Several short snippets this time, from repeating yourself to digital photos to repeating yourself.  (Get it?  Sorry…)

Why you have to repeat yourself online

Often, when you’re typing your details in on a website, you have to type the email address (and occasionally other bits) twice.  For example when you’re signing in to use an online shop.

It seems a bit odd – but it’s not that the website didn’t hear you the first time (though I’ve used websites so poorly designed I might believe it…)

It’s just that a lot of people make small typing mistakes when typing in their email addresses.  And just one letter different stops it working.

So they get you to type it in twice and if the two don’t match, you’ll get an error message asking you to check it.  That way it should be right and you won’t miss out on whatever it is you’re signing up for.

More about printers

I mentioned last time about the printer I’d bought recently.  If you can’t remember, I was after a new printer for home – I don’t print much at home so I didn’t want a big fancy one.

What I didn’t say was if you do print more, the thing to look at is not the cost to buy the printer – it’s the cost of the ink.  If, like me, you don’t print much, then a cheap printer might well be right.  If you print a lot, though, look at the cost of the ink instead and it’ll probably be cheaper in the long run to buy a more expensive printer.

Thanks to Alan for suggesting I mention this.

A question about digital photography

I was asked recently if the new videos I recorded earlier this year included much about digital photography – the answer’s not really.  There’s a little bit about using a mobile phone or tablet to take photos, just so you can see how it works.  But there’s nothing about using a proper digital camera, tips for taking good photos or editing the photos once they’re on your PC.

That’s because I’ve already covered all that specifically – how to use a digital camera, putting the photos onto your PC, editing them if you want to (for example removing red-eye or straightening a wonky photo) and printing them out.

You can read more here: www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/photovideosMay2013.html

A trick you can use in Google

If you use Google (the search engine) to find information you’re after on the web, you can also use it to define words or phrases.  Just type in the word define, then a space and the word or phrase you’re after.  You can also put a colon after define, like this: define: philosophy of history.  (In theory that gives you a slightly different thing but in practice it works in much the same way.)

It works either if you go to www.google.co.uk or if you just type it into the search box in your web browser (assuming your browser uses google rather than one of the other search engines). It can be useful as a quick and easy way to check what a word or phrase means.

A bit of a mish-mash today – 3 different snippets…

A decent, cheap printer

I don’t normally tend to recommend equipment, just because what people need out of it is different.  One person might want something cheap, another wants something ruggedly built and another something that is fast – and so on.

But I recently needed a new printer for home. Nothing fancy, just a basic inkjet printer.  When I’m printing photos I tend to get them done by a company like Jessops (you can still get them to print your photos online and post them to you, by the way).  So I don’t use a printer at home much.

And I’m really impressed with the one I got: it’s a HP deskjet 2510.  I got it on Amazon for about £40, including ink.  The quality isn’t the absolute best but it’s pretty good, even for photos (the trick is to use decent paper).  And as an extra bonus it includes a scanner.

I’m not saying it’s the best out there or for everyone.  But if you’re after a cheap home printer that does a good job, it’s worth a look.

The least useful button in Windows Live Mail

If you have Windows 7, there’s a good chance you use Windows Live Mail for your email.  If you do, you might have noticed a button marked “Work Offline” with a picture of a globe and a red cross.

It’s not something you’re likely to want – it disconnects the program from the internet.  But in theory if you press it, it’s replaced by a “Go online” button that you can click to reconnect to the internet.

Except it doesn’t – due to a bug, it won’t reconnect.  So you can’t access your emails.  Turning your PC off and on again doesn’t help.  (Nor does glaring at it or a stern voice…)

Luckily, if it happens to you, there is a way to sort it out.  Close down Windows Live Mail. Start up Internet Explorer.  It’ll go online and a yellow box will appear at the bottom.  Close that with the cross in the top right hand corner of it, then restart Windows Live Mail.  It should go back online and the problem is fixed.

Then be careful not to click the button again!

(You might be able to guess who accidentally click on the button while typing up an email the other day…)

You can use Google for what?

You can use Google for all sorts of things.  There’s the search engine, which is what they started with.  But they also have maps, directions, email, online word processors… all sorts of things.

But recently I was reading about something new that the search engine itself can be used for.

Not just by going to it and typing something in.  This is different.  This is something researchers have used it for by looking at what people have been searching for in different areas.

For example, if you look at http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends#pn=p9 you can see what people have been searching for recently in the UK – what’s popular at the moment.

