Creating a link to help people subscribe to your YouTube channel.

If you're building a YouTube channel you'll notice one of the hardest things is to build your subscriber base. If you don't have 1,000 subscribers you can't earn income from your efforts. You also need 4,000 hours of viewing time over the past 12 months which is itself can be hard to achieve, but I'm finding getting subscribers is more difficult.

I recently read about creating an auto-subscribe link which frankly concerned me. I want subscribers but I don't want people who are unhappy they've been auto-subscribed. Luckily the auto-subscribe is a misnomer. The link doesn't auto-subscribe, it does however provide a convenient link people can click on to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Even then, people are still presented with a dialogue to confirm they wish to subscribe.

The link for my channel using the user on YouTube is the following:

https://www.youtube.com/user/kelvineldridge?sub_confirmation=1

The link for my channel on YouTube is the following:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ZoZm8eDlDkxXz8YOkWukg?sub_confirmation=1

You can find your channel link as follows and then just add ?sub_confirmation=1 to the end of the link.

Open YouTube
Click on the icon for you at the right near the top but inside the current windows. Not the icon just under the X for close for the current window.
Select Your Channel

The link you require can be copied from the address bar area.

If you prefer to use the user name as the channel link (this may only be available for older channels) you can find the link as follow.

Open YouTube
Click on the icon for you at the right near the top but inside the current windows. Not the icon just under the X for close for the current window.
Select Your Channel
Click Customise Channel
Click View Channel

The link you require can now be copied from the address bar area.

Once you create the complete URL (link) which includes your channel link followed by ?sub_confirmation=1 you can copy and paste the link wherever you need to share it. For example I've shared the link in this post and can easily refer people to the post. I could send the link to family and friends via email or an SMS message. Others may wish to share using their social media account.

I hope you find this useful.

Kelvin

Update: 4/2/2022
The auto subscribe link is a desktop only feature. It does not work for mobile users. Mobile users need to click on the subscribe button when they get to the YouTube channel.

Google Maps versus Here Maps versus OpenStreetMaps/Leaflet versus Tomtom maps

Since I think around 2012, I've been lucky enough to have been able to use Google Maps for free. My usage has been relatively low so there's not been an issue. More recently however one site I created (www.5kmRadius.com.au), to help people check the 5km radius they're allow to travel for exercise in lockdown, became very popular. Both Victoria and NSW went into lockdown and restricted people's movements. 

Now you'd think a site becoming popular would be good and normally it is, but unfortunately the site's popularity made Google notice and I needed to sign up on their Google Map's freemium service which basically means once my sites go over approximately 28,000 page views I start getting charged.

Normally I add Google AdSense to my sites but for maps there's two problems.

1. Google does not allow AdSense ads to be placed on this page. My guess is because it's a single page site, but really I don't know.

2. Even if I could place ads on the site, the cost per 1,000 transactions is greater (probably double) than ads generally pay, so I'd still be running at a loss.

This has meant I needed to check and test other mapping services. Here's a summary of my findings.

Google Maps

Google provides a $200 credit (in USD) which equates to around 28,000 transaction a month (which I estimate to be around 28-30,000 page views). After that there's a charge of  of around $7 USD per 1,000 calls. With no income coming from the site it's not possible to justify paying to provide a free service to others.

Pros

Best mapping service
$200 monthly credit
Ability to limit costs (in theory as have not tested)

Cons

Cost $7 (USD) per 1,000 calls

Google Maps is the service I'm used to the most but I also think it's the best service. Overall I've not really had problems with the service.

Here Maps

After reviewing a number of services I decided to try Here Maps. Here Maps has a fairly generous freemium plan where you don't have to provide a credit card up front and you get 150,000 transactions per month. 

Pros

Greater allowance of 150,000 transactions
No credit card needed to sign up.
Conversion from Google Maps wasn't too hard.

Cons

Maps don't always display correctly. E.g. zooming parts disappear
Account states 159,000 used but receive email the account was suspended with 253,000 transaction. That is you can't rely on their account page. Mine was about 4 days behind.

OpenStreetMaps/Leaflet

I decided to try OpenStreetMaps. You're almost lead to think of this as a free service, but that's not the case. In fact I'd suggest it's possibly more expensive than Here Maps. You're encouraged to use other service providers to serve maps and prices vary. I checked a few out (Mapbox, Thurderforest) and almost signed up to Mapbox. I decided not to as I couldn't find in their document an ability to limit cost and to me that is critical.

Pros

Converted fairly easily from Here Maps and Google Maps

Cons

Free data is one thing but you need to find a third party as a tile server and thus charge. Some have introductory level plans with free usage but I couldn't find a method to limit usage and thus potential for large costs.
Maps aren't as clear.
Maps were cut off when changing what the user could see so redesigned my page so couldn't resize.

Overall I felt there's little point in using OpenStreetMaps over Here Maps. Here Maps works out cheaper if you need to pay.

Tomtom 

Perhaps the most disappointing service. After spending quite a few hours over a number of days, I was not able to get even the most basic map to display. For such a strong brand name their tutorials are lacking

Pros

Higher free usage, 50,000 tile requests a day.
Clear crisp maps.
Like the full screen button available on desktop/laptops and Android.
Activity on dash up to date.

Cons

Poor documentation such that I couldn't get Tomtom maps to work.
A feature such as a circle on a map isn't included in the base API.
Difficult to get working.
Time consuming to get working.

In conclusion, and this should be prefaced that this is about what I need the maps for, Google Maps is good if your usage is low but if your usage increases then consider Here Maps. If however paying for your usage of maps is justified as you have a method to get a return on your usage, then Google Maps offers the best service.

This is a brief summary of what I found in using the various mapping products. My usage is fairly basic requiring the display of a map, markers, circles and lines. The ability to update the position of circles and markers on the map. The ability to return the GPS location clicked on. So really I would consider these features to be basic, but I suspect that perhaps many others may only need this level of product.

I hope this information is useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Update: 23 Aug 2021 (shortly after midnight)
After a few more hours, watching YouTube videos and comparing code samples, I was able to get a basic map up and going. At this point I could start testing. Able to display map, zoom in and out buttons (with full screen option) and add a marker. The next step was to add a circle which doesn't appear to be a built-in feature. I created a polygon so a circle really is just a polygon with more points. Two things I need is to create the function to create the points and then work out how to add and remove the circle. Certainly more work than other mapping software.

