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High Tech Sports, 2014 Previews, and More!

Concussion Detector, Sports-Watch and Athlete IPOs; Smart-Clouds for Big Data; Apps and Integration, Fewer Electric Cars; 2014 Hardware Projections; Steam Machine OS and Holo-Gaming; Social Media and Spam; Better Anti-Hacking Software; Tips for Better Computer Security; Robot Updates; High Tech for Orbit and Outer Space.

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Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Gadget Clock Displays Wrong Time and Date; Using a Disk Copy vs. a Disk Image; Windows Update Not Working.

High Tech Sports, 2014 Previews, and More!

by Marilyn K. Martin

Social Media and Spam, Anti-Hacking Software, 'Bots and Deep Space

Concussion Detector, Sports-Watch and Athlete IPOs; Smart-Clouds for Big Data; Apps and Integration, Fewer Electric Cars; 2014 Hardware Projections; Steam Machine OS and Holo-Gaming; Social Media and Spam; Better Anti-Hacking Software; Tips for Better Computer Security; Robot Updates; High Tech for Orbit and Outer Space.

Windows Tips and Tricks: Finding and Defragging Files on a Drive

by Jack Dunning

DiskView Shows the Physical Location of Files on a Drive and Contig Defrags Individual Files

A look at a drive with DiskView will immediate show the location and fragmentation of files. Sometimes there may be a need to defrag a specific file with Contig.

Adding Icons to the QuickLinks AutoHotkey Script

by Jack Dunning

Add Icons to the QuickLinks App to Make It Easier to Read

A long list of items in a menu can be enhanced by adding icons to help distinguish each option.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

Market Share vs. Profits

Market Share vs. Profits; Apple's Latest Solar Panel Patent; Do You Need A New iPad?; Teenagers Abandon Facebook; Intel ARM Chips; Circling the Drain; Upgrading iWork.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

by Charles Carr

The latest in tech news and hot product reviews.

Samsung Goes to College; Crowdfunding Obamacare = Entrepreneurs?; One Giant Leap for Computer Users; The Wolf Among Us (PC).

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

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

"Geocaching on TV," "Automatic Image Resizing," "Windows Reboot"

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Digital Dave

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

Gadget Clock Displays Wrong Time and Date; Using a Disk Copy vs. a Disk Image; Windows Update Not Working.

Gadget Clock Displays Wrong Time and Date

Dear Digital Dave,

I have a gadget clock on my Windows 7 desktop that displays the wrong time (hour and minute) and wrong date. The taskbar clock is correct. If I reinstall it, it will display properly, but just for a few days.

Does this have anything to do with the CMOS battery? My computer is about five years old and I have never changed the battery.

Poz

San Diego, CA

Dear Poz,

It could be your CMOS battery which is used to maintain the BIOS settings on the motherboard. If it is, then you would see the same problem with the clock in the System Tray—except that clock is probably getting updated from the Internet. To check the System Tray Clock, disconnect from the Internet and reboot. If the CMOS battery is bad, the System Tray clock should be wrong. If the System Tray clock comes up with the correct time and date, then the problem is with the gadget.

The CMOS batteries are generally rated to last about ten years, but they could easily go sooner. Fortunately they are relatively easy to replace. Check your computer manual for location and type of CMOS battery.

If replacing the battery doesn't solve the problem or you determine that the battery was not the problem, then there may be settings in the gadget worth checking. Unfortunately, Microsoft no longer offers additional gadgets for Windows 7. If you could find another clock gadget to test, then you could compare results.

Digital Dave

Using a Disk Copy vs. a Disk Image

Dear Digital Dave,

I've tried Acronis True Image, but have problems understanding and using it. I now use Karen Kenworthy's "Replicator" as it is easy to understand and work with. Replicator simply copies whatever you tell it to copy, including my entire hard drive, and puts the copy wherever you say (an external hard drive in my case). My question is: if my hard drive or OS should fail, is copying the external drive backup to my hard drive the same as restoring an image?

Thank you,

Richard Hardy

San Diego, CA

Dear Richard,

The difference between disk copy and disk image is that copy programs generally copy distinct files while image software makes an exact copy (image) of the drive itself—including the operating system. Disk copy programs are used primarily to back up data because the files can be backed up and restored individually. Disk images are used when changing hard drives or migrating to a new computer.

If you have a catastrophic failure, restoring backup from a disk copy of individual files will usually require you to restore the operating system first. A disk image will restore everything (including the operating system) to the point in time at which the image was created. Disk copy is much more flexible and useful for protecting your data on a day-to-day basis.

However, the term "disk copy" may not be used consistently by all software. In some cases, it may mean creating an image of the disk, while in others it might be copying all the files. If you're able to designate specific files (as in your case), then it is a copy program. A disk image is generally all or nothing since it is a bit-for-bit copy of the entire drive (or partition).

Digital Dave

Windows Update Not Working

Dear Digital Dave,

I have tried to update my wife's computer, but each time I try I get the following message: "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer."

Of course restarting does not help and I fear going any further to resolve this problem because if I mess up her Facebook or e-mail I will be doomed to a very unfortunate slow death.

Any suggestions would be of great help. Thank you for your advice.

Mark Kowal

Denver, CO

Dear Mark,

I understand your concerns about "a very unfortunate slow death."

There are a few reasons why Windows Update may not work and usually rebooting does nothing to fix the problem. Often system files have become corrupted. Sometimes the problem comes from old drivers after an upgrade to a larger hard drive.

I'm including a few links that should point you in the right direction. The first is a Microsoft support FixIt. One of the advantages to this particular approach is that the repair program runs directly from Microsoft when you click Run (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Run the Microsoft FixIt directly from the Web site.

If this doesn't do the job, then you could try the manual instructions on the page, but I suspect that they merely replicate what the FixIt does automatically. (There could be something that prevents the FixIt from running properly.)

If the Microsoft site is no help, then there is a gentleman by the name of Richard Lloyd who has posted a few videos with fixes for other causes of this problem. One of them may be just what you need.

"Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running.(Hard Drive upgrade): youtu.be/yFa-qBAmQiM"

"Windows Update Cannot Currently Check For Updates And Update Service Is Missing. Fixing permission error with this video: youtu.be/0LESWAVHlBs"

These fixes are a little involved, but taken step-by-step should be no problem. Plus, Lloyd seems to be the expert on this problem.

Digital Dave

High Tech Sports, 2014 Previews, and More!

“Social Media and Spam, Anti-Hacking Software, 'Bots and Deep Space”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Concussion Detector, Sports-Watch and Athlete IPOs; Smart-Clouds for Big Data; Apps and Integration, Fewer Electric Cars; 2014 Hardware Projections; Steam Machine OS and Holo-Gaming; Social Media and Spam; Better Anti-Hacking Software; Tips for Better Computer Security; Robot Updates; High Tech for Orbit and Outer Space.

High Tech Sports: Concussion Detector, Sports-Watch and Athlete IPOs

Head injuries in high-impact sports continue to receive a lot of attention, especially since brain damage from a hit may not be readily apparent if the player doesn't lose consciousness. Engadget in January 2013 reported on how Reebok and mc10 teamed up to build CheckLight, a head-impact indicator. CheckLight is composed of a skull-cap made by Reebok, and a sensor device built by mc10. A strip of plastic is filled with flexible sensors connected to a small micro-controller module. It has indicator LEDs, that flash yellow after moderate impacts, and red for severe blows.

According to MIT's Technology Review in September 2013, Notre Dame researchers are ready to test a concussion-detection app on young football players. It is a voice-analysis program that can run on a tablet to help coaches on the sidelines test for concussions in players of high-impact sports. The program pulls out the vowels in predetermined words, and then analyzes changes in those spoken words by a player, that might indicate a brain injury.

In October 2013, The Verge ran an article about a new $400 fitness smartwatch from Adidas. Aimed at runners, the new sports smartwatch has built-in GPS tracking, Bluetooth connectivity, and pulse-based heart rate tracking. Although the smartwatch doesn't communicate with or forward notifications to a smartphone, nor can users stream music from their mobile device. As a standalone device, this sportswatch does "have onboard flash storage to house your running mix," and went on sale November 1st.

Also in October 2013, The New York Times DealBook announced that a new start-up will offer a new trading exchange for Wall Street investors to buy and sell interests in professional athletes. Fantex Holdings is offering charismatic Arian Foster, a Pro Bowl running back from the Houston Texans, as its inaugural initial public offering. The investment is speculative, with Fantex offering 37 pages of risk factors. It is intended to capitalize on the huge popularity of both the National Football League and fantasy football. In the future, Fantex hopes to sign up more athletes, as well as "celebrities like pop singers and Hollywood actors."

2014 High Tech Preview: Smart-Clouds for Big Data

With only three months left in 2013, high tech prognosticators are looking toward 2014 and projecting their "best guess" how the ever-shifting high tech landscape will be trending next year. In July, CloudTimes was predicting that cloud-computing, Big Data and smart mobile apps will drive IT spending in 2014.

According to Forrester Research, software-buying was the largest share of tech spending in 2013, and is expected to continue into 2014, with a shift to "smart" and cloud computing software. With more investment moving toward cloud-computing solutions, "legacy applications" (desktop and server) may begin to languish. Tablet computers are projected for strong growth, along with mobile apps and mobile software. (See below.)

2014 High Tech Preview: Apps and Integration, Fewer Electric Cars

The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch in October 2013, reports that "platform neutrality" is a thing of the past, as gadget makers and app developers cross-buy and continue to create a more integrated tech industry. Samsung is already heavy into developing smartphone apps, and they are working on untethering from Google's Android operating system.

Samsung has partnered with Intel to develop Tizen as an open-source alternative to Android, which is already fragmented and heavily modified in the Asian market anyway. Also in 2013, Google bought Motorola and Microsoft bought Nokia, as these two software providers move into hardware—and the ever-lucrative smartphone market. This integration is already turning partners into competitors, and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are now in competition with platform providers.

According to Yahoo!Finance in October 2013, except for the very rich who can afford to buy a Tesla, expect the electric-car market to continue shrinking. Major car manufacturers have had to reduce the price of their electric cars by thousands of dollars, just to get buyers into showrooms. Toyota will offer its most advanced passenger car, the Prius Plug-in, at a substantially reduced price beginning with the 2014 model. The public sentiment is that electric cars are impractical. And they may be correct, since a fully charged battery doesn't go very far, and car-charging stations across the US are spotty.

2014 Hardware Projections: Tablets and More Tablets

According to Softpedia in October 2013, tablet computer sales surged 42.7% this year, and is expected to continue that growth into 2014. In September 2013, Bloomberg Businessweek predicted that worldwide tablet shipments will surpass those of Personal Computers (PCs) for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2013. This may start a downward trend for PCs and laptops in the US, although tablet sales worldwide aren't expected to overtake PC sales until 2015. But with big-screen smartphone (phablet) growth destined to eventually overtake tablet sales in the US, it's possible foreign growth of phablets may shoot right past any desire to buy tablets.

ConsumerSearch reported in July 2013 that Apple's iPad—which started the tablet storm—is still the best 10-inch tablet available, with its Retina Display and an outstanding app lineup. Google's Nexus 7 is considered the best 7-inch tablet, with its quad-core processor and High Def display. TopTenReviews ran their list of 2014 Best Tablets, and rated the Google Nexus at the top, followed by Toshiba's Excite and Sony's Xperia.

Yahoo reported in October 2013 that Nokia just joined the tablet-craze, recently unveiling its first tablet and large-screen smartphones (or phablets). Nokia's Lumia 2520 tablet, and Lumia 1320 and 1520 smartphones, are among the last products developed before Nokia sells their Devices Unit to Microsoft, in a deal that is due to close in Q1 of next year.

2014 Hardware Projections: Personal Computers Holding Ground with Bigger Monitors

Meanwhile, predictions for Personal Computers (PCs) to tank are not yet being realized. CNN Money reported in October 2013 that Personal Computer (PC) sales are rebounding, and grew by 3.5% in the third quarter—except for Apple, whose PC sales fell by 2.3% or more.

While the growth in PCs may seem surprising amid our mobile craze, most businesses and schools still rely on desktops. And larger monitors may help drive PC sales, since they continue to be the best platform for work and entertainment, as well as specialty projects like Photoshop. 24" monitors are more popular than ever, and JVC Professional is now offering an 84-inch Professional LCD monitor with four times the resolution of full High Def, and a 60p display capability. Squidoo reports that these larger monitors are being credited with "increasing productivity," with workers better able to juggle multiple documents on screen at the same time.

2014 Gaming Projections: Steam Machine OS and Holo-Gaming

Both Microsoft and Sony will release new game consoles by the end of 2013. According to TrustedReviews in September 2013, Valve Software and their Steam game platform, has just announced their SteamOS. Valve is currently running beta tests on prototype game consoles with SteamOS, anticipating "a variety of Steam Machine consoles made by different manufacturers" to be available in 2014.

Meanwhile, Gamespot reported in October 2013 that former Valve employees started a Kickstarter Campaign on October 14th for their "castAR holographic projection technology"—and exceeded their $400,000 funding target in less than 48 hours. CastAR is a "projected augmented reality system" capable of displaying "holographic-like" 3D projections, using a pair of augmented glasses and a couple new peripherals (a Magic Wand, and a RFID Tracking Grid). Their Kickstarter campaign is on-going until mid-November. So 2014 could be a game-changer in the world of video games and consoles.

Social Media and Spam—In the End, It's all about Advertising

You know the "pioneering days" of computing are over, when high tech companies (big and small) are suddenly consumed with advertising to grow their profits. Newser reported in October 2013 that social media spam is up 355% in 2013. While an estimated 70% of all e-mails sent are spam, spam now accounts for one-in-200 social media posts, according to Mashable, with Facebook and YouTube the most spam-heavy. According to Nexgate, the spam has also increased in "sophistication and diversification of mechanisms", with Facebook spam alone "reportedly a $200 million business."

IT News Online in August 2013 reported that "retro spam trends" were seen in the second quarter of this year, include the return of eCards with malicious attachments. According to Kaspersky Lab, another blast-from-the-spamming-past being seen is "white text" or random news text added to the bottom of a spam e-mail and separated by empty lines. (The idea is to persuade spam filters that the unwanted message is really a newsletter.) The top three spam-sending countries (China, US and South Korea) remain the same, but their percentages of spam are all down slightly. Although malicious spam to steal user data about online banking services remained the top category of spam.

Better Anti-Hacking Software

I've already written about how the average anti-virus software is practically worthless. And 2013 has brought us the grim news of both massive and intrusive NSA hacking into private accounts. As well as a fiery and deadly crash of a reporter's car in Los Angeles, that a government security expert said looked like a "drive-by-wire hack."

So now hacking-detection and intrusion-detecting software are more important to the average user than anti-virus software. CNET rates different anti-hacking software, with Abyss Web Server X1 and Emisoft Anti-Malware both the newest and top rated based on user feedback.

TechCrunch reported in October 2013 that a new mobile-security start-up called Skycure has launched a new suite of threat detection software. It claims to monitor network traffic to address suspicious behavior on user devices. It uses a "mobile firewall" to watch for security threats, but—unlike it competitors—doesn't impair the phone's usage, privacy or battery life. It achieves this by pairing a client-side firewall on the device, with a server-side service that does most of the security work, and protects against both local and remote hackers.

Tips for Better Computer Security

Tom'sGuide in September 2013 offered "13 Security and Privacy Tips for the Truly Paranoid." You can start by disabling Java and Adobe Flash, and then consider adding Collusion to your browser for an instant view of which companies are tracking you. Other suggestions range from removing yourself from all social media sites except LinkedIn, and switch to an iPhone since it's much easier to end up with an "infected" Android phone. Running Internet services in a "virtual machine" inside your physical computer will protect you from Internet-based malware, as will running all your Internet connections through TOR, which is free anonymity software.

Financially, suggestions are to use an "isolated" or spare computer for online banking only, which minimizes the machine's exposure to malware, or at least use separate browsers for different purposes. Another suggestion is to use cash whenever possible. ATMs are always problematic, so covering your pin-tapping hand with your other hand is suggested, so embedded cameras can't read your pin-number. Although that still leaves you vulnerable to a possible "skimmer" in the card slot. (I chose a bank with a 24/7 branch in a nearby WalMart, and cut up my bank card. In the past, I've opened a separate checking account in another bank, specifically for all online purchases. Now I just buy $50 or $100 Mastercard debit cards for online purchases.)

Robot Updates: Manufacturing and Warehouse Bots

Robots continue to capture our interest, whether manufacturing-bots that might be stealing jobs, to the Navy's under-ocean surveillance 'bots that look like real fish, to robots' steady march toward real Artificial Intelligence and how that would impact our society. In May 2013, Boeing's Web site ran a story about their airliner wing robot-painters. Not only do the painting-bots speed up the manufacturing process considerably, but they also "ensure pin-point accuracy." MIT's Technology Review ran a story in September 2013 about how the BMW automotive manufacturing plant in South Carolina is using a "new generation of safer, more user-friendly robots."

The NextBigFuture in June 2013 reported that the Int'l Federation of Robotics says the world robot industry continues to grow, with China's manufacturing projected to become the top market for robots worldwide by 2014. China's impetus is their growing personal income, and losing more manufacturing jobs to less-developed countries with a cheaper and growing labor supply.

In the US, Reuters reported in June 2013 that tech giant Amazon bought the robotics company Kiva Systems last year, mainly for warehouse robots. Amazon is using a retooled Webvan to launch an online home-delivery grocery business called AmazonFresh. So far it's only available in Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, California, but plans to open in 20 new markets in 2014. And offering same-day delivery means speedy and accurate warehouse robots.

Robots Updates: Hazardous Duty

The MotleyFool reported in July 2013 that Boston Dynamics' humanoid rescue-bot, named Atlas, is the platform for the seven remaining teams in the ongoing Robotics Challenge at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The goal of the challenge is to have these teams build algorithms and software for Atlas to respond to disasters, and the winning team will receive $2 Million.

In August 2013, IntelligenceCommunity reported that the US Border Patrol plans to use three wireless tunnel robots in the Nogales, Arizona, area. The Border Patrol wants the robots to discover and investigate illicit under-border tunnels, which can be very dangerous with armed criminal guards. The new tunnel-bots can travel over 200 feet with wireless controls, at 3 mph.

Newser ran a story in October 2013 how a violent nine-hour standoff in Roseville, California, ended peacefully when police sent in a robot urging the wanted-parolee to give up. SiliconBeat reported in May 2013 that a Harvard team of engineers spent 12 years perfecting a tiny robotic-fly. Designed to work in a swarm, possible uses range from search-and-rescue operations to crop pollination.

LiveScience (through Yahoo!News) in October 2013 reported that gun-toting robots on wheels may soon join live soldiers on the battlefield. Military leaders attended a technology demonstration at Fort Benning, Georgia, earlier in October, where robotics companies demonstrated how robots could support troops in combat. One robot with thermal-imaging capabilities to see concealed enemies, can be controlled by a human operator 300 feet away, and can open fire with an M240 machine gun. The military leaders were especially interested in robots with "remotely controlled lethal weapons," for combat situations too dangerous for live soldiers.

High Tech for Orbit and Outer Space

In October 2013, Space (through Yahoo!News) reported that intelligent extra-terrestrial life could use a variety of signal forms, and scientists are always watching for new technologies that could aid in detecting these ET signals. Shelley Wright, an astronomer at the University of Toronto (Canada), is building a near-infrared optical detector for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), to look for very short laser light pulses in space, that might indicate an intelligent ET signal.

Also in October 2013, NextBigFuture disclosed that the Pentagon's DARPA is working on a Phoenix Project to send robots into orbit to pull still-good components from dead satellites, then build new satellites while still in orbit. This will help reduce the immense cost of replacing failed satellites, and have in-orbit repair-bots in case of a global conflict depending on satellite coordination. DARPA has tasked NovaWorks with designing and developing these small robot "satlets."

Marilyn is a freelance writer and humorist, with a special interest (besides computers and technology) in Science Fiction. Besides short stories published in various magazines, she also has some new e-books available on Amazon Kindle: Hunting Monster Aliens is an on-going series of novellas, about a wise-cracking team of ghost investigators who occasionally turn into alien-monster hunters. Culture Crash! A California Yankee Transplanted to Texas is a collection of humor essays chronicling her adventures in her new home-state.

Twelve months (July 2012 through June 2013) of Marilyn's Little Known High Tech series has been compiled into an almanac (with a complete index) available exclusively at Amazon. If you want a quick reference for the obscure or unusual in computers and the Internet over the last year, then check it out.

ComputorEdge E-Books has converted many of Marilyn's computer humor columns into four e-books. Now available in a four-book Kindle bundle from Amazon.com The Best Computer and Internet Humor, Anecdotes, and Jokes Found on the Web. Marilyn's collection of the funniest stories about our computing machines and how we use them at home, the office, and in cyber space. Save 25% off the individual book price!

Windows Tips and Tricks: Finding and Defragging Files on a Drive

“DiskView Shows the Physical Location of Files on a Drive and Contig Defrags Individual Files”
by Jack Dunning

A look at a drive with DiskView will immediate show the location and fragmentation of files. Sometimes there may be a need to defrag a specific file with Contig.

ComputorEdge is offering my e-book Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs free at the ComputorEdge E-Books Web site. It's available in EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, Android, and PC, or MOBI for Amazon Kindle and Kindle apps. While you will need to a enter name and address to get the download, you can always use fake information. You do not need to provide a credit card to get the free e-book—unless you decide to buy other e-books. Just select "Print and Call" at checkout, but you don't need to call. We'll activate your order and send a download e-mail once we see the order. Give it a little time since occasionally we will be out of the virtual office. If you do buy any other e-books and use a credit card, you will immediately receive an automatically generated e-mail with download instructions and the link. Tell a friend. We have plenty of copies of the e-book sitting around.

Take a Look at a Map of Your Drive with DiskView

This week we take a look at two Microsoft Sysinternals utilities that work well together. The first is DiskView which scans a drive and displays a physical representation of stored data (see Figure 1). This may be useful if you think that file fragmentation is causing your system to slow down.

Figure 1. DiskView shows a graphic display of files stored on a drive (zoomed in).

When first loading DiskView, click Refresh and wait while the utility scans the selected drive. Depending upon the size of the drive this scan can take quite a while, so you may want to go about other business while it does its work.

The larger window at the top initially shows the entire drive which may appear with thin horizontal lines representing the files. But once the scan is complete, you can zoom in (as shown in Figure 1) with the arrows at the bottom. The lower window is a representation of the entire drive and can be used to investigate a portion of the drive by clicking on a specific location.

The files are color coded based upon their type and/or status (see Figure 2). The system files are green and located toward the middle of the drive. The red files are fragmented, but clicking on one of the fragments (clusters) highlights in yellow all of the associated fragments for that file (see Figure 1 above). The name and path to the selected file appears in the highlight field above. A specific file can also be located with the Browse for File button (…) located in the upper right-hand corner. This is useful if you suspect that a certain file may be broken into too many fragments.

Figure 2. The files are color coded based upon the type and/or status of the file.

Double-clicking on a particular cluster (little square) opens the Cluster Properties window with information about the file (see Figure 3). This window shows the number of fragments for the file, how many clusters there are in each fragment, and the physical location of each on the drive. A non-fragmented file will show only one fragment with the range of its clusters.

Figure 3. The Cluster Properties window displays the file's fragmentation.

The File Path shows the information that's needed to defragment a file. (Note: There is often extra metadata at the end of the file name after the file extension which is not needed and should not be used in the next defragmentation step. When copying the file name and path use only the portion which includes the file extension, but not the remaining remnant which starts with the colon through to the end.)

Defragmenting a File

The next Sysinternals tool needed is Contig. It is a program which can analyze and defragment a specific file (or a group of files). It runs from the Command Prompt window. (Hint: The Command Prompt can be opened from Windows Explorer by holding down the SHIFT key and right-clicking on an empty spot in the main window—nothing selected—and opting for "Open command window here" in the right-click menu.)

By copying the file path and name from DiskView and pasting it into the Command Prompt (use the right-click menu in the Command window to Paste), after entering the program name contig, the file can be analyzed (-a) or defragmented (-v) (see Figure 4). Just entering contig without any parameters will provide the list of Contig options.

Figure 4. First Contig is run with the -a parameter to analyze the file. Next Contig is run with the -v (for Verbose) to defragment the file. The results are shown after the defragmentation.

If you already know which file that you want to target, then you don't need to use DiskView to find the file. That file's fragmentation can be checked (and fixed) at any time with Contig.

While the Windows defragmentation program does a pretty good job of keeping things together (contiguous), there are files that either don't fit the usual algorithms or they are used so much that they quickly become defragmented. It is at those times when it might be beneficial to locate and defragment the specific files.

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:

Hidden Windows Tools for Protecting, Problem Solving and Troubleshooting Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Computers.

Jack's A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey, Absolutely the Best Free Windows Utility Software Ever!: Create Power Tools for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey.

Our second compilation of stupid ComputorEdge cartoons from 2011 and 2012 is now available at Amazon! That Does Not Compute, Too! ComputorEdge Cartoons, Volume II: "Do You Like Windows 8 or Would You Prefer an Apple?"

Special Free Offer at ComputorEdge E-Books! Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs: What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Started!.

Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8 (Seventh Edition)!

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.

Adding Icons to the QuickLinks AutoHotkey Script

“Add Icons to the QuickLinks App to Make It Easier to Read”
by Jack Dunning

A long list of items in a menu can be enhanced by adding icons to help distinguish each option.

For AutoHotkey newbies, "A Review and Guide for Beginners"

*                    *                    *

A while back I introduced the QuickLinks app to make loading your most used programs and Web sites easier. It's especially useful for Windows 8 although I now use it with all of my Windows computers. (QuickLinks and its AutoHotkey code are also discussed in the e-book Digging Deeping into AutoHotkey.) While the app works fine as is, I was using the basic AutoHotkey documentation when I first wrote and was unaware that icons could be added to the Menu in AutoHotkey_L. (I now always refer to the AutoHotkey_L documentation found at l.autohotkey.net.)

Note: If you have installed AutoHotkey within the last couple of years, then you are most likely using AutoHotkey_L and won't need to make any changes. If for some reason no icons show up when you run one of the AHK file referenced then you may be using the basic version of AutoHotkey.

Also, in the original version of Quicklinks, the extensions for the shortcuts were displayed at the second level of the menu. This was not as clean as I like it and I had removed them in my personal QuickLinks. However, I found that when launching Web page shortcuts with AutoHotkey the URL extension is required. This time I'm adding code to both add icons to the QuickLinks menu items and remove any extensions from the shortcuts on the second level (see Figure 1). This column includes a work around which cleans up the shortcut extensions for Web pages in the menu.

Figure 1. The AutoHotkey Menu command can use icons to help pick out options.

The extension in the shortcuts for the Web link (URL) is replaced with the words "(Web Site)" which serves two purposes. First, the Web site links are easier to differential, and, second, the words are used to later concatenate the URL extension back onto the shortcut name—which is required to launch a Web shortcut with the AutoHotkey Run command.

Adding Icons to an AutoHotkey Menu

Last week we added icons to a ListView window. This time the icons are added to an AutoHotkey Menu with a simple one-step process. However, since there are many icons that we may want to use, the list of commands with the location of the icons is put into a function (AddIcon()) which can be used anywhere in the script.

The Menu command for adding icons to a menu is as follows:

Menu, MenuName, Icon, MenuItemName, Filename.png,[icon number, icon width]

MenuName is the parent menu item (first level menu) and MenuItemName is the child (second level menu). If there are multiple icons contained in a file, then the icon number must be specified as in the system file SHELL32.dll discussed last week. (The AutoHotkey app ImageList.exe available at the ComputorEdge AutoHotkey Dropbox download Web site displays the icons in SHELL32.dll along with the image number, see Figure 2.)

Figure 2. SHELL32.dll icons and their associated number.

Remember, that there are many types of files which contain one or more icons, including ICO, CUR, ANI, EXE, DLL, CPL, SCR, and others. You can use any of the icons for an AutoHotkey Menu item as long as you know the name and path of the file and the icon number. (Tip: To quickly view the icons in a file—if any—right-click on the filename in Windows Explorer and select "Create shortcut." Next, right-click on the new shortcut and select Properties. Click the "Change icon…" button and a window with all contained icons will open. Count down the columns (top to bottom) then left to each successive column to get the icon number. )

Since it is impossible to know all of the icons that someone may want to use in their menus, tailoring the AddIcon() function for your personal use is important. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to add more lines to the function for more icons. If you are providing a compiled version for another computer, then you will need to either use only the commonly available Windows icons or provide the icon files with the program as is done in this case with the Books.ico icon file below. Otherwise, an error will occur when the icon is not found.

The AddIcon() function consists of a series IfInString commands. The line checks the menu item name for key word(s) and adds the appropriate icon:

AddIcon(menuitem,submenu)

{

IfInString, submenu, Tools

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, %A_Windir%\system32\SHELL32.dll, 36,

IfInString, submenu, Text

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, %A_Windir%\system32\SHELL32.dll, 2,

IfInString, submenu, Paint

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, mspaint.exe

IfInString, submenu, Notepad

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, notepad.exe

IfInString, submenu, Photos

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, %A_Windir%\system32\SHELL32.dll, 140,

IfInString, submenu, E-Books

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, Books.ico

IfInString, submenu, EPUB

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, Books.ico

IfInString, submenu, Graphics

Menu, %menuitem%, Icon, %submenu%, %A_Windir%\system32\SHELL32.dll, 142,

}

Each condition could be one line of code with the Menu command immediately following the conditional IfInString line of code separated by a comma (as it appears in the QuickLinksIcon.ahk file), but for space economy on the Web, here it appears as two lines each.

The function requires two parameters (menuitem and submenu). This makes the function capable of being used anywhere in the script as long as both parameters are supplied. For the top level the name of the top level menu is constant (QuickLinks) so the term is used directly:

AddIcon("QuickLinks",MainMenu)

The variable MainMenu contains the name of the folder which holds the submenu shortcuts as it loops through the top level:

Menu, QuickLinks, Add, %A_LoopFileName%, MenuHandler

MainMenu := A_LoopFileName

AddIcon("QuickLinks",MainMenu)

(See the code in context in the file QuickLinksIcon.ahk.)

In the case, of mspaint.exe and notepad.exe the icon can be accessed as long as the file is in the system path—as is the case with these two programs (%A_Windir%\system32\). If the number of the icon is not specified, the first one found in the file is used. In the case of the Books.ico file, it should reside in the AutoHotkey working directory—unless an additional path is provided. If the icon is not available, the script will display an error when you attempt to load it, although the error will tell you which icon is missing.

