The Outer Edge - CIPCUG · used for “True Faith and Allegiance,” it could certainly apply to the latest Jack Ryan novel. The author is Mark Greaney, who was chosen to continue

January 2017 The Outer Edge Page 1

B y the time you read this, Christmas and the New Year will have hap-pened. I hope your Christmas was wonderful with friends and fami-ly, and I wish you health and happiness in 2017. Speaking of 2017, my term ends in June. We need a new presi-

dent and a new treasurer. I’m sure Bob wouldn’t mind if someone wanted to be the secretary. Andy and I could switch positions, but it really would be nice if we had some new blood on the board. Please step up and let me know if you are interested in one of the positions.

Last month’s program was mostly by Michael Shalkey. He talked about the internet of things and how we need to have a really good firewall the more connected we are. I don’t think we have any of these smart devices yet. I did get a 34-inch LG monitor for Christmas. It is designed to support two pages or

screens without a second monitor. I’m not using it that way. I don’t know if it has monitoring of any kind that could leak my personal info out. Not sure how to find out. As far as I know none of our TVs are smart devices. The newest one is a couple of years old and wasn’t very expensive. If light bulbs can be hacked and get the bad guys into your network, we are in a sor-ry state. Apparently anything you can control with your phone is a smart device and open to hacking. I don’t feel a strong urge to control things with my phone so I will try to avoid these

things. I was surprised when I noticed that many things on my computer are also

on my phone and vice versa. I have a Microsoft phone. Suddenly all my con-tacts are there whether I want them or not. LOL. I knew I would find my One-Note things in my phone OneNote but did not expect to see reminders on my computer for things I had put in my calendar on my phone. Sometimes I feel very old. The tech world is getting ahead of me. I used to be able to keep up.

I’m looking forward to 2017. I hope it is a good year for everyone. I have six months at the Grand Jury then I have to decide if I want to do it a second year. I am waffling greatly. It is so much fun and interesting. It is work and a big investment in time. I have met some great people and learned some really interesting things.

Well I think I will close for now. I hope to see you in January. — Lisa Toth, president

COMMAND.COM By Lisa Toth, president Attendance at the

December general meeting: 32 members and guests.

We welcome one new member.

How to contact us The Outer Edge ……………[email protected] General Info (Ventura County Computers)..............805-289-3960 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 51354,

Oxnard, CA 93031-1354 Email addresses for board members are

on page 2 On the Web: cipcug.org On Facebook: Facebook.com/groups/cipcug

January 2017 Vol. 30, No. 5 Newsletter of the Channel Islands PC Users Group

The Friendly Computer Club Helping Make Computers Friendly. On the Web at www.cipcug.org

Whole No. 343 ISSN 1055-4399

Toth

The Outer

Edge

Inside ● We didn’t have a board meeting in De-

cember, so, of course, there are no minutes in this issue. Just wanted you to know we didn’t forget them.

● Michael Shalkey explains how to make

routers more secure. — Page 8 ● Acronis True Image is a valuable, im-

portant tool. — Page 12 ● Do you need ultra high definition TV?

Maybe, maybe not. — Page 16 ● Google introduces a new router. — Page

17

Next meeting: Saturday, Jan. 28

Page 2 The Outer Edge January 2017

Root Directory Channel Islands PC Users Group

CIPCUG mailing address: P.O. Box 51354, Oxnard, CA

93031-1354

Executive Committee (Elected members of Board of Directors)

President………...........................Lisa Toth .……………………[email protected] Vice President/Program Chairman ………………..………………..Craig Ladd ………………[email protected] Secretary…………….…….Bob Dinsmore ……………………[email protected] Treasurer……..…….……....…Andy Toth …………………[email protected] Immediate Past President …………………........Sandy Tsutsui-Trujillo

(Appointed members of Board of Directors)

Technical Adviser……….………..Toby Scott Web Page Editor….……………....Andy Toth ……………………[email protected] TOE editor.…….………….…….John Weigle …………………………[email protected] Membership Chairman.………....Ken Church …………….………[email protected] Reviews chairman………………Bart Koslow ……….….…………………[email protected]

Ex-officio members of Board of Directors CIPCUG ISP Signups……..……..Andy Totht Sound Equipment Technicians ...………….….Curt Davison and Tom Murray Program Chairman……...…K. Edward Lynch Publicity Chairman...…………..…Rick Curry SIG coordinator…..…………....Larry Hudson

Past Presidents

Walt Yates…………………………….…1987-1989 Lois Evans de Violini…………………...1989-1991 Terry Lee…………………………….…..1991-1993 Jerry McLoud…………………….……...1993-1995 Robert Provart………………….………..1995-1997 Toby Scott…………………………….…1997-1999 George Lakes …………………………...1999-2001 Andy Toth……………………………….2001-2003 David Harris………………….………….2003-2005 Lois Evans de Violini………………….2005-2007 Paul Westefer…………………………...2007-2009 Rick Curry……………………………….2009-2011 James Brown………………………….…2011-2013 Sandy Tsutsui-Trujillo………………….2013-2015 (With the exception of the immediate past president, past presidents are not board members.)

Life members

Frank Segesman* Toby Scott Lois Evans de Violini Art Lewis* Helen Long *Deceased

The Outer Edge

Editor……………………..John Weigle P.O. Box 6536, Ventura CA 93006

485-7121………[email protected]

The Outer Edge is published monthly by Channel Islands PC Users Group (CIPCUG), P.O. Box 51354, Oxnard, Calif. 93031-1354. an independent, nonprofit corporation. Contents of The Outer Edge copyright 2001 by Channel Islands PC Users Group. Permission for reproduction in whole or in part is granted to other computer user groups for internal nonprofit use provided credit is given to The Outer Edge and the authors of the reproduced material. All other reproduction is prohibited without prior written consent of Channel Islands PC Users Group. Opinions expressed in this journal are solely those of the authors or contributors, and do not necessarily represent those of Channel Islands PC Users Group, its officers or membership as a whole. The information provided is believed to be correct and useful; however, no warranty, express or implied, is made by Channel Islands PC Users Group, its officers, editorial staff or contributors. This disclaimer extends to all losses, incidental or consequential, resulting from the use or application of the information provided. Channel Islands PC Users Group does not endorse or recommend any specific hardware or software products, dealers, distributors or manufacturers. All trademarked or registered trademarked names are acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners, and are used for editorial purposes only.

Advertising in The Outer Edge

Advertising is accepted for computer-related materials, businesses and services only. Rates are for Camera-Ready copy (clear, clean black and white masters). Typesetting and graphics are available at an additional fee. SIZE Cost/Issue FULL-PAGE (9½”H x 7¼”W)................$50.00 HALF-PAGE (4½”H x 7¼”W) or (9½”H x 3½”W )....….........................$30.00 THIRD-PAGE (3”H x 7¼” W)………….$25.00 QUARTER-PAGE (4½”H x 3½W)..........$20.00 BUSINESS CARD ad...............................$15.00 Discounts for multiple issues (3, 6, 9 and 12 months) Ad copy deadline is the 5th of the month of publication. Make all checks payable to CIPCUG. Members’ classified ads are free but are limited to 105 characters, including spaces.

CIPCUG NEWS Benefits ......................................... 19 CIPCUG flash drive updates ......... 17 CIPCUG sponsors ......................... 17 Coming CIPCUG events ................. 3 Contributors to TOE ..................... 16 Command.com ................................ 1 Editor’s corner ................................ 3 Map to meeting place .................... 20 Membership report ........................ 11 Obituaries ...................................... 10 Program: How to change key settings on your router ................. 8 Recent activity on our Facebook page .......................... 18 Q&A sessions ................................. 4 Treasurer’s report .......................... 12 GENERAL Review: Acronis True Image 2017 is a great tool ................... 12 Review: AMD A8-7670L processor ................................... 14 Tips for safe computing ................ 18 Web help sites ............................... 18 ADVERTISEMENTS Creative Technology ..................... 17 Members’ classified ads ................ 17 Mercury Broadcasting ................... 15 O’Reilly ........................................ 17 Ventura County Computers........... 13

AWARDS 2004 APCUG: Large groups first

place for website. 2006 Southwest User Group

Conference: second place in both the newsletter and website contests.

