Although we planned this meeting in March before the World Wide Ransomware attack which affected the NHS it now seems to have been fortuitous that we can now address it. It has this week been revealed that the attack came from a known North Korean hacking group. It has also been stated that none of the money in bitcoin accounts has so far been touched and it has been suggested that the hackers did not realise how effective and widespread their attack would be.
A good meeting to attend if you want to know about how to protect yourself against such threats.
Duncan's chose the tower version as his new ARMX6 computer from R-Comp at £699, which is also available in a small profile version at the same price.
Two views of the tower case are shown here. It may be used flat or upright.
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It uses the i.MX6 computer board. It does have a DVD drive attached.
It runs Risc OS 5.2.3 and needs Aemulor for lots of software as the A9 processor is 32-bit only ( not 26-bit like the original ARM machines from Acorn). Aemulor Pro provides access to 26 bit software and applications can be set up once making use of Aemulor and then subsequently open automatically. Memory 2GB much more than RISC PC and processor speed was a little difficult to find apparently only one core of the quad processor is used. 2GHz(check!). Configuration is setting up a script for the network. Unlike OS6 it needs to be set up manually. Maximum screen resolution is 2560 x 1600 with 16million colours. Boots up in a few seconds. Duncan had installed Sunfish and boot up was a little slower because it was looking for an attached drive which was not present. It does periodically freeze with the mouse. Replugging it fixed it but sometimes you had to reboot. Safestore is a backup option. It has been in production for 18 months.In speed it appears about 4 times faster than an Iyonix.
Software
He had installed much of his favourite software but it does come with bundled software including !Organizer (www.organizerpim.co.uk) although an older version than his RPC version. Also Packman (Package manager) and Python v2. Similarly with other Acorn machines there is no WiFi so it has to be hard wired to the ethernet. He had transferred Fonts from his RISC PC along with Xchars.
There is a 600 page user guide as OS4.
Richard Garby (see latest Archive Mag) produced a version allowing PDF duplex printing on certain machines and printers.
Uses !Printers 1.85 Also includes Artworks 2.6.3 and displaying the famous Apple was almost instantaneous! Martin Wuerthner is still supporting it and bringing out new versions. !Compo (Photoeditor) and !Variations by the same author are useful additions. !Compo is very hard to learn. John likes Variations because it is very easy to readjust photos.
Software also includes Develop, Impression Publisher. He has Techwriter (26 bit), but hasn't ever used it. Also included is Fireworkz, Netprint and Printspooler. You can also emulate older Acorn machines but this does not always work as the monitor needs to run in 50Hz mode which his won't.
The Aemulor has to alter memory usage to avoid zero page locations and separate the address and flag into separate registers to allow the full memory space. Some software from the RPC won't work even so.
Street maps
!Maps and Openstreetmap.co.uk used with GPS data and Satellite maps. They can be used on Android. You can also add extra information. You can plan journeys.
John spoke about Family which Duncan had and considered it the best genealogy program on RISCOS. It enabled you to select parts of a tree and print or export it and edit it such as in moving a person to a different place. It automatically puts the surname in. Others are Family Tree and Ancestor. He was having trouble driving a Brother dot matrix printer, which was able to print A4 sideways by feeding paper through the back which meant he could print on A3 paper; very useful for family trees. However he was not able to find a way to drive it from RISCOS. It would not do postscript either although it was networked. He had approached Brother to get a driver, but they said there wasn't enough demand to make it worthwhile. Duncan had traced his family history which had been very intriguing. Especially where his Grandmother's second husband had previously been married to her Aunt. So his Mother's step Father was also his Mother's great Uncle. If this isn't confusing he does not know what is! Also two brothers had married two sisters and when one brother and one sister died the remaining two then married each other, which was illegal until a few years before.
It was not possible to add pictures although there had been a program allowing you to tag pictures written by David Hordern.
Peter tried out his wireless mouse with scroll button which worked very well on Duncan's computer. Duncan used either Netprint or Printspool which could use multiple printers but was therefore very complicated. The website does not describe the ARMX6 very well so you don't really know what you are getting.
Otter web browser could be downloaded too. It is a port of another program (not named).
A good demonstration of a very impressive machine. Thanks Duncan.
Peter
We have now had a committee meeting and updated the future programme.
| ICENI Future programme 2017/2018 | ||
| 2017 | ||
| June 21st | Security, AntiVirus, Ransomware, Botnets and Firewalls | All |
| July 19th | Windows update - The Creators update | Michael |
| August 16th | Summer Social Event - The Last Anchor , Ipswich -(Provisional) | |
| September 20th | Alternative software applications, Model Railways, Amateur radio and Telescope control. |
All |
| October 18th | Linux /Ubuntu updates. | Gareth et al |
| November 15th | Slide/Video Evening | All |
| December 20th | Gadgets and Party Evening | All |
| 2018 | ||
| January 17th | Winter Social Evening - The Wooden Fender, Ardleigh (Provisional) | |
| February 21st | Arduino/Raspberry Pi / BBC :Microbits | All |
| March 21st | Backup systems - Cloud/ CCTV, Acronis | All |
| April 18th | AGM - Virtual Reality and secure password storage | All |
| May 16th | Computer surgery evening | All |
Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website.
http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk
Membership fee currently £10, visitors free.
We are continuing our publicity for EAUG events , however their website has not been updated for a years now. So if you wish to know information please phone one of their contacts.
Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month
opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.
Their website has not been updated since 2011
"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."
However many household insurance policies will include cover away from home often with no increase in premium. (Ed.)
Our website URL is
http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk
Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk
I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website. If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.