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ComputorEdge™ Online — 05/04/12

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Jack's Favorite Free Windows Paint Program

On the low-end there is Windows Paint. On the high-end there is the paid program Adobe Photoshop. Paint.NET is excellent intermediate level free image editing software.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Kindle Fire or iPad?; Problem Connecting to the Net; Windows XP Paging File Monitor.

My Favorite Free Windows Paint Program

by Jack Dunning

Paint.NET Is Easy, Flexible, and Free!

Windows Paint is great for quick and dirty jobs, but if you want to do a lot more, try Paint.NET.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

Another Routine Increase in Profit and Sales

Another Routine Increase in Profit and Sales; Paper vs. Digital; Organizing and Editing Photos; San Diego School District Switches from Netbooks to the iPad; Lessons from Walt Disney; Space on your Hard Disk.

Beyond Personal Computing

by Marilyn K. Martin

Chat Rooms: Leisure, Laughs, Loopy-Logic and Lies

Amusing anecdotes about Internet chat rooms.

ComputorQuick Reviews

by ComputorEdge Staff

A Strange Encounter with Gateway and Best Buy

Sometimes you don't get what you pay for, but don't expect anyone to take responsibility.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

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

"Linux Assumption," "OS X Malware," "XP Letters to Editor," "E-Books Encourage Reading"

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Digital Dave

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

Kindle Fire or iPad?; Problem Connecting to the Net; Windows XP Paging File Monitor.

Kindle Fire or iPad?

Dear Digital Dave,

I've been thinking about getting a tablet computer for casual browsing and reading. I'm looking at the iPad ($499), but it's kind of expensive compared to the Kindle Fire ($199). Which one would you recommend?

Jim Smith

San Diego, CA

Dear Jim,

I've had the opportunity to use both the iPad and the Kindle Fire, so I can give an opinion comparing the two. As usual, which is best for you will depend upon how you plan to use it.

First, the lowest price new iPad is $499 at Apple, but you can get older model iPads for considerably less. Whether you would want to do that would depend upon whether you want a camera (iPad 2 and current model) or the new higher resolution screen. If you go beyond the basic model (16GB, Wi-Fi only) then the prices increase much faster than the capabilities would suggest. The Kindle Fire is only $199 because it is stripped down to the bare minimum with no options for more (Wi-Fi only).

It is smaller and lighter, which is both good and bad. The light, handy size is definitely a plus compared to the iPad, but the necessarily smaller screen size can be a problem. When browsing on the Web, the iPad screen shape and size is definitely more suitable. The screen height (or width when rotated 90 degrees) of the Kindle fire is substandard for Web browsing. When oriented in the horizontal position often only the top of the Web page (mostly the banner) will be visible, requiring a good deal of scrolling. In the vertical orientation, the Kindle is too narrow for viewing Web pages. If you want to surf the Web, I would recommend the iPad (if you can handle the price).

For watching streaming video such as Netflix unless you have the latest higher resolution screen, the iPad loses much of its advantage—especially when watching widescreen movies or HD television shows. The shape of the Kindle Fire fits the streaming video taking advantage of the screen, while in most cases the iPad needs to put a big black bar at the top and bottom of the screen (wasted space). However, the Fire resolution is low and will not support HD video without downscaling. Also, if you're watching something in 4:3 on the Fire, you get the bars on the sides. There is no screen where you avoid bars for all content unless you don't mind stretching or zooming. If watching videos is your primary focus, then the Kindle Fire is competitive with the iPad. I know one couple whose main use for their Kindle Fire is entertaining their young kids with videos.

If you're an avid reader and don't need or want all of the other applications, then the regular Kindle offers much more for your money, plus it will be easier on the eyes. As for reading on the iPad and Kindle fire, they are comparable. Although the Kindle Fire has a smaller screen, it is certainly large enough for reading most books. If there are a lot of illustrations in the books you read, then the larger iPad screen will be the winner.

The larger screen on the iPad is better for viewing digital photos (especially the latest model), although the Kindle Fire is adequate.

If the two products were the same price, and you don't mind the extra bulk, I would say get the iPad. But the difference between $499 for the iPad and $199 for the Kindle Fire makes the decision much tougher. Also, you should take a look at other tablet computers and read the reviews.

Digital Dave

Problem Connecting to the Net

Dear Digital Dave,

I have a seven year old computer with XP and a DSL connection, over the phone line. Once in a while it doesn't connect to the Internet. When this happens there usually is a virus update being downloaded as a Web site is being opened.

After talking to the Internet provider, they said nothing is wrong with their end, but it must be something in my machine. It can be connected by shutting the computer down and restarting, plus once in a while the modem needs to be unplugged/plugged in before it will work. I've also noticed once in a while when it starts the start button and time will not fully open. Please, show me an easy way of fixing this without buying another PC.

Thank you,

Alan Morast

Denver, Colorado

Dear Alan,

There are a number of areas that need to be investigated. If the Internet works again after rebooting, I think it's more likely to be a software problem than a hardware problem. Hardware usually will continue not working after a reboot (unless it's heat related, which is unlikely for a network problem). The software can get into a bad state and need to start over again. See if there are new network drivers from the network card manufacturer. Try different antivirus software and see if the problem goes away. Also, you can run the network diagnostic tool when it's not working. You should do this first. I've had good luck with that bringing things right back up.

If none of that works I might then suspect is the network card or even a faulty connection. Electronics can develop intermittent problems. The fact that everything comes back when you reboot could indicate that your network card is starting to go bad. The only way to check it out is to swap it out with a good card. If you have another cable, you might try swapping that out as well.

This could also explain the problem connecting with the modem, although it is also possible that there is an intermittent problem with the modem.

Software problems can't be ruled out. It it usually happens when your antivirus software is updating, then you might want to try stopping the automatic updates and do it when your computer is not involved with something else. If it is the software then you may need to switch out your security software.

I wish I could show you an easy way to the fix your problem, and for all I know I have, but there are so many things that can cause problems that it's difficult to isolate the issue. Sometimes it takes hours (or days) to troubleshoot a system. Other times the first thing you try solves the problem. (That's when you feel like a genius.) As your computer gets older, there will inevitably be more hardware failures whether it's a hard drive, a network card, or the motherboard itself. While XP will be around a long time, not everyone's computer is going to make it the long haul.

