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ComputorEdge™ Online — 06/15/12

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Jack's Favorite Free Web Design Software

Web design programs can be expensive. Here's an alternative that competes with the big guys. Plus, Digital Dave, Wally and more computer humor.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Thunderbird Program Performance; Unwanted Message for New Monitor; Adding the Desktop to the Windows Taskbar.

My Favorite Free Web Design Program

by Jack Dunning

KompoZer Is a Free Alternative to Expensive Commercial Programs

If you want Web design software which is easy enough for the beginner and has power enough for an expert, save money with this free program.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

The Latest Apple News

The Latest Apple News; Contract vs. No Contract iPhones; Program without Coding; iPads in the Airport; Killing Brick and Mortar; Irrationality Rules; Shortcut Keystrokes.

Beyond Personal Computing

by Marilyn K. Martin

Adventures with GPS: Getting Lost is Only Half the Fun

Amusing anecdotes about using a GPS.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

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

"The CNET Download Manager," "Browser Add-ons," "Prefetch Follow Up," "Another Windows 8 Tip"

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Digital Dave

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

Thunderbird Program Performance; Unwanted Message for New Monitor; Adding the Desktop to the Windows Taskbar.

Thunderbird Program Performance

Dear Digital Dave,

I have been using Thunderbird for quite some time and am up-to-date (Version 12.0.1). For the past year +, I've experienced poor performance from Thunderbird. When scrolling through a message, the lines are very erratic and when I type characters, they don't appear immediately. Thunderbird acts as though I've got a very slow CPU or some other application is hogging CPU cycles. I have used a performance monitor to see what else is going on when Thunderbird is active, but I am not detecting anything unusual. All other programs perform as expected. I do use local folders, but delete messages older than 90 days. I do not use any Thunderbird Add-ons. Frustrated! Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jim Metts

San Diego, CA

Dear Jim,

There are a couple of possibilities. The first is that the index files (msf extension) may have become corrupted. Even if you regularly delete messages, corrupted indexes can cause problems. In fact, in many database systems, deleting messages can increase the odds of corrupting an index since files are rarely actually deleted without some sort of compacting procedure. (I do not know if this is the case with Thunderbird.)

The solution would be to delete the msf files when Thunderbird is closed. Then, when you open Thunderbird again, the index files will be recreated. If you are uncomfortable with doing this manually, try ThunderFix which automates the process.

Another possibility is that the latest version of Thunderbird seems to have some issues with certain antivirus programs. They are working on a fix for the problem, but I don't know when it will be available. In the meantime, there is a workaround.

Digital Dave

Unwanted Message for New Monitor

Dear Digital Dave,

I just bought a brand new monitor...whew a huge one. A 27" Viewsonic. I am happy with it except, I installed the software that came with it, and now every time I try to play a game I get the message "for best viewing adjust your monitor to 1920 x 1080." It already is set to the normal default, which is max.

My question is, how do I get rid of that annoying startup message or how do I disable the message? I have looked and cannot find the offensive program that came with the monitor. Any help would be appreciated.

Mark Kowal

Thornton, CO

Dear Mark,

While I can't guarantee that this will resolve your unwanted message problem, it's worth a shot. There are three ways that monitor setup can be affected. One is through the operating system, the second is video card setup and the third is through the monitor itself (usually controls on the front of the monitor). You have most likely been working with the Control Panel Display setting and/or graphics card setting. However, you may also want to check the settings on the monitor. It is possible that the automatic detection of the mode is blocked at the monitor.

If the monitor is set to some sort of manual mode, it may be that it is being detected every time you load a game and reminding you to make sure the settings are right. Use the controls on the monitor to set the monitor to some type of auto source.

If you can't find a setting in the monitor that may be causing the prompt message, make sure your Control Panel Display settings are in agreement with your video card settings.

Another possibility is that you're trying to run something that is not at the monitor's native resolution. Most games will let you adjust the resolution of the game, since they almost never pick the correct one. One of the first things you should do when you fire up a new game is make sure it is running at the native resolution of your monitor or everything will look blurry. This might not solve the problem with the message, but it's good advice anyway. Perhaps someone else who has resolved this problem will post a comment on this column.

Digital Dave

Adding the Desktop to the Windows Taskbar

While this may not seem like much of an issue right now, this trick may become more useful when (or if) you ever move to Windows 8. It works in all versions of Windows, so it is something that you can do right now.

