Diablo Blue

The Newsletter of the Diablo Valley PC Users Group

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FEBRUARY 4, 2010 MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

Internet Connections — Tools and Toys
Presenters: Alan Mildwurm and Ron Ogg, DVPC

There are a lot of different things that you can do with a computer. Alan and Ron will show some unique ways to connect to the internet and view videos, download data, read books, work on files, manage your collection of digital photos, and much more.

You'll see how you can connect to the internet using the G3 network, how to download and read dBooks online, how to watch how much data you're uploading and downloading, and new programs that will let you view and edit your digital photos.

This month's meeting will, as usual, be interesting and informative. We'll see you on February 4, 2010 in room H107 at Diablo Valley College.

NOTE: Diablo Valley College has parking permit dispensers that take dollar bills as well as nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar coins, and will at some time in the future take credit cards. Note that these parking permit dispensers do not make change.

Where and When We Meet

DVPC monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at Diablo Valley College In Pleasant Hill, California, on the Main Campus located at 321 Golf Club Road. We meet in room H107 in the Humanities Building. See the campus map on the About DVPC page for driving directions, parking information, and how to get to room H107. Remember: there's a $2.00 parking fee, payable at the ticket machines in each lot. These ticket machines take dollar bills and quarters, but do not give change so be sure to bring correct bills and/or quarters to buy your parking ticket. Place the ticket face up on the driver's side of your dashboard.

We have a Networking Table from 6:30 to 7:00; if you have something to sell or trade, need technical help, or just want to exchange views, visit the Networking Table. The regular monthly meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. with Random Access where you can ask questions or report on technical problems, followed by a presentation by our guest speaker. Also, as usual, we'll have SIG news and some of our usual great door prizes.

Driving Directions:
680 Northbound:
Exit at Willow Pass Road
At the end of the exit ramp turn left onto Willow Pass Road
Continue on Willow Pass Road to the second signal and
turn right onto Contra Costa Blvd.

680 Southbound:
Exit at Concord Ave.
At the end of the exit ramp turn left on Contra Costa Blvd.

Direction into the Campus:
Continue on Contra Costa Blvd. to the signal at Golf Club Road and turn into Golf Club Road. At the second entrance into the campus turn left then immediately right to parking lot 7. Turn left into lot 7. Park (but don't use parking spaces that are reserved for faculty and staff only), then purchase a parking permit (see Parking Fees below) and put it on your dashboard. Click on this link (www.dvpc.org/about.html) to see:
> a detailed DVC map showing parking and our meeting room
> a map for driving to DVC
> an aerial view of the DVC campus

Parking fees:
On the Pleasant Hill campus parking permits are $2.00 per day. You can purchase permits at the parking permit machines marked with a red star on the maps on the DVPC website. Parking permit machines take nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar coins. Note that these parking permit dispensers do not make change. DVC parking permits are required Monday through Friday at all times that classes are in session. That includes the times that DVPC meetings are held! Do not park in metered or faculty/staff spaces.

You need to purchase a parking permit and place it face up on your dashboard so it is clearly visible through the windshield. If you attend classes at DVC and have a campus parking permit, you can use it when you attend DVPC meetings.

Some members park (for free) in the College Park High School lot across Viking Drive from the DVC campus. Do so at your own risk!

Parking violations:
Be sure to purchase a parking permit! Fines range from $35 for parking in a regular space without a permit, to over $275 for illegally parking in a space reserved for the handicapped.

Parking alternatives:
Some members carpool and share the parking fee; they park at Sun Valley Mall, have dinner at one of the many restaurants in the mall, then take one car to the meeting. Some members park in the lots in front of College Park High School, which is across Viking Drive from DVC. Remember: if you decide to use any of these parking alternatives, you do so at your own risk!

Diablo Blue Password Access
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

You will need the monthly password to access the current issue of the newsletter. If you are a paid-up member of DVPC you'll receive an email message, usually on the Weekend prior to the meeting, with the password.

As each month's issue is uploaded, it's placed in a password protected folder on dvpc.org. When you click on the link to go to the newsletter, a dialog box will be displayed asking for the password from the email message. The password is case-sensitive; either copy it from the email message or make sure you type it correctly.

As we add the current month's newsletter, the password on the prior month's newsletter will be removed so anyone coming to the DVPC website can access older issues of Diablo Blue.

