FPCUG Notes for March 2021 Editor: Frank Fota ([email protected])

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (7:00 PM - Falmouth Firehouse, Butler Road): The Board of Directors met via the Zoom video teleconference app on February 9th, 2021. In-person meetings/Workshops will soon resume; subject to State and CDC guidelines.

-- Thurs, Mar 4: All About Your Computer (Robert Monroe) – Zoom Virtual Meeting. Send your computer questions in advance to Robert at [email protected]. A link for the Zoom Workshop will be sent by email to FPCUG members.

-- Tues, Mar 9: FPCUG Board of Directors Meeting (Zoom Virtual Meeting).

-- Thurs, Mar 11: Annual Meeting and FPCUG Officer Election (Zoom Virtual Meeting). It is important that you attend. We will approve the FPCUG budget for the new fiscal year, nominate and elect or reelect FPCUG officers, highlight the support we continued to provide to our community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and discuss the way ahead as COVID-19 restrictions diminish. Instructions for access to this Zoom virtual meeting will be emailed to FPCUG members in advance of the meeting. Please consider running for office and making a difference. One Director, one Trustee, and all of the Executive Officers (i.e., President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer) will be elected / reelected (see Table below). Anyone interested in serving in one of these positions should contact Patty Davis ([email protected]) or an FPCUG board member.

POSITION NOMINEE(S) President Patty Davis Vice President Bill Farr Treasurer Rick Neil Secretary Frank Fota Director Robert Monroe Trustee Jon Beckett

-- Sun, Mar 14: Daylight Savings Time Starts

-- Wed, Mar 17: Saint Patrick’s Day

REMINDER – FPCUG MEMBERSHIP DUES Dues are due April 1, 2021, and cover the period from April 1 through March 31, 2022. Due to COVID-19 concerns, we ask that you make your $25 check out to the FPCUG and mail it to our treasurer, Rick Neil at FPCUG, P.O. Box 276, Fredericksburg, VA 22404.

TIDBIT – HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU REBURN A DVD-RW? I cannot connect USB flash drives to my work computer. I use DVD-RW and CD-RW disks to transfer data from other computers to my work computer. I have lots of used disks both at home and at work and it begged the question, “Is there a limit to the number of times a disk can be rewritten?” It turns out that there is. Writing in Quora, former

1 Software Engineer Richard Farnsworth said, “Yes. It’s around 1,000 cycles.” Unlike DVD- /+R disks, a laser heats a metal alloy in the disk that can toggle between a crystalline and amorphous phase. This changes the reflectivity of the disk surface to produce a digital bit. The process can only be repeated about 1,000 times because thermal stresses eventually cause the change to be nonuniform and the digital bit becomes unreadable.

LIMITED INTERNET SERVICE OPTIONS? IS STARLINK AN OPTION? Elon Musk emailed invitations to interested Starlink beta customers in Virginia recently. I received my invitation on February 8th. It stated that “Starlink is now available in limited supply in your service area. During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all.” The majority of Starlink’s more than 10,000 customers are located along the US Canadian border and in rural areas within a couple of California counties. Starlink currently uses 895 small satellites in low-Earth orbit. Starlink intends to deploy 12,000 satellites. PCMag.com’s lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, says, “Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet project is faster than its retail competitors, according to data from Ookla Speedtest Intelligence. But then again, nobody is really using it yet.” Starlink’s competitors include HughesNet and Viasat’s Excede. They all target rural users who cannot access the internet via coaxial or fiber-optic cable. The speed difference is significant. Starlink currently averages more than 3.2 times the download speed and 4 times the upload speed of their competitors. The latency, or the time it takes for signals to reach the intended receiver, averaged 42ms. This is similar to 4G LTE (~40ms). Starlink says it expects "…to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021.” These competitive advantages are expected to improve over time. However, the impact that more consumer and commercial users will have on available Starlink network bandwidth is unknown at present. I suspect that the increasing number of satellites will offset any increase in customers. Starlink is not cheap. During the Starlink beta phase, the cost is $99/month, plus $499 for the satellite dish and Wi-Fi router. There has been no discussion of data caps for Starlink during or after the beta phase.

2 USPS PLANS WOULD AFFECT THE TIMELY DELIVERY OF MAIL There have been significant delays in the delivery of mail and packages in the past few months. During a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, February 24th, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy apologized for, “unacceptable" mail delays during the holiday season.” The Washington Post was first to report that Postmaster General DeJoy proposed a new strategic plan that would increase postage rates and eliminate First-Class Mail. The strategic plan has three main sections: the creation of a Postal Service health benefits program, reforming the Retiree Health Benefit Fund obligation, and revising service standards for on-time delivery. First-Class Mail would be rolled into the same

delivery category as nonlocal mail with a three-to-five day delivery standard. Postmaster General DeJoy said that the Postal Service Board of Governors supports this plan. Congress objects to the proposed change in service standards. White House NOW Reporter at USA TODAY Matthew Brown explains, “The Postal Service has struggled with financial problems as shipping rates have declined and the service's obligations to fund health benefits for its retired workers burdened its balance sheets. As a semi-private entity, the service mostly funds itself through shipping fees; it is not taxpayer-funded but remains under the jurisdiction of the federal government.” The USPS has a decade-long history of annual revenue losses and a net financial loss of $9.2 billion last year. Postmaster General DeJoy confirmed his intention to move forward with the plan when briefing the House Oversight Committee. There are four open seats on the Postal Service Board of Governors. Following Postmaster General DeJoy’s briefing, President Biden named two Democrats and an Independent voting rights advocate to fill three of the four positions. The board has the authority to replace the Postmaster General.

GOOGLE STORAGE (TERMS OF SERVICE) CHANGE IN JUNE After June 1st, High and Express quality photos and videos will count against your 15GB storage quota. Files created or edited using collaborative apps (e.g., Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard) will also count against this quota. Files uploaded or created before June 1st will not count against this storage quota. If you exceed the storage quota, your photos and videos will not be backed up, documents will be frozen, and you may no longer be able to send and receive the email in Gmail. Writing for TechCrunch.com, Frederic Lardinois says, “That’s a big deal because today, Google Photos lets you store unlimited images (and unlimited video, if it’s in HD) for free as long as they are under 16MP in resolution or you opt to have Google degrade the quality.” The terms of service will not change if own a Pixel smartphone. Extra storage space is cheap at Google $1.99/month for 100GB, $2.99/month for 200GB, or $9.99/month for 2TB. 3 PERFORMANCE BOOST – MORE MEMORY OR FASTER MEMORY I often describe computer memory and storage needs in terms of grocery shopping. Think of the cache memory on your processor as food on your plate that is easily available when needed. Think of Random-Access Memory (RAM) as food in your refrigerator; that is only steps away when needed. Think of your solid-state or hard disk drive as food in a grocery store a few miles away from your home. If your relatively new computer’s performance is suffering, you might consider adding more or faster RAM. As a first step, open the Windows Resource Monitor to see how much memory is being used. To access the Resource Monitor, click the Start button on the bottom-left of your desktop, expand All apps, choose Windows Administrative Tools and select the Resource Monitor. The screen capture above is from my notebook computer. To stress my system, I opened a 52MB MS PowerPoint file, a few MS Word files, two MP4 videos using the VLC media player, several large Adobe Acrobat files, 5-6 websites using the Chrome browser, and the usual background programs. The 10-year- old Dell Precision M4500 laptop I use has Windows 10 Pro and 16GB of RAM. Forty-two percent (6.72GB) of the available RAM was being used for these programs. I suspect that my system would perform well with just 8GB of RAM. However, I occasionally play games on this computer and the games likely benefit from the extra memory. When your computer lacks physical RAM, it offloads tasks to your solid-state or hard disk drive. These tasks are stored in a swap file or page file as “virtual memory.” Virtual memory is much slower than physical RAM. If your computer has sufficient physical memory to run the programs and apps you typically use, you may not see any improvement by adding more. Writing for MakeUseOf, Dan Price says, “You may benefit more from buying RAM that's faster than the RAM you already have, even if it's the same amount.” RAM performance is measured in terms of speed in megahertz (the higher the MHz number the better) and latency reflected by a series of numbers (e.g., 5-5-5-12) with the lower latency numbers performing better. Latency = delay. Faster memory can improve performance but the degree of that improvement may not be noticeable. A layman’s explanation of speed and latency is available in the Just Leo YouTube video here. A good assessment of faster RAM cost versus performance is presented in the Linus Tech Tips YouTube video here. Check your computer or motherboard manufacturer’s website for compatibility before purchasing memory. Memory comes in different configurations and the terms can 4 be confusing to include: Dynamic In-line Memory Modules (DIMMs) and for laptop/ notebook computers the Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Modules (SODIMMs), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (officially abbreviated as DDR SDRAM or just DDR), and faster variants of DDR (e.g., DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4). There are caveats to the purchase of faster memory modules. Faster memory is limited by the speed of your motherboard’s Front-Side Bus (FSB). If the FSB speed is 1333MHz, faster memory will be throttled back to 1333MHz, or given the “Double Data Rate,” it will effectively run no faster than 2666 MHz. If the memory you currently have is slower than the memory you are buying, the computer will run at the speed of the slowest memory module present. If faster memory is your objective, you may have to remove and replace slower memory modules. You should also check your computer’s BIOS for memory options before you decide to purchase faster memory. Most computers require that you press Delete or F2 during the boot process to access the BIOS. Look for Advanced Mode settings and Overclocking or Advanced Memory Timing settings. Memory modules have default settings stored on the chips and if your motherboard supports it, the BIOS will have an Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) setting. If the XMP setting exists, it will have to be enabled after installing faster modules. Your high-speed memory will otherwise run at the slower default settings. If an XMP setting does not exist, your motherboard manufacturer may have named it "System Performance", "Memory Timings", or "Configure DRAM Timing." Andreas Winterer provides a good explanation of memory timing magic in the Tom’s Hardware article, “BIOS from A to Z” here. Check your computer or motherboard manufacturer’s website to ensure that the amount of memory you plan to install does not exceed the maximum amount supported by your motherboard. Additionally, be sure that individual memory modules do not exceed the largest capacity your motherboard will accept (e.g., if your motherboard supports 16GB of RAM but cannot use individual memory modules larger than 4GB, you will need to install four 4GB memory modules rather than two 8GB memory modules). The amount of RAM you can effectively use may be further limited by your operating system. Thirty-two-bit operating systems cannot address more than 4GB of RAM. Windows 7, 64-bit Home Premium can address 16GB of RAM, Windows 7 Professional can address 192GB, Windows 10 Home 64-bit system can address 128GB, and Windows 10 Professional can address 2TB of RAM. Does this sound confusing… If so, I recommend that you (1) purchase RAM from a vendor (e.g., Crucial.com) that guarantees compatibility or (2) email me your system specifications in a request to determine whether the cost justifies the purchase of more or faster RAM. The explanation above and web links within should increase your knowledge of computer memory and perhaps, reduce the risk that your hard- earned cash is spent unwisely in a quest for improved computer performance. NOTE… the FPCUG does not endorse products or services of any kind . 5 Photos / Graphics Design of the Month The World War-II era B-17 “Aluminum Overcast” at the Manassas Regional Airport

Photos by Frank Fota – 9/26/14, NEX-6 1/160 sec. & 1/250 sec. f/13 16mm, respectively 6 – Baltimore Inner Harbor –

Graphic Design (fractal) by Cliff Dalseide

Please feel free to submit photos or graphics designs for inclusion in our newsletter!

7 EVENTS IN COMPUTER HISTORY (Paraphrase and additions to the Iceni Technology Blog by Iceni Technology Contributor Rebecca Coe and historical data from the websites www.computerhope.com/history/, dayintechhistory.com, computerhistory.org, and www.historyorb.com/)

-- Mar 1 -- Steve Wozniak completed the basic design for the circuit board of a (relatively) easy-to-use personal computer (1976). The next day he showed it to the Homebrew Computer Club, which Steve Jobs attended. Jobs realized the potential and convinced Wozniak not to give away the schematics but instead produce printed circuit boards to sell. The two Steves formed the company Apple, and Wozniak’s design became the basis of the Apple-I computer. The rest, as they say, is history.