Removing File Extensions from the Menu

The same AddIcon() function is used a second time in the submenu level loop, again following the Menu, , Add command:

NewName := A_LoopFileName

StringReplace, NewName,NewName, .%A_LoopFileExt%  ; Remove extensions

If (A_LoopFileExt = "url")            ; Add "(Web Site)" to item

{

NewName = %NewName% (Web Site)

}

Menu, %MainMenu%, Add, %NewName%, MenuHandler

AddIcon(MainMenu,NewName)    ; Function to add an icon to the menu

This time the StringReplace command is used to strip off the shortcut extensions. Conveniently, the built in A_LoopFileExt, which contains the current extension, can be used to remove both the dot (.) and the extension (.%A_LoopFileExt%). Plus if A_LoopFileExt equals "url", the term "Web Site" is added to the menu item name. This is not merely to make the Web link easier to identify. It is needed later in the MenuHandler label to make the Web page shortcut launch properly.

The label (subroutine) MenuHandler is altered to account for how Web URLs need to be launched in AutoHotkey:

MenuHandler:

If A_ThisMenuItem contains (Web Site)

{

NewName := A_ThisMenuItem

StringReplace, NewName,NewName,  %A_Space%(Web Site)

Run, C:\Users\%A_UserName%\QuickLinks\%A_ThisMenu%\%NewName%.url

}

Else

{

Run, C:\Users\%A_UserName%\QuickLinks\%A_ThisMenu%\%A_ThisMenuItem%

}

Return

The words "(Web Site)" are removed with the StringReplace command, then the ".url" is added in the Run command.

While these changes are primarily cosmetic, they make the QuickLinks script a little easier to use. You can find the current versions of the various QuickLinks scripst in the QuickLinks.zip file found at ComputorEdge AutoHotkey Dropbox download Web site

*                    *                    *

The new second edition with more chapters and an index to the AutoHotkey commands found in the book is available in e-book format from Amazon (and other formats—EPUB and PDF— at the ComputorEdgeBooks Web site linked below). Jack's A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey, Absolutely the Best Free Windows Utility Software Ever!: Create Power Tools for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 offers a gentle approach to learning AutoHotkey.

Building Power Tools for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, AutoHotkey is the most powerful, flexible, free Windows utility software available. Anyone can instantly add more of the functions that they want in all of their Windows programs, whether installed on their computer or while working on the Web. AutoHotkey has a universality not found in any other Windows utility—free or paid.

Based upon the series of articles in ComputorEdge, Jack takes you through his learning experience as he explores writing simple AutoHotkey scripts for adding repetitive text in any program or on the Web, running programs with special hotkeys or gadgets, manipulating the size and screen location of windows, making any window always-on-top, copying and moving files, and much more. Each chapter builds on the previous chapters.

For an EPUB (iPad, NOOK, etc.) version of A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey click here!

For a PDF version for printing on letter size paper for inclusion in a standard notebook of A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey click here!

*                    *                    *

Jack's latest AutoHotkey book which is comprised of updated, reorganized and indexed columns from ComputorEdge is now available at Amazon for Kindle hardware (or free software) users. Since the columns were not all written in a linear fashion, the book has been reorganized and broken up into parts by topic. The book is not for the complete beginner since it builds on the information in A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey. However, if a person is reasonably computer literate, they could go directly to this book for ideas and techniques without the first book.

For an EPUB (iPad, NOOK, etc.) version of Digging Deeper into AutoHotkey click here!

For a PDF version for printing on letter size paper for inclusion in a standard notebook of Digging Deeper into AutoHotkey click here!

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:

Hidden Windows Tools for Protecting, Problem Solving and Troubleshooting Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Computers.

Jack's A Beginner's Guide to AutoHotkey, Absolutely the Best Free Windows Utility Software Ever!: Create Power Tools for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey.

Our second compilation of stupid ComputorEdge cartoons from 2011 and 2012 is now available at Amazon! That Does Not Compute, Too! ComputorEdge Cartoons, Volume II: "Do You Like Windows 8 or Would You Prefer an Apple?"

Special Free Offer at ComputorEdge E-Books! Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs: What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Started!.

Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8 (Seventh Edition)!

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

“Market Share vs. Profits”
by Wally Wang

Market Share vs. Profits; Apple's Latest Solar Panel Patent; Do You Need A New iPad?; Teenagers Abandon Facebook; Intel ARM Chips; Circling the Drain; Upgrading iWork.

I once met a man who sold high-end luxury yachts to the ultra-rich where the average price of a yacht was $96 million dollars. How many yachts did this man sell in a year? Usually zero, but every few years he would sell a $96 million dollar yacht and the profits from that one sale would give him a great lifestyle and tide him over until the next big sale a couple of years later.

That's the difference between market share and profits. Ideally, you want what Microsoft used to have with Windows, which was both market share and profits. If you can't have both, then you can go the route that Apple's taking and focus on profits. Or you can go the route that Android smartphone and tablet manufacturers are taking and try to grab the largest market share possible and make up for the profits in volume.

What's the best strategy? If you focus on profits, you can make more money with less work and sell to customers who are willing to spend more. If you focus on market share, you often get into a price war trying to sell commodities that customers can easily buy from someone else. When this occurs, your only selling point is a lower and lower price, until you have to make more and more sales while working harder and harder to sell to price-conscious customers who are the least loyal to any particular vendor.

Would you rather sell one $96 million dollar yacht and make a huge profit, or would you rather sell millions of row boats to make the same amount of money with far more work involved?

You always want to increase market share, but not at the expense of working harder to make less money. What you don't want is to get into the commodity business of selling the same product as everyone else because then no one has a reason to buy from you, unless you want to get into a price war.

Even Samsung tries to differentiate their Android smartphones from other smartphone manufacturers by offering a smart watch that only works with Samsung smartphones. Amazon's Kindle runs Android, but has its own app store to more closely tie it with Amazon's content. With so many companies offering Android devices, they need to differentiate themselves from the competition beyond simply offering a lower price.

What's been consistently odd is that Android users tend to connect to the Internet far less than iOS users, despite the larger market share of Android. For some odd reason, the average Android user seems to simply want a phone while the average iOS user wants a portable computer.

Figure 1. Android users still trail iOS users for Web usage.

Around the world, Android smartphones and tablets tend to cost less, especially in countries where carriers don't subsidize smartphones. Then again if people are only choosing a product based on price, those are often the least likely groups of people willing to spend more money. This might explain why Android users tend to buy fewer apps than iOS users. Business Insider even found that Android users tend to earn less than iOS users.

Figure 2. Android users spend less than iOS users, but more than Windows and Symbian users.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons so many people harbor an irrational hatred of Apple is because they see Apple as selling products they can't afford (or think they can't afford). Of course, these people likely don't hold such irrational hatred towards Ferrari, Harrods, or Tiffany. If you have to hate a company just because you think their products cost too much, you can hate plenty of other companies as well. Why not hate Embassy Suites because they charge more for a place to spend the night than Motel 6?

While it's easy to gloat that the growing market share of Android proves that it must be superior to iOS, the truth is that every product targets different users. More people buy cars sold by Ford and Toyota, yet no one uses Ford's and Toyota's market share to "prove" that Ford and Toyota cars must be superior to cars made by Lamborghini and Ferrari.

As the total market share continues to grow, Apple's share of the smartphone and tablet market continues to shrink in comparison, even though their products keep selling. The time to worry about the lack of market share is when your products stop selling. Just ask Blackberry how it feels to have declining market share and declining sales and profits from products that fewer people are rushing out to buy.

Apple's Latest Solar Panel Patent

Patently Apple announced that Apple had recently filed a patent for a solar panel charger. While some people see this as an additional device to carry around, most likely the technology will simply be embedded in a future Apple device for maximum convenience.

Figure 3. Apple's latest solar panel patent.

By embedding a solar panel directly into an iPad's display, you could use an iPad anywhere the sun shines and never worry about running out of power just as long as you stay in the sun. After letting the sun charge your iPad's batteries, you should be able to use it for eight to ten hours at night.