Digital Dave

Windows XP Paging File Monitor

Dear Digital Dave,

On my Windows XP, every browser (Firefox/SeaMonkey, Google Chrome, Opera) slows down when there are more than a handful of tabs open.

I've been trying to figure this out for a while and I'm pretty sure that the "paging file" is "thrashing" (constantly looping as each tab in turn tries to execute its JavaScript).

The Task Manager doesn't show any disk activity when this happens—apparently Task Manager only tells you what the individual tasks are doing, not what the system "kernel" is doing.

So, what monitoring program can I use to see how much CPU and disk I/O is being used by the "kernel" when it is using the "paging file"? Since this is somewhat technical, thoughts and ideas from your techie readers would also be appreciated.

Peter

Los Angeles

Dear Peter,

It's true that your paging file could be part of the problem, but there may be other ways to resolve your issue.

The paging file is virtual memory which is stored on your hard drive. Since Random Access Memory (RAM) is generally much more limited than hard drive space, to preserve data that should be in RAM when RAM fills up, the processor moves loaded programs into virtual memory (on the hard drive). How much virtual memory will be used will depend upon how much space is set aside for the paging file on the hard drive and how much RAM you have installed in the machine.

The less RAM you have, the more the computer will need to depend upon the paging file. If you have a relatively small amount of RAM, then you could quickly run out of memory as you load additional programs (or tabs in a Web browser). This means that there will be much more moving of programs and data from memory to the hard drive and back again. This is called thrashing and it will definitely slow down your computer.

There are two ways to speed things up. First, make sure that you have the maximum amount of installed RAM. If your computer can take more, adding memory is one of the best ways to speed things up. Second is to make sure that you have the proper size paging file set for your amount of memory. If it is set too small then the paging file will quickly fill up causing another slow down.

To adjust the size of the paging file open Computer Management (Start => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Computer Management). Right-click on Computer Management (Local) and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button under Performance. Generally, the amount of virtual memory (paging file) should be set to about 1.5 times the total RAM, although it does not hurt to make it a little larger if you have plenty of hard drive space.

To monitor the activity of your paging file, open the Performance window (Start => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Performance). See Figure 1. You will probably need to add the Paging File counter.

Figure 1. The Performance monitor in Windows XP.

Click the + sign at the top (circled in red), then select Paging File as the Performance object. Click "All counters" then Add and Close. The monitor counters for the paging file will be added.

For more information check out Microsoft Support.

Digital Dave

My Favorite Free Windows Paint Program

“Paint.NET Is Easy, Flexible, and Free!”
by Jack Dunning

Windows Paint is great for quick and dirty jobs, but if you want to do a lot more, try Paint.NET.

I'm not a graphic artist, but I often work on little pieces of digital artwork. In the past, I've found that the easiest way to do it is with the free Windows Paint program which comes with every version of Windows. (The Windows 7 and Windows 8 Paint programs are much improved over earlier versions.) Windows Paint is simple to use and, if your expectations are not too high, you can do some pretty sophisticated work. I've even used it to remove face blemishes from photographs. (Zoom in on a view until it's easy to see the individual pixels, then select and copy a small group of skin tone pixels from nearby the blemish. Then, paste that small selection over the blemish a number of times until the skin tones appears to be blended. If necessary, use the color picker to select key colors to smooth out the rough edges.)

I know that there are other much more advanced commercial programs with advanced tools not found in Paint, but I don't do enough artwork to justify the time it would take to learn the program nor the cost of the software. However, while Windows Paint is great for quick and dirty jobs, its lack of features often leaves me frustrated. I wanted something that was as easy as Windows Paint and cost very little, yet would take me to another level. I've found that in the free program Paint.NET. There is very little that I need to do in image editing that I can't do with Paint.NET.

Paint Versus Drawing Software

It is important to understand the difference between a paint program and a drawing program, such as Draw found in the free LibreOffice suite of software. Paint programs tend to be much more intuitive and easy to use. It's as if you are working on a canvas. Whatever you add to the picture becomes part of it. While it is possible to reverse mistake (CTRL+Z), once you release a new pasted figure or added text in a paint program, it is embedded in the canvas of pixels which make up the digital image. Since it is one flat image, it can be difficult remove unwanted parts without affecting other portions of the image.

Paint programs work directly on the bit-mapped files (JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, etc.) which are commonly used almost everywhere—Web sites, e-books, word processing documents, and all digital photographs. Each of these files is merely a matrix of the various pixels making up the image. Unless you're trying to do something very complex, a paint program will usually get the job done, whether touching up, adding text, or altering simple items in a picture.

Drawing programs tend to be designed much more for layout and allow greater flexibility than paint software, but they are often more difficult to learn. Drawing programs store everything in objects which retain all of their original characteristics. For example, if you add an image to a drawing program it retains its properties as a separate object. When you add text to the same layout, it will also be saved as separate a text object. If you want to later change the text, it is as easy to do as if you were using a word processor. If you want to move the text to a new location, simply drag it there. These operations in a paint program would normally require you to first remove the old text (which may be difficult without affecting the remainder of the image), then add the new text.

Drawing programs usually include an image editor, although they tend to be relatively simplistic compared to advanced image editing programs such as the commercial Adobe Photoshop.

Once you have completed your image layout in a drawing program, you can save it in one of the flat bit-mapped file formats for use in digital documents, on the Web, e-books or other applications. Desktop publishing software is a type of drawing program for laying out printed magazines, newspapers and brochures—although anything you do can be converted to a pixel file. Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs such as AutoCAD are the ultimate in drawing programs storing each line as an object.

Since drawing software is so much more flexible than paint programs, why doesn't everyone use them? The answer is simplicity. It is much easier too learn and use a paint program. They are more intuitive to use than drawing software. However, as features are added to any software it becomes more complicated and less intuitive.

