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ComputorEdge™ Online — 04/27/12

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Kids and Programming, Catchy-Tech, and More!

More little know computer and Internet stories, plus Free Stuff from Apple, Digital Dave and articles based upon the whims of the writers.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

E-Mail Address Groups; Maximize Photos Folder; Unable to Reinstall Windows 7 over Windows 8.

Teaching Kids to Program, and More Little Known High Tech Stories

by Marilyn K. Martin

Kids And Programming, Muscle-Mobile Gaming, Catchy-Tech And Find-A-Fugitive With Social Apps

Learning Computer Programming; Catchy-Tech; Nature and Travel Apps;Mobile Gaming; Helper Smartphone Apps; Google Odds 'n Ends; Facebook Account Access; Track Down Fugitives; Better Ad Targeting; Movie and Theater Tech; Mobile Coupons; Robot Updates; Newest Cancer Doctor.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Tips Tricks and Traps

by ComputorEdge Staff

Jim Lipke Provides Tips and Tricks for People Evaluating Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Although many of these techniques may seem a little cryptic to many users, anyone evaluating Windows 8 may find them useful.

Windows XP Is Still Here!

by Jack Dunning

Windows XP Is Going Will Be Around for a While Longer

The fact that so many Windows XP users completely skipped Windows Vista (and now Windows 7) has completely changed the way people look at operating systems. At Microsoft it can no longer be business as usual.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

Free Stuff

Free Stuff; Free College Courses; Soon-to-be Obsolete Items; The Mystery of .DAE Files; Apple in the Enterprise; On the Back of a Napkin; SMARTReporter.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

by Charles Carr

The latest in tech news and hot product reviews.

Are You Addicted?; Top Productivity Apps for the Overwhelmed; Chips as Mini Internets; Samsung/AT&T 8.9" Galaxy Tab—a Tablet from on High; Control Your Earphones' Cables.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

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

Facebook and an IQ Test Rating?; USB Flash Drive FAQ (Blast from the Past); Windows Live Mail.

Send mail to ceeditor@computoredge.com with questions about editorial content.

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Digital Dave

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

E-Mail Address Groups; Maximize Photos Folder; Unable to Reinstall Windows 7 over Windows 8.

E-Mail Address Groups

Dear Digital Dave,

I'm glad I remembered your name (from San Diego) and now I'm disabled and need to learn how to create a multiple names (To:) address. (I type very slowly.) I write and forward articles and jokes to my friends and relatives. I'll need two of such groups.

Many thanks,

P.S. I used to belong to the Senior's Computer Group in San Diego at Wesley Palms, but can no longer drive there.

Steve Molski

Chula Vista, CA

Dear Steve,

The best way to create groups of e-mail addresses is in your e-mail program. Exactly how it is done will depend upon which e-mail program you're using.

Your list of e-mail addresses will either be called your Address Book or Contacts depending upon the e-mail program. In most cases you can build your address list by right-clicking on any e-mail which is from someone you want to add to the list and selecting "Add sender to contacts" or "Add sender to address book." Some of the e-mail programs will automatically add anyone to your contacts to whom you send an e-mail.

Once you have the e-mail addresses in the system it is usually easy to create a group or category for mass mailings. In many cases creating a new group is as simple is clicking a button (New Contact Group, New Category) and labeling it as Family, Friends, Associates, etc. Then, usually all you need to do is drag (left-click and hold while moving the cursor) the contact from the overall list to the group folder. In some cases, you may have a "Copy to" button for adding the address to the group, but dragging the contact to the group is by far the easiest method.

In Windows Live Mail after you select Contacts in the bottom of the left hand navigation pane, you can click "Edit category" in the ribbon menu at the top. Select the group and a window will open which allows you to scan all of your contacts and merely click on those that you want in the group then Save. If you want to remove someone, just click again and Save.

Although I don't know which e-mail program you're using, there is likely to be an easy way for you to build the family and friend groups that you need.

Digital Dave

Maximize Photos Folder

Dear Digital Dave,

Is there a way to globally set all of my photos in my Windows 7 photo folder to open in full screen?

Poz

San Diego, CA

Dear Poz,

If you're referring to the Windows Explorer windows which display the thumbnails of your photos, then the default opening of that is set when the last open window is closed. Then when you open a new instance of Windows Explorer, it will be the same size as the last window closed.

This should work with any specific program window. To make this work, you need to ensure that there are no other windows of the same type open. Then, with only one open window, resize or maximize it to your preference. Close this window. The next time you open it, and every instance after, the size of the window will be the same. This will continue until you make a change to a last open window and close it. Then this last window size will become the new default.

If you are referring to the size of the program window when you double click a photo icon (or select a program from the Open menu), then the same technique applies, but it must be done for each separate program. It's possible that some programs will have a setting which can set a default window size, but that would be a function of the each individual program itself.

The basic rule for window appearance in Windows is "last closed, first opened." The appearance of the last program window closed (with none remaining open) will set the appearance of the next instance opened.

Digital Dave

Unable to Reinstall Windows 7 over Windows 8

Dear Digital Dave,

I put Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a laptop as the only OS. I now would like to reinstall Windows 7 back on the laptop, however, no matter how I try reinstalling nothing will work. I get messages that system drivers are corrupt or a BSOD. I have tried to reformat the drive, but that doesn't seem to work either. The only thing I haven't done is Bart's Nuke.

Because Windows 8 is a different OS, is that where the problem lies? I am really at a loss here. Thanks for any help you may have.

Gene

Escondido

Dear Gene,

This is one of the reasons that I have advised against making Windows 8 Preview a primary installation on a computer unless you don't plan to use that computer for anything else. (See the response to Chuck from a month ago.) As far as I know, there is no way to uninstall the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. You need to do a clean install with Windows 7. However, as long as the computer is booting into Windows 8 it is unlikely that you will be able to either reformat the drive or do a clean install. There are protections in Windows that prevent the reformatting of the active system drive.

You will need to boot from another drive (DVD or USB flash) before you will be able to return to Windows 7. That means you need Windows 7 on external media. I discussed how to make a Windows 7 DVD in the answer to John a couple of weeks ago. If you have been booting from a Windows 7 DVD and getting the errors you noted, then your copy may be corrupted. You will need to make a new Windows 7 disk per the guidelines in the referenced letter.

Failing that, although coincidental, there could actually be a problem with the hard drive. You should check the connections first. Sometimes just removing and reinstalling a hard drive will get it working again. If nothing else works, the last resort is to replace the hard drive. It would be fairly easy to then reinstall Windows 7.

Digital Dave

Teaching Kids to Program, and More Little Known High Tech Stories

“Kids And Programming, Muscle-Mobile Gaming, Catchy-Tech And Find-A-Fugitive With Social Apps”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Learning Computer Programming; Catchy-Tech; Nature and Travel Apps;Mobile Gaming; Helper Smartphone Apps; Google Odds 'n Ends; Facebook Account Access; Track Down Fugitives; Better Ad Targeting; Movie and Theater Tech; Mobile Coupons; Robot Updates; Newest Cancer Doctor.

Learning Computer Programming—Toddlers to Adults

I wrote previously how the Raspberry Pi Foundation in England developed a tiny, bare-bones $35 computer to encourage kids to experiment with programming. For the younger set, logic games are suggested to get kids interested in computer programming. A Seattle father, William Kennedy, who hires software engineers for Microsoft, started his son doing programming with Lego Mindstorm when the boy was eight. Now at 15, his son is creating games and applications for phones and computer systems.

There are even predictions that computer programming will become standard curriculum in middle and high schools someday, and possibly a requisite to get into college, like English and Math. Some educators already promote how computer programming "helps develop critical thinking skills, such as how to break down a problem into manageable parts, or how to put tasks into a logical sequence." These skills are transferable to everything, some educators note. For now, free Web sites offer kids everything from getting a robot through an obstacle course, to technology concepts like counting in binary.

The Seattle Times' Brier Dudley writes about the new interest by parents, in finding games and apps to encourage their children (especially girls) to study computer science. "Anything with sorting and matching and counting are great foundations for logical reasoning," says Facebook's Jocelyn Goldfein.

There are also lists of online programs to help teach kids programming. Other online programming tools range from SimpleCodeWorks to Python.

Even employed adults have figured out that learning programming can advance their careers, or at least make them more valuable to their employers. Many are learning programming through online code tutorials, such as Codecademy and Treehouse. These online tutorials use game-theory, awarding points and badges for completing lessons and projects.

