November 2012 http://bugclub.org 1 Table of Contents Vol XXVI No. 11 ISSN: 1076 089X November 2012 Secretary’s Report ................................................... 3 Copyrights, Internet create a difficult conflict .............. 5 U U U U Users G G G G Group B B B B Brevard Member of the Florida Association of Computer Users Groups Meeting Calendar .......................................................4 Treasurer’s Report .................................................... 3 Buying a New Computer – (Part 1) ........................... 6 Text Messaging or “Texting” ..................................... 9 Troubleshooting PC System Slowdowns .................... 8 I’m thinking about getting a tablet computer ........... 11 This and That ......................................................... 12 The Difference Between “Save” and “Save As”? ...... 14 Prez Sez: By Larry French Your Board of Directors held a meeting on October 11 and made some necessary decisions regarding the dues structure and newsletters for 2013. It was voted on and approved to change the regular dues to $24 per year instead of $25 to make prorating of new members easier. It was also voted on and approved to have a two tier dues system, $24 per year per family for a member- ship with on-line newsletter and $36 per year per family including a printed and mailed newsletter. This is not a perfect solution but will keep the club afloat for a longer time. The Board also voted on exemptions for certain members who contribute their time to the club. Chuck Boring and George Rymer were given Life Memberships many years ago by a previous Board. I suggested that Ed McEwen, Jim Townsend and Bob Schmidt also be awarded Life Memberships for their long service to the club. That was voted on and passed. It was further decided all serving members of the Board be exempt from paying dues as long as they are serving on the Board of Directors. All other SIG leaders and helpers will be requested to pay dues barring a hardship. All this was done with the idea in mind that declining membership, rising Postal rates, printing costs and rent for our meeting place have caused us to be operating in the red. These changes should remedy that for the foreseeable future. The Board sincerely hopes these actions will be accepted and that the club will be able to serve its members for many more years. Take care of each other, Larry Minutes of Officers Meeting .................................... 13
Buying a New Computer – (Part 1) ........................... 6
Text Messaging or “Texting” ..................................... 9
Troubleshooting PC System Slowdowns .................... 8
I’m thinking about getting a tablet computer ........... 11
This and That ......................................................... 12
The Difference Between “Save” and “Save As”? ...... 14
Prez Sez:By Larry French
Your Board of Directors held a meeting on October11 and made some necessary decisions regarding thedues structure and newsletters for 2013.
It was voted on and approved to change the regulardues to $24 per year instead of $25 to make proratingof new members easier.
It was also voted on and approved to have a twotier dues system, $24 per year per family for a member-ship with on-line newsletter and $36 per year per familyincluding a printed and mailed newsletter. This is not aperfect solution but will keep the club afloat for a longertime.
The Board also voted on exemptions for certainmembers who contribute their time to the club. ChuckBoring and George Rymer were given Life Membershipsmany years ago by a previous Board. I suggested thatEd McEwen, Jim Townsend and Bob Schmidt also beawarded Life Memberships for their long service to theclub. That was voted on and passed.
It was further decided all serving members of theBoard be exempt from paying dues as long as they areserving on the Board of Directors. All other SIG leadersand helpers will be requested to pay dues barring a
hardship.All this was done with the idea in mind that declining
membership, rising Postal rates, printing costs and rentfor our meeting place have caused us to be operating inthe red. These changes should remedy that for theforeseeable future. The Board sincerely hopes theseactions will be accepted and that the club will be able toserve its members for many more years.
Take care of each other,Larry
Minutes of Officers Meeting .................................... 13
T The BUG Newsletter is created on a AMD AthlonXP 3100 Mhz computer using PageMaker 6.01, onWindows XP.
Articles, Reports, and new Advertisements shouldreach the Managing Editor or Desk Top Publishing SIGby 5:00 p.m the Friday before the second Wednesdayof the month. Items received after the deadline will beheld for the following month’s issue.
The articles contained in this Newletter do notnecessarily represent the opinion of the Group, Editor,or Publisher or any other person other than the author ofthe article. The Brevard Users Group does not supportor condone illegal copying of software.
Permission is granted to copy articles, provided thesource is disclosed and proper credit is given to theauthor.
All questions, correspondence, and other itemspertaining to the Newsletter should be directed to one ofthe Editors.
Questions involving advertising should be directedto Advertising at the address below.
Articles or items of interest for inclusion in thenewsletter should be sent to The Editor at:
Distribution: Jim TownsendHome Page: http://bugclub.org
Brevard Users Group
AttentionNewsletter Editors
This publication is produced by:Creative Technology of Sarasota Inc.
The same printer used by many user groups, localchurches, mobile home parks, and many others ataffordable rates.
Creative Technology prints, folds, addresses, andmails newsletters for your club, organization, family orbusiness from a ”pdf format” sent by e-mail or disk,saving you lots of time and expense.
Contact Bob today to see how much money wecan save your organization. E-mail [email protected]
Creative Technology of Sarasota Inc.5959 Palmer Blvd.Sarasota, FL 34232
941-371-2743
ELECTRONIC WHOLESALERSASTRO TOO
Appliance Parts - Electronics RecyclingSurplus/Electronics Equipment/PartsSurveillance Equipment / CCD CamerasComputer Sales & Service
3060 Dixie Highway NE (US1) (321) 727-9010 Palm Bay, FL (321) 727-9709
The meeting was called to order at 6.30 PM byPresident Larry French.