But it’s possible to break it down into smaller regions, for example by town or county.  And to look at terms to do with particular topics.

For example, it turns out that if you spot an increase in the number of people searching for “estate agents” in a particular region, chances are house prices will go up in about a month.

Searches for terms to do with flu help researchers track the spread of flu outbreaks.  It can be done more quickly and cheaply than by using hospital data.

It’s not something you’re likely to use at home, but it’s a good example of yet another clever way the internet can be used.

Well, that’s all for now!

Sometimes when I write these newsletters I’m not sure if what I’m writing is relevant to everyone who reads it.  For example, if I write about researching your family history online, using a touchscreen tablet PC or editing digital photos.

But this time, I’m pretty sure that if you use email, this is relevant…

The ins and outs of spam email

Spam email, as you probably know, is junk email – emails sent by people who don’t know you and that you haven’t asked for.

The people sending it are generally either trying to get you to buy something dodgy or out and out scammers, after your bank or credit card details.

It’s not the same as genuine companies sending you emails after you’ve bought something from them – even if you don’t really want emails from them.  And there’s one big difference:

With emails from a genuine company, if you don’t want them, the best thing to do is to click on the link in that email saying something like “unsubscribe” or “Don’t want to get emails from us? Click here”.

Then you won’t get any more emails from them – simple as that.  You really won’t – if they ignored your request, they’d quickly find none of their emails at all were delivered as email companies are very careful about this kind of thing.

But spammers are different.  The last thing you should do with spam email is click on an unsubscribe link.  It probably wouldn’t unsubscribe but even worse, it tells the spammers that you’ve read the email – so they’ll send you even more!

So if you get emails you don’t want from a genuine company, perhaps because you’ve bought something from them in the past, click on the unsubscribe link.  But please don’t click on the “junk email” or “Spam” button in your email program (assuming you have one – most do nowadays).

When you click that it counts against the company and makes it harder for their genuine emails to get through.  For example if you were to do it to this email (please don’t!) then other people who really want these emails would be less likely to get them as the email companies might think I was a spammer.

When do you use the “spam” or “junk email” buttons?  Whenever an email really is spam – it’s not from a company you’ve ever had any dealings with and usually it’s trying to con you.  Then by all means click on the button – and with any luck you’ll be less likely to get any more emails from that particular spammer… and so will everyone else.

Prize draw winner

If you remember, everyone who ordered the new videos by the 2nd April was entered into a prize draw to win a Nexus 7 Touchscreen tablet.  Alastair helped pick the winner out of the hat (well, box), though he seemed a bit camera-shy:http://youtu.be/alkX7Ql-7eM

If you did order the videos and weren’t the winner, well, at least if you ordered by then you did get the free book!

If you haven’t ordered the videos, you can still get the free book – out of 1000 we now have 282 left.  But next week we’re going to start advertising them to the general public and then I’m sure they’ll go in no time. So if you’re at all interested best read more and decide to get the free trial now.

Happy Easter!

A few bits and pieces this time – it’ll be a bit of a quick one as with it being Easter Monday the boys are calling for me to go and play with them – if the weather holds we might even have a trip to the beach…

Why YouTube have some of their base in Belgium

A few of you spotted that the email I sent out recently with a link to a video on YouTube had a bit of an odd link:  http://youtu.be/f6hM7lEG48A

The bit that’s odd is the start: instead of youtube.com or youtube.co.uk it’s youtu.be

A few even wondered if it had been hacked in some way, or whether it was a fake that didn’t actually come from me.

It’s sensible to be cautious but in this case, it’s genuine.  YouTube have done this to make the web address shorter.

It’s clever – they’ve simply based these particular servers in Belgium – and just like in UK you have .co.uk and in Australia you have .com.au, in Belgium you have .be

So by basing them there and calling the website itself just youtu, they end up with a web address of www.youtu.be

An interesting comment from a reader

The video I just mentioned includes a bit where I talk about mending a train with Sellotape (it’s relevant, honest!) – well, that triggered this reply from one reader.

Whilst watching your video I noted the comment about the Sellotape and chuckled because it reminded me of the old Put a Sock in it saying.Apparently this came from the days of the very first horn gramophones which obviously had no volume control till somebody had the brainstorm to roll up a sock and place it in the neck of the horn thus reducing the volume!!!
Funny how some of the old technology is still valid.
Best regards
Malcolm

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know where the phrase came from, so I found it interesting!

