a trap three years in the making, catching major international crime […]

Interesting Internet Finds

Steve Costello The Two Types Of Cloud Data Threats And How You Protect Yourself https://askleo.com/two-cloud-data-threats/ Leo Notenboom explains the two types of threats for having your […]

Monthly Meeting June 2021

The June 2021 Monthly Meeting was held online on Wednesday 2nd June 2021, with almost 100 members in attendance via Zoom. This was the program for […]

US lawmakers are taking a massive swipe at big tech. If it lands, the impact will be felt globally

Katharine Kemp, UNSW Five antitrust laws proposed in the United States aim to aggressively rein in the market power of “big tech” companies and change the […]

Yammer Highlights May 2021

Dennis Parsons In Memory of Judy Bednar We had a terrible shock when we heard that a long-time member, Judy Bednar, had been murdered in her […]

Backing Up

Dan Douglas, President, Space Coast PC Users Group Two types of files are required to be backed up. There are your personal files, normally stored in […]

Book Review

Tim McQueen This is how they tell me the world ends – the cyber weapons arms race Nicole Perlroth Bloomsbury 491 pages On 10 May […]

Building a DIY CNC Router (Part 1)

Dave Williams This is the first part of a series of articles on Dave Williams’ experience of building a CNC (computerised numerical control) router, which is […]

Casting, not in the theatrical sense

Phil Sorrentino, Sarasota Technology Users Group Most modern computers have HDMI outputs so it is easy to display your computer screen on a big-screen TV, but […]

DOTW Winners April 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report April 2021

Neil Muller Host Paul Woolard opened the April meeting again presented via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting commenced with George Skarbek presenting Q&A. Q: I […]

Editorial May 2021

Hugh Macdonald Hello and welcome to another edition of PC Update. This month the highlights include: Dave Williams with the first part of his series on […]

Interesting Internet Finds

Steve Costello What Is Archive In Gmail And How To Archive And Unarchive Emails https://www.guidingtech.com/what-is-archive-in-gmail-how-to-archive-unarchive-emails/ Do you know what archiving in Gmail is? If so, do […]

Monthly Meeting May 2021

The May 2021 Monthly Meeting was held in person and online on Wednesday 5th May 2021, with over 20 members in attendance at Moorabbin and over […]

Presidential Musings May 2021

David Stonier-Gibson Successful Covid-be-gone party Sunday 18th April I think I can confidently declare the Party at Moorabbin on Sunday 18th April a success. We all […]

Remember, Apple AirTags and ‘Find My’ app only work because of a vast, largely covert tracking network

Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University Apple recently launched the latest version of its operating system, iOS 14.5, which features the much-anticipated app tracking transparency function, bolstering […]

Want to become a space tourist? You finally can — if you have $250,000 and a will to sign your life away

Cassandra Steer, Australian National University Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest […]

Yammer Highlights April 2021

Dennis Parsons Coronavirus Discussion & Comments The use of QR codes for “checking in” to many businesses and venues for COVID tracking purposes, including Melb […]

ASCCA Online Courses

Frank O’Loughlin Last Monday I participated in an online course on Gimp photo editor. I haven’t been game to try this previously as my memory is […]

Chromebook Update

Jeff Wilkinson, President, Sun City Summerlin Computer Club I have become more interested in Chromebooks as an alternative for our club members who need to replace […]

DOTW Winners March 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report March 2021

Neil Muller Host Dave Botherway opened the March meeting again presented via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting commenced with George Skarbek presenting Q&A. With no […]

Editorial April 2021

Hugh Macdonald Pleasingly, life is beginning to return to normal at Melbourne PC User Group. Everytime I walk into the club these days (usually on the […]

In 2021 vow to start using a password manager

Kurt Jefferson, Editor, Central Kentucky Computer Society I keep telling students in my CKCS classes that they need to start using a password manager. You should […]

Interesting Internet Finds April 2021

Steve Costello Proxy Vs. VPN: When To Use A Proxy Server And When To Use A VPN? https://www.digitalcitizen.life/when-use-proxy-and-when-use-vpn/ Have you heard about Proxies and VPNs. Do […]

Monthly Meeting April 2021

The March 2021 Monthly Meeting was held in person and online on Wednesday 3rd March 2021, with over 40 members in attendance at Moorabbin and over […]

Phone wet and will not turn on? Here is how to deal with water damage

Ritesh Chugh, CQUniversity Australia If you’ve ever gotten your phone wet in the rain, dropped it in water or spilt liquid over it, you’re not alone. […]

Potential for harm: Microsoft to make US$22 billion worth of augmented reality headsets for US Army

Ben Egliston, Queensland University of Technology and Marcus Carter, University of Sydney Microsoft has reportedly been awarded a ten year contract worth close to US$22 billion, […]

Presidential Musings April 2021

David Stonier-Gibson Internet lounge equipment As part of our refurbishing and de-cluttering the club rooms, we have moved all the Internet Lounge equipment into temporary storage. […]

Yammer Highlights March 2021

Dennis Parsons Windows 10 Merv, our loud and proud purple dinosaur (if you see his Yammer profile pic you’ll understand), has been on a rather steep […]

DOTW Winners February 2021

Roger Brown DOTW is a lighthearted look at some of the sillier events of the week. Don’t take it too seriously and do pop over to […]

East SIG Report February 2021

Neil Muller Host Frank Maher opened the first East SIG’s meeting for 2021 again hosted via Zoom. After welcoming members, the meeting then commenced with George […]

From The Editor March 2021

Hugh Macdonald Hello and welcome to the March edition of PC Update. Our magazine this month covers a range of topics: A discussion of various types […]

Interesting Internet Finds

Steve Costello, SEFCUG Gmail’s New Quick Settings https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/04/gmails-new-quick-settings/ https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/05/gmail-quick-settings-part-2/ https://cynmackley.com/2020/08/06/gmail-quick-settings-part-3/ If you use Gmail, you should know how to use its quick settings feature. Cyn Mackley […]