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ComputorEdge™ Online — 02/24/12

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Tips for Using Macintosh OS X Lion

Ten little publicized new features of the Mac's latest operating system.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Duplicate Files; Hacked E-Mail, Lost Addresses; Transfer Vinyl Records to CD.

Ten New Mac OS X Lion Features—Plus One

by Barry Fass-Holmes

Mac OS X Lion Tips

Barry shares tips about 10 of Lion's lesser known new features to enhance the user's experience in working on a Mac.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

The Rise of the iPad

The Rise of the iPad; Circumventing Safari's Privacy Settings; OS X Mountain Lion; Literacy Rates Go Up with iPads; The Old Economy vs. the New Economy; The Demographics of iPad Owners; More User Interface Woes for Microsoft; Dashcode.

Beyond Personal Computing

by Marilyn K. Martin

Do-It-Yourself Computer Repairs

Marilyn shares some amusing anecdotes about DIY computer hardware repairs.

EdgeWord: Selling E-Books on Amazon

by Jack Dunning

Marketing and Selling E-books through Amazon

Jack is pursuing different alternatives for marketing e-books, including Amazon and kindle Direct Publishing. A new e-book about Windows 7 is now available exclusively through Amazon.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.

"Beyond Personal Computing," "Interesting News," "HP Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)," "Office 2010 Crashing," "Let Them All Close Down"

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Digital Dave

“Digital Dave answers your tech questions.”
by Digital Dave

Duplicate Files; Hacked E-Mail, Lost Addresses; Transfer Vinyl Records to CD.

Duplicate Files

Dear Digital Dave,

I have somehow copied files from my old computer to my new one twice. So now have double files on both my computer drive and stand alone backup hard disk. Windows 7 remains difficult for me to understand how I might delete duplicate files. Is there a simple way to delete these files? Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this. I've read your column for years and learned a lot.

Gary Vernon

Del Mar, CA

Dear Gary,

Since you are using Windows 7, you need to be absolutely certain of what you're seeing when it appears that you have duplicate files. Otherwise you could end up deleting your originals.

Windows 7 has a feature called Libraries which is used to create collections of folders and files that may be located on any of your drives or over a network. If you have included folders from both your main hard drive and backup drive in a Library, then when viewing that Library in Windows Explorer, it will appear that you have duplicate files—although one is the original and the other is the backup. If you delete the original in the Library, the backup copy will also disappear when the next backup is done. If you delete the backup copy, it will return on the next backup.

To see if you actually have duplicates files on your computer system, you need to view your files through the Computer section of Windows Explorer (Windows logo key plus E). See Figure 1. This view of the folder tree with show you what is physically located on a drive.

Figure 1. Select Computer, then the primary drive and drill down through the tree structure to see duplicates or use Search Computer when the drive is selected to find files you think may be duplicated.

You can also use the Search Computer field in the upper right corner of Windows Explorer to find possible duplicates on the selected hard drive. If, in fact, you have actual duplicates, you can delete one of them.

If you find that you have duplicated your files, then most likely they are in separate folders. Otherwise they would have an addition such as "[1]" added to the file name. (There cannot be exact duplicate file names in the same folder.) You can delete the duplicate folders and files.

Another way to determine the exact location of a file is to right-click on the file name and select Properties. The Properties window will give the actual location path of the file as well as the file type. I've seen some files that appeared to be duplicates, but turned out to be a different file format of the same name.

If you are seeing the duplicates in Windows Libraries, then you can remove the extra folder from the Library by right-clicking on the Library, selecting Properties, click on the extra folder, click Remove, and Apply. This will not delete the actual folder, but merely remove it from the Library.

It is simple to delete entire folders (including sub folders) at one time. Just be sure that you have real duplicates before you delete anything.

Digital Dave

Hacked E-Mail, Lost Addresses

Dear Digital Dave,

My e-mail was hacked and I lost all data and addresses. AT&T tried to recover, but could not. They said they fixed something so it would not happen again. What can be done for future protection? A major loss!

Bill

Dear Bill,

I'm not sure what AT&T's problem was, but they need an improved backup system. This is one of the basics that should be practiced by everyone. It's obviously that you can't depend upon someone else to protect your data.

Even though AT&T may be changing their system, it's important for you to take your own steps. March 31st is National Backup Day, but there is no reason to wait. Virtually every e-mail program (and software in general) has some sort of export utility—usually in the Files menu. Export your important addresses to another file on a regular basis. Then implement an automatic backup system on your computer.

I use an external hard drive that copies all of my important files at least once a day. I also have various other backup systems to back up my backup. As they say, "Show me someone who backs up regularly, and I'll show you someone who has lost data." Personal backup is your best protection.

Digital Dave

Transfer Vinyl Records to CD

Dear Digital Dave,

I would like to know how to transfer long play vinyl music from a 30-year old turntable to a CD. What cables and procedure should I follow?

Thank you,

Socorro Hunt

San Diego Mesa College

Dear Socorro,

Making a CD from old records is a three-step process. First you need to hook up your turntable to the computer. (If the turntable is not connected to an amplifier, you will need to get a pre-amplifier since the turntable alone will not provide enough amplification.) The connections will depend upon the available outputs (audio out, rec out, etc.) on the turntable and amplifier and the inputs (line in, mic in, etc.) on the computers. It should be relatively easy to find the right cables and adapters.

Second, you will need to record the analog signal while the turntable is playing. Windows has a program called Sound Recorder that should do the job. You can control the input selection with the Sound function in the Control panel.

Third, you can use the read/write CD/DVD drive in most computers to burn a CD with the recorded songs. There is a Burn tab in Windows Media Player which allows you to drag music files into a Burn list, then create a CD.

I could go into greater detail, but there is an excellent how-to for doing exactly what you want to do at Polderbits (pictures and all). This is one of the things I love about the Internet.

Good luck.

Digital Dave

Ten New Mac OS X Lion Features--Plus One

“Mac OS X Lion Tips”
by Barry Fass-Holmes

Barry shares tips about 10 of Lion's lesser known new features to enhance the user's experience in working on a Mac.

Mac OS X Lion's marquee new features—Auto Save, File Vault 2, Full Screen, gestures, LaunchPad, Mission Control, Resume and Versions—have gotten lots of publicity on the Web. These features are designed to enhance the user's experience in working on a Mac.

