October - Connecticut Computer Users Group
Contents
1. 1 always load images Google Chrome Have not found in current Android version amp MEETING LOCATION United Congregational Church 275 Richards Avenue Norwalk Heading north on Richards Avenue from the Post Road go past NCC and past the traffic light at Scribner Avenue the church is on the left hand side just past Temple Shalom We will meet in the DISCLAIMER The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily re flect those of the CTPC or its members Neither the CTPC contributors nor the Editor of this newsletter assume any li ability for damages arising out of the pub lication or non publication of any fellowship area adjacent to the sanctuary so advertisement article or any other item in park in front and come in the front door CTPC NEWSLETTER this newsletter Articles are published at the discretion of the Editor October 20142. Carol Picard Webmaster Newsletter Editor Midland Computer Club MI www mcc apcug org Webbyte at yahoo com Disable Images in Browsers PC and Android When low speed internet connections were the norm turning off images in web browsers was often done so pages would load faster With high speed connections more common there may not be as much concern about images in web pages but there still might be times when you don t want to have the images display The following changes take place im mediately it isn t necessary to close and re launch the browser New pages will open with no images Pages that were al ready open will still display images to re move images refresh the pages PC Firefox In address bar type about config Press Enter Search for permissions Double click permissions default image Type desired value in Enter Integer Value window 1 always load the images 2 never load the images October 2014 3 allow only images from the same site to load and block third party images Click OK https sup port mozilla org en US questions 981640 PC Google Chrome Click Menu icon upper right corner of Toolbar Click Settings Scroll to bottom and click Show ad vanced Settings Under Privacy click Content Set tings Under Images chose one of the follow ing options e disable all images click in circle to left of Do not show any images e disable some images
3. an Android phone which has been on the market since the Spring of 2013 but now replaced by the Galaxy S5 and other wor thy competitors Showing a retail price of Page 6 699 if purchased outright from a major cell phone provider without a contract but as low as 49 99 from one carrier if purchased with a two year contract in which the full price of the phone was am ortized over the life of the contract with the price of the phone being built into the monthly rate Some of the carriers offered refurbished Galaxy S4 phones dis counted to around 400 with one carrier being listed on a daily deal website offer ing a one day only online special on a re furbished Galaxy 4 for 348 which was very tempting If purchased from a carrier that device is typically locked and can only be efficiently used on that particular carrier My old phone was still somewhat functional so I decided to continue to shop around My first place to look was eBay as at any given time they have countless thou sands of new refurbished and used cell phones listed eBay had hundreds of list ings for the Galaxy S4 varying in condition from new in box to being sold for parts only with the majority being listed as used while a handful were listed as refur bished Several variants of the Galaxy S4 were also listed including a waterproof model Not willing at present to switch cell phone carriers I narrowed the search
4. cameras limitations well their software does an excellent job of correcting for lens distortion and vignetting It also has fea tures for images with high dynamic range and for creating panoramas The GNU Image Manipulation Pro gram or GIMP http www gimp org for Linux OS X and Windows is the closest free program to Photoshop with a compa rable range of features Like Photoshop GIMP is designed both for photographic image processing and also creating com puter art Also like Photoshop it has a be wildering number of add ons ranging from invaluable to useless GIMP s main use for photographers is in retouching re placing an overcast sky with one having scattered clouds removing red eyes patching in heads from several group shots to get one where everybody has their eyes open and the like However it does have a serious flaw it uses 8 bit arithmetic for all its processing The developers promise to incorporate 16 bit arithmetic in the next version but its release is not yet scheduled This means that you should do as much proc essing as possible before handing off an image to GIMP For example if you begin with a raw file make your exposure adjust Continued on Page 3 October 2014 Phil Sorrentino Staff Writer The Computer Club Inc Sun City Center FL May 2014 issue The Journal www scccomputer club org philsorr at yahoo com A New Android Tablet Now What You just got a new Andr
5. keep the default option set to Show all images click on Manage exceptions and add domains subdomains that should be blocked CTPC NEWSLETTER e disable all images with some excep tions click in circle to left of Do not show any images click on Manage exceptions and add domains subdo mains that should be allowed Click Done https answers ya hoo com question in dex qid 20111 125034126AAYVk8e PC Internet Explorer Click Tools icon gear icon at top right corner of window Click Internet Options Click Advanced tab located at top of re sulting dialog box Scroll through list of options to Multi media section Click to remove checkmark from box to left of Show pictures Click OK to confirm change http www ehow com how_8166038_tur n off images internet explorer html Continued on Page 10 Page 9 The Tip Corner continued from Page 5 files or mirror backup that doesn t zip them When do you want to run the backup you can schedule it to run auto matically or run it manually Just Google backup for many more programs Backing Up Information Okay we now know how So let s look at where The secret to good backing up is redundancy You can clone your hard drive onto an external hard drive a partition on your hard drive a CD if you have a teeny hard drive a USB external hard drive a USB flash drive and a SSID a solid state drive and ev
6. t panic Redundancy is the an swer Have it on a DVD Save another copy onto an external drive Have it on one drive Clone copy or sync the data to another drive I purchased a 120GB drive many years ago Today you can get tera bytes for that kind of money Also keep the backups separate from each other If they are both in a box in the basement that flash flood can ruin both Finally it is a good idea to periodically check your ar chived material to make sure that it s okay If the data has become corrupted for what ever reason no problem you have the backup to make a new archive The chances of your archived material and backup archive material both failing at the same time are slim to none Disable Images from page 9 ANDROID Browser stock browser globe icon not on all tablets Tap Menu button 3 small vertical squares in upper right Tap Settings Tap Bandwidth management Tap to uncheck box for Load images Dolphin Tap Dolphin icon Tap gear icon Settings Tap Web content Tap Load images Tap in circle to set Always off or Show in WIFI Firefox In address bar type about config Press Enter Search for permissions Single tap permissions default image Tap up pointing arrow to change setting 2 never load images 3 allow only images from the same site to load and block third party images To re display images tap Reset or tap down pointing arrow to change setting