If you have any problems accessing a password protected newsletter, please email webbie@dvpc.org.

Watch for Updates!
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

With our new method of producing and publishing the monthly Diablo Blue newsletter, we can easily add updates to each month's issue. If an article is updated,the word Updated will be added in red

When we add a new article "mid-month" the entire entry will be shown in red in the Table of Contents.

DVPC Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
by Tom Krauss, DVPC

I was not able to attend the Board Meeting this month. In addition to falling on my birthday, it also happened to coincide with the birth of my first granddaughter, Madison. It was a difficult decision to make. Do I pass up an opportunity to spend a few hours with the technical sages of DVPC, reminiscing about the technological breakthroughs of yesteryear and debating the merits of various bandwidths? Or do I drop in on my 4 hour old granddaughter?

I agonized over that decision for hundreds of miilliseconds. Madison won.

A couple of days later my son told me to get set up with Skype so we could see more of our granddaughter. From various Board and regular meetings I knew immediately what he was talking about. I ran “Skype” through my mental search engine and came up with “something about phones and the internet or something”. Further conversation and a quick look at their website and I learned that one could also do video “phone” calls using Skype, just like in science fiction, and the creators of the Skype website assume you know all about their product and the options, so they don’t bother to inform you of the details in any readily apparent way. They have no qualms about telling you the various prices for their products and features. It was just not too clear which I would want.

But I got set up fine. My new monitor has a built in camera which I had told everyone I really didn’t need, but have secretly been wanting to try from day one. Unfortunately, the monitor does not have a built in microphone. But my wife had one, and soon we were watching my son watch TV in his living room in Livermore while trying to carry on a conversation with us at the same time. Madison had retired for the evening. But now I know I can do this again, and I probably will.

Since there was no news forwarded from the Board, I will pad this just a bit more with personal experience.

I have mentioned here several times how pleased I am with Windows 7. I am also learning to like Office 2007. I mostly use Outlook, Word and Excel. Outlook seems unchanged, on the surface. Not so with Word and Excel. On the plus side many features and functions have been improved. On the minus side, these features and functions have then been resorted, disorganized, scattered and in some cases flat out hidden.

In Word I have about given up trying to set my Normal template to standard line spacing with no extra real estate as part of the line. But when you change font characteristics like size, you select the drop down and as you move your mouse across the sizes from 8 to9 to 12 and so on, the text you had selected changes and you can see the result without having to release the cursor and then start over if you’re unhappy with the result. In Excel, you merge several cells by highlighting them and clicking “Merge and Center”. This is what I most often want to do, and one click to do it is great. Select the merged cells and now click “Merge and Center” again, and they are unmerged. Merge three cells with text in any one of them and the text is centered: it is not lost if it is not in the left most cell! Wow! It’s the little things in life…

Do you want the old Format Font window and tabs? They’re there. Not obviously, but they are available. I think if I had to give one piece of advice for Office 2007 menus, it would be “click on everything, drag everything, and see what happens. Of course, the Help is really pretty good, too.

Yes, I’m slowly getting the hang of it. Which is good, because I probably won’t upgrade again for another 6 or 7 years.

Links to Interesting Online Articles
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

Here are links to some interesting articles I've found online. Check them out!

CNET CES 2010 — Best of CES Awards
Since 2006, CNET has presented the Best of CES Awards, given to the top product in nine categories as well as one coveted Best in Show award. See the gadgets that topped our list for this year, and find out the People's Voice winner, decided by member votes...
Read more

The Official Google Blog — A new approach to China
Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google...
Read more

CNET News — Behind the China attacks on Google
Here's what is known and what is not known about the China-related attacks on Google and the other Silicon Valley companies...
Read more

Computerworld Security — Chinese authorities behind Google attack, researcher claims
The malware used to hack Google is so sophisticated that researchers brought in by the company to investigate believe the attack code was designed and launched with support from Chinese authorities...
Read more

Computer Shopper — How to Calculate Cost Per Page — and Save Money Printing
Figuring out real-world printing costs isn't rocket science, but you need to know some printer-tech basics. Here's help...
Read more

The Palm Beach Post — Technobuddy: Prolonging the life of your XP computer
In this economic climate, many people who used to buy a new car and a new computer every year or two are now looking for ways to stretch out the lifespans of the ones they already have. This article offers some tips for keeping your old XP system running for a while longer. Check it out here...
Read more