The paint program in Windows is very simple and good enough for many quick little jobs. Yet, if you use it very much, you will soon want a little more power without giving up too much simplicity. That's why my favorite free Windows paint program is Paint.NET. Paint.NET is an intermediate level program which I've found very intuitive. The much more advanced Adobe Photoshop is considered the standard for professional digital image editing and has many more features, but it also costs a ton of money. Unless there are unique features in Photoshop which you need, start with the free Paint.NET. (GIMP is another free program considered comparable to Paint.NET. I (and others writing reviews) have found GIMP a little more difficult to learn and use.)

What I Like about Paint.NET

If you have never used a paint program, it's helpful to play with Windows Paint (or any other basic paint software) before moving to another more advanced program. Even though it is a simple program, it uses many of the same basic tools that you'll find in the other programs. Growing accustomed to the Windows Paint features makes it easier to learn other programs such as Paint.NET, as well as spot the special features which don't exist in Paint.

After you have downloaded, installed and launched Paint.NET, you will see a screen similar to Figure 1. The main window is the editing screen in which the current working image is displayed. Included are four additional windows which are each independent of the primary editing window. That means that although these four windows are part of the Paint.NET program, each tool/feature window can be moved to anywhere on your computer screen—including outside the frame of the main window. When you are working on an image, it is easy to move these utility windows to a non-interfering location.

Figure 1. There are four independent features windows in Paint.NET: (in red outline, clockwise from top left) the Tools window, the History window, the Layers window, and the Colors window.

The Tools Window

The Tools window is a palette of selection and drawing tools (see Figure 2). If you've used any paint program many of these tools will look familiar. There are a number of selection tools for picking specific areas of the image before editing or moving the selection. The standard paint bucket is used to fill areas with color (or remove color). The paint brush and pencil are used for drawing. Other tools not found in Windows Paint are Clone Stamp (for replicating portions of the image to a new location) and Magic Wand Selection (for automatically selecting odd shaped objects). This is the primary window you will use when selecting sections and editing an image. Each tool has a keyboard shortcut which is displayed when you hover the cursor over the selection button.

Figure 2. The Tools window is a palette of selection and drawing tools.

The best way to learn how to use these tools is to play with them with a practice image. (Be sure not to save your play image over an important original file. Give your practice file another name such as "test" before you start.) When you select a tool from the Tools windows, the menu bar at the top will change to give additional options for the selected tool. Be sure to check out what they do. As you test different techniques, you will be surprised at how creative you can be.

The History Window

One of the most important features in any paint program is Undo—usually CTRL+Z. When you make a mistake—and you will make a mistake—the Undo feature will allow you to return to the point just before the error. In Windows Paint, there is an Undo button (also responding to CTRL+Z). However, there are a limited number of Undos available and it's difficult to know exactly to which point you are returning as you click the Undo button. That's why Paint.NET keeps a history (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. The History window in Paint.NET keeps a record of all the changes made during a session. To return to an earlier version, click that point in the window.

The History window maintains a list of all the changes that have been made during the current editing session. At anytime you can jump back to an earlier point by merely clicking on the history label. You can reverse the process by re-selecting your last edit. However, if you make any changes after jumping to that earlier point, the history will restart, deleting all the other former edits. This is a vast improvement over the simple Undo button found in Windows Paint. The ability to see the extensive list of changes makes it much easier to recover from misguided edits and flat-out mistakes.

The Layers Window

There are a couple of tricks I learned in the Windows Paint program that still work better in Paint than they do in Paint.NET, but with all the editing being done directly in the sole image, it doesn't take long to understand how Windows Paint is truly limited. Probably the most important additional feature in Paint.NET is layers which can be added, then displayed as thumbnails in the Layers window (see Figure 4). By adding layers to a Paint.NET image (saved in the special PDN format) transparent images are effectively placed on top of one another without combining them. Each layer is a separate image until merged with another layer by flattening or saving as a bit-mapped file. That means you can continue to manipulate each individual layer until everything lines up the way you want it.

Figure 4. The Layers window displays each of the layers added to the total image as a thumbnail. A layer image can be manipulated and edited without affecting any of the other layers.

In Figure 4 the layers are displayed as thumbnails. The checkerboard pattern represents the invisible area of the layer. A layer can be selected by merely clicking on the thumbnail in the Layers window. These layers make it possible to work with various parts of an image without interfering with the images on the other layers. This is a great help when testing various colors and/or text for balance and readability before finalizing the image by saving it as a bit-map file. For example, a drop shadow can be added to a headline by adding the headline to one layer in black, then adding the exact same headline in another color to a new layer. Selecting and slightly moving the colored text layer will create the shadow effect for any font.

The Color Window

One of the most important capabilities of any paint program is color selection. That's why Paint.NET uses a separate Color window (see Figure 5). In the Color window there are multiple ways to select colors.

Figure 5. The Paint.NET Color window offers multiple techniques for selecting the Primary and Secondary colors.

At any one time, there are normally two colors selected in a paint program. The primary color is the foreground used for drawing lines, painting colors and writing text. The secondary color is the background color usually used as the under-base color for the image (often activated with a right-click). You can use the sliders to adjust the colors in Paint.NET, select from the color palette, or pick them directly from the color wheel. If you're using other custom colors, then you can add them to your palette and save the palette to a file for later reuse. (This is a great advantage over the Windows Paint program, which does not allow the saving of palettes.) Of course you can always use the Color Picker in the Tools window to match and select colors from your image.

Project Thumbnails

One of the coolest features of Paint.NET displays all of your current open image projects as thumbnails at the top right of the main window. This is similar to the tabs found in Web browsers and some other types of software where each tab represents a different running instance of the program. The advantage here is that it's easy to recognize the various open graphic projects (see Figure 6). If you working with a number of different images at the same time, this thumbnail list makes it easy to identify and switch to another image.

Figure 6. The thumbnail images at the top right of the Paint.NET window make it easy to find and select image projects in progress.

This Open Projects feature eliminates the need to open multiple instances of Paint.NET for additional images as would be necessary for Windows Paint. In fact Paint.NET will not open a new window when loading a new image. It merely adds another tab (thumbnail) to the list. To switch to another job, click on the appropriate thumbnail. When a project is unsaved a small orange asterisk will appear at the top right of the thumbnail.

