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May 2010 Inside Southwest Computer Conference ..2 The Social Media Marketing Book 3 The Crabby Office Lady                  Outlook and Outlook Express ..4 Google Books ............................5 Remove Resistant Malware Free    With Bootable CDs ...................8 Soluto Anti-Frustration Software    Improves Boot Time ...............10 Rebit SaveMe Backup ...............13 Computer Speed, RAM and Virtual Memory                   ....14 Smart Computing Tips ..............16 Our Most Common Tech Calls ..17 Excel Tip .....................................19 Microsoft Word Tip .......20 Free Programs .........................20 Hang Ten - Search Engines ......21 Speed Demons .....................23 Books May 2010 .....................25 Fountain Valley Branch Library 17635 Los Alamos, Fountain Valley meetings on 3rd Saturday 10:00 am to 12:30 pm Future Meeting Dates June 19 July 17 August 21 Membership Annual membership is $20 for indivduals: $5 for each additional family members. May 2010 meeting I did a brief overview of the new Internet Explorer 9. It’s not a true Internet browser yet. They label it as Internet Explorer Platform. It is fast, but then again it has no addons. You can not save any favorites. It is interesting running the Network Monitoring which shows the time it takes to download any webpage. It is detailed listing each graphic size and download time. Run the Acid test and you can see how much faster IE 9 is over IE 8. Animation test shows how smooth the animation will be. The limitation on it – IE 9 only works on Vista or Windows 7. You can try it at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/ June meeting will cover communications. From email to voice mail to online chatting. I found some really good programs for doing remote presentations, and remote access of computers. This is far better then driving 30 miles to help someone install a program, or do a simple fix. Board of Directors President Terry Currier winnersug(at)aol.com Vice-President Steve Dela stevede(at)aol.com Secretary Gerry Bretts gbretts(at)juno.com Treasurer Max Lockie mlockie(at)pobox.com Board Members Ethel Kamber ethel(at)kamber.fastmail.fm Ken Kamber kenkamber(at)mail.com Louise McCain LMcEnterprises(at)ol.com Ed Koran edk246(at)aol.com Robin Theron rtheron(at)gmail.com Editor editor(at)windowsusers.org WINNERS, contributors and editors of Notepad do not assume liability for dameages arising from the publication or non-publication of any advertisement, article, editorial, or other item in this newsletter. All opionions express are those of the individual authors only and do not necessarily represent the opionions of the WINNERS, its Board of Directors, the WINNERS Notepad, or its editors. WINNERS a computer association, is a volunteer organization providing a forum for sharing information and experiences related to Windows-based software, and hardware, encouraging ethical use of computers and software, offering service to our communities. Southwest Computer Conference 2010 Held on the weekend from June 4-6 at the Town and Country in San Diego. The weather was perfect for the conference. The workshops were very informative. First up on Friday was Abby Stokes author of “Is This Thing On?”. She writes in a simple manner that beginners can understand and not be overwhelmed. After that Rick Edwards show how to take those great wildlife pictures (no I’m not talking about your college days.) In the evening Andy Marken told us what to look for in the future for technology. Saturday morning Alex Eckelberry the CEO of Sunbelt Software called in via Skype from Florida to show us a demo of their VIPRE Anti-virus and Anti-malware. After lunch Microsoft showed us some of the latest working for Live and other things. They continued in into a workshop and Q&A afterwards. Saturday evening was the vendor expo which is always interesting to see the many vendors there. After Sunday breakfast Smart Computing gave us updates of ways their website is changing. They also gave a demo of how they can call into your computer and perform a diagnosis of a problem (provided of course you can get onto the Internet yourself.) The Workshops included: • Picking the Best Backup Approach for your Computer • Communications – Helping you keep in touch • Digital Scrapbooking • What’s in the Box • Organize Your Life with Evernote • Excel Basics for those who feel they are Spreadsheet Challenged • Free Programs • ID Theft: Electronic Intrusion & Scams to Get Your Money • Perfecting Your Photos Using Windows Live Photo Gallery • Creative Photo Slideshows Using Windows Live Movie Maker • Put Your Life in a Comic • The DEL GATO Method: Learning the Tricks Executives Use to Make Fabulous PowerPoint Slide Shows • Social Networking • The i's • Personal Time Management: Getting 60 Minutes Out of Every Hour • What’s New with Ink Products • Sing2Learn A New Language • 3D TV • What's Cool, What's Hot, and What's Not in Consumer Electronics • Get that new PC feeling with System Mechanic! • Anything Is Possible with Word 2010 If you want to see some of the video taken at the conferenc you can go to www.windowsusers.org/swconference.html The Social Media Marketing Book by Linda Gonse, ORCOPUG Business owners and organizations have long used advertising to promote themselves and their products. But advertising in the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television isn’t working like it used to. As a result, advertisers are shifting away from traditional media. How social media is changing from “one-way, static broadcast technologies” to more direct, personal, and interactive messages forms the basis for the The Social Media Marketing Book, by Dan Zarella.Blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter, and a host of other social networking sites are becoming the face of advertising in the 21st century. There are many reasons for the changeover. Reaching out and meeting people on their own turf, so to speak, can be done cheaply (by both large and small companies), quickly, and on a time-sensitive schedule. Advertisers have found that using social media can generate a lot of interest, and it can even reach a wider group as it is redistributed by the customers it reaches. Interestingly, “the roots of online social networking can be traced to the 1980s bulletin board systems (BBSs). These systems allowed users to log in— through very slow connections—to share software and data as well as send private messages and post to public message boards.” The BBSs were mainly local entities because of the cost of long distance calls. At the end of the 1980s, desktop programs by CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL came on the scene. The number of users began to grow and the programs were able to do more than Bulletin Boards. Users could connect to the Internet, browse websites, share files, post personal profiles and chat online. In the mid-1990s, Classmates.com and Match. com—web-based applications—were created for specific groups of users. By 2002, “the modern era of social networks began”; first with Friendster, then with MySpace. “Currently, Facebook is the dominant social networking site, and it has the most features useful to the social media marketer.” Although it began with university students as members, its “fastest growing segment has been users older than 35, and recent data suggests that the 35-54 age group has become bigger than the 18-24 age group.…a fun but easily navigable place where they can reconnect with old friends.” For anyone new to social media and those wishing to use social media for their own businesses and products, the book lists a history and protocol for over half a dozen categories of social media. Media categories include blogging, microblogging, social networking, media sharing, social news and bookmarking, ratings and reviews, forums, and virtual worlds. Fascinating facts about their use, personal anecdotes from the author, and solid techniques for getting the most from online media are related with common sense and humor. The book goes beyond being a primer for business marketing, however. It will be of interest to the users of social media, as well, with background descriptions about favorite, (or soon to be favorite!), gathering places on the web, and screenshots of user pages. What’s more if you’ve been hesitant about jumping in on, say Twitter, Zarella walks you through the jargon and answers the questions you are most likely to ask about it as a beginner. Whether you need to learn about social media for marketing purposes, or for your personal understanding, The Social Media Marketing Book is a knowledgeable resource and an interesting read. The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella, November 2009, O’Reilly Media eBook $15.99, Paperback $19.99 — 35% UG Discount http://tinyurl.com/236pkx8 The Crabby Office Lady Outlook and Outlook Express: Brothers, not twins Applies to: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 E-mail communication has become as natural as breathing. But when you have both Outlook and Outlook Express on your computer, which one should you use? Let’s take a closer look so that you can decide which one is right for you. Get the Crabby Office Lady’s book Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns Get Crabby’s columns via RSS View Crabby’s videos Many of you have written to me asking burning questions about Microsoft Outlook® Express. I’m going to say this just once, so listen up: Outlook Express is NOT an Office product (This doesn’t mean to say that I don’t care about it or can’t offer you some modicum of advice on it. I’m just saying that it’s not part of the And because so many of you write about Outlook Express (just to annoy me, no doubt), I've decided to devote an entire table to fleshing out some of the similarities and differences between the two programs. Then you can make up your mind as to which one is right for you. NOTE