There were about 17 members present. There weretwo guests present: James Cordy, and Felix Serran.They were welcomed by Larry.
Larry mentioned that we had no speaker tonight sothe meeting would be opened up to a question andanswer session.
There followed a question and answer sessionregarding member’s computer questions. They wereably answered by Chuck Boring in most cases.
Of general interest: A member mentioned that hehad trouble logging in to the website. Chuck explainedthat it was not necessary to log into the website with apassword. At present the log in was only for thewebmaster to make modifications.
Larry said that this could be confusing, we shouldlook into this. At present the website is open to anyone.Maybe we should put a different title on this like “admin-istrative log in” as that is really what it is.
Another member said she did not have a question,but of interest she had seen that the company who hadbought IBM think pad’s business (Lenovo) was comingout with a new version which would be a combinedtablet and laptop. In one version the top would comeright off, and in another it would just turn around. Itshould be available by Christmas, but she didn’t haveany price information. Larry said that HP had alreadycome out with this idea, but the top did not come off.She said that the Lenovo statement did refer to HP asthe competition.
Tom English asked if he gave a guest access to theinternet through his computer by giving him his pass-word, was there any way that he could protect his ownfiles?
Chuck answered that the simplest way to do thiswas to set the system to not share.
He illustrated on the big screen how you could go tothe drive you want to protect and set it not to share thewhole thing, or only to share certain files. Right clickingon it would show “share” as that is how it is set up in
most households. But clicking on “don’t share” wouldprotect it. He went through all the necessary steps to dothis on the screen. Chuck said there were other ways todo this including on the newer routers where individualpasswords could be set up for household members, andone for “Guest”, which could limit access.
Jim Townsend reported that several people hadreceived emails purportedly from him which he had notsent so apparently his address book had been hacked.
Chuck said that this could happen if your addressbook was stored online as it is on Gmail or several otherweb based email programs.
Other member’s individual problems were dealt withby suggestions of what to try by Chuck Boring. Therewas a lot more discussion about smart phone reception.
The meeting ended at approximately 7.30PM. Larryasked board members present to remain for a boardmeeting.
By Toby Scott, Technical Advisor,Channel Islands PCUG, CAFebruary 2012 issue, The Outer Edgewww.cipcug.orgtscott (at) scotts.net
Now that the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IPAct (SOPA/PIPA) have been defeated, it is time to lookat the dynamics of the conflict between copyrightholders and Internet hosts.
If a publisher creates a book, you can do prettymuch whatever you want to with it. You cannot, how-ever, photocopy it and then sell the copies. This isn’tmuch of a restriction as it is time consuming and expen-sive in paper and ink to make the copies and in almostall cases it is far easier to just buy another copy from thecopyright holder. This has long been a precept of U.S.law.
Things changed with the advent of the Internet.Now, you can copy nearly anything and distribute it fornothing.
Copyright holders are justifiably irked that the saleof one copy of a work can result in the work beingdistributed to hundreds, thousands or even millions.What makes it even worse is that in most cases thepeople making the clones are kids. They have no money,criminal prosecution makes the copyright holders looklike ogres and the public thinks the copyright holders arejust a bunch of greedy slobs who want to deprive thepublic of what is rightfully theirs.
So, the copyright holders are attempting to forcethose who have deep pockets and control some layer ofthe Internet into being their enforcement arm. This flies inthe face of current legal precedents originating with theDigital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA essen-tially provides a safe harbor for online service providersas long as they don’t deliberately shelter copyrightedinformation.
SOPA/PITA was essentially an attempt to repeal thesafe harbor provisions of the DMCA. Doing so wouldhave made life much easier for the copyright holders.They could go after companies with deep pockets andforce them to take steps to remove copyrighted material— or even prevent it from being uploaded in the firstplace.
The problem with this solution, at least as far as theonline service providers are concerned, is that theywould become (at least theoretically) liable for thepublication of copyrighted material. Can you imagineFacebook trying to vet every post of every user beforethe rest of the public could see it? Could Google possi-bly know whether the content it indexes is copyrightedby the owner of the site? I host about 100 websites onmy server. In most cases, I have no idea what mycustomers put up on their sites. Had SOPA/PIPApassed, we would have had to go out of the webhostingbusiness. We don’t have the resources to examine thecontent, nor the deep pockets necessary to fight ifsomeone protests. And you can’t just remove thematerial as soon as someone claims to be the ownersand threaten you with legal action if you don’t remove it.People have already started making the accusation thattheir work has been pirated simply to shut up viewpointsthey disagree with.
It is ironic that just about the time SOPA/PIPA died,the Justice Department closed down Megaupload, oneof the largest file download sites. Megaupload allowedusers to create accounts, upload files and share withfriends. Certainly, lots of the material on the site wascopyrighted by others, but a considerable amount wasalso family pictures, company material for sharing withemployees and other perfectly legal material.