One of the problems of the Windows Desktop is that it is covered up whenever there are open windows. Even if you've added shortcuts to the Desktop, the open windows need to be minimized prior to clicking one of those icons. Many people may resort to the Start Menu in these situations, but in Windows 8 the Start Menu is missing from the Taskbar. A quick solution is to add the Desktop to the Taskbar. This will make all of the Desktop shortcuts readily accessible from the Taskbar, plus replace one of the Start Menu functions in Windows 8.

Right click on a blank space in the Windows Taskbar and select Toolbars => Desktop from the pop-up menu (see Figure 1). This will add everything that appears on the Desktop to a pop-up on the Taskbar. (Adjust the width of the Desktop label to show only the word Desktop and the double arrow which pops up the hidden menu.)

Then rather than minimizing windows to use Desktop shortcuts, add the Desktop to the Taskbar. In Windows 8 add those program shortcuts that you would have normally added to your Start Menu.

As an alternative, in Windows 7 and Windows 8 you can also click the "Show desktop" rectangle in the bottom right corner to minimize everything. When you click it again, the windows will pop up the way they were before (sometimes).

*                    *                    *

For more information about the new Windows 8 operating system, see Jack's e-book Misunderstanding Windows 8 available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble and ComputorEdge E-books.

My Favorite Free Web Design Program

“KompoZer Is a Free Alternative to Expensive Commercial Programs”
by Jack Dunning

If you want Web design software which is easy enough for the beginner and has power enough for an expert, save money with this free program.

If a Facebook page does everything you want then you don't need a Web site of your own. In fact most people will never want a separate Web site—and for good reason. Unless you have a single static page site, keeping a Web site up is a lot of work. Who needs it?

However, if you own a business, you probably should own a Web site—even if only to act as an electronic business card. Today, every business is expected to host a Web site. It is your virtual proof of existence. People want a way to find you with an Internet search—even if it's only to get your address or telephone number. I suppose that a Facebook page can substitute for a separate Web business page, but you're so much more constrained when you depend upon a third party to sponsor your marketing activities. Your flexibility is severely limited on Facebook. Plus, who knows what new rules (or fees) Facebook will implement in the future?

It's no problem to find inexpensive hosting for a Web site ($5 per month or less). Plus, these hosts offer many free tools for maintaining your Web pages. (Because it's cheap, I currently use GoDaddy for a number of sites, although I do maintain separate servers at a colocation facility for ComputorEdge and e-mail.) While the tools from the Web hosting company are useful, they are often limited.

There are commercial programs, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, designed specifically for creating and designing Web pages, but they can be quite pricey. These programs will offer a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get, pronounced "wizzie-wig") interface for designing your pages. They automatically generate the HTML code (the language of the Web) from the design screens. You can then use the program to directly publish (upload) the pages to the Web. You can also generate Javascript applets for making the pages more interactive. The primary downside is the price of the software.

Fortunately there is free software which does virtually everything you find in the commercial Web design programs. KompoZer is a powerful, free Web authoring system which offers WYSIWYG Web page editing and the functions for managing the site structure and transferring (FTP) the updated pages to the host Web server. It is my favorite Web design program because while a beginner can immediately start creating pages as if using a word processing program, the more experienced Web designer can directly access the HTML code to tweak the pages.

I can and have written Web programs directly in HTML. However, generating code by hand is tedious, especially when you're adjusting design and style elements. Even if I intend to deliver the final product to the Web server as a file tweaked in a text editor, I will often do the initial design with the WYSIWYG design function in KompoZer, then switch to the Source mode to clean up the code. If you are a beginner, there is no need to mess with the HTML since it is automatically generated from the KompoZer WYSIWYG screen. I switch to text editors because most Web design programs of this type (including the commercial products) will often add unnecessary code as changes are made in the main editing screen. This is just my preference. The pages generated in KompoZer will still display the same without any direct HTML editing.

There are four primary modes in KompoZer: The Normal mode, the HTML mode, the Source mode, and the Preview mode.

The Normal Mode

The Normal mode is your primary WYSIWYG editing screen (see Figure 1). It responds to your actions much in the same way as word processing software. You can directly enter text, change fonts, adjust alignments, alter colors and insert images. As you do this, the program is writing the HTML code which controls the Web display of your words and design. If you put in special features such as tables, they will show as light lines in the Normal mode, but they will not appear in the final page (unless you add visible borders).

Figure 1. In the Normal mode you can directly edit the page.

