Computer Getting Hot?

        "You may have noticed that your laptop gets a little hot when you have been using it for a while," begins John Carter.  He goes on to give this helpful advice.  "The battery doesn’t like being hot (it can go bad quickly), so it’s a good idea to do what you can to keep your laptop cool.

        "Rock and metal are good conductors of heat. Wood is an insulator. If you are using your laptop on a wooden tabletop, the heat from the laptop is not being dissipated very well, so it would be a good idea to prop up the back side even a little to let air flow get under the laptop. 
        "If you’re using the laptop on your lap, your legs will get warm. Putting a pillow under the laptop to keep your legs from heating up is not the best idea either. 
        "A laptop cooler, one with fans in it, is the best way to keep your laptop cool. A dual fan laptop cooler is better than a single fan cooler. The problem with any laptop cooler is that it needs power, and it gets it from your laptop via a USB port. 
        "For the MacBook Air, you might not have any reason to use such a cooler since they stay pretty cool at all times. But the MacBook Pro (even one with an SSD drive) can get quite hot on a hot day."
        John completes his advice with this,  "For the sake of your battery if nothing else, keep your laptop cool."
        But, John, how hot is hot?  Looking at the iStatPro widget on my MacBook Pro gives me temperatures from 88 degrees in the Enclosure Base #3  to 121 degrees in the CPU Diode! 
        Two shakes later the reply flies in from John, "I would have to check the specs.  It is different for each model.  I would think that if you hear the fan running it's getting too hot." And he comments on the little "legs" under my computer.  "The legs will certainly help to provide air cooling under the laptop."
       Wouldn't it be nice to inform our readers about that iStatPro widget?  Aaaaack.  It's been discontinued. See widgets here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/
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iPad Charger

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         Got an iPad?  Here's a well-illustrated article, 20-pages long, that gives details you need.  
        Jim Hamm informs us, "The charger for the iPad is relatively expensive at $19 if purchased from Apple. Sure, you can purchase counterfeit lookalikes for a much cheaper price. Should you? In a word, NO! The old adage 'you get what you pay for'  is certainly true in this case. Here is an excellent article explaining why you should stick with the genuine Apple iPad charger." 
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Another Search Engine for Privacy

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         Ginger Carlson passes along this information:  "Here's another search engine that is supposed to protect one's privacy that a friend told me about.  I have downloaded it and used it a few times.
        "If you go to www.startpage.com it has a search block and beneath it "Add to Firefox" (which is her browser).  It works for Safari, too.  When I downloaded it I thought the download hadn't worked until I noticed the tiny little "SP" icon on the left side of the address bar."  

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Info on Aviator

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        Jim Hamm shares some new info:  "Are you concerned about security while browsing the web?  Here is an article discussing a new browser: Aviator. And here is another article wherein the author discusses his use of Aviator.
        "If you're all enthused now, here is the website where you can download this browser for either OS X or Windows.

        "I've not tried this browser yet, as we're traveling and it isn't convenient to do so. However, one of these days I'll give it a try -- more out of curiosity than any real concern about browsing the web." 

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Save on MacBook Air Now

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       "I love my MacBook Air," announces Prez Art Gorski.  He then gives the good news,  "And just this week Apple announced new models with slightly different processors that don’t make a big difference in performance. But they dropped the price $100. Everyone selling the older, practically just as good, models are scrambling to unload them at reduced prices. 
        "This article is a great resource for locating the best deal if you’re in the market right now:http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/04/29/deals-save-up-to-200-on-2013-macbook-airs-while-supplies-last-prices-start-at-818 

        Art's final advice, "Want to save even more? Go to the on-line Apple Store and take a look at the Refurbished older models available. They’re even cheaper!"

Finding Out More on Net Neutrality

          Have you been looking into the subject of Net Neutrality?  What does it mean? How will the FCC decision affect each of us?  
          On this newsblog we looked at this subject earlier on postings of March 3, March 28, and April 11.  Now David Passell forwards two links for your further research.  Here  and here. 
               David's comment is this ". . . maybe illustrates the proverb 'everyone is right in his own eyes, until his neighbor comes and examines him.'"    
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Which Browser is Best?