PCWorld.com — Google Toolbar Tracks Some Browsing Even When It’s Not Supposed To
A bug in Google Toolbar has resulted in the search giant receiving information about users' Web surfing in violation of the product's privacy policy, according to an anti-spyware and privacy researcher...
Read more

Ask Bob Rankin — Are Online Backup Services Safe?
The recent hack of Google by Chinese espionage agencies has raised concerns about the security and safety of online backup services. Is the protection provided by Mozy, Carbonite and other popular backup services enough to keep your files safe from prying eyes...
Read more

CNET News — A view from Microsoft's disaster central
From a standard conference room at Microsoft's headquarters, the software maker coordinates its emergency response, such as the effort under way in Haiti...
Read more

Ask Leo! — How do I get a Windows program to always open maximized?
Some folks like to run programs maximized; taking up the entire screen. If a program doesn't do that automatically, here are some steps that may help...
Read more

eff.org — Some Lessons from the AT&T/Facebook Switcheroo
Over the weekend, there was an odd story about people using AT&T's wireless network trying to log in to Facebook, and suddenly finding themselves logged in to somebody else's Facebook account. What could have caused such a strange phenomenon to occur...
Read more

IdentityTheftFixes.com — Check out These 13 Identity Theft Techniques
Do you know all the different ways your personal information can be stolen for identity theft? Some of these might surprise you...
Read more

InfoWorld Mobilize — Apple iPad vs. Kindle vs. Eee PC vs. PSP Go
We compare Apple's tablet to a Kindle, a netbook, and PSP Go to see which device is worthy of your dollars...
Read more

GodMode in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
by Ron Ogg, DVPC

Windows 7 and Windows Vista have an interesting set of control settings that let users make many changes that would otherwise require making modifications to the Windows Registry. It named "GodMode" because you have powers over your Windows configuration that some wag said should be left only to God. If you decide that you want to give GodMode a try, remember that "left only to God" part. Be forwarned that taking on these God-like powers without knowing exactly what a change will do means that you could alter your configuration in a way that you might not know how to undo, or that might cause problems.

Note: Vista needs SP2 to use GodMode, and Lynn Oakleaf reports it crashes the 64 bit version of Vista. I have tested it on the 32 bit version of Vista and the 64 bit version of Windows 7. Explore GodMode at your own risk!

Exactly what is GodMode, where do you find it, and how do you use it?

Before we get to the "where do you find it" part, let's take a look at what it is, how you use it, and what you can do with it. Then if you're still interested you'll find instructions about how to find or, more correctly, access GodMode.

First, What is GodMode?

GodMode is a collection of 256 contol settings in both Windows Vista and Windows 7. Some of the control settings duplicate things that can be done some other way, many are things that as defined earlier would otherwise require making modifications to the Windows Registry. Here is where some of those potential risks might be encountered. Many things that can be changed in the Windows Registry are dangerous if done by someone who doesn't know what they are doing. So be very careful: if you don't know what a control setting will do, leave it alone. You have been warned.

There are 256 different settings in GodMode for Windows Vista. The settings are listed in a single alphabetic list; this illustration shows the first 24 settings with their icons.

Note that most of these settings can be accessed some other way. For example, 'Adjust screen resolution' can be accessed by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting Personalize, then selecting 'Display Settings'. It can take many more steps to access some of the settings using the 'normal' way. If you keep a shortcut to the GodMode folder on your desktop it will take just a couple of clicks to accomplish the same thing.

There are even more settings in GodMode for Windows 7; in addition, the Windows 7 icons are arranged alphabetically in groups by their function, instead of a single alphabetic list; this illustration shows the first group and two of the icons in the second group.

Okay, so this is GodMode. Now, how do you access it? First, create a new folder. Second, rename the folder to this exact string:

     GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

The folder icon will look like a miniature Windows Control Panel. Open the folder, and you will see a list similar to one of the illustrations above, depending on whether you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Note that GodMode does not work under Windows XP or any older version of Windows, but it does work under Windows Server 2008 with SP2.

Explore GodMode, have fun, and be careful!

