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The Monthly Edition Of The k-Byte Newsletter |
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| v. 26, n. 4, April 2009 | Users Helping Users | ||
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The Monthly Edition Of The k-Byte Newsletter |
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| v. 26, n. 4, April 2009 | Users Helping Users | ||
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Contents 1 OLPC - Afghanistan to Fort Collins - Rick Mattingly and Mike Morris 2 About k-Byte 3 Belarc Advisor-A Review - Mike Morris 6 Calendar of Events 7 The Two Month Activities Calendar 8 Computer Speed, RAM and Virtual Memory - Brian K. Lewis 9 Photo Gallery 10 Tip of the Month - Computer System Material Storage - Rick Mattingly 12 Directions and Map to Meeting Place 12 FRPCUG Contacts Meeting Previews on Page 6:
 Quote of the Month Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin [1789] OLPC - Afghanistan to Fort Collins by Rick Mattingly and Mike Morris, Front Range PC Users Group, http://www.frpcug.org  Afghanistan wants to educate its girls. But the Taliban targets girls who attend school and the teachers willing to teach them. The One Laptop Per Child Program could hold the solution. Girls could learn at home with the laptops. This CNN.com (http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Laptops+bring+lessons,+maybe+even+peace+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlID=34558407&fb=Y&url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/05/one.laptop.per.child/index.html&partnerID=211911) article describes what the Afghan government (and other governments) are doing to educate their children, and how computers are helping them achieve this goal. Take a few moments to read this article. It is well worth your time. You can help the OLPC Project with its educational goals in several different ways. Connect to http://laptop.org/en/participate/ways-to-give.shtml to learn about your choices. You can learn more about the project, by connecting to http://laptop.org/en/. The Front Range PC Users Group has donated to this program--see the February 2008 k-Byte article (http://frpcug.org/k-byte/Feb08Nsltr.pdf, or http://frpcug.org/k-byte/08-2.htm). In an earlier 2 for 1 special offer, FRPCUG donated one computer and received a second computer. That second computer has now been donated to the Poudre School District through the efforts of member Jim Bragonier. http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Laptops+bring+lessons,+maybe+even+peace+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlID=34558407&fb=Y&url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/05/one.laptop.per.child/index.html&partnerID=211911 Photo courtesy of OLPC, available under a Creative Commons for Attribution 2.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/).  Published monthly, k-Byte is the official newsletter of the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group (FRPCUG): our mailing address is PMB 152, 305 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521. Opinions expressed in k-Byte are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the group or its members. Publication of information in k-Byte constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this publication is at the sole risk of the user. Neither k-Byte, nor its officers, nor its editors or contributors assume any liability for damages resulting from use of information in this publication. Submissions Articles, letters and short items of interest on computer-related topics are welcome and encouraged. All items submitted for publication are subject to editing. Send your contribution to the editor via e-mail attachment or submit on disk. If you have questions about a submission, please contact the editor for information. Copyright and Trademark Information k-Byte is copyrighted ©2009 by the Front Range Personal Computer Users Group. The k-Byte logo and the Front Range PC Users Group logo are Trademarked by the Front Range PC Users Group. Unless otherwise noted, other nonprofit users groups may reprint or quote from any articles appearing in k-Byte without prior permission, provided that: a) proper author and publication credits are given; b) that a copy of the publication in which the article appears is sent at no cost to k-Byte at the above mailing address, or emailed to contact(at)frpcug.org; and c) any additional instructions/restrictions contained in the article are followed. User groups wishing to exchange newsletters with FRPCUG are invited to send a copy of their newsletter together with an exchange request. Disclaimer IBM PC, OS/2, Compaq, HP, Dell, UNIX, Windows and other trademarks occasionally mentioned in k-Byte are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Microsoft, Dell Inc., or their owners respectively. Neither FRPCUG nor its newsletter k-Byte are connected in any way with any manufacturer or seller. Acceptance by FRPCUG of donated products or services from suppliers, or inclusion of a supplier in the FRPCUG Partner list does not imply that any continuing financial support is received or expected by FRPCUG. Nor do such activities imply an endorsement of either the supplier or product or service. Such information is made available to members as a service. Use of any product or supplier