While you can use both Outlook and Outlook Express on the same computer, you need to think carefully about how you’re going to use each program. At work, you may choose to use Outlook for both your personal account and your corporate account. Or, you may want to use Outlook for your work e-mail and Outlook Express exclusively for your private e-mail. Consider this: If you read a piece of e-mail in Outlook Express, it stays in Outlook Express until you delete it. This means it won’t be there for you when you are feeling more Outlook-ish later in the day because you already downloaded it from your e-mail server (to another program). What I’m saying is that you probably don’t want to access the same e-mail account on the same computer using two different programs — the e-mails on that account will then be divided between two different programs on the same computer. Another note What I said in the first note about using both programs on the same computer is completely moot if you use an IMAP server. (This means that all of your e-mail stays on the server, so it doesn’t matter where you go to retrieve it. It’s always in the folder you create on the server until you delete it or until the spam cops come and take it —and you — away.) The same also applies to any Web-DAV account, which includes MSN and MSN Hotmail. If some of the terms I’m using are starting to confuse you, read my column Demystify e-mail terms and get on with your life. Then get right back here. And there you have it. There are, of course, other features that these two programs share, and then there are other features that are particular to Outlook on its own or to Outlook in cahoots with Microsoft Exchange Server. But you get the main idea. For more information about migrating to and fro (or fro and to), or if you want to know more about each program before deciding, take a look at the See also section of this column. Look at it this way: Sometimes you want a full-course dinner with all the fixins’, and sometimes you want to just swing by the drive-through. If you’re like me, a well-balanced diet of both will keep you and your communications healthy. “The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” — Ben Stein About the author Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Google Books - Millions of Titles Available by Ira Wilsker APCUG Director; Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; Radio Talk Show Host Iwilsker (at) apcug.net WEBSITES: http://books.google.com http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/ Google needs no introduction here, as it has been discussed in many previous columns. Google is much more than the ubiquitous search engine, as it now provides mapping services, email, public domain name servers, comprehensive portable online document services, and countless other benefits in a highly competitive field. Recently, Google has been quietly entering the e-book field, where as many as a million books (mostly public domain because of expired copyrights) are currently available for free use, and countless others still under copyright will be available for a fee. Google is not alone in providing free public domain books online in a variety of formats, and it will also not be alone in providing commercial e-books for a fee. In terms of commercially available titles, Google will be a direct competitor to the likes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, both of which already sell access to countless thousands of titles, mostly in proprietary formats only readable on their respective readers. In 2004, Google announced the “Google Books” project, an ambitious plan to digitize and post online 15 million books within 10 years. The primary source of these books was initially libraries from all over the world, but since the announcement, many of the world’s universities have volunteered their literary collections to be digitized by Google. The stated aim of Google is to preserve library books and make them universally accessible. Last November in an interview in the New York Times, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “The vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries. Inevitably, the few remaining copies of the books are left to deteriorate slowly or are lost to fires, floods and other disasters.” According to a recent story published by the BBC, Google has already digitized over 12 million titles, making it the largest repository of digitized books in the world. While Google obviously has the technology to digitize, catalog, and make available all of the books it can process, there have been some major legal obstacles to completing the project as planned. Books published before 1923 are in the public domain as their copyrights have expired, allowing them to be freely digitized and distributed. Books published since 1923 may still be under copyright, as the copyright would run for the author’s lifetime plus 70 years. Several organizations, including the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers have filed lawsuits against Google, which resulted in a settlement in 2008; the problem is that the settlement was never approved by the federal court because of issues raised by government regulators and others. Last November (2009) an amended settlement was reached, but it too is being challenged, and has not been approved by the court. Books that may still be under copyright that have already been digitized cannot be offered in their entirety by Google, but Google can include small parts of the books in its search engine. Compounding the complexity of the issue is the fact that many of the authors and their heirs have become nearly impossible to locate in order to get the requisite permissions to enable Google to post the digitized copies. Despite the copyright limitations and legal restrictions on many of the books published since 1923, Google has compiled an impressive list of mostly older books that are available for free in digital format, most commonly in the universally readable PDF format. Books digitized and published in PDF retain their original fonts, graphics, and images exactly as published. Since PDF files can be read on almost any type of digital device, Google may have a competitive advantage over its competitors selling e-books that can only be read on their respective proprietary devices. During my Christmas break, I stumbled on Google Books by accident while doing personal research on some historical items. I was amazed to find entire texts, complete with all of their pictures, on Google, and downloaded over two dozen entire books from Google. Most of these books were published between 1880 and 1910, and most have the stamp of the New York City Public Library emblazed on the inside of the front cover, and elsewhere in the books, making their source obvious. I have always had a fascination for old magazines, and Google Books has helped to satiate my needs. Google Books has a large collection of old magazines, including LIFE, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and others available for viewing. I recently viewed a 1938 LIFE magazine (still under copyright, but available for viewing) which included stark images of the wars in Spain and China, historical facts that my current college students are oblivious to. It is not just the news and photos of that date that are of interest to me, as the advertisements display a microcosm of the innocence of American life that is now lost forever. I did download a PDF of the May to October 1893 edition of Popular Science (copyright expired), and found the scientific technology and writings of the day fascinating, as were the portraits of the scientists referenced; the clothing the scientists were wearing looked archaic compared to today’s styles. Some of the advertisements of 1893 were most educational, as were stories about life of the day. One story about the homes displayed at the 1892 Columbian Exposition, honoring the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America, described the modernistic (circa 1892) homes of the day, including a $1000 “Workingman’s Model Home”, two stories plus a cellar, 20x28 feet per story (560 square feet per floor), including three bedrooms. The furniture for this three bedroom home was listed at an aggregate cost of $300, and total family expenses for a year were listed as food at $200, clothing at $100, fuel at $50, and annual miscellaneous expenses of $50. Feeding a family of five was listed as 50 to 60 cents per day. We can learn a lot about history and economics by reading these antique magazines on Google Books. Thousands of more recent books are available for free viewing on Google Books. I teach courses in Business and Economics at LIT, and Google Books lists 14,868 titles in its Business & Economics directory. Google Books also has 149,600 medical books listed, as well as 62,800 cookbooks. While many of the newer books are complete and can be viewed online, many others say, “This is a preview. The total pages displayed will be limited.” One cookbook I looked at that contained that statement was the 1975 version of the “Joy of Cooking”. While some pages were omitted, I was able to find a lot of interesting recipes in the 900+ pages that were available. On the edge of the browser window was a statement from Google that said, “ You can order full copies of any book using the “Get this book” links to the side of the preview page.” Along with the 481,600 books available in the “Law” category, 60,566 under “Humor, and 161,600 under “Travel”, as well as the dozens of other categories, anyone should be able to find a huge selection of books of interest. Remove Resistant Malware Free With Bootable CDs by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd http://www.free-av.com/en/tools/12/avira_antivir_ rescue_system.html http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/tools/ rescue-cd/ In some recent columns I wrote about several free utilities that can be used to remove