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        "Here is the most comprehensive review of browsers on a Mac that I've ever read. You — and I, for sure — probably won't understand or appreciate all the technical jargon used in the testing," Jim Hamm introduces us to this topic. 
        Read about these four: Safari 7.0.3, Firefox 28.0. Chrome 34.0.1847.116, and Opera 20.0.1.1387.91 in a 10-page report.

        Jim goes on to explain,  "It used to be the emphasis was on speed of the browser, but no longer is this considered so important. There are many factors involved in browsing the web, playing games, etc., as the author explains. 

        "Which browser is considered best on a Mac? Well, if this is important to you, read on to see what the testing says. But, realistically, the browser that suits your needs is the browser that's best for you.
        And Jim concludes, "It was interesting — to me, anyway — to read how the author went about the testing. Might be a bit too geeky for many folks, though."

Learning . . . and Doing

        Have you checked out the PMUG website lately?  www.pmug.us
        Look at Benefits:  24 articles posted on a good variety of topics,  Member for Sale items, Member Business Cards.

        Look at Reviews:  13 book reviews,  1 Hardware Review,  24 Software Reviews. 
        And, of course,  come to the Prescott Mac User Group meetings. Check out the calendar.   The friendly men and women at PMUG have lots of information to show and tell.   You are welcome! 
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A Potluck Reminds Us . . .

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          "Let's say your neighborhood has a potluck, pitch-in, dinner every month," begins Jim Hamm.  Ah, yes, we can identify with that!  
         He continues, "You faithfully show up, enjoy the food and camaraderie, but never contribute any food. Would you do that? I don't think so. The same with PMUG. It's nice to come to the meetings and hear what someone else has prepared for you. But it's also nice for you to chip in now and then also."
        Now we guess Jim's talking about the coming PMUG election.  Don't want to be Prez?  OK, but how about volunteering to give a presentation to the group?   The same advice he extends to anyone reading this newsblog.  Help out your local Mac group. We all have something to share and something more to learn. 
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Unclutter -- Get Organized -- Backup

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        “I’m going to get organized!”  Have you said this lately?  Well, Mac will help you.  It takes just a few simple steps to save and place things where you want them on your computer.  It might be handy to have several titles for that one same writing.  Do Command + D for duplicate and put it both places. 
Have you noticed that when you go to Finder (Smiley man face on the dock)  that under the heading of File in that top menu bar you can choose New Finder Window.  Click there to bring up an identical Finder Window.  Now you can have both copies open and go from one item or one column to another without losing view of the one you’re going to rearrange. 
I’ve been writing stories, short articles, and poems for a long time.  And Mac has made it easier to compose, print, and save these writings.  Now I had the bright idea to copy the writings to a thumb drive as a backup copy for our son Robert to keep at his house.  
The price was right for a Kingston USB 2.0, so we bought both a 16 GB and a 32 GB.  These are the plain, metal things that are narrow enough to fit into the slot on the side of the MacBook Pro, not those cutsey things at the office supply store that appeal to kids. 
But how much space do we need?  Go to the Finder and click to bring up what you’ve filed there.  Click on the folder in question, but don’t open it.  (Click on the screen shot to enlarge, then click to go back to this page.) 

Now, go to Command + i and up comes an information box with space for Spotlight Comments — those will be key words or phrases that you choose to help you find this later.  
        Under General you see the size of all that’s inside the folder in question.  Here it’s 202,586 bytes which is 209 KB on disk.  You see when you created that folder of stuff and when it was last modified.  At the bottom you see where to click to bring up the info on Sharing & Permissions that you’ve allowed for it. 
       Of course you remember how to convert bytes to useful measurement of some kind?  Me, neither.  I did find an interesting article on how to compare this to that, but where did I file it? 
To unclutter the desk top I started a file called Today News.  Unfortunately for me, it has odds and ends from the last week.  Now, what did I name the article I’d saved?  Relax.  I open Today News and click on the second View where I can make it show the items in the order of Date Modified.  
        Here it is: http://www.convertunits.com/from/MB/to/GB   It can convert other units, gives definitions, metric conversions and more.  On the left side at the top are 6 light green boxes with impossible-to-read lettering.  I expanded the page view to finally bring up the words Computer Data Storage, Metric System, Date Calculator, Salary Calculator, Molecular Weight, and Discussion Forum.  You do remember you can enlarge the page view by doing Command and +  (plus) a few times on the page.  To shrink it back do Command and -  (minus) until you like the looks of the page.  