Catchy-Tech to Lure More Customers

In March 2012, Wal-Mart announced a new in-store digital service, whereby people can bring in their old DVDs or Blu-ray discs for authentication. They can then purchase a virtual but upgraded copy (to Blu-ray or high-def) which they can stream via select TVs, players and online sites like Vudu. The fees range from $2-$5, and experts suggest that the service won't be useful to everyone.

Also in March 2012, Amazon announced that they will be experimenting with selling $10 gift cards for $5 on select days, to people who visit AmazonLocal, their answer to Groupon and LivingSocial (which is part-owned by Amazon). The gift cards can be redeemed on Amazon as well as AmazonLocal, but the hope is that the free $5 gift card will lure more customers into its new online deals site.

At the end of March 2012, it was announced that Nokia has submitted a patent for a haptic tattoo that would vibrate to alert the wearer of an incoming phone or text call. The tattoo ink would have to be demagnetized before administering the tattoo, then the finished tattoo would have to be re-magnetized. Nokia also wants to let users chose special ring tones, to distinguish the callers. For those who don't want a ringing tattoo, Nokia is also working on a removable patch that will function the same way.

Great Nature and Travel Apps for Kids

With summer and vacation-time approaching, it might be worthwhile for parents to peruse National Geographic's new and top selling mobile apps and games. Their impressive collection of apps includes everything from trail maps for National Parks, to world maps and puzzles of exotic animals. Other fun apps are the hidden-object game Herod's Lost Tomb, and Puzzle Planets to use the "epic forces of nature" to create new worlds. Prices vary, but most are free or 99 cents.

Next Level of Mobile Gaming—Amid Declining Console Sales

The next level of handheld gaming has arrived: Sony's Playstation Vita. With two quad-core processors and a 5 inch touchscreen OLED display, the Vita has been called "akin to a home console experience on the move." It's 7.2-inches from end to end, and chunky at .73 inches thick. Initial criticism of software problems and too many control options hasn't dampened its increasing sales.

Launched in February 2012, sales were initially sluggish for the $250-$300 handheld, despite an impressive array of games. Seattle's Fun Bits Interactive took a gamble by committing to producing games for the Vita. One of their quirkier games is Escape Plan (grayscale, $15) where a couple characters work their way out of a series of chambers. Their tools include coffee for a brief burst of speed, and flatulence for propulsion. The prediction is that handheld gaming will rebound in 2012 and 2013.

Hardware and software sales for gaming consoles continue to drop, and once-growing companies are now laying off staff. As mobile and online gaming continues to grow, even mega-franchises are "finding it harder to turn a profit." Some fledgling companies are forming partnerships with larger gaming companies. And mobile gaming company Pocket Gems is holding "hackathons" (or marathon programming sessions) to develop for HTML5 technology. This will "allow programs to run in mobile Web browsers that people do not need to download."

New Helper Smartphone Apps

Psychotherapy seems to need to be a person-to-person activity, instead of a phone app next to an Angry Birds icon. But scientists are indeed working on smartphone apps of "simple video-game-like programs aimed at relieving common problems like Anxiety and Depression." These therapy apps can reach more people, and can be accessed anywhere or anytime. Avoiding pop-mysticism and confidence-coaches, these apps work on Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) "that seeks to break some of the brain's bad habits" that can lead to undue Anxiety and Depression.

In the more utilitarian category, Lifehacker has an article about how to modify a smartphone to open an electric garage door. With a Bluetooth headset, a $1 transistor from RadioShack and some soldering skills, anyone can "use the headset's audio amplifier to send a signal to your garage door opener."

A new San Francisco start-up, 1000memories, has developed an app to help digitize the trillions of fading and yellowing snapshots that people have lying around in boxes in garages and attics. Their iPhone app is called Shoebox, and lets users snap their old photos with their smartphone camera, upload the digital image to the Internet, and then share it with anyone they want. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg contacted the start-up the same day they launched in October 2011, saying he was excited for people to start using the app to fill in their Facebook Timelines.

Google Odds 'n Ends

Google is reportedly readying Android-based smart-glasses with a heads-up display. Supposedly to be on sale by the end of 2012, the Google-glasses "will be able to stream information to the wearer's eyes in real time." The glasses will use a built-in, low-res camera that can monitor the world in real time, and "overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby." According to one blogger, the navigation system will be head-tilting to scroll and click. The glasses will sell in the $250-$600 range.

Also in February 2012, Google changed out its logo for a squiggly line for one day to honor Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who would have turned 155 that day. Hertz was the German physicist whose work was crucial to the later development of television, radio and Wi-Fi. There's a simple Google code within the squiggle, which also honors Hertz's crucial experiment that proved "invisible waves of energy" could radiate through the air.

Last December 2011, users could type "let it snow" in their Google homepage's search bar, and soon snowflakes drifted down to fill up the screen. As the screen frosts over, the viewer could use their cursor as an ice scraper to draw in the frosted glass, or click on the search Defrost button. More Google Doodles of 2011 are listed at the end of the article.

Congressman Drafting Bill to Rein in Access to Facebook Accounts

At the end of March 2012, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) announced that he was troubled by the practices of Facebook Profiling by employers, and was "drafting a law to ban companies and government agencies from seeking access to the private Facebook accounts of potential employees." He says that social-network screening should be outlawed, just like polygraph tests of job applicants are banned. This issue had recently spiked with the disturbing revelation that some hiring processes were asking job-seekers for their logins and passwords to their Facebook accounts.

Not long after the above story, Facebook announced that they were "willing to sue to protect user accounts from the prying eyes of employers." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauded the announcement, but agreed that Congress needs to pass a law preventing the practice.

New Challenge: Use Social Media to Track Down Fugitives

According to an article in Wired, the U.S. State Department is sponsoring a Tag Challenge civilian contest at the end of March 2012 to "demonstrate to the planet's law enforcement and intelligence agencies (that they can) hunt down fleeing suspects using nothing but their wits and social media connections." Teams of trackers were provided only mugshots of five fictitious jewel thieves, in five cities from New York to Stockholm. Contestants had 12 hours to search their chosen city for clues, find the volunteer crooks, and then upload their photos to the Challenge's Web site. The winning team in each city received $5,000. Both Wired Magazine and DoD's DARPA have sponsored similar find-the-person/item challenges in 2009.

Google and Facebook Fight for Better Targeted Ads

Google and Facebook are revamping their advertising tactics, by intensifying their efforts to grab more personal user data and generate even more revenue from ads targeting users' specific searches and preferences. Google's new privacy policy is coming into effect, to allow Google to sweep together a person's data from across its various entities (YouTube to Gmail). The analyzed data will better target each user with more personalized Google ads based on their preferences and interests. For Google, it's all about survival, since past attempts have failed to make its services more social, like Facebook, where users linger and inadvertently provide more preference/interest data while socializing.

Google also announced in March 2012, that they had been awarded a patent for "advertising based on environmental conditions." Google wants to gather information on their users' surroundings via sensors in phones or tablets, of everything from temperature, humidity and light, to background noise. This data will be used by Google to help offer users increasingly personalized ads, from cold beverages in the summer heat to food and apparel if the user is at a sports event.

Movie and Theater Tech

According to the New York Times in late February 2012, movie attendance and DVD sales continue to plunge. But now Hollywood is embracing new Internet deals to stream online their TV shows and movies. "Studios see a robust, accelerating online market," said Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group. Netflix, Verizon, Redbox, Amazon, YouTube and Google are all working on deals to buy and stream Hollywood films and TV shows on the Internet, with most of these companies intending to move beyond rentals to sales.

Now people can use mobile-phone apps to pre-purchase tickets to movies. Movie-goers can skip the line at the box office by ordering tickets online, then swiping their mobile device over a scanner at the theater before heading to their seats. Fandango offers free mobile apps to let movie-goers check showtimes, watch trailers and more, besides buying show tickets. MovieTickets is another company offering free mobile apps to buy movie tickets, for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Eventbrite also has an At The Door iTunes app, paired with their new At The Door Card Reader, for customers to buy tickets, merchandise, food and beverage, and pay by either credit card or cash at the door.

Mobile Coupons

TV star Greg Grunberg is bringing his mobile coupon app, Yowza, to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) through a partnership with HMSHost. The app is free, available for both iPhone and Android, and "targets air travelers by pushing real-time coupons to their smartphones when they're nearby." Restaurants from Pinkberry to California Pizza Kitchen have signed on, offering 20% off an LAX meal, or $1 off a pastry when the traveler purchases a coffee drink.