In addition to these well publicized new features, Lion has many less publicized ones that also could enhance the user's experience. Here are tips about 10 of Lion's lesser known new features.

1. Recent Items in Dock Icons' Contextual Menu

If you wanted to open a recent file under previous versions of Mac OS X, you would perform two steps—launch the program in which you created the file (e.g., TextEdit), then select File => Open Recent from the program's menu bar and select the desired file from the list that displays in the sub menu.

In Lion's version of programs that have been updated for compatibility, life is easier. Instead of performing the above two steps, you perform the single step of right- or control-clicking the app's Dock icon and selecting the desired recent file from the menu that displays (Figure 1). This single step launches the app and opens the selected file. Handy!

Figure 1. Lion's Dock icons display a contextual menu that contains a list of recent files; select one of them, and that file automatically opens.

2. Print Dialog's "Pages" Pop-up Menu

If you wanted to print one specific page in a document under previous versions of Mac OS X, you needed to click the Print dialog's Page radio button and then type the page's number in the "From:" and "To:" text input boxes. It's easier in programs that have been updated for Lion. In the simplified Print dialog, use the navigation arrows to display the single page that you want to print, then select "Single" from the "Pages:" pop-up menu and voila—that page prints after clicking the Print button.

Figure 2. Lion's simplified Print dialog makes it easier to print a single page within a document—navigate to the desired page using the arrow buttons, select "Single" from the "Pages:" pop-up menu, and you're in business

.

3. Spotlight's Quick Look Preview and Path

Lion's Spotlight file finding feature adopts support for Quick Look and also displays the location of found files. Simply position the pointer cursor over any file in Spotlight's list of found files and a small scrollable preview window displays to the left of the list showing the file's contents. If you press the command key while still pointing with the cursor, the file's name and path displays like an auto-scrolling teleprompter at the bottom of the preview window (Figure 3). This is one of my favorite new features in Lion.

Figure 3. Lion's Spotlight supports Quick Look and displays the highlighted file's name and path at the bottom of the preview window.

4. Secure Empty Trash

If you want to delete files that contain confidential information—PINs, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.—Mac OS X's Secure Empty Trash feature does the trick. What's new in Lion is that, instead of making a trip to the Finder's menu bar and selecting File => Secure Empty Trash…, pressing the command key while right- or control-clicking the Dock's Trash icon displays a Secure Empty Trash item in the Trash's contextual menu (Figure 4) that you can select to make it difficult for someone to recover those trashed confidential files.

Figure 4. Lion's Trash icon displays a Secure Empty Trash option after right- or control-clicking the icon while simultaneously pressing the command key.

5. Three-finger Tap to Display a Word's Definitions

Suppose you want to look up a word's definitions in a document or Web page. If you have a Mac with a Magic Trackpad or built-in multi-touch trackpad, simply position the cursor over the word and double-tap the trackpad with three fingers. The word will highlight in yellow and Lion's dictionary displays an iPad-like pop-up containing the word's definition (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Lion's Dictionary displays a pop-up that contains the definition(s) of the word that you've double-tapped with three fingers on a multi-touch trackpad or Magic Trackpad.

6. iCal's Three Different Get Info Windows

iCal has a Get Info window that displays when you double-click an event. This window contains editable fields in which you enter or edit the event's name, date, time and other pertinent information (Figure 6A).

Lion's iCal now has three different Get Info windows (Figures 6B, 6C and 6C). These windows collectively are one of my least favorite new features in Lion because they're confusing and potentially destructive. The reason is that one variant of the Get Info window uniquely has a Delete button (Figure 6D). If you click this button, iCal removes the entire event (without a confirmation alert) rather than removing only the information you've typed into it. Oops.

Figure 6. iCal's Event Info window (A) contains various user-editable fields such as the event's name, date and time. One variant of this window has Show, Revert and Apply buttons (B); one has a Show button at the bottom (C); and the third variant has a destructive Delete button (C).

Consequently, unless you're paying close attention to which Get Info window has displayed, you could inadvertently click the Delete button rather than the similarly positioned Apply button (Figure 6B) and remove the event from your calendar altogether. It's happened to me more than once, and I still need to figure out the necessary conditions under which each variant displays.

7. Select and Copy Text in Quick Look Windows

Mac OS X's Quick Look feature is really handy for inspecting the contents of a file in the Finder without opening the file in the program that created it. Quick Look in Lion now supports selecting and copying the contents of its window (Figure 7).

Figure 7. After entering a geeky command in Mac OS X's Terminal program, you can select and copy the contents of Lion's Quick Look windows.

This new Quick Look feature in Lion is turned off by default; turning it on requires a visit to the Terminal program that is in the Utilities folder. Terminal displays the Unix version of Windows DOS prompt window in which you can type arcane commands to perform geeky tasks.

To activate Lion Quick Look's support for selecting and copying the contents of its window, type (or copy-paste) the following line in(to) the Terminal program's window and press the Return key.

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE;killall Finder

You now can select and copy the contents of Quick Look windows (Figure 7).

If you change your mind and want to turn off this feature, type the following line in the Terminal program's window and press the Return key.

defaults delete com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection;killall Finder

8. About This Mac's More Info Window

The Apple Menu in Mac OS X's menu bar contains an item "About This Mac." After selecting this item, a window displays that contains a "More Info…" button. This button in previous versions of Mac OS X launched the System Profiler program. It instead displays a brand new window in Lion (Figure 8).

The About This Mac window that displays after clicking the "More Info…" button in Lion contains six tabs under the window's title: Overview, Displays, Storage, Memory, Support and Service (Figure 8). The overview tab is selected by default, and it displays the following information in the window: the Mac's model and year, processor, total amount and type of RAM, graphics card, serial number, and version of Mac OS X that is installed. The other tabs display the relevant information in summary format, rather than launching the System Profiler program.

Figure 8. Lion has a newly designed About This Mac window that displays instead of the System Profiler program.

9. Mail's Action Toolbar

If you configure Lion's Mail program to display in www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html (instead of the new widescreen layout, the message preview pane now contains an action toolbar that includes the following controls (from left to right in Figure 9): move current message to the Trash, reply, reply to all, forward, save attachment(s), and Quick Look attachment(s). This toolbar is quite handy because it involves less mousing than using Mail's menu bar or its viewer's toolbar to access the same functionalities.