malware from most infected computers. Those utilities either had to be loaded and run on the infected computer (such as Malwarebytes) or run from a USB flash drive (a-squared free USB stick files and SUPERAntispyware Portable version). While those excellent utilities were very capable of removing almost all infections from a contaminated computer, there are some computers that are so badly infested with malware, spyware, viruses, and trojans that either nothing could be run on those computers, or, in a few cases, the computer would not even boot. I have had users with badly infected on unbootable computers who were going to either reformat their hard drives (with the resultant loss of all of their data and files), or trash their otherwise good computers and purchase a new one. Prior to taking such drastic actions, the user still has another choice to kill the malware and retake control of his computer at little or no expense. Several of the security software companies offer free software that Being Google, the entire library of millions of titles is can create a bootable CD complete with software that fully searchable, and both the directory and the search can detect and kill the malware, and possibly repair the computer to a bootable condition. As a matter of results can be sorted into those titles that are either practice, if this bootable CD process is successful, I public domain (mostly downloadable as a PDF file), routinely run two other malware killers on the newly full view, and limited view. Google has provided an excellent resource for readers of all ages. The selection booted computer to verify that the computer is indeed clean of malware. of books currently available is outstanding, and according to some published resources, only makes up The well respected security company BitDefender about 30% of all of the titles that Google has scanned because of unresolved copyright issues. Once the final offers a comprehensive free antimalware scanner “BitDefender Rescue CD “ that is intended to be legal issues are resolved, the selection of titles should burned to a CD. This utility, which is in the ISO be much bigger. I eagerly look forward to what else format, can be downloaded from http://contentmight become available from books.google.com. down.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/. In addition to the End of Article End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article ISO file, there are two PDF files “HowTo.PDF” and BD_Rescue_CD.PDF” that should be opened, as they contain detailed instructions on how to properly burn the ISO file to a CD (it is not simply copied to a CD, but must be burned as an ISO image), and when to use the many utilities that will be on the bootable CD. Since the infected computer may not be capable of downloading and burning the CD, this step should be performed on another clean computer. Since the CD is in the Knoppix operating system (a cousin of the Linux OS), the user will need to precisely follow the instructions on the PDF files in order to disinfect the computer, and recover the Windows files. Since the CD is not in the Windows computer language, the malware on the computer will be incapable of executing or otherwise interfering with the BitDefender Rescue CD. The antivirus signatures used on the Rescue CD are updated automatically each time the CD is loaded. Once the computer is booted from the BitDefender Rescue CD, a dark red desktop will appear with icons representing the several functions available, including the Firefox browser, and an icon to update the antivirus signatures. The logical icon to start the recovery process is appropriately labeled “Start Here”. As a safety precaution, the Rescue CD offers the ability to open the drives on the infected computer allowing for critical data files to be copied to a USB flash drive or similar device. Since the operating system running is not Windows, the drive on the computer will not have the familiar “C:” designation, but more likely a designation something like “sda1”. Despite the difference in the drive name, files can be copied from the hard drive to the USB drive just as they are when booted into Windows. Once the Bit Defender Rescue CD has completed its malware scan and removed the detected malware, the CD should be closed according to the directions in the manual, removed from the CD drive, and then the computer rebooted into Windows. Once Windows successfully boots, it would be a good idea to use one or two other free utilities, such as Malwarebytes, a-squared free, or SUPERAntispyware to confirm that the computer is indeed clean of infection. Another point to remember is that it will likely be necessary to reinstall any antivirus software or security suite that was on the computer, as much of the malware in circulation destroys the protective software that may be on the computer. I always have a BitDefender Rescue CD in my car, and take it with me if there is a sick computer that may need rescuing. I have used this CD several times with a high degree of success, and can recommend it to anyone who may need to rescue a badly infected PC. One of the most popular free utilities that can create a bootable CD is Avira AntiVir Rescue System. This utility, which is maintained and updated several times a day by one of the top rated security companies, when downloaded and executed, will create a bootable CD or DVD containing software that can scan the system for malware, repair system damage, and likely rescue the data on the computer. Since the infected computer may not be in running condition, this software should be downloaded on a clean computer and burned to CD or DVD from that computer, and then used to boot the infected computer. While the software installed to the CD is in the Linux operating system, which is bootable on a Windows machine, all of the utilities on the CD will be capable of reading and repairing a Windows system. Since the software on the Avira website is updated several times a day, a fresh copy should be downloaded and burned to CD each time it is to be used. While not as capable and up to date as the other products, F-Secure offers a free Rescue CD at www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/tools/rescuecd. Both the software to be burned to CD and an instruction manual, “Rescue CD Users Guide (PDF)” is available from this location. The users’ guide contains detailed but easy to follow instructions on how to use the bootable CD. As with the other bootable CDs, the F-Secure Rescue CD is bootable (in Knoppix) and contains several utilities that may be able to recover a Windows computer that is not bootable. This Rescue CD will scan the computer, and quarantine any malware that it detects; sometimes this is all that is necessary to allow the computer to boot into Windows. This CD also allows the user to copy any desired files to a USB drive for backup purposes, a necessary function in case the Windows is so badly damaged that it is still not bootable into Windows. It is not necessary to be a geek in order to use any of the above utilities to create a bootable CD and recover an infected computer, but it may take some time and the ability to follow the instructions in the PDF manuals. If a computer is heavily infested with malware, or otherwise will not boot, it may be well worth the time and effort to try one or more of these rescue and recovery CD utilities. Blank CDs are cheap, and the time and effort to recover the damaged computer may well be worth the endeavor. Soluto Anti-Frustration Software Improves Boot Time by Ira Wilsker WEBSITES: http://www.soluto.com http://blog.soluto.com http://www.soluto.com/About/Media-Kit In several past columns I have written about utilities that can speed up the computer boot process. As cluttered as it was, my old XP machine could take up to five minutes to boot; my newer Windows 7-64 machine boots in under two minutes, considering the multilayered security that is installed on it. Traditionally, the ways of speeding the boot process on a PC was to defrag the hard drive, and clean up the programs in the startup that load when the computer is first turned on. When someone tells me that his computer takes forever to boot, my typical responses are “is your hard drive defragged” (defragmented), and “how many little icons do you have on your task bar adjacent to your clock?”. There are several excellent startup managers available (including Windows ‘msconfig” feature), both independent utilities and components of utility suites, that can easily control what programs load at boot. Simply unchecking unwanted and unnecessary programs at boot is an accepted way of improving boot time. Likewise, there are several excellent defragmentation utilities available, including the simple one built into Windows, that can do a credible job; by defragging the hard drive, it does not have to work as hard when reading files and data, thus providing some improvement in load times. While these two methods are well accepted and proven to speed up the boot process, a new concept in utilities was recently released that goes an extra step in controlling the boot process using a software “genome” and community experiences to determine what is loading in the computer at boot, how long each item takes to load, displays what is required or optional to load at boot, and gives the user control of what loads, and when it loads during the boot process. Wanted, but low priority items can be set to load after the computer has fully booted, and is sitting idle, thus not degrading the boot process. Unwanted items can be stopped from automatically loading, but set to load upon demand. The process may sound complex, but it is very simple with the information provided by this new utility, “Soluto Anti-Frustration Software (beta)”. Available as a free download from www.soluto.com, this software is a “beta” or pre-release version, which by definition, is not a highly refined final “release” version. My 18 month