Beyond the airport, Yowza offers discounts for thousands of retail stores and restaurants, even chains that are country-wide. More than one million people have used the app so far. Grunberg combines the fact that people are looking to save money in a down economy, with the ease of a mobile coupon instead of having to remember to bring paper coupons along when they shop.

Robot Updates

A new robot-jellyfish that runs on hydrogen for fuel, has been launched. Called Robojelly, the current version requires tanks for hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, but one day may be able to gather these from its environment itself. The heat-producing fuel contracts the upper umbrella of Robojelly, and propels it in spurts. Only six inches across, the Robojelly could eventually be used for ocean monitoring, from surveillance to tracking pollution spills.

At the end of March 2012, a Silicon Valley blog rounded up the latest news on robots. Highlights include Amazon buying bots to locate and fetch items in its warehouses, to even buying just such a robot company, Kiva Systems. Besides the Robojelly discussed above, that rascally DARPA—known for modeling robots on animals—is at it again. This time, they are using live snails and cockroaches, and "outfitting them with things like electrodes coated with enzymes, to harness the natural sensors and power generation of insects."

Newest Cancer Doctor is Jeopardy Computer—Watson

I reported earlier, that after the IBM computer Watson strutted its stuff on Jeopardy, it was slated to be turned into a medical diagnostic computer. At the end of March 2012, Watson was placed in Manhattan's renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. At this point, the latest in oncology research is being programmed into Watson by IBM and Sloan-Kettering, with constant updates. It may be the end of 2013 before patients can benefit from Watson's diagnostics, with the goal of treating cancer "more quickly, accurately and personally."

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 second book, Computer Hardware: "Parts Is Parts", is now available at our E-Book Store in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

The first book, Computer Confusion in Paradise: Lo! And in the Beginning There Was Total Befuddlement!, is also available at our E-Book Store in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Tips Tricks and Traps

“Jim Lipke Provides Tips and Tricks for People Evaluating Windows 8 Consumer Preview” by ComputorEdge Staff

Although many of these techniques may seem a little cryptic to many users, anyone evaluating Windows 8 may find them useful.

The following Windows 8 tips, tricks and traps were submitted by Jim Lipke. We've known Jim for many years during which he's was teaching computers—both at the college level and the California Computer Expo. Apparently, Jim did some real digging into Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

You may find some of this a little cryptic depending upon your experience level. Quite a bit of it we actually understood and tested. It is presented in its raw form, but if you actually get a chance to try some these tips with Windows 8, they could be very useful.

Notes: To use these tips substitute "x:" drive letter where Windows 8 is installed. For many Desktop commands first create new shortcut, then Pin to Start Metro UI. Traps can be searched in this page using term "fail".

Topics expanded to: CmdAdmin Cookies Calc & Math4.0 Favicons Gadgets RSS Skydrive

Action Center (Troubleshooting, Recovery) Desktop: create new shortcut:

x:\Windows\System32\wscui.cpl

All Programs Metro: right-click background, click "All Apps" pop-up at bottom of screen

Applications Wizard Properties Desktop: new shortcut:

x:\Windows\System32\appwiz.cpl

Calculator 6.2 Desktop: new shortcut:

%windir%\system32\calc.exe

Calculator 6.2 Metro: right-click, Pin to Start

1 Standard (default) Alt+1 Standard

2 Scientific 32 bits Alt+2 Scientific

3 Programmer 64 bits Alt+3 Programmer

4 Statistics Alt+4

5 Basic

6 Unit Conversion Ctrl+U,

7 Date Ctrl+E,

8 Mortgage,

9 Vehicle Lease,

10 Miles Per Gallon,

11 Liter per 100Kilometets

CMD Admin: right-click lower left desktop to display Start menu, click Cmd Admin

Required Admin rights for Hibernate

CMD Desktop command line prompt: new shortcut:

x:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

CMD Metro command line prompt: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start,

or CMD Metro Search charm, CMD, righclick, Pin to Start

Cookies.bat Batch program:

FOR %%I IN (*.txt) DO echo Start Filename=%%I >> x:\Users\%username%\found.txt & type %%I | findstr /i /n /o "OPT OUT COM NET ORG" >> x:\Users\%username%\found.txt & echo &nbsp; >> x:\Users\%username%\found.txt & echo End Filename=%%I >> X:\Users\%username%\found.txt & echo === >>

x:\Users\%username%\found.txt

notepad  x:\Users\%username%\found.txt

Cookies list active and then Opt-Out of NAI advertising cookies:

http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Note first Delete Browsing History that does not clear all cookies.

Then run opt-Out to add new opt-Out Cookies

Warning: Fails to clear Flash Cookies, and non-NAI advertising cookies

Computer Desktop: new shortcut,

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System\Computer

Computer Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Create Restore Point Desktop: new shortcut,

%SystemRoot%\System32\SystemPropertiesProtection.exe

Create, some-text

Create Restore Point Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Defender Windows 8 replaced Windows 7 MS Security Essentials.

Facebook Desktop: new shortcut, https://www.facebook.com/, rightclick, Pin to Taskbar

Facebook Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Facebook Metro add: swipe right, Settings charm, Accounts, Add, Facebook acct

Favicons Desktop: new shortcut,

"X:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5"

Copy temporary favicons found to more permanent and reusable C:\Favicons. "Change Icon" for each Desktop and Taskbar shortcut using appropriate favicon

Examples:

Discovery faviconCAFSSXTT.ico

Facebook Ivn-CVe5TGK[1].ico

Gmail favicon[7].ico

Google+ faviconr2[1].ico white 'g+' in orange box

Google faviconr2[1].ico white 'g' in red green box

Yahoo faviconCA4V3DHW.ico

Favicons Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start, location of copied x:\Favicons

Flash Cookies:

Global Privacy Settings: Camera Mic

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html

Global Storage Settings: Disk space

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html

Global Security Settings: older security warning (x)AlwaysAsk

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html

Global Notifications Settings: [x]Notify update Flash player

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager05.html

Website Privacy Settings: mail.google.com [x] Always ask

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager06.html

Website Storage: mail.google.com Disk space 1k of 100K [_]Never ask again

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

Protected Content Playback Settings Reset License Files:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager08.html

Peer Assisted Networking Settings: mail.google.com (x)Always ask; s.ytimg.com YouTube Video

[_] Disable P2P uplink for all

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager09.html

Flash Desktop problems:

Abode Flash 11.2.202.228 Flash HTML5 trial YouTube videosFx IE10 Win8CP

Microsoft Flash supported desktop Windows 8, but not Metro

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

install_flash_player_ax_64bit.exe (8.36 MB)from fpdownload.macromedia.com

x:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil64_11_2_202_228_ActiveX.exe 'Uninstalls

x:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil64_11_2_202_228_ActiveX.dll

x:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil64_11_2_202_228.ocx

x:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil32_11_2_202_228_ActiveX.exe 'errors

x:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe

Flash Metro: Microsoft not supporting Adobe Flash in Metro

GMail Desktop: new shortcut:

"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" https://www.gmail.com

Gadgets Desktop: right-click, click Gadgets, ...

Gadgets Desktop: All Cpu Meter

Gadgets Desktop: Calendar

Gadgets Desktop: Clock, right-click, Options,[/]Show second hand, Name=, 4 of 8 Neon

Gadgets Desktop: Control System

Gadgets Desktop: CPU Meter

Gadgets Desktop: Currency

Gadgets Desktop: Feed (see more below)

Gadgets Desktop: Drives Meter

Gadgets Desktop: GPU

Gadgets Desktop: Network

Gadgets Desktop: Pictures

Gadgets Desktop: Slide Show

Gadgets Desktop: Weather

Gadgets Desktop: Feed RSS, Options, 100,

Feed=Windows Forum - Answered Threads, Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Answers Desktop RSS Feed Gadget: IE, Favorites, Feeds,

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/feed/f/windows/windows_8

click "Subscribe to this filtered list" RSS red icon on right,

click "Subscribe to this feed"

Name: Answered Threads, Windows 8 Consumer Preview,

Create in: Feeds,

click [Subscribe],

"You've successfully subscribed to this feed"

View Feed Properties,

(*) Use default schedule 1 day: 15 minutes,

(*) Keep most recent items only Number: 100, OK

Add, Move, Size (Small, Larger), Always on top, Opacity 100%, Options, Close

Feeds 1-4, 5-8, 97-100, click black scroll down arrow,

Answers Desktop RSS Feed Gadget: Options, Display feed:

WindowsForum-AnsweredThreads,Windows8Consumer Preview

Answers Desktop RSS Feed Gadget: Options, Number to show: 100 headlines

Feed Gadget, Options,

Display feed: Windows Forum - Answered Threads, Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Games Metro: Store, Games, Pinball Fx2, Install; 3D moving creatures on playboard!