Moving From XP to Windows 7
by Vinny La Bash, Sarasota PCUG, Florida

Installing Windows 7 from XP is more complex than a straightforward upgrade from Vista. You need to perform a custom install, and you can do this with an Upgrade package of Windows 7. A normal upgrade won’t work, but Microsoft describes the installation process as the option to "either completely replace your current operating system or install Windows on a specific drive or partition". Microsoft also allows a multi-boot system to be installed. In other words, you have the option of running both your current version of XP and Windows 7 if you want. Switching back and forth may not be the best choice as the interfaces are very different.

Completely replacing XP will not eliminate it from your system. The setup program creates a folder on your primary hard disk which it names Windows.old . The process than places all the major XP folders such as Windows, Documents and Settings, and Program file folders in the Windows.old folder. Nothing happens to your data files. You can still access them, but your applications will have to be reinstalled.

No matter which option your settle on, back up everything on your system first, especially your data files. Back up your data files at least twice and keep a copy in a separate physical location. Backing up more than one copy may seem like paranoia, but if anything goes wrong you’ll be glad you did.

There are lots of ways to back up programs and data. If you use a third party program go to the manufacturer’s web site and make sure the program will be modified to work with Windows 7. If you can’t verify compatibility with Windows 7 or you don’t use a third party backup utility, you will probably turn to XP’s backup utility which Microsoft calls the Windows NT Backup-Restore Utility. Microsoft developed and released it specifically for restoring backups created in XP to restore in Windows Vista. It’s pretty safe to believe that Microsoft will adapt it to work in Windows 7. If you can’t verify that your third party backup utility will work in Windows 7 or you don’t trust Microsoft that it will modify its special XP utility, make copies of all your important data files to CD or DVD.

Read the article called Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration on the Microsoft TechNet site. It provides some great information about a utility called Windows 7 Easy Transfer. This program lets you transfer all your data and settings from XP to Windows 7. The Windows 7 installation disks contain a copy of the program and during installation a copy will be installed on your computer. You can then use the program to copy all your data files and settings to Windows 7.

Microsoft has recognized the popularity of low cost net-books, and Windows 7 was designed to operate on systems that many people consider underpowered. You won’t need terabyte sized hard disks or 6 gigabytes of RAM to run Windows 7. If your XP system was manufactured in the last four years there is a high probability that Windows 7 will run just fine. To be safe, run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor on your old system before rushing out and buying Windows 7.

The Advisor does a complete check of your internal hardware, installed programs, and any externally connected devices. If there are any compatibility issues the Advisor will report it, and even make suggestions on how best to eliminate incompatibilities, and select upgrade options. Go to the Microsoft Download Center to download and install a copy of this utility to your system. It will make you much better prepared for the upgrade to Windows 7.

You won’t be the only one changing to Windows 7. Don’t be shy about asking questions, and please share any good information you get with other members of the PC community. A good place to start is the Getting Ready for Windows 7 section of the Microsoft Answers web site. Don’t forget your local PC User Group. There is no better source for good, accurate information. Even Microsoft will acknowledge that.

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (vlabash (at) comcast.net).

Book Review: Windows 7 SECRETS
Reviewed by Ken Blake, Tucson Computer Society

Before I begin to review this book, let me tell you a little about my experience with Windows 7. The Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 became available on April 23, 2009, and I ran it from then until August 6, when the Release to Manufacturing became available and I switched to it.  (Note that although Windows 7 won’t be available for sale until October 22, in August all testing ended and it was finalized and made available to a limited group of people as well as to OEMs that will be distributing it with their computers starting on October 22).

I mention this just to make it clear that I already have six months of experience using this version of Windows and this book is not at all my first look at it. And before I begin to talk about the quality of its contents, let me address what the book is, and what it contains.

First its title, and in particular, the word “SECRETS” (in all upper-case):
Despite that word, the book is not about secrets. It’s a book trying to tell the reader almost everything about Windows 7, and is both an introduction to Windows 7 for those who are completely new to it, and a reference book for those who already know something about it.

There’s nothing at all secret about the great majority of what it contains. However, some of the things discussed in the book are marked with an icon containing the word “secret” Are these secrets? No, not at all; they are meant to be, as it says in the preface, “little-known facts.” Something isn’t a secret just because it’s little-known; moreover, not all of the items marked “secret” are little-known and worse, not all of them are 100% accurate.