old “new” computer booted very quickly when new, but now that I have a lot of security software and other utilities loading at boot, it was taking between a minute and a half, and two minutes to boot. After I downloaded and installed Soluto, and rebooted the computer such that Soluto could measure and analyze my boot process, my first modification of my boot process improved my boot time by almost 25%! Subsequent refinements of my boot process with Soluto, and input from the “community” have helped me to shave off about another 10% of my boot time. After being installed, Soluto monitors what loads at each boot. During the boot process, the bottom left corner of the desktop turns up like the corner of a page and displays each item as it is loading, while displaying the elapsed time to boot the computer. Information is gathered during the boot process, and added to what has been gathered at previous boots, to provide the data that is analyzed by the program. The data that is collected is anonymously added to the Soluto PC Genome, where the community can input recommendations that will assist the user in determining what can be controlled at boot. According to Soluto, “ This anonymous technical data is gathered and sent to Soluto’s PC Genome, a one of a kind knowledge base containing statistical insights about PC software and hardware behavior, as well as remedies to alleviate PC usage frustrations. By putting this information into the light, the PC Genome will help consumers and vendors alike. Soluto employs another set of innovative algorithms to determine which remedies will have a positive impact on each Soluto user’s unique PC system. These remedies are then shared with other relevant Soluto users.” Soluto has found that by pausing when specific items load in the boot process, and reconfiguring some of the applications, boot time and overall behavior of the computer can improve dramatically. Soluto can also determine those programs that degrade computer performance, and provide the “frustrated” user with possible solutions to reduce or eliminate the source of frustration. Soluto places a small icon on the task bar that looks somewhat like a smiley-face, and opens displaying the Soluto functions. By opening Soluto anytime after the computer has booted, the first screen called the “Boot Page” displays “Potentially Removable” items in an orange font, along with the boot time and sequence for each. By moving the cursor over any of the “Potentially Removable” items, a brief description of the software is displayed (if it is in the Genome). By moving over the “more” on the display, a recommendation may be shown, as well as a pie chart of what other users of that software have done. The user is given the option to “Pause” or “Delay” the item in subsequent boots. “Pause” prevents the item from being loaded at boot, but the program can still be loaded upon demand; “Delay” postpones the selected program from automatically loading until the computer is otherwise idle, which means that it will not slow the initial boot process. Since Soluto (beta) has just been released, the genome is still in its infancy, and does not yet contain a comprehensive “Required”, and could not be paused or delayed; I opened the Wiki and explained what they were, and then commented that I thought that these particular components should be moved to the “Potentially removable” section where their boot process could be better managed. As the Genome grows and improves, items like this will be better sorted into the appropriate category. database of software. The user can easily click on the pencil icon “edit” and open a Wiki which enables the user to “fill in the blanks” about an item, which will then be verified, and added to the Genome. As more users complete the Wiki, the Genome database will become more complete. As the Genome improves through this community input, all of the users can benefit by the dissemination of the information. The grey section of the main screen “Boot Page” in Soluto displays the “Required - cannot be removed” items that load at boot, in their boot sequence and with their boot time displayed. While most of the items shown are valid Windows components, with an explanation of what each does along with its boot time, some of the items are non-Microsoft files, and lack detailed descriptions. When I first used Soluto, the components of my MagicJack VoIP service (internet based telephone service) were listed as The blue section on the “Boot Page” shows the items that were “Paused’ or “Delayed” at boot, and how much time was saved by not loading those items. Clicking on any blue item gives the user the choice of changing the status to boot, “Pause” or “Delay”, which will be implemented the next time the computer is booted. An interesting choice on the Soluto icon is “My PC just frustrated me”, which opens the Soluto window, and analyzes the running processes, and tries to determine which program is causing the slowdown. Any information found during the “frustration” analysis is anonymously added to the Genome where it will be comingled with other data and potential solutions may be determined. If a solution to the “frustration” exists, it looks like it will be displayed to the user. When I clicked on the “Frustration” menu item, Soluto identified the beta version of a new security product that I am testing as the potential source of “frustration” but could not yet show any remedy to my “frustration”. While Soluto is still in the “beta” stage of development, I found it a very useful and worthwhile utility to improve PC performance, particularly in the boot process, and for resolving potential “frustrations”. Users should give Soluto Anti-Frustration Software a try. In my limited experience with it, I would give it my recommendation, as well as a rating of “two thumbs up”. Rebit SaveMe Backup By Terry Currier When I first installed Rebit, it did not go very well. My antivirus program, VIPRE would block it saying one of the installation files was a known spyware program. Back and forth with their support, and an update came out which allowed me to finally do the installation. To work with Rebit you need an external hard drive. I definitely know this because I first tried to work it too fast and have it save to an internal drive. At first it allowed me to backup to it then said there was an error. I finally realized what I did wrong and hooked up my external drive. It does say external on the box, but I do wish the program would have stopped me at the start. After you install Rebit it displays a window saying welcome and the program is creating an initial copy your system. It tells you it can take several hours so it is a good idea to let it happen over night. The only way you can find out the progress of the backup is to right click on the Rebit icon in the notification area. I did find it odd that Rebit does not install in the start menu. It just puts a icon on the desktop. In fact clicking on that does not bring up the program. No schedules, no wondering when you did the last backup. With their SmartSave™ Rebit does a continuous backup of your hard drive. Every time you change or add files SmartSave backs it up to the external drive. If you brought up Windows Explorer and went to the drive you really would not recognized the data there. The only way to see that data (and recognize it) is to click on the Rebit SaveMe icon which then reads the information and displays the file information making it look just like your drive. This works well for recovering one or two files that you may have lost some how. Where you really will thank Rebit though is if your system crashes. You put in the Rebit install disc and reboot the computer. It loads a Linux boot program and will begin a Rebit SaveMe Recovery. It will restore the hard drive back to just before the crash. If your hard drive is toast then Rebit will do a Bare Metal Restore to a Point in Time. If you want, you can password protect the backup. With their SmartSave Personalization Technology, Rebit adjusts the amount of space used for backup to your needs. I did have a small irritation about it. The program of course backups up everything. I have a HD TV card in my computer which for each hour the files can get up to 10GB. I had saved several shows on the computer for me to watch later. So it saved 30GB of files I really did not want to keep saving. Add more shows and even the one TB drive will run out of space. What the program does is not delete anything, except for when space starts getting limited. Then the NeverFull feature will eventually remove older deleted files. There are three versions of Rebit SaveMe, for $29.95 you can use it on one computer. For $39.95 you can have a fully automatic backup solution for up to six computers. If you have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) then for $39.95 you’re covered. I did the review on a computer with Windows 7 64-bit. I had Rebit back up my 200GB C drive to the external drive. System Requirements • An external USB 2.0 hard disk drive of equal or greater capacity than the internal system hard disk drives • 32-bit or 64-bit Windows© XP and XP Pro (Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3), 32-bit or 64-bit Windows© Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate), and 32-bit or 64-bit Windows© 7 (All Editions) • CD-ROM disk drive • NTFS-formatted, non-RAID system disk drive • 300 MB available hard disk space Unfortunately, that’s not always possible even if your system has the maximum amount of RAM installed. http://www.rebit.com Virtual memory was designed at a time when RAM was much more expensive than space on a hard drive. Even though RAM is now much less expensive, the latest versions of Windows (XP & Vista) still depend on virtual memory. In fact, much of the operating system kernel ends up in virtual memory. This kernel memory also controls the allocation of data to virtual memory. Consequently, it is not really possible to eliminate