Seagate Surprises

It seemed like a logical choice for an external backup.  Seagate Backup Plus with 1 T. memory was at CostCo for a good price.  Bought it, and planned to get at it much sooner than I did.  Little did I know that some Seagate Surprises were waiting for me.
Time Machine seems to be happy with the FreeAgent Drive with 500 GB doing its automatic backups.  And those little Thumb Drives are so easy to use for copying documents and folders from my computer to the iMac.  But, what about saving a lot of stuff for our boys, so they’d have access to it on their PCs? 
The Seagate Backup Plus came with a tiny 8-page folder giving minimum instructions.  How difficult could that be?
Now, the challenge was to convert a series of writings I’d started out in Word for Mac 2011, then I’d changed into Pages ’09 for my own convenience.
Doing Command + I  (i) brought up a little column that showed kind, size, where it was, keywords. I could click on Open With and make changes. So, at that time I did Open With Pages and clicked Change All where it says, “Use this application to open all documents like this one.” 
  However, our sons still are each using a PC computer!  
Now, with the new, skinny Seagate Plus here on my desk I could easily — I thought — save both the Word and the Pages versions of the articles, stories, and poems I’d written.
Several hours later after dragging folders to the little Seagate icon I realized I should try this out with someone with a PC.  That would be a friendly neighbor gal. I watched.  My folders did come up on her screen. Only problem was her PC did not want to let her eject the Seagate.  She phoned a PC tech she knew who advised her to just turn off her computer and then unplug Seagate.  Seemed like that was the solution. 
But, here came the biggest surprise.

          I clicked to see what it was, and saw info from a company named Paragon Software Group that now had set up territory on my computer.

  There was NO mention in the Seagate tiny pictorial Quick Start Guide that I would want or need a program or connection with Paragon Software Group.  Clicking on Manual brought up a 24-page illustrated manual.  
         Later, looking for something else on System Preferences it brought up an unexpected icon in the list under the category Other.  Their website is www.paragon-software.com  Email is sales@paragon-software.com 

Not knowing what I had done or what needed doing, I emailed our PMUG officers for suggestions. John Carter was the only person who had time to make some comments. We may work further on this later.  This IS a busy week. 
       Let’s take a quick look back at settings that allow others to use your computer camera, microphone, storage, cookies, etc.  Look at Adobe’s page settings, starting at the column Flash Player Help on the right side of this page http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/help02.html  and clicking to look at each category.  Privacy, storage, security, notifications, website privacy, website storage, protected content playback, peer-assisted networking panel.  Then go to Table of Contents to get other pertinent information, including how to update Adobe Flash Player.  

        So, it’s an on-going process . . . Doing . . . Learning . . . Doing . . . Learning.  Just when you know it all they upgrade this program or that device!  More Doing. . . Learning. . . Doing!
      This was today's handout at the April 19 PMUG meeting at the Prescott Public Library,   by Elaine Hardt.  


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Apple's Not Affected. But What About --- ?

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        The breaking news on Monday, April 7 was a huge wakeup call.  Jim Hamm's gives some help here about places affected by Heartbleed vulnerability. 
         Apple was not affected, and you do not need to change your password. 
         Last Pass lets you enter the name of the site you want to check. 
         Mashable  published this  list and gives comments on each of these entities:  

Social networks: Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter.  
Other companies:  Apple, Amazon, Google,  Microsoft, Yahoo.
Email: AOL. Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo Mail.
Stores and Commerce:  Amazon, Amazon Web Services, eBay. Etsy, GoDaddy, Groupon, Nordstrom,  PayPal, Target, Walmart.
Videos, Photos, Games & Entertainment: Flickr, Hulu, Minecraft, Netflix, SoundCloud, YouTube.
Financial: American Express,  Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Chase, Citigroup, E*Trade, Fidelity, PNC, Schwab, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, TD Bank, T Rowe Price, U.S. Bank, Vanguard, Wells Fargo.
Government and Taxes: 1040.com, FileYourTaxes.com,  H & R Block, Healthcare.gov, Intuit (TurboTax),  IRS, TaxACT, USAA
Other:  Box, Dropbox, Evernote, GitHub, IFTTT, OKCupid, Spark Networks (JDate, Christian Mingle), SpiderOak, Wikipedia (if you have an account), Wordpress, Wunderlist.

Password Managers: 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass