NewPslettAer of tThe PAotomaCc AreaSTechnoloPgy anod ComsputtersSociety May 2013 www.patacs.org Page 1 Useful Bits & Pieces such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc. by by Lorrin R. Garson transferring traffic from their cellular circuits to Columnist, Potomac Area Technology and Computer WiFi. However, the carriers might revolt if they Society perceive they will lose revenue that is not made Open Garden up by lower capital investments. It is a complex business situation and no one knows at this time Open Garden has nothing to do with horticulture. how the cell phone companies will react or if It’s a technology that interconnects devices such consumers will adopt Open Garden. For more as smartphones, laptops and tablets to form a information see http://opengarden.com/, wireless peer-to-peer mesh network for access to http://opengarden.net/ and the Internet. For example, by installing Open http://opengarden.com/story.php. Garden on your cell phone and laptop (PC and Improving PC Performance by Adding Mac), your laptop has access to the Internet via Memory your phone when WiFi hot spots are not available. If others have Open Garden installed Increasing the amount of memory in your PC is on their devices you would all share connectivity the simplest and least expensive way to improve and bandwidth. It is the digital equivalent of performance. The procedure is quite simple even grazing on the commons. Open Garden provides for those who are hardware challenged. These an “automatic path choice.” When the software instructions pertain to desktop PCs, although detects multiple Internet connections, it will adding or changing memory in laptops is similar select the fastest one available and will switch to (see http://www.wikihow.com/Upgrade-Your- another connection if the original slows or goes Laptop%27s-RAM-Memory). off line. The advantage is that it can offload traffic from an overburdened access route to one 1. Determine how much memory is currently in less utilized, say from a 3G or 4G connection to an your computer (instructions for Windows 7) enabled WiFi connection. Currently Open Garden by: left-click on Start, right-click on Computer, is available for Android, Windows, and Macintosh then left-click on Properties. Under System will operating systems. An iOS version (for the be a line “Installed memory (RAM)”. iPhone) is planned for the future. In principal 2. Determine how many memory slots are widespread deployment of this technology could available in your computer. This can be done reduce capital expenditures for wireless carriers (Continued on page 2) Useful Bits & Pieces......................................................................................1 INSIDE Linux and Open Source News.....................................................................3 Phone Scam to Hijack Your Computer..................................................... 6 Outlook.com..................................................................................................8 Get Creative with Text Boxes..................................................................... 9 81 Apps Accessed My Personal Info Online............................................11 Searching for a Good - Cheap Bluetooth Keyboard.............................. 12 Jabra Supreme UC...................................................................................... 14 Meeting Information................................................................................. 16 Page 2 www.patacs.org May 2013 (Continued from page 1) antistatic wrist strap for this purpose (see by consulting your PC owner’s manual, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antistatic_wrist opening up your computer for inspection _strap). These devices are quite inexpensive. (more on this later), or using one of the tools c. Open up the computer’s case. This will be such as that available from Crucial.com (see somewhat different for every machine. below). Sometimes a screw driver will be needed. 3. Determine how much memory you need. This d.Locate the memory module(s) and carefully is rather subjective. Many will advise “you remove them, assuming they are being can’t have too much memory”, but 4-8 GB is replaced. Some memory cards have clips at the probably adequate for most people. 12-16 GB or ends while others tilt forward or backward to more may be advisable for those doing video or remove. Look carefully and go gently. photo editing. For those playing computer games or doing heavy duty processing, the e. Snap the new memory module(s) in place more the better. taking care to seat them correctly. Apply pressure evenly across the width of module. 4. Determine the correct memory needed for Often you will hear a “click” as the module is your computer. Again, this information should seated. be available in your PC owner’s manual. For example, for the HP Pavilion HPE h8xt the f. Close up the computer and reattach all the memory specified is SO-DIMM, 204-pin DDR3- peripherals. DIMM, PC3-10600 (1333 MHz) DDR3-SDRAM, g.Boot up the computer and check to verify (step Unbuffered, non-EC (64-bit) DIMMs, 1.5 V #1) that the computer “sees” all the memory memory only. It is crucial that you buy the you installed. correct memory; there are many kinds of memory (DDR, DDR2, DDR3, RDRAM, SDRAM, 6. See etc.) sold by numerous vendors (Amazon, http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/add Newegg, TigerDirect, Micro Center, etc.) memory.aspx#fbid=jzzxbLYldz7 for useful including some manufacturers. Companies information on this topic from Microsoft. that sell memory will sometimes provide a tool you can download that will tell you the type of memory your computer uses, the number of memory slots available on your machine, etc. For example see Crucial.com at http://www.crucial.com/store/drammemory.a spx. It is generally advisable to use exactly the Tell Us About It! same brand, model with the precise Got a new tech device? Tried a new App or have specifications for all memory rather than just one that you can’t live without? Found a solution add additional memory. to a tech problem? 5. Installing the memory. Help and inform your fellow members by writing a. Unplug everything from the computer, a few paragraphs about it for this newsletter! It although some recommend leaving the power doesn’t require a lot of writing or a degree in cord plugged in to ground the computer, but journalism, just a short description of why you be certain the computer is not running. wanted it, cost (if any), where you got it and b.Be sure to ground yourself to the computer whether or not it met your needs. case before working on the machine. Static Users helping users is what we are all about! electricity can seriously damage components of your computer. It is preferable to use an May 2013 www.patacs.org Page 3 Linux and Open Source News I decided I wanted a GNU/Linux distribution that by Geof Goodrum was more community-based, and preferably one Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society following a rolling release model (see linux(at)patacs.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release), There and Back Again: Distro which basically means install it once and upgrade Hopping incrementally thereafter. I thought I found it in Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE, I started using the Ubuntu 12.04 GNU/Linux http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php distribution ). LMDE is based on the community-supported (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distributio Debian GNU/Linux distribution “Testing” release n) on my then-new HP Pavilion g6 laptop while (unlike the more common Linux Mint based upon 12.04 was still in beta release. Ubuntu 12.04 was Ubuntu releases). At the time, the install image stable, worked well, and even supported the was dated April 2012 (a March 2013 release is 802.11n wireless network adapter on the laptop now available), so after installation it took some without any fuss. As a Ubuntu Long Term time to download and install many updates (an Support (LTS) release, the publisher Canonical automated process). LMDE includes the MATE Ltd will provide updates for five years. However, and Cinnamon user interfaces common with its in January I was tempted to try the newest Ubuntu-based releases, but I found these rather Ubuntu release, 12.10. Canonical received some old-school and wanted to try the new Gnome 3.x bad press with the 12.10 release because the shell interface. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enable desktop search application passes queries to the native Gnome shell interface, found other Amazon.com for online results by default, and software was rather old (Google prompted me to Canonical receives a monetary credit for any upgrade the Chromium browser), and LMDE did Amazon purchases made through the feature. not support the ecryptfs-encrypted home The privacy concerns with 12.10 and how to directory left over from my Ubuntu install address them are documented in the Electronic without some effort on my part. I lost patience Frontier Foundation article at with LMDE just as Canonical announced an https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy updated release of Ubuntu 12.04.2. -ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks. I installed Ubuntu 12.04.2, but encountered However, I wanted to keep up with the latest problems that I never had with the original 12.04 features, so I installed Ubuntu 12.10 and made release. The worst was my laptop would not the appropriate privacy settings, but suspend reliably when I closed the lid. The screen encountered chronic pop-up error messages with sometimes flashed between white and black but requests to submit bug reports to Canonical. I never resumed the session, requiring me to also realized that a couple of applications that I power off to recover. The Microsoft Windows liked on 12.04 were not available on 12.10. software compatibility layer, WINE Although relatively minor annoyances, I was (http://www.winehq.org/), also had an bothered more by Canonical taking Ubuntu more installation bug that broke the entire system. commercial and snubbing community projects. While I filed bug reports on these, I was not Similar to its development of the Unity interface happy.