virtual memory when you are running Windows XP or Vista. If you do disable virtual memory, Windows becomes unstable. End of Article End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article Computer Speed, RAM and Virtual Memory Written by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D., a member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., FL www.spcug.org bwsail at yahoo.com This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above). One of the more frequent questions raised is: “will adding more physical memory (RAM), speed up my computer”? The answer is a qualified “maybe”. The first thing you need to be aware of are the builtin bottlenecks that can slow down your computer. Programs and data move through your computer at different speeds in different locations. The central processor (CPU) is usually the fastest data handler in the system. The hard drive is the slowest and everything else, including the RAM, is intermediate in data handling speed. The speed of processing data in RAM is measured in billionths of a second, or nanoseconds, and the speed of accessing data on the hard disk is measured in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds. So, ideally, you want all the processing to go from RAM to the CPU and back to RAM. Every computer running Windows, from several generations back, uses “virtual memory” in addition to RAM. The definition of “virtual memory” is based on redefining the address space to “trick” programs into thinking they are using large blocks of contiguous memory. Virtual memory is a space on the hard drive, frequently called a “swap file” or “page file”. This is a block that is mapped for temporary storage of programs, data, and operating system essentials. This technique gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory (address space), while in fact it may be physically fragmented. In a 32 bit computer running Windows, the maximum memory that can be accessed by the CPU is 4 gigabytes (232). It can not access addresses beyond 4 gigabytes (GB). (A gigabyte is a billion bytes.) Not every computer can accept 4 GB of RAM. Some older computers are limited to 512 megabytes (MB) and still run Windows XP quite successfully. However, if you have a newer computer whose motherboard can accept 4 GB of RAM, you may not be able to fully access all of that RAM. In some cases, RAM is shared with the graphics system. This is usually referred to as an “integrated graphics card”. In such a case, up to 1 GB of your RAM may be used by the graphics leaving only 3 GB for the rest of the system. Then Windows takes 2 GB of space leaving only 1 GB for user space (programs and data). Even if some of this is placed in Virtual memory, the CPU still has only 4 GB of addresses. If you have a graphics card with its own memory, Windows will allocate 2 GB to kernel memory and 2 GB to user memory. Since some of the kernel memory will be in virtual memory, your total memory will be a combination of physical memory (RAM) and virtual memory (hard drive), but the total will not exceed 4 GB in a 32 bit computer. Remember, the 4 GB limit applies to the number of addresses that can accessed by the CPU. Those addresses can be on the graphics card, the hard drive or in physical memory (RAM). Windows sets up the memory system by dividing memory into pages. The most recently accessed pages are in RAM. Any pages that have not been referenced in a while are written to the file on the hard drive. According to Microsoft the paging file in a 32 bit system can be a maximum of 16 terabytes (one terabyte equals 1000 gigabytes). So the total virtual memory pagefile system can exceed the 4 GB limit by a considerable amount. However, no more than the 4 GB can be actively handled at time. The inactive pages are stored on the hard drive. Virtual memory not only operates at the speed of the hard disk data access, it also requires special handling before it can be used by the CPU or sent to the video screen. Pages on the hard disk have to be read into RAM to be used. That also means that the space they will take in RAM must be vacated. If there was data there, it must be written to the hard drive, before the new pages can be read into RAM. This paging process must also be managed. Some memory is used just to keep track of which pages are in RAM and which are in virtual memory. This is the role of the Virtual Memory Manager. All of these processes of reading and writing to and from RAM require time. As a result, virtual memory use does slow the computer more than the amount that is just due to the slower speed of disk access. 1- 4 GB of RAM. However, only a few years ago, computers were designed to accept a maximum of 1 GB of RAM or less. So you need to check your owners manual to see what the maximum RAM is for your computer. Then, if you don’t know how much is installed in your computer, bring up the device manager window from the control panel. The first page will tell you how much physical memory you have in your system. You can also see the distribution of physical memory and virtual memory by bringing up the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and clicking on the Performance tab. There are several other possible solutions to this problem. One is to look at your hard drive. If you have an older computer with an IDE drive, replacing it with a drive that has a SATA interface will speed up the data handling in virtual memory. Another change would be to purchase a graphics card with 256 – 512 MB of RAM and install it in place of the integrated video. That would release the RAM that was being shared with the video card. The best, and most expensive, alternative for speeding up your computer is to replace your 32 bit computer with a 64 bit system. The 64 bit computers can access 16 exabytes of RAM (264). That is 16 million GB of RAM. Most of the 64 bit computers in today’s market do limit physical RAM to anywhere from 8 to 256 terabytes. Not that we’re getting into any really large numbers here, but the amount of RAM in a 64 bit machine is more than adequate to reduce virtual memory to a bare minimum. The catch is that 64 bit machines have other problems, especially with the limited availability of 64 bit software and drivers for peripheral devices. So before you decide to switch to Before you decide 64 bit computing you need to check out whether or not that you need 4 drivers are available for your peripherals. GB of RAM to solve your speed Finally, if your hard drive is heavily fragmented, this problem, you will also slow down data reading and writing. Simply need to determine defragmenting your drive will speed up the drive input how much RAM and output. It may also improve the computer’s boot your computer time. As you can see, there are a number of things to is designed consider if you need to speed up your computer. to accept. Computers in Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school today’s market professor of physiology. He has been working with are sold with personal computers for over thirty years, developing anywhere from software and assembling systems. Tips device, then wipe it with a soft cotton cloth. Be sure to use an up and down motion when doing so and don’t use paper towels, as they can destroy the polarizer. If you want, you can spray a nonammonia-based glass cleaner onto the CLOTH, not the actual screen, and make sure it is only slightly damp, not dripping wet. Use Your GPS To Its Full Potential: The next time you’re in a strange place with time on your hands and find yourself looking for something to do, let your GPS (global positioning system) help you discover a few out-of-the-way places. Most GPS devices include listings of local restaurants and attractions. Instead of just looking up specific locations, browse the menus to uncover your location’s hidden treasures. You never know what you may find. Cut Down On Wrist Strain: If you find that after an extended session working at your computer that your wrists are tired and achy, consider investing in wrist rests. For not much money, you can get models for both your mouse and your keyboard to help ease the strain put on your wrists while you type and manipulate your mouse. Rests come in a variety of shapes and are made out of different materials, so you’re sure to find one to suit your needs. Monitor Your Accounts Online: To protect yourself from identity theft, check your bank accounts and credit cards online every day - if anything strange happens with one of your accounts, such as a purchase you didn’t make, you’ll notice it within a day or two. According to the 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report from Javelin Strategy And Research, most people typically don’t realize they’ve been the victim of an identity theft until 34 days after the initial crime; what’s more sobering is that if someone else discovers the breach, typically 102 days have transpired since the criminal first invaded your account. Power-Saver: Note that even when their power switch is in the off position, some electronic components aren’t actually turned completely off. Instead, they continue to draw a small amount of current, sometimes referred to as vampire power. If a component has an LED display that’s always on, or if it spends its downtime in standby mode, ready to receive a signal from a remote control, then it’s continually sipping electricity. To keep these devices from using electricity, it is often necessary to unplug them completely. Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer: Problems with GPS (global positioning system) devices never come at a convenient time. Most often, buildings, mountains, and other large structures block sufficient access to GPS satellite signals. If this happens to you, patience is key. After you travel through a dead spot, the device should pick up the satellite signal again and get you back on track. Actively finding an area with open sky should help you get back on track quicker. You can also try facing to the south because many GPS satellites are positioned in the southern area of the sky. The eastern and western parts of the sky have some satellites, and there are very few satellites in the north. Clean Your Touchscreen: Devices with touchscreens, such as an iPod touch, a GPS (global positioning system) unit, and even some camera LCDs (liquid-crystal displays), often get pretty dirty and have obvious fingerprint marks. To clean your touchscreen, turn off the Speed Up Your Internet Connection: The first things to examine whenever system performance slows to a crawl are the tasks, or processes, your PC is running. No matter how fast of a CPU you have, running too many apps at once can slow everything down. Check running applications. Use the Windows Task Manager to check on hidden apps that could be starving your browser of precious time. Right-click the Taskbar, select Task Manager, and click the Processes tab. You’ll see a list of every process running on your PC; you can sort the list by name, amount of CPU time, or memory usage. If you sort by CPU time and notice a couple programs trying to grab all the CPU, it’s a clue something has gone awry. If you identify an unknown program hogging all the CPU, you can stop it by right-clicking the name and selecting End Process. But be careful: Accidentally killing a valid Windows process may cause other problems, requiring a reboot to fix. News From The Smart Computing Help Desk: Our Most Common Tech Calls Each month, we receive numerous technical support calls and email messages. Some computer problems are fairly common, and we find that many callers struggle to resolve the same issues. In this article, we cover some of the most common or timely tech support questions and provide our solution for each of them. Q. I recently received an email from a family member that included photo attachments. The pictures they sent have low resolutions, but I want to print them as 4- x 6-inch pictures. Is there a way to increase the number of pixels in a photo so that prints will be sharp? A. It’s possible to take a digital photo with a low resolution and make it bigger, but that doesn’t mean the larger image will be as clear or sharp as the original. If you attempt to enlarge a small image too much, the larger image will be pixilated, meaning you will be able to define the individual dots that make up the image, and the picture as a whole will be blurry, fuzzy, and sometimes difficult to recognize. Your best bet would be to request larger images from the sender. Ask for their original picture files, if they are bigger. If the sender doesn’t have larger versions of her pictures, you can try experimenting with an imageresizing application such as IrfanView (www.irfanview.com) or VSO Image Resizer (www.vso-software.fr). Q. I recently bought new speakers for my computer. I have tried plugging the speakers into both the motherboard and my sound card, but I keep getting a message from Windows telling me that there are no speakers attached. The Device Manager says the speakers are working, so what could be wrong? A. Whenever your speakers aren’t delivering sound, always start with the easiest fixes. First, check to make sure your speakers are plugged into the correct jacks on either your motherboard or your sound card. Next, ensure the volume controls are turned up and that the main volume isn’t muted. If the previous suggestions don’t solve the problem, you might try attaching the speakers to another computer to see if they work correctly. If the speakers deliver audio from the other computer, you can rule out an issue with the speakers themselves, then move on to the following suggestions. Next, check for driver updates for either your motherboard’s onboard audio or your sound card. An easy way to check for updates is to open the Device Manager. In Windows XP, go to the Control Panel, double-click System (in Classic view), and then choose Device Manager under the Hardware Tab; in Windows Vista and Windows 7, go to the Control Panel, choose System and Maintenance (System And Security in Win7), then Device Manager. Locate the sound controller and your device (either the integrated card on your motherboard or your separate sound card), right-click, and choose Update Driver or Update Driver Software. You can also visit your sound card or motherboard manufacturer’s Web site to search for driver updates. Q. After installing a new version of Mozilla Firefox, I suddenly have the Yahoo! Toolbar in my browser. I didn’t ask for the toolbar, and I’d rather not use it. How can I get rid of it? A. If you’ve recently updated Firefox and discovered the Yahoo! Toolbar residing at the top of your browser window, it’s possible that it was installed during the setup process or was automatically loaded as an extra feature when you installed another program. Removing the toolbar from your browser is easy. In Firefox, go to Tools and choose Add-Ons. Under the Extension tabs, locate the Yahoo! Toolbar. You are given the option to either Disable the toolbar or to Uninstall it. Disabling the toolbar will remove it from the top of your browser window but keep it installed in case you would like to use it later. Uninstalling the toolbar will remove it from Firefox altogether. When either disabling or uninstalling an add-on, you may have to restart Firefox before the changes take effect. If you uninstall the Yahoo! Toolbar but decide later that you still want to use it, you can reinstall it by clicking the Get Add-Ons tab in the Add Ons window and typing Yahoo! Toolbar in the search field, locating the add-on, and clicking Add To Firefox. Q. I have a PDF (Portable Document Format) file that I want to convert into an RTF (Rich Text Format) file. Is it possible to change a PDF into a regular text file like this? A. There are a couple different ways you can extract text from a PDF file and put it in a word processing document. First, you can select and copy the desired text from the PDF file and then paste it into Microsoft Word, WordPad, or any other text editor. Although this method successfully moves the text from one format to another, it doesn’t retain any of the PDF’s formatting and may require you to organize and edit the text in its new format. A more efficient solution might be to use a PDF converter, which is an application that can import the data in any PDF file into another program, such as Microsoft Word. There are several PDF converters available, including 1-2-3 PDF Converter (www.123pdfconverter.com), which is free to try and $79.90 to buy. You can try 1-2-3 PDF Converter by navigating to the Web site and clicking Free Trial under the PDF Converter section, then clicking Click Here To Directly Download Your 1-2-3PDFConverter. Once the information from your PDF file has been transported to another format (such as Microsoft Word), you can save the file in whatever format you wish, such as RTF, DOC, or HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Q. The other day while I was at work, I noticed one of my co-workers had a screen saver on her computer that displayed several pictures from her recent vacation. How can I make my screen saver display a slideshow? A. You can change your computer’s screen saver to present a slideshow of personal pictures with just a few clicks. In WinXP, go to the Control Panel and choose Display in Classic View. On the Screen Saver tab, use the drop-down menu to select My Pictures Slideshow as the screen saver type. Next, click the Settings button and click Browse next to Use Pictures In This Folder. Select the folder where your pictures are stored and click OK. From this window, you can also change options for how often the pictures change and how large the pictures will be. In Vista and Win7, go to the Control Panel, Appearance And Personalization, Personalization, and Screen Saver. Choose Photos from the drop-down list and then click Settings to choose which pictures folder you want to use. If you’d like to display photos from several different folders, create a new folder called Screen Saver Photos and deposit all of your favorites. Then, choose this folder when selecting which photos you want to use for the screen saver slideshow. Compiled by Kris Glaser Brambila End of Article - End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article According to a radio report, a middle school in Oregon was faced with a unique problem. A number of girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance guy to clean one of the mirrors. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it into the toilet and then cleaned the mirror. Since then there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers, and then there are Teachers.. Microsoft Excel Tip Counting Unique Values When working with a Microsoft Excel worksheet, you sometimes need to know the number of unique values in a range of cells. For instance, suppose that an instructor was teaching the following classes: 104-120 104-101 104-119 104-120 In this case there are three unique values. There is no intuitive worksheet function that will return a count of unique values, which makes one think that a user-defined function (a macro) would be the logical approach. However, you can use an array formula to very easily derive the desired information. Follow these steps: 1. Define a name that represents the range that contains your list. (This example assumes the name you define is MyRange.) 