Two quick snippets

I don’t know if you know what an Easter Egg is – I don’t mean the chocolate kind that Alastair’s enjoying as I type!  There’s also a meaning for computers – to do with Easter Egg Hunts.  It’s where programmers hide some extra little feature into a program that’s nothing to do with the main point of the program, just for fun.

As an example, try going to www.google.com and type in do a barrel roll.

You might have heard about the new “4g” mobile phone signal that lets phones (and touchscreen tablets) use superfast broadband.  The first statistics on how it’s used were released the other day.  As you might expect, the most popular use is watching videos.  But a full 1% of the use is running a speed check to see exactly how fast this superfast broadband is…

A question answered:

One question I’ve been asked a few times about the new videos is exactly what are the bonus videos.  You get them if you order both sets of videos on a free trial – and you can keep them even if you decide against the videos and send them back.

There are four:

1. Connecting your Laptop to Your TV – if you watch TV online and would like to see it on a bigger screen, you can usually plug your laptop (or a desktop PC if it’s in the right place) into your TV – here’s the simplest way how.

2. How to Boost your wifi signal – If you use a wifi connection and you sometimes find it’s a bit slow, it might not be the internet connection to your house, it could be the connection between the router that plugs into the wall and your laptop.  There are a few things you can do to speed it up, including one particularly important one that can also improve the range (after doing this I can now use my laptop at the kitchen table)

3. Different Kinds of Touchscreen Tablet – a comparison of the most popular different tablets, what’s good and bad about them and which I’d recommend for you depending on what you want it for.

4. Security – Online security is important for PCs but also for tablets and even for modern mobile phones – here’s what you need to know.

You can read more about the videos and (if you like) order here – including the chance to win a Nexus 7 Touchscreen tablet. www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/befuddled.htm

The entry into the prize draw only runs until 5pm on Tuesday, though, so best not hang around.

Phew – I’ve just this morning sent the first batch of “master disks” for the videos I’ve been working on off in the post. (That’s why this newsletter is a bit later in the day than usual – I hope you understand!)

They’re on their way to the company who produce all the CDs for me.

They aren’t available to order just yet, but they will be on next Wednesday – the 20th, at exactly midday. I’ll send out an email letting you know how you can get hold of them then! (More below – see ‘Video about the videos’)
But first, an article in the newspaper the other day got me thinking…

Why I think computer are great (it may not be why you’d expect)
I suppose it’s not surprising that someone like me, who shows other people how to use computers, would like computers.  I’d be doing the wrong work, otherwise!

And sometimes, when something new comes out, I am really impressed just by the cleverness of it.  Like Google Streetview, where you look at a map of the country and then look at any street in the country – from ground level.

I saw an article the other day about a new computerised telescope – that can see so far away it can see things that happened very shortly after the big bang.  It’s not terribly useful, but it’s just amazing.

But the real reason I think computers are great is something a bit different.  And the article about the telescope set me thinking about all the things modern technology can do.  It’s not the really fancy, clever things like seeing back to nearly the beginning of time that stand out for me.

It’s the more every-day things – the things that you or I can use cheaply and (once you know how to do it) easily.

One big example is Skype, which lets you make phone calls across the internet, free.  Not just normal phone calls – video phone calls.  It means my sister in Australia has seen my two little boys, even though she hasn’t met them in person them yet.  It means Mum and Dad can talk to them and play peep-bo with them even in between visits – which means the boys remember them so much better (and Mum and Dad see more of the steps of changing).

Skype isn’t the only one – it’s just the thing that stands out to me.  Email, Facebook, online shopping… different things can make a huge difference to different people.

And that’s the great thing about computers and technology, to me.  It’s not the sheer cleverness of the technology, impressive though it is.  It’s the way it can make people’s lives easier, more fun, or just nicer. I know there are frustrations as well – spam, viruses, computers crashing or simply programs that aren’t easy to use unless you already know how they work.  But the benefit of it, when you’re using a device, program or website that does exactly what you need, can be amazing.

Just ask Alastair, who loves playing at hiding from Grandad, then jumping up into sight when we’re making a Skype call.

Reader’s question: Do I need a fancy stand if I get an iPad?
You can get all sorts of fancy stands and cases that turn into stands for iPads and other tablet PCs.  And they can be handy – especially the type that are cases that give some protection if it gets knocked or dropped.

But you don’t have to have one.  In fact when I’m using it to browse the web or read the newspapers online, I often put it on an old, cast iron cookery book stand that was in the house when we moved in!  (You don’t need the little strings to hold the pages down, though.)  A music stand can work, too, as long as it’s sturdy… or a few paperbacks in a pile.  I like the irony of using a paper book (which technology is supposed to replace) to help make using an iPad more comfortable!

Video about the videos
I’ve just recorded a quick video that gives you a bit more information about the new video course and answers some questions about it. Oh, and it also explains what a very loud steam engine has to do with it!

Here it is – it won’t take long to watch, it’s less than ten minutes long:
www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/NL150313video.htm

Well, that’s all for now.  I’m off to have a cup of tea and then maybe take the boys to the park.

As I mentioned before, I’m currently hard at work on the new videos, all about modern technology – PCs, tablets, the internet, smartphones and so on… all covered from the very beginning so you don’t have to already know anything!

But more about them in a moment – first, a few things that have caught my eye that you might find useful.

Confusing abbreviations
I’m not sure how long ago it ran, but somewhere I remember an advert for shorthand courses that went something like “f yu cn rd ths, u cn bcm a sec & gt a gd jb w hi py” (If you can read this, you can become a secretary and get a good job with high pay)

But some of the abbreviations used all over the place on the internet and in emails are not quite so obvious.

A lot of them started in text messages on phones – when it was really fiddly to type in a full word so people abbreviated it.  The abbreviated words are usually not too hard to work out, like the shorthand advert.  But there are also some abbreviations for phrases and that’s harder to guess at.

So here’s a list of some of the most common abbreviations you’ll see on the internet or in emails:

• LOL – Laugh/laughing out loud (also you sometimes see ALOL – actually laughing out loud)
• BTW – By the way
• IIRC – If I remember correctly
• AFAIK – As far as I know
• IMO/IMHO – In my opinion/In my humble opinion (or even IMHBAO – I my humble but accurate opinion)
• THX – Thanks
• 2day – today
• 2moro – Tomorrow
• B4 – before
• CU – See you
• GR8 – great
• ATM – At the moment
• OMG – Oh my God
• AFAP – as far as possible
• FYI – for your information
• TVM – thanks very much

Sadly, SWALK doesn’t seem so relevant in the day of the email – sealing an envelope with a kiss is one thing but I’m not so sure people are going to kiss the computer screen!

Quick tip: the letter i
While we’re talking about letters, words and abbreviations, here’s a quick question I was asked the other day:  What does the letter i mean in front of something – you see it all over the place.

It’s a good question: You get iphones, ipads, ipods, the icloud and there’s even a rumour about an iwatch.

Generally, it doesn’t really mean anything.  It’s a technique the company Apple use to come up with names for their products.

For example, when they brought out a mobile phone, they called it an iphone.  It’s just the name of the type of mobile phone they make.

And when they created a version of the cloud (a way of storing things on the internet instead of on your PC) they called it iCloud.

They also have iTunes – which is a website store where you can buy music from them to play on your PC, mobile phone or other gadgets.

Occasionally some other company will use it (I remember seeing an “iTeddy” on Dragons’ Den a while ago) but generally it just means it’s something from Apple.

Announcing – but keep it under your hat until April
I mentioned we’re hard at work on the new videos and I can now announce that they’ll be available to order in the second half of March – but only to you and the other newsletter readers.  They won’t be available to the general public until after that, some time in April.

At the same time, I’ll be announcing something else that’s kept me busy lately, as well – but that really is top secret until the second half of March.

Right, I’d better get back to it!

First of all I want to say thank you to everyone who emailed in with thoughts about what their technology bugbears are.  It really helped to be able to see what’s causing people trouble and I’ll definitely be including some of the ideas in the videos.  In fact, I’ve answered a couple of the most common questions in this newsletter!

There’s also some more information about the up and coming videos and exactly what they’ll help with.

But first, I also want to say thanks to someone else – or not someone exactly…

Thank You Spain
Only last issue I was talking about various scams that happen via email and wishing the police could catch more of the gangsters behind them.  And lo and behold, they have.  Before I get too excited, it doesn’t mean all online scams will disappear but Spanish police have caught one of the bosses behind one of Europe’s biggest scam group.  I’m hoping that means they’ll be able to catch some of the others, too.

They specialised in nasty software that locked up your PC, stopping it working properly, then charged you to get rid of the problem.

There are other groups doing this sort of thing and as I say, at the moment it’s only one of them that’s been caught, but still: Three cheers for the Spanish Police!

