President's View

Page 1 SeniorNet Association Inc. February 2021

“Seniors helping seniors use computers and the internet”

SeniorNet Association Inc. PO Box 559 Booval Qld 4304 Tel: (07) 3812 5034

www.seniornet.com.au

On Other Pages New Committee page 2 President’s View

Tech Talk page 3 This being our first newsletter for 2021 and also my first as your new Potty History page 5 President, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your Humour page 6 families a Happy New Year. Further Information page 6 We welcome this new year with a fair amount of trepidation as this wretched virus continues to dominate our lives. Are the new vaccines going to live up to expectations? But, in the middle of all this, there is Social Events “hope” and “resilience”. According to Wikipedia, “Hope” is “an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large”. When you watch world events and in particular how the pandemic is affecting some countries, we do have good reasons to be very hopeful and grateful in Australia. Following on our very well attended AGM and Christmas lunch last De- Lunches cember, I believe that we, the SeniorNet community, will continue to February provide hope and positive outcomes for our members. This happens Grand Hotel Yamanto thanks to the selfless commitment of the many trainers, your Manage- th Friday 19 @12. Meals $17 (seniors) ment Committee and the many volunteers who have once again March stepped up to deliver interesting courses and social activities. Jets Leagues Club “Resilience” may be defined as “the ability to cope with a crisis or to Friday 5th @12. Meals $11 (members) return to pre-crisis status quickly”. No doubt, we will continue to be Café 63, Riverlink tested over the coming months and that will also impact on SeniorNet’s Friday 19th @12. Meals from $9. activities. John McVeigh and his Training Team have not been able to Trips with Just Friends finalise the schedule of workshops to start in February due to our recent Sunday 28th February - Montville lock-down and that is why we don’t have a programme published in this Cost $35; pickup 8.00am @ Redbank newsletter. This will be sent out to you separately. Plaza - see overleaf for details So to hope and resilience I would add “flexibility” Sunday 28th March - Old Petrie Town Salut, Paulette Montaigne Cost $35; pickup 8.00am @ Redbank Plaza - see overleaf for details [“Salut” means “See you” - Ed]

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 2 Return to Title Page Committee 2020 - 2021

Back row: John McVeigh (Training Coordinator), Barry Gartside (Equipment Officer), Ken Curwen (Westmaster & Newsletter Editor), Margaret-anne Jensen (Membership Officer), Colleen MacKenzie (Secretary). Front row: Betty Ambler (Vice-President), Paulette Montaigne (President), Desley Badrick (Treasurer), Barbara Bottenberg (Social Activities Coordinator) .

Just Friends Activities Bus Trips Montville - Travel to Montville to walk around the shops and buy lunch. After lunch go to Maleny for a short stop in Maple Street. Old Petrie Town - At the town there are many historic buildings and working displays, a flourishing market, the Heritage Hotel and the Pine Rivers Museum. Sunday Lunches February : 14th @ Durack Tavern - meals $12; 21st @ Raceview Tavern - meals from $18 March: 14th @ Commercial Hotel, Redbank - lunches $12.50 (members); 21st @ Cecil Hotel, Goodna - lunches $12 Ring Ken on 33892950 for more information Website Just Friends Social Group

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 3 Return to Title Page Tech Talk

Restart, Reboot and Reset

These three terms sound synonymous but define very different functions in both Windows, Android and Apple devices. And all three are NOT the same as switching a device off and later switching it on. Note that the dictionary definition of reboot is synonymous with restart; but in the context of a project it implies going back to square one when the project has gone off the rails, and I am using that analogy. Finally, there is Factory Reset, a procedure to restore your device to how it was when you purchased it. Normally this employed to remove all your own data and additions so that you can hand the device to a friend or relative (or even sell it). Windows

Current versions of Windows use a trick to greatly speed up normal starting. When you turn off, the computer stores the state of the system (such as attached peripherals, memory and connections). This actually slows down the turn off process, but since you are no longer using the system speed is not important. But when next you turn on the computer it does not need to check all the details and can spring into action much more rapidly.

There is a consequence, in that temporary files may also be preserved when they don’t need to be, and other parameters can change without the system realising. It is therefore wise to do a full Restart from time to time– with a restart the computer shuts down and then reinitialises the whole system. This takes longer but is more thorough. You will have noticed that when a computer updates itself it requests a restart – and this is because the system has changed and needs to be re-initialised. To do a normal restart choose Start→Power→Restart as shown here.