2011 APCUG first place in the newsletter contest (medium groups).

2012 APCUG first place in the newsletter contest (medium groups). .


Programs No program for January had been confirmed as TOE was be-

ing written, so watch the website for details when they’re availa-ble. The Jan. 28 meeting — we’re back on our fourth Saturday schedule — will, as usual, be at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club, 1500 Temple Ave. (Ponderosa Drive and Temple Avenue), Cama-rillo (see the map on page 20).

The meeting starts at 8:45 a.m. with the first part of the Q&A session, followed by a business meeting, the second part of the Q&A, a break and the program.

Dates of other coming meetings: Feb. 25 March 25 April 22 May 27 June 24 July 22 Aug. 26 Sept. 23 Oct. 28 Nov. 18 (third Saturday) Dec. 16 (Third Saturday

SIGs Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are sponsored by CIPCUG and,

when offered, are led by volunteer club members. The SIGs are free to CIPCUG members.

At the moment, no SIGs are being offered. Anyone interested in leading a SIG or who has suggestions for one should tell any

(Continued on page 4)

Door prizes We have two types of raffle tickets: one for prizes offered by

the presenter and one for club-provided prizes. The tickets for the presenter’s prizes are free and limited to one per member.

The tickets for the club-provided prizes are $1 each, $5 for six tickets, $10 for 13 tickets, $15 for 20 tickets and $20 for 27 tickets and are available to anyone. Those who can’t stay until the drawing may sign their tickets and give the person selling the tickets a list of the prizes they would like in the order they’d pick them. Winners’ prizes will be held until the next meeting.

Consignment table A consignment table is set up at every meeting. Anyone can

buy, but only members can sell.

The club gets 10 percent of the sales price. Sold items must be picked up at the end of the day’s meeting.

Any items not picked up will become the property of CIPCUG and will be subject to disposal at the club’s discretion.

CIPCUG is not responsible in any way for items bought or sold at the table. Each item is sold as-is unless otherwise stated.

January program not available at deadline W

e often hear “ripped from today’s headlines” in stories (or book jackets) about new novels, and, even though the wording hasn’t been used for “True Faith and Allegiance,” it

could certainly apply to the latest Jack Ryan novel. The author is Mark Greaney, who was chosen to continue Tom Clancy’s books after Clancy’s death.

For those who aren’t familiar with the series, Jack Ryan is a former CIA analyst, among other jobs, who became president of the United States. His son, Jack Ryan Jr., is an

employee of Hendley Associates, which serves as a cover for The Campus, an under-cover agency that performs tasks the gov-ernment wants done, but not by a govern-ment agency. “True Faith and Allegiance” is the story of thousands of hacked Office of Personnel Management applications for security clear-ances. The form, SF-86, is a real one and, as one would expect, it contains all kinds of personal information — Social Security

numbers, other government ID numbers, names and ad-dresses of relatives and references, information about all civilian and government jobs the applicant has had and more.

All that personal information gives the novel’s talented hacker a giant information base to get current information about the subjects by using social media and gives him a way to direct killers to exact locations subjects will be at certain times.

The hacker learned that friends, neighbors, family members and sometimes the subjects themselves post news on Facebook and similar sites when people move, get new jobs, visit a restaurant, hotel, entertainment event or confer-ence and go on vacations. With all that information, he can direct terrorists to the subjects they want to kill.

Granted, most of us are not in high-level military, gov-ernment or corporate positions, but we can still be putting ourselves in danger by freely posting personal information on the web. For example, have you posted any of the fol-lowing information on sites that many people can access:

● Your birthdate and place of birth? ● Your Social Security number? ● Vacation plans, including where you’ll be and how

long you’ll be away? ● Information about valuable items you own? ● Mother’s maiden name? ● A check-in at a restaurant, amusement park or other

sites? ● Pictures of children or grandchildren and information

about the schools they attend? If so, have you considered how the information could

be used for identity theft, kidnapping, burglary and home invasions? We don’t have to be so paranoid that we never post anything, but we should be careful about what person-al information we post and where we post it.

CIPCUG news and events

Jack Ryan takes on computer hacking

Coming CIPCUG events

Editor’s corner

Weigle


Because the pre-meeting SIG has become a general Q&A session, this report calls the two parts Q&A: Part 1, and Q&A: Part 2.

Unless otherwise noted, Toby Scott answers the questions, and Michael Shalkey handles the com-puter duties. — Editor

Q&A: Part 1 Setting up a Windows 10 computer

Q: If I get a Windows 10 computer for Christmas, what should I do about administrator’s accounts, recovery discs, image backups and so on?

A: You don’t want an administrator account. You do want recovery discs — CDs, DVDs or a flash drive. Microsoft wants you to have a Microsoft identity. At first, I didn’t do it, but later I used my Hotmail identity. When you do that, the Hotmail identity becomes the hub for holding your OneDrive stuff, and it syncs all your settings.

Q: Should I check for updates before doing anything else?

A: Yes, do that first and then install programs.

A: Michael Shalkey: I’d get the ma-chine set up with all your programs and apps and then make your image backup. The backup is called Windows 7 back-up, but it works in Windows 10 and is perfectly safe to use. At the end, it says create a system repair disc. That can be a CD or flash drive. The backup drive will update regularly, the restore drive won’t.

A: Michael Shalkey: If you’re buy-ing from Dell or other national compa-nies, clean off all their added software. Get rid of all the things you don’t use. Or, go online and get a clean ISO of Windows 10 at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10. You can burn the disk and reinstall, which will remove all

the added software that is not part of Windows. There are lots of websites that will help you determine what files are part of Windows and what you can delete safely. They include these:

● http://www.itworld.com/article/2973345/windows/how-to-clean-out-20-gb-or-more-from-your-windows-10-installation.html

● http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/windows-10-post-install-clean

● http://www.howtogeek.com/266337/what-should-i-remove-in-disk-cleanup-on-windows/

Toby Scott: Or get the computer from us, and we won’t put that stuff on it in the first place.

Q: What about Belarc Advisor? (Belarc Advisor is described this

way on its website: “The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, network inven-tory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web brows-er. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.” — Editor)

A: It isn’t necessary for setup. Michael Shalkey: Windows restore

is a system repair disc. It looks for where the operating system is.

Toby Scott: Don’t do the image

backup before you get rid of the stuff you don’t want.

Michael Shalkey: You want the im-age backup when the system is set up with what you want on it, the settings the way you want them and the junk deleted.

Toby Scott: Drivers for a computer you buy from a national seller will be on a hidden partition.

Michael Shalkey: Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo and others have their own re-covery discs (5 or 6 CDs). They will let you restore the computer to what you got from the factory. You can throw them away after you get the computer the way you want it and make an image backup. .

Toby Scott: In Windows 10, the ad-ministrator account is hidden. If you want to install a program, right click on the installation file and pick run as ad-ministrator. It will give you administra-tor rights for the single program you’re installing.

Michael Shalkey: We’ve recom-mended since Windows XP that you use a standard user account for daily activi-ties and not sign in as an administrator.

Edge browser Q: You said when Microsoft’s Edge


This month’s Q&A topics Part 1 Setting up a Windows 10 comput-

er Edge browser Copying and moving files Ventura County Computers Customizing laptops Adding to Send to and Move to

lists iCloud

Part 2 BLU phone security Heuristic scans Facebook account Google Photos Listening to music on a phone Sending pictures to others Moving apps to SD cards OneNote and protected files


Q&A sessions, business meeting

board member. When there are SIGS, they run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Ventura County Computers, 2175 Goodyear Ave., Unit 117, Ventura; phone

289-3960. From the 101 Freeway, exit at Telephone, take Telephone south to McGrath, turn left and go one block. Turn right on Goodyear and right again into the second driveway. Unit 117 is the back,

right corner of the building. Be sure to check the calendar on

cipcug.org for updates on event pro-grams, dates and times.

(Continued from page 3)

More on coming events ...


browser first came out that you didn’t like it. Have your feelings changed?