I'm not at this stage going to write off Tomtom maps as it provides another option.

Update: 23 Aug 2021 7:40pm
After working on the www.5kmRadius.com.au site using Tomtom maps I've completed all the features to make the Tomtom based version live. It's been time consuming but it's good to have nutted out all the issues. There's features I like about Tomtom maps plus Tomtom also provide 50,000 transactions free each day. Although what constitutes a transaction isn't always clear it means I can now further test out Tomtom's services.

Pricing for Tomtom usage

Tomtom provides 50,000 free map tiles per day. How many tiles are used each time there's a page view depends on your zoom level. According to the documentation, since I'm using zoom level 10 as the default, the map tile horizontally would cover 152.87 metres / pixel. With a HD screen having 1920 pixels  across, a map tile would cover 293 kilometres. If that's the case most people will only need to display one tile to see their 5km radius and those of their friends 5km radius. This potentially means 50,000 free tiles should be sufficient. We'll see how it goes.

If payment is required the charge is $0.05 per 1,000 requests. Not sure of the currency but suspect USD which equates to about 7 cents per 1,000 tiles. Tomtom has a prepaid credit option which starts at 25 euro which equates to around $40 AUD.

Normally usage isn't a problem for me as I have relatively low use sites displaying 5,000 or less page views a day. Because of Victoria and NSW locking down at the same time usage on my site has been what I consider huge. The usage is however tapering off. What is important however it by using each mapping product and reviewing their prices has left me better placed for whatever the future may hold.

Update: 23 Aug 21 11:48pm
The results of testing.
Time: 3 hours 44 minutes
Page views: 1,028
Tiles: 11,999
Approximately 12 tiles per page view
Thus 50,000 tiles served in this test correlates to approximately 4,167 page views.

Based on 12 tiles server per page, the cost per 1,000 page views is around 84 cents. Hopefully this figure helps others who are evaluating different mapping service options.

Update: 24 Aug 2021
Response from HERE.
I received support email with a link which states "It can take around 48 hours for usage data to be available on this page." This is 2 days. What I found is the usage data was around 4 days behind. When the account was suspend the usage data was not updated. This doesn't stop you from using HERE but it does allow you to factor in the slow updating of their information. It is probably better to determine a way to estimate usage from your own stats otherwise you could end up with excess charges.

Update: 24 Aug 2021
Response from Tomtom. I had a hard time getting their basic map to work. I have to eat humble pie. The basic example is provided here and I made multiple mistakes. One when I copied and paste the key where I left in "<" and ">" at either end. The second is I didn't read/understand the note "With a CDN: https://api.tomtom.com/maps-sdk-for-web/cdn/6.x/<version>/maps/maps-web.min.js - Note: Include latest version in the URL". You need to replace "<version>" in two places with the latest version number. Finding the latest version number is a bit obscure. So in essence the fault was mine, but to be fair, each other site provided examples where only the key needed to be replaced for the basic example to work. IT's easier to see your errors in hindsight. Hopefully my error may help others.

Update: 25 Aug 2021
Reviewing historical page views for the 14th of August the page views for the site was 43,633 and unique page views were 31,648.. The transactions according to HERE for the 14th of August was 37,930 total and 37,574 tiles. A quick correlation would indicate HERE transactions roughly equate to about 15% less than the number of page views. 

For the period from the  to29th July to 20th of August HERE reported 149,338. The page views on my sites totalled 185,067. My account account was suspended for the remaining of the month with an email stating 253,000 transactions.

Update: 26 Aug 2021
It's a new month for my account with HERE maps but unfortunately the account is still suspended. Waiting for a response. This means if you're using the Freemium account and reach roughly 12,500 page views your account could get suspended and your site effectively become useless. The problem with HERE is once you exceed your plan the only option appears to provide your credit card details. Since they have no controls for you to limit usage it's possible to end up with huge bills. That's not a risk I'm prepared to take.

Tomtom's limitation of 50,000 transactions per day (about 4,000-5,000 page views) is working well. Once the quota is reach the map stops working, but by the next morning it is working again. Whilst I'm OK with my site stopping once the quota is reached (at least 4-5K people each day get value from the site) if I did want to pay, there's a prepaid option starting at 25 Euro or around $40AUD. At around 84 cents per 1,000 view that would provide approximately 47,000 page views and no exposure should the amount be used up quickly. Unfortunately the site has no form of income so I'm not able to fund the activity. I am continuing to research options so I can help more people but that will take time.

Updated my code so the Tomtom service is used up to 4,000 page views a day and after that OpenStreetMaps is used. The service is now operational 24/7 but there's still a possibility of OpenStreetMaps suspending the service.

Update: 27 Aug 2021
Didn't hear back from HERE maps so service is still suspended. Wondered what would happen if I opened another account. Deactivated suspended account and opened new account with different email address, created the key and pasted into code. Site is now up and running again. Doesn't give me a great deal of confidence in HERE maps but we'll see how it goes.

Update: 2 Sep 2021
In order to keep the www.5kmradius.com.au active once quotas are reached, I've programmed the site to change providers once a certain number of page views is reached. The problem I've now come up against is the time Tomtom uses isn't Australian local time and thus their count does not match the local time period and maps can stop displaying. Tomtom is based in Amsterdam but that doesn't appear to be their time base either. I suppose only time will tell!

Update: 14 Sep 2021
After quite a bit of testing I feel Tomtom's stats base the time in UTC, which I'd equate to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).. By setting the default time as UTC the page views and the Tomtom activity page should now match. In other words 10am in Australia, which is 0:00 GMT or UTC is when the counting of tile requests reset. As a quick guide I now feel one page view equates to around 15 tile requests.

GPS logger app on Android Samsung Galaxy S21 5G mobile phone versus GoPro Max GPS data

On a recent bike ride (see map) I decided to test of the GPS logger app available on Android the gps in the GoPro Max. The GoPro Max wins by a long shot but if you don’t have gps in the GoPro (some lower cost models don't) you really don’t have any choice other than using an app with a mobile phone.