Unless you are comfortable with working with the HTML tags or code, the Normal mode will be your primary editing view.

The HTML Mode

If you click the second tab at the bottom of the screen labeled HTML Tags, you will see the HTML tag editing mode. This screen is identical to the Normal editing screen except it has added the HTML tags which are embedded in the page as icons (see Figure 2). In this mode you work with the text and images in much the same manner as the Normal mode, as well as, the HTML tag icons (little boxes) in yellow. It offers an intermediate way to work with HTML tags without dealing directly with the code.

Figure 2. The HTML mode displays icons for the HTML tags.

Double-clicking on an icon will open a window for editing and modifying the tag parameters. Right-clicking will open a menu of options. If you have problems in your HTML, you may quickly see them here, while it could be much more difficult to locate problems in the source code page—even if you're an experienced Web programmer.

The Source Mode

The third tab at the bottom of the screen is the Source (or source code) view. This is the actual program code which will generate the Web page in the user's browser upon loading from the Web server (see Figure 3). If you are comfortable with directly editing HTML code, then this is where you may want to tweak your pages. Any changes you make will be reflected in all of the other views since this is the driving code behind everything which will appear on the Web.

Figure 3. The Source mode displays the actual editable code which creates the Web page.

Tip: If you would like to learn a little HTML, make changes in the Normal view (or HTML view), then switch to Source to see what code has been generated. Then try changing or adding code to the source page and see the effect on the Normal view.

The Preview Mode

In Preview, the fourth tab at the bottom, you will see the most accurate representation of the Web page design (see Figure 4). None of the formatting lines or HTML tags which may confuse the view will display. This is how you check the look of the final product.

Figure 4. The Preview mode displays a view as it would be seen on the Web.

Note: Not every browser will render the Web page in exactly the same manner. It is also useful to check how a page looks in various Web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc).

Web Site Information

Web page hosting sites use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for publishing your Web page. When you sign up you will be given an address, user name and password for accessing the site. After you enter this information into KompoZer, you will be able to connect with your Web site and upload new pages (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Web site information includes the URL (address), user name and password for uploading files to the site.

Publishing Your Web Page

When you're making changes to your Web site, none of the pages on the site itself will update until you publish to the site. This prevents users from seeing what you're doing until you know that the page is right. Even though it may appear that you are working directly on the site, you are actually editing pages on your computer. To upload the new pages, click the Publish button (see Figure 6). If you make any changes to the Web page, the Publish button will automatically be enabled for transferring the new files to the Web server.

Figure 6. Publishing the Web page(s) to the server can be done by clicking the round Publish button (circled in red).

While working on your Web site, it's a good idea to periodically save a copy of your Web site files locally on your hard drive. This will give you additional backup. The host server (if from a hosting company) will most likely make backups, but it is always a good idea to have your own copies.

There are many more features in KompoZer, but you will discover these as you work with your Web pages. The basic concept is to design a Web page, then publish it to the Web. Once you do that, the entire world is capable of seeing it. Now you need to tell someone about it.

*                    *                    *

Firefox for FTP

If you use other programs (such as a word processing) for generating your Web pages, then you will still need a program for uploading the files to the Web server. I previously used FileZilla as an FTP program for uploading, until I ran into problems which prompted me to look for an alternative. (FileZilla is an excellent program for file transfer, but be sure not to save your user name and password in the program for automatic log on. This feature allowed one of my sites to be compromised. This problem has probably been fixed since then, but I've moved on.) My favorite FTP program is now the FireFTP add-on for Mozilla Firefox.

FireFTP runs within Firefox and works in a manner very similar to FileZilla. Common in FTP programs is a screen displaying two windows (see Figure 7). The window on the left represents the file structure on your local computer. The window on the right shows the file structure for the remote (or Web host) server. Uploading and downloading is as simple as highlighting the file name and clicking the appropriate arrow. File names may also be dragged (left-click and hold while moving the cursor) from one side to the other for updating.

Figure 7. Often in FTP programs, files can be uploaded to a remote computer by dragging the file name from the left window (local) to the right window (remote).

Sometimes when I need to make a large file (too big to e-mail) available to someone, I will upload it to a Web site with an FTP program such as FireFTP and e-mail a link to the file to that person. The file does not become part of the Web site (no links), but the recipient of the e-mail link can download the file by clicking on the link.

When not using a program such as KompoZer, I've effectively used FireFTP to support my Web sites.