Numerous Additional Features

There are numerous advanced features (too many to list) which can be applied as settings for each tool individually or can be found under the Image, Adjustments or Effects drop-down menus. These include making a photo look like an ink or pencil sketch, removing red-eye from photos, rendering Mandelbrot Fractals, and many other esoteric effects. While I've tested virtually all of them, many are for special effects not normally used. I have yet to find a need to use Bulge—although it does look cool.

The best way to learn a program is to use it. Paint.NET is by far one of the easiest that I've found for editing and manipulating images. It is certainly my favorite. I wouldn't mind taking a look at Adobe Photoshop, but the price is a little steep. If I was going to work on photos or artwork professionally then I would definitely consider it. However, since I'm a dabbler, Paint.NET offers way more than I need. It's easy to use, fun to play with, and, best of all, it's free!

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, Windows 7 Secrets Four-in-One E-Book Bundle.,

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

“Another Routine Increase in Profit and Sales”
by Wally Wang

Another Routine Increase in Profit and Sales; Paper vs. Digital; Organizing and Editing Photos; San Diego School District Switches from Netbooks to the iPad; Lessons from Walt Disney; Space on your Hard Disk.

Apple recently announced their quarterly earnings and while slowing sales of the iPhone on Verizon and AT&T in the United States caused investors to worry, Apple announced another record string of profits and sales. This time, Apple increased sales of the iPhone by 88 percent (35.1 million units) and sales of iPads by 151 percent (11.8 million units) with 94 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and 75 percent of the Global 500 testing or deploying iPads in the enterprise market, which is the exact market that Windows 8 tablets hope to crack. Not surprisingly (except to people who think the whole world revolves around the United States), 64 percent of Apple's revenue came from overseas.

What makes the iPhone and iPad unique is that Apple can manufacture the exact same device in mass quantities and then customize them for different regions through software alone. Other manufacturers, that sell devices using a physical keyboard, must create smaller manufacturing runs to physically customize each device for a specific region.

A keyboard marketed to the United States will look different than a keyboard marketed to Europe or Asia because European and Asian keyboards need to display additional symbols that American keyboards can omit. Naturally, manufacturing so many specialized physical keyboards for different parts of the world simply drives up the cost of making the entire device all together.

In many parts of the world, it's common to write in multiple languages such as French and German. With physical keyboards, you often need to type weird keystroke combinations to type certain symbols or accent marks used in different languages, but with a virtual keyboard, you can rapidly change to a different keyboard layout within seconds. For this reason alone, virtual keyboards represent the future.

Virtual keyboards can also survive in dusty environments that would clog a physical keyboard, so expect to see more virtual keyboards replacing clumsy physical keyboards covered in plastic. Toss in the fact that typing on a virtual keyboard takes less physical motion and thus helps reduce physical pain and discomfort, and you can already see that it's only a matter of time before virtual keyboards make their way to laptops and desktop computers. Most likely Apple will introduce an optional virtual keyboard so people can choose whether they want a physical one or a virtual one for their computers.

For those who insist that physical keyboards are the only possible way to type on any computer, visit the USB Typewriter site and buy yourself a manual typewriter rigged to work with an ordinary computer or even an iPad. Now you can claim that it's impossible to type on a computer unless you're using an actual manual typewriter keyboard since those types of keyboards were once the only way to type anything. With manual typewriter keyboards now available, it's clearly obvious that there's no possible way anyone could type anything on an ordinary computer keyboard any more so everyone should go back to using manual typewriters again.

Figure 1. You can type on an iPad using an old manual typewriter.

In the short-term, sales of Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPads continue to rise. Not surprisingly, sales of iPods keep dropping. After all, why bother buying an iPod when you essentially have an iPod built-in to an iPhone and iPad? Sales of Macintosh computers didn't quite reach analysts's expectations, but that's to be expected since Apple didn't release any new Macintosh models during the past quarter. Yet, Apple still managed to sell a healthy 4 million Macintosh computers, which represented a 7 percent increase over the previous year. Apple also announced that nearly half of all Macintosh sales are to first-time Macintosh buyers while nearly 25 percent of iPad sales are to first-time buyers of any Apple products.

Most likely, these first-time Macintosh and iPad buyers are a combination of people who never bought a computer before and people switching from another computer, most likely a Windows PC. As Macintosh sales continue increasing every quarter despite the economy, the trend is clear. More people are buying and using Macintosh computers and iPads. In the enterprise, iOS activations represent 80 percent while Android represent the remaining 20 percent.

The trend shows no signs of stopping or reversing itself any time soon. For Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in June, tickets sold out within two hours (5,000 developers each paying $1,599). Interest in the Macintosh and iOS is increasing among developers, which can only fuel more software for the Macintosh and iOS devices. The more software available, the more attractive these devices become to the general public.

While Android struggles in the tablet market and Windows Phone 7 struggles in the smartphone market, Apple just keeps selling more products in the computer, tablet and smartphone markets. By the time Windows 8 arrives this fall, Apple will have sold even more Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPads. The biggest threat to Apple is simply making sure they don't shoot themselves in the foot by releasing inferior products that don't work very well, like Microsoft did with Vista.

Apple isn't killing Microsoft as much as Microsoft is killing themselves with blunders, rushed products, and inconsistent leadership that creates two brands of smartphone platforms (Microsoft Kin and Windows Phone 7), then makes both obsolete with their new vision of Windows 8 running on everything. As long as Apple can maintain their focus and not chase after every leading product in every possible category (such as Microsoft Silverlight trying to take out Adobe Flash and Microsoft's Bing trying to take out Google), Apple should do just fine until the business executives take over and run the company into the ground like they're doing with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

Paper vs. Digital

The cost of storing, shipping and printing on paper continues to rise while the retail outlets for printed paper products continues to fall. Eventually, the cost of printing on paper will simply become prohibitive. Bill Amend, the cartoonist for the syndicated comic strip "Foxtrot," makes most of his money through newspapers paying him to publish his comic strip. Recently he self-published a three volume collection of 100 of his comic strips to sell for $1.99 each.

