THE ICON-Newsletter of the Interactive Computer Owners Network November 2018

WHAT’S INSIDE Page Andrew Cummins President, ICON Computer Users Group November & December [email protected] Program Schedules ………. 2 Greetings Word of the month …….…… 2

Interesting Sites to I hope all of you are having an enjoyable Autumn. Soon you’ll be en- Visit on the Internet ..…….... 3 joying another Thanksgiving dinner. And, then it’s Black Friday! Yep, it’s when the best sales of the year start. Not just are the prices nice, Minutes of October 13.....… 4 but there are new models across the tech gadget landscape. I tend to hold off on buying electronics until this time of year. It’s a good time to Lumens & LEDs……...….… 4 pick up some gifts for others and for yourself.

Here’s an idea, bluetooth headphones. These are wireless head- How to Remove GPS and phones that you can use with your phone. The wireless aspect is a Other Data….………....…… 5 treat. You can also get these headphones in a style that uses bone conduction. These bypass your outer ear and middle ear. If you have Return of the Chromebook. 6 some hearing loss, you might try them and see if they help. If you wear an in-ear hearing aid, you can still use bone conduction headphones at the same time. I tried them and was surprised with how nice Ubuntu 18.04 LTS………...... 8 they sounded.

Computer Tutor—iPad ….. 10 One the most exciting categories is smart-home gadgets. These are becoming very useful, although the technology isn’t really mature yet. Ask Leo—Web & Internet.. 12 Start with a smart speaker, which you’ll use more than you expect. Add to that other gadgets which you can control with your smart speaker, by speaking simple instructions. You can get a smart thermostat, Cards Sent ……..….……. 14 which will more than pay for itself through energy savings, plus there’s a utility company rebate. You can get a smart doorbell, gauge door Basic Computer Classes ... 14 controller, lights, cameras, various sensors, outlets and so on.

ICON Membership. After Thanksgiving is always an excellent time to buy televisions, bluetooth speakers, phones, smart watches, laptops and cheaper and bet- Applications …….………… 15 ter whatever electronics you’ve bought in the past. Many non-tech goodies are on sale, too. But, it’s not necessarily the best time of year ICON Officers ………...….. 15 to buy non-tech goodies.

Announcements ……...... 16 The local paper that comes out on Thanksgiving Day has a many Black Friday advertisements to look though. And, check your favorite Mission Statement …...….. 16 shopping websites. You can do an Internet search for Black Friday Ads to find websites that post leaked advertising information, which will give you a head start on making your shopping list. It’s also fun to browse the deals.

Go get something. Use it. Get familiar with it. Learn the benefits. Then bring it to ICON and show your fellow travelers. If you just want to spend five minutes telling about it, that’s fine. If you want a whole hour, that’s great!

Andrew Cummins ICON President

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Be sure to check the website before leaving home for any last minute changes

Program Preparations for November 2018 Saturday, November 10, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1551 East Portland, (Red Room) 10:30 a.m. Digital Media SIG — 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag Lunch and 1-on-1 Help Desk 12:30 p.m. Mini–Seminar 1:45 p.m. General Membership Meeting

Saturday, November 24, No Meeting

Program Preparations for December 2018 Saturday, December 8, The Red Lobster, 2141 S. Glenstone Street Christmas dinner 11am

Saturday, December 22, No meeting.

Technology Word of the Month “Flickr”

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Interesting Sites to Thought for the Day Visit on the Internet “For knowledge itself is power.” Nancy Preffitt ICON Member

Ngpreffitt (at) juno.com ——Francis Bacon

11/18 FREE MICROSOFT APPS We’re all hepped up on Android and Apple apps and tend to ignore our computers except for “real” work. Well, Microsoft has all sorts of things that are free and will make your computer use easier. Microsoft Photos allows you to easily import your photos and videos from your camera or phone. Then you can edit them with a wide range of editing tools and even create slideshows. There’s a Share button so you can send your efforts to family or friends Click here to get the Microsoft Photos app for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 now.