Overall I think the GPS logger app is more than sufficient for mapping out the trail. It’s only when you zoom right in do you notice the difference. I think the real limitation is the mobile phone gps device, not so much the app. The mobile phone in this case was a Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, which you'd expect to have the latest GPS technology.

The above image is the start of the trip at the end of Hawtin Street, Templestowe near the tennis courts. I have to say I do like the precision of the GoPro Max. It actually looks like I’m on the right or left of the path or road. The very tight corner at Fitzsimons Lane and Porter Street near the car wash shows how the pole there forces you go down the centre of the path. This doesn’t show up on the GPS logger app.

The GPS logger app has the advantage it produces a single file that can be manipulate easily. The GoPro Max data takes quite a bit of time to generate. There's 10 files that need to be created from the videos, then these 10 files combined to create the single file required. A lot of work to get to the point that I could use the data. I’d be happy with either if I didn’t have a choice.

The GPS logger provided the following interesting stats which the GoPro Max doesn't.

Distance = 19.9 km
Duration = 01:14:17 | 01:10:59
Altitude Gap = -6 m
Max Speed = 39 km/h
Avg Speed = 16.1 | 16.9 km/h
Overall Dir = SSW
Track Stats based on: Total time | Time in Movement

Overall, depending on your needs, I feel both the GPS logger app and the GoPro Max produce quite reasonable GPS data. The GoPro Max is more precise, but getting at and using the data from the GoPro Max is far more time consuming. For my needs which is to produce a route shown on a map, as long as you don't zoom in too far, both are sufficient.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

How to check it port 25 for outgoing email is blocked.

One of my clients is having troubles connecting to their email server when they move from work to home. This is often assumed to be the ISP is blocking outgoing email from using port 25 but I decided to work out how to check if the port 25 for outgoing email is actually blocked.

Often I'll write up instructions but I found the following article was sufficient for my needs.

How to Check if Port 25 is Blocked - HostDime Knowledge Base

The following are the basic steps in case the article is no longer available in future.

Open a CMD window (type cmd and press Enter in the search area)
Type telnet and press Enter (if telnet is installed you'll start Telnet. Type q to exit)

If Telnet is not installed type the following in the cmd window.

Type pkgmgr /iu:”TelnetClient” and press Enter

Now to check if your port 25 is not blocked type the following using your SMTP details for your mail server. The SMTP details have the format smtp.yourdomain or mail.yourdomain.

Type telnet smtp.yourdomain and press Enter (where your domain includes the .com.au or .com)

You will either get a connection which starts with 220, or you'll get a connection error message of some sought.

If connected to quit communication with the mail server type QUIT and press Enter. Then to exit Telnet type q and press Enter.

Hopefully this information will help others do some basic testing.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Update: 17 August 2021
I'm not a fan of leaving features turned on in Windows 10 so I decided to work out how to turn the Telnet client off. This is done as follows.
Click Windows Start
Click Settings
Select Apps
Select Programs and Features (top right of screen)
Select Turn Windows features on or off (to l of screen eft)
Locate Telnet Client and remove tick
Click OK

Having found this option this can also be used to turn the Telnet client on.

Census - There is a problem - The Census number or password is incorrect.

Received my first support call from an older family member having issues signing in to do the Census.

When I looked at what they'd entered I realised many people are going to make the same mistake and the form we all receive lacks clarity.

The problem is the number and password have been provided with spaces to make it easier to read the number or password in shorter sections. Much like we break up telephone numbers into groups of numbers to help us remember them.

In this case however when entering the Census number and/or password the spaces have to be left out. There is no information to let people know the spaces shouldn't be entered. A simple oversight on the designers of the Census form but one I'm sure will cause many people a lot of trouble.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Telstra payphone calls within Australian to landlines and mobiles now free.

I must admit I was quite surprised to read today Telstra has made calls within Australian from their payphones free, nada, zip.

Why we're making payphones free for calls around Australia (telstra.com.au)

I often wonder, what is really happening behind such moves. I honestly would love to know but suspect that may never happen.

It is interesting Telstra have said they number of payphones present has halved since the introduction of mobile phones. To me that's interesting because payphones often occupy prime position and are good reminders of Telstra services and in some cases advertising may be a good money spinner so losing half of that presence is something to think about. What if all the payphones went?

Then we have to keep in mind Universal Service Obligations, which Telstra appears to be responsible for and there's a large contract for providing such services.

Universal Service Obligation | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

Telecommunications contract and grant registers | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

From these documents we can see the Universal Service Obligations for payphones is $44 million per year over 20 years which is $880 million. 

There's 15,000 payphones across Australia so each payphone we could say is worth $2,933 per annum.

There's around 11 million calls a year so each call is effectively costing tax payers around $4 plus up until now, the cost the person paid for the call.

The payphones, if I recall correctly, now help Telstra provide Wi-Fi access (Telstra Air)  to their many users and those users pay for their Telstra services.

Whatever Telstra's reasons for making payphones free to use, I for one think it is a good thing. At least we know if you're stuck and need to call someone (you've lost your mobile, battery is flat, etc.) you now have an option. Of course still have to remember the number you want to call and that may not be as easy as you think!

One aspect that I also felt was interesting is SMS is free. Now there's something I didn't know. I never knew it was possible to send SMS messages from a payphone. I must check out a payphone next time I'm passing one.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Recently my sites started to show the message: Google. This page can't load Google Maps correctly. Do you own this website? For development purposes only.

Now you may be wondering why this occurs and if you're the site owner, what you can do about it.

The reason this message occurs and the map goes grey is because Google charges for map usage over a certain amount. I believe this is around 28,000 views a month. This month because of the lockdown in Victoria my 5km radius map became quite popular and thus all my map sites together exceeded the limit.

Now normally this would be great. Lots of visitors means lots of money. Not so. This site doesn't make me money. I can't put Google ads on the site and even if I did, the site is unlikely to make enough money to cover the $200 people estimate the 28,000 views would cost. I use the rough figure that Google ads earn about $5 per 1,000 views so 28,000 views would earn $140 but cost $200. That's not viable. Even worse, if I don't place a limit on the charges per month I could end up with a very hefty bill. The map does help me promote my other sites a little but not enough to warrant paying Google the money. I'm happy to pay Google as long as I'm ahead but in this case I wouldn't be. The map really just helps people to work out where their 5km radius is when we go into lockdown because of COVID19.