*                    *                    *

I've compiled many of my articles on my favorite free Windows programs into an e-book coincidentally title Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs: What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Started! The book includes this article plus my favorite free CAD program, video editing, graphic editing, program editing, and more.

You can also dig through all my articles over the past couple of years to find most of the same information—although there is some new stuff in the book. It's currently available at Amazon and will soon be found at other e-book sources. (At iTunes it will take about a month for the book to appear since Apple is never in a rush.) I'm thinking of getting a copy myself so that the next time I set up a new computer I'll remember what to load on it.

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.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

“The Latest Apple News”
by Wally Wang

The Latest Apple News; Contract vs. No Contract iPhones; Program without Coding; iPads in the Airport; Killing Brick and Mortar; Irrationality Rules; Shortcut Keystrokes.

On June 11, Apple announced all new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. Most of these changes simply include Intel's new Ivy Bridge processor, but one MacBook Pro model introduced a Retina 2880x1800 display with a resolution of 220 pixels per inch. If you still want, you can buy updated versions of Apple's older MacBook Pro laptops without the Retina display, which are almost $1,000 cheaper.

Figure 1. The MacBook Pro with the Retina display.

In addition to faster processors, the MacBook Air and Pro laptops also offer a new USB 2.0/3.0 port. Rather than offer separate USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, the MacBook models let you plug in either 2.0 or 3.0 cables and the ports are smart enough to adapt without requiring any additional configuration by the user.

If you buy a new Macintosh now, you can get a free upgrade to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in July when Apple releases it. For anyone with a current Macintosh running Lion or Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to Mountain Lion for just $19.99.

In case you don't want a laptop, you can buy the latest Mac Pro desktop designed for hardcore professionals who need the maximum amount of power at their fingertips. The Mac Pro also offers a server version for those who want to set up a Macintosh network.

While Apple keeps updating their Macintosh computers and OS X, they're really putting much more effort promoting iOS. With many people texting or calling while driving, there's a growing danger of people causing more accidents. That's why Apple has teamed up with major car manufacturers like General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda to offer a new Siri button directly on the steering wheel.

With newer car models, you'll now be able to connect your iPhone or iPad (Siri is coming to the iPad too) to your car and be able to control it entirely with your voice. This lets you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel while still letting you dictate texts to send and commands to control your iPhone or iPad.

Will this built-in steering wheel button work with other operating systems like Android, Windows Phone 7, or Blackberry 10? Maybe, but having built-in support for the iPhone immediately throws a huge hurdle for rival phones to gain acceptance with the public. With the iPhone setting the standard in the smartphone market, this gives people one more reason to abandon their current phone to switch to the iPhone.

Siri, Apple's natural language interface, will now recognize more languages including Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Korean and Italian. As more people around the world come to depend on Siri or see Siri's features in action, they'll likely demand similar features from rival phones. Can Blackberry 10, Android and Windows Phone 7 respond fast enough to keep their customers?

One new feature of iOS will be a Passbook app, which lets you keep track of tickets for airplanes, movie theaters, or even Starbucks membership cards. Most likely Passbook will pave the way for using an iPhone to pay for items like the Japanese do with their mobile phones, swiping them over a special scanner to bill their accounts automatically.

As expected, Apple revealed a new Maps app that includes 3D features and turn by turn navigation directions. Along with tighter Facebook and iCloud integration, iOS 6 still runs on the iPhone 3GS but only on the iPad 2 and 3. Expect iOS by this fall, which will be the same time the iPhone 5 appears.

Figure 2. The new Maps app offers 3D views that let you rotate and drill down to see more detail.

To further enhance the value of your Apple product, Apple plans to offer further enhancements to iCloud. Macintosh computers running Mountain Lion will now have a Messages and Reminders app to let you synchronize your data between a Macintosh, an iPhone and an iPad. In addition, you can also synchronize iWork documents between multiple devices (assuming you have iWork).

Figure 3. iCloud will synchronize data between multiple Apple products.

Given a choice between having your data appearing on multiple devices with an operating system optimized for each form factor, or having the same operating system crammed into different devices regardless of whether it's optimized for that form factor or not, would you rather have your data everywhere or have the same operating system everywhere?

For those who hate typing, Mountain Lion will accept dictation. Anywhere you can type on your Macintosh, you can dictate instead. Not only will this prove helpful for people unable to type for whatever reason, but this will make using a computer feel more natural to many more people.

The future continues to look bright for Apple's entire product line that works together to make each product more valuable when synchronized with the others. Watch the complete video broadcast of Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference keynote. To see what other companies do at their developer's conference, visit this link about scantily-clad women singing a song relating the company name to genitals and ask yourself which company seems focused on improving their technology to help others.

Contract vs. No Contract iPhones

If you're interested in picking up an iPhone, you now have two options. First, you can choose AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint and buy the iPhone at a reduced price (such as $199) as long as you sign up for a two-year commitment. A second option is to pay the entire cost of the iPhone up front (approximately $649) and pay a much lower monthly fee with no contract whatsoever.

Figure 4. Comparing iPhone plans for different carriers.

Both Virgin Mobile and Cricket Wireless offer prepaid, no-contract iPhone plans with unlimited texting and data plans, although heavy data users can expect their data will get throttled after reaching a certain limit such as 2.5GB of data a month. According to PC World, the long-term cost of an iPhone is cheapest if you go with Virgin Mobile.

From a texting and data point of view, Virgin Mobile is the best option. Depending on your area, Virgin Mobile may not offer the best cellular coverage, which means you may not be able to make calls in certain parts of the country.

The general consensus is that Verizon has the best nationwide coverage in the United States followed by AT&T and Sprint. In comparison, Cricket and Virgin Mobile have far less coverage, so check your area before choosing Cricket or Virgin Mobile. After all, having the lowest cost means nothing if you can't use your iPhone to make or receive a phone call once in a while.

Program without Coding

Many people would like to create a program, but learning how to write a program can be troublesome. If you want to write a Windows program, you could use C#, but then if you wanted to create a similar program for the Macintosh, you'd have to convert it to Objective-C. Rather than learn a programming language, download a free copy of Illumination Software Creator, which lets you create programs for iOS and Android.

Figure 5. Create a program without writing code.

With Illumination Software Creator, you line up blocks that perform tasks and link them together. While this makes programming easy and fast, the trade off is that it can also be a bit limiting. Still, if you're curious about programming but don't like the complexity of traditional programming languages, try Illumination Software Creator, which is now open source. At the very least, you can use this program to create a prototype of your idea and when it works, you can show it to a professional programmer so they'll know what you want to create.

iPads in the Airport

Many airlines are now allowing pilots to use iPads instead of carrying bulky paper flight manuals. Now OTG, which operates many restaurants in airports, has installed 300 iPads tethered to tables so people can order food and surf the Web while waiting for their flight at New York's LaGuardia airport.

Figure 6. You can now order food through an iPad and browse the Internet at the airport.

OTG plans to eventually expand the number of iPads at LaGuardia from 300 to 2000. In addition, OTG plans to roll out 2500 iPads at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and 2500 tablets at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

Imagine using netbooks or laptops instead of the iPad. First of all, people might spill liquid or drop crumbs in the keyboard, fouling them up. Second, with movable parts in the keyboard, it's likely people would accidentally pry the keys off, resulting in an army of crippled netbooks or laptops scattered around. Then there would be the problem of people loading malware on the devices through USB flash drives. Finally, netbooks and laptops would just be clumsier to use than touching the screen of an iPad to do anything.

With thousands of iPads constantly being used for practical purposes, more people get to see and experience the iPad, which will only increase the chances that people will eventually want an iPad of their own. For those computer technicians who used to make their living maintaining Windows PCs in networks, the new market will lie in managing iPads on corporate networks, so start learning how to use and manage an iPad now if you want to maintain your computer skills for the future.

The FactSet site recently created a bar chart listing the top revenue earning companies in Europe. Naturally, this list included Apple, which continues selling products throughout Europe despite the Euro crisis and the economic turmoil. Surprisingly, FactSet predicts that Apple's next quarter sales growth will skyrocket. If Apple can continue selling more products every quarter despite a global recession, how well will they do when prosperity returns to the planet once more? More importantly, if Apple products were really overpriced, how come so many people still buy them despite the recession?

Figure 7. The top corporations earning revenue in Europe.

Killing Brick and Mortar

Best Buy's founder and chairman, Richard Schulze, recently resigned. Whether this has anything to do with Best Buy's fading relevance in today's society that uses Best Buy as a free showroom to examine products before saving more money buying them online is unknown. What is known is that Best Buy has been shutting down retail stores as the cost of running a retail presence continues to rise. When online options are less expensive and more convenient, why bother going to a retail store?

Now this line of thinking has started threatening universities. In the past, if you wanted a degree from a particular university, you had to apply and hope to get in. Then you had to physically attend classes and pay whatever tuition costs the university felt like charging you every year. Finally, you could graduate with a degree.