Bill Amend created his e-books using iBooks Author and was surprised to find that in two weeks, he made about 25 percent of what his traditionally-published strip collections makes in two years. By reaching customers directly, Bill Amend can now eliminate the cost of printing and distribution and reach an entire planet with no additional expenses.

The cost of printing is going to eventually kill all forms of printed books, magazines and newspapers. By self-publishing e-books, authors can simply bypass the printed paper barrier and make more money with much less work.

Figure 2. You can now buy the "Foxtrot" comic strip collection as a self-published iBook.

For an unknown author, self-publishing may be the only practical route to reach an audience, but when established comic strip artists like Bill Amend self-publish their works, they completely bypass the traditional print publishers. Print publishers have lost their monopoly so they can no longer take 85-90 percent of the royalties and keep all of the rights in exchange for distributing a printed book around the planet. Self-publishing gives individuals the same access to the market as the publishers, so there's no longer a reason to use a publisher. As more unknown and established authors turn to self-publishing, the traditional publishers will simply fail eventually, like the slow demise of Blockbuster Video or Kodak. Digital publishing really gives people the freedom of the press.

Organizing and Editing Photos

In the old days, people simply stored digital photographs in various folders scattered on their hard disk, and often could never find the picture they wanted ever again. The simplest solution to keep your pictures organized on a Macintosh is to use iPhoto. While iPhoto may be fine for small amounts of photos, you may want something a bit more robust for handling large groups of photos that you can organize in multiple ways such as $149 Adobe's Lightroom 4.

Figure 3. Lightroom makes it easy to view and selectively import pictures stored on your hard disk.

For casual photographers, iPhoto may be all you need (plus it's free with every new Macintosh). However, for dedicated hobbyists and professionals, you'll probably want to use Lightroom for its greater support for the RAW format. Basic digital cameras simply capture images in the standard JPEG format. More advanced digital cameras capture images in the RAW format, which not only captures the image, but also the camera's sensor information at the time. By using the camera's sensor information (stored in the RAW format), it's possible to edit an image with greater accuracy.

One problem with the RAW format is that there is no standard, so photo editing programs need to support specific cameras. Adobe's Lightroom simply provides support for a greater number of cameras than iPhoto. Since the RAW file format isn't standard among different cameras, Adobe introduced a newer standard called Digital Negative (DNG), which basically provides a standard file format that contains RAW image data. If your camera can save images in the DNG file format, you can be sure that Lightroom can open and edit your pictures.

For many people, the most common problem with pictures is that they're either too light or too dark. In the past, fixing these problems required knowing how to use Photoshop. With Lightroom's highlight and shadow recovery feature, you can quickly adjust the lighting of a picture in seconds.

Figure 4. Lightroom's highlight and shadow recovery feature can correct any image.

While many people capture still images, many more capture video. Lightroom can not only import video and do basic trimming, but it can also capture individual frames in a video. For amateur photographers, this feature alone can prove invaluable so you can capture a video of a scene and then scroll through your captured video until you find the perfect frame to use as a still image.

Figure 5. Lightroom can capture individual frames of a video.

When you store pictures, you'll probably want to print them out eventually. To make your pictures come out exactly the size you want, Lightroom lets you adjust the picture margins. Just drag the various sliders around until your picture looks perfect on the screen before printing them out.

Figure 6. Lightroom lets you adjust the print margins of your picture.

Rather than print pictures out yourself, you can arrange them in a book format and then submit them to a service called Blurb, which will print and ship your book of photographs for a price. Take your best pictures and turn them into a book that can showcase your photography skills. Now you'll always have your favorite pictures to look at even when you're away from your computer.

Figure 7. Lightroom can send multiple pictures to a printing service to create a bound picture book.

Instead of printing your pictures, you might want to turn them into a Web page gallery that you can post on a Web site. Professional photographers could use this feature to create a gallery of images for a client to examine while everyone else can use this feature to display pictures for their friends and family members to see. Take a bunch of vacation pictures, turn them into a Web page gallery, and then post it on your Web site.

Figure 8. Lightroom can turn multiple pictures into a Web page gallery.

If you have a second monitor, Lightroom can display different pictures on each monitor. That way you can study two different images or keep one picture fixed on a second monitor while you scroll through your library of images stored in Lightroom.

Think of Lightroom as a combination between iPhoto and Photoshop. If you don't need the power of Photoshop, then you'll be much happier using Lightroom instead. While learning Lightroom takes a bit more effort than using iPhoto, Lightroom can reward you with greater flexibility in modifying your pictures. Lightroom isn't for everyone, but if you're serious about photography, Lightroom can be your best tool after a camera.

San Diego School District Switches from Netbooks to the iPad

After spending $35 million on netbooks for the classroom, the San Diego school district has announced that they're switching their emphasis from netbooks (presumably running Windows) to iPads. The school district already has 75,600 netbooks but plans to purchase around 25,700 iPad 2s for fifth- and eighth-grade classes as well as some high school classes by next fall. The total cost for iPads will be $15 million.

Darryl LaGace, Unified's chief information and technology officer, said the district opted to make the switch after weighing the pros and cons of the two types of devices. Some features that favored the iPad over netbooks included "instant on," a larger screen, extended battery life, and the ability to access a large collection of educational apps. The cons include the fact that the iPad isn't compatible with Adobe Flash, they don't have a keyboard or mouse, and it is an additional platform the district will need to support.

"Over the past six months, we have been piloting iPads and Android devices in a variety of settings," LaGace said. "Although no device can do everything, the iPad clearly provides some of the best features while at the same time addresses some of the issues we have experienced with the netbook platform."

LaGace asked school administrators to state their preference by early March. He said the vast majority chose the iPad.

Has anyone ever seen a kid get excited about using a netbook? Yet if you give kids an iPad, they'll happily teach themselves how to use it with no training whatsoever. Given a choice between a device that takes training to use and isn't much fun or a device that takes little training to use and can be a lot of fun, which device will likely engage children more to help them learn anything? While iPads alone can't improve education, they can certainly prove more versatile than an underpowered netbook. Why anyone thought that going backwards with technology through a netbook running an ancient operating system somehow represented the future remains one of those mystery thought processes that borders on the edge of insanity.