Movie Maker is an easy-to-use, free video-editing tool. Import video files in a number of formats to clip them, cut them and splice them. Trim them, highlight favorite moments and even add music. You can then show off your creation straight from the app. Click here to get this free movie editing app for Win- dows 8.1 and Window 10.

Microsoft's old Essential Live Writer software has been converted to an open source download called Open Live Writer. If you’re a blogger – or would like to be - Windows Writer gives you a nice desktop program that links up with blogging sites and content management systems, like WordPress. You can create new posts with text, photos and videos, add maps and share your writing with the world. It also has the ability to archive old posts, in case something happens to your online service. Click here to download the free Open Live Writer.

HELP WITH HARDWARE PROBLEMS When your computer starts behaving badly and you can’t figure it out, it’s time to call in the techs. The problem is that they always want to know numbers and names of things most of us don’t know exist. It will save you much stress and the tech much time if you can tell him what he needs to know. How, you ask? It’s easy, even if you never understand it! Just download Speccy which will check your computer and give you a detailed report on the CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, hard drive, optical drive and audio support systems. Plus, it gives you the information in one place. You can use Speccy to check for malfunctioning parts, too. It gives temperature readouts for each component that has a thermometer. https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

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Minutes of 13 October 2018 The Interactive Computer Owners Network met in the lower level of the Midtown Carnegie Library on Central Street. The meeting was called to order by president Andrew Cummins. Minutes were read by Mary Phillips. Motion to accept by Pat Duncan; second by Gary Geise. Treasurer’s Report was given by Shirley Emerson. Motion to approve by Dick Hoffman; second by An- drew Cummins. Old business: Andrew will confirm out reservation at Red Lobster for the Christmas party on Saturday, December 8. New business: Fourth Saturday meetings for November and December will have NO Meeting due to Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. A consensus was reached that ICON will continue with two meetings a month whether or not the Apple Squires decide to meet with us. Adjournment. Respectfully submitted, Mary Phillips, Secretary

LEDs and Lumens Mary Phillips, [email protected]

One day recently, the big sixteen inch light fixture with two round fluorescent bulbs inside in our walk-in closet would not turn on. Now that light fixture is about ten feet high and re- quires a ladder to reach it. Also, it’s been up there for almost twenty years and “They don’t make ‘em an- ymore.” We went to the hardware store, Lowe’s, Home Depot and the Lighthouse Gallery. At the Light- house Gallery, we were shown LED fixtures – no bulbs, just replace the fixtures.

I know my computer has a couple of LED lights that never have to be replaced, so I began some research. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electrical current passes through it. That’s also why they turn on instantly when the light switch is touched. My son tells me that the diodes don’t get very warm so they don’t burn out.

Advantages of LED lights:  Energy Efficient LED lights are up to 80% more efficient than traditional lighting such as fluorescent and incandescent lights. 95% of the energy in LEDs is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat. This is compared to fluorescent lights which convert 95% of energy to heat and only 5% into light! LED lights also draw much less power than traditional lighting; a typical 84 watt fluorescent can be replaced by a 36 watt LED to give the same level of light. Less energy use reduces the demand from power plants and decreases greenhouse gas emissions.

 No Toxic Elements LED lights contain no toxic elements. Most offices currently use fluorescent strip lights which contain noxious chemicals such as mercury. This will contaminate the environment when disposed of in landfill waste. Disposal has to be arranged through a registered waste carrier so switching to LED avoids the cost and time implications required for compliant disposal – and helps to protect the environment from further toxic waste.