As it stands, no one who uploaded can access theirdata, so someone who thought the data was safe “in thecloud” is without it now. It is possible some may be ableto retrieve their data, but appears unlikely at this point.
The key here is that a lot of data at Megauploadwas perfectly legal.
Undoubtedly the majority of it was stolen copy-righted material. Not only is the founder in jail, butseveral employees are as well. It will be interesting toread the details of the criminal trial, assuming it happensin the U.S.
The fact that authorities were able to coordinate aninternational investigation has some believing that SOPA/PITA were unnecessary. Others claim that given thatMegaupload was making hundreds of millions of dollars,mainly from people distributing copyrighted material, it isevidence that more needs to be done.
It is one thing to go after Megaupload, where it iscertain that the bulk of the income comes from illegalactivities, but it is vastly different for Facebook, whereclearly the vast majority of the material is not copy-righted. How far should online service providers go toprevent copyrighted material from being distributedthrough their servers?
Perhaps more chilling is the thought that should theU.S. force online service providers to create software toscreen content, foreign governments could then requirethem to screen content offensive to the government.Governments already require that they have a backdoorso they can listen to cell phone conversations, and theyrestrict search engines from indexing certain sites, socoercing online service providers to toe the line could bechild’s play. Software that screened for copyright wouldbe more than powerful enough to screen for materialcritical of a government. That is, of course, if suchsoftware could be written in the first place. It’s not clearthat it could be.
At some point, the whole concept of copyright andfair use will have to be revisited to take into account thetechnological advances that are rapidly outdating lawsthat were created 150 years ago. That’s going to beexceedingly difficult. And it can’t happen until all sideshave a reasonable understanding of the issues the othersides face.
Copyrights ... Continued from Page 5 Buying a New Computer –Things to think about (Part 1)
By Phil Sorrentino,Past President, Sarasota PCUG, FloridaJanuary 2012 issue, Sarasota PCUG [email protected]
The thought of a new computer is always veryexciting, whether you are buying your first computer orreplacing an aged one. If you are replacing one, you’veprobably been down this road before, but if this is yourfirst computer there are many things to consider. Be-cause there is such variety available, the first consider-ation might be the manufacturer. This decision is usuallydriven by past experience or knowledgeable friend’sadvice. But typically it comes down to preference,similar to the decision to buy a car - Ford or Chevy?;they both are good choices and they both will get youthere. So, if you don’t have a reason for a preference incomputer manufacturer, stick with the big players, HP,DELL, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc. Once themanufacturer is selected, go to their website and look atthe various possibilities.
If you have decided on a manufacturer, the next highlevel decision is probably laptop or desktop. The laptopis portable and takes up very little room. However, thelaptop is usually more expensive and is typically notexpandable. (Usually, when you discard your laptop inthe future, it will be the exact same configuration aswhen you bought it.) On the other hand, desktops areusually less expensive and are expandable because thereare spare slots on the “motherboard” and extra drivebays for additional drives and/or other peripheraldevices. Usually, the decision revolves around portabil-ity. If you are planning on using the computer at multiplelocations, which could include Panera Bread, Starbucks,the airport or library, then a portable is definitely in yourfuture. But if most of your computing is typically donefrom your home office or den, and/or you need a lot ofpermanent on-line storage, then the desktop might be agood choice.
Continued on page 7
November 2012 http://bugclub.org 7
Once you have decided on the manufacturer andmade the laptop-desktop decision, the fun begins. Mostof the rest of the decisions are very technical in nature,but have been summarized in a few technical param-eters. The first one is CPU (Central Processing Unit),referred to as the brains of the computer, and sometimessimply called the “processor”. Unfortunately, this deci-sion is further complicated by the fact that there are twomanufacturers of computer CPUs, Intel and AMD, andthey use different ways of naming their products. Butbehind the names there is one basic decision. OlderCPUs are “single core” and newer CPUs have “multiplecores.” The number of “cores” or CPUs translates intoprocessing power. This decision should probably be togo with one of the newer, multi-core CPUs. You couldsave a little money with the older single core, but as theneed for more processing power increases with newerapplications, the single processor may begin to feel like“it just isn’t fast enough.”
Multi-core processors, from Intel, start with theolder “core duo,” followed by the “core 2 duo” and thenthe more current crop of multi-core processors whichare simply named “Core i3,” “Core i5,” and “Core i7.”Current multi-core processors have 2, 4, or 8 proces-sors packaged in the CPU chip. Recently, I’ve seen theterm “second generation” added to some of thesenames, to indicate a newer design. AMD has a similarset of CPUs with names like “Phenom,” “Athlon,”“Athlon II,” “Athlon X2 Dual-Core,” and “Sempron.”
Comparing the Intel CPUs to the AMD CPUs canbe a difficult task, and is probably best answered by aGoogle search for “Intel vs AMD” and then readingmany of the various opinions. Hopefully, there is enoughinformation found there to help you make up your mind.Both Intel and AMD produce quality products, soanother way to solve this is to just select one of themanufacturers and then learn as much as possible aboutthat one so you can continue on to select the best CPU,for you, within that manufacturer’s offerings.