Figure 9. Lion Mail's message preview pane includes a handy new action toolbar.

10. Safari 5.1.3

Safari 5.1.3 included with Lion has a new feature that is another of my least favorites. Actually, it's the absence of a feature—unlike previous versions of Safari, Lion's version no longer displays an alert asking whether you really want to quit when you select File => Quit with open tabs and/or windows (I can't show the absence of this alert in a screen capture; please take my word for it, the alert is gone in Lion Safari). Consequently, you can easily and mistakenly press the command key and letter q (which quits Safari) when you meant to press command and w (which closes the current tab or window). I've done this more than once on my commute home without access to the Web to regain all of the pages I had opened beforehand. Grrr.

Here's a bonus tip for good measure—the user account's Library folder is hidden by default in Lion (Figure 10 left). Apple presumably did this so that newcomers to the Mac platform and/or novices are less likely to get into trouble by accidentally deleting something important within that folder. To temporarily unhide the user account's Library folder, press the option key while selecting the Finder's Go menu. The user account's Library folder now is included in and accessible from that menu (Figure 10 right).

Figure 10. In Lion, the user account's Library folder is hidden by default (left). You can access it temporarily by pressing the option key while displaying the Finder's Go menu (right).

So there you go…10 plus one tips for 10.7 (Lion). Better start taking advantage of these tips ASAP now that 10.8 (Mountain Lion) is just around the corner.

Barry Fass-Holmes has been reviewing products for ComputorEdge since 2003. He previously worked as a software support representative and quality assurance analyst in San Diego. His product reviews are available in ComputorEdge's archives and at his Web site.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

“The Rise of the iPad”
by Wally Wang

The Rise of the iPad; Circumventing Safari's Privacy Settings; OS X Mountain Lion; Literacy Rates Go Up with iPads; The Old Economy vs. the New Economy; The Demographics of iPad Owners; More User Interface Woes for Microsoft; Dashcode.

Over a twenty-two year period, Apple sold 55 million Macintosh computers. In 2011, Asymco reported that Apple sold 55 million iPads. Clearly people are finding the iPad appealing and useful. It's highly doubtful that people are buying iPads just for the status of being seen in public with an Apple product or because they were fooled into buying an iPad because of Apple's marketing.

Figure 1. Sales of the iPad are increasing faster than sales of the iPhone and Macintosh.

Combine sales of the iPod touch along with the iPhone and the iPad, and suddenly devices running iOS number over 316 million. Even more surprising is that sales of iOS devices like the iPhone 4S continue skyrocketing with the iPad 3 rumored to be appearing sometime in March, which will only increase iOS device sales.

In the meantime, the netbook market has cratered, the PC market has flatlined, and rival tablet devices like Research in Motion's Playbook, Dell's Streak, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad have been all but faded from the market after gaining little attention from the public. What's happening?

If you remember back in the 80's when personal computers were first getting popular, stores still sold electric and manual typewriters. As more people started using computers and word processors, sales of typewriters plummeted. They still worked. It's just that personal computers offered a different way to type.

What's happening now is that desktop and laptop computers still work. It's just that the iPad offers a different way to use a computer. In many cases, an iPad can perform common tasks like e-mail and Web browsing just as well or even better than a regular computer. For those times when an iPad can't perform certain tasks such as desktop publishing, computer-aided design, or programming, that's when people just use a regular computer. Otherwise, it's often more convenient and simpler to use the iPad instead.

The iPad, and to a lesser extent the iPhone and other smartphones, represent the new way to use a computer on the go. Being tied down to browsing the Internet on a desktop computer now looks as antiquated as being tied down to writing on a typewriter. Mobile computing is simply the new face of computing today.

The choice is no longer PC vs. Mac but personal computers vs. mobile devices. Although Macintosh sales continue to climb while PC sales continue to slump, the real growth behind Apple is the iPhone and the iPad. Even Microsoft recognizes that mobile computing is the future, which explains why they revamped Windows 8 for touch surfaces on tablets. No one's doubting the iPad's influence now, even the harshest critics who immediately declared the iPad a failure when it first appeared.

You can still work on desktop and laptop computers just as you can still work on electric or manual typewriters, but nobody believes that typewriters will ever return to their former dominance as a writing tool. Likewise, nobody should believe that desktop and laptop computers will ever return to their former dominance in the computer market either.

The world of desktop and laptop computers is over. If you're not looking at how mobile computing devices can help your life, you're still looking backwards. Try driving by looking in your rearview mirror and see how fast and far you can go before smashing into something. Smartphones and tablets are the future so the sooner you embrace this, the sooner you can profit from the growing opportunities coming your way, but you'll only be able to take advantage of them if you can see these opportunities before they blow right past you.

Circumventing Safari's Privacy Settings

On Safari, like most browsers, you can define privacy settings to mask most of your activity on the Internet. Of course, any software setting can be defeated but instead of malicious hackers doing so, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google deliberately crafted their advertising code to bypass Safari's privacy settings.

Figure 2. Google deliberately and knowingly tricked Safari.

Not only do people need to avoid malicious hackers, but now they need to protect themselves against well-known corporations, although this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. If you're concerned about your privacy when browsing the Internet, the safest route is to avoid using the default browser that comes with your computer. For Windows users, avoid Internet Explorer and for Mac users, avoid Safari.

For real browsing safety, stick with more obscure browsers like Opera, which will likely be targeted much less than the popular default browsers. You can also create a virtual machine using a free program like VirtualBox, load a free copy of Linux, then browse the Internet through your Linux virtual machine. Now if anything tries to access your computer through your browser, it will only have access to your virtual machine and not your real operating system underneath.

OS X Mountain Lion

While Microsoft rushes to release Windows 8 by the end of the year, Apple has already announced that the latest version of Mac OS X (now dropping "Mac" from its name) will arrive by the end of the summer. This new version, dubbed OS X Mountain Lion, will appear almost a year after Lion appeared. Future versions of OS X may also appear annually.

Mountain Lion's main feature is tighter integration with iCloud. This gives you the ability to create or edit a document on your Mac and have those changes instantly available to you on your iPhone or iPad. Make changes to that document on your iPhone or iPad and those changes automatically appear back on your Macintosh. Instead of tracking multiple versions of the same file, iCloud and Mountain Lion make it easy to focus on just working with the most up to date version of a file at any particular time. The key is that you have to use an iPhone or iPad, which will further boost sales of all Apple products.