7. to phones locked to my existing carrier or GSM phones that were listed as unlocked meaning they would likely work on any GSM carrier Some points to note are that locked phones generally can only be used on the carrier that locked or origi nally sold them and that unlocked phones using the same method of communicating as my carrier like GSM or CDMA may offer at least basic functionality but may not be totally compatible with the latest offerings of the carriers in terms of high speed data such as 4G LTE compatibil ity Be aware that some people are selling versions of the same phone that were originally designed for foreign carriers and while shown as unlocked may have some serious compatibility issues on domestic networks Most of the sellers of that phone on eBay listed the manufacturer s model number which could be easily searched on the internet or the maker s website which will expressly show the ca pabilities of the phone A quick compari son with the specifications on the carrier s website will indicate the likelihood of compatibility I found several apparent good deals on refurbished like new CTPC NEWSLETTER unlocked Samsung Galaxy 4 GSM phones that would apparently work on my carrier s network but were incompatible with the latest type of 4G data speeds of fered by my carrier but would work fine at the older slower 3G or 4G speeds Simi lar unlocked offerings were listed on A
8. types Disk Imaging Like the name says this type of backup prepares a true disk image or clone and is an exact copy of your hard drive or parti tion It creates a bit by bit or byte by byte identical copy Today s disk imaging pro grams can interpret the data being copied and remove or compress the empty blocks on a disk which leads to much smaller im age files Most of these programs create compressed image formats that can be read with a built in Windows explorer type program making it possible to retrieve in dividual files Additionally the program can create October 2014 successive incremental or differential back ups which tends to reduce storage re quirements Some even offer the ability to exclude the large and non essential page file sys and hiberfil sys from the image and the ability to image a drive or partition while it is currently in use as well as back ing up a disk even if it contains a foreign file system an unknown operating system or an encrypted partition These programs are fast easily restorable on other drives and do not require as much space as the original drive They can also be put on a bootable drive when a drive crashes and you have to replace the drive File Based Data Backup Many type of File based backup pro grams exist This type of backup is what most people are familiar with While these programs seem to just copy files from one location to another they do a lot more tha
9. want the convenience of pur chasing a new or refurbished phone or tablet directly from your carrier substan tial savings on new phones may be avail able from others such as those Google Play Edition and Huawei phones men tioned above Ira provides a number of interesting screen shots to go along with each of his articles Due to space constraints I omit them from the printed version of the newsletter but post all of them on the CTPC website They are at the end of the HTML version of each article see the October online newsletter CTPC Editor October 2014 A New Android Tablet continued from Page 3 Buy the way tablets have multiple screens usually an odd number with the middle screen being the home screen If you have 5 screens then screen number 3 is the home screen There may be an indica tor on each of the screens typically on the bottom that indicates which screen is cur rently being shown Now that the Settings icon is available tap it and it will allow you to make changes to the tablet s settings The settings are organized in groups such as Wireless amp Networks Device Personal Accounts and System Under Wireless amp Networks tap Wi Fi and you will see the network you are currently using and others if you have used them in the past Under Device among others there is Sound and Display Tap Sound and you can change the Sound Profiles and or the Sound le
10. 07 Doo gee auus default html http Awww expansys usa com http deals ebay com http dealnews com c171 Electron ics Phones Cell Phones Over the past few weeks I have been searching for a new smart phone to replace my existing malfunctioning smart phone A visit to my carrier s website and com pany owned phone store offered a wide se lection of new phones but for the high end models that I was considering the prices were exorbitant I had even considered a highly rated smart phone that had been on the market for well over a year which was a generation old and been supplanted by a greatly enhanced newer model This older model would still cost about 650 at the carrier store if purchased outright or an extra 27 per month for 24 months added to my cell phone bill if paid off over a two year pe riod I was well aware that these were full retail prices and that the carrier often had selected phones on sale for up to half off but during their recent sale period the phone models that I liked were either not on sale or were not reduced enough to put them in the good deal category Being known by the local computer club and by my coworkers as the resident cheapskate I decided to search for alter native ways to legitimately purchase a new to me smart phone with the features that I was looking for at an acceptable price Initially I had narrowed my first choice for a phone to a Samsung Galaxy S4
11. Newsletter October 2014 Vol 33 No 2 Connecticut PC User s Group Next CTPC Meeting Tuesday October 28 2014 6 30 p m Windows 10 This month CTPC member Richard Frisch will lead discuss about Windows 10 Window 10 Technical Preview e What is it e How do you get it e What s new e What s the experience like e When will the final version of Win dows 10 be released and what will it cost The Internet abounds with theories about why Microsoft decided to skip over Windows 9 as the name Perhaps Richard will discuss his thoughts on this burning question A recent issue of Windows Secrets had an article by Woody Leonhard titled Why you should join Win10 s tech preview process that you might want to peruse prior to the meeting Please come join in the conversation Don t forget our new location the United Congregational Church of Norwalk on Richards Avenue Pizza and refreshments at Uncle Joe s will follow Oct 28 Tuesday 6 30 p m CTPC Meeting Location United Congregational Church 275 Richards Avenue Norwalk Nov 25 Tuesday 6 30 p m CTPC Meeting Location United Congregational Church 275 Richards Avenue Norwalk GENERAL MEETINGS Meetings are held on the 4th not last Tuesday of the month There is no charge to attend general meetings See back page for directions Walt Graham CTPC President Have Meetings Have Pizza Have Fun Today PC User Group