Universities are no different than brick and mortar stores that require the cost of maintaining a physical location that can only accommodate a limited number of students (customers). That's why a Stanford professor named Sebastian Thrun has decided to offer free and low-cost courses through a new online school called Udacity.

Figure 8. Udacity offers free college level courses.

"It's pretty obvious that degrees will go away," Thrun says. "The idea of a degree is that you spend a fixed time right after high school to educate yourself for the rest of your career. But careers change so much over a lifetime now that this model isn't valid anymore."

Thrun hopes that he can eventually get the cost of a college education down to $100. No matter how much or how little you might pay for a college degree through Udacity, the main point is that you no longer need to saddle yourself with massive student loans (and debt) along with physically moving to a new location just to learn anything by attending a regular university.

Naturally, traditional universities are appalled at the thought that online learning can be just as effective as traditional classrooms (and traditionally high tuition). Yet if brick and mortar retail stores are fading from relevance, it's even easier to see how online learning can destroy the stranglehold on education that today's universities currently enjoy and exploit.

For another free source of college level courses, download the free iTunes U app for your iPhone or iPad. By taking the initiative to learn on your own, you'll be much further ahead than someone who can only learn under the duress of a classroom environment.

If you want a degree, you can buy one from a traditional university, but if you want to actually learn something, you might be more motivated to take Udacity's free courses. If you're motivated enough to learn something online, you probably already have the skills and determination to succeed in life, which is something you will rarely learn by just passively attending classes in a school that soaks its students with high tuition fees and outrageous textbook costs every year.

Irrationality Rules

People aren't rational, but they are rationalizing. Rather than face facts, most people simply look for someone else to blame for their problems. In Spain, just like practically everywhere else in the world, book sales are plummeting. At the 71st annual Madrid Book Fair, book lovers and publishers gathered to promote the Spanish book market, but the event was rather dismal.

Pilar Gallego, chairwoman of the book fair, admitted that Spain's bookshops are experiencing "significant" sales declines up to 30 percent. "Amazon is enemy number one of booksellers," declared Fernando Valverde, president of CEGAL, the Spanish Booksellers' Association, and secretary of the fair. "They don't respect the fixed price of books and because of that we are suing them."

Will suing Amazon stop the decline of printed book sales? Probably not because Barnes & Noble sells their Nook e-reader while Apple sells e-books through their iBookstore for both the iPhone and iPad. Perhaps Fernando Valverde should sue Boeing and Airbus on behalf of the train and bus industry, or sue General Motors and Toyota on behalf of the horse and carriage industry. The slide ruler industry would probably want Fernando to sue the pocket calculator industry while the clay tablet market would probably want Fernando to sue the paper companies for displacing their industry so many centuries ago.

To avoid letting your mind stagnate and turn into a dogmatic, illogical, angry parody of a rational human being, keep your mind active by reading printed books and e-books that challenge your current way of thinking or that specifically prod you into thinking in different directions.

Roger von Oech has written three books that can spark creativity in any but the most hardened minds with titles like A Whack on the Side of the Head, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, and Expect the Unexpected. You can also buy the $1.99 Creative Whack Pack for the iPhone or iPad. Now whenever you feel an urge to make a logically flawed argument based on your own prejudices and lack of actual facts, load the Creative Whack Pack and start thinking outside your normal boundaries. With the help of creative thinking, you can avoid making the mistake of book sellers who blame their competitors for their own inability to adapt.

Figure 9. The Creative Whack Pack runs on the iPhone and iPad.

*                    *                    *

Using pull-down menus or graphical user interfaces will never be as fast as shortcut keystrokes, but remembering what keys to press for which command can be troublesome. To give you a hand, visit Apple's official list of keystroke shortcuts so you can find the command you need to use most often.

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

“Adventures with GPS: Getting Lost is Only Half the Fun”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Amusing anecdotes about using a GPS.

"When you own a GPS device, you're never lost; you just haven't arrived yet."

For some Techies, there is no such thing as Life Without Global Positioning Satellites (or GPS). Everyday, it seems, they find new uses for the digital version of a Swiss Army Knife.

Family Fun With GPS...

• Easter egg hunts for your kids are done using a list of geocache coordinates in your backyard.

• You've made your own custom GPS celebrity-voice using your mother-in-law's voice crossed with Elmer Fudd.

