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Computers for Seniors has suspended operations. Some of our instructors are still conducting classes for the Academy of Life Long Learning. Their programs run on a fall and spring semester basis. You pay the classroom fee and you can sign up for a variety of classes, including computer classes. Click on their website or call the main Community College number (508-362-2131) ext. 4400 for their current offerings.

In The News

Windows XP Reaches 10 Year Anniversary With Windows 8 already taking form, it may surprise many to know neither Windows 7 nor Windows Vista rules the market share roost. That honor goes to Windows XP, which first went on sale 10 years ago. (Windows 7 is almost ready to take first place in market share.) Microsoft celebrated Windows XP's past, which dominated OS usage from 2003 to 2011. But just as Microsoft would like people to ditch Internet Explorer 6, it would also love consumers to stop using the older XP. In an effort to encourage those upgrades, Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 9 only runs on Windows 7 or Vista because of graphics acceleration support. Other software, like some of the latest video editors, are starting to have similar requirements. Looking back at the year XP hit the market, Microsoft notes that Destiny's Child and flip phones were all the rage, and that "10 years is a long time to have the same old technology." So happy birthday, Windows XP. You've given us a decade of powerful computing, with your three Service Packs. Now, don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Explaining 32 Bit vs. 64 Bit In one context, 32-bit and 64-bit refers to how a CPU (computer processor) handles information. These terms also indicate the number of bits that comprise a single data element (for example, a pixel in an image). In that case, when dealing with resource hogging data like images, audio, or video, there is a distinct advantage to a 64-bit system. However, when writing emails or text documents, the benefits of 64-bit may be less apparent. A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of digital information, represented by either 0 or 1. Arranging a series of bits in sequence creates a binary math language that the processing chips can understand. As a result, CPUs are identified by their ability to process these sequences (32-bit or 64-bit). Eight consecutive bits in such a sequence equals a byte (short for binary term). Large numbers of bytes are then combined to create kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc.
The terms, 32-bit and 64-bit indicate the width of the registers, which are storage areas within the computer. The registers can contain either the address location in the computer memory where data is stored, or the data itself. All computer data is processed using information represented in these registers.

Each instruction (the most basic computer command) can process the number of bits indicated in the registers. So, a 64-bit machine processes a 64-bit width register with each instruction. Likewise, a 32-bit machine processes a 32-bit width register per instruction. While it would seem that a 64-bit processor would naturally be faster, the number of instructions executed per cycle (the fundamental unit of time measurement in a device) indicates actual processing speed, so that may not always be the case. It’s the combination of hardware and software elements which make up the computer architecture that determines processing speed.

Chaptchas Not Great for Security A team of Stanford University researchers has bad news to report about Captchas, those often unreadable, always annoying distorted letters that you're required to type in at many a Web site to prove that you're really a human. Many Captchas don't work well at all. More precisely, the researchers invented a standard way to decode those irksome letters and numbers found in Captchas on many major Web sites, including Visa's Authorize.net, Blizzard, eBay, and Wikipedia. Captcha stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Their decoding technique borrows concepts from the field of machine vision, which has developed techniques to control robots by removing noise from images and detecting shapes. The Stanford tool, called Decaptcha, uses these algorithms to clean up the image so it can be split into more readily recognized letters and numbers.

The security of Captchas is important because they're used to defend against malicious 'bots, including operators of botnets who try to automatically create accounts on Web e-mail services to send spam. Captchas are also used to curb bot-generated comments and automated ballot-stuffing in online polls.

The only tested Captchas that withstood the researchers' attacks were Google's. The researchers ran into a remarkable zero percent success rate when trying to decode Google's slanted-red-letters Captcha, used in Gmail, and the fuzzy-lettered ReCaptcha, which was created at Carnegie Mellon University and acquired by Google in 2009. c/net, Oct 2011

ParaHawking
 

Web Sites

Hide and Protect Key Folders LOCK-A-FOLDER hides and locks folders with a password to make them invisible and inaccessible to anyone other than you. Download free here.

Long URLs are a Thing of the Past This site boasts that it provides the "shortest URLs on Earth". The idea is to get away from long URL that are often entered incorrectly and return a "404 error". A handy feature places a bookmarklet in your browser. When you are at a Web site you'd like to convert to a very short URL, just click on that bookmarklet and it displays the new and much smaller URL. This one's easily identified with the service called Tiny Arrows  because it displays a forward arrow in the URL. Site tracking, bookmarklets, and the short URL creation are all free at Tiny Arrows.

Online Bookstore The nice thing about On Read is that you don’t have to have an e-reader to read the books here. You can just read them for FREE online. If you do have an e-reader you can download them to read them on it (for a tiny subscription fee of $1.99). They also offer audio books. You need to register like most sites and then choose the subject matter from the list provided. Once you’ve logged in you can save your progress through a book making it easy to come back to later, rate books that you’ve read, write reviews, and more!

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Computer Tips

Win 7 - Extra Layer of Security If you’re looking to add an extra layer of security to your Windows 7 system, then you may want to consider implementing a bit of a “human touch”, just to be extra sure. By requiring users to physically hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to access the log on screen in windows, you ensure that malicious programs (ones that try to mimic a system logon to hack passwords) can’t even make it through the front gate.

  • Hit Start, and in the search box type netplwiz – click the icon that appears in the list above.

  • Once the User Accounts window opens up, click the Advanced tab. At the bottom you’ll see the Secure logon field. Put a check in the box next to Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete

  • Hit OK, and you’re all set! If you want to go back to a Ctrl+Alt+Delete-free world again, just follow these steps and un-check the box!

Undo a System Restore Operation in Windows 7 System Restore lets you easily restore your computer to a previous state. What happens if you complete the restore process but your computer is still not running properly? It is possible that you unintentionally restored Windows 7 using the wrong restore point. In such cases, you can undo a system restore operation and select a different restore point. To undo a system restore operation in Windows 7:

  • Click Start and type System Restore in the search box. From the list of results, click System Restore.

  • Click Undo my last restoration and click Next.

  • Review your choices and click Finish.

Your computer will restart once the process is complete. Log on to the computer.

Assign a Password to A User Account In Windows 7 Windows 7 lets you create user accounts that are not assigned passwords. To log on, all a user needs to do is click their user account name. The problem with this is that anyone who sits down at your computer can potentially get full or unrestricted access to your computer. It is very easy to assign a password to a user account:

  • Click Start and click Control Panel.

  • Click the User Accounts and Family Safety option. If you are in Classic View, click the User Accounts icon.

  • Click the User Account option.

  • Click the Create a password for your account link.

  • Type in a password.

  • Type in the same password to confirm it.

  • Click the Create password button to confirm your new password.

  • Close the User Accounts window.

Win 7 - Controlling "User Account Control (UAC)" The idea of UAC is great: it tries to ensure that no software has unauthorized access to administration-level privileges. If you're interested in a quick refresher on UAC and what it's supposed to do, Microsoft's "Explore the features: User Account Control" Web page will help. In an admin-level account, open User Accounts by clicking the Start orb. Next, click Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety (in Control Panel's default view), and then Change Account Control settings. In the dialog box that pops up move the slider up or down to the level of notification you're comfortable with — between Always notify and Never notify. The dialog box provides capsule explanations of what each increment does. Make your choice, click OK — and you're done. So you see: UAC doesn't have to be a headache!

 

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This page was last updated on Monday, November 07, 2011 Hosting courtesy of Cape Computer Assistant.