Another quick thank you
This time to one of my readers, Bill, who told me about the website http://stellarium.org, where you can download a program that shows you the night sky – but unlike most other programs or websites, it updates it in “real time” so instead of getting what it was like when the photos were taken, you get what you’d see now if you went outside and looked up with a telescope (and assuming there was no cloud, no pollution or glare from streetlamps).

If you want to download it, the links to download are at the top of that webpage – and if you’re not sure, you probably want the “Windows 32 bit” one.

If you’re interested in astronomy, it’s great (and even if you use a telescope I imagine it’s helpful in finding the bit you’re after).  Anyway, it cheered my wife (who did physics and astrophysics at Uni) up when she was bemoaning the fact that they’ve just taken a bit chunk of astrophysics out of the secondary school curriculum.

A couple of answers
Two of the questions lots of people asked in emails last time were “What’s a smartphone?” and “What’s Android?”

They’re both answered in the videos in a bit more detail but I thought I’d give a quick answer here.  I haven’t got space to go over examples and why you’d want to use them in the same way here as in the videos, but here’s the “in a nutshell answer”
There’s no official definition of a Smartphone, but in practice it’s a mobile phone with a touch sensitive screen that you control it through (usually no buttons or only one) and that you can use on the internet and download new apps (ie programs) onto to do things it couldn’t do when you got it.

In a way, it’s a bit like a mobile phone with a PC in it.

For example you can use one to browse the web, send and read emails, keep a to do list, take photos and videos, play games, watch videos from the internet, check where you are on Google Maps, even (on most of them) use it as a Sat Nav.

Android is something Google have come up with that does the same kind of job Windows does but for smart phones or touch sensitive tablet PCs.  On your PC, Windows “runs” the PC and tells it what to do, interprets each key press and mouse movement and decides what you’re trying to do.  On some smartphones and tablet PCs, instead of Windows, Android does the same sort of thing.  (On other machines, made by Apple, like the iPad and Iphone, a program called iOS does it – that’s Apple’s equivalent).

It’s a bit confusing – when I first started writing books about computer virtually everyone used computers with Windows on, but now there are smart phones, tablet PCs and computers – running Windows or Android or iOS.  So even though each option is probably no harder than before, it’s more complicated (which is why I’ve been hard at work on these new videos to make all the different technology you might use simpler).

Anyway, the videos aren’t out yet (I’m hoping to announce the launch date on the first of March) but if you’re curious to read a bit more, you can click here: www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/NL150213moreinfo.htm

Right, that’s all for now.  I’ve awarded myself the afternoon off as it’s ten years since Julie and I got engaged, so I’m off to spend some time with her and the boys.  If the weather holds it might be a trip to the beach!

Normally I write the main bits for my newsletter a day or two before, so on the day I just need to put them together and say hello!  I’ve been very busy lately, though, so I’m trying to sneak this email out early in the morning, before “work” starts..  At least I worked out what I wanted to write about last night while I was putting Alastair to bed, so I don’t have to think about what I want to tell you!

More on why I’ve been so busy in a moment, along with a quick question for you, but first something particularly important…

A scam that just won’t stop…
I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s still happening and I know people are still being conned by it.  If you get a phone call from someone (usually with a foreign accent) claiming to be from Microsoft or from “The technical department” and saying there’s a problem with your Windows PC (or something similar), watch out.  There’s a scam where they do this and then say either you need to pay them in order for them to fix it (they’ll take your money and won’t do anything – and then they’ll sell on your card details) or they’ll ask you to let them access your PC across the internet, in which case they’ll install all sorts of dodgy viruses and programs to record your passwords and credit card numbers and send them back to the criminals.

I’m not trying to make you nervous about using your PC – oddly enough this scam happens on the phone, even though it’s about the PC!

So if you get a call from someone saying they’ve spotted a problem with your PC the best thing to do is just hang up.

By the way, if you’re wondering why they haven’t been caught yet, it’s partly because they work out of the country and partly because I think it’s several different groups – one started doing it and the others copied them.