Games Metro: Store, Games, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Install; Speedboat, River

Games Metro: Store, Games, UltraViolet Dawn, Install; choose Fighter plane

Well worth playing if just for the excellent 3D graphics views.

Gestures Desktop Login: swipe picture upward to enter password,

Gestures Desktop Recent Apps: swipe upper left then scroll down and click to select

Gestures Desktop Start tiles: click lower left corner

Gestures Metro Start: Recent Apps swipe from upper left downward

Gestures Metro Start: Charms swipe right Search, Share, Start, Settings, Power

Gestures Metro Start, Apps open: start typing letters a...z Apps, click choice

Gestures Metro Start, Apps close: click top hand, swipe down to close or Alt+F4

Gestures depending on device are defined as...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465415.aspx#touch_language

Pinch and Stretch to zoom (Reader Ctrl + zoom in. - zoom out)

Press and hold to learn

Turn-to-Rotate

Slide-to-pan sideways (old click-n-drag)

Swipe to select command and move;

Charms swipe from right. Apps swipe from top or bottom

Tap for primary action

GMail ID may be used to create new MS Live ID to login Windows 8

GMail Desktop: new shortcut, https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox

GooglePlus Desktop: new shortcut, https://plus.google.com/?gpcaz=...#

Google Private Desktop: new shortcut, "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -private -extoff https://www.google.com

Google Private Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin toStart

Hibernate ON Desktop: new shortcut, powercfg.exe -h on, HibOn,

click shortcut to turn hibernation on, right-click, Pin to Taskbar

Hibernate ON Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Hibernate OFF Desktop: new shortcut, powercfg.exe -h off, HibOff,

click shortcut to turn hibernation off

Hibernate OFF Desktop: right click lower left desktop Start menu,

Cmd Admin, powercfg -h off, deletes hiberfil.sys

(Note requires Admin rights not included in normal CMD)

Hidden Metro: type hidden, Settings, [/] Show hidden files and folders. OK

HP Drivers FAILS, cannot use MSIE10 therefore cannot use JavaScript to Auto Detect

Can only manually download drivers

IE Desktop: new shortcut,

s"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", Pin to Taskbar

IE Metro: right-click, Pin to Start

IE Desktop, Favorites star icon, Feeds,

or Metro Search charm, I, right-click Internet Options, Pin to Start

IE, Delete Browsing History, FAILS to remove all cookies

Login Screen, Default User: swipe picture upwards, type user password

Accessible icon lower left, right-clickNarrator Magnifier OSK

Power icon off lower right, right-click choose Sleep Shutdown or Restart

Login Screen, Local User: left screen choose local username login

Local User, Password Remove: Metro, type password, Settings, Change, Make changes,

Change pswd, current pswd, next, blank, next, Finish

Metro Start username right-click: Change acct picture, Lock, Sign out

Magnifier Desktop: new shortcut, x:\windows\system32\magnify.exe, MAG, Finish, Pin to Taskbar

Magnifier Metgro:P right-click, Pin to Start

or Metro Search charm, Mag, right click Magnifier, Pin to Start

Mathematics 4.0 free Microsoft Desktop Download and Install:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15702 'Download Mathematics4.0

MSetup_x64.exe 18.9 MB, [DOWNLOAD] '64 bit

MSetup_x86.exe 17.6 MB , [DOWNLOAD] '32 bit

MASetup.exe for Word

Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w_4NB4HYUU

StepByStep http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/4/5/C45EB9D7-7685-4AFD-85B3-DC66F79277AB/microsoft_mathmatics_step-by-step_Guide.docx

Teachers

http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/F/0/DF087781-EDEF-45E1-9FAA-18FE7CD1E7E3/microsoft%20mathematics_teacherguide.pdf

Students http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=1030

Network: new Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Network, Pin to Start

Notepad Desktop: new shortcut, x:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

Notepad Desktop: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Office10 ClickToRun FAILS not compatible

OSK, click Options key, [/] Text Prediction. [/]Insert Spaces after words, [/] Sound

OnScreenKeyboard OSK Desktop: new shortcut, x:\Windows\System32\osk.exe, Pin to Taskbar

OnScreenKeyboardn OSK Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

or OnScreenKeyboard OSK Metro: swipe right, Search charm, type osk, right click osk.exe displayed, Pin to Start

Paint Desktop: new shortcut, x:\Windows\System32\mspaint.exe, Pin to Taskbar

Paint Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Pictures in temporary Web Cache:

"x:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5"

PowerShell Desktop: new shortcut, %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe, Pin to Taskbar

PowerShell Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

PowerShell ISE Metro:

x:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Windows PowerShell ISE

PowerShell (x86) Metro:

x:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Windows PowerShell (x86)

PowerShell ISE (x86) Metro:

x:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Windows PowerShell ISE (x86)

Program Files (x86) Desktop: new shortcut, "x:\Program Files (x86)"

Program Files (x86) Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Reader PDF XPS document Metro: automatically already installed.

Metro click Reader, Browse, Go Up, Computer, (browse),

Metro click Search charm, Files, type PDF or XPS, click PDF or XPS found

Reader Metro Zoom In : Ctrl + , or Ctrl and scroll middle Mouse Wheel

Reader Metro Zoom Out: Ctrl - , or Ctrl and scroll middle Mouse Wheel

Regedit Desktop: new shortcut, x:\Windows\regedit.exe, right-click, Pin to Taskbar

Regedit Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start Metro

Restart: new Shortcut, powercfg.exe -r on, right-click, Pin to Metro Start or Taskbar

Skydrive, Public ! allows sharing ID of uploaded pictures within e-mails to friends.

Skydrive Desktop, new shortcut, https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=...

Skydrive Metro, right click, Pin to Metro Start or Desktop Taskbar

Login Internet Skydrive, Add Pictures, Copy to, Public,

Right-click picture, View Original, Copy Shortcut, paste into e-mail

example: https://public.sn2.livefilestore.com/...(long hex secur id number)...

Sticky Notes Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\StikyNot.exe, Pin to Taskbar

Sticky Notes Metro: right click shortcut, Pin to Start Metro

SnippingTool Desktop: new shortcut,

%windir%\system32\SnippingTool.exe, Pin to Taskbar

SnippingTool Metro: right-click shortcut,

%windir%\system32\SnippingTool.exe, Pin to Start Metro

SnippingTool Metro: right-click Metro tile, Open File Location,

Properties, ShortcutKey=CtrlAltS, pulldown 'Full-Screen snip',

'Rectangle' upleft drag to lowright, 'Window', 'FreeForm',

File, Save As, Capture, over type filename, Save, Close

System Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\control.exe system, Pin to Taskbar

System Metro: right click shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\control.exe system, Pin to Start

System Configuration Desktop: General Boot [timeout=10 seconds] Services Startup Tools

new shortcut,

x:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\System Configuration,

Pin to Taskbar

System Configuration Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

or System Configuration Metro: swipe right, Search charm, type sys,

right-click System Configuration, Pin to Start

System Information Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\msinfo32.exe, Pin to Taskbar

System Information Metro: right-click, Pin to Start

or System Information Metro: swipe right, Search charm, sys,

right-click System Information, Pin to Start

Task Manager Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe /7, Pin to Taskbar

Task Manager Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

or Task Manager Metro: Search charm, tas, right-click Task Manager, Pin to Start

Task Scheduler Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Task Scheduler, Pin to Taskbar

Task Scheduler Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

or Task Scheduler Metro: swipe right, Search charm, type tas, right-click Task Scheduler, Pin to Start

Toasts Notifications: app pop-up lower right screen, touch or click launches app

TroubleShooting Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\control.exe /name Microsoft.Troubleshooting

TroubleShooting metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

USB Safely Remove Desktop: new shortcut,

%windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

USB Safely Remove Metro: right-click, Pin to Start

User Accounts Desktop: new shortcut,

Control Panel\ All Control Panel Items\Users Accounts

User Accounts Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

User Accounts Control Settings Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\System32\UserAccountControlSettings.exe

User Accounts Control Settings Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

Windows Boot Manager: Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows 7, Ubuntu

Dual Boot configuration http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD, set Win7 or Win8 first

Windows Reader Metro: Search charm, rea, right click Windows Reader, Pin to Start

Wireless Desktop: new shortcut,

x:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{1fa9085f-25a2-489b-85d4-86326eedcd87}

Wireless Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start Metro

Wordpad Desktop: new shorcut,

x:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\Wordpad.exe, Pin to Taskbar

Wordpad Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

or Wordpad Metro: swipe right, Search charm, word, right-click Wordpad, Pin to Start

Write Desktop: new shortcut, x:\Windows\System32\write.exe, Pin to Taskbar

Write Metro: right-click shortcut, Pin to Start

http://microsoft-news.com/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-8/

+Spacebar language keyboard

+C Charms

+D Desktop

+E Windows Explorer

+F Search panel

+H Share charm

+I Settings charm

+K Connect charm

+L Lock computer

+O Lock screen rotation

+Q Search

+R Run

+V Cycle thru toasts

+W Settings search panel

+Y Peek desktop

+Z app bar

+Shift+V Reverse cycle thru toasts

+Enter Narrator

+PgUp Move tiles left

+PgDn Move tiles right

+Shift+. Move split left

+. Move split right

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 review our recent e-books, please visit ComputorEdge E-Books.