12. assed the Galaxy S4 was highly competitive or su perior in terms of features and function with the newer Galaxy S5 and even out performed most of the features in the lat est iteration of the iPhone but at less than half of their retail prices Again being sus picious I thoroughly checked out other in dependent reviews of the mystery phone and its maker and made a decision to buy one Many people may not recognize the manufacturer Huawei but they are a ma jor manufacturer of cell phones producing several models of cell phones sold by the major carriers This particular phone the Ascend Mate2 has a large sharp and bright 6 1 inch HD screen putting it in a CTPC NEWSLETTER class that some pundits refer to as a Phablet as it is almost as large as the popular 7 inch Android tablet but has the usability of a smart phone The screen on this phone is made of the almost unbreak able Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and has a very long lasting battery Extremely fast and feature rich using a 1 6GHZ Quad Core processor 32 GB of internal memory expandable up to another 64GB using a common micro SDHC memory card this phone is thin and surprisingly lightweight for such a large phone I mostly carry my phone in a shirt pocket and this phone does fit in most of my shirt pockets The Ascend Mate2 operates on one of the latest builds of Android and will be upgraded to newer versions of Android af ter they are tested and
13. creen that starts off to the right and turns back on it self to go to the left Now you can go to the Google Play Store and get all the Apps you think you will want to try out and or use The Play Store icon looks like a Shopping Bag with a triangle in the middle of blue and red Google Play Store Icon This icon is typically on the home screen which is probably a good place for it This way it will always be available when you want to shop the Play Store To go to the Play Store tap the icon and you will be transported to the Google Store This is the place to get all those popular Apps like Facebook Pandora Netflix Skype Angry Birds Candy Crush Yahoo Mail Solitaire Kindle reader Words with Friends Google Earth Tetris Goo gle Translate Barcode Scanner Hulu Flashlight Chrome YouTube IMDB Google Drive ColorNote Evernote Fire fox Sound Hound and many many more Over 1 million many of which may be the subject of future articles One last thing to do is change the way the tablet can be accessed Out of the box the tablet only needs a swipe to enable it To make it more secure go to Settings and then Personal and then change the Screen lock to Pattern or PIN or Password your choice Make sure you don t forget the Pattern or PIN or password after it is set With these few changes to your out of the box tablet I m sure you will begin to en joy your shiny new tablet
14. does almost every photo processing task If you are a professional or a serious photogra pher its new subscription fee may not be a large item in your photo budget By com parison its free replacements are more limited and you will probably need several different ones to cover all the tasks that Photoshop does Each will have its own different and possibly idiosyncratic user interface and probably the only documen tation will be help files or maybe not and Internet papers of varying quality If you enjoy exploring new territory without a GPS and have some time to learn this can be a fascinating adventure if not just pay the Photoshop fee or switch to an other commercial application with accept able pricing This is a three part article this month Til discuss software to retouch images part 2 will cover developing raw image files and part 3 the more specialized areas of panoramas and high dynamic range photography The overall process Before diving into the programs let s look at the overall process Your digital camera captures an image as an array of blue green and red dots called pixels where typically each pixel is captured as a 12 or 14 bit word We call this unproc essed form a raw image and high end cameras can store images in this form If you were to look at most digital camera sensors under a microscope you would see something like the figure above although with many more colored squares typical
15. e with three lines and dots within the square or a gear There are probably multiple screens of Apps so you may have to flick the screen to the left to uncover all the Apps When you find the Settings icon tap and hold the icon and it will be selected When you release it it will then be placed on a screen Now you can access the Settings by tapping the Settings icon whenever you want to review or change a setting Settings Icons Continued on Page 9 Overview of FOSS Image Processing Software continued from Page 2 ments color corrections dynamic range adjust ments dis tortion corrections sharpening and noise re duction ina raw process ing program with at least 16 bit fixed or preferably 32 bit float ing point arithmetic The second screen shot shows the de fault GIMP display with three separate windows two containing tools and the center one the image The menu in the image window resulted from a right mouse click it provides access to all the tools as October 2014 only the most used ones appear in the tool windows If you prefer you can configure GIMP to use a single window Unlike most other em 4 free image processing programs there are several good GIMP books available and using the program effectively requires that you study at least one of these There are many other free digital photo applications besides GIMP and an Inter net search using image proc
16. eal time saver They are worth exploring amp Cancel Save on Cell Phones continued from Page 7 Competition Act which will again legalize consumers unlocking their cell phones and using them on another compatible carrier Expected to be signed by the president into law by the time you read this this law will not excuse users from any existing contractual obligations with their current carrier but will allow users to take their current phone with them when they switch to another compatible carrier such as between AT amp T and T Mobile Some of the major cell phone carriers have already implemented a We ll pay your early termination fee program for those switching to the new carrier but now con Page 8 sumers may be able to continue to use their current compatible phones rather than be required to purchase new phones from the new carrier To encourage new business and to retain existing customers almost all of the major carriers already have a bring your own phone policy As the title of the law says this should in crease consumer choice among carriers as another potential obstacle of switching carriers has come down For those willing to take the time and effort to do a little research a greater se lection of compatible cellular phones are readily available often at deeply dis CTPC NEWSLETTER counted prices when compared to the of ferings of the cell phone companies Unless you