Another major feature is the addition of a Reminders program, which is already available on the iPhone and iPad, and a Notes program that more closely resembles the Notes app on iOS. This will allow you to use similar programs on all Apple devices and keep your data in sync through iCloud. With such heavy data dependence on iCloud, Apple users will be far less likely to switch to rival devices that can't access their data such as an Android phone or a Windows PC or tablet.

When Windows users see the ease that people can keep their data in sync through an iPhone or iPad, they'll have a greater incentive to switch to a Macintosh. If someone already has a Macintosh, but uses an Android phone, they'll be more likely to switch to an iPhone. Mountain Lion's deeper iCloud integration makes all of Apple's products more useful when used together.

In comparison, if Android users want to seamlessly sync their data from their Android phones to a Windows PC, it won't be as easy. If a Windows PC user wants to sync their data to a tablet, they'll have to switch to a Windows 8 tablet. With Apple offering the most popular smart phone and tablet on the market, the "halo effect" will simply boost sales of Macintosh computers.

With more people buying Macintosh computers, chances are good hackers will start targeting the Macintosh. To help block this, Mountain Lion will offer Gatekeeper, an operating system setting that can limit new program installations only from the Mac App Store (that Apple tests for quality), to the Mac App Store along with trusted developers, or leave the operating system wide open for installing software from anywhere.

Figure 3. Gatekeeper can restrict software installation from different sources.

As a developer, the easiest way to distribute software will be through the Mac App Store. While anyone can sign up for a trusted developer certificate, if Apple discovers you're distributing malware, they can block access to your trusted certificate through Gatekeeper. (Then you can sign up for another trusted developer certificate and fool people once more.)

Gatekeeper won't prevent malware from spreading, but it can provide a limited measure of protection. Just set Gatekeeper's settings to allow software only from the Mac App Store and you can avoid most malware threats from that point on. For many casual users, this setting can help protect them from installing malware by mistake.

By the end of the year, you'll be able to decide whether you want to store your data on Apple devices or Windows devices. Will Microsoft make syncing between multiple devices as easy as iCloud while also offering a compelling smart phone and tablet at the same time? Maybe, but Apple has nearly all the pieces in place to further extend their reach while Microsoft is still trying to catch up in the smart phone and tablet market while also trying to reverse the gradual decline in Windows PC sales. When we can compare Mountain Lion and Windows 8 side by side, we'll see which is the best and simplest solution for greater efficiency and productivity.

Literacy Rates Go Up with iPads

A school in Auburn, Maine randomly assigned half of the district's 16 kindergarten classes to use iPads for nine weeks where 129 students used an iPad while 137 students were taught without an iPad. Each of the 266 students were tested before and after the iPads were introduced into the classroom. According to the literacy test results, students who used the iPad outperformed the non-iPad students in every literacy measure they were tested on.

"We are seeing high levels of student motivation, engagement and learning in the iPad classrooms," said Sue Dorris, principal at East Auburn Community School. "The apps, which teach and reinforce fundamental literacy concepts and skills, are engaging, interactive and provide children with immediate feedback. What's more, teachers can customize apps to match the instructional needs of each child, so students are able to learn successfully at their own level and pace."

Figure 4. The iPad can improve literacy scores in children.

Perhaps someone should test whether netbooks or regular Windows PCs help improve literacy scores as well. That way we can determine if the iPad is helping literacy scores or just having computers around helps literacy scores.

The Old Economy vs. the New Economy

In the old economy, you got a job and worked for a company, remaining forever dependent on others for your future. In the new economy, you take control of your future and make your living through your own efforts, knowledge and skill.

If you're tired of working for someone else or just want to find an extra source of income, read Apple's Start Developing iOS Apps Today. According to TechNet, the app economy has already created over 466,000 jobs and will likely continue creating more jobs over time.

That means if you're motivated, you can take advantage of the growing opportunities in this new app economy from custom app programming to selling and marketing apps on your own.

Figure 5. The App economy has created more jobs than almost every other form of programming.

With the iPhone and iPad continuing to sell, the iPhone and iPad app market will also continue to grow. While app stores for other mobile devices may offer opportunities such as through the Windows Phone 7 or Android app markets, the iOS app market still remains the most profitable.

To get started, all you need is a free copy of Xcode, a Macintosh, and an iOS device to test your apps on. Then combine your own imagination and programming skills to create apps. For more help marketing and promoting your apps, pick up a copy of The Business of iPhone and iPad Development, which provides tips for how to promote and market your app through Twitter and other social media networks.

With major corporations adopting the iPhone and iPad and with government agencies, such as the U.S. Air Force, looking at iPads and Android tablets to replace paper flight manuals, the app market will continue offering opportunities for those fast enough to react. If you're willing to learn how to create your own apps, there's nothing stopping you from becoming part of this growing app economy that could one day provide a new job and future for you.

The Demographics of iPad Owners

According to the NPD Group, people who own an iPad are more likely to earn more than $100,000 a year. So it's likely that much of the backlash against the iPad (and Apple products in general) comes from those people who want an iPad (iPhone, Macintosh, etc.), but can't afford one. Rather than find a way to save up money or buy a refurbished or used iPad, they prefer fabricating lies for themselves to justify why they don't need an iPad, much like Aesop's fable about "The Fox and the Grapes".

Figure 6. iPad owners tend to earn more money than the average person.

The solution is simple. If you want an Apple product, pretending that you don't want one through falsehoods and misinformation won't change your situation one bit. The real answer is to find a way to improve your earning power so you can afford an Apple product if you wish. That may not be easy, but it's much more likely to make you happier in the long run than complaining and grumbling, which will only hold you back from any success in life.

To get a better job, you need to demonstrate you have the necessary skills to get that higher paying job. Some people go back to school to gain those skills, but a less expensive option is to volunteer and work for free at any organization. Not only can this give you access to learning skills you may not get in your current job, but it also puts you in contact with others who can help you apply your new skills in search of a higher paying job.

For programmers, the simplest way to volunteer and gain new skills is to contribute to any open source project. Just browse through the SourceForge site and you can find plenty of programming projects you can join.