• Your kids explain how their day in the neighborhood went using latitude and longitude coordinates.

• You use Tripmaster on your GPS to make sure your kid is mowing every square inch of the lawn at your house.

• You geocache your wallet and car keys inside your own home to remember where you last left them.

• Your parrot whistles the Dutch national anthem whenever it hears the TomTom boot-up drum beats.

Overhead Conversation

Man #1: Are you visiting us tomorrow? Do you need directions?

Man #2: I'm all set. I have the address, a GPS, and a GPS override.

Man #1: What's a GPS override?

Man #2: My wife.

On Vacation...

• You geotag your metal-detector finds at the beach, so you can return to the same spot again and look for more.

• Your favorite GPS menu selection is the one that answers "How many more exits?" when your kids ask from the backseat.

• You wish more effort would go into an "Avoid ghetto" routing option.

• You suggest GPS really start their directions from "on-ramp to freeway," since you're pretty sure you know how to get out of your own neighborhood.

Helping Others...

• You helped your local pastor replace the "you-have-arrived" checkered flag on his GPS with the Pearly Gates.

• When your neighbor asks what your GPS actually does, you explain that it keeps you "Goin' Pretty Straight."

The Lady In The Box

Most GPS devices have a female voice. Based on the device's occasionally unhelpful or totally mystifying directions, most drivers give their GPS names, such as Jezebel or She-Demon. One lady reported that her husband came back from a business trip, and now the Lady In The GPS Box has a British accent: "I swear she gets huffy after I ask for a third recalculation!"

Vehicle GPS Overload

• You know you've entered too many waypoints on your route when the GPS voice says, "Game over, insert quarter."

• You've reprogrammed the Red Light/Speed Camera file to sound the alarm anytime you're near a donut shop.

• When you get pulled over for speeding, you try to beat it by explaining that your GPS can't track that fast.

• You know you need new Nav Maps when the voice in your GPS speaker says "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."

• Your Points of Interest (POI) BMP icons are your kids' faces, so you know when you drive by their favorite destinations.

• Your GPS screen shows so many Points of Interest that it looks like a target from your last paint-ball gun war-game.

When in Doubt...

Too many GPS detours through hotel parking structures or strip malls, frustrated drivers have been known to turn it off and use their "internal GPS."

New and Fun Uses

• You're using your old satellite TV dish antenna on your car as an external GPS antenna, and it really works.

• You think its fun to take your GPS with you on roller-coaster rides at amusement parks.

• You use the "When do you want to arrive?" feature on your GPS as a bedside alarm clock in the morning.

Real Life Travails with GPS

• You wonder why your GPS has your home located next door.

• Oklahoma and other states have some stretches of road that don't appear on GPS.

• You are out hiking and come to a river, which your hand-held GPS says you've already crossed.

• Pulling off the road to wait, after discarding your GPS' mystery-directions, while it sniffs "Recalculating."

• A friend borrows your car for a short trek, and thereafter your GPS speaks with an Australian accent.

If The IRS Made GPS

"Proceed to the intersection following Schedule C. Then turn right if the number of passengers in your vehicle is greater than the number of cup-holders currently in use. Otherwise, turn left and follow the dirt road to Schedule N, where you will have to sell a tire or your youngest child to get back to the interstate. If you don't have a dum-dum temp tire, follow Schedule Q to the closest police station to pay the Lumpy Ride Trip Tax, or there will be an All Points Bulletin put out for your arrest."

Imagining Other GPS Voice Types

Liberal: "All my friends take this route, but I never ask them why. Uh-oh, washed-out bridge. Bummer."

Moderate: "Stay on the center line, or try to. Don't turn there...well, OK, if you really want to."

Conservative: "It's fiscally irresponsible to waste gas taking a scenic route. See? Here we are. We just have to wait until it opens."

Programmer: "In exactly thirty yards, apply pressure to brake and grasp wheel on the left, then turn right."

Environmentalist: "Start and stop gently with minimum waste of gas, and use a double-muffler to minimize your carbon footprint."

GearHead: "Lots of asphalt and no traffic. So whatayasay we try that brake-and-spin bit again!"

Perhaps a Little Extreme

• You've tattooed your home latitude/longitude coordinates on your left arm, along with a Reward-if-Found message.

• Your back-up GPS consists of a world globe and a C-clamp to secure it to your automobile dash.

• You sorta understand that "geostationary" doesn't mean trying to pass a walking sobriety test without falling over.