2. In the cell where you want the number of unique values to appear type the following formula, but don’t press Enter yet: =SUM(1/COUNTIF(MyRange,MyRange)) 3. Instead of pressing Enter, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. This informs Excel that you are entering an array formula. The formula shown in the formula bar should now appear as follows (notice the addition of the surrounding braces, indicative of array formulas): {=SUM(1/COUNTIF(MyRange,MyRange))} That’s it! The cell now contains the number of unique name values in the specified range. This approach is not case-sensitive, so if you have two values that differ only in their capitalization (ThisName vs. THISNAME), they are both counted as a single unique value. In addition, there can be no blank cells in the range. (Having a blank cell returns a #DIV/0 error from the formula.) If your particular needs require that your list contain blanks (but you don’t want them counted as a “value”) and you want the evaluation to be case-sensitive, then you have no choice; you must turn to a macro. The following VBA macro, CountUnique, will do the trick: Function CountUnique(ByVal MyRange As Range) As Integer Dim Cell As Range Dim J As Integer Dim iNumCells As Integer Dim iUVals As Integer Dim sUCells() As String iNumCells = MyRange.Count ReDim sUCells(iNumCells) As String iUVals = 0 For Each Cell In MyRange If Cell.Text > “” Then For J = 1 To iUVals If sUCells(J) = Cell.Text Then Exit For End If Next J If J > iUVals Then iUVals = iUVals + 1 sUCells(iUVals) = Cell.Text End If End If Next Cell CountUnique = iUVals End Function Simply put an equation similar to the following in a cell: =CountUnique(MyRange) The value returned is the number of unique values, not counting blanks, in the range. Copyright © 2010 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Thousands of free Microsoft Excel tips can be found online at http://excel.tips.net. Microsoft Word Tip Finding Related Words Finding just the right words to say what you want to say can sometimes be a challenge. Fortunately, Microsoft Word can help in this regard. One of the tools that Word provides is a full thesaurus. You can use this tool to find alternate words with the same meaning (synonyms), words with the opposite meaning (antonyms), or related words. Related words are typically similar words based on the root of the word you specify. To find a related word, follow these steps: Free Programs Written by Gregory West, Editor, Sarnia Computer Users’ Group, Canada From the SCUG Report, February 2009 Issue www.scug.ca editor (at) scug.ca This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above). As Editor for the Sarnia Computer Users Group, I do a lot of online research for interesting websites and also free software. I am also fortunate to have people who send me their online gems. Here I share some of these amazing finds with you. Gimme Back Those Deleted or Lost Files - File Recovery Program Website: www.recuva.com 2. Press Shift+F7 or choose Language from the Runs on Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, 2003, XP and Tools menu and then Thesaurus from the submenu. Vista 1. Position the insertion point in the word you wish to check. If you are using Word 97 or Word 2000, you see the Thesaurus dialog box. If you are using Word 2002 or a later version, you see the Research task pane, with the thesaurus information displayed. We have all done it. You have too, come on, admit it. Yes when you accidently delete a file from your computer, the Recycle Bin, digital camera memory 3. If related words are available for the word, you card, USB stick, or even songs from your MP3 player, will see the Related Words choice in the dialog this program will help you to recover those lost files. It box or the task pane. Click on Related Words. is a good program to have on your computer for those 4. In the Related Words list, select the desired related times when you least expect it and you DELETE in word. error. 5. Click on Replace (if using Word 97 or Word 2000) or click the down-arrow to the right of the related word and choose Insert (if using Word 2002 or a later version). Copyright © 2010 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Thousands of free Microsoft Word tips can be found online at http://word.tips.net. ATTENTION ALL eBay USERS Website: http://desktop.ebay.com Runs on Windows XP/Vista or MacOS X 10.4/10.5 This desktop application puts you in total control of your eBay bargaining with an eagleeye live gatekeeper of your bid or bidders. Never miss an eBay bargain again. This is WEB 3.0 at its best. “EBay’s slick new app does more than simply recreate the auction site on the desktop -- it makes the whole experience thoroughly interactive and much more engaging” (wired.com). Catch Thieves in the Act, Live and Recorded Video Security System Using Your Webcam Website: www.yawcam.com Works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista This security webcam software for windows is simple and easy to use and includes most of the usual security camera features such as: Video streaming, Image snapshots, motion detection, and Online Web Forum for help. The software program is very easy to work with and after a short time you can set your webcam to catch a thief stealing your stuff. The video or pictures are sent immediately to the Internet (where you designate for safe keeping). The program senses motion in a room. You can have the program set so that it will record a video of the thief in action, or email you a photo, or upload (FTP) the live video to a website. Real nice to be able to hand over a full video of the thieves in your house. If you are away, say in Florida, you can easily email the Police the video or photo of the live crime scene with full video and photos of the bad guys. Windows Live Family Safety Website Download: http://get.live.com We are all worried about young children using the Internet these days. This program puts you in control of your computer and Internet browsing experience. You are in charge of your children’s online Internet surfing habits. You can also monitor Windows Live Messenger contacts and block who they talk to online. As well, you can also block Internet websites too. This is a must have for any family with a computer connected to the Internet. NOTE: “Windows Live Family Safety is a Web service that’s free to people who use Microsoft Windows XP. If you use Windows Vista—the operating system installed on many new computers— you can use the built-in family safety tools.” (Microsoft.com) Connect to your Home Computer While Away with Logmein Website: www.logmein.com While away from home, wouldn’t it be nice to access files and programs from your home computer. Now you can. You can easily connect to your PC with a software program called logmein. This program is also used by large corporations to connect to offsite PCs. This program will also allow a friend to fix your computer even though they are thousands of miles from your PC. It is easy to set up and easy to operate. Give it a test drive...You will love it. NOTE: This article first appeared in First Monday magazine, Sarnia, Ontario Canada. A Huron Printing Publication www. huronweb.net/first_monday.php End of Article - End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article Hang Ten How to get the most out of your web surfing Written by Beverly Rosenbaum, a member of HAL-PC, Texas www.hal-pc.org webwindow (at) hal-pc.org Many people consider “Google” to be synonymous with web searching, implying that it is the only search engine available. Indeed, practically everyone uses the word “Google” as a verb to describe searching the Internet, much like “Xeroxing” is intended to mean photocopying. But Google is only one of hundreds of search engines and search tools available. And, depending upon what information you’re seeking, selecting the best one can improve the success of your search. This is especially true when searching for more specialized technical, legal, medical or scientific information. As an example, Google would be a poor choice when looking for job opportunities, while there are more than ten job search engines that would yield much better results. So exactly how do search engines work, and why would you need them? They’re actually tools designed to retrieve content from Internet indexes based on criteria defined by you, the user. These databases contain information collected from billions of pages and documents that are on the Internet. Google claims an index of more than 3.3 billion pages, and Yahoo more than 3.1 billion! Think of a search engine as a card catalog in a huge library, to help you locate the information you need without having to examine every single book yourself. When you sit at your computer and submit a search, you are presented with a list of results almost immediately. The speed of this search varies from one engine to another, and the results are often different because each search engine uses a different ranking process. And you’re probably wondering how search engines can collect information from so many pages that are constantly changing. To do this, they use software programs called “robots” or “crawlers” or “spiders” to continually follow hyperlinks from one document to another all around the Web. When these programs discover new links, updated pages, or dead links, they send that information back to their main site to be indexed. Google’s Googlebots fetch not only titles and text, but also copies of the page contents, and return them to their index stored on a huge set of computers. That is how you’re able to view from a Google search result a “cached” copy of how a web page last appeared, when the site may be currently unavailable. An estimated 30 billion web pages are linked to more than 100 million web sites, and every single page has a unique address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to specify its location. This address incorporates three components – 1) the protocol, 2) the domain name or IP address where the resource is located, and 3) the path and file name. The protocol identifier is separated from the resource by a colon and two forward slashes; for HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the resource name would always begin with “www.” The parts of the domain name or IP address are separated with periods, and single forward slashes separate the domain from the path of the files. So in this example -http://www.hal-pc.org/journal/2009/09_feb/index.html -- the protocol is HTTP, the domain