My view is that the word “secrets” is just exaggerated advertising, and completely inappropriate.

Emblazoned on the paperback front cover of the book, in all caps, is the sentence “DO WHAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE WITH Windows 7!”

Everybody may not agree with me, but that kind of advertising, especially overstated advertising, on the cover of the book is a major turnoff for me.

The book is enormous, containing 1009 pages of text in 26 chapters, and a large index that brings the total to 1054. Although I might have presented some of it in a slightly different order than what these authors did, the organization is generally well done. But some of these chapters have nothing to do with Windows 7, and as far as I’m concerned don’t belong in this book at all.

For example, chapter 10 is about Windows Home Server. Windows Home Server is a completely different operating system that if you run at all will run on a different computer in your home network, and it’s been around since well before Windows 7. It’s an excellent product and I run it myself, but this book is not where a description of it and help in using it belongs.

And chapter 14 is about Zune, another Microsoft product that has nothing to do with Windows 7. Chapter 18 is about the Windows Mobile Smartphone, a hardware product. Chapter 21 is about Windows Live Mail, a software product that doesn’t come with Windows 7. Chapter 13, Digital Videos and DVD Movies,” also is largely about software products that are not part of Windows 7. Much the same is true of chapter 23, “Your Life in Sync—Windows and Live Services.”

Are these topics important and worth talking about and including in the book, even though they are not part of Windows 7? Arguably, yes and apparently the authors think so. On the other hand, I think someone who buys a book should get what the title promises he will get, and not other things as well.

Some people may be glad these non-Windows 7 topics are included, but others (me, for example) will feel that they just make the book more expensive as well as bigger, heavier, and containing more to read. My view is that this sort of stuff simply doesn’t belong here—not unless the title of the book is dramatically changed, so purchasers get what they expect to get.

Oddly, in the font used for the text of the book the “7” of “Windows 7” is slashed, but in the fonts used for headings and other things, it’s not.  It’s not a serious complaint, but slashing the “7” is unusual in the USA, and the inconsistency of its use is mildly annoying.

Throughout the book, whenever a particular feature is talked about, it’s described as wonderful, and an improvement over what it was in previous versions of Windows. I’m a big fan of Windows 7, and I think that it’s the best version of Windows ever, but I don’t think that everything about it is wonderful  If I had my ‘druthers, some things would be done differently.

Some of the things described may be good for some people, but not for others, depending on what other software they use, and upon their style of working. The tone of the authors in describing many things reads like unmitigated advertising, rather than honest description and evaluation.

Here’s an example of the kind of sentence I’m talking about: “Microsoft has dramatically enhanced the capabilities of the taskbar.” I know some people who like the Windows 7 changes to the task bar (Quick Launch icons are now on it together with the other icons, not on a separate toolbar) and others who hate it  Personally, I don’t have strong feelings about it either way, and I certainly wouldn’t describe it as “dramatically enhanced.”

So, putting behind me the negative views I stated above, and turning to the quality of the book’s contents, let me begin by stating that I generally like the book very much. It is thorough, reasonably complete, and by and large accurate (but not perfect—such books are never perfect). It explains things very well.

And in several instances, it told me things about Windows 7 that, despite my experience with it, I didn’t know. For example, it told me how, in Windows Explorer, to add folders to the Favorites list in the Navigation pane. This was to me a very useful tip and I was glad to have learned it.

The touch support for the screen is described in the book. This was new to me, primarily because my hardware doesn’t support it, but it was interesting to read about it.

I was very glad to see that in the chapter on Windows security, the authors recommend against Norton and McAfee anti-virus (the two worst choices, in my view) and for ESET NOD32, the product that I think is best. However, I was very disappointed to see that they consider Windows Defender to be adequate anti-spyware protection, and do not recommend installing any third-party antispyware programs.

Unfortunately the book has its share of errors. Most of the errors are minor misstatements, rather than being terribly significant, but still they are errors. Here are few examples of things that are clearly wrong, and some things that are wrong in my opinion:

1.  It says, “A full version of Windows 7… cannot be used to upgrade an existing version of Windows to Windows 7.” That is not correct.

2.  It says “Peek at Desktop is enabled by mousing over a new glass rectangular area found in the lower rightmost corner of the screen.” The “new glass rectangular area” is at the end of the task bar, and will be at the lower rightmost corner of the screen  only if the task bar is at the bottom of the screen.

Since the task bar will be on whichever of the four sides of the screen you choose to have it on (just as in previous versions of Windows), what the book says about where it is not correct.

3.  It says “Like a certain demonic creature, the notification area goes by many other names. If you see references to such things as ‘the system tray’ … these are referring to … what’s now simply called the notification area.” The word “now” is a misstatement.

It was actually always called the “notification area,” even way back in Windows 95  “System Tray” wasn’t its former name, just an informal name for it, both in the past and today.

4.   Talking about Windows Explorer, the book says “So My Documents is replaced by the Documents library in Windows 7.” Yes, it’s true that what used to be called “My Documents” is now more simply (and better, in my view) called “Documents,” but that didn’t begin in Windows 7; it was also true in Windows Vista.

5.   The book says “The Office 2007 ribbon has proven wildly popular with users…” I can’t prove that that statement is wrong, but my experience with Office 2007 users is that the great majority don’t like the ribbon interface at all.

6.   It states “Throughout the years, all Windows versions have shared a common problem: they degrade in performance over time and boot more slowly the longer the computer is used.” These authors are far from alone in having this opinion, but it’s one with which I strongly disagree.

I’ve run almost every Windows version since 2 0 and never experienced this. My view is that those who experience it do so because they used their computer poorly, not because of Windows slowing down on its own.

7.   It states “boot-up speed, of course, is a primary concern.” I strongly disagree with this statement.  My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer’s speed is otherwise satisfactory, it’s hardly ever worth worrying about.

Most people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up aren’t very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it’s done booting. I don’t know how long it took to boot and I don’t care.

So, having complained about a number of things, what’s my overall view of this book and do I recommend it? Yes, I recommend it! Despite my list of its errors and points on which I disagree with the authors above, those points represent only a small portion of the book.

Although I would have preferred it without the non-Windows 7 sections included, the book’s description of Windows 7 is thorough and most of it is accurate and well-presented. Moreover the value of whatever information is in a book like this disappears if the information within it is hard to find, and that’s not a problem here. The book contains a very good and large (40 pages) index.

Windows 7 SECRETS
Authors:  Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera
Publisher:  Wiley Publishing, Inc., www.wiley.com
ISBN-10:  0470508418
ISBN-13:  978-0470508411
Price:  $49.99, $31.49 at Amazon.com

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (ken (at) kjblake.com).

Making Windows More Legible
by Gary Bentley, Southwest International Personal Computer Club, El Paso

Have you noticed that each time you purchase a new computer with a higher resolution screen you find everything on the screen looks smaller than it did on the lower resolution monitor screen (if the diagonal size of your monitor was increased you might offset this phenomenon somewhat, but still be surprised that things looked about the same size in that case)?

This is because the Windows operating system assumes that the actual number of pixels per actual inch lighting up on your monitor screen is 96, i.e., 96 DPI (“dots” per physical inch) is assumed by the operating system.

Why would this assumption make things (icons, pictures, text, etc.) look smaller on a monitor that had higher native resolution (native resolution meaning the actual number of pixels lighting up per actual physical inch on your screen)?

Let us look at a real-world example. My Dell Latitude D620 has a 14 inch diagonal LCD screen with 1440 (horizontal) by 900 (vertical) pixels (native resolution, i.e., actual LCD pixels). How many DPI, i.e., pixels per inch is my screen? Well, recalling the Scarecrow’s recitation in the Wizard Of Oz when he received his “brain diploma” (or what he should have said, since he actually misstated the Pythagorean theorem---we can only assume that the Wizard did not want to damage Scarecrow’s self-esteem by correcting him), we know that the 14 inch diagonal on my screen is the hypotenuse of a right triangle, the sides of which are 1440 and 900 pixels. So we can take the square root of the sum of the squares of those two sides and that will give us the number of pixels along the 14 inch diagonal. The square root of 1440 squared plus 900 squared is, using Wolfram|Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/Math.html, use the basic arithmetic box there), 1698. Note that Wolfram uses standard means of entering mathematical operators. You might have to look those up and make adjustments, e.g., I asked for the square root by telling Wolfram to take the parenthetical operations to the 0.5 power since I knew how to enter the exponentiation operator (“^”), but not a square root sign (a radical sign).