Rebooting is required when a computer hangs up and does not respond to commands. Your computer may have a special reset switch which will jump the computer into restarting; if you have not got this just hold the power button on for about five seconds and it will shut down regardless. Of course, any work you are performing at the time will be lost; and when you turn on Windows will ask if you want to go into Safe mode for diagnostic reasons; if the problem recurs you should try that. Factory Reset is an option when nothing else will make your computer work well and, as stated above, also a way to turn the computer into a vanilla machine if you wish to sell or gift it. You should back up your files before doing this just in case something goes wrong. Also be aware that any programs you have installed on the computer will be wiped. First choose Start→Settings (the gear icon)→Update and Security. In the left-hand column choose Re- covery and click ‘Get Started’. In the options window choose Keep or Remove personal files. Finally confirm the Reset. A final note on Windows– holding down Ctrl+Alt and keying Delete will bring up a blue screen with a menu – choose Task Manager. In the subsequent menu all currently running programs are shown and, if you want to close one that is unresponsive, select it and click the End Task button. Android

To restart an Android device, press and hold the power button until you see the power off menu. For nearly all you get a Restart option in the menu; but the latest Android 11 based phones require an extra tap on the Power menu item to bring up the Restart option. To reboot an Android device press and hold the power and volume down buttons together until the device screen responds – usually for five seconds- (if that does not work try using volume up instead). The device should recover. Factory Reset in Android is part of Settings→System. Tap on Advanced to get Reset Options. Then tap Erase All Data (Factory Reset) and follow the prompts. Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 4 Return to Title Page Apple

To restart a Mac computer, go to the Apple menu (top left) and choose Restart; to reboot when frozen hold down Command, Ctrl and Eject (or Power) until the screen blanks and booting commences. To restart or reboot an iPad, press and hold the power and volume down buttons together until the power off slider appears on screen, then turn it off. Follow with a normal turn on process. To restart or reboot an iPhone press Volume Up, then Volume Down, and finally press and hold the side button. For older devices press and hold the side button and the Home button simultaneously until the Apple logo appears on screen. To factory reset an iPhone or iPad choose Settings→General→Reset. Tap ‘Erase all content and settings’ and follow the prompts to complete the task. To factory reset a Mac computer, having first backed up all your data, restart in Recovery mode by holding down Command+R as the computer boots. The machine will display a Utilities screen; choose Disk Utility, then Continue. Choose the Mackintosh HD disk and click Erase. You will need to know the format your machine uses for the next step (APFS or MacOS Extended). Click Erase to complete the reset. Ken Curwen COVID Revisited

Back in June last year I discussed the COVIDsafe app and why it might be needed. I also mentioned the options available to governments – keep on as normal and kill substantial numbers of their citizens, or cut the spread of the virus by isolating as many of their people as is possible and accepting the economic consequences. In the event Australia has taken the second option and has been able to handle contact tracing without much use of the app. But it is instructive to see what has happened in countries that took the first option. Firstly they have had worse economic consequences than those that took the second option. This is because not only did they have significant portions of their workforce out of action but also many of the people who had not caught COVID elected to lock themselves down. And since this was not because of government fiat there was little compensation paid out– no kick start to spending. Secondly they have found their hospital system so overwhelmed by COVID sufferers that normal health services have been heavily curtailed – for example, in England my brother’s hernia goes untreated, my cousin’s failing heart valve has not been replaced, and right now if you get cancer it will not be excised – if you are lucky you might get a bit of chemotherapy, but your chances of survival are diminished. One wonders if the COVID death statistics take account of such consequential mortality. Finally the high numbers of COVID cases effectively turns the countries concerned into a virus mutation petri dish, with the new highly transmissible variants emerging as a result. Ken Curwen GSam Battery Monitor App

It’s probably because I am a grumpy old man but I don’t like the way devices just show the battery state as half full/half empty without any numbers. I tried various battery monitoring apps and although they functioned they did not consistently display percentage on the status bar. GSam does so reliably, and can also tell you which apps are battery hogs. Available for both Android and Apple. Ken Curwen