So if paying Google in this case isn't the answer, what could I do?

First I could simply close the site. It's not making money but it has some value to me so that's not my preferred option.

I decided to review the alternate mapping options. The obvious first choice was OpenStreetMaps but after reviewing OpenStreetMaps I felt I could easily reproduce what I was doing with Google Maps. Far too much work. There's also TomTom maps but the limit before you get charged is too low. Luckily In the end I decided to use Here Maps. 

Here Maps if I recall correctly spun off from Nokia and I was able to ascertain fairly quickly Here Maps looked like it could do what I wanted. Most importantly Here Maps allows people to have 250,000 view per month before charging and they don't require a credit card up front. That's about 10 time more traffic than Google Maps so plenty of scope for growth for my sites. Keep in mind I don't have to migrate all sites, just any site that is getting a lot of traffic as was the case this time.

Migrating is a bit of a pain. You really have to learn the new approach. This took a few hours each day over three days and I have to say I'm please with the result. Here Maps feels a little slower than Google Maps but the slight delay isn't a major issue. Initially the Here Maps look more sparse but now that I'm used to the map being sparse it actually feels cleaner. In addition I felt I was able to improve my presentation because I was force to revisit the code. For example I made the transparency greater in the circles which to me improved the result. One disadvantage is I did like that in Windows and on Android phones you could have the map to display full screen. Whilst I felt that was an advantage the disadvantage is this didn't work on iPhones and iPhone uses are far more active on the internet than Android users, so not a big loss. Moving the Here Maps around only requires a single finger on mobile devices and that's more convenient for people. So you win some and you lose some. 

So in summary, Here Maps has allowed me to keep providing my 5km radius map to the general public for free, whereas if I didn't have the option of Here Maps, I most likely would have had to close the site down. I have no angst towards to Google for charging for their maps as they too are in business to make money and am thankful for all the services they provide.

If you're a developer and your Google map faces the same situation of being marked "for development purposes only", at least you know you have a potential option in Here Maps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.5kmRadius.com.au

GoPro Player message HEVC Decoder Missing when open a GoPro Max .360 file.

After installing GoPro Player on an old desktop computer I decided to installed the GoPro Player on a newer (about 5 years old) notebook. The notebook has an i7 processor and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 950m graphics card.

However when running GoPro Player and opening a .360 file from a GoPro Max the following message appeared.

"HEVC Decoder Missing. Your computer is missing HEVC hardware decoder to read this file. These typically are provided by your computer manufacturer, please contact them to redeem or download the HEVC decoder otherwise you can purchase it from Microsoft Store directly.

The price of the Microsoft HEVC decoder from the Microsoft Store was $1.45 and as it turns out, can be used on up to 10 computers. The real question in my mind is would it work.

You would think purchasing and installing the app would be quite straight forward but after purchasing the app, downloading it and it saying it installed, it hadn't. I needed to go back into the Microsoft Store and install the app.

The good thing is the GoPro Player can now at least open the .360 file produced by the GoPro Max, but it can't player the video. Whilst the HEVC app is close to useless in terms of playing the video, at least I was able to check each .360 file at the start and the end. Sometimes I could move to different parts of the video, but if I tried to play the video the image would stall and the sound would continue.

Whilst you can't play the video using GoPro Player, you can still use the export options which in my case is to create a 4K, mp4 file. You can also use the reframe option to export a HD video.

I also found that you can view the .360 file using Windows Media Player and whilst it isn't displayed correctly, you can at least see the video.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

GoPro Player message Driver Missing

Installed the GoPro Player on an older computer. My idea was to use the old computer to process GoPro Max 360 files. Time then wouldn't matter and I could let the computer run overnight if required. Turns out my plan failed.

When running the GoPro Player I received the message: "Drive Missing. Your computer can't enable required hardware capabilities, make sure you have your drivers up to date."

This message is a bit of a furphy. The real reason is the graphics card isn't capable enough. It's not worth getting a new graphics card as they can be quite expensive.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Toyota Avensis - Malfunction light, contact Toyota dealer. Code PO793/P0793 (later P0717)

Recently, immediately after starting my Toyota Avensis I noticed an orange light appear on the dashboard. I headed straight home as I didn't know what the warning light meant and thus whether or not the car may stop.

Upon arriving home I checked the service book and the light was listed as a Malfunction indicator lamp. The action to be taken was "Take vehicle to Toyota dealer".

I haven't used a Toyota dealer for servicing my car for quite a few years so I contacted my motor mechanic. He suggested I bring it in. He did a test and the test returned a code of PO793 (or P0793) which indicated a speed sensor issue.

What was weird is the issue was intermittent and took some time to track down. In the end my motor mechanic swapped the two speed sensors around and the problem was resolved. It is quite possible that sensor is on its way out and will eventually fail, but swapping the two sensors fixed the issue for the moment (about a month).

The symptom that indicated there was a problem is when I drove the car home, a distance of around 20km, the only thing I noticed, and it only occurred once, is the automatic gear change seemed to be sluggish and lacking power. Other than that I had no problem.

When the motor mechanic had the car he reset the malfunction warning light and took the car for a test drive. The car again had an issue changing gears. However his test equipment indicated the speed sensor was not faulty. Further testing by an auto electrician was on the cards but before that swapping the speed sensors was tried and the problem was resolved, at least for the moment.

My next step is to find out what the signs are for the second speed sensor if it malfunctions. At least I know the speed sensor is a future potential problem.

I hope this helps others who find themselves in the same situation. I couldn't find any others having this particular issue when searching the internet so hopefully someone finds this post useful. At least you know you can swap the speed sensors.

I don't know if taking the car to Toyota would have been cheaper as they may have suitable spare parts they could swap in to test. The total cost of repair in this case was $260. I suspect this was largely the time involved due to the problem being intermittent.

For the future and for my own reference, the following are the symptoms I'll be watching for.

Cruise control does not work

Malfunction light comes on

Delayed shifts

Hard shifts

Limited gear operation

Erratic speedometer

No speedometer reading

Keep in mind I have no real skill with cars so rely on others to fix car issues for me.

Kelvin

Update: 8 Aug 2021

The malfunction light came on again recently, so I combined a visit to the mechanic with a timely service. I was interested in finding out the test code as the two speed sensors had been swapped. This time the code was P0717, a different code, which to me confirms that particular speed sensor was the problem and no need yet to be concerned about the second speed sensor. I was told speed sensors cost around $180 so replacing both when nothing might be wrong with the second speed sensor to me wouldn't be warranted.

Update: 19 Feb 2022
The malfunction light had been coming on and offer over the past few weeks. This time I decided to take the car to a Toyota dealer as they would have better access to spares. The error code was P0717/37 which again was a speed sensor code. However, as explained to me with further investigation the ECU was found to be faulty and was replaced with a second-hand ECU as a new ECU was if I recall correctly going to cost around $2,300 for a new unit alone.

The cost to replace the ECU was $1,136.00

Update: 24 Feb 2022
The second day after having the ECU replaced the malfunction light again came on. I took it back to the Toyota dealer but unfortunately the light didn't come on for them and no error code was present. I collected the car and again the next day the light came on so I returned to the Toyota dealer with the engine running and the malfunction light on. After some investigation the issue and error code appeared to indicate the O2 sensor was faulty.

When I returned to pick up the car today the issue wasn't the O2 sensor but a sensor with an error code of P0737. The  sensor was replaced and the malfunction light is currently off. I'll see what happens next.

The cost to replace the transmission speed sensor was $144.80. No labour was charged.

Update: 13 July 2022

I'm not a motor mechanic and can't tell one sensor from another. I just have an uncomfortable feeling there was no need to replace the ECU since the problem wasn't fixed after the ECU was replaced. There's always the chance there were two problems with one masking the other. Since I don't know enough it's just best to move on. My car's now working and that's what's importnat.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G does not work with Victorian government's check-in QR codes

As much as I try, I've never once been able to check in use a QR code in Victoria using my brand new Samsung Galaxy S21 5G. Another phone I've tested is a Samsung Galaxy A20 and last night also tested a more recent Apple iPhone. None worked. The Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy A20 had previously worked but the Apple iPhone didn't work on this occasion and the Samsung Galaxy A20 using Google Lens would not work even thought it worked earlier in the day.

With the Samsung S21 5G I've not only used the camera app, but I've also used a dedicated QR scanner app from Trend Micro and also Google Lens app. These apps can scan QR codes, it just seems to be the Victorian government's QR codes.

Now if this is happening to me, I'm sure it's happening to many people. The government will know because every time I scan the QR code it takes me to the following Victorian government page. I'm sure they're fully aware of the high failure rate.

Just in case you may be wondering why I'm not using the Victorian government's own app, because I also tried that early on and it didn't work.

So many people I see simply taking photos of the QR code thinking they've logged their details, others filling out their details but not clicking the submit button, so never logging in.

QR codes work. They're simple, but something the Victorian government has done means QR codes regularly don't work, at least they don't for me and many others I see using them.

Seems like the Victorian government's QR codes has taken a lesson from the Morrison government's app that never worked well and built something that is far less useful than it should be. Lots of IT contractors getting paid extremely good money taxpayers getting poor value for money.

Example QR code scanned

Takes me to the following page.

Which had the following URL

https://service.vic.gov.au/check-in/start?metadata=eyJhbGciOiJFUzUxMiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJsb2NhdGlvbklkIjoiN2FlMWZmMWItYzAxZC00NjE2LTk4MTgtOTc1YmM2YzFmMjNiIiwibG9jYXRpb25OYW1lIjoiS21hcnQgQ2xheXRvbiIsImp0aSI6IjA1OGFhYzlmLTYxMjUtNDAyYS05NmI0LWIzMDVjZWY5ZmIxNiIsImV4cCI6MzE4NzM4NTM0OCwiaWF0IjoxNjA5NTQ4NTQ4LCJpc3MiOiJodHRwczovL2R2cnMuc2VydmljZS52aWMuZ292LmF1In0.AXOlPVWflBVsb7M2ltDl-BDxqjkMl4Obeq9PCCrU8uo63XAfUW9ub5gxlbHAuOg530MULkqdUjCyaR1MucWyulMRAUfqaQ7eSi_oOjRmxnu21AU_vvqqsyMB_qwjheQC2VuNiU3u726s3kdjlEqUK521pRULCAKlHmrcOgXb7WbD0Icu

Yes this page does provide additional information and people can download the Victorian government's app and manually enter the code, or ask for assistance and write your information on a sheet at the store. But this really shouldn't be necessary.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Update: 21 June 2021
Today I was able to check in for the first time. What was interesting was I was prompted to run an app without installing. This had not happened before. I was able to submit my name and phone number details.

Update: 6 July 2021
Looks like the government has updated something on their system as I can now reliably check in most of the time.

Samsung Galaxy A20 (SM-A205YN) scan QR codes for Victoria check in.

The other day a person needed to check into an RSL. When they went to use their Samsung Galaxy A20 (SM-A205YN) the camera could not detect the QR code so they needed to check in manually.

I decided to investigate and checking the internet there appears to be no problem in using the Samsung Galaxy A20 to scan QR codes, yet when I check the features the sites mention, those features don't exist on the Samsung Galaxy A20. In particular when you pull down from the top twice to show the quick panel, there is no Scan QR Code option. There is also supposedly in the camera settings, the option to turn on Scan QR Codes, but this option is not present either.

It would appear that many of the pages found on the internet for "Samsung Galaxy A20 scan QR code" are generic pages that have been used to apply to a range of Samsung Galaxy phones and are not correct for the Samsung Galaxy A20.

It may also be Samsung has not provided the option for Australian users, but this doesn't seem likely.

I downloaded the Victorian Services app but found it did not scan the QR code I tested so to me does not appear reliable enough. It can be hard to decide which QR code scanner to install as you really don't know what the companies are doing with your data. In the end I decided to install the Google Lens application. The Google Lens application can scan QR codes and Google already has access to most of your data and activities so there's no apparent greater risk. Although you can always opt to check in manually, and for some people, checking in manually may be the preferred option.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

auDA scam: Please confirm domain name ownership.

I received an email today which is an obvious scam, but since I hadn't seen this scam before I thought I'd share in case it helps others not get scammed.

The subject of the email is: "Please confirm <my name> domain name ownership.