17. en t essential and nobody wants to do and focus on simple monthly meetings with round table dis cussions and presentations when they make sense We ve also decided to go where perhaps no PC User Group has gone before and suspend annual dues at least for 2015 Without the newsletter production and postage our only expense is the meeting place and our current assets will allow us to operate at the current location for well over a decade We will continue to keep in touch via email and will look into other options such as an online forum For now if you re re ceiving our emails you re a CTPC mem ber Anyone who would like to become a CTPC member can simply email us and we will add that person to the list We ll see how it goes I have positive expecta tions Hope to see you all at the October meeting Dick Maybach Originally published in the February 2014 issue of BCUG Bytes the newsletter of the Brookdale Computer Users Group in Lincroft NJ www bcug com n2nd at att net Overview of FOSS I mage Processing Software GIMP Adobe s decision to charge a subscrip tion fee for Photoshop has inspired some photographers to look for alternate solu tions in particular those available for free Before you jump down this particular rab bit hole though make a rational assess ment of your needs Photoshop is a highly refined program with a large user base and shelves of well written books and this one program
18. en a RAID system which are a few hard drives hooked together to copy data onto both Remember what you want to copy If you have all your program disks and the operating system disks perhaps all you need to copy is your document folder and your public folders This greatly mini mizes the space you need to copy as well as the time it takes to copy Regardless of the medium two things should be considered At some time some formats become obso lete remember Betamax So you have to do more than just copy and forget Addi tionally there is an old saying It s not if something crashes it s when So Step one is to plan for redundancy Today cloud storage offers a cheap sometimes free al ternative to your local physical storage In case of a flood or some other calamity having some of your important and unre placeable files up in the cloud can be a god send OK but let s look at some local meth ods Today we have the ability to burn data onto CDs and DVDs and in the near future Blu ray disks will be available at a reasonable price Something to look for in backing up to cd DVD disks is how long they can last Some people claim ten years for disks but I have disks much older than that that still work but better safe than Spg Ta An International Association of Technology amp Computer User Groups REPRINTING OF ARTICLES Unless otherwise noted nonprofit user groups may reprint or quote from any uncopy
19. essing soft ware will reveal dozens of alternatives CTPC NEWSLETTER both free and commercial Remember while Photoshop can develop raw files GIMP cannot and next month we ll look at programs that handle this important step in particular RawTherapee and LightZone References Montabone Beginning Digital Image processing Using Free Tools for Photogra phers provides a good overview of several photo tools although the book is less helpful than it could be as all the example images are in black and white http www cambridgeincolour com contains many very valuable tutorials on photography and image processing If you check only one photo Web site this should be the one Lecarme and Delvare The Book of GIMP is a reference for the current ver sion of GIMP Goelker GIMP 2 8 for Photographers concentrates on using GIMP as an im age processor amp Page 3 Sandy Berger CompukKISS www compukiss com sandy at compukiss com 10 Tips for Online Shopping Safety Amazingly in today s topsy turvy world because of vulnerabilities in the processing of credit and debit cards used at retail stores and the hackers who are fo cusing on those vulnerabilities right now shopping online can actually be safer than swiping your card at a local store For safety sake however there are a few online shopping rules that you should follow 1 The first of these is to always have a good antivirus program i
20. iability and the ability to have the credit card company intervene if something goes awry Debit cards can also be a good choice as long as you have investigated their liability limits which may be higher than those of credit cards 8 Keep a paper trail Let s face it none of us have perfect memories Print and save records of your online transactions including the name of the seller product description price and date of purchase Most reputable merchants allow you to print a receipt after the transaction is com plete You can use these printed receipts to compare to your bank and credit card statements 9 Monitor your bank accounts and credit card purchases regularly Report any discrepancies or unusual charges to your financial institution immediately 10 Your social security number is the key to your identity Be miserly about sharing it with anyone especially online No reputable merchant will ever ask for your social security number to make a pur chase Credit card theft is pretty easy to get through Usually you notify your financial institution and they issue you a new card Identity theft is much more difficult to handle because a thief can open lines of credit in your name buy a car and obtain new credit cards In order to steal your identity the thieve needs personal infor mation like social security number ad dress phone number and financial information So be careful when giving out any such info
21. like backup programs There are some backup and sync programs that sometimes perform both file archiving and synchronization Some Programs to Consider EaseUS Todo Backup Free Simple to use can back up system photos music videos documents and applications Can provide clone only or clone with incre mental backups Supports Windows 8 7 Vista XP in many languages FBackupFree Simple interface guides you through the process of defining a backup job using a friendly wizard that asks you Where do you want to store the backup the destination What do you want to backup the sources How do you want to run the backup using full backup that zips the Continued on Page 10 Page 5 Ira Wilsker Ira hosts My Computer Show a call in tech support show on KLVI radio 560AM from 4 5 p m Mondays Pacific time The show streams live over the net at KLVI com and on the free iHeartRadio app His call in number is 800 330 5584 Alternative Ways to Legitimately Save Money When Buying a Cell Phone WEBSITES https beta congress gov bill 1 13th congress house bill 1123 http bits blogs ny times com 2014 07 25 bill legalizing unlocking cellphones passes congress http Awww ktvu com news news na tional congress oks unlocking phones carriers ngpKY http Avww t mobile com verifyIMEl aspx http Awww verizonwire less com b2c nso enterDeviceld do http Awww gethuawei com http e dx com collection 2014
22. ly well over a million one for each pixel This array of filters is called a Bayer filter array after the Kodak engineer who in vented it The array covers the sensor with the result that about half the pixels are sensitive only to light in the green portion of the spectrum a quarter are sensitive to red and a quarter to blue Usually the camera converts the raw image into one where each pixel contains three colors each stored as an 8 bit byte Page 2 and performs compression to reduce the number of stored bytes The result is a Joint Photographic Expert nii JPEG file and all cameras make this form avail able Although con venient JPEG images have lower quality than do raw ones For snapshots taken with good lighting and pre sented on a computer display or as a small print the lower qual ity of JPEG is imper ceptible to most people For pictures taken in poor light those needing a lot of retouching those presented in large for mats or those viewed by critical audiences you must be quite careful about how you transform a raw image to the final product The process of converting a raw image to JPEG or its equivalent is called develop ing as opposed to later work such as re moving red eye which is called retouching When most people use Pho toshop as a verb they mean retouch Look at what you already have As your first step in looking for a Pho toshop alternative look at what y