found in this publication, or any FRPCUG publication, is at the sole risk of the user. About FRPCUG FRPCUG is an independent nonprofit computer society, so incorporated with the State of Colorado and open to anyone interested in Windows, or UNIX/LINUX microcomputers. Its purpose is to provide an educational and scientific forum of mutual benefit for members of the micro-computer community. FRPCUG holds a monthly meeting and conducts various special interest groups (SIGs) and seminars. Members have voting privileges, subscription to k-Byte newsletter, and access to SIGs and selected seminars. Annual dues are $25 for individual/family membership ($20 for students) and $50 for corporate/group membership. by Mike Morris, Front Range PC Users Group, http://www.frpcug.org Think back in time to the day you bought the computer you are now using. I expect that, at that point in time, you knew exactly what model processor you had just purchased, its clock rate, how much RAM you purchased . . . and many other details. How long has it been since that day? How many changes have you made to that computer since then? Where would you look for the answers to those questions? To find the answer to that last question (for Windows XP), most people would use the "System Information" (Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information) utility. There is, however, a third party, free, reliable utility that provides much more-and more useful-information than the Microsoft System Information utility. That free utility is called Belarc Advisor, from Belarc, Inc. (http://www.belarc.com/) located in Maynard, MA. The Belarc products ". . . allow users to easily manage their software licenses, operating system upgrades, security hotfixes, configurations . . . determine their IT security vulnerabilities and compare their IT configurations to consensus security benchmarks." The Belarc Advisor, free for personal use only, is clearly a part of the company's marketing strategy for their primary products. Connect to the Belarc web site (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) and you will find this description of the product: "The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server." Specifications: • Operating Systems: Runs on Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95. • Browsers: Requires IE 3 or Netscape 3, and higher versions. Also runs on Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox. • File size: 1863 KB One use for this product is to verify that you received what you paid for-whether the computer is new or used. A second use is simply as a configuration documentation utility. Let's examine a few differences between the two utilities. Parts of the Belarc Advisor results are displayed here:  I call your attention to several important items in that display: • Display Method. o You see all of the information in a single Firefox page (Firefox is my default browser). • Details. o You see a complete description of the processor, including primary (L1) and secondary (L2) cache sizes. w Details. o You see a complete description of the computer, including the manufacturer and motherboard information. • Details. o You see a complete description of RAM; not just the amount of memory, but the size of each memory module and their locations. Other useful information includes data on controllers, bus adapters, multimedia, and other hardware items. Perhaps one of the most important sections of the Belarc results is the list of missing (if any) Microsoft security updates, and a list of the installed Microsoft updates. All of this information is presented in a single, easily readable (plain English) page, which can be saved (using the Save Page As command) as a complete web page, a text file, or an HTML only web page. I suggest you also pay attention to the three features at the top of the Belarc Advisor results page: • System Security Status • Virus Protection • Microsoft Security Updates Part of the Belarc company mission is to determine "security vulnerabilities." The Belarc Advisor System Security Status feature is a benchmark score of your computer based on work from the Center for Internet Security (CIS) (http://www.cisecurity.com/index.html or http://www.cisecurity.com/charter.html). The score is determined by evaluating four major categories (see http://www.belarc.com/Advisor2/CISWebDocs/WinXP-Pro-v1.1.3-0.htm#scoring): 1. Service Packs and Hotfixes 2. Policies 3. Security Settings 4. Available Services, User Rights, File and Registry permissions, and Other System Requirements Each category contains a number of sub-categories, and the complete list is extensive-over 150 items. Not all items may be applicable to your computer and/or situation. For example, in my laptop, some of the Network Access items may not be appropriate. It will take me quite a bit of effort (but worthwhile effort) to understand and evaluate all of those security items. The Virus Protection feature is a reminder for those of you who are tardy in updating your anti-virus software database. The Microsoft Security Updates feature informs you of how many Microsoft security updates are missing from your computer. You can also find out, through additional links, what those missing updates are. I suggest you use your judgment when evaluating those "missing" updates. For example, in my laptop, I have one Microsoft