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 5 Return to Title Page Potty History Lady Katherine Grey (1540-1568) My first Potty History, three years ago, was about Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Day Queen (I have reprinted Jane’s sto- ry below). But I did not realise that her younger sister Katherine had an extraordinary life. Most notably she was Heir Presumptive to the throne of three consecutive English monarchs, which is certainly unique in English history and probably a world record as well. Six weeks before Edward VI died Lady Jane Grey was married to the son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was the power behind Edward’s throne and intended to be the power behind Jane’s throne as well. At the same cere- mony Katherine, at thirteen years of age, was married to the Earl of Pembroke’s son. As Jane’s sister, Katherine would be heir to the throne; however, when the accession of Jane went pear shaped, the Earl realised he was backing the wrong filly and had the marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. Strangely when Mary, a Catholic, took the throne of England she adopted Katherine as her heir. Presumably Mary reckoned that any royal was better than Elizabeth, who legally was next in line (but ruled to be illegitimate after Henry VIII had her mum executed; although Henry had passed an act of succession that specified she should follow after Mary). Katherine’s final stint as Heir Apparent was under Elizabeth, who would have had doubts about the Scottish Stuart claim to the throne of England. But she blotted her copybook so badly as described below that the position was withdrawn from her after two years. A friend of hers, Lady Jane Seymour (not the long-dead wife of Henry VIII) introduced her to Jane’s brother Edward and she secretly married Edward within the year…but as a member of the royal family she needed the Queen’s permission which she failed to request. She was also somewhat careless in that she neglected to record the name of the clergyman who married her and lost a marriage certificate which her husband gave her. By the time her pregnancy became obvious Jane, who had witnessed the marriage, had died of tuberculosis. As Edward was overseas on a grand tour her position was somewhat tricky and the Queen, who had planned on marrying her to the Earl of Arran to cement relationships with Scotland, was furious. So Katherine was imprisoned in the Tower of Lon- don. When Edward got back from overseas he was separately imprisoned in the Tower; but mysteriously, after giving birth to her first son, she contrived to conceive a second. On the Queen’s order the marriage was annulled, the couple were described as fornicators and the children illegitimate; and finally Katherine was sent off to various country estates to keep her out of mischief. She died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-seven. In death she was entombed alongside her husband in Salisbury Cathedral; this photo shows their tombs and she gets the higher tomb (unusually for a wife, but she was royal and he was not). Lady Jane Grey (1553-53)

Queen Jane beat Queen Mary (see next month’s issue) to the throne by half a head; and lost the whole of her head about six months later. She was the granddaughter of Mary Tudor, the second daughter of Henry VII. Mary Tudor was briefly Queen of France until the King of France died. She then remarried in England (her brother Henry VIII not consenting). Edward VI (1547-53) was fiercely protestant and in his view the protestant Jane was the best choice to succeed him. At first the Privy Council was supportive but they then realised the country would prefer Edward’s catholic sister and switched allegiance after nine days. Jane, who really did not understand what the fuss was about, meek- ly resigned but following sedition in her favour it was decided that the only solution was ‘Off with her Head’. Poor Jane. And nobody now calls her by her regal title. Ken Curwen

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 6 Return to Title Page Humour

My Lockdown Diary Friday 8th January - busy explaining there is no lockdown to a Just Friends member when my son rings on the mobile to tell me there is. Realise the 6am ABC news is not the end of the day’s events. Spend the next half hour warning other Friends that Sunday lunch is off the menu. Go to shops for ingredients for unplanned Sunday lunch. Saturday 9th January - realise that in the rush to the shops I had not checked the recipe, and am short of a few ingredients. Complete writing articles for Newsletter Someday 10th - Knock up a meal anyway. Spend the day sulking. Noneday 11th - It isn't a weekend, it isn't a weekday, what is it? Start assembling Newsletter Tuesday 12th January - sanity restored, and give thanks that I live in Australia

COVID Contact Tracing Procedure - check out Contact Tracys (click on the link to go to You Tube).

Enough COVID humour - a couple of items from Tony Lopez’s Insanity Streak

Further Information SeniorNet Committee

The listing of the 2019-2020 committee can be found here. Computer Repairs

A listing of repairers who our members have found satisfactory can be found here.