Now that we’ve chosen a CPU manufacturer andmaybe even the CPU core family name, e.g. Intel i5, thejob is not quite done. Typically, there are further dis-criminators attached to the CPU family. Probably the
most important is “clock rate,” or speed. This is indi-cated in GHz, or Gigahertz, which is a measurement ofhow fast the CPU is running. The higher the speed, thefaster the processor is running and the higher the pro-cessing power, but unfortunately, the higher the powerdissipation. It is probably a good decision to stay in themiddle range of CPU speed, around 2 to 2.5 GHz. Highspeed is good, but if you are at the top end of the speedspectrum, which is around 3 to 4 GHz, then CPUcooling becomes a real issue. If the computer is runninga very fast CPU, make sure there are adequate fans toremove the heat generated by the processor. Typically,you won’t be deciding on the fans or how many fans,but make sure when you are using the computer that allthe fans are operating and the vents are not obscured,and are not clogged by dust or animal hair.
The last thing to note when looking at the CPU isthat they usually come in different versions within afamily. The versions are indicated by a number. So, forexample, an Intel CPU might be defined as Intel Corei5-520M (2.4GHz). The 520M indicates further techni-cal details such as the size of the Cache (subject for afuture article). Usually, as the number goes up, theprocessing power increases.
One thing to point out when discussing CPUs is thefact that CPUs come in two types, 32-bit and 64-bit.But this is probably not a deciding factor for mostcomputer users. Both will do the job; the only thing thatthe CPU type leads to is the determination of how muchRAM memory the processor can use. 32-bit machineswill be limited to 4 GB (Gigabytes) of RAM, and a 64-bit machine will not. RAM memory will be discussed inpart 2 of this article.
So far, we’ve discussed manufacturers, laptop vs.desktop, and looked at the CPU. Next month we’llcontinue with some more considerations so that thecomputer you purchase will be exactly the one that willfulfill your desires, keeping in mind that what you hopeto accomplish with this computer drives most of thesedecisions.
New Computer ... Continued from Page 6
All of us could take a lesson from the weather.It pays no attention to criticism.
By Vinny La Bash, Regular Contributing Columnist,Sarasota PCUG, Inc., FLDecember 2010 issue, Sarasota PC Monitorwww.spcug.orgVlabash (at) Comcast.net
Your PC used to be a rocket ship with turbo boost.Today, a glacier could whiz right by it. What happened?Listing all the possible causes could generate a uselesslengthy list, so let’s focus on some likely culprits andlook at what can be done to either eliminate or tonedown their effects on performance.
Windows 7 has been out for over a year now, andone of its virtues is that it requires far less system re-sources to operate than either XP or Vista. Neverthe-less, initial lightning like response tends to fade overtime, and system hang-ups become all too common.Before reformatting your hard drive let’s examine someless drastic methods of getting your PC back to its initialunspoiled state.
The odds are good that you have enough physicalRAM to run your most common applications withoutyour machine having to swap data in and out of memoryoften enough to be a problem, but are your memorychips performing the way they should? Computers havebecome very powerful compared to machines in thepast. Your digital watch probably has more computa-tional power than some main frames built in the 70s.
Buying memory used to be a simple affair. Youneeded to know the maximum speed your motherboardwould support and how much memory would fit into aslot, and that was it. Motherboards today will allow amix of speeds without apparent trouble, but the systemwill default to the slowest memory speed to avoidconflicts.
Most memory chips are fine, but if you try to savemoney by buying cheap RAM you could be purchasingchips with minor flaws that don’t show up until youstress your system with video editing, high end games orsome other application with far-reaching RAM de-mands. A high quality motherboard will have built-in
mechanisms to let your system keep working, but youmay pay a steep performance price. To check out yourmemory (and other system components) download thefree Belarc Advisor program to see what you have. It isan amazingly extensive analysis of your system. You candownload the program at
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html.
Until recently, heat generated by memory chips wasnot an issue. That’s changed with the newer type RAMchips and the only way you can know if your memory isoverheating is to power down, open the case, and touchthe chip. If you have to pull your hand back, yourmemory is probably running too hot. If you think yourmemory chips are overheating, check your motherboardmanual to see if you can install a RAM fan. Anotheralternative is to install a fan card in a PCI slot.
Multitasking and resource hungry applications needRAM and lots of it. If you are running on amanufacturer’s minimum specifications you probablydon’t have enough physical memory to accommodatethe more demanding tasks. Memory is cheap, and thereis no good reason not to have the maximum amount ofmemory that your system can handle. The amount ofRAM you can install is determined by the chip set onyour motherboard. Consult your user manual. Windows7 can handle up to 192 gigabytes. That’s overkill, butthere is no good reason to work with less than 4gigabytes.
Background applications are like invisible gremlinsthrottling performance. Take a look in the notificationarea located at the bottom right section of your display.Every icon there represents a program. All of them arerunning. Most of them are performing their function inthe background, but they all consume system resources.
Left click on the Start orb and type System Con-figuration in the search box. After launching the tool,click on the Startup tab and uncheck the boxes of anyunneeded startup programs.