-- Mar 1 --

AOL discontinued support for the Netscape browser on March 1, 2008.

-- Mar 2 -- Formerly, Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web (aka David and Jerry’s Guide), Yahoo! was incorporated on March 2, 1995, by Jerry Yang and David Filo, electrical engineering graduates from Stanford.

-- Mar 3 --

On March 3, 1975, the Homebrew Computer Club held its first meeting in a garage in Menlo Park, California. Founders Fred Moore and Gordon French hosted ~30 microcomputer hobbyists, who discussed the Altair, a computer that could be built at home from a kit. The club and others like it increased the popularity of the personal computer.

-- Mar 3 -- On March 3, 2003, the US Supreme court ruled that sex offenders’ information and pictures can be posted online.

8 -- Mar 3 -- Magnavox obtained exclusive licensing of television video game technology from Sanders Associates (1971). The first home video game console, the Odyssey, was developed at Sanders by a team headed by Ralph Baer.

-- Mar 4 -- The first Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (1977). This supercomputer, which cost nineteen million dollars, was used to design sophisticated weapons systems. The system is a cylindrical tower seven feet tall, nine feet in diameter, and weighs about 5.5 tons. The machine produced so much heat that it required a built- in freon-based refrigeration system. It required its own electrical substation to power it, at a cost of about US$35,000 a month.

-- Mar 6 -- The Michelangelo boot-sector computer virus began to affect computers on March 6, 1992. Boot-sector viruses overwrite the section of the hard drive essential for locating data. Although few computers were affected, publicity caused panic among IM/IT professionals and PC users.

-- Mar 6 -- Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) filed a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM on March 6, 2003, for allegedly devaluing its version of UNIX by contributing its property to Linux.

-- Mar 8 --

IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer XT, which stands for eXtended Technology (1983). For a price of $4,995, it features an 8088 processor, a 10MB hard drive, eight expansion slots, a serial port, 128 kB RAM, 40Kb ROM, a keyboard, and one double-sided 360kB floppy drive.

-- Mar 8 --

MIT introduced the Whirlwind machine, the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics on March 8, 1955.

9 -- Mar 9 -- Vice President Al Gore gives an interview on CNN’s Late Edition (1999) in which he states, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” This statement is widely misquoted as “I invented the Internet.”

-- Mar 10 -- Scottish-Canadian-American Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call to his assistant, Mr. Watson, which is considered the first phone call in history: “Mr. Watson come here I want you.” (1876)

-- Mar 12 -- The Hulu website was released to the public on March 12, 2008.

-- Mar 13 -- Ten years after the company’s founding, Corporation stock went public at $21 per share (1986). The stock, which eventually closed at $27.75 a share, peaked at $29.25 a share shortly after the opening. It is said that the rising value of Microsoft stock has made an estimated 4 billionaires and 12,000 millionaires of Microsoft employees.

-- Mar 14 --

AT&T Bell Laboratories announced the completion of the first fully transistorized computer, TRADIC (1955). TRADIC, which stood for TRAnsistor DIgital Computer, contained nearly 800 transistors, which replaced the standard vacuum tube and allowed the machine to operate using less than 100 watts; one- twentieth the power of a comparable vacuum tube computer.

-- Mar 14 -- Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 on March 14, 2011.

-- Mar 15 -- The first Internet domain “symbolics.com” was registered by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company (1985).

10 -- Mar 16 -- The popular massively multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) EverQuest (EQ) was released on March 16, 1999.

-- Mar 18 -- Panasonic was founded on March 18, 1918.

-- Mar 18 -- Microsoft released Internet Explorer 5.0 on March 18, 1999.

-- Mar 19 -- The domain ibm.com was placed online on March 19, 1986.

-- Mar 19 -- Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 on March 19, 2009.

-- Mar 21 -- Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter posted the first Twitter post "Just setting up my twttr" on his account on March 21, 2006.