Disclaimer: While we have made every effort to give accurate information and tips in this Newsletter, we cannot guarantee that their use will provide the desired results in all circumstances. In no event will the Editor or SeniorNet be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of URLs and tips given in this newsletter. We recommend members verify details before acting on information or suggestions contained herein. The Editor would appreciate being informed of any erroneous information so that it may be corrected. Ken Curwen. Newsletter Editor.

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 1 SeniorNet Association Inc. February 2021 Update

“Seniors helping seniors use computers and the internet”

SeniorNet Association Inc. PO Box 559 Booval Qld 4304 Tel: (07) 3812 5034

www.seniornet.com.au

SeniorNet Workshop Programme: February—March 2021 Boilerhouse Training Room, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich Workshop Times 9-11am . COVID space restrictions limit workshop numbers to eight including the trainer. There- fore BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL through John McVeigh - email [email protected]

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 15th February 16th February 17th February 18th February 19th February Basic Word Pro- Happy Snaps Intro to USQ & Social Lunch cessing 2 of 3 2 of 3 Computers 3 Peter Wighton Barbara Bottenberg John McVeigh Grand Hotel 22nd February 23rd February 24th February 25th February 26th February Family History: Basic Word Pro- Happy Snaps Intro to USQ & Who, Why, cessing 3 of 3 3 of 3 Computers 4 When Esmae Mander Peter Wighton Barbara Bottenberg John McVeigh 1st March 2nd March 3rd March 4th March 5th March Photography Re- Intro to USQ & Morning Tea at visited 1 Computers 5 Norths Ken Curwen John McVeigh 8th March 9th March 10th March 11th March 12th March Photography Re- Intro to USQ & visited 2 Computers 6 Ken Curwen John McVeigh 15th March 16th March 17th March 18th March 19th March Photography Re- Windows 10 Ba- Social Lunch visited 3 sics Ken Curwen Jenny Greaves Café 63 Riverlink 22nd March 23rd March 24th March 25th March 26th March Finding Family Photography Re- with Google visited 4 Bette Fritz Ken Curwen

th th st 29 March 30 March 31 March Photography Re- Basic Facebook visited 5 Ken Curwen Esmae Mander Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 2 Return to Title Page

Workshop Topics Described

NOTE: All Workshops are subject to change if Trainers are unavailable due to illness or other commitments. If possible changes will be listed on the SeniorNet Web Site or you can contact John McVeigh–Training Coordinator – ph 07 3281 8548 – email [email protected] to confirm workshops are as listed. COVID space restrictions limit workshop numbers to eight including the trainer. Therefore BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL through John McVeigh - email [email protected] Please bring your USB drive with you as it is helpful in many lessons. * For courses and workshops involving tablets (iPads and Androids) please make sure your device is charged, that you have your cable with you and bring your USQ username and password with you (for Eduroam access)

Basic Facebook Do you have a Facebook account? Or are you dubious about joining Facebook? This workshop will be helpful for both situations. Explanations of navigating, recognising Facebook symbols, searching an item, reading & understanding posts as well as making comments will be covered along with much more. Come along to see how you can make Facebook uniquely yours. Basic Word Processing This group of workshops will be using Microsoft Word (if you have it) or WordPad, which is included free in Win- dows. Topics will include: entering text; moving around in the document; ways of selecting text; font and paragraph for- matting; copy and paste; saving and printing; and finally find and replace text. Family History: Who, Why, When Our first presentation for 2021 will look at how to search more information as to ‘Who’ your Ancestors were. Also on the agenda is discussion on ‘Why’, ‘How’ & ‘When’ did they emigrate, Naturalisation & Citizenship as well as Searching Made Easier. Please bring a USB along on which to save your search items. Also ensure any other device you intend to use is fully charged & that you have your cable as well as your USQ username & password with you (which enables access to Eduroam ). Finding Family with Google Learn tips and tricks on how to narrow down your search in Google when looking for your ancestors or related information. Google is a very versatile search engine and when it comes to Family History it can be one of your best friends. Bring along some names or topics to practice on Happy Snaps These workshops will start by explaining the many ways we can download photos from one device to another. Check out YouTube videos and put their tips into practice on the training room computers. Bring your sim card reader (and cables), phone, iPad, laptop or USB containing photos to practice with. Information sheets will be provided; a USB would be advantageous to save your work. Later in the series you will learn how to use apps on your smartphone or tablet to do simple editing of your photos – crop, filter etc. Intro to USQ & Computers 3 Learn how to research with web browsers and then store your results Intro to USQ & Computers 4 Introduction to the BeConnected facility, and other instructional resources