 Fewer lights Needed LEDs have a better quality of light distribution and focus light in one direction as opposed to other types of lighting which waste energy by emitting light in all directions, often illuminating areas where light isn’t required (such as the ceiling). This means that less LED lights are needed to achieve the same level of brightness given off by fluorescents and incandescent lights. Fewer lights will reduce energy consumption and will therefore be a benefit to the environment. Continued on page 11

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 5 How to remove GPS and other Data from Photos on Your iPhone or iPad By Bill Crowe, Instructor, Sarasota Technology User Group, FL July 2018 issue, STUGMonitor www.thestug.org wtcrowe (at) verizon.net

The general term for data saved with your picture is Exchangeable Image Format, also known as EXIF. It is a set of data that’s attached to every image you take. Most cameras and smartphones these days add basic parameters such as the mode in which the photo was taken, the shutter speed, ISO, aperture data, and even the location of the photograph. This presents a peculiar problem — when you click a picture of a beautiful bird perched on the windowsill in your house, your camera automatically adds the location of the picture, which could reveal your home address when you share it with others online. Most social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter remove all this data from photos when you upload them. However, when your photo is shared via email, messages or cloud storage services such as Google Drive or Dropbox, this data is still present on pictures. To protect your privacy, it’s best to remove some or all of the EXIF data from images. Here’s how you can do it.

You can remove GPS info from photos on your iOS device, but you’ll need a third-party app to do so. There are a couple of options available, but here’s how to do it with the free app Photo Investigator. ($2.99 for the Pro version)

1. Install the “Photo Investigator” App 2. Open the application, tap the photo icon, and allow the application access to your pictures 3. Select a photo album and then the photo you would like to view the metadata .

4. To see what the data looks like you can tap the various fields in the lower left box and see the data in the lower right box. I have done it here for the GPS data. 5. Tap Metadata box. You can remove all the meta data from here or edit individual items of the meta data by paying the $2.99 for the pro edition. 6. You will then be asked if you want to keep both the original and the modified picture or remove the original picture. 7. Now you can share the modified picture with others via email or message. By taping the share box. Continued on page 6

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 6 Continued from page 5 How to remove GPS and other Data 8. To process another photo, click the photos icon.

BONUS: Keeping GPS metadata off your phone in the first place

If you want to be 100% sure that this data is removed by making sure that photos taken on your iPhone don’t have GPS info captured in the first place, you can do so by going to: Settings / Privacy / Location Services / Camera / Never. Keep in mind that doing this will eliminate the ability to make albums based on location. Also, this setting only applies to the default Camera app; if you use a third-party camera app, it will still be allowed to tag your location in your photos unless you alter that setting as well.

Source and Compliments of igeeksblog.com

Tech on Travel II – The Return of the Chromebook By Greg Skalka, President, Under the Computer Hood User Group, CA July 2016 issue, Drive Light www.uchug.org president (at) uchug.org

We use a lot of technology in our everyday lives. When we travel away from home, we often want a lot of those tech devices to accompany us on our journeys. Computers, phones, digital cameras and navigation devices are only the tip of the tech iceberg we may be traveling with; we also need the accompanying cables, adapters, memory cards, headphones and battery packs to fully utilize those devices on our trip. And no matter how often we travel, it seems every trip brings new tech challenges, new device issues, new things overlooked in packing and new things to put on the list to take next time.

I’ve gone on three airline trips in the last ten months and have been trying to refine my tech travel items with each trip. Each trip was different, and I took a different set of devices on each. While in every case the choices I made worked out, I am learning and refining my travel tech lineup to balance travel efficiency with travel capability.

My trip last August with my wife to see the total solar eclipse in Nebraska was on the low end of efficiency, as we brought so many devices with us. To document this rare event, we took a wide assortment of still cameras and video cameras, along with navigation devices and the usual computing suspects (smart phones and portable computers). Already weighed down with so much stuff in my carry-on backpack (which only carried tech stuff), I decided to leave my Windows laptop behind and rely only on my Continued on page 7

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 7 Continued from page 6 The Return of the Chromebook

Chromebook. This helped lighten my load but also limited my capabilities. While the Chromebook is so great at quick web use that I would not leave home on a trip without it, it has some significant limitations, at least to me. It has limited internal storage, making it incapable of storing the vast quantity of photos and videos I like to take on my travels. It also can’t as efficiently do some of the Windows things I’ve come to depend on, as it can’t edit all file types offline and can’t view all multimedia file types. It also can’t run my Thunderbird email client, leaving me with only web mail access.