• You've named your GPS CarNivore, and it takes you to your favorite mega-meat restaurants based only on one of your various growls.

Geocaching

This is a real-life outdoor treasure hunt, to locate hidden containers called geocaches. You use GPS-enabled devices to hunt down the cache/treasure, then share your adventure online. It's a fun adventure for the whole family, especially with video-gaming kids who expect a payoff after hiking across the landscape. It is similar to letterboxing, which is also treasure hunting, but without GPS. (It also involves following clues to a treasure in a waterproof box, then using rubber-stamps and logbooks to verify that you've found the treasure.)

A Geocacher's T-Shirt

"I Use Multi-Million Dollar Military Satellites For Free To Find Tupperware In The Woods. What's Your Hobby?"

Homemade GPS Device

If you've got a rabid GPSer in the family, and some woodworking tools, make a little hollow wooden box that says "Global Positioning Device" on top. Then take a flat piece of wood cut to slip inside that says "You Are Here" with an X in the middle.

GPS of the Future

"Long route? Short route? Scenic route? Small business route including raffle tickets if you stop at three businesses? Walmart route, lots of signs but everything's been moved around? Political route—recommended for winter only, since it includes a lot of hot air? Random 'surprise mix' of three of above routings?"

GPS in Space

"Fly straight toward Orion cluster. Turn left at red dwarf. Stop, half-spin, then accelerate toward shimmering vortex opening up. You overshot and are heading for a black hole. Recommend you ask for recalculation. Fast."

(Many of these amusing anecdotes and jokes can be found on multiple Internet joke sites. But special thanks to funny.com, joke-of-the-day.com, politicalhumor.about.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 has converted many of Marilyn's computer humor columns into four e-books.

* Computer Confusion in Paradise: Lo! And in the Beginning There Was Total Befuddlement!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computer Hardware: "Parts Is Parts", in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computerholics Anonymous: PC Users, Abusers and Confusioners, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* My Computer, My Nemesis: Bravely into the Smiley-Face Virtual Void!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* All four e-books can be found at our E-Book Store.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

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

"The CNET Download Manager," "Browser Add-ons," "Prefetch Follow Up," "Another Windows 8 Tip"

Ahh, the CNET Download Manager....

[Regarding Jack Dunning's June 1 article, "My Favorite Free Screencast Program":]

One of my pet peeves added to CNET.

I'm finding that many of the CNET download links are broken by the companies they access. Reporting them seems to be broken too.

The CNET Manager is also useless in that respect as well.

CNET used to be my #1 search option (both free files and some drivers), but now it's either back to the company support sites (download) or FileHippo.

Bypassing the computer manufacturers support Web site to get W7 to run on non-supported computers is a must. Many chipset makers have drivers for W7, but they recommend you go back to the OEM Support site. The usual disclaimer applies, but chipset makers have the upgrades for W7. You just have to look for them! (I ran the Dell I6000 I'm typing this on W7, but downgraded back to XP because there was the annoyance factor and no gain from W7).

-Art Blackwell, Evergreen, CO

Browser Add-ons

[Regarding the June 1 Digital Dave column:]

Use CCleaner first. That is for the non-nerd types. It may not get rid of the (malware) add-ons.

For some people and the person that knows their computer, get the Tweak Now Power Pack (for the less knowledgeable, the Tweaknow people offer a simpler version).

You open the program and adjust some Windows settings first. After you have done that, then open the Windows Cleaner tab. Start with the Track Cleaner.

Then follow the different options from right to left.

I've never had a problem with (unwanted) add-ons and Tweaknow takes care of the forced search engine changes (from Bing back to Google in my case).

-Art, Evergreen,CO

Prefetch Follow Up

[Regarding the May 25 Digital Dave column:]

Dave -

Periodically I've cleared Prefetch. Your thoughts.

-Gary Weinstein, Groveland, CA

[The main impact of clearing Prefetch would be to reset the programs to be cached. If you use all the same programs, then there would be no real advantage. If you change programs often, the new programs will be cached quicker. —Digital Dave]

Another Windows 8 Tip

[Regarding the May 25 EdgeWord: Windows 8 Screen Cast for YouTube column:]

Jack,

Another easy (one-click) way to get to the Desktop fron the Startup screen is to move the desktop icon to the top-left icon on the startup screen. Then you need only press ENTER after booting and you are at the Desktop.

-Joe Nuvolini

[I was so impressed with this tip that I made a video of it for YouTube. —Jack]

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