Office 2007 product, which I no longer use. Several of the "missing" updates affect Office 2007 products. I may decide to uninstall that one Office 2007 product to enhance the security of my computer, rather than install a number of updates. Belarc Advisor is easy to install and a profile of your computer is created as a part of the installation process. Now, examine the Microsoft System Information utility, using the System Summary section:  True, there is a lot of information there, although you have to "drill down" into the directories to find it. Perhaps there is more information than you want (or need). Notice however, that the processor trade name (Celeron, Pentium, etc.) is not included. One section included in the System Information utility that you will not find in the Belarc Advisor is the list of System Drivers. That list, however, is probably helpful to someone with more hardware knowledge than I have. In the System Information utility, there is a list of (Microsoft only) applications. On my laptop, there is a problem with that list. It says that I have Word 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007, all with the same product ID number. I have Word 2002. Every Windows computer is delivered with the System Information utility. That does not mean you have to live with its limitations. The free Belarc Advisor is a worthwhile addition to your computer. |
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Graphical Events Calendar April General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, April 7th 7:00 PM Meeting Agenda: 7:00 to 7:15 Announcements 7:15 to 8:00 Open Forum 8:00 to 8:15 Break 8:15 to 9:00 Optical Scanners & OCR May General Forum Meeting We will meet at the Fort Collins Senior Center on Tuesday, May 5th 7:00 PM Meeting Agenda: 7:00 to 7:15 Announcements 7:15 to 8:00 Open Forum 8:00 to 8:15 Break 8:15 to 9:00 Remote Networking Virtual Servers See you at the meetings! Get full membership benefits. If you are not a current member, download an application from http://www.frpcug.org/memberap.htm Future General Forum Meeting Notes The April meeting topic is Optical Scanners and OCR (Optical Character Recognition). There is a perception that scanners can only be used for graphics. It is true that scanners are the key tool needed to convert old photos to digital files. Copy machines scan text documents, of course, but scanning text documents with optical character recognition technology creates digital text, not graphics files. Plan to attend the April meeting for insights into how these technologies work, and how they can make life a little easier. At the May meeting, member Calvin Cline will present "Remotely Administering Our Network & Virtual Servers." Or, "How I Can Do My Whole Job From My Recliner." You'll see how secure access is made to workstations, servers and routers at a small company, as well as a tour of the virtual servers and workstations, and more. Future SIG's, Seminars, and Other Meetings Digital Imaging SIG The Digital Imaging SIG is a forum for discussion of digital imaging hardware and software. The meetings are held every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Senior Center Lobby. The meeting format is informal, using the Shop Talk sessions as a basis. For more information, contact Mike Morris at twriterext(at)gmail.com. New Technology SIG The New Technology SIG provides advance support for all PC related operating system and telecommunication issues. The meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday of each month at Bluebird Manufacturing Inc., 1421 Webster Avenue, in Fort Collins. For more information, contact Chuck McJilton at 970-493-2987. Shop Talk One-on-one assistance. Drop in to the Senior Center lobby on any Saturday (holidays excepted) from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Board Meeting FRPCUG's executive board meets on Wednesday of the week following the General Forum meeting. All members are welcome and are encouraged to attend. These meetings are held at 7:00 PM in the Staff Board Room of the Fort Collins Senior Center. April 2009 4 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 7 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00 PM 11 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 14 Digital Imaging SIG Meeting 7:00 PM 15 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM 16 New Technology SIG Meeting 7:00 PM 18 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 25 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM May 2 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 5 FRPCUG General Forum Meeting 7:00 PM 9 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 12 Digital Imaging SIG Meeting 7:00 PM 13 FRPCUG Board Meeting 7:00 PM 16 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 21 New Technology SIG Meeting 7:00 PM 23 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM 25 Memorial Day 30 Shop Talk 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D., Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., http://www.spcug.org, bwsail(at)yahoo.com One of the more frequent questions raised is: "will adding more physical memory (RAM), speed up my computer"? The answer is a qualified "maybe". The first thing you need to be aware of are the built-in bottlenecks that can slow down your computer. Programs and data move through your computer at different speeds in different locations. The central processor (CPU) is usually the fastest data handler in the system. The hard drive is the slowest and everything else, including the RAM, is intermediate in data handling speed. The speed of processing data in RAM is measured in billionths of a second, or nanoseconds, and the speed of accessing data on the hard disk is measured in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds. So, ideally, you want all the processing to go from RAM to the CPU and back to RAM. Unfortunately, that's not always possible even if your system has the maximum amount of RAM installed. Every computer running Windows, from several generations back, uses "virtual memory" in addition to RAM. The definition of "virtual memory" is based on redefining the address space to "trick" programs into thinking they are using large blocks of contiguous memory. Virtual memory is a space on the hard drive, frequently called a "swap file" or "page file". This is a block that is mapped for temporary storage of programs, data, and operating system essentials. This technique gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory (address space), while in fact it may be physically fragmented. Virtual memory was designed at a time when RAM was much more expensive than space on a hard drive. Even though RAM is now much less expensive, the latest versions of Windows (XP & Vista) still depend on virtual memory. In fact, much of the operating system kernel ends up in virtual memory. This kernel memory also controls the allocation of data to virtual memory. Consequently, it is not really possible to eliminate virtual memory when you are running Windows XP or Vista. If you do disable virtual memory, Windows becomes unstable. In a 32 bit computer running Windows, the maximum memory that can be accessed by the CPU is 4 gigabytes (232). It can not access addresses beyond 4 gigabytes (GB). (A gigabyte is a billion bytes.) Not every computer can accept 4 GB of RAM. Some older computers are limited to 512 megabytes (MB) and still run Windows XP quite successfully. However, if you have a newer computer whose motherboard can accept 4 GB of RAM, you may not be able to fully access all of that RAM. In some cases, RAM is shared with the graphics system. This is usually referred to as an "integrated graphics card". In such a case, up to 1 GB of your RAM may be used by the graphics leaving only 3 GB for the rest of the system. Then Windows takes 2 GB of space leaving only 1 GB for user space (programs and data). Even if some of this is placed in Virtual memory, the CPU still has only 4 GB of addresses. If you have a graphics card with its own memory, Windows will allocate 2 GB to kernel memory and 2 GB to user memory. Since some of the kernel memory will be in virtual memory, your total memory will be a combination of physical memory (RAM) and virtual memory (hard drive), but the total will not exceed 4 GB in a 32 bit computer. Remember, the 4 GB limit applies to the number of addresses that can accessed by the CPU. Those addresses can be on the graphics card, the hard drive or in physical memory (RAM). Windows sets up the memory system by dividing memory into pages. The most recently accessed pages are in RAM. Any pages that have not been referenced in a while are written to the file on the hard drive. According to Microsoft the paging file in a 32 bit system can be a maximum of 16 terabytes (one terabyte equals 1000 gigabytes). So the total virtual memory pagefile system can exceed the 4 GB limit by a considerable amount. However, no more than the 4 GB can be actively handled at time. The inactive pages are stored on the hard drive. Virtual memory not only operates at the speed of the hard disk data access, it also requires special handling before it can be used by the CPU or sent to the video screen. Pages on the hard disk have to be read into RAM to be used. That also means that the space they will take in RAM must be vacated. If there was data there, it must be written to the hard drive, before the new pages can be read into RAM. This paging process must also be managed. Some memory is used just to keep track of which pages are in RAM and which are in virtual memory. This is the role of the Virtual Memory Manager. All of these processes of reading and writing to and from RAM require time. As a result, virtual memory use does slow the computer more than the amount that is just due to the slower speed of disk access. Before you decide that you need 4 GB of RAM to solve your speed problem, you need to determine how much RAM your computer is designed to accept. Computers in today's market are sold with anywhere from 1- 4 GB of RAM. However, only a few years ago, computers were designed to accept a maximum of 1 GB of RAM or less. So you need to check your owner's manual to see what the maximum RAM is for your computer. Then, if you don't know how much is installed in your computer, bring up the device manager window from the control panel. The first page will tell you how much physical memory you have in your system. You can also see the distribution of physical memory and virtual memory by bringing up the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and clicking on the Performance tab. There are several other possible solutions to this problem. One is to look at your hard drive. If you have an older computer with an IDE drive, replacing it with a drive that has a SATA interface will speed up the data handling in virtual memory. Another change would be to purchase a graphics card with 256 - 512 MB of RAM and install it in place of the integrated video. That would release the RAM that was being shared with the video card. The best, and most expensive, alternative for speeding up your computer is to replace your 32 bit computer with a 64 bit system. The 64 bit computer architecture provides a memory ceiling of 264 addresses, a value that is measured not in gigabytes or even terabytes, but in exabytes.* Most of the 64 bit computers in today's market do limit physical RAM to anywhere from 8 to 256 terabytes. Not that we're getting into any really large numbers here, but the amount of RAM in a 64 bit machine is more than adequate to reduce virtual memory to a bare minimum. The catch is that 64 bit machines have other problems, especially with the limited availability of 64 bit software and drivers for peripheral devices. So before you decide to switch to 64 bit computing you need to check out whether or not drivers are available for your peripherals. Finally, if your hard drive is heavily fragmented, this will also slow down data reading and writing. Simply defragmenting your drive will speed up the drive input and output. It may also improve the computer's boot time. As you can see, there are a number of things to consider if you need to speed up your computer. *[Ed. Note: Dr. Lewis and this editor have exchanged several messages regarding this value. As a result, this version of the article has been slightly modified-with Dr. Lewis' permission. There are two Wikipedia articles on this topic that are recommended reading: • 64-bit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64bit) • Exabyte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exabyte). Also recommended: if you have an appropriate calculator, use it to calculate the value of 264 before reading the first article.] Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school professor of physiology. He has been working with personal computers for over thirty years, developing software and assembling systems. |
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Photo Gallery This month's featured photographer: Paul Ostrof using a Leica D-LUX2 camera Mode = Auto F number = 4.00 Exposure Time = 1/100 seconds ISO = 100 Focal Length = 6.30 mm. Scene Capture Type = Standard White Balance = Auto Happiness is a Popsicle Copyright © 2009 by Paul Ostroff. All rights reserved. Send requests for copies/reprint permissions to kbyte(at)frpcug.org |
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from Rick Mattingly A common problem for many computer users is that important computer documentation and software installation media has an uncanny ability to crawl away, never to be found when most needed. Here a a tip to prevent this frustration. Use a one gallon freezer ziplock bag to store all related materials for your computer system in one place. With a permanent marker, write pertinent info, such as make, model, serial - registration numbers, etc., on the outside of the storage bag. Get into the habit of placing all future system material into this bag and keep it in a handy location near your computer station. Next time you need any of this critical material it will be at your fingertips.  The Fort Collins Senior Center The Fort Collins Senior Center is located at 1200 Raintree Drive. This site is situated at the northwest corner of the Shields and Raintree Drive intersection, on the north side of the Raintree Shopping Center, and just west of the bank building on the corner of Shields and Raintree (see map at right). Check the marquee at the main entrance for directions to the specific meeting room. |
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| FRPCUG CONTACTS | ||||
| Telephone Area Code 970 | ||||
| FRPCUG Officers | Name | Work | Home | |
| President | Rick Mattingly | 613-8968 | rickmatt(at)q.com | |
| Vice President | Don Anderson | 498-3534 | 482-0943 | doande(at)gmail.com |
| Treasurer | Virginia Febinger | 498-2127 | gingercln(at)comcast.net | |
| Secretary | Jim Bragonier | 484-9061 | james.bragonier(at)comcast.net | |
| k-Byte Staff | ||||
| Editor-in-Chief | Mike Morris | 461-2002 | twriterext(at)gmail.com | |
| Features Editor | Mike Morris | |||
| Other Contacts | ||||
| Membership Coordinator | Jack Linder | 663-2151 | jack(at)frpcug.org | |
| New Technology SIG Leader | Chuck McJilton | 493-2987 | cdmcjs(at)gmail.com | |
| Digital Imaging SIG Leader | Mike Morris | |||
| Publicity | Mike Morris | 461-2002 | twriterext(at)gmail.com | |
| Door Prize Coordinator | John Goldey | 221-0877 | johngoldey(at)juno.com | |
| FRPCUG Fax Line | 493-1408 | |||
| FRPCUG Home Page w/E-Mail | http://www.frpcug.org | |||
| FRPCUG Officer E-Mail | board(at)frpcug.org | |||
| Library Request E-Mail | library(at)frpcug.org | |||
| Membership in the Front Range PC Users Group is $25 per year for individuals and $50 per year for companies. | ||||
| Mail your completed application and payment to: | ||||
| FRPCUG | ||||
| PMB 152 | ||||
| 305 W. Magnolia | ||||
| Fort Collins CO 80521 | ||||
| or join in person at the monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of each month. | ||||