Something a bit tricky…
I hesitated about whether to include this because it’s a bit tricky to do.  On the other hand, if you have this particular problem, it’ll certainly be trickier to fix if I don’t explain it!  I came to the conclusion that even if you feel it’s a bit too complicated, if you need to get a technical friend (or son or daughter – I can see the day when I ask Alastair to help getting closer…) to help, at least you know what to ask for (and at least if I write this they’ll have some instructions to follow – even fairly technically minded people wouldn’t necessarily already know this).
The problem comes if you’re using wifi at home (breathe a sigh of relief if you don’t!).  If you find you’re having trouble connecting to your wifi, or that sometimes you connect and then your computer “falls off” the internet every so often, then it could be that the “firmware” for your router (the gadget that plugs into the phone line, with one or more short aerials on it) is out of date.

The firmware is what tells the router how to work and how to talk to the computers using it. If you’ve ever installed or updated a “driver” for a printer, scanner or anything else, this is a bit similar except it’s actually stored on the router itself, not on the computer.  But even though it’s stored on the router, you need to use a computer to update it.

If your wifi is working fine, great, I wouldn’t recommend doing anything!  But if you’re having trouble with it, here’s what to do (or to get someone to help with – come to think of it in a year or two I could start hiring Alastair out for this – never mind sending children up chimneys, why not send them out to fix computers.  He’d only charge a biscuit or two):

1. First, to do this you need to have the PC/laptop and the router both turned on and instead of just using wifi, you need to connect them with a network cable (also called a CAT5 cable).  You usually get one with the router but since you don’t need it again it’s often at the bottom of a drawer.  There should be only one socket it fits on the PC and usually 4 (labeled 1,2,3,4) on the router.  It doesn’t matter which you plug it into on the router, though I always use 1 because it somehow seems neater…
2. Then you need to start up Internet Explorer (or any other web browser if you prefer a different one) and type in the “IP address” for the settings page (also called the admin page) for the router.  Usually it’s written on the bottom of the router – if you not you can do a Google search for “admin IP address Netlink DGN1000” or whatever your brand of router is.  On mine, the IP address is 192.168.0.1 and you’re will also be four numbers with dots in between.  Make sure you type this into the address bar of Internet Explorer – where you’re normally type a web address.
3. You should get a page called “admin” or “settings” or some such thing.  It might ask you for a password before you use it and 99 times out of 100 this will still be the same as when the router was made – usually the login is admin and the password is either admin or password but again they’re usually written on the bottom of the router (in small writing, though) or you can search Google for it.
4. On the menu (usually on the left) look for “router update” or “firmware update”.  Sometimes you have to click on “router settings” first.
5. On the page that appears you usually have several options – you can manually update the firmware and it’ll give you the current version of the firmware – eg v1.0.76
6. Look for a button saying something along the lines of “Automatically check for updates” – click on that one.
7. It’ll check on the internet and tell you whether your firmware needs updating or whether it’s up to date.  If it’s up to date, you’re done.  If it needs updating it might start doing it automatically or you might need to click a button.
8. It might take a while, but once it’s updated you might need to turn everything off, unplug the network cable and turn everything on again before it works.  Or it might start working straight away – it partly depends on how big a change the update was.  The important thing is to make sure you let it finish updating before you do anything.  If you’re not sure if it’s finished, it’s time to make a cup of tea and give it 10 minutes to be on the safe side.

Once this is done and you’ve restarted your PC, you should fine it works more reliably.  It might work at a longer range as well – last time I updated mine, I found that I could now use the PC in the kitchen, which before was out of range. And it definitely “drops the connection” less than it used to!

As I said, it’s a pretty fiddly thing to do and a lot of people who are fairly up on PCs have never done it before… but as a result a lot of routers have never been updated and do need it, so if you’re having trouble it could be worth checking or getting someone else to – and even if they’re quite good on a computer, you could print this out in case they need it.  After all, if they’ve never done it before, they might be able to figure it out but this might save them time.

Why I’ve been busy (and a quick question)
I mentioned I’ve been busy and it’s not just because Edward is demanding more food than a horse!  (He’s a growing lad – he’s just got his first teeth and he’s just learning to stand with holding on, so he keeps us busy with bottles of milk and passing the rusks…)

When I started writing books about PCs, it was fairly simple – you had a desktop PC or you had a laptop.  You used the internet through the phone line: either dial up (slow) or with broadband (not much quicker, back then!)

It’s different now, though.  You can go on the internet on laptops, PCs, phones, tablet PCs, things that are half laptop, half tablet, even some TVs.  And your internet connection could be broadband (through a wire or wifi) or through a mobile phone signal: 3g or 4g (I think this will become much more popular this year and probably cheaper as a result).