-- Mar 22 -- The first Intel CPU was introduced on March 22, 1993.

-- Mar 22 -- Intel released the 5th generation Pentium CPU in 1993. Originally known as the i586, Intel was unable to trademark this name (i.e., number). The Pentium name was created by Lexicon Branding, a marketing company known for the Apple PowerBook and Blackberry. Intel trademarked and so effectively marketed the Pentium, that years later, Intel’s CEO noted that “Pentium” had become a more recognized than Intel itself.

-- Mar 24 --

The Mac OS X desktop version known as Cheetah was released on March 24, 2001 replacing Mac OS 9.

-- Mar 25 --

On March 25, 1857, Frenchman Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville patented the phonautograph. The phonautograph transcribed sound to a medium.

11 -- Mar 25 -- The world’s first Wiki, WikiWikiWeb was created as Ward Cunningham invited people to add and edit content (1995). A Wiki is a database that can be a community collaboration. Mr. Cunningham has said that the inspiration for the name Wiki came from the free Wiki Wiki Shuttle bus he used at the Honolulu Airport during a trip to Hawaii. Six years later, Wikipedia was launched, although Cunningham had no official involvement.

-- Mar 25 -- Microsoft released Excel 4.0 (1994). It included an Easter egg animation of the Excel logo crushing the numbers 1-2-3

-- Mar 26 --

On March 26, 1999, the Melissa virus spread around the globe over e-mail in hours and became one of the fastest spreading viruses in history.

12 -- Mar 27 -- The First Annual World Altair Computer Convention (WACC) and the first convention of computer hobbyists were held in New Mexico (1976). Twenty-year-old Bill Gates gave the opening address.

-- Mar 28 --

The domain Facebook.com was placed online on March 28, 1997.

-- Mar 29 -- Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 Model 100, one of the first portable computers in a notebook-style form factor. The portability, simplicity, and built-in modem made it popular with journalists who could write stories in the field and transmit them back to their offices.

-- Mar 30 --

The first commercial computer, UNIVAC, was received by the US Census Bureau. Interestingly enough, the Census Bureau had driven the development of devices that eventually led to computers since the 1890s and Herman Hollerith’s Punch Card Calculator.

-- Mar 31 -- Quantum sold its hard drive business to Maxtor (2001).

-- Mar 31 -- On March 31, 2008, Dan Kaminsky, a computer security specialist for the firm IOActive, announced he had contacted Microsoft over a flaw in the DNS naming system (i.e., the Conficker computer worm). The worm created an international state of anxiety because it contained instructions for infected computers to contact a control system, somewhere in cyberspace, on April 1 for “instructions.” Many thought the malware to be a crude April Fools’ joke. Dan Kaminsky and his colleges developed a detection tool that would show computer network operators if their systems had been infected. No real damage was noted from the Conficker computer worm, but between 3 and 15 million computers were believed to have been infected.

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Who's Who in the FPCUG

Officers Office Name * Email Address President Patrice Davis [email protected] Vice President Bill Farr [email protected] Secretary Frank Fota [email protected] Treasurer Rick Neil [email protected]

Directors and Trustees Office Name * Email Address Directors Josh Cockey [email protected] Ed Alexander Robert Monroe Trustees Jon Beckett [email protected] Ed Spooner Johnny Creech “Agent of Record”

Chairmen & Representatives Office Name * Email Address APCUG Representative Frank Fota [email protected] Newsletter Editor Frank Fota [email protected] Webmaster Josh Cockey [email protected] Publicity Representative Carolyn Fota

Special Interest Workshop Leaders Office Name * Email Address Technology Josh Cockey [email protected] Windows All Jim Hopkins [email protected] Experimax Various Experimax Employee's Request Info. All About Your Computer Robert Monroe [email protected]

* NOTE: The server errors on the site that hosts our website have been repaired and email links to FPCUG officers should work. If you do not receive a response to an email message sent to one of the FPCUG officers above, feel free to contact me at [email protected] and I will forward the email as appropriate.

FPCUG Facebook Page

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