The Monthly Edition Of The

P C U S ER S G R O U P
V. 28, No. 7, July 2011

F RON T

R ANGE

k-Byte
Newsletter

Users Helping Users

Contents
Desktop Gadgets .........................................................................1 About k-Byte ................................................................................2 Disk Maintenance........................................................................3 IPv6 is Coming ............................................................................5 Calendar of Events ......................................................................6 The Two Month Activities Calendar ........................................7 I Am Not a Nook! ........................................................................8 Photo Gallery ...............................................................................9 Tip of the Month........................................................................10 FRPCUG Contacts .....................................................................11 Directions and Map to the Fort Collins Senior Center ........12

Desktop Gadgets
by Lee Reynolds, Boca Raton Computer Society, FL, http:// www.brcs.org, leetutor (at) exploringwindows.com. Originally published in Boca Bits.

ntroduction

Windows Vista introduced a new feature called the Sidebar, which was a narrow section of your Desktop where you could have small applications running called Gadgets. These Gadgets could be moved out of the Sidebar and anchored somewhere else on your Desktop, if you wished, but still the Sidebar application had to be running. In Windows 7, there is no longer any Sidebar, but Desktop Gadgets are still present, and you set them up in a new Control Panel applet of the same name. (In Windows Vista, the Sidebar was on by default, whereas in Windows 7 there is no Sidebar and any Gadgets you want must be configured in Control Panel.). Windows 7 Gadgets The Gadgets present in Windows 7 are the same as those provided by Vista, with an additional one that is connected to Windows Media Center. These Gadgets are mini-applications designed to use web technology so as to provide realtime access to information of one type or another available through the internet. The built-in Gadgets are these: a Calendar application which shows the month, day, year, and day of week. If you click it, you will see the entire month a Clock which can be configured to show one of 8 different clock faces and any time zone a CPU meter which shows two analog style dials measuring current memory usage and CPU utilization a Currency converter

Meeting Previews On Page 6: July: Hardware/Software ZOO August: No Meeting

Quote of the Month

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is . . . the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind . . . . John Quincy Adams [c. 1846]

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About k-Byte

ublished monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG). Our mailing address is PMB 152, 305 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521.

Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via e-mail attachment or submit on disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright and Trademark Information k-Byte is copyrighted 2011 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. The k-Byte logo and the Front Range PC Users Group logo are Trademarked by the Front Range PC Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that: a) proper author and publication credits are given; b) that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address, or emailed to contact(at)frpcug.org; and c) any additional instructions/restrictions contained in the article are followed. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request. Disclaimer IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, HP, Dell, UNIX, Windows, MAC, Apple Computer and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Dell Inc., Apple Computer Inc. or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected with any manufacturer or seller. Acceptance by FRPCUG of donated products or services from suppliers, or inclusion of a supplier in the FRPCUG Partner list does not imply that any continuing financial support is received from or expected by FRPCUG from such activities. Nor do such activities imply an endorsement of either the supplier or product or service. Such information is made available to members as a service. Use of any product or supplier found in this publication, or any FRPCUG publication, is at the sole risk of the user. About FRPCUG FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, so incorporated with the State of Colorado and open to anyone interested in personal computers using any operating system: Windows, Linux or MAC, and digital hardware (such as music/video players, smart phones, etc.). Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the community regardless of knowledge level. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGs) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, subscription to the k-Byte newsletter, and access to SIGs and selected seminars. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership ($20 for students) and $50 for corporate/group membership.

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a Headline Feed of RSS feeds that you are subscribed to via Internet Explorer a Media Center gadget that shows a revolving set of links to various parts of Windows Media Center a Weather gadget which can be configured for any location in the world a Stocks gadget for tracking stocks a Picture Puzzle where you slide tiles around against a timer a Slide Show gadget for showing the photos you configure for it

Other Gadgets There are many other Gadgets that can be downloaded from the internet and installed, if you so desire... Windows 7 Gadget Options If you click on the Show Desktop area of the Taskbar in Windows 7 (a narrow rectangular area on the extreme right end), then you will see the Desktop with its Gadgets (if any.) In Windows Vista, when you clicked on the Show Desktop icon of the Quick Launch Bar, the Gadgets were not visible. Gadgets can be shown on your Desktop in Windows 7 even if you are not on line with an internet connection, but they will in this case feature a time stamp which shows how out of date the associated data is. Some of the Gadgets, e.g., the Calendar, can be toggled between various sizes. Some of them have Touch capabilities for those users who have a touch screen attached to their PC.

Disk Maintenance
by Les Townsing, Melbourne PCUG, Australia, http://www.melbpc.org.au, editor (at) melbpc.org.au. Originally published in PC UPDATE

leaning up your hard drive can restore your PCs Performance.

There are three important utilities provided in Windows that help to improve a PCs performance: Disk Clean Up Error Checking (previously known as Check Disk or Scan Disk) Disk Defragmenter

Disk Clean Up Over time, unnecessary data and leftover files gradually collect in all PCs as you use them. As this garbage collects it slowly clogs up your system, taking up space and making performance slower and slower. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk by searching for files that you can safely delete. There are a number of ways to start Disk Clean Up. My preference is: 1. 2. 3. Open Windows Explorer and right click on the required drive Select Properties, click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup Disk Clean Up will then scan the drive and provide you with a list of possible actions and an estimate of the space that can be saved

Depending on your system, a number of different file types are analysed when the initial disk scan is conducted. After the analysis completes you can choose what to do with them. The analysed files include:
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Downloaded program files Temporary Internet files Recycle Bin Temporary Remote Desktop files Setup Log files Backup files for a previous operating system Offline files Compressed old files

In addition to the Disk Cleanup tab, the More Options tab offers further opportunities for freeing up hard drive space. There is nothing on this tab that isnt available elsewhere within Windows in standalone fashion and some will be dealt with below. There may be other categories that appear in your Disk Cleanup window, but in all cases, highlighting the item will display an explanation of the category in the Description area. Error Checking Previously called Scan Disk or Check Disk, this utility is known as Error Checking within the Windows XP / Vista / 7 system. Error Checking will check the hard disk for defects in its platters. It will also check file systems. If errors are found it will attempt to fix them. These errors are found inside your hard drive may be caused for a number of reasons. These include: system crashes applications that have been improperly closed the existence of harmful programs such as viruses

It is important to know that Error Checking is not a data recovery tool. Its job is to maintain the file system, and if your directories or files get in the way of this objective, they will be sacrificed! Before checking volumes or drives for errors, make sure that all other programs are closed, and disable your screen saver. To run Error Checking: 1. 2. 3. Open Windows Explorer and right click on the required drive Select Properties, click the Tools tab, and then click Check Now You will be given the options of automatically fixing file system errors and recovering bad sectors

Note: Vista and Windows 7 will not allow Error Checking to run while the system is operating. It must be scheduled to run at boot time. Disk Defragmentation When files are created, deleted or modified its almost a certainty they will become fragmented. Fragmented means the file is not stored in one place in its entirety and different parts of the file are scattered across the hard disk. Fragmentation causes the drive heads to search for all the pieces of a file in different locations. The more fragmented files there are on a drive, the more performance and reliability suffer. The Disk Defragmenter Utility is designed to reorganize fragmented files and optimize their placement on the hard drive for increased reliability and performance.
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To run Disk Defragmenter: 1. Open Windows Explorer and right click on the required drive 2. Select Properties, click the Tools tab, and then click Defragment Now When Disk Defragmenter first opens youll see a list of the hard drives displayed at the top of the screen. Clicking on the Analyse button will display a graphical representation of the amount of defragmentation on the selected drive. When the Defragment button is clicked, a graphical representation of the defragmentation during and after defragmentation is progressively shown. This graphical representation does not appear in Vista or Windows 7. You can schedule the Disk Defragmentation Utility to automatically run at a pre-determined time in both Vista and Windows 7. For the technically minded, you are also given the opportunity to view a defragmentation report after the drive is analysed and when it has been defragmented. For the majority of users, the Disk Defragmentation Utility included with Windows is sufficient to keep the hard drives in relatively good condition. If you are the type that wants to extract the best possible performance from a system, consider upgrading to one of the premium defragmenter products.

