GREATER BOSTON SENIOR COMPUTER GROUP NEWSLETTER
Issue No. 68, February 8, 2006
CHAIRPERSON:: Charles Moir, cmoir@rcn.com
EDITOR: Harriet Mandell, harrietd@rcn.com
WEB PAGE: Garry Ziffer, http://users.rcn.com/gbscg
LIAISON: Eve Welts, ewelts@rcn.com
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WHAT IS A WMA file… A protected Windows Media Audio is typically a digital recording with special encryption code built- in to prevent its use on unauthorized devices. This code is intended to protect copyrighted works from bring freely traded and used by people who did not legally purchase a copy of the recording. Restricting the use of digital audio, video and other forms of electronic media protected under copyright laws is part of a system called digital-rights management (DRM). Depending on how the copyright protection is set up within the file, you may be prevented from playing a protected song on more than a few computers or portable devices, or be unable to burn a playable copy of the tune to an audio compact disc. Most on-line music stores that offer legal downloads, like MusicMatch and Wal-Mart, sell songs in the protected WMA format. Songs sold at Apple's iTunes Music Store use a different copyright-protected format called Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). (Songs in protected WMA format will not play on iPods.) To use a protected file, you usually have to "authorize" your computer to play the file by connecting to the on-line store over the Internet and registering your machine or machines with the on-line vendor. Each on-line music store has its own set of use limitations.
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ALPHABETIZE YOUR FAVORITES IN INTERNET EXPLORER…If your list of Favorites gets unruly, you can put it in alphabetical order. Right-click anywhere on the Favorites menu. On the menu that opens, click Sort by Name. Internet Explorer lists folders first (if you have them), and then individual Web pages in the main list.
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BE UNIQUE….because there are hundreds of millions of people on the Internet. and you are special, don’t let the rest of them go through your files and e-mail messages. No matter which type of Internet account you have -- your account has a username and a secret password associated with it. Your username (or user ID, login name, logon name, or screen name) is unique among all the names assigned to your provider's users. It's usually also your e-mail address, so don't pick a silly name unless that's what you want to tell your friends and put on your business cards. Your password is secret and is the main thing that keeps the bad guys from borrowing an account. Don't use a real word or a name. A good way to make up a password is to invent a somewhat memorable phrase and turn each word in the phrase into a single letter or digit. For example “Computers cost too much money for me" turns into Cc2m$4m. Never tell anyone else your password. Particularly, don't tell people who contact you and claim to be from your ISP -- they're not.
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PUT AN END TO A NUMBERED LIST…in Word when you have activated the list command but want to end it and tell Word that you want to go back to writing normal paragraphs, press Enter key twice. Pressing Enter twice stops the numbering, but it also puts in an extra paragraph. To stop the numbering, press Enter after the last numbered item; then, on the next numbered line, press the Backspace key. That stops the numbering and leaves you on the same line.
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ARE SECURE SERVERS REALLY SECURED? …Using secure socket layer, or SSL, technology, late-model browsers can encrypt information as it leaves your computer, making it nearly impossible for anyone other than the intended Recipient to decrypt it. Just like sending any other data over the Internet, others can still capture your encrypted information, but what they see is so much gobbledygook that it would take them centuries to decipher it. SSL requires additional processing time on both the sending and receiving ends (in other words, it makes pages load even more slowly than normal), so it's typically used only on pages where sensitive data is being transmitted.
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PHOTO EDITING PROGRAM ….courtesy of google called Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures ­ you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, instantly share via Hello™, and even post pictures on your own blog. For more information go to www.picasa.com
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START MENU OR FOLDER? Windows 2K, 98, XP, Me: If you use Windows Me, 2000, or XP, you may have converted your Start menu to display Control Panel (and also My Computer, My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures) as a menu. (To do so, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, click Customize on the Start Menu tab, select the Advanced tab, and choose Display as a menu under Control Panel.) But what if sometimes you want to see Control Panel in a standard folder window? Just right-click Control Panel (or any other Start menu submenu) and choose Open or Explore. In versions of Windows other than XP and its new Start menu, you can double-click a submenu name to open its folder.
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WANTED: URL's of web sites; Helpful hints for Mac users, Win 95/98/ME/XP. Software reviews, desired topics for future meetings. Send these items via email to the editor. Please sign your email with your name. We will publish your email address, but not your name, phone number or address without your permission.