23. ma zon but Amazon also often offered the locked phones sold by the carriers with or without a contract often at discounted prices Other bargain prices on new cell phones can be found on a daily basis at daily deal websites such as deals ebay com and at deal news com c171 Electronics Phones Cell Phones One warning about buying any used cell phone from any source including indi viduals local advertisements pawn shops mall kiosks eBay and other sources it is no secret that huge numbers of cell phones are lost or stolen every day Every cell phone has a unique serial number often known as an IMEI or ESN number which if reported lost or stolen can often prevent that particular phone from being used on its original and often other com patible networks All of the carriers offer a free online check to confirm the validity of a serial number or the carriers can be con tacted by phone to check to see if a par ticular phone has been previously reported as lost or stolen So called hot phones may apparently be in excellent condition and offered at a great price but there is a good chance that they can never be con nected to a compatible domestic network T Mobile phones can be checked at t mobile com verifyIMEI aspx while Veri zon phones can be checked at verizonwire less com b2c nso enterDeviceld do item 2 on the list AT amp T Sprint Continued on Page 7 Interesting Internet Finds co
24. model number such as Galaxy 4 As I was doing my research on a new smart phone I read many reviews both on my carrier s website and third party web sites seeking that perfect phone that would meet my needs but at a reasonable price As I expanded my search to other models of compatible phones I found that I could purchase fully functional new phones at deeply discounted prices I was surprised to find Google was directly sell ing new unlocked Android phones manufactured by the major companies with the same model numbers as the car rier phones The phones sold by Google lacked all of the proprietary utilities and app overhead of the identical phones sold by the carriers which freed a substan tial amount of the storage memory on these phones and according to some re views actually slightly improved their per formance These phones are listed as the Google Play Edition and currently in clude the HTC One M8 Moto G and the Samsung Galaxy 4 Coming from Google these phones are listed as having the latest version of Android installed that is compatible with that model phone and will automatically receive the next version of Android when it is released While Google will sell these phones directly at retail price 649 for the Galaxy 4 they October 2014 also wholesale these phones to third party sellers Google claims that these phones are ready to go and fully functional on any compatible car
25. n just simply copying files File backup programs are designed to automate the process of duplicating files in multiple lo cations and on numerous types of storage media locally or across networks or even to remote severs such as online storage Cloud They can add additional files to compressed volumes called archives and at the same time can apply encryption for added security After performing a full backup of selected data most backup pro grams can perform cumulative backups of new or changed files using different types of backup methodology Some specialized file backup systems provide continuous real time data protection i e immedi ately backup up a file as soon as it is cre ated and others provide versioning systems that will make a new copy of a file each time it is changed This allows the user to go back and retrieve a previous edi tion of the file File based backup are very flexible con taining many functions and options Some of this flexibility permits copying or mov ing certain files to specific locations i e jpgs to one specific drive or docs to an other locations not only on your system but to the cloud as well where they can be accessed by another computer These pro grams also allow you to work with smaller sets of files and defrag files while saving File Synchronization While not a true backup in the sense of the word the result is basically the same CTPC NEWSLETTER Sync programs can
26. nstalled on your computer and to update your antivirus program and other software like the oper ating system whenever an update is avail able When in doubt don t click on links This is especially true of email where phishing schemes are prevalent but you should also be careful when you are surfing the Web or visiting social media websites 2 Shop at trusted established websites Don t use any sites that you ve never heard of If you want to try a new website check to see if any friends or acquaintances have used it successfully 3 Pay only through secure sites Typi cally the address in your browser will change from http to https during a secure connection 4 Never email your credit card number social security number or personal infor mation to anyone No reputable seller will request it by email since email is not se cure 5 Do your banking and shopping from home where you are on your own secure network Wi Fi hotspots at local coffee shops and other establishments usually do not offer enough protection unless the user takes some added precautions which can be cumbersome for the average user 6 Create strong passwords consisting of numbers letters and symbols Do not use words or names Make the password for each banking and shopping site unique Keep your passwords private 7 Credit cards are generally the safest option for shopping online When using a credit card you have limited l
27. ntd from Page 6 ternals It give a link to get a copy and an overview of how it works obese Ra Most Fridays more interesting finds will be posted on the Computers Tech nology and User Groups Blog http ctublog sefcug com tag interestin g internet finds The posts are under Creative Commons October 2014 Save on Cell Phones continued from Page 6 Virgin and other carriers offer similar services online or by calling their respec tive 800 numbers Buying from a local or online big box store may possibly offer better prices than the cellular carriers company owned stores or independently owned agency stores Online stores such as Newegg TigerDi rect Rakuten formerly known as buy com and others often list new used and refurbished locked or unlocked cell phones at deeply discounted prices Buy ing from a major reputable seller may have some advantages as they are more likely than lesser companies to stand be hind their products in the event of any problems As an example a quick search on one of the above sellers displayed the Samsung Galaxy S4 branded and origi nally sold by one of the major domestic carriers but now unlocked new for 349 and used for 285 It should be noted that there are numerous builds and sub groups of Galaxy S4 phones such that the buyer should be acutely aware of what he is buy ing and to compare the different models offered even if they have the same general