So we have 1698 pixels along my 14 inch screen diagonal, or 1698 pixels/14 inches = 121 pixels per inch (121 DPI). How wide is one pixel? 1 inch/121 pixels = 0.008264 inch per pixel. Why would this make things smaller on my Windows desktop? Well, Windows assumes 96 pixels make an inch, so an inch on my screen is now 96 x 0.008264 or 0.79 inch. So everything on my Windows desktop is only 80% of the size it would be if there were actually 96 pixels per inch on my screen. I can verify that my calculations are correct by setting Microsoft Word to display an 8.5 x 11 inch standard document at 100% size. When I measure the width of that document on my screen I obtain 6 13/16 inches or 6.8125 inches. 6.8125/8.5 = 0.80, i.e., the 8.5 inch wide document is displayed at 80% of its actual size as we calculated would occur.

This means that text fonts are 80% of their intended size on my screen also. Fonts are defined in terms of points. A point is defined as 1/72 inch, i.e., 72 points per inch. Window assumes there are 96 pixels per inch, so a Windows logical point is 96/72 = 1.333 device independent pixels. A 10 point font should be around 10 x 1.333 pixels or 13 pixels vertical (leaving aside details of leading, etc.). That would be 13/96 = 0.13 inches high roughly on a 96 DPI monitor. On my 121 DPI monitor that 10 point font would only be 13/121 = 0.10 inch high approximately, again about 80% smaller.

A Microsoft study indicates about 55% of people reduce the resolution of their monitors (configure Windows screen resolution in Display Properties for a lower value), presumably to make the text and other items on their computer screen larger. For example, if I changed my laptop screen resolution to 800 x 600 there would be fewer Windows pixels to cover the same area, so the “pixels” would be larger, making everything constructed with those fat pixels larger too. Fat pixels make fuzzy or pixilated images, though they are larger images. This is rather like purchasing a $474 Canon EOS Rebel with 10 Megapixel resolution and then setting it to take 640 x 480 photos (when you have paid for a camera that can take 3648 x 2736 pixel photos roughly).

A better way to increase the size of text and other items on your screen is to use Windows DPI scaling. You can tell the operating system that you want an inch on your screen to be made up of more than 96 dots/pixels (if you don’t have a monitor with more than 96 actual dots per inch this would not work as well, since the operating system would have to “fake” the additional pixel density using mathematical algorithms).  In Windows XP you can right click on the Desktop, select Properties, then Settings, then Advanced, then DPI setting. Choose more dots per inch, say 120 DPI. Go higher if needed. Evaluate the effect in normal use of your system.

In Windows Vista, Open Personalization by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Personalization. In the left pane, click Adjust font size (DPI). If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. In the DPI Scaling dialog box, increase the size of text and other items on the screen by clicking Larger scale (120 DPI)–make text more readable, and then click OK. You can use higher DPI settings to obtain still larger fonts and objects.

If we chose to scale up to 120 DPI on my laptop, then an inch would be 120 dots/pixels and a Windows inch on my screen would indeed be an inch, restoring the size of items on my screen to that of a typical 96 DPI monitor. I should note that Internet Explorer 7 and 8 both have a zoom feature which will enlarge text and other items on a web page. This is a separate issue in some respects.

How big would that 10 point font be if you used a 64.5 inch diagonal HDTV with 1920 x 1080 native resolution with PC VGA input for your computer monitor? Calculate screen DPI: 34 DPI (calculate the number of pixels in the 64.5 inch diagonal for 1920 x 1080 pixel right triangle as we did above; divide that number of pixels by 64.5 inches). Simply looking at the ratio, the HDTV pixels would be 96/34 or 2.82 times larger than a 96 DPI monitor. So, a 10 point font might be around 0.13 inch x 2.82 = 0.36 inches high---over a third of an inch. And if you scaled up your Windows DPI setting to 200 DPI, you might get that 10 point font up to 0.8 inches high (over three quarters of an inch high) on that 64.5 inch $4,000 dollar HDTV computer monitor.

I have barely scratched the surface on this topic, but I hope I have said enough to give you some ideas about making things more visible on your computer screen without throwing away the high resolution of your monitor.