Windows XP Is Still Here!

“Windows XP Is Going Will Be Around for a While Longer”
by Jack Dunning

The fact that so many Windows XP users completely skipped Windows Vista (and now Windows 7) has completely changed the way people look at operating systems. At Microsoft it can no longer be business as usual.

This letter from Gary Weinstein of Groveland, CA appeared in last week's issue of ComputorEdge:

I realize that you need to address Windows 7 and 8, however you must also realize many of us retain XP as our operating systems. I'd like to suggest more articles/discussions on XP. ComputorEdge is becoming less relevant to those of us using XP, and it's not going away.

Gary is absolutely right that Windows XP is not going away anytime soon. There are millions of Windows XP users and they are not rapidly abandoning their operating systems. While there is a slow, but steady decline in Windows XP machines as a percentage of installations, they still represent about half of the Windows computers out there.

According to NetMarketShare, as of March 2012 Windows XP was about 50% of the installed Windows users, whereas Windows 7 had grown to 40%. One year ago, the numbers were 60% and 28% respectively. However, the usage of Windows XP browsers (a measure of Windows XP computers actually being actively used) is dropping faster than the number of computers with XP installed. As of March 2012 Windows XP was 35% of the Windows users browsing on the Web, whereas Windows 7 had grown to 60%. The year before, the numbers were 50% XP and 45% Windows 7. This can be explained by people either shifting to another computer system or possibly a tablet for Web browsing, rather than their working Windows XP computer. In either case, while remaining a major force in the computer market (and will continue as such for a number of years), Window XP is in an inevitable decline. However, Windows XP has changed the operating system market forever.

One thing that Microsoft has hopefully learned from Windows XP users and the Vista fiasco is that it cannot dictate the trends in computing. If they introduce a new product that's unwanted, then people will simply refuse to upgrade. There is no way for Microsoft to force the market to change. Windows XP users are the people who established this new paradigm. If Microsoft wants to lure users to a new operating system (Windows 8?), then they will need to roll-out a product that is truly an improvement. Even then, they won't be able to cram it down anyone's throat and no amount of advertising will fool computer users.

I would like to assure Gary that I am well aware of the many Windows XP users who read ComputorEdge. Over the years I've always tried to reference how things worked in Windows XP even though the column or article was about Windows 7 or Vista. The reality is that with the exception of some cosmetic changes and a few new features in the later versions, Windows XP works pretty much the save way as the other versions. Many of the tips I've given work just as well in XP as in the other versions. However, I must admit that I am unlikely to start writing a column dedicated to Windows XP.

Even Digital Dave acknowledges that he gets fewer and fewer questions specifically involving Windows XP. Most either apply to any computer systems or are about Windows 7.

While I continue to use a server which runs Windows XP, my primary access to XP testing is by running the Windows XP Mode in Windows Virtual PC on a Windows 7 computer. I use these machines (the virtual machine and the XP server) to test techniques in different versions of Windows, but anything I'm likely to write will targeted the newer versions of Windows—now including Windows 8. What can be done in Windows XP, can be done in Windows 7—and more—although the techniques may vary.

Ultimately, most Windows XP users will make a switch to another type of computer—although it will take a few years. While it might be a Windows computer, it may also be a Mac or a tablet. Eventually, the hardware will breakdown and the decision to change will be forced. (Twenty years from now there will still be people running Windows XP—and bragging about it.) In the meantime, anyone who would like to submit Windows XP tips and tricks is welcome. I would be happy to publish them in ComputorEdge.

For Windows XP users who are considering a switch, I've written the e-book Sticking with Windows XP...or Not? Why You Should or Why You Should Not Upgrade to Windows 7. I've just added a new chapter "Maybe Wait for Windows 8?" For the next two days (today, Friday, and tomorrow, Saturday), the e-book will be free exclusively at Amazon. I hope that most of the Windows XP ComputorEdge readers will get a chance to get a copy. Amazon has free Kindle software which will run on your Windows XP computer.

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:

Just released and available from Amazon, Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8! Also available at Barnes and Noble and ComputorEdge E-Books.

Available exclusively from Amazon, Getting Started with Windows 7:

An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Using Windows 7,

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? Why You Should or Why You Should Not Upgrade to Windows 7,

and That Does Not Compute!, brilliantly drawn cartoons by Jim Whiting for really stupid gags by Jack about computers and the people who use them.

Now available, the four book Windows 7 Secrets Essential Bundle (includes the primary tools or Windows 7, the Desktop, Start Menu, Windows Explorer and Taskbar (e-books listed individually below):

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

Windows 7 Secrets Essential Bundle (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

Or individually:

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

Windows 7 Desktop Secrets (MOBI for Amazon Kindle)

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)

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

“Free Stuff”
by Wally Wang

Free Stuff; Free College Courses; Soon-to-be Obsolete Items; The Mystery of .DAE Files; Apple in the Enterprise; On the Back of a Napkin; SMARTReporter.

One problem with operating systems is that there's often little reason to upgrade to the latest version. Windows 7 still mostly competes against Windows XP simply because using Word or Excel makes no difference whether you're using Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. Given few must-have features in Windows 7, there's little incentive for anyone to give up Windows XP.

To avoid this problem in the Macintosh world, Apple is now offering a free DVD containing Mac OS X 10.7 Snow Leopard. This free offer mostly targets people still using MobileMe with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on an Intel-based Macintosh (since Snow Leopard and Lion won't run on older PowerPC Macintosh computers). Apple hopes that enough people will migrate away from Leopard to Snow Leopard and then make the relatively minor $29 move to upgrade to Lion and take advantage of iCloud.

Of course, if your Macintosh runs just fine with its current operating system, you may have no reason to upgrade to a newer operating system version. In many cases, it's often easier just to upgrade to a new operating system when you buy a new computer. Otherwise when you upgrade to a new operating system version, you risk fouling up your existing computer programs and files that may not be compatible with this new version.

With Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion due for release late this summer, you might as well save up your money to buy a new Macintosh with Mountain Lion already installed. Then just transfer your programs and files from your old Macintosh to your new one using an external hard disk and Time Machine, or a special cable that hooks up between two Macintosh computers.

Most people don't really care about which version of an operating system they use anyway, just as long as it works. If you fit into that category, just keep using your current Macintosh and its operating system as long as it works for you. Then when you can see a clear advantage to using a new operating system version, make the upgrade or get a new computer.

Free College Courses

Although it's a myth that a college degree automatically qualifies you for a higher paying job (or any job, for that matter), a college education can still help open your eyes to information that you may never have seen before, which can help you think and learn something new. Rather than go to college and pay an enormous amount for tuition, you can save money by just getting a free college education through courses provided by Coursera, which offers courses from Stanford, the University of Michigan, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Figure 1. Coursera offers free college courses from several notable universities.

Although you won't get college credit for taking any of these courses online, you can still learn something that can help your career or your hobby. With free access to college courses, you can learn at your own pace from the convenience of home. As long as you're willing to put in the time, you can get a college education. In many cases, someone who diligently learns on their own will likely be more motivated than someone who just gets through college by partying most of the time and still managing to graduate.

Combine Coursera with iTunes University and you can literally take all the major college courses for a particular degree. After taking so many free courses online, you could easily pass classes anywhere because you'll have studied that same material on your own. If you think that the lack of education is holding you back, you no longer have any excuses. Get online and get busy studying and learning. Your future career and happiness may depend on it.