Lessons from Walt Disney

Drew McLellan, a marketing consultant, offers some interesting ideas for what marketing specialists could learn from Walt Disney. Not surprisingly, what made Walt Disney successful sounds eerily similar to what's making Apple successful.

The first marketing lesson, according to Drew, is to surprise the customer in a positive way. Disney did this by randomly giving guests free prizes. Apple used surprise by giving a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the person who downloaded the 25th billion app. In both cases, Disney and Apple are surprising their existing customers.

Drew's second marketing tip from Disney involves granting people special privileges. At Disney, high school marching bands must earn the privilege to march down Main Street, but they typically pay their own way, bring their friends and family members, and spend money at the Disney theme parks, so they're essentially paying for the privilege of being a customer.

Apple also makes people feel privileged by charging developers $99 annually for the right to market their programs through the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store. Developers feel special, create more programs that benefit Apple, and Apple benefits from the additional annual payment.

Drew's third marketing tip is to focus on the details. Disney uses signs shaped like Mickey Mouse ears to let guests know they're about to head towards something exciting. Apple focuses on details by creating iPod, iPhone and iPad boxes that closely resemble the packaging for jewelry.

The fourth marketing tip is to evolve. Disney originally created theme parks with rides that the whole family could enjoy. Nowadays, they offer rides that require height restrictions such as Space Mountain. If Disney had stuck with their original vision of family-friendly rides, they would have gradually lost their market of people who enjoy more white knuckle rides.

Apple also evolved by moving beyond the dedicated MP3 player market of the iPod and moving forward to the iPhone and iPad. If Apple had tried to protect their MP3 player market share, they would never have included iPod capabilities in the iPhone and iPad. By evolving, Apple helped insure their own long-term survival by making their best selling products obsolete before a rival can do it for them.

Drew's fifth marketing tip from Disney is about listening and responding to the customer. At Disney, families wanted to meet Mickey Mouse so Disney arranged for everyone to meet Mickey Mouse in Toon Town.

Apple often doesn't just listen to customers, but they try to anticipate what customers really want. When most people were clamoring for a light laptop with a long battery life, Apple skipped the netbook trend and introduced the iPad. Then to satisfy the keyboard crowd, they turned around and defined the ultrabook category with the MacBook Air.

Drew's sixth marketing lesson is about setting expectations and then exceeding them. At Disney, they display signs listing estimated wait times for rides. However, those estimates are often overly conservative so by the time guests get to the ride, they're often amazed that it took less time than expected.

Apple often exceeds expectations as well. If you order a product, Apple will likely give a conservative estimate and then exceed your expectations when your product arrives early.

The seventh marketing tip is about focusing on current customers. Most businesses thrive on repeat customers, yet most businesses also focus too much energy on trying to attract new customers while ignoring their existing ones. Disney rewards guests from their own hotels by granting them early admission to their theme parks as a way to reward their loyalty to spending money at Disney.

Apple also rewards existing customers by closely integrating their products so they become more useful when used together. Use an iPhone and an iPad or a Macintosh, and through the magic of iCloud, you can synchronize data seamlessly. You can't do this if you're using an iPhone and a Windows PC or an Android tablet.

Finally, Drew's eighth marketing tip is to knock down barriers to make it easy for customers to give you money. At Disney, you can buy a product and carry it around with you, have it shipped to your home, have it delivered to your Disney hotel room, or have it waiting for you at the front gate when you're ready to leave.

At Apple, their roving sales people in their retail stores help make it easy for you to buy and walk out with an Apple product without waiting in separate cashier lines. If you take a product in for repairs, Apple will return it by courier service to your home so you don't have to waste time driving back to the Apple Store to pick it up.

To read all of Drew McLellan's marketing tips, download a copy of his report. If you're interested in learning more about Walt Disney, read How to be Like Walt by Pat Williams and Jim Denney.

There's a reason why both Disney and Apple are successful, because they make a conscious effort to keep their customers happy. They're not always successful, but at least they try. Compare this to other companies (such as Symantec and McAfee) that treat you like a gullible sucker from the start and do everything they can to exploit your ignorance to make a little extra money off you (pre-installing trial versions of antivirus programs) while those who know better (Microsoft and computer manufacturers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard) mutely look the other way by not just giving you a free copy of Microsoft Security Essentials or any other free antivirus program from the start.

*                    *                    *

Everyone fills their hard disk with files. However, you may not know exactly what type of files take up the most space on your hard disk, so if you're using Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, you can see a color-coded representation of your hard disk.

Figure 9. Identifying the content of your hard disk.\\.

Just click the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. Then click Storage at the top of the dialog to see how much of your hard disk is taken up by programs, music, or video. Now you can see what type of files are gobbling up the most space.

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

“Chat Rooms: Leisure, Laughs, Loopy-Logic and Lies”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Amusing anecdotes about Internet chat rooms.

Computer chat rooms were invented in 1974 at the University of Illinois. Called Talkomatic, and originally accommodating only five people at a time, they proved immensely popular. The idea of sharing text messages in real-time on computer screens among multiple participants was one of those side discoveries—like video games—that seemed to have an instant and enthusiastic following.

Today chat rooms are all over the internet, some tied to special interests, or even graphical social environments. A whole new language of acronyms (LOL!) grew out of geek-speak, and even today the idea of real-time, text conversations still has its allure. Just add smiley-face emoticons, punctuation pornography, guys talking to girls who are really guys, cyber-sex, and lots of Feds looking for child predators and boastful hackers. Welcome to Chat Rooms 3.0!

Top Ten Lies from Internet Chat Rooms

1) You're incredible! I've never felt like this about someone I've just met. Never!

2) I'm new online and haven't had time to create a profile. But, hey, tell me more about yourself.

3) I want you to know, I never do cyber-sex. Never! But here in this room alone with you, I'm getting excited...

4) I'm a petite blonde with blue eyes, and everyone loves my body.

5) I'm 6' 3", got a great tan, and am totally buffed from working out everyday.

6) Yes, of course I'm female.