On our five-day weekend trip in early May, my wife and I flew up to San Jose for sightseeing and wine tasting in the Napa Valley area. I was a bit rushed in the run up to this trip, and so decided to take both my Windows 7 laptop and the Chromebook. There were several personal issues I anticipated having to deal with while on the trip, and so I wanted to have all the archived emails that Thunderbird would provide me on the laptop, as well as all the normal Windows capabilities. Though I left a lot of the cameras and nav gear behind on this trip, my tech backpack was still a bit too heavy.

Only two weeks after my Napa trip, I wound up on another journey. On this trip, I was accompanying my parents back to Nebraska for a week, for visits with relatives and a high school reunion. This time my wife stayed home.

My parents are in their 80’s and though they do still take short driving trips, this was to be their first air travel in over three years. I had a feeling I’d be helping them out quite a bit on this trip, so wanted to pack and travel light. I didn’t want to bring my relatively heavy laptop, but also didn’t want to leave my email archive and other data behind. Through the magic of technology, I found a way to have all the files and capabilities in my Windows laptop, but only have to carry my much lighter and smaller Chromebook. That magic came through a program called TeamViewer.

TeamViewer is a commercial software product that provides remote control, desktop sharing, web con- ferencing, VPN and file transfer capabilities between devices with internet access. It is like Windows Re- mote Desktop, but can be used between most any tech devices, including Windows, Linux, Android, Chrome OS and iOS devices. It is very powerful and secure, and best of all is free for personal and non- commercial uses. With TeamViewer installed and running on both devices I had, at home, used my Chromebook downstairs to read my email through Thunderbird on my laptop upstairs. I figured it should work as well when the Chromebook and I are halfway across the continent.

My parents live in Orange County, CA, while I live in San Diego. To make my travels easier, I planned to fly out of San Diego and meet them at their Southwest Airlines connection in Las Vegas, and then travel with them on the same flight to Omaha. We would do the reverse operation going back, with our paths separating in Denver to our respective home airports.

My flight from San Diego left almost an hour earlier than my parent’s flight from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, so I was already through the security checks when I got a call from my mom that they were running late. There had been a mix-up with the airport shuttle, and now my sister’s husband would be driving them to the airport. I had just enough time to call my wife to warn her of their travel issue before having to board my plane, where I would be subjected to phone call and text silence for the duration of my flight to Las Vegas.

Southwest now offers Wi-Fi on all their flights for $8 per day (all flight segments on your trip). You can see the little domes on the top of the plane’s fuselage just ahead of the tail, where the satellite antenna re- sides. I normally would not buy Wi-Fi, but since I saw email as my only hope for finding out while in flight if my parents got on their plane, I bought it. It also helped to know I would also be allowed to use it on the Las Vegas to Omaha flight. While in flight, I was able to communi- cate with my wife through email (web mail on my phone), and she re- layed to me that my brother-in-law had dropped them off in time, but there was no way to know if they got on the plane before it left. I was Continued on page 8 Satellite antenna dome on SW aircraft

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 8 Continued from page 7 The Return of the Chromebook

in a rush to make the connection and get information, so I didn’t try my VPN service (Private Internet Ac- cess) with Southwest’s Wi-Fi.

It was while playing with the Southwest Wi-Fi that I realized that the smart phone is the best multimedia device to use in the crowded conf ines of the airplane. Passengers can use smart phones and tablets at any time during the flight (while in airplane mode) if they are hand-held. Laptops that weight 2 lbs or more (my Chromebook is 2 lbs 6 oz) must be stowed while the plane is below 10,000 ft, presumably because they are large and need to have the tray table lowered to use them. Free TV on Your Device Provided by Southwest When I arrived in Las Vegas, I asked if my parents made their flight, but due to security, Southwest could not tell me. I had to wait at their flight’s arrival gate to see if they came off the plane. For- tunately, they did. The second leg the trip was uneventful, except that the Wi -Fi was broken on that plane, so I didn’t get as much as anticipated for my $8 Wi-Fi fee.