Soon-to-be Obsolete Items

If you want to see the future, look at what the next generation is using. According to Yahoo!, this Facebook generation has dumped several items that today's older generation often still thinks is vitally important.

First is e-mail. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, says that "E-mail is too slow...e-mail is too formal." While the older generation embraces e-mail, the younger generation is embracing Facebook messaging.

Not surprisingly, other items on the Facebook generation's extinction list include landline telephones, televisions, newspapers and desktop computers. Mobile phones are making landline phones obsolete while tablets and mobile laptops combined with the Internet are making newspapers, televisions and desktop computers obsolete.

The Windows crowd often crows about their ability to build their own computers, but they can only build desktop computers, the exact type of computer that's losing popularity. Today's younger generation prefers small, light and mobile devices. Rather than build them in their basement or garage, the younger generation is content to just buy and use them in much the same way that people no longer have to build their own cars but prefer to buy and drive them without ever tinkering or customizing the hardware inside.

Perhaps even stranger is that the Facebook generation is also turning away from cigarettes, beer and cars. Oddly, older people are actually increasing cigarette smoking, which goes to show you that the wisdom of elders can often be a fantasy.

The trend is clear. Instead of being tied down by technology through landline phones, television sets with shows that only appear according to a rigid schedule, newspapers that print yesterday's information, or computers that can only be used in a fixed location, tomorrow's generation prefers mobility with content they can access at their convenience. That's why smartphones (such as the iPhone), tablets (such as the iPad), and ultrabooks (such as the MacBook Air) represent the future.

Just as people can use a microwave oven or a car without thinking about tinkering with it endlessly just to make it work, so do more people want a computer that just works without endless tinkering. If you're the type who prefers constantly modifying and maintaining a computer, you're in the fading minority whether you like it or not. In the meantime, the rest of the world is rapidly moving towards computers that get the job done and get out of your way just like an ordinary kitchen appliance that doesn't require hours of training or thick user manuals to read before you can start using them.

The Mystery of .DAE Files

You can spot the future by just keeping your eyes open and not trying to distort reality to conform to your beliefs (which is why so many people refuse to acknowledge current trends that point to the future). The latest curiosity are COLLADA .DAE files that represent a standard for storing 3D objects.

The first clue appeared when Apple introduced their free iBooks Author program that could display COLLADA. DAE files in three-dimensions, such as a molecule that readers could spin around and rotate to view from different angles.

The second clue now appears in the latest beta version of Apple's Xcode compiler for creating Macintosh and iOS programs. Xcode is basically an Objective-C compiler but also includes a program for visually building user interfaces. Now the latest version of Xcode includes an editor for viewing and editing COLLADA. DAE files. Apple's own Preview program can open and rotate COLLADA .DAE files as well. To test out this feature, download a 3D image from Google's 3D Warehouse.

Why is Apple suddenly supporting COLLADA .DAE files when there doesn't seem to be an obvious use for them beyond specialized computer-aided design (CAD) applications? Only Apple knows, of course, but perhaps one reason might be the growing popularity of 3D printing, which could possibly use COLLADA .DAE files.

Jay Leno uses a 3D printer to create custom parts for his collection of antique automobiles. By simply scanning a part that he needs, he can store that image in a file (such as a COLLADA .DAE file) and then print the part he needs from a 3D printer. With the part scanned and stored in his computer, Jay Leno can reproduce an endless supply of identical parts from now on.

The Economist magazine explains that old technology is considered subtractive, which means you take a chunk of material such as wood or metal, then carve out the item you want, thereby stripping away (and wasting) much of the material. On the other hand, 3D printing is additive because the printer creates items a layer at a time with no waste whatsoever.

Biologists are even experimenting with 3D printers to create living organs such as kidneys or livers. While this may be farther off in the future, all types of 3D objects can be stored in a universal file format, and that's where COLLADA .DAE files come in.

By building support for COLLADA .DAE files in Preview, iBooks Author, and Xcode, Apple could be laying the foundation for supporting 3D printing in the future. Just as Apple jump-started desktop publishing by introducing their own laser printer, they could one day offer their own 3D printers that work with Macintosh computers. By providing tools for editing COLLADA. DAE files in Xcode along with displaying COLLADA .DAE files in iBooks created with iBooks Author, Apple could be preparing for a future where 3D printers are commonplace. In the meantime, their competitors will still be trying to make a tablet that can compete against the iPad.

The technology behind 3D printers will only get better and more affordable with each passing day. 3D printing is coming and will change the way the world works, so you can either accept these changes or deny them, but they're coming whether you bury your head in the sand or not.

Apple in the Enterprise

Although Apple focuses primarily on the consumer market, they recently posted two Web pages that highlight the iPhone and iPad as a business tool. By browsing through these Web pages, you can see what features the iPad and iPhone offer.

Figure 2. Apple is now officially promoting the iPad in business.

Ask many business executives what type of smartphone their company gave them and if they act apologetic and sheepish, chances are good they're stuck using Blackberry phones. Just five years ago, carrying around a Blackberry was a status symbol. Nowadays being seen using a Blackberry is often a sign that you're behind the times and your company is antiquated, much like walking into an office where people still use manual typewriters and carbon paper.

Go to an office meeting and give a presentation on an iPad and you'll look modern and competent. Walk into that same meeting with a clunky Windows laptop and you won't embarrass yourself, but you certainly won't get any credit for using a Windows PC either.

The iPad can basically meet the majority of people's needs in the same way that early personal computers met the needs of most people, despite the fact that mainframe computer users derided PCs as nothing more than "toys." Not surprisingly, many people today still deride the iPad as nothing more than a "toy," while remaining completely oblivious that the PC was once considered just as useless by others.

With the iPhone taking over the smartphone business market and the iPad taking over the mobile business market, there's little room left for standard desktop PCs any more. Even the thought of lugging around a bulky laptop is too much for many business travelers who will choose to carry the much lighter iPad or go with an ultrabook model such as the MacBook Air.

As more Apple products inch their way into the enterprise, there will be less of a need for today's traditional desktop or laptop Windows PCs. Although Microsoft reported greater earnings from their corporate customers, they also reported a drop in sales of their consumer products like the Xbox and Windows Phone 7 operating system. If corporate customers break their cycle of buying new Windows PCs every few years, Microsoft's future will be at stake.

At least Microsoft's future is still rosier than Research in Motion, which recently hired lawyers to help it outline future plans that could involve selling patents to selling parts of the company. While Research in Motion struggles in both the consumer and corporate market, people are cheerfully lining up to buy the latest iPhone and iPad instead of the latest Blackberry smartphone or Playbook tablet. Perhaps Research in Motion's Playbook advertising campaign that boasted "Amateur Hour is Over" should be applied to their own company's future.

Ironically, the Denver Broncos are now using iPads to replace their paper playbooks. Only the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also use iPads instead of traditional paper playbooks, so for the upcoming season we can see if these three teams seem to be more efficient in winning games.

The Broncos figure the savings from not having to print tens of thousands of playbook pages each season will offset the cost of purchasing 120 iPads with Verizon Wireless 4G access. To create their digital playbook, The Denver Broncos partnered with Parker-based technology start-up PlayerLync.

The PlayerLync app allows players and coaches to write notes and highlight plays using the iPad's touchscreen. "It used to require players to come in, meet as a group, hand off pieces of paper, 'Here's your new play,' " said Bob Paulsen, PlayerLync chief executive. "Now it's all going to be automatically downloaded."

In the past, if a team lost their paper playbook, their information could fall in the wrong hands. If someone loses an iPad, the team can remotely wipe the iPad clean. If the iPad's network connection gets disabled, the app includes a "time bomb" feature that will automatically delete the playbook information after a fixed period of time.

With the iPad being lighter, easier to update, and difficult to steal its information, the iPad offers huge benefits over printed copies. Paper is simply too expensive and inflexible and this trend will only continue. The iPad and digital distribution of information is the future. The Denver Broncos know this. Now we just have to see how long it takes for the rest of the NFL and the world to catch up.

On the Back of a Napkin

Many people think that better technology will automatically produce better results, but that's like taking someone who can't drive, giving them a Rolls Royce, and hoping that they'll suddenly become a better driver. No matter how fancy or expensive your technology may be, they'll only be as good as the person using it.