7) I'm in this private room just to console a depressed friend.

8) No, this is my only screen name. Gee, you mean I can have more than one?

9) Really, I'm not like most of the people here looking for just a hook-up. So how about meeting me for coffee in the hotel coffee shop?

10) I don't care what you look like, it's what's on the inside that counts. But you don't have any diseases, right?

State of..Say What?

A young woman was flirting with a couple guys in a chat room. Finally one of the guys asked her, "What state are your from?" The other guy asked at the same time, "What do you do for a living?" To satisfy them both, she replied "Idaho."

LOL Lingo

One of the most common acronyms in chat rooms is LOL, it means Laughing Out Loud. But now it's spawned its own lingo and lore:

• LOLCHAIN: When someone in a chat room posts a joke, and the next six people respond with "LOL!" Or when someone in a chat room posts something hilarious, and the next person posts "LOLOLOLOLOLOL!"

• LOLCATOVERLOAD: When your hard drive has so many thousands of files of "lolcats" that it crashes and dies.

• LOLCOHOL: You've been laughing so hard at a chat room joke that you can't get your breath and appear drunk.

• LOLCI: Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.

• LOLCOOL: What someone posts to answer your post in a chat room, when they have nothing else to add to the discussion. Impossible to respond to.

• LOLCH: Meaning lots of little Cartoon Hearts, used when one is happy or in love but not certain which type of smiley icon to use.

Ads in Chat Rooms

"American Online customers are upset because the company has decided to allow advertising in its chat rooms. I can see why: you got computer sex, you can download pornography, people are making dates with 10 years olds. Hey, what's this? A Pepsi ad? They're ruining the integrity of the internet!" -Jay Leno

Bad Chat Room Etiquette

1) Create an insanely long user name, and refuse to answer posters who abbreviate it.

2) TyPe LiKe ThIs aLl ThE TiME.

3) Post partially in a foreign language, and hint that SuperCool people know what you mean.

4) Change the text color to something obnoxious like orange or pink.

5) Ask stupid questions. Demand answers.

6) Tell people what time it is.

7) Ask people what time it is.

8) Speak like Yoda: "Bored I am. Lick my ear you want to?"

9) Tell the entire chat room you "have to leave to go do a number two."

10) Tease and hint about a profound next post, then change your text and background to the same color.

Chat Room Posts That Leave You Wondering...

"Oh, I get along great with my college roommate. We even share makeup. I borrow her eyeliner one day. The next day she borrows my lipstick to write threats on the bathroom mirror."

"So, Darlin', what do you think would happen if I had a Sleep Number Bed and set it to 69?"

"How can you tell if someone in a chat room is cute? First, they have a poor memory. And second, uh, I forget."

"Ouch! Something on my ankle is telling me I've been busted for truancy again. Anyone know how many times they can make you repeat sixth grade?"

Signs That Your Chat Room Relationship Isn't Working Out

1) You discover that "Chesty McBust" isn't her real name, and she's connecting from Langley, Virginia.

2) You: Large, hairy man. Your online girlfriend: Large, hairy man.

3) After months of tender shared experiences and emotional investments, she attacks you in the Mines of Quarn with a Vorpal Sword when she learns you're worth 4,500,000 points.

4) Your cyber-lover is too busy editing that silly little Top 5 List.

5) You realize that her address "miss.kitty@nevada-cathouse" is NOT a cat rescue organization.

6) You have trouble seeing your online girlfriend's face, because the photo she posted is obscured by her thirty cats.

7) He claims to be a dot-com millionaire, but his photo looks like a geek who works for a software company.

8) You've got the FBI watching your house and workplace ever since you responded to theoneandonly@whitehouse.gov.

9) You discover that she has been cutting and pasting her orgasms.

The-Absolutely-Honest Chat Room

1) Well, I meant I was 25 years old—about thirty years ago.

2) Yeah, I power walk every day. One lap around the halls with my walker and my powerful air horn, and I'm done for the day.

3) Yes, I'm a woman! You fail one little steroid test for Women Wrestlers Mania, and then the rumors start.

4) Yeah, I prefer beer over wine too. Only 'cause the latter reminds me of a former girlfriend. Whine, whine, whine.

7) Hey, I helped with a start-up once too! But after dusting one crop, it crashed.

7) I always buy Macs too. Mainly since my big brother told me that Dell was really a pickle company.

8) Yes, yes, me used to live Atlanta also. But language bearyers too much to climb onto and over.

9) Hey, I'm a surfer too! Board-and-ocean, or motherboard-and-Internet?

10) Honey, I'm tons of fun. And I mean tons!

Trying to Sound Sexy in a Chat Room—and Failing

1) I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my pants, too sexy for my wig...

2) So who wants to try my supreme french kiss? I take out my dentures, and it's all fun from there on!

3) I always have two milkshakes to share on the playground with the guys over me a few grades.

4) If I tell you my bod is too hot to touch, would you still want to hold it against you without potholders?

5) Guys at my gym say I smell like toasted cereal mixed with gasoline after I use the tanning bed.

6) Sure, I can talk dirty, Playboy Pete. But my real name is Larry. You got a sister?

Don't Try These If You Are a Chat Room Novice

1) Go into a chat room and talk about subjects you know absolutely nothing about: Swedish political parties. Deep frying a turkey. Which sparkly cursors are your fav. Which computer brands should get together to design better washing machines.

2) Go into a chat room and throw out a totally unrelated question to liven things up: If everyone in the world farted at the same time, and someone lit a match, would the planet, like, explode? So, who knows how to make C4? Anyone else have dreams of group sex on the International Space Station?

3) Offer up dares: How about if every girl in this chat room did NOT mention "lolcats" for a whole week? OK, how many of you guys have a secret crush on poster ButtonPoppingMandy?

4) Come up with a vaguely related question about the topic at hand: So who bought or received a Can-O-Fart last Christmas? If you could be a kitten or puppy, which breed would you be?

5) Strongly hint that you may not be from Earth: Moon Landings? Apollo was my supreme god the last time I visited. Why do you jest when I speak of anti-gravity? We remain fine; the incoming asteroid has been tipped. I wouldn't make jokes about Uranus, if I were you; certain Beings with ten arms might get upset. Does anyone know where I can buy culinary quality pig eyeballs?