I found my VPN worked fine with the hotel Wi-Fi in Omaha for the one night UCHUG Web Site Viewed Through Southwest Wi-Fi we stayed there but did not work at the hotel in Hastings where we spent most of the trip. The VPN would engage, but when I tried going to a web site, it would time out or churn continuously. With the VPN switched off, I could connect fine in Hastings. I found the Wi-Fi was much faster in the more expensive hotel we stayed at in Hastings; it was 10.02 Mbps down and 30.26 Mbps up, as compared to 3.53 Mbps down / 1.45 Mbps up in Omaha.

My TeamViewer connection plan worked great in both hotels. I was able to use my Chromebook to connect to and show the desktop of my Windows 7 laptop at home. There was a slight lag in operation, but for the most part I could do anything on the laptop that I could do if I was in front of it, including emails, file access and printing - even freak out my wife remotely. She has a network printer sitting next to her in her home office; when I created a document that said I missed her and printed it there (unexpectedly for her), she didn’t appreciate it as much as I would have thought.

I used Google Maps on my smart phone for navigation on this trip, which again worked fine in urban areas, but fell flat in much of the state that is rural, due to the lack of cell coverage. Fortunately, my knowledge of Nebraska state geography and the paper AAA state map I brought got us through to our destinations.

With my TeamViewer travel experiment a success, I can now carry my entire home network with me in my Chromebook case, so to speak. If I have good internet access, I should be able to do anything on the computer that I can do at home. I wonder if my poor laptop will ever get to travel again? Photos credit Greg Skalka

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS by Cal Esneault, Co-Editor, Workshop, SIG leader, Cajun Clickers Computer Club, LA June 2018 issue, Cajun Clickers Computer News www.clickers.org tsa70785 (at) gmail.com

Canonical just released Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, "Bionic Beaver," with long-term support (LTS) for 5 years. Development releases (issued every 6 months ) are not recommended due to a short 9-month support period. If you are running Ubuntu 17.10, you should be able to do an “in-place” upgrade, but if you are running the last LTS version (16.04), Canonical recommends you wait for the first update (18.04.1). For a quick test, I tried a live USB version.

In 2017, Canonical switched its strategy to concentrate on items of more commercial value (Cloud, Internet of Things). It dropped the “Unity 7" desktop and Continued on page 9

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Continued from page 8 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS switched to GNOME to reduce its own support resources. The new LTS continues with GNOME 3.2 8 (shown below). An interim test of the Wayland display manager was made last year, but this LTS version uses the traditional Xorg manager for stability with legacy software (although future plans suggest Way- land will eventually be used for the next LTS).

The main panel with “favorites” can be placed vertically or horizontally, and the launcher activates a selection screen of icons for installed software. Typical for consumer distros, Ubuntu 18.04 has a lot of pre- installed software. New this year is a “minimal” version which ships with only essential items so that ex- pert users can configure their system as desired for maximum efficiency

This new LTS has the GNOME “Activities” approach for displaying virtual desktops (see below). Also, Canonical has finally moved the maximize/minimize buttons back to the right-hand side (like just about everyone else).

One reason to switch to the new LTS version is refresh of popular software in the default repository. For example, LibreOffice 6.0, Thunderbird 52, Nautilus 3.26, and others are now standard. In addition, you will also find support for Thunderbolt 3, color emoji, and Snap apps. Additional software is readily available using the GNOME software resource. A new set of images was developed for use for the lock screen and background. There has been some concern with the start of Canonical tracking some connection information (version used, CPU type, etc.).

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS uses the new Linux Kernel 4.15 which improves security against malware and also adds new hardware drivers. Other technical improvements include special versions for use of Ubuntu on “cloud” services (such as Amazon AWS and MS Azure). Early reviews indicate that 18.04 is a very solid release that focuses on getting things right and is worthy of being installed as a long-term system for pro- duction use.