Mr. Bentley studied electrical engineering at the University of Texas, began working in the electronics industry in 1978 with GTE Network Systems (Lenkurt), then software engineering with various startups in the 1980’s, designing and implementing, among other things, pre-Internet email communications systems multitasking on Intel platforms and MSDOS PC’s 1984 - 1986. Gary now provides Information Technology consulting services in the El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico areas. Gary has edited and contributed articles to the award-winning Southwest International Personal Computer Club monthly magazine, “Throughput”, since December, 2003.

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (g.bentley (at) att.net).

Electronic Waste — Where to Dispose of It
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC

Here's a list of ewaste donation sites in Central Contra County County. We've included sites where you can recycle single-use and rechargeable batteries, and to dispose of unneeded pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medications. Be sure to check the websites to determine what they will accept. If you know or learn of others, please let me know with the location, hours, and website URL.

Computers and Electronics

Hauling Pros Recycling Center
www.dumpmytv.com
73A South Buchanan Circle
(on the left behind S&S Roofing)
Pacheco, CA 94553
925-682-8987
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rapid Recycle
www.rapidrecycle.net
110 Second Ave., South B-1
Pacheco, CA 94553
925-671-8008
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Recycle for Breast Cancer
www.recycleforbreastcancer.org/dropoffanytime.htm
31 Beta Court, Suite C
San Ramon, CA 94583
800-315-9580
7 days a week excluding holidays 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A completed donation form is requested at the time of donation; this form can be downloaded from their website

e-Recycle OnUs
www.erecycleonus.com
1271 Boulevard Way
(at back left corner past East Bay Art and CTA)
Walnut Creek, CA 94595
925-934-1515
Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Electronic Waste Management
www.noewaste.com
E-Waste recycling events at Diablo Valley College
321 Golf Club Road
(in DVC overflow parking lot across from north side of main campus)
Pleasant Hill, CA
866-335-3373
First Saturday of every month (except holidays)
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where to recycle Batteries

Single-Use Household Batteries
CVS/Longs Drugs
www.longs.com
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Lafayette,
Moraga, Orinda, Walnut Creek, San Ramon
Right Aid Drugstores
www.rightaid.com
Orinda, Walnut Creek
Radio Shack
www.radioshack.com
Danville, Walnut Creek
Check websites for store hours

Rechargeable Batteries
Right Aid Drugstores
www.rightaid.com
Check website for store hours

All Types of Batteries Including Specialty Batteries
Call(2)Recycle
www.call2recycle.org/drop-off-your-old-batteries.php?c=1&d=213&e=85&f=142&w=9100&r=Y
This website allows you to enter a zip code and displays a list of locations.

Where to Dispose of Unneeded Pharmaceutical and Over-the-Counter Medications
Walnut Creek City Hall
www.walnut-creek.org
1666 North Main Street, Walnut Creek
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Look for the green Pharmaceutical Disposal bin
Please don't flush your drugs!

How and Where to Recycle or Dispose of Other Household Waste Items
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
The CCCSD has a two-page Disposal Guide for Central Contra Costa County brochure that can be viewed online or printed. This handy guide tells how to dispose of common household waste in safe, simple, and environmentally healthy ways. Click on the link below to access the brochure.
www.centralsan.org/documents/Brochure_Disposal_Guide.pdf

This brochure requires Adobe Acrobat Reader; you can download and install the latest version of Acrobat Reader by clicking this icon.

Photoshop Elements SIG Meeting Program
by Peggy Johnson, DVPC

The Adobe Photoshop Elements SIG meeting will be held on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the home of Peggy Johnson in Concord, CA.

We cover and discuss the Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements software programs, along with other photo and video manipulation programs. As usual, check out the Elements SIG pages at www.bkbrown.net for all the latest news, information and tutorials.

The Photoshop Elements SIG meets on the third or fourth Thursday of each month; be sure to check Peggy's email notice for the topic and meeting date!

Please email Peggy for further information and/or directions.

Windows SIG Meeting Program
by Walt Parsons, DVPC

The next Windows SIG meeting will be held on Monday, March 1, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. Look for the announcement email from Walt Parsons. If you aren't on the mailing list, email Walt at waltparsons@gmail.com.

The Windows SIG meetings are held in the Community Room at the Concord Police Station. See the detailed directions on the DVPC SIG News page.

The Daily Dilbert Cartoon
by Scott Adams