Manufacturers assemble their systems to work, notnecessarily to work at optimum performance. Don’toverlook the BIOS settings as a cause of system slow-down. Most people accept the default BIOS settings
and never check them. It’s always a good idea to getyour motherboard’s user manual and examine the BIOSsettings that optimize performance. Sadly, there is nocentralized database you can reference, but you can useGoogle or Bing search engines to find out. The odds aregood that your default settings need to be changed.
Intel and AMD have gone to great lengths to designprocessor chips that are efficient and generate less heat.That hasn’t eliminated the need for some kind of coolingmechanism which is most commonly a fan. Accumulationof dust can overwork a fan, and cause it to fail. Cleanthe dust out with a can of compressed air, and monitorthe fan afterwards for signs of failure. Bearings can getloose and cause vibration. When you hear noise developbecause a fan is failing, don’t hesitate; replace the fan.Clean out the interior of your machine with compressedair while you’re at it.
If quality control wasn’t the best when your machinewas built, the heat sink used to cool the processor maynot be placed properly above the CPU; the thermalpaste may be of inferior quality or have been improperlyapplied. This condition appears mostly with home builtsystems, and sometimes even in commercially assembledunits.
A poorly designed case can contribute to excessheat due to internal airflow restrictions. It’s best to checkthis out before you buy, but if you didn’t, installing extrafans is usually possible unless you have a laptop.
Overclocking can generate enough excess heat fromthe CPU to cause failure. If you are experienced enoughto handle overclocking, consider a water cooled system.It can be expensive and it’s certainly more complex, butthat’s the price you pay for extra performance.
Keep the ambient temperature comfortable. If youfeel too warm it’s probably too high for your system.You needn’t keep your computer in a refrigerator, butadequate ventilation and room temperatures below 80ºare simply common sense procedures.
Whenever you notice degrading system perfor-mance, always look for potential hardware problemsfirst. Software can be at fault, but it’s far less likely to bethe root of your problems.
System Slowdowns ... Continued from Page 8 Text Messaging or “Texting” -Have you tried it yet?
Phil Sorrentino, Member, Sarasota PCUG, FLJuly 2012 issue, PC Monitorwww.spcug.orgpcugedit (at) verizon.net
If you’re under 20, you probably know all of this,and if you’re over 60, you probably think you have noneed for texting (unless you want to keep in contact withsomeone who is under 20), so for all of you in between,here goes. Texting is a very interesting, and relativelyeasy, way to communicate with others, using your cellphone.
Texting refers to the exchange of brief text messagesbetween cell phones, over a network. SMS or SimpleMessage Service is what provides the ability to sendthese messages via the cell phone network. Today, allthe Wireless carriers provide Texting service, typically ata cost of about 20 cents per text (both incoming andoutgoing), unless you have a specific texting plan.Texting plans can include unlimited texting or a specificnumber of texts per month. Texts, unlike voice calls,cannot be rejected or dismissed; when a text is sent toyou, you pay for it, whether you wanted it or not.
A text message consists of a series of any of the 26letters of the alphabet, the 10 numerals, and somespecial characters (like the space), up to 160 characterslong. SMS specifies that text messages are to be 160characters or less. (You may remember that Twitter,which is based on SMS, limits its “tweets” to 140characters; this is because Twitter uses 20 characters foraddressing of messages.) Most text messages aretypically short, and a sort of “short-hand notation” hasdeveloped to allow abbreviations or short collections ofalpha-numeric characters to convey a longer thought.Some of these may be familiar and some maybe not somuch. For a comprehensive list see:http://www.netlingo.com/acronym s.php
Some examples are: ASAP As soon as possible,BBFN Bye Bye for now, BFF Best Friends Forever,BTW By the way, CYM Check your mail, NUFFEnough said, GF Girl Friend, C4N Ciao for now, B4Before, GTG Got to go, IDK I don’t know, ILU ILove You, IMHO In my humble opinion, J/K Justkidding, L8R Later, M4C Meet for coffee, OMG Oh
my god, P911 Parent alert, LOL Laughing out loud,P2C2E Process too complicated to explain, C-PSleepy, SLAP Sounds like a plan, TGIF Thank god it’sFriday, TG2BT Too good to be true, U2 You too.
Texting can be done from any cell phone that has theability to send alpha-numeric characters, but if you don’thave a phone with a keyboard, texting can be verydifficult and tedious. On a phone with only 16 or sobuttons, the buttons have to be pressed sequentially in acertain pattern to get the alpha or special characters,(sending a “C” may require pressing the 2 key 4 timesfollowed by a specific key), which makes sending evensome of the very short abbreviations very difficult toaccomplish with any speed and accuracy. On a phonewith a keyboard, texting becomes a much simpleractivity. Just find the characters on the keyboard (usuallywith either of your thumbs), and put together the mes-sage, with or without the short-hand notation, makingsure to stay within the 160 character limitation.
Although texting was originated using only SMS,today texting can handle pictures, video and sound usingthe MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). MMSextends the SMS capability to include these multimediafile types. MMS has become the typical way to sharepictures and even videos among cell phones.