Concurrent with the Ubuntu release, the other Ubuntu “flavors” are also being updated (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc.). This year, Ubuntu Budgie has been officially added to the mix.

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COMPUTER Tutor http://www.computertutorinc.net/ frequently-asked-questions-2/ iPad For additional resources, click the From the Desk of Pamela Tabak DEDICATED TO THE COMPUTER above link to Pamela’s FAQ page EDUCATION OF SENIORS (frequently asked questions.) website: http://computertutorinc.net

Q1. How can I delete the emails from my server when I have deleted them from my iPad?

A1. In order to make sure that your emails are deleted from your server when deleted from your iPad follow the steps below: 1. Tap on “Settings” 2. Tap on “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” 3. Tap on your email account 4. Tap on Advanced 5. Scroll down to “Incoming Settings” 6. Click on “Delete from Server” 7. Choose “When removed from inbox.”

Q2. How do I delete email addresses on an incoming email on my iPad, before forwarding?

A2. In order to delete or change anything on an incoming email you need to tap on “reply” or “forward.” Tap at the end of the last email address and use the “X” key to back out the text. When all the text is deleted you are ready to forward or reply to your incoming text. Alternatively you can tap on one of the words to create a blue box with “handles” that look like blue dots. Grab hold of a dot and drag it over the text that you wish to delete. Tap the “X” button to delete the blue Highlighted Text.

Q3. How Do I Delete All emails at once on My iPad or iPhone?

A3. Since Apple does not supply this feature in any of their mobile operating systems I created a “work-around” to enable this to be done. Follow the steps below carefully and do not leave out any steps. If you have many hundreds of emails to delete at one time you may need to repeat the process more than once. 1. Open the Inbox. Tap on Edit 2. Tap on Mark All then tap on Mark As Read 3. Open Inbox and tap Ed- it . Check or select the first message. This will activate the Move selection. 4. Press and hold the Move button and uncheck the message that you had checked earlier. 5. Remove your finger from the screen and the Folder List will open. Tap on Trash and you will see all the marked emails entering the Trash Folder.

Continued on page 11

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 11 Continued from page Computer Tutor

6. Now all you need to do is to open the Trash folder and tap Edit. 7. Once you tap Edit the Delete All selection will appear at the bottom of your screen. If you have selected to be “warned before deleting” the op- tion will pop up as shown below. Tap Delete All and you are done. All your emails have been deleted in one fell swoop.

Continued from page 4 LEDs and Lumens

 Life Span A longer life span means lower carbon emissions. LED Lights last up to six times longer than other types of lights, reducing the requirement for frequent replacements. This results in using fewer lights and hence fewer resources are needed for manufacturing processes, packaging materials and transportation.1

When our original walk-in light was installed, the builder told me that the light would give me true natural color. In my research, I discovered that LED lights don’t come in Watts but in Lumens, and lumens are measured in Kelvins. The lumens scale indicates the brightness of a bulb or fixture while wattage simply represents the amount of energy needed to use the bulb.

Lumens Light color, or color temperature is measured using the Kelvin scale. LEDs are available in warm colors (low kelvin) to match the yellowish light of incandescent bulbs, but you can choose cooler colors (high kelvin) with whiter or bluer light.2 See the color temperature chart below.

Color Temperature measures the visual appearance of the color of light and runs from a very warm, orange light (candlelight) at 1500 Kelvin (K) to very blue (skylight) at around 10,000 K. Residential lighting in North America has heretofore lived in a very narrow band, between 2700K (60W incandescent) and 3000K (Halogen.) Stay between these two and the color will feel very natural, 2700K in warmer environments and 3000K in cooler spaces.3 As a seamstress who likes to match colors, I ended up choosing a rectangular fixture with 4000K like daylight. Some LED bulbs/fixtures are dimmable; mine is not but I don’t need it to be.

One resource said to take the room measurements in square feet and multiply by 40. That calculation resulted in 6000K which I expected would be too bright. There were a few variances in lumens from different writers.