If you want to learn low-level programming using C and C++, nothing boosts the credibility of your resume than contributing to an open source project like Linux. If you'd like to work in the financial field as a programmer, contribute to the open source GNU Cash money management program. If you'd like to apply your programing skills into financial trading, get some experience by contributing to the TA-Lib open source project, which provides a library of routines for making money in the stock market. If you'd like to work in the Web designing field, contribute to an open source project like FireFox.

Whatever your interest, there's likely an open source project you can contribute to and gain valuable programming skills and contacts to help you get a better job. By finding a more interesting job, you'll likely be happier regardless of the amount of pay you receive. Yet by being happier, you'll likely be more productive as well, which could boost your income at the same time.

The other option is to do absolutely nothing to change your life, complain, grumble, get mad at anyone who suggests another way to live, make up excuses to justify your current situation, and let your frustrations about life boil over as you spread negativity like a plague to everyone you can reach. Which option do you think will help you for the future?

More User Interface Woes for Microsoft

The friendly folks at the User Interface Engineering site conducted an interesting experiment last year. Curious if people changed the settings of their copy of Microsoft Word, the researchers discovered that "Less than 5% of the users we surveyed had changed any settings at all. More than 95% had kept the settings in the exact configuration that the program installed in."

When asked why they kept the default settings, several people replied, "Microsoft must know what they are doing."

To verify this, the researchers asked the people at the Microsoft Office group how and why they chose certain default settings. The answer turned out to reveal the confusion surrounding Microsoft and user interface design in general:

"It turns out the reason the feature was disabled in that release was not because they had thought about the user's needs. Instead, it was because a programmer had made a decision to initialize the config.ini file with all zeroes. Making a file filled with zeroes is a quick little program, so that's what he wrote, assuming that, at some point later, someone would tell him what the "real defaults" should be. Nobody ever got around to telling him.

"Since zero in binary means off, the autosave setting, along with a lot of other settings, were automatically disabled. The users' assumption that Microsoft had given this careful consideration turned out not to be the case."

If Microsoft's default settings have no purpose behind them, most people who leave these default settings in place may not be using Word as effectively as they could if only Microsoft had put some thought into the matter. Anyone still think Microsoft's user interface designs are based on careful research and consideration for maximizing efficiency for the user?

*                    *                    *

Press F12 and Mac OS X displays the Dashboard, which consists of widgets that perform a single task such as displaying the current weather or time. While not everyone uses this Dashboard feature, even fewer probably use Dashcode, which is the free programming tool you can use to create your own Dashboard widgets.

Dashcode provides templates to help you create simple widgets. By following Apple's tutorial and using Dashcode, I made a Mayan Doomsday countdown widget in just a few minutes. Now you can count down to see how much longer you'll have to live until the Mayan apocalypse occurs on December 21, 2012.

Figure 7. The Mayan Doomsday widget counts down the days before we all die.

Clicking on the Information icon in the bottom right corner of the widget spins it around to show you the back. If you click on the Learn More button, the widget loads the Wikipedia entry for the Mayan Calendar.

Figure 8. The back of the widget loads the Mayan Calendar Wikipedia Web site.

To load this Mayan Doomsday widget on your Macintosh, just download it and double-click on it on your Macintosh. This will install the widget on your Dashboard so you can count down the days until we all disappear when the Mayan calendar ends.

While you're waiting for the Mayan Calendar prediction to come true, you can watch with equal horror as you notice that the 2012 Playboy calendar ends in December, which could only logically mean that Playboy will run out of centerfolds by the end of this year.

In case you think making Dashboard widgets is relatively pointless, think again. To create interactive e-books in iBooks Author, you need to use HTML and Javascript code, which is exactly what Dashcode creates as well. By learning Dashcode, you can create widgets that you can insert into iBooks Author documents and make custom interactive iBooks limited only by your imagination.

In the early days, before Wally became an Internationally renowned comedian, computer book writer, and generally cool guy, Wally Wang used to hang around The Byte Buyer dangling participles with Jack Dunning and go to the gym to pump iron with Dan Gookin.

Wally is responsible for the following books:

My New Mac, Lion Edition

My New iPad 2

Steal This Computer Book

Microsoft Office 2010 For Dummies

Beginning Programming for Dummies

Beginning Programming All-in-One Reference for Dummies

Breaking Into Acting for Dummies with Larry Garrison

Strategic Entrepreneurism with Jon and Gerald Fisher

How to Live with a Cat (When You Really Don't Want To)

The Secrets of the Wall Street Stock Traders

Mac Programming For Absolute Beginners

99% Fairy Tales (Children's Stories the 1% Tell About the Rest of Us)

The Zen of Effortless Selling with Moe Abdou

The 15-Minute Movie Method

In his spare time, Wally likes blogging about movies and writing screenplays at his site "The 15 Minute Movie Method." Wally can be reached at wally@computoredge.com.

Beyond Personal Computing

“Do-It-Yourself Computer Repairs”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Marilyn shares some amusing anecdotes about DIY computer hardware repairs.

I've already written about users who super-glued their disc drives, or shot bolts through their PC or laptop to secure it to a desk. But computer hardware are seldom repairable (if ever) with a hammer, glue, bolts or duct tape...

Computer Hardware

"The parts of a computer that can be kicked."

The Wash and Dry Special

A user working for a construction company called to complain his cell phone had stopped working. The Support Tech asked the usual questions, and learned that the particular cell phone the user had was a "problematic model." It had been designed in emergency yellow and black, resembling those water resistant portable cassette players. But the yellow/black cell phone was not water resistant.

So the Tech asked the user if he'd accidentally-on-purpose put his cell phone into water. The user admitted that he'd thought his phone was waterproof, and had dunked it in a bucket of water. But the user went on to explain that he'd heard that if you dry out a wet cell phone and replace the battery, that sometimes the phone will continue working. "So," the Tech asked, "Did you dry it?"

"Oh yeah," the user assured him. "I put it in my clothes dryer with a load of laundry." That apparently explained the phone's broken faceplate, but the Tech had to explain that the user's warranty didn't cover "damage from intentional misuse."

Grandmas and Glue

A young man talked his grandmother into getting a computer to replace her WebTV, so she went out and bought one. She called her grandson the next day complaining that everything turned on alright, but she couldn't get a picture. The grandson went over and quickly discovered that Grandma thought she could use her TV as a monitor, and had hot-glued the connectors for the computer (including the modem line and speaker cord) to the back of her TV.