A: Yes. It now allows add-ons and extensions, including uBlock Origin (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock), which blocks material on websites that is not on the same server as the website you’re visiting. The site warns that uBlock Origin is not related to the web-site ublock.org. UBlock Origin should make pages load faster and improve your security. As of the meeting date, uBlock Origin was difficult to find in the Windows Store, but this link worked on Dec. 20: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/ublock-origin/9nblggh444l4.

Michael Shalkey: You can turn uBlock Origin off to see things you need to see. Sometimes, it blocks things you need to see.

Audience comment: I had to restore Windows 10 from an image backup, and the computer did not have an option to boot from a CD or a flash drive in the BIOS.

Michael Shalkey: Windows 10 is like that. It does Fast Boot, UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and Secure Boot. In the shop, I’ve had to unplug the hard drive, go to BIOS and turn off everything and then put USB and CD in the list before the hard drive.

Comment: I had to go to Edge be-cause many sites don’t work in Internet Explorer.

Toby Scott: Development of Inter-net Explorer ended with version 11. It was developed in 2013 and is no longer secure. Many bank sites won’t let you log in with Internet Explorer because of its security problems. If you have Win-dows XP or Vista machines, you may not be able to get into your bank web-sites.

Michael Shalkey: Chrome and Fire-fox won’t install on XP and Vista ma-chines because the operating systems aren’t secure, and many banks and other institutions don’t want unsecure com-puters on their sites. Older Mac ma-chines have the same problem, and the Mac users are terribly frustrated.

Toby Scott: Banks will reimburse you for some problems that arise on their websites, but they don’t want you to be able to log in with insecure brows-ers, so they block Internet Explorer.

Copying and moving files

Q: I buy a lot of music CDs from Amazon. The first thing I do is put them in Windows Media Player on the D drive on my Windows 7 machine. Every couple of years, I buy a new external hard drive to back them up. I copy the music from the D drive to the new drive, which takes 6-7 hours. How do I get the music to the new drive? I’ve forgotten.

A: Highlight the files (Ctrl + A if you want all the files), right mouse click on them and choose the copy or move function. Then go to the new drive and paste the files to it.

Q: What’s the difference between paste and copy?

A: When you’re in the source direc-tory you copy or move the files. When you’re in the new location, you paste the files. If you had selected copy, the files will exist in both locations. Move will remove them from the source.

Michael Shalkey: You can also drag and drop files if you open windows showing the source and the destination locations. If it’s a different drive, drag and drop copies the files.

Ventura County Computers Q: Referring to the earlier discussion

of building or buying a new computer, Bart Koslow said that when he decided to get a new computer, he came up with a list of the hardware he wanted and everything he would do on the computer and took it to Ventura County Comput-ers. After getting some suggestions from the staff there, he told them to build the machine for him. The job was done within one day, and he was impressed by the advice, the quality of the work and the speed the job was done. He said he wouldn’t buy a commercial computer without at least talking to them.

Michael Shalkey: If you want to build your own computer, do it, but con-sider what your time is worth and the problems you might face.

Toby Scott: About eight years ago, Rick Smith conducted a SIG at the of-fice and discussed all the gotchas that could occur when building a computer. By the time the SIG was over, everyone there decided they didn’t want to try to do it.

Customizing laptops Q: How soon will we be able to cus-

tomize laptops? A: Several years ago, we signed up

with two companies that said they could customize laptops. The work was hide-

ously expensive and the hardware was out of date by the time it was developed. To make laptops work, the motherboard has to be specially designed so every-thing will fit in the small space availa-ble. It’s extremely difficult. We sold one custom laptop and gave it up.

Michael Shalkey: The new Mac-Book is glued together. You can’t re-place the hard drive, the RAM or the battery. The laptop costs $2,000 and will last about three years. It can’t be repaired or recycled. The designs are based on not changing anything and throwing it away when it dies. The problem is that we as buyers want lap-tops to be cheap, light and fast and that’s hard to get.

Toby Scott: Generally, you get about three years of use from a laptop and six to seven years with a desktop.

Adding to Send to and Move to lists Q: How can I add destinations to the

Send to… and Move to … lists? A: Drop the locations into the App

Data > Roaming folder. Q: OneNote is one location I’d like

to add. A: OneNote has its own method

(questioner says it doesn’t always work for her).

There are several ways to do this: Go to

C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo and add a shortcut to whatever location you want to add.

Open Windows Explorer (not Inter-net Explorer) and type shell:sendto and add a shortcut to whatever location you want to add.

Adding a Move to… menu requires editing the registry, something not eve-ryone should do. Details are at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/add-copy-to-move-to-to-the-windows-explorer-right-click-menu.

Toby Scott: I like to add Notepad to Open with…

To add items to Open with… right click on a file of the type you want to open and look for another app on this pc. Add the program/app you want.

You can also use the settings and file extension method. Go to Start menu > Settings > Default apps.

Another approach is described at https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/29141-copy-folder-move-





folder-context-menu-add-windows-10-a.html

iCloud Q: I’m using iCloud for Windows

and have Microsoft Office 2007. I like Outlook. On my Windows 10 computer, I went to iCloud to synchronize, and it worked fine. I got a new laptop and put Office 2007 on it, and it wouldn’t work.

A: Michael Shalkey: See Bob Dins-more at the break. He’s had to do it.

Once you have it working the way you want it to, turn off iCloud and then turn it back on. Every once in a while it goes for no reason and has to be set up again.

Q: I tried to put Outlook on the new laptop and got a message there’s a previ-ous instance and it can’t be installed.

A: Toby Scott: You can only have one installation.

A: Michael Shalkey: Close iCloud, then reopen it and uncheck calendars and so on. Close it and reopen and re-check what you want synced.

Part 2 BLU phone security

Michael Shalkey: A security concern has been announced about the BLU phone, one of the cheapest phones you can get. Email sent on it is going to somewhere in China, but it’s not clear whether it’s going to the Chinese gov-ernment or to an advertising agency to send you ads. An update is available.

The following statement is on BLUproducts.com/security:

“BLU Products has identified and has quickly removed a recent security issue caused by a 3rd party application which had been collecting unauthorized personal data in the form of text messag-es, call logs, and contacts from custom-ers using a limited number of BLU mo-bile devices.

“Our customer’s privacy and securi-ty are of the upmost importance and priority.

“The affected application has since been self-updated and the functionality verified to be no longer collecting or sending this information.

“If you have any concerns or ques-tions in regards to your BLU Smartphone, feel free to contact us di-rectly at www.bluproducts.com/service, call us at 1-877-602-8762, or email us at [email protected].”

Toby Scott: There are problems with other cheap phones from Asia. BLU is the only one with much of a U.S. pres-ence.

Michael Shalkey: Another news item that we’ll be discussing in more detail is that Rule 41 has gone into effect. It gives the FBI and other law enforcement agencies the ability to search multiple computers across the country with a single warrant. An article at for-tune.com/2016/11/30/rule-41 describes it this way:

“The expanded search power, known as ‘Rule 41,’ is intended to make it easi-er for the FBI to carry out complex com-puter investigations. Until now, the gov-ernment could only carry out a search of computers located in the district where the federal judge granted the warrant —typically only a few counties in a given state.

“The legal process for government hacking has been a contentious topic, especially in light of a high profile in-vestigation known as ‘Playpen’ in which the FBI placed tracking software on the computers of child pornography sus-pects across the country. Some of these defendants have successfully challenged their arrest on the grounds they lived outside of the area described in the war-rant.”

In Great Britain, Parliament passed a law that gives authorities powers to look at the internet browsing records of eve-ryone in the country. Here are some details from an AP story at http://wric.com/2016/11/26/great-britain-passes-law-giving-the-government-access-to-citizens-internet-browsing-history/:

“The law requires telecoms compa-nies to keep records of all users’ web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that the firms wor-ry could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.

“Civil liberties groups say the law establishes mass surveillance of British citizens, following innocent internet users from the office to the living room and the bedroom.

“Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist credited with inventing World Wide Web, tweeted news of the law’s passage with the words: ‘Dark, dark days.’ ”

Axon phones also have problems. Toby Scott: The problem was an add

-on for Androids from China that has a back door.