And, I am very happy!

References: 1https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com 2http://www.kichler.com/style-guide/learn-about-led 3https://www.energyearth.com/general/categories/

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“Internet” and “web” are often used inter changeably, but technically they’re very dif ferent things.

What’s the Difference Between the Web and the Internet?

In general usage, the terms seem almost synonymous. In practice, I suppose, it matters little if we misuse one to mean the other.

But they’re two very different things. More precisely, one is a strict subset of the other. And that other is much, much larg- er than we think.

The internet The internet1 is an interconnected network of computers. In practice, it’s the interconnected network of computers that spans the globe.

But that’s all it is. “Internet” refers to the network of computers all communicating and exchanging data with one another. Nothing more.

More specifically, it doesn’t imply what form that data takes.

The web The web (more formally, the World Wide Web) is the collection of webpages made available on web servers for viewing in your web browser. Whenever you fire up your browser — Internet Explorer, Fire- fox, Chrome, Safari, or something else — you view pages that are part of the web.

In its strictest (and some would say most correct) sense, the web is those pages, and only those pages, all of which can be viewed in web browsers. That’s all.

Another way to look at it is that every reference that begins with “http” or “https” refers to something on the web. Conversely, all things that can be referenced that way are on the web, and anything that can- not be accessed via a web browser is not.

The internet — the network of computers — is used to deliver the content you view on the web. The web, in a very real sense, is a proper subset of the internet. The web is on the internet, but the internet contains much more than the web.

On the internet beyond the web Everything you do online that isn’t viewed via a web browser is not the web. There’s a lot.  Email  Voice-over-IP services like Skype and others  File transfer protocols like FTP or BitTorrent  Video streaming services like Netflix (when not viewed in a web browser)  Online games like World of Warcraft These and others are all services that live on the internet, but they are not part of the World Wide Web.

Confusion, of course, reigns But what about email services like Outlook.com and Gmail? They supply email through your web browser, so doesn’t that mean email is on the web?

Yes and no.

Online email services like Outlook.com, Gmail, and others provide a web-based interface to your email. But the actual transmission of email from one place to another doesn’t happen over the web — it happens through mail-specific protocols between mail servers on the internet. If you use a desktop email program2, you’re not using the web to access your email; you’re using those same mail-specific protocols to send and receive email directly from your PC. Continued on page 13

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 13

Continued from page 12 The Difference Between the Web and the Internet?

Another good example of confusion is services like Netflix.

In some cases, they use dedicated software — such as an application on your gaming console or mobile device — to provide their content. This is not the web, either; it’s some service-specific streaming protocol that traverses the internet. In other cases, you view the content in your web browser on your PC. In this case, the content is, indeed, delivered over the web3. Masquerading non-web as web Finally, there’s one more source of confusion: attempts to bypass blocking.

VPNs are not the web. VPNs are a communications protocol between your computer and a VPN service on the internet. Unfortunately, because VPNs are often used to hide your activities from prying eyes, those prying eyes — like government-controlled ISPs — can often block VPN services completely.

One approach occasionally used by VPNs (and other services that might be prone to being blocked) to try to bypass those blocks is to make their traffic “look like” web traffic. They might use actual web protocols (like http or https) to establish their communications, even though they are not themselves trans- porting web pages.

If you’ve ever seen advanced instructions to reconfigure a tool that isn’t working to use port 80 or port 443, that’s exactly what’s being attempted. Port 80 is the http port, and port 443 https.

Pedantic? On one hand, the difference between “the web” and “the internet” might seem irrelevant, and in many cases it probably is. You use what you use, and it does what it does on whatever it happens to use — web or internet.