That’s not the only change, either – everything seems to have become more varied.  PCs then ran Windows and that was pretty much it.  But now you have tablet PCs running Windows (and version 8 is very different from 7), Android from Google and iOS (from Apple if you have an ipad or similar).  And instead of installing a program from a CD you might do it over the internet or even use a program that you don’t install – it runs “inside” your web browser.

And that’s before I mention the “cloud” and how it means you can store your files, photos or whatever online and access it from different devices as quickly as you can from your PC.

It’s not just that it’s more complicated – it’s just that modern technology isn’t just about PCs.

And since no-one else seems to explain it all properly (ahem – not that I’m getting big headed or anything – but it seems like the techies can’t be bothered), I thought I ought to do something about it!

So I’ve been working on some videos that cover not just PCs.  They also cover things like mobile phones (smart ones and “ordinary” ones), tablet PCs and the “cloud”.  But they also cover some things I’ve talked about before in a different way.

For example, when I first showed people how to use email, I simply explained how to use Outlook Express to access your email.  As time’s gone by I’ve updated my original books.  But I want to take a slightly different approach to each topic and explain what the fundamental differences between the different ways of doing it are. Then I can make it clearer which method you’d want to use.  And then go on to how you’d actually use each.

It simply wasn’t relevant 7 years or so ago – there was really only one method that most people could use, so that was the one to explain!

Similarly for the other topics, I want to give people an idea of what the different options and methods for the things you do are and explain a bit about the fundamentals.

A quick question…
Anyway, I’m not trying to convince you to buy them – they’re not even finished, so you can’t!

What I would like to ask is a quick favour: if you have any particular bits of modern technology that you find confusing, tricky or difficult, would you drop me a quick email telling me what it is?

I’m not saying I’ll definitely include it, but I want to make sure I haven’t missed something obvious.

You might want to tell me you don’t understand what it means if one “tablet PC” is running Windows, another running Android. Or what a smartphone actually is.  Whatever it is, just drop me an email.

If there are lots I might struggle to reply to each one individually, but I’ll definitely read them all and even a one line email could help me work out what confuses people and what I should  cover!

If you do email (the easiest way is just to reply to any newsletter email), thanks for helping! (And if you don’t, thanks for reading!)

Well, that’s all for this time.  Apologies for any typing mistakes, by the way.  I normally get one of the others to read this through before I press send but they’re not in the office yet.  Time for me to make another cup of tea – If I get this one down quickly, I might get made another when the next person arrives…

Something unusual this time!  But first a question I’ve been asked a few times lately, answered.

Different versions of the same website…
One thing I get asked occasionally is about webpages and how they work on tablet PCs & mobile phones.  The screens are much smaller than on a normal PC, so how do you fit a full webpage on?  If you just shrunk it to fit the screen (or “zoomed out”) you wouldn’t be able to read anything… but if the writing was full size you’d hardly fit any of the screen on.

So how does it work?

Well, websites that are designed to work on mobile phones have a separate version specifically for mobile phones.  The website is clever enough to work out what you’re viewing it on and display the right version.

For example, if you go to www.yahoo.com on a PC, it’ll show you the normal version.  But if you go to it on a mobile phone it’ll automatically take you to www.m.yahoo.com , which is a different version designed to work better on a mobile phone.  And small tablet PCs will get the mobile version, too.

Some websites even have different versions for the different type of tablet – one version for an ipad, another for a Google Nexus and so on…  But the most important thing is that they’re designed to fit into the smaller screen and not to have tiny little buttons you need to tap or click, because you’re using your fingers and it might be hard to be precise enough if the buttons are very small.

A useful website: Something very unusual…
If you’ve got my book “Computers one Step at a Time” you might know that the idea came about after I was jotting down some notes to help my Dad with his PC and thought “Why isn’t there a book like this”.  Well, it seems to have worked – he gets a lot more out of his PC than he used to.  But it’s not often he tells me about something new.

(I’m sure Dad wouldn’t mind me saying it’s not often… I hope he wouldn’t mind, anyway, as I know he sometimes reads my newsletters… if I have a clipped ear next time, you know what happened…)

Recently, though, Dad told me about a nifty website that I didn’t know about.

It’s www.parcelmonkey.co.uk and it’s for if you need to send a parcel.  There are lots fo courier companies that will take parcels and even pick them up from your house and this website lets you put in the details of what you want to send and it’ll recommend the best/cheapest courier to use for that particular parcel.

Handy for sending toy ride-on tractors, for example!