The body of the email contains the following.

The email pretends to be from auDA which is the domain name authority for .au domains.

The link for Upload Document isn't an auDA domain.

I've never had any such request from auDA in the past, sometimes requests from my domain registrars, but it's always possible the system could change.

This is a faked email designed to trick and potential scam people. Do be careful and treat all emails with suspicion.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

HP Envy x360 13" convertible 13-ay0096au does not display list of access points and can't connect to network. Realtek RTL8822CE

I thought I'd share a problem I've seen with the HP Even x360 13" (model 13-ay0096au ) a number of times. After closing the computer (the computer suspends) and then opening the computer the computer can't find the wireless access point/hotspot. When I click on the network symbol in the system tray no access points/hotspots are shown 

The trouble shooter finds no issue but there's an issue because the computer can't connect to the internet.

The only solution that I've found so far is to shut down the computer. Today when I shut down the computer the power button still had a white light meaning the computer was not completely shut down. If this happens hold down the power button until the computer completely shuts down.

Now start the computer again the and the problem is gone.

Not particularly happy this is happening on a new and relatively expensive computer, but each computer has issues so isn't totally unexpected. This does have flag to me to be careful buying HP laptops in future, or at least note this and if there's other problems that could weigh on future purchases.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Update: 6 July 2021
Found updating the driver has fixed the issue. The problem is the updated driver is not available via Windows Update or the HP site under drivers for the computer. I need to find a direct link to more recent driver updates.

Solution found here.
Solved: Realtek RTL8822CE disappears after Connected Standby - Page 3 - HP Support Community - 7928686

Link to working driver.
https://whp-hou4.cold.extweb.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp113001-113500/sp113268.exe

The driver that isn't working is version 2024.0.10.220. The driver that is working for me is version 2024.0.10.222.

How to rotate your 360 video (e.g. GoPro Max) so the default point of view is the opposite direction.

OK. You've taken a 360 video and when you watch it you notice one thing. The default view a person sees is the opposite to what you want. You faced the 360 camera in the wrong direction. Now you'd think this is an easy problem to solve. It really isn't.

For example I took a video on a metro train. The 360 camera faced the end of the train and really, there was nothing to see. Yet the other view, the view I wanted to share, would enable people to immediately see the inside of the train carriage plus more importantly, out the windows on each side. Once people know what they can see, they're more than likely to start exploring. But when you just see the end of the carriage, well people are just going to leave and watch something far more interesting.

You would think being a 360 video you could just select the view you want as the default. Nope. Not so easy. In fact you have to have a program where you can rotate the view and create the video using the new view. Amazing isn't it. Something that should be as easy as entering a parameter, or two, to set the default view isn't possible.

Yes you can use Adobe products to create a video with the default view being what you want, but let's face it, Adobe products aren't cheap. If you scan the internet for suitable software there's actually none for free that easily do what you want. I did find one person who thankfully shared they'd worked out how to use ffmpeg to reverse the default view, but personally I feel command line tools are a last resort. Give me a nice graphical user interface. The person share their approach on Reddit.

Stitching together / concatenating 360 GoPro Max video footages and changing default 360 viewing angle on a Mac with freeware? : GoProMAX (reddit.com)

Now you might ask (or perhaps not) how did I work out how to reverse the default view on a 360 video. When I look at the raw video from a 360 camera before the images are stitched, there's two ball like images. One image for each lens. The default view is on the right and the reverse view is on the left.

I kept thinking surely I could just use a video editor and switch the left half with the right half and then start the process of creating and editing the video. It turned out I couldn't find an easy way to do this and then perform the next step which is called stitching. Stitching takes these two balls, joins the images and creates what is called an equirectangular image. The following is the stitched image.

Keep in mind this is just one moment in the video which is a continuous series of this type of image.

So I decided to see if I could work with the stitched image. In effect what I wanted to do was to take the right half of the image and move it to the left and then take the left half of the image and move it to the right. That way the default view in the centre becomes the outside edges and the outside edges now in the middle and become the default view.

So now I had a working theory, I needed some software I could use to see if my theory worked. I ended up using the software called Davinci Resolve. The software can be downloaded for free but I did have to accept the limitation of the free version. My video was shot at 4096x2048, but Davinci Resolve (in the free version) could only do up to 3840x1920. A small drop in quality for the result I wanted, at the price I wanted (free), was OK by me.

I then used Davinci Resolve to edit the video file and created the video with the default 360 view I wanted. The following video shows the steps I took to create the video.

https://youtu.be/UKscCRpA-yU

The following is the video or me travelling inside the Frankston to Melbourne train that I created using Davinci Resolve to give the default view that I wanted.

https://youtu.be/DeSvcgiWyrU

Hopefully this information might help solve your problem if you are faced with the same problem I was.

Kelvin Eldridge

How to check the resolution of the webcam built into a computer.

I was wondering what the resolution of the webcam that is built into the computer. My older computer had a very poor webcame, whereas my newer computer is quite acceptable. How can I see what the resolution of the cameras are in the two computers. It turns out it's very easy.

Windows 10 has a camera app. To access type in camera in the Windows search area and select Camera app.

Take a video or a photo.

Go to the Pictures folder and then open the Camera Roll folder

In this folder you'll see the picture or video you've taken.

Right click on the photo/video

Select Properties

Select the Details tab

In the Details tab you'll then be able to read the dimensions. For a video it is Frame Width and Frame Length and for the picture it is Image Width and Image Height.

Interesting it is the video height that is often used when referring to a video has HD or SD. A video height of 720 is HD, 480 is SD, 1080 is full HD, and the poor quality video from my old computer has a frame height of 360, which is lower than SD and why the quality was so poor.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Checking computers available from retailers for a contact.

Friends often ask me to check the specs of a computer for them. I don't mind doing this as many retailers will happily sell a new computer that is so slow it might as well be 10 years old. Often computers retailers sell are slower than the computer a person already owns. The following is the latest list of computers I put together for a friend.