28. oid tablet Isn t the look of a brand new tablet won derful it is so shiny and lacking finger prints But fingerprints are a good thing since they are a byproduct of using the touch enabled screen so the more finger prints the more use If the fingerprints eventually become annoying you can al ways clean them with a soft micro fiber cloth Now if the tablet is brand new when you turn it on it will probably take you through a few set up steps These steps are usually also explained in a brief Quick Start Guide that is included in the package For more detailed information and instruction go to the manufacturer s website and look for a Support or Documents page for your specific tablet model and download the User Manual if there is one If the tablet is not brand new maybe a hand me up from one of your kids or grandchildren you may also want to get a User Manual and change some of these general settings Typically the first things to set up are very basic such as Language and Time Zone After these the most important thing to do is to get the tablet onto the internet All tablets have Wi Fi circuitry so if you have Wi Fi at home you are set If you don t have Wi Fi at home the tab let will still be useful for watching videos showing pictures playing games and lis tening to music And you can always use one of the many free public Wi Fi hot spots at locations like a Library or Star bucks Once
29. ou al ready have in particular the photo processing software that most likely came on a DVD included in the box with your camera If you are a casual photogra pher it probably does more than you need usually including color correction crop ping special effects and possibly pano rama creation and raw development and because it has been tuned to your particu lar camera it will probably automatically correct for lens distortion and other de fects However if your camera has a re movable lens it may not correct the distortion of all lenses from other manu facturers Even if you ve been using Photoshop try this software and see if it doesn t meet all of your important needs Windows and OS X also have photo software and such programs as Picasa Windows PhotoS cape Windows Mac and Paint net Windows are also available These are all worthwhile programs with features be yond image processing such as organizing your collection and publishing on line al CTPC NEWSLETTER bums but the program bundled with and tuned to your camera probably can do a better job of image processing The screen shot shows a raw image be ing processed by Olympus Viewer 3 which is bundled with their enthusiast cameras Your software is most likely not the same so I won t discuss the details ex cept to say that it is sufficiently capable to satisfy all but the most rabid amateur pho tographer Because Olympus knows their
30. owing in the towel so to speak is one solution to the problem but it needn t be the only one CTPC has a history of reinventing it self according to members needs In the early days we had guest speakers from Mi crosoft Intel and other major companies We supplied members with Disks of the Month shareware on floppy disks not available any other way We started a bul letin board a precursor to today s Inter net forums We provided email free to members before free email accounts were available in the open marketplace We ve long had one of the finest newsletters of any User Group and our programs over the years have been informative and memorable But in 2014 how many of those perks are still necessary We live in a world of instant downloads social media how to videos on YouTube and news articles ga lore at the click of a mouse or a tap ona touch screen What we can t do online however is get together to have meetings have pizza and have fun Lately our meetings have been simple round table discussions about suggested topics and we ve found that this format works unexpectedly well Attendees seem more engaged and eager to participate In stead of sitting like posts often dozing during yet another PowerPoint presenta tion we re talking to each other and learn ing from each other So for the coming year we ve decided to do something radical to jettison some of the tasks that ar
31. placeholder and pressed Delete to remove it Leaving my cursor in that spot I clicked the Insert tab in the ribbon then Quick Parts Field I scrolled down the list and clicked FileName I chose lower case for its for mat and checked the box which said Add path to filename When I clicked OK the entire path appeared in the footer named my new footer FileName and put in the Footers gallery Then I c users nanbd documents office talk two custom footer article docx Aamann wide eq the arrow next to Category Then I highlighted the center and right placeholders and deleted them I knew I would not be using the center placeholder with this footer but a page number fits very well in that center spot My cursor was then flashing in the spot where the right placeholder had been To add the date I clicked the Insert tab again then Date amp Time which opened the Date and Time dialog box I opted for the default date format first one on the list Now I had a choice Do I want the date to remain static to remind me when I composed this document or do I want it to update to the present date each time I open it I decided not to have the date up date automatically So I clicked to remove the checkmark from the option Update automatically I knew I could always up date the date manually by clicking it in the footer and selecting Update My last step was to save this footer so I could reuse i
32. proofed including the upcoming version nicknamed An droid L Huawei decided to sell the As cend Mate2 directly to the consumer without the additional markups imposed by the big carriers Currently available in GSM only this phone is fully compatible with T Mobile and AT amp T including their latest and fastest versions of 4G such as 4G LTE Available with free shipping from Huawei at gethuawei com or from its other sole source seller Amazon this phone sells for only 299 plus sales tax with free shipping Since it is a direct pur chase and unlocked it only requires that a compatible SIM card be installed in the back of the phone Most current AT amp T and T Mobile customers can simply re move the SIM card from their current phones and insert it into the Ascend Mate2 no further activation is normally required and both carriers now readily ac cept this phone on their respective net works Other users those without an AT amp T or T Mobile account may have to obtain a compatible SIM from the re spective carrier and sign up for an appro priate service plan but monthly rates may be more reasonable as they are not includ ing the cost of the phone in the monthly plan For those who are currently happy with their phones but who may wish to take advantage of the newly lowered monthly rates and improved plans offered by com petitors without purchasing a new phone help is on the way Both houses of con gress recen