IPv6 is Coming
by Cal Esneault, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, Louisiana, http://www.clickers.org, cjesne (at) bellsouth.net. Originally published in Cajun Clickers Computer News.

anonical (Ubuntu Linux) and Google recently announced they would participate in a 24-hour trial of IPv6 on June 8, 2011, along with Facebook, Yahoo, and others. This means that some of the big names in open source software will be involved with the new Internet Protocol, version 6 (IPv6) which will be needed to replace the current Internet Protocol, version 4 (IPv4). To get to an Internet address, we usually type in a name, such as Clickers.org or Google.com. Software then goes to a distributed database from a Domain Name Server (DNS) and uses a table to translate this into a 32-bit numerical identifier. The identifiers are split into four 8bit segments. Since 8 binary digits (bits) can span the range from 0 255, we sometimes see these addresses as the decimal equivalents separated by periods. For example, 192.168.1.2 is a typical address for our internal networks when using routers. If we use the last block (last 8 bits), we could theoretically have 256 computers in this network. The total number of distinct addresses in IPv4 is 256 x 256 x 256 x256 = 4.3 billion. When the Internet first started, no one could conceive that more than 4 billion addresses would be needed, but the need for each home network and each mobile phone to have an address is straining that concept. Recently, the last big blocks were issued to area centers for distribution. The problem is not as bleak as it may seem since many addresses can be issued temporarily, some early users took more than they really need and can give some back, and only one address is needed for a private network which handles many computers within its structure. Some believe that we will run out of freely available addresses by the end of 2011, and that new addresses will have to wait for an old one to be freed up.

Internet designers have been working on the new IPv6 protocol to solve issues with the old system. It will have 128-bit addresses which will provide for a possible of 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses (3.4 x 10^38). This at first seems silly today since each person on earth could have trillions of addresses, but it becomes more reasonable when you realize that any electronic device in your home (which will soon be a computer) and any device in a factory or automobile could have a unique address for control purposes. Also, it is hoped this will be sufficient for a very long time so that the change will be permanent in even our grandchildrens lifetimes. The addresses for IPv6 will be split into eight 16-bit units. Since the decimal number for each unit is large (2^16 = 65,536), the addresses will be in hexadecimal notation (a = 10, b = 11, , f =15). An example address might look like fe80:0:0::200:f8ff:fe21:67cf where fields are separated by a colon, leading zeros can be omitted, and blank fields can be represented by multiple colon marks. There will be a protocol which allows current IPv4 addresses to be contained
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Calendar of Events
We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on:

Future General Forum Meeting Notes

The annual Hardware/Software ZOO is scheduled for the July Meeting. All members are invited to bring a demonstration of their favorite hardware or software. Remember, the ZOO is informal, entertaining, and you might even learn something! Think about what you would like to see . . . or demonstrate at the ZOO. Contact any Board member if you want bring a demo . . . or if you want to see something specific demonstrated. There will be no General Forum meeting in August. The Digital Imaging SIG meeting and the Board meeting have both been moved one week: the SIG meeting to August 16th and the Board meeting to August 17th.

July General Forum Meeting Date

July 5th

Day
Tuesday

Time
7:00 PM

Meeting Agenda Time

7:00 to 7:15 7:15 to 9:00

Topic
Announcements and Raffle Hardware/Software ZOO

Future SIGs, Seminars and Other Meetings

To check on FRPCUG events in 2011 using a familiar graphical calendar format, connect to the 2011 Graphical Events Calendar

Digital Imaging SIG

The Digital Imaging SIG is a forum for discussion of digital imaging hardware and software. The meetings are held every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Senior Center Lobby. The meeting format is informal, using the Shop Talk sessions as a basis. For more information, contact Mike Morris at twriterext(at)gmail.com.

We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on:

August General Forum Meeting Date

NO ET ME ING

Day
Tuesday

Time
7:00 PM

Shop Talk
One-on-one assistance. Drop in to the Senior Center lobby on any Saturday (holidays excepted) from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Meeting Agenda Time Topic

Technology SIG
The Technology SIG provides advanced support for all PC related operating system and telecommunication issues. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday of each month at Bluebird Manufacturing Inc., 1421 Webster Avenue, in Fort Collins. For more information, contact Chuck McJilton at 970-493-2987.