JB HiFi

hp fq2037tu 15.6 256gb

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/hp-fq2037tu-15-6-hd-laptop-256gb-i5

CPU speed: 10,051

Display: 1366x768

Webcam: 720p

Price: $1,099 -  $934.15 on special

HP 15s-eq1504AU

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/hp-15s-eq1504au-15-6-full-hd-laptop-256gbryzen5?queryID=39ebfe53f7ca48de8a4c539301fb2be8&objectID=505790

CPU speed: 11,291

Display: 1920x1080

HD webcam supposedly. Should test looking at the image the camera generates.

Price: $998

* This unit was suggested. It was also suggested the person haggle over the price.

Officeworks

HP Laptop 15S-FQ2044TU i5 8GB/256GB Notebook

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/hp-laptop-15s-fq2044tu-i5-8gb-256gb-notebook-hpfq2044tu#specifications

Dsplay: 1920x1080

Webcam: 720p

CPU speed: 10,051

$988

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Notebook 15.6" Core i5/8/256 GB

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/lenovo-ideapad-slim-3-notebook-15-6-core-i5-8-256-gb-slnslim3i5#specifications

CPU speed: 7,963

Display 1920x1080

Webcam: SD 480

Price: $797

Hopefully others will find value in this list. If you're looking for a computer one of the most critical things I first check is the processor speed. This eliminates many of the computers quite quickly.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Apple iPhone SE/6S and iPad Air 2 not being updated to iOS15

 I read the following article recently as a number of people I know have iPhone 6S or iPad Air 2. At some time these devices won't be able to install the latest version of iOS. According to the article the iPhone 6S and iPad Air 2 will no longer be included in the list of devices that can be updated.

iOS 15 will reportedly ditch the original iPhone SE and iPhone 6S | iMore

What I've found in the past is once a device is excluded from being updated, it really is just a matter of time and you'll need to buy a newer device. For example what I found in the past is when some apps were updated the old app would no longer work and the new app couldn't be installed. You then lose functionality you're used to.

The people I know using the iPhone 6S and iPad Air 2 are more than happy with their devices. They work well and the battery capacity still has plenty of life. The devices are quite useable. These devices are getting close to 5 years old but functionally, they still do what the people want them to do.

If you find you're now in the position of being forced to upgrade to a newer device, it's a good idea to first determine if you really need to. For example the Android mobile phone I have couldn't be updated to the latest version of the operating system and when the 7 Eleven Fuel app was updated, the old app stopped working and the new app couldn't be installed. I did like locking in cheaper fuel for an extra week, but in the end I decided any savings offered by the 7 Eleven Fuel app was significantly less than upgrading the mobile phone so I simply deleted the app and basically stopped using 7 Eleven for petrol. Other than that app the mobile phone has continued to work perfectly.

Not being able to update to the latest version of iOS is a bit disappointing, but do keep in mind you have options.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Does uploading videos affect a fast NBN internet service for others in the home?

I thought I'd share this interesting observation I made recently. Often we don't really know how one person in a household can affect the experience of another person in a household when both are accessing the internet. In fact, even though people can affect each other, many people won't realise what is happening.

For those following my YouTube channel there's a variety of content but it really all started when I started adding Red light camera/Speed Camera location videos to provide more content/information for those accessing the site www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au. Most of the videos were fairly short at about 1-3 minutes, covering from the speed camera warning sign or speed sign before a camera and then some time after the intersection.

As I could afford better technology I was able to capture longer videos and I could include the location of red light camera/speed camera as part of longer videos. This then led to posting dashcam videos of longer drives. My thought was I could use the videos for other things such as enjoying the longer drive videos whilst I was perhaps exercising on an exercise bike.

Then naturally I went to the next step where I could have videos of bike rides to enjoy whilst exercising on the exercise bike over winter. Now whilst I haven't actually done much watching of videos on the exercise bike, the videos are there if I need them and other people can use them as well.

Back to the point of this post. Videos by their very nature are quite large, some being 10GB, 20GB or larger. So far the longest video, which is over two and a half hours viewing time comes in at 61GB. That's a huge file. The question is how does uploading such a large video file impact other people on the home network.

The first thing to keep in mind is different people on the home network are generally using different devices and could be using different applications. People can have NBN plans that are up to 100Mbps in terms of downloads and 20Mbps in terms of uploads. Notice how the upload speed is lower than the download speed.

The second thing to keep in mind is when you are watching a video (which is downloading), there's also uploading occuring. In general this is about 85% downloads and 15% uploads. So really having the download speed at about 5 times the upload speed is a good ratio.

The third thing to keep in mind is when you are uploading videos the upload speed is more important as there's much less downloading going on.

The forth thing to keep in mind is each of your devices only consider it's own needs. They don't consider the needs of anyone else on the local network.

If all people in the house are watching streaming videos they're all using a similar ratio of downloads to uploads. Let's take Netflix for example. Netflix recommends around 3Mbps for standard definition movies and 5Mbps for high definition. If we estimate upload speeds for back traffic at around 20%, that's the same ratio as our NBN internet services back traffic (uploads) would not overwhelm the watching of videos (downloads) until there were up to 20 users in theory, but less in practice.

Browsing the internet, general email and other activities use quite low amounts of traffic, so people using these applications would often not see any impact.

However, what happens in my situation where one user is uploading videos to their YouTube site. In theory a single computer on a network performing uploads could consume almost the entire upload capacity (which is also true for file downloading from a fast site) and that is what does happen.

In this case a single computer performing an upload to YouTube caused a person watching Netflix to have their video pausing on an annoyingly regular basis. The watching experience was interrupted regularly, perhaps even every 20 seconds. In effect the one computer performing an upload can impact every person on the home network and this is very noticeable when someone is watching a video over the internet. This was on an NBN service rated at 100Mbps with an upload speed of 20Mbps.

It's important to understand how the usage of the people in your home may be affecting each other. Poor performance of a service may not be because of the service itself, but by others in your home. There are many services that allow people to include videos in their online presence such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., and if one person in your home is posting a video, they can have an impact on everyone else. That's not really a problem if people know what's going on as they can work together to make sure their activities don't affect each other. However it can be a problem when you don't know what's going on and pay for higher levels of service that don't perform any better.

As an extreme example, the bike trail ride of the Main Yarra Trail is around two and a half hours viewing time and 61GB in size. With a 100Mbps NBN plan you get an upload speed of 20Mbps. Assuming you had the upload run at full speed, the 61GB file would take six and three quarter hours. During that time anyone else using the internet could find significant delays, with the most noticeable affect being for those watching streaming on demand.