Solar-powered iPhones and iPads, and maybe even laptops, are inevitable. Replace a physical keyboard with a virtual keyboard and you eliminate additional gaps that could collect dust, making a solar-powered iPhone or iPad that could truly go anywhere.

Do You Need A New iPad?

Apple recently announced the new iPad Air and a new iPad mini with a Retina display. If you have a really old iPad, you might want to upgrade, but if you already own the previous generation of an iPad, you may not need or want to upgrade.

The greatest appeal of the iPad Air is its one pound weight while the biggest appeal of the iPad mini is its Retina display. Beyond these improvements, both iPad models don't use the latest 802.11ac standard that Apple's own Airport Extreme wireless router supports. Since 802.11ac provides greater signal strength and longer range, the lack of 802.11ac support in the latest iPads could make someone pause before getting a new iPad.

Both iPad models also come with 64-bit processors, which can run apps faster, but really requires apps specifically designed for 64-bit processing. If you can wait a year, next year's iPad models should offer 802.11ac support, an improved camera, and possibly even the Touch ID fingerprint sensor found on the iPhone 5S. By next year, there should be more than a handful of 64-bit iPad apps that you can use as well.

Although the lighter weight of the iPad Air makes it appealing, it may not convince owners of the previous iPad model to buy one. The Retina display of the iPad mini is also attractive, but may not be enough to convince someone to upgrade from a current iPad mini. Most likely, upgrading iPads will go in two-year cycles much how people wait to upgrade their smartphones. For people on a budget, the best option is to buy the iPad 2 for $399, if you need a larger screen, or the older iPad mini for $299.

With minor improvements between smartphones and tablets every year, you might as well wait every two years before upgrading your iPads. By alternating between upgrading your iPhone and your iPad every other year, you can keep up with the latest technology without spending too much money in the process.

Teenagers Abandon Facebook

Every company needs customers, but as long as they sell a useful product, they'll likely find someone willing to buy their products. Although as Blackberry found out, there might not be enough people to keep the company profitable. However, when your customers are your product, then the second they leave, you have no product at all.

That's the problem facing the social network leader, Facebook. Facebook originally attracted young people, but now many young people are leaving Facebook in favor of alternative social networks. While adults still continue using Facebook, they too could follow their teenagers in search of another social network. Since the greatest attractions of Facebook are the people and connections they make, fewer people makes the entire social network less and less attractive. Just ask MySpace how quickly the entire business can go down the drain the moment everyone flocks to another social network.

Social networks may thrive as long as they remain the "hot" place to be, just like a neighborhood nightclub. The moment people decide that the nightclub is no longer a "hot" place to go, then there's little that nightclub can do to bring crowds of people back.

Facebook has a large enough adult following that losing teenagers may not seem like much of a loss, but if adults follow the teenage crowd to join another social network, then the usefulness of Facebook plummets with fewer and fewer people using it. Will Facebook become the next MySpace? Or can Facebook survive the loss of teenagers and fend off newer social networks? With wearable computers threatening to become commonplace, the next social network will likely be the one that exploits the wearable computer phenomena somehow.

Intel ARM Chips

For years, Intel focused on the PC market and thrived along with Microsoft to the point where the PC market was nicknamed WinTel to reflect the importance of both Windows and Intel processors running most PCs. Then the mobile computing revolution snuck up on the world and undermined much of the PC market. While Windows struggles to shift to mobile computing, Intel has its own share of problems.

When netbooks became popular, Intel focused on lower powered Atom processors that cost less and consumed less power, but also were much weaker than the standard processors found in most PCs. As smartphones and tablets started using ARM processors, Intel had a problem.

Intel needs to make more powerful, low powered processors, but they already missed the smartphone and tablet market. So Intel's solution is much easier than Microsoft's solution of trying to morph a desktop operating system into a mobile operating system. Intel plans to simply manufacture ARM chips.

ARM is a unique rival to Intel because ARM designs chips but licenses their designs to others to make. That's why companies like Qualcomm and Texas Instruments can make ARM chips. To compete in the mobile computing market, Intel will now market their own low-powered processors while also making ARM chips for others, notably Apple.

By embracing and competing against ARM, Intel increases their chance for survival and profitability. If Intel manages to defeat ARM (not likely), then Intel wins. If everyone keeps using ARM chips, then Intel can manufacture and sell them, so Intel also wins. No matter who wins the mobile computing market, Intel will still get a cut of the profits, much like how Microsoft earns millions from their patents that forces Android manufacturers to pay royalties to Microsoft.

Circling the Drain

Blackberry recently announced that their CEO is stepping down after less than a year (no mention on how much money he'll get for leaving after not doing a very good job) and that they are no longer trying to take the company private. The huge problem facing Blackberry is that their once-dominant products have been surpassed by Android smartphones and the iPhone.

Blackberry shows what happens when a company has no vision for the future and keeps trying to sell products that no longer appeal to people even though those exact same products used to appeal to people in the past. In the old days, Blockbuster Video made money when everyone would rent movies every Friday and Saturday night because there were no other options. The moment Netflix's DVD by mail service arrived along with DVD vending machines like Redbox and streaming video through iTunes and other sites, Blockbuster Video lost their monopoly and had nowhere to go but down.

Likewise, Blackberry has nowhere to go but down. Few people still want their existing products and they have no future products that people might suddenly want to buy. Ten years ago, every corporate executive had to have a Blackberry. Today, every corporate executive either has an Android phone or an iPhone. Why would someone switch from an Android phone or an iPhone back to a Blackberry phone? The lack of a compelling answer to that simple question pretty much sums up Blackberry's problems.

Anyone think Blackberry can survive, let alone dominate the smartphone market once more? When you have no vision for when your present activities no longer work, you'll get blindsided by the future every time.

Plenty of computer book authors used to make a fortune writing Windows books. Now with printed book sales declining and Windows 8 struggling in the marketplace, these same computer book authors are getting squeezed on both sides with printed books that are no longer selling that cover a topic (Windows 8) that more people no longer care about.

Yet the trends of declining printed book sales and the shift away from total dependence on Windows has been going on for years in plain sight. By simply ignoring continuous evidence right before their eyes, people keep fooling themselves that nothing will happen to their source of income until it's too late. Given the choice between adopting to change by doing something new or ignoring change and simply coasting on inertia, it's always easier to do nothing. If you get angry at anyone who tells you facts that you can't dispute, that's a clear sign you're already ignoring reality.

Acer recently posted massive losses in the past quarter. Unlike other PC manufacturers who can depend on steady sales from the corporate world still upgrading from Windows XP, Acer relied mostly on sales of PCs to consumers. When consumers stopped buying PCs in the same quantities as before, Acer's entire market went down the drain.

Always assume that whatever you're doing today will disappear tomorrow, and then make plans to survive and thrive another way. Then you'll always be ready for whatever change occurs. The book Who Moved My Cheese? focuses entirely on people being so used to existing circumstances that when life suddenly changes, they don't know how to do anything but keep looking for the same opportunities that are no longer there. Just like putting cheese in a maze and letting a mouse find it, most people get comfortable looking for opportunities in the same areas they've always found them. The moment that changes (someone moves the cheese to a different part of the maze), those people are helpless. The goal of the book is to teach people to be flexible enough to look for new opportunities the moment their old opportunities start drying up.

It's easy to prepare for any disaster when you assume that you can't rely on the past to continue into the future. It's easy to fail when you assume the past will always extend into the future so you never have to do anything different to change. Just ask all those companies that were on the original Dow Jones Industrial Average, like the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company and the U.S. Leather Company, how well they adapted to changing circumstances.

*                    *                    *

If you upgraded your copy of iWork, you may find that the latest version of iWork doesn't quite work like iWork '09. Apple rearranged some features and stripped away other features so iWork on OS X contains the exact same features as iWork on iOS. That insures complete file compatibility but also causes problems for people familiar with the old iWork '09 features.

Fortunately when iWork updates, it keeps the old iWork '09 programs in a separate folder and puts the new iWork programs directly in the Applications folder. Now if you dig in the Applications folder, you can search for the Pages, Numbers, or Keynote icons in the Applications folder (that represent the new version of iWork) or look for the iWork '09 folder in the Applications folder if you want to use the old version of iWork.

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:

Microsoft Office 2013 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

Republican 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

Erotophobia (A novel)

Math for the Zombie Apocalypse

In his spare time, Wally likes blogging about movies and writing screenplays at his site "The 15 Minute Movie Method," finding interesting news stories about cats at his site "Cat Daily News," and providing the type of advice he wishes someone would have told him when he was much younger at his personal Web site. Wally can be reached at wally@computoredge.com.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

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

Samsung Goes to College; Crowdfunding Obamacare = Entrepreneurs?; One Giant Leap for Computer Users; The Wolf Among Us (PC).

Samsung Goes to College

Apple does it with great fanfare. Microsoft certainly doesn't mind tooting their own horn. Gateway did it for awhile but, sadly, the band packed up and went home. And now the electronic giant, Samsung, is getting into the act with something they call Samsung Galaxy Studio, a sort of tech traveling show currently touring college campuses across the nation.

Evan Bader, representing Samsung, writes, "Samsung Galaxy Studio lets students interact with the latest Samsung products including the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition, Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Tab 3 8", Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear wearable smartwatch. Students who visit the Galaxy Studio will also have a chance to win prizes including two tickets to attend the 2013 American Music Awards telecast.

"Other fun events will include Samsung Hub DJ in which students will have the opportunity to be the Galaxy Studio's guest DJ by playing songs off Samsung Hub and streaming songs to the Sound Bar and Note Design Lab where students can use the Galaxy Note 3 or Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition to design a custom T-shirt, poster print, dorm board, or bag."

Students can also register at the Owner's Hub to receive special content on their devices and owners of any Samsung Galaxy device can swap their drained batteries for fully-charged one.

Past campuses which have hosted Galaxy Studio have included Texas A&M, University of Iowa, University of Pennsylvania, University of Miami, UC Santa Barbara, University of New Mexico; University of South Florida, UC Davis, University of Tennessee, and the University of Maryland.

Coming up Nov. 11, Galaxy Studio events will take place at University of Utah, Purdue, Georgetown, University of Florida, and University of Colorado from 9 a.m. - 5:00 p.m at each location.

Samsung also sent along their new Gear smartwatch, which pairs via Bluetooth with newer Samsung smartphones like the S 3, S 4, and newer Note smartphones. Look for our review of the Gear in coming weeks.

Crowdfunding + Obamacare = Entrepreneurs?

PublicGoodRelations.com's writes in this week:

The Republicans and Democrats who have been fighting over whether Obamacare [the Affordable Care Act] will be good or bad for business may be in for a surprise, since a new breed of crowdfunding is poised to change the equation.

Instead of debating whether Obamacare is good for business, the real question may be, "what kind of business will Obamacare help?" We may be on the verge of an entrepreneurial boom the likes of which America has not seen in recent history because of a one two punch of insurance freedom plus a new way to finance businesses. ...

Despite a titanic political struggle, The Affordable Care Act is rolling out as planned. For the first time, needing health insurance is not a reason for aspiring entrepreneurs to hold on to their corporate jobs.

At the same, some big cracks are forming in the glass ceiling of raising business capital thanks to the launch of an innovative crowdfunding platform called CuttingEdgeX (CEX) pioneered by two lawyers dedicated to strengthening communities through empowering businesses.

CuttingEdgeX is a relatively new concept called "investment crowdfunding." The founders of CEX, John Katovich and Jenny Kassan, are Oakland, California based attorneys who specialize in helping small to medium sized businesses. They have taken that expertise online with www.CuttingEdgeX.com, which is not donation-based like other crowdfunding Web sites. And CEX is open to all investors, both wealthy and non-wealthy. CuttingEdgeX "offers actual investments with the expectation of a financial return rather than a t-shirt or discounted item," says Katovich.

Listing on CEX is currently free of charge, though in the future, a nominal monthly fee may be charged. The legal fees to complete the requirements for raising money from the public through a Direct Public Offering usually add up to approximately $25k. That is a fairly modest investment when statistically the median net worth of business owners is almost 2.5 times higher than non-business owners. And that increases even more dramatically for minority owned companies. For a black woman, the difference is more than 10 times; and for a Latino man, the difference is 5 times.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute reports, "The Affordable Care Act will allow 1.5 million more Americans to self-employ." And through a research project funded by Citi, the Association for Enterprise Opportunity discovered that if only "one in three micro-enterprises hired one employee, the U.S. economy would reach full employment."

The combo of Obamacare and investment crowdfunding ... is a recipe for far more entrepreneurs entering the marketplace than ever before. And that may end up profiting all Americans.

One Giant Leap for Computer Users

Product name: Leap MotionTM Controller

Manufacturer: Leap Motion, Inc.

Web site: www.leapmotion.com

Price: $79.99

How will users interact with and/or control computers in the future? Will we continue using conventional pointing devices (mouse, trackpad, trackball), or will we use our voices like in "Star Trek?" How about touch—will we use a finger as we already do with smartphones, tablets, and Windows 8.x PCs, or will we more often use a stylus? Another possibility is hand gestures, and Leap Motion, Inc. has introduced a hardware device called Leap MotionTM Controller (LMC) to advance this possibility.

If hand gesturing and waving in front of a computer reminds you of Microsoft's Kinect and/or Tom Cruise's character in "The Minority Report," you're on board. Otherwise, a demonstration video shows what the future of computer interaction/control could be like…wicked cool!

LMC is a motion-sensing peripheral that measures only 0.5" high x 1.2" wide x 3" deep and weighs a scan 0.1 lb. It comes in an elegant two-piece cardboard box (white; ~4.75" x 2" x 4.75"); the top (external) piece has a picture of the device along with the word "Leap," and the bottom (internal) piece contains a thin plastic mold that houses the device. Removing this plastic mold reveals two rectangular cardboard inserts that surround the two included USB 2.0 cables and printed guide (Figure 1).

Figure 1A. Leap Motion Controller is elegantly packaged with two USB 2.0 cables (24" and 60" long), a welcome statement printed in green typeface on 4.5" x 4.5" card stock, and a single sheet, single-sided, accordion-style pamphlet with various information (safety, warranty, etc.) printed in a minuscule typeface

Figure 1B. This device occupies considerably less desktop space than conventional pointing devices.

This product's technology consists of two camera sensors, three infrared LEDs, and software that accurately translates motion detected by the sensors into 3D input. The sensors recognize hand and finger movements extending down to a fraction of a millimeter within eight cubic feet of space surrounding the device—two feet above it, two feet out on each side (150� angle), and two feet deep on each side (120� angle) (Figure 2). You can point, pinch, swipe, rotate, wave up or down, etc.—the LMC's software will produce a corresponding output on your computer's display.

Figure 2. LMC's software translates into appropriate output for a computer's screen (A) hand or finger movements which its sensors detect as input within a surrounding space measuring eight cubic feet (B)

This product has several noteworthy advantages besides its diminutive footprint on a physical desktop. Most importantly, LMC potentially could revolutionize how users interact with and/or control their computers and applications including (but are not limited to) animation, engineering, gaming, graphic design, and medicine. You can even use a pen or pencil to write in the sensors' surrounding airspace to produce a signature or just about any other handwritten text on screen (shown in the video here). Another potential benefit is that users might reduce the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome because LMC would eliminate the need to press one's wrists against a physical desktop's edge or a third-party gel-containing product.

The above advantages make it easy to feel enthusiastic about switching from a conventional pointing device to LMC—this peripheral truly is futuristic and could dramatically change the way users interact with and/or control their computers. However, the reality of using LMC is another matter and involves the following considerations.

