In attendance: (18 participants)
Vera Naughton, Michael Lorigan, Mary Lavelle, Cearbhall OâMeadhra,
Joe Murphy, John Chambers, Bert Brown, Tom Langan,
Joan Kearns, Noreen Meagher, Michael Brown, Lady Jackie,
Bob Corazza, Eamonn O'Connor, Gerry Eastwood, Paul Griffith,
Martin Kelly, Declan Meehan.
We welcomed Paul Griffith back from a painful absence of quite a few weeks. He
is looking forward to taking up the pen to vie with the wiles of Lady Jackie.
We look forward with eager anticipation to the outcome!
Jackie welcomed Michael Lorigan to his first Monday meeting of the exchange
club and lauded his excellent contribution to Saturdays meeting in Cork, where
his suggestion solved a long-standing zoom connection problem.
Jackie went on to report that a number of members of the Saturday club have
formed a test user group called "Fangs and Fur" to explore the possibilities of
Signal as an alternative to WhatsApp. They reported great success. They found
one anomaly in which the screen freezes when sending a message. Further testing
proved that a simple double tap succeeded in sending it, despite the frozen
screen. After completing the send, The app releases the screen and lets
Voiceover operate freely again.
Declan has bought a new toy: a "Baofeng UV 5R +Plus" Ham Radio which he was
delighted to share with the four Ham radio enthusiasts in the group. Eamonn,
Gerry Bob and Michael brown are all culprits.
He can only listen to broadcasts but, not having a licence, cannot speak. The
device is not fully accessible since you have to type in a number for the band
you want to listen to. However, the machine helpfully speaks the number back to
you as confirmation.
Bob contributed yet more goodies by inviting anyone to take over his unused
Tecsun 660 ham radio. This device covers all frequencies including VHF, Airband
AND shortwave. Again, not accessible but usable by enthusiasts who learn to
recognise the system of bleeps that are emitted for various situations. Tom is
tempted!
Gerry recommended downloading "Programming Amateur Radios with CHIRP", a
publication that is available from the UK.
Eamonn explained that there is a serious side to this hobby. The user learns
how radio works and how wave travel. It is intriguing to learn the effect of
changes in the varying atmosphere and the effects of ultraviolet radiation. He
invited anyone interested to join the radio club on Tuesday evening.
Tom wondered what advice he could give to other meeting owners on how best to
invite users into their Zoom session. A number of members came to the rescue
and explained the use of the invitation link at the bottom of the zoom
interface. Declan warned that they should turn off the password, otherwise they
will need to copy the whole invitation.
Note: Alt + i on the computer version of zoom will open the invitation dialog.
Jackie and Mary reported receiving an alarming notice from Revolut, asking them
to: "please provide your missing tax information" and requesting their PPS
number as security. All agreed that Revolut should have no need to know
anything about a user's tax situation nor to have any right to request a PPS
number. all were relieved when Jackie explained that the answer was optional
and could be avoided.
Declan assured everyone that this notice was genuine if it came from the
Revolut app. If it had come from a message text or email, it should be
disregarded as unsafe.
There was great concern about the demise of the One 4 all voucher if kept for
more than one year. After that, a charge of â¬1.40 per month is imposed by the
vendor. This inspired Mary to take the plunge right away and buy an Alexa Show
with her voucher.
Joan drew the attention to the new cycle lanes that are being placed around St.
Stephen's Green in Dublin. They include Ely Place and she wondered what
Fighting Blindness had to say about the impact of these developments on blind
members. Declan explained that there was virtually nobody present at the Ely
Place premises due to covid and so there was no experience to recount.
Tom gave an update on his experience with the Orcam. He is very pleased with
it and gave a demonstration of the reading voice and extent of the menu of
services available within such a tiny device. Worn on the frame of the glasses,
it is available to read shop names, bus stops and random pieces of text as they
appear. He does not use the facial recognition or product identification
features but will think about experimenting so that he can report how they
function.
The meeting ended
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 Ph: _353 (0)1-2864623 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account,
List Page: https://www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Subscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe
Unsubscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe
Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/fb-exchange
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