Michael Shalkey: Another likely scam is this full-page ad that recently ran in the Ventura County Star for an easy-to-use computer for seniors. No details are given about the company that produced it. It’s Linux-based, but is not even a standard Linux machine, Scott said.

Shalkey said the picture of the screen reminds him of the original AOL soft-ware.

Scott said the ad promises support, but the company is out of business. Nothing in the ad mentions Microsoft or Windows, he added. There’s nothing that says what it is.

Michael Shalkey: It lists several lo-cations, all of which can be reached on the web by any browser. This also has no CD player.

Toby Scott: If you have friends or relatives who might want this, try to talk to them about what it is.

Heuristic scans Q: My Malware Bytes program says

it’s running a heuristic scan. What is that?

A: That’s an attempt to find still un-known viruses and malware by search-ing for software that does things similar to what known viruses and malware do. Programs it finds with that search are often labeled as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPS) to avoid possible libel suits filed by the companies that devel-oped the programs. If you don’t recog-nize what’s listed, delete it.

Facebook account Q: I opened a new Facebook account

on my phone and got a message on the phone to update. I did, and then got out of it because I didn’t like it. All my fam-ily photos and posts were gone.

A: When you create a Facebook page, you’re going to a specific page. Other people can have accounts with the same name but be different pages. You can create any number of Facebook ac-counts with the same name, but they don’t pick up the material from the other accounts. You have to sign in with the old account login and password, and the material should be there. If you know the email account you used to create the original, you can try to log in and then click on the link to email you the pass-






Q&A reminder: Please wait for the microphone to ask, an-swer or comment on a question so the information can be rec-orded for use in TOE. When you get the microphone, hold it close to your mouth all the time you’re talking. Waving it around might mean part of your question is missed.

word reset. Michael Shalkey: Delete the latest

app you installed. Download and install a new one and sign in with the old creden-tials.

Toby Scott: There is a Facebook scam going around. People are creating ac-counts with your name and then ask your friends to be friends with them. If you get that message from someone you’re al-ready friends with, don’t accept the re-quest. Notify such friends that someone is impersonating them. Please report it to Face-book, here: https://www.facebook.com/help/167722253287296

Audience comment: The new Acronis can back up Facebook accounts.

Toby Scott: LastPass also saves Face-book login information.

Google Photos Q: Where are Google Photos stored,

and how does the system work? I have the original photos on the desktop com-puter and can see some on the phones. My wife can’t find the pictures on the cellphone.

A: Michael Shalkey: Click on the Gallery app icon on your phone.

Q: They don’t seem to sync on the phone. The pictures seem to go to Google, but I don’t think they’re synchro-nized back on the main PC.

Jerry Crocker: There should be a Gal-lery on your phone with the pictures. Go-ing to Google is different.

Q: When I put a USB cable on my Samsung phone no pictures show up on it.

Michael Shalkey uses his Samsung

phone and asks if the questioner gets the import photos option. Questioner says when he does that, nothing is there.

A: Toby Scott: Did you move the photos to an SD card? (The answer is maybe.)

Michael Shalkey: Do you get a mes-sage that says “allow device to access data”?

Toby Scott: SD cards are added to phones, cameras and tablets to provide more storage space. If you change the location of the photos, the apps can’t find them. Devices that take pictures often shrink the photos to save space when they sync them. There’s a setting to prevent that. You can say sync only when I’m on Wi-Fi and do not shrink pictures when syncing. You also must be using the same account on all devices. Large files are not automatically sent to devices without lots of storage space because there isn’t room for them. Office 365 has a terabyte of storage, and you can’t possibly transfer that much data to a small device.

Listening to music on a phone Q: How do I listen to music on my

Android phone without using Wi-Fi and eating up data limits?

A: You would have to have it stored on your phone, and you won’t be able to get much on the phone. You’d have to have it on a flash drive to plug in to the phone or on a larger SD card.

Michael Shalkey: If you have an SD card, you can put the pictures on the phone or on the card, but not all phones allow the use of a card. You want the pictures to go to the card, which has more storage space. Pictures on the card will be

in a DCIM folder. You could download songs to the card. I use music as ring-tones for different people.

Sending pictures to others Q: I wanted to send someone a photo.

They said don’t send it in a message or a text but in an email because email does not shrink the pictures. Sending it via email keeps the full pixel count.

Moving apps to SD cards Q: Can you move apps from the

phone to an SD card? A: Toby Scott: You can move data.

You might not be able to move apps. A: Michael Shalkey: Sometimes you

can move apps to the card. The only way to be sure is to try it and see what hap-pens.

Audience comment: There is a free file that will show you the contents of both the phone and the card and let you move files.

Michael Shalkey: Be careful of free software because it can include malware. Sometimes the first version of an app is fine and does not have any added soft-ware, but updated versions can have mal-ware added. Carriers have their own stuff that they put on phones, and lots of those apps cannot be removed.

OneNote and protected files Q: I’ve had problems opening One-

Note and finally found out that one of my files was password-protected. OneNote can’t sync those files.

A: Toby Scott tries it on his phone and said it’s true that the password-protected pages will not sync. The Office blog says it works, but it doesn’t on my Windows Phone, either.




Program

How to change key settings on your router After reviewing the report on his program on upgrading routers, Michael

Shalkey decided it should be split into two parts. “I decided to do a multi-part se-ries with lots of pictures because I realized that this subject is too easily confusing for our members,” he said. Part 1 is How to change key settings on your router. Part 2 will be changing the firmware on your router to have new features and se-curity. — Editor

What is a router? When you purchase Internet access from a provider (the phone company or

cable company) it normally provides a modem (a combined device for modulation and demodulation of the analog signal of a telephone line or coax cable and your computer) but that was only providing internet to one de-vice in your house (Fig. 1). A router is basically a very small computer that takes that one internet signal and shares it with up to 256 devices (Fig. 2). These days, your provider may even provide a combination device that does both, a modem/router that translates the signal (modulate and demodulate) as well as acting as a router — even sometimes a wireless router. Here is the problem: Internet providers are notoriously cheap and will provide you the cheapest hardware to do the job. This means from the time it left the fac-tory it will remain unchanged for years. Can you imagine what your computer would look like if it never was updated from the day it was first turned on yet ac-

cessed the internet every day? It would have been taken over by bad guys and even used to attack other people within the first week — perhaps the first hours.

Why don’t internet providers update their own equipment? Money. It would take time and money to change things for their customers — and even if they found an easy and quick way to do it, the cost of handling the support phone calls if things were even slightly different afterwards would stop companies from changing anything.

Why should YOU update your equipment’s software? It has been recently reported that many hardware manufactur-

ers have put in “back doors” to their equipment that don’t require a username and password to connect and change settings on their hardware. Criminals have also found these back doors and can use them to see all the computers on your network and every internet search — including your usernames and passwords to banks, emails, and other sensitive sites. Also, hackers know very well the default usernames and passwords for commercial routers so that even without a back door, they can access many routers.

First step If you do nothing else, first change the default username and

password of your router. To access your router, first you must know its address. From a command prompt (Windows key + R to open a Run window), type cmd and click OK) (Fig. 3)

type ipconfig and then the Enter key (Fig. 4)


Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3 above, Fig. 4 below


What you will end up with is a bunch of numbers you will need to continue to the next step (Fig. 5).

The Default Gateway is the “address” of your router.

The next step is to open the browser of your choice and in the address bar type the Default Gateway address. No www, but just the numbers as they appear. You should now be asked for your User Name and Password to view and change settings in this router (Fig. 6). This is one of the main reasons to do all this work: the default usernames and passwords are known to all technicians and hackers around the world. If you want to know the username and password for yours, just Google the answer by putting in your model number (“Linksys WRT54G v3 default username password”), and you will find most are user name of admin and password of admin.

The first thing you should do for safety is change that. You can use any username and password you want, but I recommend putting a sticker or Post-It note on the router itself with the username and pass-word.