While many people wrestle with the complexity of creating presentations using PowerPoint or Keynote, they often mistake fancy presentation for clarity and information. It doesn't matter how pretty a PowerPoint presentation may look if it doesn't tell you anything useful.

Basically, business is about problem-solving and every presentation is only as interesting as the problems they identify and solve. Rather than focus on creating a fancy presentation, first focus on identifying the information you want to present that will be useful and interesting to your audience. Start by reading The Back of a Napkin by Dan Roam. As the book's title implies, the goal is to create simple presentations that you can draw on the back of a napkin. If you can do that, then you'll have no trouble creating that presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote.

Figure 3. Identify the problem you want to solve.

The main idea is to first identify the types of problems you want to solve such as who, what, when, where and how. Once you know what type of problem your presentation will solve, then you use simple drawing tools to create your presentation. Just use ordinary geometric shapes like rectangles and circles along with lines and arrows to create a simple drawing that visually lets an audience understand a problem and your proposed solution.

By learning to think visually, you can communicate far easier and faster. Once people know what problem you're trying to solve, then they'll be more interested in seeing how you propose to solve that particular problem. If your presentation doesn't clarify this problem right from the start, an audience simply won't have any reason to watch your presentation.

Whether you use PowerPoint or an ordinary whiteboard, your presentation tool is far less important than the information in your presentation itself. Once more people understand this, they can dump their pretty PowerPoint presentations that say nothing of importance and spare us all another boring presentation that wastes time and accomplishes nothing.

*                    *                    *

Almost all new hard disks include a feature called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), which can warn of impending hard disk problems before they occur. Of course, this information is useless if you don't know how to read it. To help you identify possible hard disk problems through S.M.A.R.T., you can buy a $4.99 program like SMARTReporter 3.0 or just download the free and open source version 2.7 of SMARTReporter instead. When SMARTReporter warns you of possible problems, back up everything important off your hard drive and then take steps to fix the problem or get a replacement hard disk.

Figure 4. SMARTReporter can alert you before your hard disk has problems.

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.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

“The latest in tech news and hot product reviews.”
by Charles Carr

Are You Addicted?; Top Productivity Apps for the Overwhelmed; Chips as Mini Internets; Samsung/AT&T 8.9" Galaxy Tab—a Tablet from on High; Control Your Earphones' Cables.

Are You Addicted?

Glenn Mandel of Escalate Communications writes in this week:

SodaHead.com, an opinion-based online social community, asked its users if they thought they were addicted to the Internet and 61% of respondents said "yes." However, 39% said they could quit if they wanted.

When the numbers are broken down by gender, 64% of women admitted to an Internet addiction, compared to 55% of men. Internet addiction was present in every age group, however the younger voters were more likely to be hooked (73% of those between 13-17 and 71% of those between 18-24). The numbers decreased for older respondents with only 39% of those between 55-65 admitting to the addiction.

View full results of the poll, including detailed demographic information.

Top Productivity Apps for the Overwhelmed

App developer and president of Rocket Apps, Jason Kirshner, recently penned this list of top productivity apps (mostly for iOS) that can help the chronically overwhelmed:

There are several lists about productivity apps that mostly relate to productivity in the workplace, but what about suggestions for people who are overwhelmed and need some help with everyday life. Below are a few suggestions for apps that help manage the routine day-to-day:

Future-Text.com (iOS, $1.99) is a tool that allows users to prewrite a text to be sent in the future. This app goes beyond just a reminder but becomes a valuable tool when you want to schedule things in advance. For example, at the start of the month you can create all of your birthday wishes ahead of time with personal messages. The app does require a push notification to send and cancel at the set time due to developer restrictions, but it is also a good reminder that the text was sent and now off your plate. This can be used for work texts as reminders, thank you follow-ups and for keeping in touch with kids, friends, parents, etc.

PDF Maps (iOS, free) allows users to access maps from iTunes just like they do music and books. These maps can be used without a live network connection so you are never lost even when out of range. The technology allows travelers to view and measure real world locations and attributes. Paired together with mobile devices that utilize GPS, such as an iPhone or iPad, the PDF Maps app provides constant access to geographic locations and even points of interest without the risk of losing reception due to cell tower proximity—making it the ultimate traveling accessory for those that travel for business domestically or internationally. The app works in areas where Internet bandwidth is not available or is cost-prohibitive when roaming internationally. PDF Maps app also allows you to track users vacation points with pictures and descriptions so that the map can be shared with others who might be visiting the area.

Financier Lite (iOS, free) is a good addition to any checking and savings account. It keeps tabs on expenses and accesses current account balances in one convenient place. This saves time because users record all deposits and withdrawals in one organized spot, from unlimited accounts.

Flight Track Pro (iOS, Android, $9.99) is an essential app for tracking arrival and departure flight information, it has been more accurate than any other source and gives information in real-time often before that same information is provided by the flight crew. This is a real time saver and allows users to feel confident that they have the most up-to-date flight information while traveling, for fun or business.

Word Lens (iOS, free) instantly translates printed words from one language to another using your smartphone camera. While traveling internationally, you can take a picture of a sign and have it translated into English. This is helpful when traveling abroad and is faster than searching for a word in a translation dictionary.

Chips as Mini Internets

Larry Hardesty of the MIT News Office writes in this week with information about how data-routing techniques undergirding the Internet could increase the efficiency of multicore chips while lowering their power requirements:

Computer chips have stopped getting faster. In order to keep increasing chips' computational power at the rate to which we've grown accustomed, chipmakers are instead giving them additional cores, or processing units.

Today, a typical chip might have six or eight cores, all communicating with each other over a single bundle of wires, called a bus. With a bus, however, only one pair of cores can talk at a time, which would be a serious limitation in chips with hundreds or even thousands of cores, which many electrical engineers envision as the future of computing.

Li-Shiuan Peh, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, wants cores to communicate the same way computers hooked to the Internet do: by bundling the information they transmit into packets. Each core would have its own router, which could send a packet down any of several paths, depending on the condition of the network as a whole.

At the Design Automation Conference in June, Peh and her colleagues will present a paper she describes as "summarizing 10 years of research" on such "networks on chip." Not only do the researchers establish theoretical limits on the efficiency of packet-switched on-chip communication networks, but they also present measurements performed on a test chip in which they came very close to reaching several of those limits.

Last Stop for Buses

In principle, multicore chips are faster than single-core chips because they can split up computational tasks and run them on several cores at once. Cores working on the same task will occasionally need to share data, but until recently, the core count on commercial chips has been low enough that a single bus has been able to handle the extra communication load. That's already changing, however: "Buses have hit a limit," Peh says. "They typically scale to about eight cores." The 10-core chips found in high-end servers frequently add a second bus, but that approach won't work for chips with hundreds of cores.

For one thing, Peh says, "buses take up a lot of power, because they are trying to drive long wires to eight or 10 cores at the same time." In the type of network Peh is proposing, on the other hand, each core communicates only with the four cores nearest it. "Here, you're driving short segments of wires, so that allows you to go lower in voltage," she explains.

In an on-chip network, however, a packet of data traveling from one core to another has to stop at every router in between. Moreover, if two packets arrive at a router at the same time, one of them has to be stored in memory while the router handles the other. Many engineers, Peh says, worry that these added requirements will introduce enough delays and computational complexity to offset the advantages of packet switching. "The biggest problem, I think, is that in industry right now, people don't know how to build these networks, because it has been buses for decades," Peh says.

Forward Thinking

Peh and her colleagues have developed two techniques to address these concerns. One is something they call "virtual bypassing." In the Internet, when a packet arrives at a router, the router inspects its addressing information before deciding which path to send it down. With virtual bypassing, however, each router sends an advance signal to the next, so that it can preset its switch, speeding the packet on with no additional computation. In her group's test chips, Peh says, virtual bypassing allowed a very close approach to the maximum data-transmission rates predicted by theoretical analysis.

The other technique is something called low-swing signaling. Digital data consists of ones and zeroes, which are transmitted over communications channels as high and low voltages. Sunghyun Park, a PhD student advised by both Peh and Anantha Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, developed a circuit that reduces the swing between the high and low voltages from one volt to 300 millivolts. With its combination of virtual bypassing and low-swing signaling, the researchers' test chip consumed 38 percent less energy than previous packet-switched test chips. The researchers have more work to do, Peh says, before their test chip's power consumption gets as close to the theoretical limit as its data transmission rate does. But, she adds, "if we compare it against a bus, we get orders-of-magnitude savings."