Hopefully by understanding a little more about what is happening when you're using the internet in your home this makes it easier, less frustrating and perhaps less expensive.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

iPad Air 2 keeps beeping when connected to MacBook Air via USB cable.

I must admit this was quite weird. I connected the iPad Air 2 to the MacBook Air using the USB cable. I was expecting to see message in the iPad and MacBook to give access and trust each other but that didn't happen. All that happened was the iPad Air 2 just keep beeping and I couldn't unlock the iPad. As soon as I press the Home button and started to enter the unlock code the screen flashed off.

A search of the internet gave many suggestions such as faulty cable, hardware issue, but this didn't make sense. Using the same cable I was able to connect to a Windows 10 notebook, access and copy off all the folders containing photos and also perform a full backup and upgrade to the latest version of iPadOS 14.3.

Using the MacBook Air I could literally do nothing with the iPad.

Since I knew there was nothing wrong with the iPad or cable,  I did wonder if the issue may be the iPad was trying to draw more power than the MacBook Air would provide. The MacBook Air's battery isn't great even though it was fully charged and the MacBook Air was running with the power plugged in..

One of the things I wanted to do with the iPad Air 2 was to find out the battery health using coconutBattery on the MacBook Air. With the iPad continuously beeping this was not possible. The battery on the iPad Air 2 at that time was reading 75%. I decided to fully charge the iPad's battery and then see what would happen.

After fully charging the iPad Air 2 and connecting to the MacBook Air using the USB cable the beeping had gone and I was able to access the iPad Air 2 as normal. The iPad Air 2 battery was reading 88% capacity so there appeared to be no issue with the iPad Air 2..

Exactly what the problem was is hard to tell. The solution to access the iPad Air 2 was to fully charge the iPad, however it's not known if the connection was continue to work as the iPad's charge reduced. It does seem the iPad Air 2 was having a power issue with the cable. Perhaps there's a worn contact on the cable reducing the power/voltage available. Perhaps it's an issue with how much power the MacBook Air could provide. I don't know the exact reason but hopefully knowing how I got around the issue and that using a Windows 10 computer solved my problems, may help others.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Is upgrading an iPad making the device obsolete?

Recently a person's iPad Air 2 needed to be upgraded from iPadOS 13.2 to iPadOS 14.3. The iPad had around 800 megabytes of space left, which was nowhere near as much memory as required to upgrade the iPad. The iPad did indicate a little more than 3GB was required to upgrade, but without deleting the users photos (or uploading them to Apple's cloud), the person didn't have sufficient free memory to perform the upgrade directly on the iPad.

When you don't have sufficient free memory to upgrade the iPad an alternative method is to use iTunes on a Mac or PC. I first tried using an older MacBook Air, but all that happened was the iPad kept beeping. Next I installed iTunes onto a notebook computer and performed the upgrade. It never ceases to amaze me how Apple's own equipment often doesn't work and yet a PC does. In fact I couldn't even connect the iPad to the MacBook Air to backup the photos. I performed a full copy of the photo folder and then subsequently did a backup using iTunes.

Note: When I plugged the iPad into the PC iTunes prompted to do a Download and Update, or just a Download. Actually I didn't want to do either but there was no other option to select. I'd recently learnt a lesson upgrading an iPhone, the Download and Update option also subsequently provided a backup option. The Update bricked the iPhone so luckily the backup had been successfully performed or the person would have lost all their content on the iPhone. I prefer not to be in the situation where a person can lose all their data. They tend not to be very happy at all if that happens.

For the iPad I choose to do the Download. Once that was done I had access to backup through iTunes. It's good to know, select Download, then do a backup, then do an upgrade is available. It's just not an immediately available option with Apple. I have found in the past Apple doesn't always do things in what I'd consider a logical order.

So how much memory was lost upgrading from iPadOS 13.2 to iPadOS 14.3? 

According to iTunes, before the upgrade there was 3.44GB of memory free, after the upgrade to iPadOS 14.3, the amount of free memory was now 1.48GB. That's a loss of nearly 2GB of memory that is no longer available to the user, or put another way, around 500 photos. Apple really should focus on providing smaller upgrades (or even reducing the size of the iPadOS code) as losing 2GB is pretty much equivalent to losing around 25% of person's available memory on the iPad.

Whilst I haven't really noted the amount of free memory lost in previous upgrades, you do have to wonder how much free memory has been lost over the years as Apple updates their iPadOS operating system.

An average person could only see this as a way that Apple is obsoleting their equipment and over time, forcing them to update their equipment.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Print screen on the HP Envy x360 13.3-inch R5-4500U/8GB/512GB SSD 2 in 1 Device

Recently purchased a new HP Envy x360 13.3-inch R5-4500U/8GB/512GB SSD 2 in 1 Device and as expected, a new device means there will be some differences.

The first is there's no HDMI port to connect to a large screen TV.

Solution: Whilst I haven't tried this, based on my reading you can use a USB-C to HDMI cable or adapter and these are inexpensive and available in stores like Kmart and BigW.

Another issue is I often use the PrtSc (Print Screen) on computers to capture the current screen. There is no dedicated PrtSc key on the keyboard, but there is prt sc printed on the right shift key. There's nothing in the manual to indicate how to use this key.

I found two ways to use the Prt Sc key. The first is to press the Function key and then the right shift key whilst holding down the Function key. You can now use insert to insert the image into the program of your choice. But this has an issue. The first time you do this (and future times if you don't select an option) a One Drive option appears. If you select No Thanks, the image is copied to the clipboard as we're used to. I don't really want to copy the image to One Drive so I don't use that option. In other words don't ignore the prompt that pops up. I copy screen images from video files I create and if you haven't selected the option No Thanks, the Prt Sc doesn't work.

The second option is to use Windows Key + Shift + S. That is press the Windows Key, whilst holding down the Windows Key, then press and hold down the Shift key, then press the S key. This use the newer Snip & Sketch program. A line of options appears across the screen and the common ones I use is a to copy either the entire screen, or a section of the screen.

A lot of the time I now use the Snip & Sketch program for capturing screen images when I want to save the image, but the old Prt Sc button comes in handy for a quicker copy and paste option.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au