Today, text messaging is the most widely usedmobile data service, others being voice and email. In theUnited States, in December 2009, there were 286million US text message subscribers and they sent 152.7billion text messages per month, for an average of 534messages per subscriber that month. Another surveyfound in May 2010 that 72% of U.S. adult cell phoneusers have sent or received a text message. Spurred bythe unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&Tand Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent andreceived an average of 2,272 texts per month in thefourth quarter of 2008, almost 80 messages a day, morethan double the average of a year earlier.
Text messaging is most often used between cellphone users, as a substitute for voice calls in situationswhere voice communication is either, impossible, diffi-cult, or not necessary. (In some regions of the world,
text messaging is significantly cheaper than placing aphone call to another cell phone; but in general, textmessaging is popular for its convenience, despite the lowcost of voice calls.
One of the unfortunate down sides to texting istexting while driving. Texting while driving leads toincreased distraction behind the wheel. In 2006, asurvey with more than 900 teens from over 26 highschools showed that 87% of the students found textingto be “very” or “extremely” distracting. A later study byAAA discovered that 46% of teens admitted to beingdistracted behind the wheel due to texting. Please:Never Text While Driving.
Texting even has its own etiquette. One example is:“Keep your message brief.” No one wants to have anentire conversation by texting when a call would bemore appropriate. Another example is: “Don’t use allCaps.” Typing a text message in all capital letters willappear as though you are shouting at the recipient, andshould be avoided. And a last one “Only send texts topeople who you think will appreciate them, otherwiseuse e-mail, or even voice-mail.”
So B4 I go let me say that IMHO texting is GTKNUFF LOL
Bill Armstrong, Treasurer, Lehigh Valley ComputerGroup, PAMay 2012 issue, LVCG Journalwww.lvcg.orgarmstrong_bill (at) yahoo.com
Question:I am THINKING about getting one of these tablet
computers, but have oodles of questions so I thoughtI’d start here (rather than bugging sales people until Iknow a bit more).
Are there any additional costs to use for internetaccess. (i.e. like a cell phone on a per minute plan)? Are“apps” part of the deal using a tablet (we are not intosmart phones either at this point)? Is there a cost to usean App (other than cost to download if it was notfree)...such as checking mail, weather, interactivegames? Would I be able to get my e-mail? One I amlooking at mentions Gmail...which I do not have? Howdo I get virus (etc.) protection? How secure using awireless hot spot?
Thanks, Dave
Dave,Answer:I do not have a tablet, but I do have a smart phone
(Android). Internet access through the cellular networkrequires a monthly access fee with a carrier, so yes,there is a continuing cost. That is why most of thetablets sold are Wi-Fi (not cellular). The Wi-Fi onlytablets are less expensive to purchase initially (sincethey do not have the circuitry for cellular communica-tions). My plan with Verizon to get internet on myphone costs an extra $30 per month (over the cost ofthe cell phone plan for voice phone calls).
Apps are elective for you. I have some, but not ahuge number. They give me weather info, stock marketinfo, gasoline prices locally, movie listings, etc. Appscome in both free and paid versions. Once acquired,there is usually no additional cost to use them, forever.Most apps that require a fee up front are low cost, such
as $0.99 up to $3 or maybe even $5. Some, I guess, aremore expensive, but I have never paid for the expensiveones.
If you have Wi-Fi at home, a tablet will work on theWi-Fi network very nicely. That is how most people usethem. When you go out around town, you will find manybusinesses offer free Wi-Fi. I used the free Wi-Fi atPanera Bread today in Whitehall. You should be able toget your email when connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi. I’ll bet your email service has a method of retrievingyour email over the web.
Virus protection is available for the operating systems(OS) that tablets run. I have such a program for mysmart phone, for which I paid. It’s a good idea to haveone. The app store for your tablet’s OS will offer many.Just search for anti-virus. Wireless hotspots (public Wi-Fi) are not secure. Period. That being said, I use them allthe time. I just don’t do any banking or money or creditcard transactions. I wait until I am home, on my pass-word protected Wi-Fi system.
Be sure to view a few screen sizes, to see what isgood for you. The iPad is about 10.1 inches (measureddiagonally), and many consider that size to be ideal forthem. Other popular sizes are 7.7 and 7.0 inches, and 5inches. View a website or two to see how they look.
My smart phone is large for a phone, about 4.65inches. It’s small but usable for viewing a website. I haveto use a two-finger spreading action on the screen toenlarge the view, so I can read it easily. If using theAndroid OS, I recommend a tablet that uses Android4.0 or later (called Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS). ThisOS makes scrolling and making the view larger/smallervery easy and intuitive and smooth.
I use my phone for getting email, viewing websites,checking the weather, checking my calendar (where I putall my appointments and “to do” list), checking facts onWikipedia, getting news, reading tech articles, gettingstock market info, etc.
By Lynn Page, Editor, Crystal River Users Group,FloridaNovember 2010 issue, CRUG newsletterwww.crug.comlcpage46 (at) q.com
OutlookTo have Outlook leave or delete messages on the
server in the Tools drop down menu, choose E-mailAccounts in Outlook 2003 or Account Settings inOutlook 2007. Select View or Change existing e-mailaccounts and choose on the email account to change.Click the Change button or Change icon. In Outlook2003 select the Advanced tab or in Outlook 2007 clickthe More Settings button. Uncheck or check the Leavea copy of messages on serer box. Finish by clicking theappropriate buttons.