Samsung/AT&T 8.9" Galaxy Tab—a Tablet from on High

OK, that biblical reference might be just a tad over the top, but Samsung's 8.9" Galaxy Tab (GT-P7310MVGR) really is one heavenly tech toy.

I first realized the Tab was something pretty special when an international student studying at a local San Diego college was visiting my home a few weeks ago. He took one look at the tablet, picked it up and, within about two minutes (and with my permission) was video-chatting via Skype to his parents back home in Spain. He then proceeded to the nearest AT&T Wireless store and bought one that very afternoon.

The Galaxy Tab sells for $629 from AT&T Wireless (who provided our test unit) with a minimum $14.99/month data plan charged month-to-month. Make a two year commitment to a $35/mo. service plan and the price drops to $479 (and, like all wireless carriers, going crazy nuts from there).

The unit comes with 16GB storage, 1GB RAM, Android Honeycomb 3.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 4G LTE and HSPA+, 1.5 GHz Snapdragon dual-core processor, a gorgeous WXGA TFT display at 1280 x 800 resolution with 16 million colors, tabbed browsing with support for HTML 5 and Adobe Flash Player, 2 MP front-facing and 3.2 MP rear-facing cameras, Bluetooth v3.0, a USB 2.0 port, up to nine hour battery life, built-in speaker and microphone, and lots more

I've mentioned before that I prefer a 7" tablet form factor, but the 8.9" model feels just about as good to me. You can stick a 7" tablet (like the Nook, Kindle Fire, or 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab) into a cargo pants or inside sports coat pocket. You can't do that with the 8.9", so that's just something you get used to. It feels essentially the same size as the 9.7" market leader (and also amazing) Apple iPad.

Control Your Earphones' Cables

Earphones' cables can become the bane of a mobile user's music listening existence. They are prone to getting all tangled up into a massive gnarly mess that consumes a chunk of time which instead could be spent enjoying tunes. If your earphones impact you like this, one possible solution is Innovelis' elegant CordFits accessory.

CordFits come in a small (4.5" X 7") and lightweight (1 oz. total) plastic package that opens easily with your fingers rather than requiring industrial-strength scissors to rip apart (Figure 1). The package includes the CordFits, two pairs of cover caps (one clear, the other black), and a cardboard liner with clearly illustrated and simple English-only instructions on the back.

This accessory consists of two rounded, potentially durable plastic pieces roughly 1" X 1" and together weighing about 0.25 oz. Each plastic piece has channels that accommodate earphones' cables (Figure 2). After snaking the cables through these channels, simply snap the caps on top of the plastic pieces and the CordFits are ready to rock 'n roll.

Figure 1. CordFits come in a a user-friendly plastic package (A) that opens easily and includes a pair of plastic pieces with channels, two pairs of cover caps (one clear, the other black), and a cardboard insert. After snaking your earphones' cables through this accessory, they become infinitely more manageable (B)…as long as they don't have a remote control or sizable splitter.

This product couldn't be easier to use—simply hold and pull the two pieces apart from each other, and the cables become shortened because they now occupy three lengths rather than a single one (Figure 1B, top two pictures). Alternatively, pull the cables so that the two pieces become juxtaposed (Figure 1B, third picture down) and/or wrap the cables around the CordFits while not in use (Figure 1B bottom picture). Handy!

Figure 2. The CordFits' instructions on the cardboard insert include the above illustrations that clearly show how to snake earphones' cables through the two plastic pieces' channels and then snap on the caps. Easy.

CordFits are nearly perfect for users of Apple's standard earbuds included with iDevices, or for users of third-party earphones that do not come with a sizable splitter or a plastic piece embedded in the cables for remotely controlling a mobile device's volume and pause/play. Innovelis charges $12.99 for this product.

For users of earphones that do come with a sizable splitter and/or a remote control, CordFits could be less than perfect. The issue is shown in Figure 3; because the remote control and splitter can only loosely be wrapped around the CordFits, the earphones' cables easily can fall off and become tangled up into a massive gnarly mess while in transit or storage. Then you're back to spending time straightening out the cables instead of listening to music, thereby defeating the whole purpose. An alternative is to pull the CordFits' two pieces apart (Figure 3B); this minimizes gnarly tangling below the splitter or remote, but not above.

Figure 3. Earphones equipped with a sizable splitter and/or remote control pose a challenge for CordFits users—it's possible to loosely wrap the cables above the splitter or remote around this accessory (A), but they are likely to fall off and became tangled. An alternative is to pull CordFits' two pieces apart, but this also is untidy (B).

In summary, CordFits are an elegant, low-cost solution for users of Apple's standard earbuds or third-party counterparts without an embedded remote control or sizable splitter who want to keep the cables from getting all tangled up. Users of earphones with an embedded remote and/or splitter also can benefit from CordFits, but to a lesser degree.

Reviewed by Barry Fass-Holmes

In addition to being an editor and columnist for ComputorEdge and ComputerScene Magazines, where he has written hundreds of feature articles and cover stories over the past decade, Charles Carr has also penned well over 1,000 non-tech newspaper and magazine articles and columns for various publications, including two widely-read columns each week for San Diego's North County Times newspaper.

Carr has covered such diverse topics as pesticide use in area schools, invasive background checks for county volunteers, asthma awareness, the debate over standards-based grading, potential vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, and Southern California's devastating 2003 and 2007 wildfires. He has also written many humorous pieces.

Carr has also edited dozens of stories and articles written by others which have appeared in major publications and web sites across the country.

He has been a contributor and technical advisor to L.A. and San Diego Parent magazines and receives dozens of requests a year to appear on Southern California television and radio stations to talk about important events in the tech world.

Carr has judged many writing competitions including San Diego Press Club and Time-Warner Communications contests and was sole judge for the national NAPPA Tech Toys awards for five years (which his kids really appreciated). He was recently a judge for the national "Poetry Out Loud" competition.

He has won many writing accolades, including Press Club awards for Best Column Writing, Consumer Writing and Best Arts and Entertainment, and has repeatedly taken top honors in San Diego Songwriter's Guild competitions for his original musical compositions.

Carr will soon publish his first book, What a World, a collection of his best writings.

Learn more at www.charlescarr.com.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

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

Facebook and an IQ Test Rating?; USB Flash Drive FAQ (Blast from the Past); Windows Live Mail.

Facebook and an IQ Test Rating?

[Regarding Marilyn K. Martin's April 13 article, "More Little Known High Tech Stories":]

What about the top IQ person (I'm a genius with a score of 153 on the latest after my strokes) who doesn't use Facebook and keeps a minimum account there?

I don't waste my time on social (engineering and malware targeted) sites. When Facebook first appeared, I created a minimum account just to see what the fuss was about. Facebook quickly devolved (yes, I'm a DEVO fan) into the mess of problems you see today.

The only social site(s) I keep are job related, and they only contact me for job related issues. Yes, even in this Recession/Depression, I still get real job offers because of my skill sets...

-Art, Evergreen, CO

Thanks for your comments, Art. And I'm glad to hear you are recovering from your stroke. I think the article was aimed at younger employees, perhaps just out of college, who are Facebook veterans with little or no work history. But for older employees like you, with a solid track record and demonstrated skills, I doubt either a Facebook account or IQ test would be referenced by prospective employers.

-Marilyn K. Martin, Texas

USB Flash Drive FAQ (Blast from the Past)

[Regarding Pete Choppin's October 8, 2010 article, "USB Flash Drive FAQ":]

Good stuff I needed to know.

-Don Bishop, Lakewood, Colorado

Windows Live Mail

[Regarding the April 6 Digital Dave column:]

Read and love your weekly column. The one regarding the person who used Carbonite to back up his contacts was very lacking. I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to get across regarding the use of having a Windows Live Mail online account? The rest is sadly lacking.

I just exported my contacts to make sure that I was following your directions. While it exports to the folder that you specify it: 1) Eliminates all e-mail addresses except for the personal e-mail; 2) Drops parts of home address fields, and many more subtitle items. Yes, a system image is OK, however, I manage my own system images on a monthly basis, not every time I make a contact change. Why MS continues to screw this simple thing up is beyond me, however, I'd like to find a foolproof method of e-mail and contact info.

-Don Piller, Escondido, CA

I guess I wasn't very clear. My Windows Live online account keeps my Contacts (Address Book) up to date in the Cloud. If I have a drive crash or install Windows Live Mail on a new computer, my Contact list is automatically loaded into the new installation when I log into Windows Live.

-Digital Dave

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