Board Meeting See you at the meetings!

Get full membership benefits. If you are not a current member, download and complete a Membership Application. Mail the completed application and your payment to the address listed, or better yet, bring the application to the next meeting.
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FRPCUGs executive board meets on Wednesday of the week following the General Forum meeting. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held at 7:00 PM in the Staff Board Room of the Fort Collins Senior Center.

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The Two Month Activities Calendar

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

July 2011
Wednesday 5 6

Thursday

Friday 1

Saturday
Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Independence Day Holiday

General Forum Meeting 7:00 PM Digital Imaging SIG Meeting 7:00 PM

Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

10

11

12

FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM

13

14

15

Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

16

17

18

19

20

Technology SIG Meeting 7:00 PM

21

22

Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

30

31

Sunday

Monday 1

Tuesday
ETI

August 2011
Wednesday 2 3
E OM NG

Thursday 4

Friday 5

Saturday
Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

10

11

12

No Shop Talk Senior Center Closed for Maintenance Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

13

14

15

Digital Imaging SIG Meeting 7:00 PM

16

FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM

17

Technology SIG Meeting 7:00 PM

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

27

28

29

30

31

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within the new IPv6 address. If all works as hoped, we wont care since our DNS resources will fill in numbers for us when we type in Clickers.org, etc., just like it happens today. Modern operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BSD) have already been configured to allow for IPv6 protocol. However, your current router and your ISP (Internet Service Provider) equipment may not be ready. In complex computer networks, all of the interactions between equipment and older software are not sufficiently known. Therefore, the test on June 8 will be the first of probably many to debug the issues which will have to be addressed. A similar situation was envisioned when we moved into the 21st century (known as the Y2K issue, where ambiguity between dates could occur since early software only used the last two numbers for years). In that case, the situation was handled well and none of the dire predictions about airplane crashes and business shutdown came to pass. It did, however, take a lot of work and effort to prevent chaos. Will IPv6 be a big event, or just a problem for computer professionals? We dont know yet, but open source folks are in there with everyone else to help keep our systems functioning.

I Am Not a Nook!
by Jon Jones, North Coast MAC Users Group, http://www.ncmug.org, jon (at) ncmug.org. Originally published in ncmugshots.

hings change....and sometimes very quickly.

This is certainly as true in the world of consumer electronics as anywhere.

Take the tablet computing market, for example. Devices like the iPad, the Motorola Xoom, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab not only didnt exist a couple of years ago, but they didnt even have an anticipating consumer base envisioning what they would be like or how they might best be put to use. Of course, at that time, the eReader market was starting to show signs of probable sustainability, (a tough endeavor in a market with a long-established methodology of consumption). But potentials for tablet devices were starting to hint at capacities far beyond that, as evidenced by the brief but perhaps necessary evolutionary passage of the netbook. Now, such a short time later, tablet computers have become THE it girl on the blink and youll miss it technology catwalk. Perhaps almost as much for the changes theyve introduced to personal computing as a whole as for the specific devices themselves . . . and the brand loyalties they serve to engender. It is very difficult these days to come across anyone who hasnt heard of the iPad - and even, to a slightly lesser degree, someone who doesnt want one. With Apples overwhelming success in the iPad, the market is dominated by a single player at such an incomprehensible margin that one can only marvel at the persistence with which it retains headline relevance, and the lengths to which prospective owners will go to acquire one. There has been an awful lot of speculation on what secret ingredients make up Apples recipe for success. Phrases like marketing savvy or innovative design and even ruthless CEO dictator get bandied about quite a bit. But I think this elusive recipe might best be seen in what sets Apple apart from much of its competition. While a lot of devices coming to market these days demonstrate their manufacturers attempts to replicate Apples lead in design and function, Apple simply doesnt play that way. In short, Apple only copies Apple. Yes, there are certainly risks with such a business model. But its worked in Apples favor so far. With the release of the iPad 2, they had inarguably succeeded in creating a nearly perfect . . . iPad. What is it perfect for? Well . . . for being an iPad, of course. Ive owned the iPad 2 for a short while now, (review forthcoming in next edition) and what has struck me about the device is that it is difficult to appropriately compare to other devices. It is not a better eReader than a Nook or a Kindle (my opinion), nor is it a better PC than a PC. It isnt a Mac, an iPhone, or an iPod. It is a thing unto itself. Ill expound on that more in next months review.
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Photo Gallery
This months featured photographer: Mike Morris using a Nikon D60 camera

Summer Sunrise on Longs Peak

Mode = Auto, F Number = 5.60, Exposure time = 1/60 seconds, Focal Length = 200 mm., ISO = 400, White Balance = Auto, Scene Capture Type = Standard. Copyright 2011 by Mike Morris. All rights reserved. Send requests for copies/reprint permissions to kbyte(at)frpcug. org.