6) Throw out something true out about yourself to see who else can, um, identify with that experience: Can anyone else here drink a six-pack of beer and not pee for four hours? Has anyone else given mouth-to-mouth to a beached shark and lived to tell about it? Has anyone else here been to a rave party in another country?

(Many of these amusing anecdotes are on multiple online joke sites. But special thanks to Comedy-zone.net, Urbandictionary.com and Unwind.com)

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.

ComputorQuick Reviews

“A Strange Encounter with Gateway and Best Buy”
by ComputorEdge Staff

Sometimes you don't get what you pay for, but don't expect anyone to take responsibility.

ComputorEdge received the following letter from John Kendziora:

To whom it may concern:

In October of 2010 I purchased a Gateway 6480-15E from Best Buy. I had it for just over 10 months when I was notified by Gateway that my warranty was ending and would I like to renew it. I called Gateway to do just that and while talking with the sales person at Gateway I was instructed to locate my Gateway Identity Card which was located in the program files. This was news to me but I never really looked for it before so I commenced with my search. I located the file and when I selected it, it displayed that I did not have a Gateway 6840-15E but an "Aspire M5910" and no serial number was listed. Now My PC looks like a 6840-15E and I believe it has acted like a 6840-15E. But now I am wondering just what I was sold. Here is where my headache begins.

The sales person refers me to a tech. He says he can't renew my warranty since he and I are not sure exactly what PC I have, at least on the inside anyway. The tech tells me to reinstall my software using the recovery operation. I try this and I notice that the recovery software says it's an Acer recovery program. So after losing everything I have loaded over the past 10 months I still am no closer to finding out what's going on. I contact Gateway again to tell them the results and this time the tech is totally stumped. He has me run through a few ambiguous programs which do nothing and in the end the tech has me performing the same operation only this time with a slight change. This time I am to reinstall my software, again, I am to make recovery disks, wipe the hard drive and then reinstall the software via DVDs, again the same results, except now it says Acer at the bios screen.

I also remembered that when I purchased my PC from "Best Buy" the box it came in was opened. I contacted "Best Buy" and was told that all of their new PC's end up that way. They have the "Geek Squad" check out every PC they sell to verify that everything is working properly. I was told that since they started this practice it is very rare that someone takes home a problem PC. Best Buy assured me that under no circumstances do they "crack a case" to look inside. If they did Gateway or any of the other brand name PC venders would not accept them back as a defective product. The Serial numbers on the box and the PC do match.

Well a few months have now gone by and my warranty has expired. I still have a Gateway 6840-15E (which by the way was the top of the line PC Gateway sold back then) which keeps telling me it's an Aspire M5910. Now Gateway wants me to ship the system back to them, but since it's no longer under warranty they want me to include $199.00 plus shipping.

Had they just done this in the first place I would have never had to go through this mess. I have offered to pay for my warranty extension but since it's out of warranty they will not accept it. So here is my "catch 22." I have followed Gateways instructions to the letter and have gotten nowhere.

I guess the moral of the story is, If it says it's a Gateway product don't believe it. It may say Gateway on the outside but it could be an underpowered knock off on the inside.

John Kendziora

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.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

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

"Linux Assumption," "OS X Malware," "XP Letters to Editor," "E-Books Encourage Reading"

Linux Assumption

[Regarding the April 13 Digital Dave column:]

(K)ubuntu has had tools to read, write and format drives with NTFS for years. Please correct your assumption and do a better job on research before you display your ignorance on a subject.

Linux has forked (veered to a Linux noob) significantly since the AT&T and BSD days. You may want to brush up on the many versions available that use the Linux core. Or get a copy of Life with UNIX to understand the past history of the *NIX universe.

P.S. Some distros have some very good bootloaders that handle M$ products very well; you don't even have to pay to get them.

P.P.S. I still don't do Apple, even after I got a nice letter in my employee file from Jean-Louis Gassee when I set up an Apple Lab for a communications seminar at Cray Research.

-Art Blackwell, Evergreen, CO

OS X Malware

[Regarding the April 13 Digital Dave column:]

Digital Dave's point about practicing safe Web browsing and e-mailing on all platforms is sound, but I take issue with his other points about "Apple's OS resistance to viruses" because those points contain misinformation and/or do not really answer the reader's important question.

First, no known viruses currently exist for OS X. Instead, Trojans exist for OS X. Wally Wang has written several columns explaining the difference between a computer virus and Trojan; the difference also is explained in this Wikipedia article.

Readers who think this is "just semantics" might want to check out information at the following links:

www.tuaw.com/2011/07/21/mac-malware-explosion-missing-in-action/

www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/list-of-known-mac-viruses.452456/#axzz1s8urn3JM

www.securemac.com/

OS X users currently and definitely need to beware of Trojans; they do not currently need to beware of OS X-specific viruses.

Second, the primary reason why obsolete viruses for Windows did not affect OS X was because those viruses specifically targeted files that had an EXE or DLL extension, and OS X does not natively contain any such files (although third-party programs such as Microsoft Office for Mac might install files with DLL extensions).

This is why Mac users and Apple have stated in the past "no known viruses exist that affect OS X," which is a very different statement from "no known malware exists that affects OS X." The former statement is accurate, the latter is not.

Lastly, the statement that "hacking contests" in which the Mac "was breached in two minutes or less" are demonstrations or proofs-of-concept rather than actual viruses or malware out in the wild infecting users' systems. This statement is tangential to the reader's question.

-Barry Fass-Holmes, San Diego, CA

XP Letters to Editor

[Regarding the April 20 Editors Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers column:]

I agree with Gary. I'll be using XP for a long time and am always interested in articles pertaining to it.

-Sandy, San Diego, CA

E-Books Encourage Reading

[Regarding the April 13 Wally Wangs Apple Farm column:]

Another "advantage" to e-books/e-book readers, from a youngster I talked with—no flashy covers to attract unwanted attention. "My God—you're reading Romance Novels?"

-Patrick Long, Junction City, OH

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.

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