Minimize the RibbonTo have more room to work on-screen minimize the
Ribbon when you don’t need it. Right-click any Ribbontab and choose Minimize The Ribbon in the menu thenagain right-click any Ribbon tab and deselect MinimizeThe Ribbon to restore it.
Clear FormattingClear Formatting removes all the formatting you
have applied to your text, and sets it back to the defaultparagraph style. This is a quick way to recover foroverly aggressive formatting. Select the text to clear upand button on the Home tab in the Font group click theClear Formatting button.
Windows 7FavoritesWindows Explorer includes default locations in the
Favorites list. To remove unwanted locations fromFavorites, right-click the unwanted location and clickRemove in the menu. To Add Favorites open the folderto add to Favorites, right-click on Favorites and clickAdd current location to Favorites in the menu. Torestore the Favorites list to the previous state, right-clickon Favorites and click Restore favorite links in the menu.
ThemesWindows 7 has themes to customize the feel and
look of the computer. The themes are based on thelocation and the language selected when Windows wasinstalled. Select a location-specific theme in the Person-alize menu. To see themes for other locations enterC:\Windows\Globalization\MCT in the search box of theStart menu. Windows Explorer opens showing addi-tional themes. Select the wallpaper only or install thewhole theme. An added theme will show in My Themesin the Personalization pane. Microsoft has other themesavailable for download on their web site.
Add Tags to or Rate PicturesIn the Pictures library select the picture or pictures
to tag. In the details pane at the bottom of the windowclick Add a Tag, type in a tag and click the Save button.Ratings can also be added to photos in the details pane.Click the star rating to add it to the photo.
Word 2007Skip A Bullet or Number in a ListTo add a new line to a numbered or bulleted item in
a list use hold down SHIFT while pressing ENTER.This adds a new line with no additional line spacing,number or bullet and keeps the indention of the list.Pressing ENTER again without SHIFT continues withthe bulleted or numbered list.
Quickly Move ParagraphsSelect a paragraph then hold the ALT and SHIFT
keys while pressing the Up or Down arrow keys tomove the paragraph up or down the page. To select aparagraph without dragging the mouse over it to selecttriple click in the paragraph or double click in the gutterbeside the paragraph.
Email a DocumentAttach a Word document to an email in Outlook
from within Word by clicking the Office button andselecting Mail from the Send drop down menu. Otheroptions on the Send menu allow for sending the docu-ment as a PDF or XPS attachment.
November 2012 http://bugclub.org 13
Continued on Page 14
Minutes of Officers MeetingBy: Secretary Gervase M. Bushe.
October 11th, 2012The meeting was called to order by President Larry
French after the General Meeting..Present were the members of the board of directors
as follows: President Larry French, Treasurer TomEnglish, Secretary Gervase Bushe, and Second memberat large Bill Middleton. Vice President Hank Lauritsenand First member at large Bob Bloch were excused.Newsletter editor Jim Townsend was also present.
The minutes of the prior meeting of the board wereread and verified next. It was moved by Tom Englishand seconded by Bob Middleton that these minutes beaccepted as read. The vote in favor was unanimous.
There were no new reports from the President orofficers present, and no old business, so we went rightto new business.
It had been previously suggested that we go to atwo tiered membership dues system whereby thosemembers who are willing to accept electronic delivery ofthe monthly newsletter pay annual dues of $24.00, whilethose members who insist on retaining the printedversion pay $36.00 annually. This to be effective nextJanuary 2013. It was moved by Secretary GervaseBushe, and seconded by member at large Bill Middletonthat this new dues structure be adopted. PresidentFrench asked for any discussion:
Treasurer Tom English pointed out that this newsystem of dues might not entirely cover all expenses, butwe would have to wait and see. It would certainly staveoff the club’s demise. He expected that the number ofpeople requesting a printed version would be reducedsignificantly. President French said that if the number ofprinted copies required was very low we could go tolocal printing at Kinkos which would save money. NewsEditor Jim Townsend said that he was presently mailingout 51 copies and getting 75 copies printed. If it coulddrop to mailing around 30, it would save a lot onpostage. Tom English said he thought it would drop to a
lot smaller number than that, but we all agreed the onlyway to find out was to go ahead with it. A vote wastaken and it was passed unaminously.
French went on to the next order of business whichwas whether anyone should be exempt from payingdues.
He stated that in looking at the membership list hesaw that George Rymer and Chuck Boring had beengranted lifetime memberships. He felt that this should notchange, as George had earned his for past service, andthat without Chuck we could not run the club. Also hesuggested that we should award life membership to JimTownsend, Ed McEwen,and (as Tom suggested) BobSchmidt. The latter not only that he served the club well,but that he had turned over more than $700.00 to theclub treasury which he had collected.(this had comeabout at tinkers meetings when he had asked for dona-tions for services performed.)