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Tip of the Month

by Sharon Parq Associates, http://www.sharonparq.com/ and http://www.tips.net/ Microsoft Word

ired of pressing the Delete or Backspace key for every character you want to delete? Heres a way you can make your editing much faster, with just a simple change to your deleting keypress. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

While editing documents, it is not uncommon to delete words, phrases, and the like. Different people take different approaches to the task. For instance, some people just select the text and press Delete, while others may simply hold down the Delete or Backspace keys until the unwanted characters disappear. If you are in the latter group, and you spend a lot of time pressing Delete or Backspace, you may be interested in a handy shortcut provided by Word. All you need to do is hold down the Ctrl key to speed up your deletions. Using Ctrl+Delete deletes text from the insertion point to the end of the next word. For instance, if you wanted to delete four words to the right, simply press Ctrl+Delete four times. Likewise, Ctrl+Backspace deletes words to the left of the insertion point. An interesting use of these shortcut keys is to speed up editing tasks, not just mass deletions. For instance, lets say you wanted to change the word sidestep to sideways. Normally you would find some way to simply delete step and type ways. This could involve pressing Delete or Backspace four times to get rid of the unwanted portion of the word. You can make your edit faster if you just position the insertion point at the beginning of step, press Ctrl+Delete once, and then type ways. Microsoft Excel You can edit cell information either in the Formula bar or in the cell itself. Heres how you can configure Excel to specify where you want to perform your edits. (This tip works with MS Excel 2007, and Excel 2010. By default, Excel allows you to edit cell information either in the Formula bar or in the cell itself. (Select the cell and press F2, or simply double-click on a cell.) You may want to turn the in-cell editing feature off, however. To do this, you can follow these steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. Display the Excel Options dialog box. (In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 display the File tab of the ribbon and click Options.) Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box. (See figure at right.) In the Editing Options section, clear the Allow Editing Directly in Cells check box. Click on OK.

Copyright 2011 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Thousands of free tips can be found online at http://www.tips.net/.

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FRPCUG Contacts Telephone Area Code 970

Title FRPCUG Officers President Vice President Treasurer Secretary k-Byte Staff Editor-in-Chief Features Editor Other Contacts Membership Coordinator Technology SIG Leader Digital Imaging SIG Leader Publicity FRPCUG Fax Line FRPCUG Home Page w/ E-Mail FRPCUG Officer EMail Library Request EMail Jack Linder Chuck McJilton Mike Morris Mike Morris 493-1408 http://www.frpcug.org board(at)frpcug.org library(at)frpcug.org 491-1011 663-2151 493-2987 jack(at)frpcug.org cdmcjs(at)gmail.com Mike Morris Mike Morris 461-2002 twriterext(at)gmail.com Mike Morris Mike Loughlin Chris Ingham Chuck McJilton 461-2002 416-5824 226-9055 493-2987 twriterext(at)gmail.com mlough(at)frii.com chris.ingham(at)hotmail.com cdmcjs(at)gmail.com Name Work Phone Home Phone E-Mail

Front Range PC Users Group Is Online at http://www.frpcug.org

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For now, there is much to appreciate in Apples new gadget . . . but now may be the operative word. As I put this edition to bed, I am pondering Steve Jobs Keynote address at the recent WWDC conference. Yep. You guessed it. Things are changing again. And Ill bet that Apple is still driving the pace car.

Directions and Map to the Fort Collins Senior Center

The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and Raintree Drive intersection. It is on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center, and just west of the bank building at the corner of Shields and Raintree (see map at right). Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room N

FCSC

Source: Google Maps Page12 k-Byte July 2011