I suppose it’s most likely to be useful at Christmas-time, but it could be handy during the rest of the year too.

Computer Jargon: is there really such a word as “phablet”?
I’m inclined to say no.  It’s a cross between a phone and a tablet PC – the idea is it’s a tablet PC that’s a bit smaller or a mobile phone that can access the internet and has an unusually large screen for a phone.  It seems daft to me – what’s wrong with saying “Large phone” or “small tablet”?

But some people are using it, so it’s worth knowing what it means so you don’t get confused when you hear it.

(Apparently the word tablet is French and phone is Greek, so the words shouldn’t really be combined.  I’m reminded of the quote “Television?  The word is half Greek, half Latin.  No good will come of it.”  Then again, much the same was true of the Byzantine Roman Empire and that lasted a reasonable time…)

Well, that’s all for this time

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a good Christmas.  I’ve certainly enjoyed the break and seeing Alastair and Edward having so much fun.  (I think Alastair’s favourite bit was the roast potatoes – he can’t get enough of them)

Since it’s the start of the year, I’ve been thinking about what’s coming up – what’s new in computers and technology.  And when I think about it, one or two things surprise me.

For example, it seems to be going backwards.  When I first became interested in computers, different makes of computer ran different programs.  If you had (say) a Commodore, you couldn’t run a program written for a BBC or an Apricot.  In fact if you had a Commodore VIC 20 (say), you couldn’t even run a program written for a Commodore PET, even though it was made by the same company.

Then it got better.  More or less all PCs (and everyone called them PCs by now) were “IBM compatibles” running DOS and then Windows.  Which meant they were all (more or less) compatible – you could run the same software on PCs from all sorts of different manufacturers.  It’s true, Apple were making Macs that wouldn’t run PC software, but nearly every other manufacturer was making compatible PCs – and virtually nobody bought Macs anyway.  It made life much simpler.

And it made things easier to learn, too, because more or less all PCs work in much the same way.

But over the last year or two tablet PCs have taken off – and some run Windows 8, some run iOS (that’s the Apple version) and some run Android (that’s designed by Google).  And they aren’t at all compatible.

Then there are different versions of Windows – the new Windows RT for tablet PCs won’t run programs written for earlier versions of Windows.

It makes it more confusing again.

If tablet PCs were something not many people were interested in, it wouldn’t matter.  But they’re becoming more and more popular – and with good reason.  I’ve experimented with one and found it very handy for quickly checking the odd thing on the internet, sending a quick email, reading an ebook or taking out with me when I’m going away for the weekend.  Some can even act as a SAT NAV, which is handy.

And mobile phones are becoming more and more like fully blown computers, too.

It’ll carry on changing, too.  I think computers, tablets and phones will become more customisable – so you’ll be able to set them up to work in the way you like.  That’s great once you’ve done it, but there are two snags:
First, you have to know how to do it!
Second, it means your PC won’t be set up to work in the same way as a friend’s – so they’ll be less able to help you with it.

Sorry – that all sounds rather negative for the New Year.  But there are two reasons why it shouldn’t get you down!

First, the devices will become easier to use – they’ll work more in the way you think.  Touching the screen to operate it is easier to learn than using a mouse.  It might be something new to learn but at least it’s easier!  And some devices are now getting much better at voice control.  It’s like something out of Star Trek – instead of knowing how to start the Maps app (to pick something at random) you can say “Show me a map of Millom” and it will.  So you won’t need to know everything you want to be able to do – just how the basics work and what it’s capable of.

Secondly, I won’t make you deal with all this on your own!  I’ll still be writing this newsletter twice a month and I’ll be hard at work working out what books or videos might be helpful.  And of course, if you’re a member of the Inner Circle, there’s always the Clubroom where you can ask questions!

I remember when I was little I had an idea for a program where you would type a sentence in in one language and it would translate it for you.  At the time, the average computer simply couldn’t have stored enough to do it.  Now Google will do it for you in an instant… but some companies are working on linking that to speech recognition and making it work fast enough that you can say something in one language, it’ll translate it and read it back in another.  What a great way to practice learning a foreign language – or how useful if you’re stuck in a foreign country and can’t speak the language?

That’s just one of the things that would have sounded impossible not long ago but may well happen in the near future.

It’s pretty amazing what computers can do, but there’s still lots new to come.  And we’ll be here making it all easier to use!

Anyway, enough being thoughtful for the morning.  I think the boys want me to help play with their new toys!

Here’s to a brilliant 2013