On this router that is done on the Administration tab and the Manage-ment screen (Fig. 7). It doesn’t allow you to change the username, but you CAN change the pass-word. Again, be sure to write it down.

The next thing most people want to do is change the wire-less network name (SSID Service Set Identifier) and pass-word.

On this router, that is found on the Wire-less tab. In this exam-ple I have already changed my SSID to the name BlueBox (Fig. 8 on next page).

On the Wireless Security tab, you can change the password for the wireless by clicking on the Wire-




Fig. 5, above. Fig. 6 in middle. Fig. 7 at bottom


Cipcug news and events

Obituaries

less Security tab (Fig. 9). You can choose any password you like, but, again, write it down.

One last thing you should always change is remote administration. On this router, it is on the same screen as the one for changing the password (Fig. 10).

If you really understand what these words mean, you’ll understand why you want it disabled. Remote management means you don’t have to be on your local network — in your house — in order to manage this router and change settings. I can’t imagine a scenario where I would want to change settings in my router when I am not at home. I certainly can’t imagine a scenario where I would want someone else to change settings in my router. I would HIGHLY recommend that this be set to Disable.

Next month we will go over changing the firmware on your router to have new features and security.


Fig. 8

Fig. 9 Fig. 10

Helen Long Helen Long, a longtime member of

CIPCUG who performed many jobs through the years, died on Nov. 29. The notice on cipcug.org follows:

“Long time club member, former webmistress, keeper of the email and subdomain list and generally one of the keystones of club leadership over the past 20 years, passed away on November 29 of complications of Alzheimer’s.

“Helen and Toby Scott started the CIPCUG website, with Toby designing the basic HTML and Helen doing all the updating for a number of years. Without

Helen's help, we may well have not had any online presence. Certainly not what we have today.

“Unfortunately, declining health had led her to be inactive for the past couple of years, but she certainly was a major cog for a long, long time. We (and espe-cially Toby) will miss her.”

She was a regular contributor to TOE for several years and managed the recy-cling of inkjet cartridges and laser toner cartridges as a CIPCUG fund-raiser.

Helen was also active in a computer club in Ventura and shared information from CIPCUG with the members of that

group. Computers

were not her only interest. She was a stamp collector and won inter-national prizes for several ex-hibits of mate-rial from her collection. She was a regular exhibitor at the Ventura County Philatelic Society’s stamp dis-



Is it time to renew?

By Ken Church

email address: [email protected] New Members: Bill Bullis Attendance at the December 2016 general meeting: 32 members and guests (who signed-in)

Total membership: 141 MEMBER RENEWAL INFOR-MATION $30 for single membership, $35 for two or more family member-ship.

NEW MEMBER INFORMATION $40 first year for single membership, $55 first year for two or more family member-ship in same household. TOE NEWSLETTER INFORMATION $30 mailed copy — yearly subscription Please send your payment to:

CIPCUG MEMBERSHIP P.O. BOX 51354 OXNARD, CA 93031-1354

Or bring your payment to the members’ sign-in table for the Jan. 28, 2017, meeting. We need and appreciate your support. (Dated information as of 12/17/2016) November 2016 renewals payment due:

December 2016 renewals payment due:

January 2017 renewals payment due:

Mbr# Last Name First Name

Pd to

1252 Bergman Irving 201611

0915 Clayton Phil 201611

1212 Hollander Gary 201611

0074 Marks Gracia 201611


Pd to

0536 Larraburu Philippe 201612

1218 Panczel Marika 201612

1048T Ulam Frederick 201612


Pd to

0943 Kiess Jerry 201701

0554 Muskat Vel 201701

0950 Skultety Tony 201701

0836 Willett Dr. Nancy 201701

1237 Wishon Bill 201701


CHURCH

Membership report

plays at the Ventura County Fair.

Frank Greenway CIPCUG member Frank Greenway passed away on Dec.

4. At the age of 19, Frank was in a severe automobile acci-

dent that damaged his spine and confined him to a wheelchair. Frank was retired from the U.S. Navy at Point Mugu,

where he worked for over 30 years as a supervisory mathemati-cian in the Range Software Engi-neering Branch. He then became an invaluable volunteer for the National Park Service in the San-ta Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, helping with handicap accessibility and other volunteer opportunities.

He loved attending the CIP-CUG meetings and especially enjoyed the TOE newsletter. His latest desktop computer was put together by VCC, and Frank was very impressed by the advice, workmanship, and the speed of the solid state drive.

Frank was 78 years of age, and had been in poor health for the last few months.

His children are planning a memorial service sometime in January.


Obituaries


By Bart Koslow I have used Acronis True Image for

many years and have found it to be the best backup program available. In the last few years it has changed from a desktop backup program to an internet of things, multiple devices and cloud backup pro-gram. There are two license versions, a one-time purchase perpetual license and an annual subscription version, which adds full cloud backup and one year phone support. I will be reviewing the one-time purchase version.

Acronis True Image (ATI) is not your father’s backup program, which only backed up your PC to an external hard

drive, DVD, CD or flash drive. It has expanded to become an all devices, and Facebook backup program. ATI omits the cloud backup but may be expanded to use the cloud for an additional fee. Acro-nis claims that the 2017 version is 60 percent faster than last year and three times faster than any competitor. I have compared ATI to all the major backup programs in the past and at that time veri-fied that it was the fastest. ATI 2017 backs up my new computer (which has an Intel i7-6700 CPU, a 500 GB Solid State Drive and a SATA 600 MBs 1 GB spinning drive) in 10 minutes. Using ATI 2016 on my last computer took an hour

and 20 minutes. The SSD backup takes only 4 minutes.

There are over 50 new features in ATI 2017. Major new features include: Backup any IOS or Android mobile de-vice (not Windows mobile devices) to your PC or MAC using Wi-Fi. Note that your computer must have a Wi-Fi con-nection on the same network as your mo-bile device to enable mobile backup to a PC. My new desktop computer does not have Wi-Fi, but my laptop does. One nice feature is that you may migrate be-tween IOS and Android in the event you


General news and commentary

Toth

Treasurer Treasurer’s report for 2015-16 and grant expenditures By Andy Toth

7/1/2016 through 12/22/2016 INCOME Coffee Income ……………………………………….35.15 Donation……………………………………………….7.00 Membership………………………………………1,650.00 Raffle……………………………………………….788.00 Software Sales……………………………………….25.00 TOE Subscription…………………………………..105.00 TOTAL INCOME……………………………..…$2,910.15 EXPENSES Donuts………………………………………………213.19 Donut Princess ……………………………………...240.00 Corporate Expenses………………………………….71.00 Equipment………………………………………….751.15 Membership Expense………………………………..18.80 PO Box Rental……………………………………….70.00 Publication…………………………………………..21.50 Raffle Prizes……………………………………….635.18 Rent Paid………………………………….……..1,200.00 TOE………………………………………………..228.72 TOTAL EXPENSES…………………………….$3,449.54 Overall Net………………………………………..(-539.39) Balance…………………………………………….7,927.79 Restricted Funds…………………………………...5,982.79 Available…………………………………………$1,945.00 Available balance increase of almost $1,000 from July of 2016

Grant Expenditures Initial Amount,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,$10,000.00 Remainder:5,982.79 Total: 4,017.21 Month/Year CK # Item Expense Nov-14 2495 SSD Drive $95.95 Jun-14 2575 2 microphones 798.16 Jun-14 2576 Berringer Amp 332.17 Jun-14 2595 Projector 1,612.49 Apr-15 2619 Recorder 69.86 Jun-15 2628 Router 64.45 Jan-16 2654 9V Batteries 34.32 May-16 2669 Web Host-Domain 249.00 Jul-16 2682 AA Batteries 26.82 Jul-16 2685 Windows Tablet 300.99 Nov-16 2705 Treasurer Computer 433.00

Review: Acronis True Image 2017 a great tool


change your platform or use both types of devices. ATI 2017 has the ability to re-motely back up to any computer any-where in the world, providing each has ATI 2017 installed. You may now man-age all your computers from one place. ATI permits you to back up Facebook data in the background to your PC, and browse and search Facebook content in the backup. I would not be surprised if future ATI versions offer similar backups of other social media sites’ data.

Backup and Restore remain the same. You have all the selections for image backup and restore choices for your com-puter that previously existed, like non-stop background backup, full, incremen-tal, etc. There are numerous options to customize your backups like scheduling the time, the type of backup, notifica-tions, any exclusions from the backup and a host of advanced choices, including backup validation. You also have multi-ple choices of where to back up, whether hard drive (internal or external), solid state drive, USB flash drive, file server — NAS or NDAS, network share, FTP server, DVD or Blu-Ray, or memory

card. You may use password protection with 256-bit AES encryption for your backups to prevent prying eyes from

viewing your confidential data. ATI has Mobile Device Data Backup




At a glance A one-computer version is available for user group members from Gene

Barlow’s User Group Relations at http://www.ugr7.com/products.html for $25. You may also purchase the 1-year subscription version at equally low prices.

The discounted Christmas holiday price from Acronis for True Image 2017 is (local backup only — no cloud backup — no time limit):

● 1 computer $39.99 upgrade $19.99 ● 3 computers $59.99 upgrade $39.99 ● 5 computers $69.99 upgrade $49.99 Requirements ● Windows XP SP3, Windows 7 SP1 (all editions), Windows 8 (all edi-

tions), Windows 8.1 (all editions), Windows Home, Server 2011,Windows 10

● Apple OS X Mavericks 10.9.5+, OS X Yosemite 10.10.2+, OS X El Capitan 10.11, iOS: 8.x and later

● Android: 4.4.x and later Support: Acronis provides multiple free support methods for ATI as fol-

lows at www.acronis.com: ● 1 year free email and chat support ● Knowledge Base ● Video Tutorials ● User Forum



apps for Android and Apple devices. I could not find a Mobile Device Backup app for Windows when searching the Windows store. Using the online Dash-board (loaded from the ATI menu), you may access and manage (delete, restore, backup, remote access, etc.), Archives, Syncs, and Backups from any of your devices, and backup data from any device that is on.

Advanced features and tools include the following:

● Try & Decide: When you turn Try & Decide on, your computer is in the Try mode. After that, you can perform any potentially dangerous operations without worrying that you might damage your operating system, programs or data. When you turn Try & Decide off, you decide if you want to apply the changes to your computer or you want to discard them.

● Startup Recovery Manager: The Acronis Startup Recovery Manager lets you start Acronis True Image 2017 with-out loading the operating system. With this feature, you can use Acronis True Image 2017 by itself to recover damaged partitions, even if the operating system won’t boot. Unlike booting from Acronis removable media, you will not need a separate media or network connection to start Acronis True Image 2017.

● Acronis Secure Zone is a special secure partition that you can create on your computer for storing backups. Acro-nis Secure Zone uses a FAT32 file sys-tem. You can Clone your disk image to a new disk; Create Rescue Media on a CD, DVD, or flash drive to use if your com-puter is not bootable; Create Universal Restore Media to restore an image to dissimilar hardware, which includes mi-grating your system from a hard disk drive to a solid state drive; Backup to

NAS (network attached storage); Archive less used files to an external device, and more.

ATI comes with a free copy of Paral-lels Access. This is a program that allows you to remotely access and control your computer from a tablet or cell phone. There are apps for Android, IOS and Am-azon. It sells on the internet for $40.

Acronis support is excellent and com-prehensive. I had reason to use online support. Using their TeamViewer a sup-port person took control of my computer and fixed my problems.

The new Acronis True Image 2017 is a large, versatile program. With all its expanded capabilities it continues to lead the field. It is relatively easy to use. There is a manual you may download as well as a comprehensive Help file. I rec-ommend the Acronis True Image 2017 for everyone from novices to experts. It is still the best you can find.


More on True Image ….

Review: AMD A8-7670K processor By Daniel Woodard Member, The Dayton Microcomputer Association, OH www.dma1.org http://www.majorgeeks.com/ les/details/3dmark.html http://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/ DGW (at) DMA1.org

Would you consider yourself a gamer on a budget? If so, then AMD has a pro-cessor for you, the Godavari A8-7670K APU. Built using a 28nm process, the 95 watt 7670K incorporates a Radeon R7 GPU (graphical processing unit) and fits in an FM2+ motherboard socket. The processor runs at a base speed of 3.6 GHz, and ramps up to 3.9 GHz as need-ed. The graphics portion of the chip runs at 757 MHz and has 384 stream proces-sors.

The processor might appeal to those who already have an FM2+ based moth-erboard, or want something similar to a base line video card, but with the ability to upgrade easily. These processors have both the CPU and GPU combined into what AMD is calling an APU, or Accel-erated Processing Unit. It might also ap-peal to those who want to minimize sys-

tem fan noise, since there is no additional fan on a separate video card.

A person who wants to keep total wattage under control (for example, to work with an existing system power sup-ply) might also want one of these, since the combined CPU and graphics power usage is under 100 watts. Another plus is that the APU supports running DDR3 RAM at 2133 speeds, a jump up from some of the earlier models.

The K at the end of the name also designates that this is a Black Edition, meaning that hobbyists can tinker around with the clock multiplier of both the CPU and GPU portions of the chip. I personal-ly wanted to upgrade my A4-7300 based system, which I had built in late 2014, mostly because there were a few games my kids play where it did not quite keep up with demands. Otherwise, the A4-7300 had been quite an excellent choice for casual games, multimedia and productivity software for about $45.

I first did some “everyday compu-ting” type comparisons between an A4-7300 dual core processor running at 4 GHz and the A8-7670K. I started out running Hyper Pi, which is a multicore

computation of Pi, out to 16 million dig-its. This took 11 minutes and 43 seconds on the A4, but only 9 minutes and 34 seconds on the A8-7670K.

Next, I took a folder containing a mix of files totaling 454 megabytes and used Winrar to do a compression. It took 4 minutes and 27 seconds on the A4, but 5 minutes and 25 seconds on the A8. The results were rather shocking at first — why would a processor with four cores take longer than one with two cores? Then I realized that I was using a very, very old version of Winrar — almost 10 years old. It was very likely that this ver-sion “saw” only the first core on each processor, which would give the 4 GHz A4 an edge. However, as soon as I in-stalled the latest version of Winrar and ran it using the A8, I saw the total time to compress the files drop to only 51 sec-onds!

It was quite the Aha! moment for me — I had never before seen quite such a vivid example of why it is so important to upgrade software to more recent versions. Using the older versions of the software had been causing me to take about five




times as long to accomplish the same task.

For the final part of the everyday computing benchmark test, I used Hand-brake to compress a 44-minute 720p kid video to h.264/mpeg4. On the A4-7300, this took 28 minutes and 52 seconds, giving an average frame rate per second (fps) of 45.6. Using the A8-7670K, this took only 14 minutes and 40 seconds, giving an average fps of 89.6 — convert-ing the file in roughly half the time.

For 3D gaming comparisons, I used the 3DMark Sky Diver test, followed by the Geeks 3D GPU Test suite. The 3DMark Sky Diver test is exactly what it sounds like: a sky diver (glider, really — there are arm winglets like a flying squir-rel) going through various scenes, putting the video card under strain to assess its capabilities, and giving an overall numer-ical score for comparison. For the Sky Diver test, final results for the A4 were 2,126 and for the A8 were 4,294 — roughly double the ability. I also tested a Pentium G3220-based system I have with an actual Radeon R7 240 video card in-

stalled, and it finished the Sky Diver test with a score of 4,082. The Radeon R7 240 video card sells for about $60 retail. As you can see from the results, the A8-7670K has a slightly better 3D perfor-mance than a stand-alone $60 video card from about 24 months ago offers. That they have managed to build this into a processor and still stay under 100 watts of power draw is an accomplishment.

I also ran the Geeks 3D GPUTest suite, which offers a batch of different tests. These include something called furmark, tessmark, GiMark, Pixmark, Plot3D, and others. Many of these are a lot of fun to watch, so I would recom-mend trying it if you like to watch anima-tions, fractals and such. Rather than put-ting the number results from all of these here, I’ll just summarize by saying that the tests show an average 110 percent video performance increase from the A4-7300 to the A8-7670K, again more than doubling.

For a real-world gaming test, I used a Steam game called BeamNG.drive which my oldest son has loved playing with for the past year. It is essentially a 3D car

physics simulation where players can drive a variety of vehicles through many different environments. On the A8, I ob-tained roughly 33-35 frames per second in game, while on the A4 the game showed an average of just 17-18 fps. The slower frame rate was still playable, but seemed very jerky in comparison. A per-son would definitely not want to go back to the slower frame rate after getting used to the better play of the A8-7670K for a few hours.

The A8-7670K is available for rough-ly $105 to $110, and sometimes under $99 during sales. From reports online, it appears that overclocks of 4.5 GHz are easily accomplished with a decent heat sink.

For folks who aren’t interested in overclocking, this is definitely one of the first processors around the $100 price point that can competently allow 3D gaming at low to medium resolutions. If AMD continues to make advancements on its APUs, then we might actually see some folks doing budget gaming builds and returning to PC gaming (Steam, etc.) rather than buying game consoles.



By Phil Sorrentino Contributing Writer, The Computer Club, Florida http://scccomputerclub.org / Phil-sorr.wordpress.com philsorr (at) yahoo.com

Ultra High Definition TV seems to be the latest in advertised TV developments (maybe with the exception of curved TV screens). Digital TV became the standard for TV in the United States on Feb. 17, 2009, when the United States switched over from the almost 70-year-old Analog TV. By now, most of us have Digital flat panel TVs in our homes, most of which are capable of High Definition TV (HDTV). The term “High Definition” is an indication of the digital format and resolution that the TV can reproduce. Digital TV is delivered in many formats. The most popular, and the highest defini-tion, are 1080p, 1080i, and 720p. The number, 1080 or 720, indicates the num-ber of horizontal scan lines, from top to bottom, that makes up the picture. The “p” indicates “progressive scanning,” meaning that every line of the picture is scanned in sequence, line 1, then line 2, then line 3, etc., to the bottom of the pic-ture. This is different from an “interlaced” format such as 1080i. The interlaced format scans every other line (the odd numbered lines) first and then at the end comes back to the top and does the rest of the lines (the even numbered lines). For example, line 1, then line 3, then line 5, etc. to the bottom of the screen, then back to the top for line 2, then line 4, then line 6, etc. to the bottom of the picture. Progressive scanning pro-vides a better picture than interlaced, but requires higher speed circuitry. With pro-gressive scanning, images appear smoother, and fast-motion sequences are sharper. (The interlaced format is a hold-over from early TV days, when it was used because of broadcast bandwidth constraints.)

So, then, what is Ultra HDTV? Well, the TV picture is a rectangle, typically with a 16 by 9 aspect ratio. (Just for com-parison, the old analog CRT TVs had a 4 by 3 aspect ratio.) The aspect ratio indi-cates the ratio of the number of horizontal picture elements or “pixels” to the num-ber of vertical pixels. So for a 1080 screen, with a 16 by 9 aspect ratio, there are 1920 horizontal pixels, and 1080 ver-tical pixels. So, on a 1080 screen there

are 1920 X 1080 pixels, or a total of 2,073,600 pixels. This is the density of a 1080 capable screen. No matter how big the screen is, it must be able to produce that number of total pixels. A practical corollary is that as screens get bigger the pixels get bigger. And as a screen gets bigger, for a given pixel density, the pix-els will begin to become noticeable, which will eventually lead to a grainy looking picture. So as screens get bigger it would be beneficial if the pixel density were increased. (Again, just for compari-son, analog TVs were about 640 pixels wide by about 480 pixels high, which is the digital Standard Definition (SD) for-mat.)

For big screens, UHD is just what the doctor ordered. UHD doubles the number of pixels in both dimensions, making the pixel density four times that of HD. (UHD is sometimes referred to as 4K; however, 4K really indicates something slightly different, It indicates a 4096 hori-zontal pixel count, which is a motion picture studios production standard.) UHD is then 3840 pixels by 2140 pixels, each dimension is just twice its HD coun-terpart. With four times the pixel density, TV screens can now grow, maybe beyond the current flat panel production capabil-ity.

So the answer to the question of whether or not I need a UHD TV depends on a few things like the expected distance from the TV screen to the viewer’s eye-balls, and maybe more important, is there enough interesting video material, like movies, specials, or TV, in the UHD for-mat?

There is a relationship between the screen size and the viewing distance to the screen. The further away from the screen you are, obviously, the smaller the TV will appear. For an HDTV, the ideal distance is to have the screen fill a certain amount of your field of view, though this is not a very easy thing to define or speci-fy. One recommendation is to choose a viewing angle of about 40 degrees, which, it is said by experts, will create an “immersive cinematic experi-ence” (CNET’s words, not mine). For HDTV, it boils down to the fact that a reasonable distance to a 55-inch screen is about 9 feet. This is a very soft science, so maybe anywhere from about 7 feet to around 10 feet would be appropriate for a 55-inch screen. This is typical for many

homes. If you have an unusually large viewing room, say a very large house or a “media room,” a larger screen may be desirable. So, as the room size increases, the screen size can increase and the need for UHD becomes more apparent.

UHD media availability is definitely a consideration. How will UHD content be delivered? HDTV is very new, and there may not be any intention of upsetting the broadcast and cable companies with an-other upgrade in capability for many years (though this is pure speculation on my part). And Blu-Ray is the standard for HDTV content on optical disks. A UHD “Blu-Ray” standard is in the pipeline, I’m told, but not for the near future. So, with-out broadcast, cable or disk as the deliv-ery mechanism, my guess is that UHD content will have to be delivered by download and/or streaming on the inter-net, both of which are viable options for high speed internet connections. Netflix, Hulu+ and Amazon are all possible sources of UHD media.

So, if you have a large viewing room, a high speed internet connection, a sub-scription to a few UHD internet services, and some money burning a hole in your pocket, you may really need one of these UHD TVs (maybe even one with a curved screen).

Your name can appear here, too. Share your knowledge with other members by sending an article, letter or tip to [email protected].

CIPCUG MEMBERS

Ken Church Bart Koslow Andy Toth Lisa Toth John Weigle

OTHERS (Primarily from APCUG PUSH articles)

John Pearce Phil Sorrentino David Woodard


2017 contributors to TOE

Ultra high definition TV — do I need one?


The Outer Edge is printed and prepared for mailing by:

Members’ classified ads

For sale Contact Richard Quint, [email protected] 1. Canon LiDE 30 scanner. USB supplies data and power. $10

2. D-Link ADSL2+ modem unused, in opened box with all accessories. $20. 3. D-Link DIR-655 “XTREME N GIGABIT ROUTER” still in shrink-wrapped box. $30.

CIPCUG sponsors ● American Graphics Institute (AGI) — Classroom in

a Book training -- various subjects. www.agitraining.com ● Focal Press — photography and media

books — 25 percent discount. www.focal press.com

● No Starch Press — computer books — 30 percent discount to members with the code CIP-CUG15 — www.nostarch.com .

● O’Reilly Media — computer books — 50 per-cent to 60 percent discount to members. www.oreilly.com

● Peachpit Press — computer and technology books. 35 percent discount to members. www.peachpit.com

● Webucator — Online, self-paced computer training courses. Free to members. Contact [email protected] for voucher.

Use discount code USRG

and get 20 percent o passes to O'Reilly conferences including OSCON, Strata + Hadoop World, Velocity, O'Reilly So�-ware Architecture and more.

By John Pearce Member, Pikes Peak Computer Application Society, CO September 2015 issue, Bites of Bytes http:// ppcompas.apcug.org/ glenihan (at) comcast.net

As you might expect from Google, the OnHub TGR1900 is not your average router. Among other things, it is managed with an app on your Android 4 or higher device, or iPhone iOS7 or higher.

Google has the idea that people put their wireless router on the floor or in a closet to hide the blinking lights, antennas sticking out, and lots of wires. Unfortunately, hiding the router interferes with the Wi-Fi signal. To encourage its placement on a desktop or other location friendly to wireless networking, the OnHub has a cylindrical shape with internal antennas. The unit has a WAN connection, one gigabit LAN connection, a power connector, and there is one light in a ring at the top of the unit to indicate the operating status.

Hidden inside the unit are 13 Wi-Fi antennas, one Blue-tooth antenna, and one zigbee antenna for home automation. Twelve Wi-Fi anten-nas are for the multiple user multiple-input multipleoutput (MU MIMO) net-working. The other antenna is for moni-toring the Wi-Fi environment and detect-ing wireless network congestion.

Routers have never been exciting hardware. Many people took them out of the box and plugged them in without changing the default configuration. The configuration instructions were not par-ticularly helpful, either, unless you un-derstood port forwarding, creating a DMZ, etc. The OnHub plans to make the whole experience friendly for the typical user. In addition, the OnHub will auto-matically update the firmware, which eliminates another issue because most users don’t bother with firmware updates for their router.

A C|Net article about the OnHub is available at https://www.cnet.com/products/google-onhub-router. Specifications for the device are available at http://www.smarthomedb.com/product/google-onhub-router/p983. The Google blog entry introducing the OnHub is at https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/meet-onhub-new-router-for-new-way-to-wi.html.


CIPCUG flash drive updates The board has decided not to buy new flash drives for the

recommended CIPCUG freeway programs. Instead, the society will copy the software to members’ flash drives of at least 4GB capacity for $2.

Programs are listed at http://cipcug.org/freeware2.cfm. The updates will be done at our regular meetings.

Google, TP-Link introduce new router



(Updated 4-5-2016) Android phones: howtogeek.com/163624/welcome-to-android-a-

beginners-guide-to-getting-started-with-android/ Battery information: batteryuniversity.com DSL reports: www.dslreports.com Steve Gibson: www.grc.com Kim Komando: www.komando.com Leo Laporte: techguylabs.com; www.leoville.com (among oth-

ers) Linux distributions: www.DistroWatch.com Microsoft: www.microsoft.com OnGuard Online: www.onguardonline.gov PCMag: www.pcmag.com

PC Pitstop: www.pcpitstop.com PC World: www.pcworld.com Recalled products: www.recalls.gov SANS Institute — Computer Security Education and Information

Security Training: www.sans.org Spyware Warrior: www.spywarewarrior.com User Group Relations (Gene Barlow): www.ugr7.com Ventura County Computers (Rick and Toby’s shop):

www.vccomputers.com Virus Bulletin: www.virusbtn.com/index Windows Secrets: www.windowssecrets.com If you have a favorite help site on the Web, please forward it,

so we can expand the section. If you find a link that doesn’t work, please tell us that, too.

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/cipcug) Several posts list the latest CIPCUG podcasts and Jerry

Crocker’s photos of our meetings Apple to cut iPhone production in first quarter of 2017 How quantum cryptography will make online shopping,

electronic voting, and mobile banking far more secure — here’s how it works

Congress report rules against encryption backdoors UF January 2017 Color.pdf (Los Angeles Computer Socie-

ty) Police request Echo recordings for homicide investigation Amazon sold nine times as many Amazon Echo devices

this holiday Facebook doesn’t tell users everything it really knows

about them Leaked files reveal scope of Israeli firm’s phone cracking

tech Content Insider #499 — Your castle

These items come up regularly during our meetings, so to keep them available they’re listed here as a regular feature.

Updates: Security holes and the regu-lar release of new malware require that your operating system and anti-malware programs be updated regularly. Let what-ever version of Windows you use and your anti-malware programs update them-selves automatically. Accept updates for Acrobat Reader, Flash and Java, but be sure the “you need to update” messages are valid. The best approach is to visit the following sites to be sure you’re not get-ting hacked versions of the programs:

Acrobat Reader https://get.adobe.com/reader. Uncheck

the optional offer on the website unless you really do want what’s offered (as a general rule, you don’t want it). When the program is installed, go to Edit > Prefer-ences > Turn off Java Script. Then go to Trust Manager and check “Don’t allow

non-PDF files to run.”

Flash Update at https://get.adobe.com/

flashplayer. Uncheck the optional offer for other programs. Some experts recom-mend deleting Flash. Others are more lenient, saying that many websites depend on it for video, animation and other spe-cial effects. On many sites, you won’t care, but on some you might want the special effects.

Java Update at https://java.com/en/

download. Then open Control Panel > Java. Click on Advanced, scroll down to the bottom and check “Suppress sponsor offers when installing or updating Java.”

Web browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome,

Opera and others must be kept up to date (they usually update themselves automati-cally). Programs that regularly go to the

internet must be updated to prevent mal-ware infestation.

Other programs Unless the upgrades are listed as solv-

ing security issues, most programs can generally be updated or not, depending on your feelings.

Drivers — the software that runs hardware — don’t need to be updated unless you’re having problems with a specific device or the manufacturer strongly recommends them. The most common spyware comes with Driver Up-dater, Driver Detective, and other brands that claim to “constantly look for new drivers for your hardware.” Don’t update drivers to attempt to solve problems like general slowness, freezing or slow Inter-net speed.

Email: Don’t open generic links or unexpected attachments you receive in email. If you’re not positive that the link is good, don’t open it. The same is true of attachments. They should not be opened in generic messages (“Hey, you’ve got to see this,” for instance). The links and attachments can be sources of malware.

Web help sites

Tips for safe computing

Recent activity on our Facebook page


Every month, members of the Channel Islands PC Users Group have access to:

The Outer Edge newsletter online.

The general meeting, featuring a question-and-answer session and program on software or hardware.

Special Interest Groups. The SIG at the meeting covers tablets, smartphones and other devices in addi-tion to computers.

Door prizes and sometimes a raf-fle at the regular meeting.

Other benefits include:

Discounts on books and software. The opportunity to get free soft-

ware and books to review in TOE. A flash drive containing many

freeware programs (payment required). A chance to make friends with

people who have similar interests. The ability to put your knowledge

to good use by helping other. The concept of user groups is members helping members.

Please clip the coupon and send with payment to CIPCUG Membership, P.O. Box 51354, Oxnard, CA 93031-1354. Make checks payable to CIPCUG.

Dues for new members Individual member, $40. Family membership (same address),

$55. Renewals are $30 and $35 per year

respectively. TOE subscription only (in the U.S.),

$30. Printed versions of TOE cost an ad-

ditional $30 and the regular dues. CIPCUG E-MAIL ADDRESS

Members who would like to have an email address through CIPCUG in the form of [email protected] may obtain one for $20 per year.

Why join Channel Islands PC Users Group (CIPCUG)?

CIPCUG MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Amount enclosed: ____________________________ Please Print the following information: Name: _______________________________________ Address: ______________________________________ City: ___________________________, State:________ ZIP Code: ________________ Phone (Home): ______________(Work): ______________ E-mail address: ________________________________ User level: Novice ____; Intermediate _____; Advanced _____ Can you help the club as a volunteer? If so, what would you be interested in working on? Please list below or on a sepa-rate sheet if necessary.

For CIPCUG use: Date __________________ Member # ____________


Channel Islands PC Users Group Inc. P.O.Box 51354 Oxnard, CA: 93031

DATED MATERIAL Please Do Not Delay

January 2017 mee�ng of the Channel Islands PC Users Group

Saturday morning, Jan. 28, 2017, at the Boys & Girls Club, 1500 Temple Ave. (Ponderosa Drive and Temple Avenue), Camarillo. Meeting schedule: 8:00 a.m. Doors open 8:45 Q&A session — Part 1 9:30 Business meeting 10:00 Q&A session — Part 2 10:30 Break 11:00 Program: TBA Noon Drawing

DUES REMINDER Check the membership report inside to determine if you need to pay dues this month or next month.

The map shows the easiest route

to the Boys & Girls Club, but if

you prefer, you can take the

Carmen Drive offramp to

Ponderosa Drive, which leads to

Temple Avenue.

Documents

The Outer Edge - CIPCUG · used for “True Faith and Allegiance,” it could certainly apply to the latest Jack Ryan novel. The author is Mark Greaney, who was chosen to continue