"That computer salesman tried to sell me one of those tiny TV things that sits on the computer," Grandma explained. "But I told him I had a perfectly good TV at home that would do just fine." The patient grandson spent a half hour scrapping glue off the back of her television. Meanwhile, Grandma called the computer store to demand to know why the salespeople had told her she could use her TV for a monitor with her new computer.

Hey, It's For Cooking, Right?

A man worked for a company that made ICs. Every few months, their yields would mysteriously go down to near zero. Analysis of the failures showed all sorts of organic material were being introduced in the process, but no one could figure out how.

Then one night someone was working late. He was aghast when he saw the cleaning crew cooking pizza in the chip-curing ovens!

One computer instructor worked in a community college in a Third World country, where students came from villages finally receiving electricity. So at first, they had only an intuitive understanding of computers. Such as the student who brought his lunch everyday in a parcel. And then proceeded to heat his lunch by opening his computer case and putting his tinfoil-wrapped lunch onto the CPU's heatsink. That worked alright at first. But one day he brought in stew for lunch that leaked, and shorted out not only his computer but the entire floor of the building.

Even The Cable Guy Gets It Wrong Occasionally

How about the Tech who traveled to a small company where the boss was complaining of endless timeout errors and slow performance on all his computers. The Tech found that the company had decent equipment, but a curious set-up. Apparently the (now unreachable) guy who had wired the network of computers had tied knots in each PC's cable so he could identify them. The first PC had one knot, the second PC had two knots, on up to the last computer with 40 knots in its cable. The Tech wondered why the set-up guy had never heard of using a marker or stickers.

Do-It-Yourself Graphic Design

A young user who worked in a university campus computer services office bought a new laptop and decided to impress his friends and co-workers. So he bought a can of emerald green Krylon spray paint, and sprayed his entire laptop. All of it: screen, mouse, keyboard, casing, etc. When the paint dried he was shocked to find that his new laptop didn't work anymore.

No problem. He bought a can of Goo-Gone and a bottle of paint thinner, poured it all over his laptop, then rinsed it off with water in the sink. His laptop was still as dead as a stone. His last surprise came when the store where he'd bought his laptop wouldn't refund his money or exchange his computer for a new one.

Tech Support Loses It

Anyone blame Tech Support for occasionally resorting to macabre humor? "Sure, we can fix this. But it would be cheaper for you to fix it yourself. All you need is a butter knife, a roll of duct tape and a car battery."

Some Reassembly Required

A company bought a some computerized cash registers. Soon the sales tech got a call that one of the new cash registers wouldn't connect to the back office computer. "So, can you tell me the settings on the DIP switches?" the Tech asked on the phone. "They are the switches on the backside, right next to the power cord."

"Uh, No, there are no switches back there," the user answered. "Not any more. My colleague told me that these switches might actually be what caused the problem, so I removed them. You know, with a chisel."

Well, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

A Tech in a software store thought he'd seen and heard it all. People complaining that a Playstation CD won't work on a computer, or a computer CD that didn't work on a Playstation. He'd even experienced a user who wanted the latest Windows for a Playstation.

But he was unprepared for an enraged user who had bought a new copy of a James Bond game for Nintendo 64 the previous day. The Tech refunded the user for the non-working game, then opened the just-purchased game. It had been neatly trimmed down to 3 1/2 inches with some sort of file or saw. "Uh, Sir? What did you do to this game disc?"

The user shrugged. "Nothin'! Except, you know, cutting it down to fit my Compaq."

Or how about the Tech who got a call from a user who wanted to register his Mac. So the Tech told him that the serial number for his computer was on the back, and the number for his modem was on the bottom of that device. "Oh, I don't think I can get to that last one," the user replied thoughtfully. "I've got the modem attached to my desk with a C-clamp so it doesn't fall off."

So You Think Anyone Can Fix a Dead Computer Drive?

1) Assemble your tools: Steel wool, paint thinner, WD-40, a few hand tools, and 45 minutes.

2) Remove those lawnmower parts, rusting hedge clippers and bent golf clubs off your work bench in the garage. Then clean everything on and around your work bench.

3) Disassemble the sealed unit and wash all parts with paint thinner.

4) Bend the read/write heads out of the way, then disassemble the platter stack.

5) Carefully buff the platter surfaces with the steel wool. This will erase any existing data, level out surface defects, help redistribute the magnetic media and fill in those pesky "bad sectors."

6) Reassemble the platter stack, then use a .015" feeler gauge to set the gap. (This is a slightly higher gap than the factory uses, but it reduces the chance of head collisions with any flotsam you neglected to remove.)

7) Give the heads and platters a good shot of WD-40 and reassemble the unit.

8) If your drive has a filter, replace it with a clean section of gauze pad.

9) Low level and DOS format the drive, and you just may be back in business.

Playing A Diagnostic Game

The Internet is loaded with free computer diagnostic tools. Or semi-free, meaning a free scan that finds a suspicious gigazillion problems. But it will only fix one problem, if that, and you have to buy their software to get rid of the rest. Perhaps all you really want is a quick-and-easy way to find out how your computer is performing, before digging into diagnostic tools.

A savvy Tech suggests that all you really have to do to check your computer's performance, is to play a game called "Free Cell," a popular solitaire card game. When you play the game, and you have quite a few cards remaining that are all lined up in columns, uncovering one card can cause the rest of the cards to be played automatically. If these cards zip up to the finish, you know your PC is working pretty good. If the cards don't zip up, then something is going on in your computer that requires further diagnostic tools.

(Most of these funny anecdotes can be found on multiple online joke sites. But special thanks to Rinkworks.com and Computerjokes.net.)

Marilyn is a freelance writer and humorist, with a special interest (besides computers and technology) in Science Fiction. A SF Horror story appeared in July 2011 in Deadman's Tome. And in January 2012 she had a SF Police Procedural appearing in Cosmic Crime magazine, and a SF Dystopian Romance appearing in the Strange Valentines anthology. She also has almost seventy articles on Helium.com, and is writing a humorous Young Adult SF series, Chronicles of Mathias. Volumes One and Two have received a "Gold Star for Excellence" from TeensReadToo.com, and are available from most on-line bookstores.