French also said there was a question whethercurrently serving officers should have to pay dues. TomEnglish felt they should, pointing out that he was away alot, and some of his work was dumped on Larry. JimTownsend felt that Current Officers should not have topay dues. He felt they earned it, and that it was a little bitof a draw to encourage people to take these jobs. Hepointed out what a hard time we had to get members totake these jobs. There was more discussion about thismatter, with both Tom English and Gervase Bushe statingthat when they had decided to take on the jobs they hadnot known that they would not have to pay dues. Larrysaid that this had not been advertised. Jim Townsendsaid he still felt that (serving) officers should not have topay.
Larry called for a motion. Tom English made amotion that serving officers not be required to pay dues.(the assumption being that they could voluntarily if theywanted). Bill Middleton agreed, provided that if theywanted a printed newsletter they would have to pay theextra.
President Larry French then went on to recap andcall for formal motions and votes on the above issues.
Riptide Demo for the US Armyhttp://tinyurl.com/8t8xq2x
ReDigi fights for right to sellused digital music
Record companies seek to kill the golden goose
http://bit.ly/QQgljV
Home 3-D printing is gettingaffordable
One of the most-buzzed about players in the con-sumer 3-D printer field is Makerbot, a Brooklyn, N.Y.,company determined to bring the technology to homeusers. Engineers can use Makerbots to prototype, butthe printers have largely been adopted by hobbyists,who can download designs from Makerbot’s“Thingiverse” and recreate them on the printer.
http://tinyurl.com/8vhex5a
Officers Meeting ... Continued from Page 13
What’s The Difference Between“Save” and “Save As…”?
By Jim Cerney, Director, Sarasota PCUG, FloridaFebruary 2012 issue, Sarasota PC Monitorwww.spcug.orgjimcerny123 (at) gmail.com
My usual answer to this question is “always useSave as…”. Well, OK, now why?
First, let me take a moment of your time to show the“save a file” process. If you open a program and createsomething NEW, when you are done you probablywant to save your work. If you click on the “Save”option, guess what? – you will get the “Save as…”Dialog Box. The “Save as…” Dialog Box is importantbecause that is where you can see and change (if youwish to) the following three options:
1. WHERE you save your file – in what folder ordisk.
2. The NAME of the file. If it is the first time youare saving the file, you need to give it a good name thatmeans something to you – so you can find it again.
3. The FILE TYPE. Many programs allow you tosave a file with a selected file type. I don’t want to getinto file types here, but that is a great topic for anotherarticle.
Ok, so now you save your file with a good filename, right? So the next day comes and you want toOPEN that file you created yesterday and make somechanges to it. Once you have made some changes andyou want to save the changed file – be careful now – doyou click on “Save” or “Save as…”? If you click on
“Save” you do NOT get the “Save as…” Dialog Boxand BOOM your changed file has TOTALLY RE-PLACED your previous file with the same name. Thus,your previous file is GONE, and it is NOT in the recyclebin either. But if you always use “Save as…”, you willalways get the “Save as…” Dialog Box so you cancheck those three important file options (location/folder,name, and file type). If you choose not to change any ofthese options, then it is no different than using the “Save”option. But with “Save as…” you always get to seewhat is going on and you get a chance to change anoption if you wish. If you do change the NAME of thefile, then you will have two files saved, your old filebefore your changes and the new file with your changesand the new file name. So if you are in the habit ofalways using the “Save as…” option whenever you savea file (old or new) you will always be given the chance tochange something if you want. Choosing just “Save” willnot give you those options unless your file is being savedfor the first time.
Tom English repeated his motion that servingofficers not be required to pay dues. This was secondedby Bob Middleton and passed unanimously.
Tom English moved that Jim Townsend, EdMcEwan, and Bob Schmidt be awarded life member-ship. This was seconded by Secretary Bushe. The votewas unanimous in favor.There was no more New or old business. The meetingwas adjourned at 8PM
Meets on the Fourth and Fifth Thurdayat the Central Baptist Church
Brevard Users Group Membership Application
First Name _________________________________
Address ___________________________________
Home Phone ________________________________
Family Membership $25.00
Last Name _________________________________
City ______________________________________
State _______ Zip + 4 ________________________
E-mail Address ______________________________
Special Interest Groups BUG Club Information
Moving ?Don’t miss out on any issues of the BUG NewsletterSend your new address to:Brevard Users Group Att: TreasurerPO Box 2456Melbourne, FL 32902-2456And e-mail to the Newsletter and Treasurer at:[email protected]@bugclub.org
Afternoon MeetingAn afternoon meeting is held on the first
Monday of the month at 2pm, in One SeniorPlace, 8085 Spyglass Hill Rd, Viera.
BUG E-MAIL LISTTo be included in the BUG E-Mail roster, send
Brevard Users GroupIncorporatedP. O. Box 2456Melbourne, FL 32902-2456
Monthly Meetings:Are held at the second Thurs-
day of the month at Central BaptistChurch 2503 Country Club RdMelbourne at 6:30 PM.
Membership:Membership is $25 from
January, anyone who joins after thatmonth will have the dues prorated.
Membership includes the E-mailnewsletter.
Your membership expires inJanuary the date indicated in theupper left of your address label(YYYY\MM). Please allow sixweeks for processing the renewal.