33. replicate or mirror working files and or folders in two or more locations where both sets of files will still be put into service I use synctoy to copy my document folder in one machine onto an external drive which I take with me to Florida so the same files are available to me on my two desktops as well as my lap top Another way is to put folders onto cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google cloud which can be accessed from any other computer The basic difference between synchronization and backup is that backup copies files in one direction while synchronization copies files or changes in two directions In backup you have a source and a destination In true synchronization you really have two sources Files which are changed on any one of the computers will be reflected on the other Files that are renamed moved or de leted in one location may be renamed moved or deleted in the other based upon the user s choice This is called the ability to propagate renames or deletions By use of a database these programs can keep track of files and file operations differen tiating between newly created files and old files that only exist in one location be cause they have been deleted in the other Synchronization can replicates changes in both locations or only one way Sync programs may provide some sort of data encryption to transmit they don t provide compression and packing of files into ar chives
34. rier which for the GSM phones are T Mobile and AT amp T One of the online stores that offered deals on the Google Play Phones was the Bloomington Illinois based eXpansys www expansys usa com Being some what suspicious of online services offering excellent prices and since I was unfamiliar with the company I checked the Better Business Bureau website and found that the company is eight years old and has an A rating from the BBB Now with some degree of credibility I found that they are selling new and unlocked the Google Play Edition of the Samsung Gal axy S4 for 399 with 10 shipping a full 250 to 300 less than the same model phone would cost if purchased outright from a local phone store Other fully featured unlocked dis counted Google Play Edition phones listed by eXpansys are the Sony Z Ultra for 349 99 retail 649 HTC One for 399 99 retail 649 and the LG G Pad 8 3 for 225 retail 330 Many other models of new phones both locked and unlocked were available and Deal of the Day and Wednesday Markdown spe cials are offered in fact I originally found this company on one of the larger daily deal websites I was seriously considering the Google Play Edition Samsung Galaxy S4 listed above and had just about made up my mine to purchase one when I saw a freshly published review of another just released smart phone The specifications of this new smart phone totally outcl
35. righted articles appearing in the CTPC newsletter without prior permission as long as credit is given to the author and the original publication Page 10 sorry For archiving data it is felt that you should use a gold DVD These disks are rated for 15 years There are programs that help you span large drives over many DVDs Disks should be stored in a dry temperature controlled location Sleeves for DVDs could help list the data on the DVDs but are not completely necessary Memory cards have much larger capac ity than DVD s some flash drives now contain 128 GB of storage Keep them also in a temperature controlled environ ment in their original plastic containers External hard drives come in USB2 and USB3 as well as SATA firewire and other methods of hooking up to your computer And I believe Bluetooth technology is gaining acceptance Today 1 2 and more TB drives are available and prices con tinue to drop on a dollar per megabyte ba sis Again they should be stored in a temperature controlled dry environment You should consider storing the drive in its original container SSID are sold state drives which theo retically will never wear out Not true Constant erasing and rewriting can shorten their life span They will have a long life span but as of now they are very expensive I would suggest sticking to ex ternal drives But remember ALL OF THESE OPTIONS CAN AND PROBABLY WILL FAIL ALL OF THEM But don
36. ript Ever wonder what that meant IF s script errors occur when the web page maker s programming contains an error an antivirus program or adware removal program detects spyware or adware which causes the page to stop loading that component of the webpage or a pop up on a web page does not load because of the computer s security settings The average computer user cannot fix these Internet script errors but you can avert script errors by changing your Browser s settings And it s not hard to do Double click on Internet Explorer and click on Tools and the Internet Op tions in the top left menu Then click on the Advanced tab Next click the box next to Disable Script Debugging to turn it on Finally click the box next to Dis play a notification about every script error to turn it off click the OK button in the bottom right of that menu and you are done No more pesky script error panes If errors still persist it could be Adware and viruses causing the problem Run your removal software Additionally make sure you are updating your Windows programs from Microsoft Disk Imaging File Based Backup or Synchronization Which one should use All backups are not created equal That said let s explain the differences The con fusion arises because most of these pro grams overlap in function and usability But any backup is better than none That said let s look at the three
37. rmation Many financial experts say that having your bills sent to you electronically and paying them electronically is safer than sending and receiving them by mail They also recommend shredding paper docu ments with personal information So whether you use a credit card at a physical store you shop and pay bills online or you pay bills by mail the key word is cau tion Our mothers taught us to watch our wallets and keep the doors closed Now we have a lot more convenience and also a lot more to watch out for amp Steve Costello President Editor Boca Raton Computer Society FL Editor at brcs org http ctublog sefcug com I nteresting Internet Finds In the course of going through the more than 200 RSS feeds I often run across things that I think might be of interest to other user group members The following are some items I found interesting during the month of February 2014 I don t have installation media for Win dows What if I need it http askleo com i_dont_have_instal lation_media_for_win dows_what_if_i_need_it Leo explains some options for this problem stressing that you solve the prob lem before actually needing the media Create a List of All Installed Windows Software http www ghacks net 2014 02 06 cre ate list installed windows software Page 4 Several methods of listing installed Windows software are given Ask HTG Why is My Download Speed Slower than the Interne
38. s and many other organizations for that matter face challenges Their populations are aging It s difficult to recruit new members As the membership shrinks it becomes more difficult to get outside speakers Long time members feel burned out and would like to be relieved of some of the work and responsibility For example according to the Associa tion of PC User Groups APCUG this past summer HAL PC once one of the world s largest PC user group disbanded selling their equipment and closing their office From their website Unfortunately our changing society was reflected in the extremely low atten dance at our Annual June General Meet ing on June 21 2014 and the general lack of volunteer participation After much de liberation on June 24 the Board of Direc tors voted to dissolve the Houston Area League of PC Users Inc We will con Table of Contents Have Meetings Have Pizza Have Fun Overview of Image Processing Software A New Android Tablet Now What Interesting Internet Finds 10 Tips for Online Shopping Safety The Tip Corner Save Money When Buying a Cell Phone Create and Save a Custom Footer in Word Disable Images in Browsers onnounkRBRWN tinue to support our members for approxi mately the next month after which most operations will have ceased At HAL PC s last meeting less than 5 members attended As you know our neighboring club FCUG disbanded for similar reasons Thr