(Continued on page3 )

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 3 Return to Title Page Intro to USQ & Computers 5 Email access and management Intro to USQ & Computers 6 Revision of sessions 1 – 5 Morning Tea at Norths This will be held at Northern Suburbs Leagues Club, 29 Pelican Street, North Ipswich starting at 10:00 am. A topic of interest will be covered (watch your email for details) Photography Revisited 1 This series is targeted at members who took the Photography Step-by-Step series in early 2019 (but other members are welcome) and repeats the editing (using different images) but omits the theory material. The series uses the free program Paint.net for editing your images This step introduces you to the interface and editing process in Paint.net and uses it to make a range of simple corrections to photos Photography Revisited 2 In the second step we introduce Selection to enable editing of specific portions of an image, and add the concept of layered images, allowing one selected element to be changed without affecting the underlying elements Photography Revisited 3 Continuing with layers we use them to create collages, including addition of extra material (usually people) to an image Photography Revisited 4 In this step we will edit photos with a range of problems using layers. Photography Revisited 5 In this final step we will explore the range of Add-Ons available in Paint.net which enhance the basic program. We will also take the opportunity to revise any material from earlier steps. Using Trove Trove is a very interesting and entertaining website run by the National Library of Australia. It covers many different resources, one of them being Australian Newspapers which have been digitised up to 1954. There are a few different ways of going about your search and this time we will be looking at the “Simple Search” option for looking for a specific topic/name/event etc. as opposed to doing an Advanced Search or reading a full page or newspaper at a time Windows 10 Basics Windows 10 modernised Windows, but also keeps some features from earlier versions. It is the standard operating system found on most new computers sold. This workshop will look at some of the basic features as well as a few of the newer additions

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft. Page 4 Return to Title Page Tech Talk

Dead hard drive – A learning experience

I am always telling people to make sure they have an up-to-date backup of their important information. A hard drive failure can happen at any time and is always unexpected. On Friday 22 January, the unexpected happened to me. My main storage drive (with all my documents, email, photos, etc) failed. No warnings. No signs of any impending doom. Working fine during the day but when I went to turn my computer off, the drive had died. In this case it was complete failure. There was no hope of retrieving any information from the drive. Windows saw no files or directo- ry structure. An attempt to reformat the drive was met with a ‘catastrophic hardware failure’ message. After a period of choice words about technology, I began restoring from my backup. The only thing was I had not been as diligent at maintaining my backup regime as I advise others. So my most recent backup was 6 months old. To add to the misery, my backup drive had been displaying errors previously which I had ignored. The result was that some files on the backup drive were corrupted and could not be restored.

So after a few hours on Saturday, I had returned everything to close to normal working order. I was lucky and the corrupted files were not critical. All my photos could be restored from another backup and the photos from Christ- mas were still on my camera and there were copies on my wife’s computer. Important insurance and warranty information had previously been backed up to OneDrive. The most important loss was 6 months of archived emails and files which I had on my Desktop. I tend to use my Desktop as a temporary working space and move projects to their permanent home (from where they are backed up) when completed. So there were several unfinished projects lost, including a series of articles I had been working on for the newsletter. I can recreate those articles and I guess I must hope there was nothing too critical in the 6 months of archived email I may need in the future. The worst part of this experience is knowing that there may be information lost which at the moment I am unaware and I may only know some time in the future when I go looking for it. So what are the lessons, children? Hard drive failure can happen to anyone. It can happen unexpectedly and without warning. Recovering from such a failure is stressful and frustrating even with a backup. Had I maintained an effective backup regime, there still would have been some stress but restoration would have been simpler and I would not have written this article. So my (belated) New Year’s resolution is to do better at practicing what I preach. Phil Buchanan

Disclaimer: While we have made every effort to give accurate information and tips in this Newsletter, we cannot guarantee that their use will provide the desired results in all circumstances. In no event will the Editor or Senior- Net be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of URLs and tips given in this newsletter. We recommend members verify details before acting on information or suggestions contained herein. The Editor would appreciate being informed of any erroneous information so that it may be corrected. Ken Curwen. Newsletter Editor.

Sponsors: The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich City Council, the Queensland Government and Microsoft.