name is www. hal-pc.org, and journal/2009/09_feb/index.html is the path for the index page of the February 2009 issue of HAL-PC Magazine. Site Maps Play an Important Role To improve visibility and inform search engines about the pages on their site, webmasters create a text document outline of those links called a Site Map. This is a standard inclusion for web sites, and is always located at the root of the server. The URL for ours is www.hal-pc.org/sitemap.html. The Site Map is an XML file that contains URLs for the site along with additional information about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site), enabling search engines to more intelligently “crawl” the site. So the information from Site Maps augments the data collected in the “crawling” process. In addition, visitors to specific web sites often seek out and use the Site Map to find the page they need more quickly. This “bird’s-eye view” of the site’s content shows the structure and layout, and allows one-click access to all the topics. Visually impaired users who employ text readers to help them surf the Internet are also able to navigate web sites much more easily with a good Site Map. They are as important for human visitors as for the automated indexing “crawlers.” You can imagine how single web pages that are not linked to any other page would never appear in the search engine results. Google first introduced the Sitemap Protocol in June 2005 so web developers could publish lists of links from across their sites. The next year Google, Yahoo, and MSN announced their joint support, followed by other search engines, and state governments were the first to announce that they would use Site Maps on their web sites. How to Search I’m sure you’ve often entered a search term and either gotten too many pages of results or nothing at all. Here are a few rules to remember: The most important thing to do is keep the search simple - describe what you are looking for in as few words as possible. If you’d like to search for an exact phrase, enclose the words within quotation marks. You can exclude certain words by appending them to the search terms, preceded by a space and then a minus sign (-). Placing a plus sign (+) immediately before the search term will yield only an exact match and no synonyms. The biggest general search engines include Google (www.google.com/), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com/), and Ask (www.ask.com). While Google and Yahoo process search terms similarly, Ask allows you to enter your search in the form of a natural question, such “How do I make a resume?”                 Both Yahoo and Ask also provide kid-oriented search engines at kids.yahoo.com and www.askkids.com.                           In meta-search engines like Dogpile (www.dogpile. com/), Mamma (www. mamma.com/), Clusty (clusty. com), or Copernic (find.copernic. com/), the keywords you submit in the search box are transmitted simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages. Within a few seconds, you are presented the results from all the search engines queried. Meta-search engines do not have their own database of Web pages, they search the indexes maintained by other search engine companies. Most send their queries to smaller, free search engines and directories, but Dogpile uses Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and MSN Livesearch. Many search engines blend into the results any sites that have purchased ranking and inclusion, so you’ll see “sponsored” links below or beside the search results. Waiting 17 Years for an Engine A new search engine is the result of the Anti Car Theft Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-519). The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) will provide a searchable database of Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) to avoid fraudulent retitling of salvaged vehicles. This system will provide an electronic means to verify and exchange titling, brand, and theft data among motor vehicle administrators, law enforcement officials, prospective purchasers, and insurance carriers, and allows state titling agencies to verify the validity of ownership documents before they issue new titles. It has taken thus far 17 years to accomplish a piece of legislation that a majority of Congress obviously agreed would benefit the public. When available, it will be found at www.nmvtis.gov/. At the end of 2008 Google controlled 72% of all searches in the US, Yahoo had 14%, and MSN 8%, for a total of 94%. So all the other search engines together have 6% market share. Did you ever want more information about some of the people in the news? There are lots of reference engines, and even a pronunciation engine that provides both phonetic and audible assistance from 50 resources. Beverly Rosenbaum, a HAL-PC member, is a 1999 and 2000 Houston Press Club “Excellence in Journalism” award winner. End of Article End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article Speed Demons Written by Bill Roman, Advisor to the Board of Directors, The PC Users Group of Connecticut www.tpcug.org br (at) numbercrunch.com This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).   There is an issue that I feel must be addressed, since the issue continues to come up on a regular basis. As a PC technician I constantly get asked why the clients’ computer has become so slow, and if there is anything wrong with it.   The first thing I tell the client is that there are two main culprits that contribute to a PC becoming very sluggish. The first being lack of RAM memory. This answer usually elicits a quick response from the user that they “only do e-mail, Internet and word processing” or some similar response. I then go into a discussion with the user that there are two kinds of memory in a computer: hard drive storage, which holds all their music, pictures, documents, etc. and RAM, or working memory. A user could have plenty of hard drive space to store all of their documents and stuff, but when they don’t have enough RAM, the computer will, over time, become slower and slower.   Why you ask? When the computer was originally purchased (usually somewhere between 2 and 5 years ago) Windows XP, in this case, required about 512MB of RAM to run properly. As Windows critical security updates and service packs are installed, as well as upgrades and updates to all sorts of programs used on a daily basis (antivirus, Internet Explorer, AOL, Adobe Reader and Flash Player, printer updates, etc), the programs NEVER get smaller, always bigger.   Now, several years later and the programs being used are double or triple in size, but the computer is the same one with the same specs as when it was purchased. Adding more RAM memory is a quick, cheap way to improve performance to an aging computer, and extend life before a replacement is in order. Windows XP should have at least 1024 MB (1GB) of RAM to run properly, and Windows Vista (32bit) needs 3GB of RAM. More is not better in the case of Vista for technical reasons I will not go into in this article. This is only half the battle. The other half is to beat down what I will call the “moochers”. Years ago when I would inspect a computer for sluggish performance, it was usually because of a rogue game that was installed. Back then quite a few games adopted the theory that the only reason you owned your $3000 or $4000 computer (yes, it was that much back then, even more depending on how far back you go) was to play some ridiculous $49 game. The game would change many settings that allowed the game to work properly, but made it miserable to perform simple tasks like type a letter.   Now, in 2009 every program under the sun assumes that they are the main focus, and must be given priority at all times. What does this mean to you, the end user? Each time when an upgraded revision of Adobe Reader comes out it always wants to include the new “MSN Toolbar” or “Yahoo Toolbar” etc. This adds unnecessary junk to your browser, which slows down getting online. In addition, many of these programs load an additional program when Windows starts to speed it up when starting it. This is just lousy practice that is a very poor substitute for tight efficient programming. If the program was small and lean there would be no need for “speed loaders,” which make your computer take an exorbitant amount of time for Windows to start. Not to pick on, but a classic example of this is how much Apple’s iTunes has grown through the years. iTunes 6 which was released in January 2006 was about 35MB in size. iTunes 7.5 was 52MB and iTunes 8.1 (the current release) is now up to 70MB. The program is twice as large only three years later, and loads a number of programs when Windows starts to aid loading this memory hog.   What to do about this? In short be mindful when installing updated programs to unselect add on toolbars and, if available, to kick them out of starting up when Windows loads. I have discussed at our local computer club meetings to do your best to keep running processes to a minimum. By clicking control, alt, delete once (with no programs active) will bring up the task manager and show how many processes are running. A good number for Windows XP is less than 35, and for Vista it’s about 45. Startup Cop and the free CCleaner utilities have the ability to disable or remove programs from starting, but I would check online in a Google search before disabling anything unless certain. I do hope this article sheds some light on the subject of pokey computers. Remember, it’s not so much the hardware as it is software that kills a computer! Until next time! End of Article End of Article - End of Article - End of Article End of Article - End of Article A young man excitedly tells his mother he’s fallen in love and is going get married. “Just for fun, Mom,” he says, “I’m going to bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I’m going to marry.” The mother agrees. 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