First issue to consider is that if you're thinking "I'll just plug this puppy into my computer's USB port and I'm good to go," you'll need to think again. Conventional pointing devices have plug-and-play support (drivers) built into many popular desktop operating systems (Linux, OS X, UNIX, and Windows), and consequently you're good to go using your favorite word processor, games, graphics app, spreadsheet, etc. LMC is different. If you cheerfully plug one of its USB cables into a computer's USB port, LMC's power light will illuminate and that's it; gestures and hand waving will not affect the cursor or display in the computer's operating system or apps.

LMC is like an iOS or Android device—it requires its own supporting apps, games, utilities, etc. which you purchase, download, and install on your computer. To begin, you need to download and install the Leap Motion Software Installer which installs required apps on your computer—Leap Motion Control Panel, Airspace, and related goodies. The Control Panel is an OS X menubar item (or corresponding Windows item) for access to LMC's user customizable settings, a calibration app, and other utilities (Figure 3A). Airspace is reminiscent of Windows 8's Modern Start screen and functions as a launch pad for LMC third-party apps downloaded and installed on your computer (Figure 3B).

Figure 3. To get up and running with LMC, you first need to download the Leap Motion Software Installer which installs the Leap Motion Control Panel (A) and Airspace app (B).The former displays LMC's customizable settings, the latter is a launch pad for third-party apps you've downloaded and installed.

After downloading and running Leap Motion Software Installer, you're ready to add third-party apps for LMC. Leap Motion, Inc. is building an ecosystem around LMC similar to what Apple, Android vendors, Microsoft, and others have done with their products. LMC's ecosystem of third-party software is accessed through the Airspace Store which requires an internet connection (Figure 4). You can freely visit and browse through this store's relatively limited (compared with Apple's or Android vendors' stores) selection of apps, but you'll need to create a free account with login and password before purchasing, downloading, and installing desired apps. Like other stores, demo or time-limited versions are not available for trying before buying. Some apps are free of charge, others cost several dollars.

Figure 4. The Airspace Store is an online gateway to Leap Motion, Inc.'s ecosystem of third-party apps for LMC. Its user interface includes a sidebar on the left containing navigation icons. The rest of the store's window contains tiles depicting the various apps which can be filtered by categories such as All Free Apps, All Mac Apps, All Windows Apps, Productivity & Utilities, What's New, etc.

In most cases, users will end up with two sets of apps—those (e.g., word processor, spreadsheet, etc.) which work exclusively with a conventional pointing device, and those which work exclusively with LMC. However, some exceptions are available. A couple of free third-party apps function like drivers which make LMC compatible with your computer's operating system and native apps. If you really want act like Tom Cruise's character using your word processor, then download and install Better Touch Tool, HandWAVE, and/or Touchless from the Airspace Store. Be forewarned—using these apps will involve a learning curve.

Speaking of which, learning curve is the second consideration with regard to the reality of using LMC. Many computer users already are familiar with how to use a conventional pointing device, which generally has a fairly flat learning curve. LMC is different. Gamers and veteran Kinect users might already have skills and experience in gesturing and hand waving to control what's displayed on screen. The rest of us, however, are likely to experience a considerable learning curve getting accustomed to the proper positioning of your hands and necessary movements to produce on screen what you want to happen. My experience during testing for this review was bumpy and took a quite bit of time without getting anywhere near close to doing something productive with LMC. I highly recommend playing with the Orientation app (Figure 5) installed by the Leap Motion Software Installer before beginning to use any third-party apps.

Figure 5. Leap Motion, Inc.'s Orientation app is a handy (so-to-speak) way to practice and master gestures that LMC recognizes.

In conclusion, LMC could become the way of the future for interacting with and/or controlling desktop computers. Today's gamers and dexterous users might successfully and/or beneficially use LMC instead of their conventional pointing device. The rest of us who take the plunge, however, will need to be prepared to invest some time with a potential reduction of efficiency and/or productivity while acclimating to LMC and its ecosystem of third-party apps.

Review contributed by Barry Fass-Holmes

The Wolf Among Us (PC)

Product: The Wolf Among Us

Developer and publisher: Telltale Games

Web sites: www.telltalegames.com and store.steampowered.com

Price: $24.95

When the world of fairy tales is brought up, if you're the type of person who cherishes reminiscing the days of being tucked into bed by your parents, then "The Wolf Among Us" isn't for you. If you don't mind tearing apart your favorite fairy tale characters and investigating their brutal deaths, well this game just might be up your alley.

You play Sheriff Bigby Wolf, in this point-and-click adventure game, tasked with investigating the recent murder that has taken place in the usually quaint Fabletown. You spend your time investigating familiar characters such as Mr. Toad, Snow White, and Ichabod Crane; trying to uncover what is the cause behind the unfolding events.

Your investigation consists of interrogating characters, exploring and investigating crime scenes, and even controlling Bigby in fight sequences. Your decisions alter how the story plays out and how you interact with others as you move for the game. For example, I gave my money to someone I thought needed it and ended up being short of cash and not being able to pay my bar tab; definitely was not the prettiest situation it could have been.

Even if point-and-click adventure games are not your kind of game, don't turn this one down right away. I personally despise this type of game, but after playing through the first chapter of this series I can honestly say my mind has been changed. It has everything a great game needs: rich story, a great combo of slow paced and high action gameplay, and it gives you the ability to choose your fate.

At the end, it will even show you how your decisions compare with those of other players. The only problem I had while playing is you're not given a lot of time to make decisions, I almost felt hurried at times because of how fast you're pushed to decide.

Good and bad aside, The Wolf Among Us is definitely something worth picking up regardless of your gaming preferences. The story takes place over five chapters. The first is available now and the rest will be released periodically until next summer. You can grab your copy off Steam for $25.

Review contributed by Jeremy Halligan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more at www.charlescarr.com.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

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

"Geocaching on TV," "Automatic Image Resizing," "Windows Reboot"

Geocaching on TV

[Regarding Jack Dunning's October 18 article, "GPS Tracking Units for Following Something or Someone":]

In 2005 there was an episode of Law and Order Criminal Intent that involved geocaching.

-Ron Cerrato, San Diego, CA

Automatic Image Resizing

[Regarding the October 18 Digital Dave column:]

In IE go to Tools/Internet Options/Advanced/Multimedia/ and check "Enable Automatic Image Resizing."

-Ron Cerrato, San Diego, CA

I tried that, Ron, but if the image is larger than the screen, it doesn't work on my systems. I still think it's a problem with Internet Explorer.

-Digital Dave

Windows Reboot

[Regarding the October 18 Digital Dave column:]

Mark in San Diego wants to know when his startup routine has completed. I use Startup Delayer from r2 Studios, to control all the things I want running after reboot. It not only allows me to set what to start, I can delay them until the previous one has finished, with some tweaking of the delays, so reboot goes more smoothly.

I turn off "Start with Windows" or the equivalent in programs where possible, and then use the delayer to start them in the order I want, and to minimize startup conflicts. I have never tried the premium version; the free version works just fine for my situation. When the last startup program has launched, its progress bar goes away, and I know I am ready to get on with my projects.

Jack mentions Autoruns in this issue, which is useful for turning off auto starting programs that cannot be turned off in a particular program's options, then if I need them already running, I can launch them in Startup Delayer. I think this would help you see what is actually running at startup and see when it is finished.

-Ralph, Colorado Springs, CO

I'm still using an XP. I discovered that the last program in my setup to show up in the lower tray is always Skype, and it comes in with a sound of its own. It's perfect, because when I hear that sound, I know I can start opening programs and get to work.

Mark might want to notice which program icon is the last to appear in his lower tray as set-up takes place. Then in the future, as soon as he sees that last icon appear in his tray, he'll know he can get to work.

-Jan, Murrieta

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