On the other hand, as we’ve seen so often, computers and the people who support them4 can be quite pedantic. Specificity and exactness is often the difference between understanding a scenario or getting an answer right or wrong. While “internet versus web” isn’t something that comes up often, understanding the difference, at least conceptually, is worthwhile. Read more: What’s the Difference Between an Email Domain, an Email Account, and an Email Address? – Email comes with its own set of somewhat confusing terminology. I’ll review the differences between an email address, email account, and email domain. Can My ISP See that I’m Using a Proxy? – It’s important to understand the terminology when it comes to masking an IP address. Depending on your security needs, some need to be done differ- ently. What Are the Pros and Cons of Web-based Email Over Desktop Email? – Web-based and down- loaded email both have significant advantages and disadvantages to managing email. Which is right for you depends on many things.

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 14

Technology Word of the Month: “Flickr” Flickr (pronounced "flicker") is an image hosting service and video hosting service. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004. It has changed ownership several times and has been owned by SmugMug since April 2018. SmugMug is a professional hosting service, and intends to keep Flickr as a standalone community and give it more resources and attention. For mobile users, Flickr has official mobile apps for iOS, An- droid, and an optimized mobile site. Flickr has both free and paid services and can be accessed at https://www.flickr.com

CARD SENT IN OCTOBER If you know of someone in our group who is ill or has suffered a loss in the family, please contact Susie McSwain 883-2811 waynemcswain- @sbcglobal.net.

BASIC COMPUTER CLASSES FOR SALE: Basic Windows 10 computer classes are taught 120 GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA ATA INTER- by ICON members Mary Phillips and Art Irish with NAL HARD DRIVE WITH BOUNCEBACK EX- ICON assistants for nine sessions monthly ex- PRESS BACKUP SOFTWARE. cept April, August and December. Classes are held in Conference Room A in the Smith-Glynn- 24-INCH DELL FLAT SCEEN MONITOR Callaway Medical Bldg. basement, 3231 S Na-

tional, Springfield MO. New classes will be held starting in January. Students should bring a Windows 10 laptop, power cord, and mouse or plan to borrow one from an instructor. Sign up by calling Mercy Older Adults Services 841-0333 OR sign up at Mer- cy.net/senior-events. PLEASE! Please Notify us of Change of Address. Each time the newsletter goes to the WRONG ADDRESS, the Post Office charges ICON an additional fee of $0.70 post- age to notify ICON of a change of address. So when you move or go out of town, please e-mail: [email protected]

THE CONTENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE ARTICLES IN THIS NEWSLETTER ARE THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHORS. NOT THOSE OF THE ICON USERS GROUP.

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 15

ICON MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Make Check to ICON — Mail dues to: ICON Users Group 1325 W Sunshine #169, Springfield MO 65807-2344 NAME ______E-MAIL ADDRESS ______ADDRESS ______HOME PHONE ______CITY ______STATE _____ ZIP ______SPONSORED BY ______DATE ______YEARLY DUES $20.00 — PLUS $5.00 APPLICATION FEE

Please submit articles for the December issue of THE ICON by November 15, 2018 to Mary Phillips at [email protected]

ICON’S NEWEST MEMBERS AND RENEWAL

MAY YOUR ASSOCIATION WITH ICON USERS GROUP BE A HAPPY AND FUN-FILLED TIME.

ICON OFFICERS

VISIT ICON’S WEB SITE AT www.iconusersgroup.org GO TAKE A LOOK!!

THE ICON November 2018 PAGE 16

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ICON (Interactive Computer Owners’ Network) is a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing information about technology, and helping others more effectively learn to use computers and emerging technology. We provide instructor led “Hands-on Classes”, “Moderated Workshops and Group Discussions”, “One-on-One Help Sessions”, and “Presentations” by individuals ranging from college level instructors, public service organizations, the business community, and our own members who are knowledgeable about specific topics. Classes cover everything from beginner level to advanced skills, and discussions cover a wide range of topics from managing the various operating systems, to digital photography, genealogy, office applications and web development.

Visitors are always welcome at all ICON functions Check out our current schedule inside this newsletter... Or by visiting: www.iconusersgroup.org Visit the “Calendar” to find the time, date, and location of topics or classes that interest you and attend as often as you wish.

Hope to see you soon!