ComputorEdge E-Books is now converting Marilyn's computer humor columns into e-books. The first book, Computer Confusion in Paradise: Lo! And in the Beginning There Was Total Befuddlement!, is now available at our E-Book Store in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MODI format for Amazon Kindle.

EdgeWord: Selling E-Books on Amazon

“Marketing and Selling E-books through Amazon”
by Jack Dunning

Jack is pursuing different alternatives for marketing e-books, including Amazon and kindle Direct Publishing. A new e-book about Windows 7 is now available exclusively through Amazon.

I've been pursuing a number of alternatives when it comes to marketing e-books. If nothing else, I need to uncover what works and what doesn't work. I have submitted the Windows e-books on Amazon, as well as iTunes—although the Apple approval process seems to be quite long. Amazon approves new e-books in a matter of hours while the iTunes process goes on for days.

Since I'm working in the low-priced end of the market, Amazon does not look very attractive. For some arbitrary reason, Amazon has deemed that the correct price for an e-book is somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99. If an author prices a book in that range, then they will reap 70 percent of the selling price (less with an unreasonably high download charge). If outside that range, the percentage drops to 35 (with no download charge). With the exception of the cartoon book, all of our books are 99 cents. If we sell a book on our ComputorEdge E-Book site we get about 99 cents (less with credit card charges). On Amazon we get 35 cents. So the question is, "Why would anyone in our position bother to put their books on Amazon when the compensation is so poor?"

The reality is that the vast majority of the people who use Amazon have never heard of ComputorEdge. If someone happens to buy one of the books on Amazon, it's probably a sale that never would have occurred otherwise. From a revenue point of view it falls in the better-than-nothing category. But there are other motivations for doing business with Amazon.

Amazon is so big that they represent a form of marketing. If you can get anything in front of the millions of Amazon customers then you are doing just a little bit better. With e-books, every book is an advertisement for future books. Hot links to the main book Web site can be embedded in every e-book. A sale, no matter how small, is another marketing opportunity. With Amazon, every new sale is an ad placed in the hands of a new potential buyer for more e-books—plus, rather than paying for the advertising, we get paid.

However, it's not easy to get your e-books found in the millions of books already available through Amazon. Unless buyers know exactly what they want, browsing Amazon can be a frustrating experience. You might think that it would be a good idea to advertise the availability of the e-books at Amazon. Possibly, but if we're going to spend more on advertising, wouldn't we want to direct people to our own site where we will earn almost three times the amount of money? I thinks so. (I'm probably running a risk here just mentioning that the books are available on Amazon—even more so by including the Amazon links below. I could be cutting into my own sales when ComputorEdge readers go to Amazon rather than ComputorEdge E-Books. But then I couldn't tell the Amazon story.)

Amazon has a program called Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select where Amazon Prime members can borrow e-books made available free by the author/publisher. This seems like a pretty good deal for Amazon Prime members until you realize that they can only borrow one book at a time and once a month. Amazon sets aside a fixed amount ($600,000 in February) that is divided up between the participating authors/publishers based upon how many people borrow their e-books. For all those people who can't afford Amazon Prime, the e-book continues to be sold at Amazon,

Amazon Prime is an eclectic assortment of benefits available to anyone who is willing to pay $79 per year. It includes free two-day shipping of products purchased at Amazon, instant streaming of thousands of videos, and the borrowing of e-books per KDP Select. If you happen to be a huge Amazon customer, then you will make out on the two-day shipping—especially if you can't wait a week or two to get your stuff. The video streaming library is not as extensive as Netflix although the price does work out cheaper. You would never get an Amazon Prime membership just to borrow a couple of e-books.

As an author, to get an e-book into the free lending program, you must give Amazon exclusivity while the book is in the program. That's why you won't see the e-book pictured at the left available at ComputorEdge E-Books (the image links directly to Amazon). I didn't think that holding this e-book back from our site was much of a risk since so many of the ComputorEdge readers are far beyond the level of this beginning Windows 7 book. The e-book Getting Started with Windows 7 is meant for people who are a little intimidated by computers and Windows 7 in particular. It only covers the most important aspects of computing—although, now that I think of it, I never mentioned how to plug in the computer or turn it on. In any case, the e-book is designed to give just enough information to get by, possibly whetting the appetite for the other, more in-depth Windows tips and tricks e-books. Of course the e-book is loaded with hot links to the other books on Amazon.

There is a marketing opportunity that's included with the KDP Select program where I can offer the e-book free to everyone for a period of five days. I plan to do that at some point. I will let you know in a future issue of ComputorEdge when the free offer is in effect so you don't have to spring for the big bucks now to buy the e-book. Don't worry if you don't own a Kindle. Amazon offers free Kindle reading apps for iPad, Android, Windows, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry and Window Phone 7.

For writers, Amazon offers special pages through Author Central. It is a convenient place for authors to post their biography and links to their books on Amazon. If you happen to have a blog (or write for ComputorEdge), you can link to those writings with the RSS feed (see Figure 1). Check out my Amazon page to see the latest e-books on Amazon and links to my latest articles/columns.

Figure 1. Jack's author page on Amazon.

A picture can also be added to the Amazon author's page, but I didn't want to ruin it.

We'll see how this works out with Amazon. It hasn't cost me anything other than time to do it. For those people who want to self-publish on Amazon (or help someone else to publish), I'm planning an Amazon publishing how-to article for ComputorEdge in the near future. (I'll do iTunes sometime after that.) If you're not interested in e-books or e-book publishing, there's always Digital Dave.

*                    *                    *

I was asked how people could give the ComputorEdge E-Books as gifts. Apparently people are targeting friends who are still Windows XP users with the e-book Sticking with Windows XP—Or Not! or want to send the That Does Not Compute! cartoon e-book to people with no sense of humor.

It's pretty easy to send the e-books as a gift. When you receive the download e-mail after purchase, you can forward it to the person you are planning to harass with a terse note from you. Then he or she can download the e-book(s) via the link(s) in the e-mail. (For more information of e-books, the articles on how to load e-books into tablets and/or read them on your computer are linked at the e-book site in the "E-Book How-To's and Help" sections in the top menu bar and the sidebar on the right.)

Each e-book comes with two downloads just in case there is a problem downloading. (You can always request more downloads if you're having difficulties.) If someone has a problem, they can e-mail me at ebooks@computoredge.com. What won't I do for 99 cents?

Jack is the publisher of ComputorEdge Magazine. He's been with the magazine since first issue on May 16, 1983. Back then, it was called The Byte Buyer. His Web site is www.computoredge.com. He can be reached at ceeditor@computoredge.com. Jack is now in the process of updating and compiling his hundreds of articles and columns into e-books. Currently available:

Windows 7 Start Menu Secrets (EPUB for iPad, NOOK, etc.)

Windows 7 Start Menu Secrets (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

Windows 7 Explorer Secrets (EPUB for iPad, NOOK, etc.)

Windows 7 Explorer Secrets (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

Windows 7 Taskbar Secrets (EPUB for iPad, NOOK, etc.)

Windows 7 Taskbar Secrets (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? (EPUB for iPad, NOOK, etc.)

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

“Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.”
by ComputorEdge Staff

"Beyond Personal Computing," "Interesting News," "HP Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)," "Office 2010 Crashing," "Let Them All Close Down"

Beyond Personal Computing

[Regarding the January 27 Beyond Personal Computing column:]

Good as always—Most all columns are good, I have a PC, so I don't know about Wally's farm!

-Andy, Vista

Andy -

Thanks! Glad you liked my humor column.

-Marilyn, Texas

Interesting News

[Regarding Marilyn K. Martin's January 20 article, "Hacker Update, Wearable Computers, and Prison Robots":]

I thought I kept up on tech news, but somehow missed these. Thanks. By the way the "m" in the original Wi-Fi vending machine article stands for "meters" not "miles."

-Ron Cerrato, San Diego

Thanks for the correction on meters/miles, Ron.

Glad you enjoyed the article. This series I write is about little known technology/computing/Internet stories that were either local or were otherwise overlooked. I figure that if I think they're interesting, others will too.

-Marilyn, Texas

HP Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)

[Regarding the January 20 Digital Dave column:]

The HP all-in-ones are famous for lines showing when using the ADF. I have one of the 5500 series and have the same problem. When using the glass only, there are no lines. The lines will appear on both faxing and copying so it is the ADF. I have tried everything to clean the ADF and nothing works—and I'm pretty familiar with cleaning printers, including lasers.

I've been an HP fan for years, but will not own an all-in-one from HP again. They just don't hold up well.

-John, Encinitas, CA

I get this all the time with HP all-in-ones printers. I am a PC service tech. When using the ADF, the document passes over a glass strip. Any tiny spec of dirt will cause this famous black line. Most people say that they have cleaned it, but never actually lift the mechanism up (hinged) to actually see the glass strip.

I simply clean it with a little Windex. Often times it's a spec of whiteout that can be cleaned with a fingernail or cleaner and micro cloth (recommended). Sometimes it's a nick in the glass caused by staple or paperclip damage. I have successfully buffed small nicks out with a Dremel tool and buffing disk. Anything other than that, get a new printer.

-Dana McKinzie, East Amherst, NY

Office 2010 Crashing

[Regarding the January 27 Digital Dave column:]

In the past I have had Microsoft Word crash due to a bad Truetype font. I used to know how to remove bad Truetype fonts, but not these days.

-Craig, San Diego

Jay, your first mistake was buying a Compaq, second is using Microsoft Office products. The only positive thing is that you don't have to feel like the Lone Ranger, since millions have bought into the MS myth that bigger is better. Using an MS Office product and being online is like walking around at a turkey shoot in a turkey suit. Every Windows hacker with a compiler is out to get you.

I don't have any MS products installed except the basics that are included free in the basic install of Windows 7. I have set up Win Update to inform me of Windows updates, but not to download or install unless I choose them. Since XP SP3 was released (many Moons ago) I have refused many dozens of updates to MS Office products. And since Compaq is in bed with IBM and IBM has been in bed with MS since "they" abandoned IBM DOS in the 90s, MS has written special code for the "innovative hardware" (read failed weird ideas), that Compaq and IBM have come up with for their PCs.

If you don't download every MS Office update you may miss one that will address the very problem you are having now. Look up the definition of {Stacks, Computer} in www.wikipedia.org. On second thought, don't look it up as you will be probably have nightmares for weeks. The short and sweet definition is "bloat ware." Like Dave said, "uninstall all MS bloat ware and install OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice, (both of which can open and save in MS office format). Your Compaq will preform almost as well as a real computer. And it won't crash when you want to write a letter.

Buck's Blue Sky Advice and Cheap Tricks.

-Buck Fadness, El Cajon, CA

I have a Compaq that I bought in 2005 and run MS Office on it with no problems. I never "update" anything Microsoft tells me to and my computer works fine. (I also wipe my hard drive twice a year, but that's a different story.) Perhaps the copy of Office you're working with is bad?

-Kay Katz, San Diego, CA

Hey Dave, Jay mentioned having the "minimum " requirements (Compaq Presario SR2039x Office 2010). That may be the root of his problem there. That's where I'd start the trouble shooting. And he's right, SP3 has to be up and ready to go before the Office 2012 install.

-whtabtbobb, Chula Vista, CA

Jay, be sure you have the maximum memory installed for that program. Your machine should handle four Gigs. You can check here. You can get memory locally or online for less than listed here. If you already have four Gigs you may have a bad stick. You can get a free program to check that out.

-B. Frincke, El Cajon, CA

Let Them All Close Down

[Regarding the January 27 Editors Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers column:]

It's too bad that Wayne Ford, Huntington Beach, CA doesn't know what he's talking about. The USPS is not taxpayer subsidized. UPS and FEDEX use the USPS to make the final delivery in most small towns and rural routes. By the way, I've been reading your magazine since my first computer in December 1980.

-Chris Clarke, El Cajon, CA

ComputorEdge always wants to hear from you, our readers. If you have specific comments about one of our articles, please click the "Tell us what you think about this article!" link at the top or bottom of the specific article/column at ComputorEdge.com. Your comments will be attached to the column and may appear at a later time in the "Editor's Letters" section.If you want to submit a short "ComputorQuick Review", or yell at us, please e-mail us at ceeditor@computoredge.com. If you would like to contribute to ComputorEdge endeavors, please visit ComputorEdge E-Books.

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