39. t on other documents I dou ble clicked in the footer area Name FileName Gallery Footers Category Nang and highlighted the entire Description footer line I clicked the In ssein sert tab Quick Parts Save options Selection to Quick Parts Gallery The Create New Building Block dialog box opened with several choices to make I Creste New Building Block Building Blocks dotx Insert content only chose Create New Category and typed my first name This way it would be easy to find my custom footer by looking in the gt Building Block organizer I left the last two lines as they were Building Blocks dotx and Insert content only To make sure I had suc ceeded I saved my docu ment and closed it When asked if I wanted to save a new building block I clicked yes From now on if I want to add this footer to a document all I do is open the document click Insert Footers and choose it from the Footer gallery If I add it to an unsaved document of course the filename will be Document 1 with no path I can always delete it from the Build ing Block organizer which will make is disappear from the Footer gallery as well I have created several customized quick parts depending on my task The one I use the most has my name on the left i page number in the center and date on the z right Creating footers headers or any other groups of text that you reuse often can be a r
40. t I Pay For http www howto geek com 181879 ask htg why is my d ownload speed slower than the intern et i pay for HTG explains why you may think you are getting speeds slower than you are pay ing for but are actually within an accept able range more times than not Demystifying the Backup http askbobrankin com demystify ing_the_backup html Are you not backing up because you ar en t sure about how backups work If so you need to read this post and start back ing up You never know when your hard CTPC NEWSLETTER drive is going to die but if you have back ups 10 Tips to Work Smart When You Get Hit with a Slow Internet Connection http www makeuseof com tag 10 tips work smart get hit slow internet connection Do you sometimes end up with a slow internet connection I know I do MakeUseOf has some tips to stay produc tive if that is the case Find Out Who Else Has Access to Your PC s Files http www techsupportalert com con tent find out who else has access your pcs files htm This post talks about AccessEnum a free portable Windows program by SysIn Continued on Page 6 October 2014 Bill Sheff Chair Grants Committee amp Co Leader Novice SIG Lehigh Valley Computer Group PA June 2014 issue The LVCG Journal www lvcg org nsheff at aol com The Tip Corner IE Script errors While opening a web page did you ever get a note saying that there was an error while running the sc
41. tly passed HR1123 the Un locking Consumer Choice and Wireless Continued on Page 8 Page 7 Nancy DeMarte 1 VP Sarasota PCUG FL January 2014 Issue PC Monitor www spcug org ndemarte at Verizon net Create and Save a Custom Footer in Word As you build up a library of documents you have written it helps to have a system to have some sort of ID on each document to help you remember where it is stored A good place to record this information on a document is in a footer along the bottom of each page In Word 2007 and later you can easily create a custom footer which in cludes the information you want and save it in a handy spot called the Building Block gallery for insertion into any docu ment Here is how it s done For illustration I chose to create a footer which includes the date the docu ment was created and the file name in cluding the path The path shows the location of a file by listing all the folders and subfolders which need to be opened to find it beginning with the hard drive c First I opened a document I had saved that had no footer I clicked the Insert tab and then Footer From the gallery of foot ers I clicked the footer labeled Blank Three Column even though I was add ing only two pieces of information I then scrolled down to find my footer at the bot tom of the page with my cursor flashing inside the footer area To customize the footer first I high lighted the left
42. vels depending on your version of Android Tap Display and you can change the Brightness of the display Just tap Brightness and then set the slider to the brightness level of your choice This is also the place to change the Font size if it is too small Font size Large seems to be a good choice The Sleep setting sets the time of inac tivity allowed before the screen goes off A short time like 1 minute is good if you are actively using the tablet but a longer time maybe 5 minutes is nice to have when you are learning and it takes some time to determine your next step The longer time keeps the display from turning off just when you are about to take your next step Under System tap About tablet which shows a lot of technical information but the one important item here is the version of the Android Operating System An droid version gives you the currently loaded Android version such as 4 2 2 Don t worry about the third digit Ver sions 4 1 4 2 and 4 3 are commonly called Jelly Bean Version 4 4 is the lat est and goes by the name Kit Kat Under System you can also set the Date and Time or let the tablet Use network pro vided time Once you have found out the Android version and possibly made some changes to the Sound Display Date amp Time or Wi Fi you can go back to the home screen by tapping the Back button That s the arrow at the bottom of the s
43. you are in a Wi Fi area all you need to do is key in the password or passphrase for the network if it is pro tected Hopefully that makes sense to you because you have protected your home network with WEP WPA2 or WPA2 se curity Once you have connected to Wi Fi you will be able to go to the Google Play Store where you can download all those useful Apps and games If your tab let is new it will probably instruct you to either setup a Google account or it will ask you to log in to your Google account Having a Google account allows you to synchronize files and certain Apps so that you have the same information available to your tablet and your home computer After your Google account is set up there are a few operational things that you might like to modify None of these are absolutely necessary but I find setting them to my preferences is helpful Most of these things will be found in Settings so the first thing is to find the Settings icon and place it on a Home Screen if it is not there already The Settings icon may be found in the All Apps collection The All Apps collection is accessed by an icon typically at the top of the screen that looks like a small rectangular collection of smaller squares possibly four or six or nine All Apps Icon Tap this icon and an alphabetical listing of all the Apps on your tablet will be shown The Settings icon typically looks like a squar
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