Date
15th September 2026
Place
Bishop's Stortford Social Club
Apologies for Absence
Jo, Robin, Pat, Joy, Harold
Present
Present - Ken, Chris, Tim, Alan, Graham, Carolyn, Maureen, Chantale, Keith
Biscuits
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive
Next Meeting
20th October
Finances
Ken
(offline discussion).
The group still has enough in the kitty for room hire. However an opinion was expressed that allowing new members to attend free of charge may be seen as unfair to those who have paid. New members will be asked to contribute.
Facebook admin
Maureen
Maureen has been managing the u3a's Facebook account and has discovered that the Android and iOS apps are different, making it difficult for a user of one to explain how to conduct tasks on the other.
QR Codes
Ken
Ken has been trying to generate QR codes. Beware of sites that claim to have a free trial. They provide a QR that routes via their own servers, and they stop redirecting after a short time.
Canva and Adobe offer QR codes. Again, they route via the vendors' infrastructure. Easiest way on a PC (and other platforms?) is to open the page you want to create the code for in Edge or Chrome, right-click on the page and choose 'Create QR code for this page'.
New BBC Programme
chris
The BBC has a new programme called Tech Now, which 'explores the latest innovation and technology shaping our lives'. It can be seen on iPlayer.
QR Codes - more
Ken
People sometimes ask what to do with a QR code that is displayed on your phone. How to you navigate to whatever's behind the QR? If the QR is in, say, a Word document then you can't do much, but if it's on a web page then the QR should be a link, so can be tapped.
To read a QR on a PC with a webcam open the Camera app and choose the icon looking like a small QR code on the right.
AOL Email Address
Alan
A friend of Alan's wife has an AOL account and has been locked out. Members of the group said that many people have had problems with email accounts belonging to ISPs they no longer have accounts with. Some suggested writing off the AOL account and getting a Gmail address. However Alan has found some useful information and a helpline number.
New Laptop
Chantale
Chantale wants something to replace her Acer laptop and has been disagreeing with her son on the spec required. Chris recommended a system with an Intel i5 processor, or the equivalent AMD Ryzen 5.
Chantale is minded to buy from John Lewis, who will set a new machine up for £80. The group agreed that this charge is reasonable.
Risks of AI
Maureen
AI's in the news, with it being painted as a serious danger. The group's views on how real the risk is were mixed.
Revolut
Paul
Paul has a Revolut account. They have recently gained a banking licence but have also suffered a personal data breach. He gets the impression that they are less secure than more experienced banks.
Fun with AI
Keith
On a recent trip two group photos were taken by different people. Obviously, the person behind the camera was missing from the photos. Keith asked AI to take the image of a person from one photo and add it to the other, therefore creating an image of the whole group. AI did a very good job - it looks as if it's a single photo of the entire group.
Dell Woes
Graham
Graham's Dell laptop failed after a BIOS update. Apparently not uncommon with Dell, as Paul's had the same experience. Dell were unable/unwilling to help.
Graham turned to Databox who resolved the problem. Databox continues to be recommended by members.
Full Fibre
Alan
Alan has had problems with City Fibre, despite the contractors turning up to make the connection. The problem was dust at the top of the telegraph pole. Two weeks later he's still waiting.
Electronic u3a
Maureen / Ken
The u3a wishes to move away from paper when distributing information to members, as most have email. Ken pointed out problems with the latest chair's email: there were several attachments which some would find a problem; proprietary formats (docx, xlsx) and the use of pdfs, which are not accessible and (unless care has been taken) may not display on a phone without excessive scrolling. It was agreed if attachments are used they should be pdfs and not proprietary formats. Ken said that things like, for example, the newsletter should be presented as a series of single-story news articles on the website. Some thought that this would cause too much extra work.
AI on a personal Device
Paul
Paul installed a full AI stack on a personal device and explained a little about how he did it. it worked quite well, but lacks the accuracy of a full-size cloud service.