Keyboard Shortcuts - Part 2

Here's some more interesting things you can do with your keyboard. Unlike Part 1, these assume that you press two or three keys at the same time:

F4 + Alt shuts down the window you are currently in (don't try it whilst you're in this one)
F6 + Alt switches between multiple windows within the same program (such as a dialog box and the main window).
F10 + Shift is the same as clicking the right mouse button on an item; it opens the context menu.

Not all keyboard options use the Function Keys. Here's a useful set of keys to use if you're editing things:

Ctrl + C copies the selected text and places it in the clipboard.
Ctrl + X cuts the selected text and places it in the clipboard.
Ctrl + V pastes the text currently in the clipboard.
Ctrl + Z is used to undo the last action; useful if you make a mistake.
Ctrl + B makes the current text bold (in Word, Excel etc)
Ctrl + U underlines the current text (again, in Word, Excel, etc)
Ctrl + I puts the current text into italics.

More shortcuts in Part 3.

The Beacon Foundation

The Beacon Foundation is a national non-profit organisation which helps develop and encourage students by encouraging them to engage in education, either through school or further training, and pursue positive pathways into employment.

AB Computer Training has been proud to assist their work in local schools by attending 'speed-careering' sessions, in which we talk to small groups of students about how our choices and education have influenced the career paths we have taken. Obviously most of our training work in IT is with adults, as teenagers tend to be fairly tech-savvy, but it's good to know that we can make a difference in other areas which are relevant to them.

To find out more about The Beacon Foundation, and how you can help them with their work, visit their website (linked above).

Keyboard Shortcuts - Part 1

We often get asked about what various keys on the keyboard do. After all, if you're completely new to computers (as several of our customers are) the keyboard can be a daunting thing.

So we thought it would be a nice idea to show you a few interesting things you can do with those keys. Obviously we could just post a great big list, but who's going to read that in one go? Instead we'll post a few things every week or so. Some of them you may already know, but some of them may be of use. Give them a try; it's amazing what you can get your computer to do.

For now we'll just look at Windows, but Macs will have their day as well.

The commonest thing we get asked about are the Function Keys. These are the ones towards the top of your keyboard which are cryptically marked 'F1', 'F2', 'F3' and so on. There's a lot you can do with these, but we'll start with some simple uses. The tricky thing is that some keys do different things depending on what type of window you're just on your desktop.

F1 gives you access to Help, either for Windows or for whatever window you're currently in.

F2 puts you into rename mode if you have clicked on an icon or an item in one of your folders.

F3 brings up a box allowing you to enter search terms, either for the current window or for files on your computer if you;re on your desktop.

F4 repeats the last action if you are in Word. In Internet Explorer it opens up your address bar, listing the website addresses you've visited. See what we mean about different results depending on where you are?

F5 reloads or refreshes the current window; this works either in Windows Explorer (where it will reload the file list), or your favourite browser (where it will reload the current webpage).

F6 moves the cursor between different parts of your current window.

F7 opens the spell-checker in Word.

F8 is really only used when your computer is starting up to get you into Safe Mode. Best only used if you know what you;re doing.

F9 doesn't do anything in Windows itself, but may have use in certain programs.

F10 activates the Menu Bar ('File', 'Edit' and so on) for the current window. Once an item is selected, press the Down Arrow to display the menu you want.

F11 puts the current window into full-screen mode (no frames of menu bar). Press F11 again to return to a normal window.

F12 doesn't do anything in Windows but, again, may have uses in certain programs.

We hope that this is of some help. We'll be posting more keyboard shortcuts for you soon.

Trivial Pursuits

AB Computer Training has been out and about, wandering the Illawarra and doing our stuff. So much so that we've been neglecting this blog, which is very bad of us.

So here's some pictures to liven things up.

A few weeks ago we took part in a trivia night, organised by the BNI Central chapter. It was to raise money for Angels of Hope; a not for profit community organisation, who in conjunction with Southern Western Sydney Illawarra Area Health Services, support mental health and suicide prevention programs in Illawarra school and community groups.

Being recent migrants we approached the idea of a trivia night with some trepidation; trivia can be very parochial, as we discovered when we had a Swiss couple on our team for a quiz back in the UK. However we acquitted ourselves with honour, and our 'local' knowledge was sufficient for us to be able to say how many stations there are on the London Underground (270, apparently).

We got a hamper for winning one of the rounds, and eher we are posing with it:



(Picture by Ela Photography)

Last week we exhibited at the Shellharbour Small Business Network's annual expo. It's the first time we'd done anything like this, and we found it an entertaining and educational evening.

Here's our stand just after we'd set up:



And here it is later in the evening:



Catherine and, more importantly, our logo, briefly appeared on WIN TV news as well.

So, as you can see, we've been very busy when we're not teaching or preparing lessons.

Helpful Tips #3 - How Much Stuff Can I Put On My Computer?

Something we are regularly asked by customers is how much storage space they have on their computer. This is easy to check; click on Computer (on the Start menu, or maybe on your desktop), right-click on the C:/ drive and then click on 'Properties'. This will give you a display showing how much space your computer has, and how much is currently used.

(Note: These instructions might vary slightly between different versions of Windows.)

But what do the results actually mean? If I am using 50GB of 200GB, and so have 75% of my disk 'free', what else can I put on my computer.

A computer stores data in 'bytes'. In terms of a document, or piece of writing, such as this blog post, a byte is roughly one character - storing this letter 'A' is one byte. However even a simple document is larger, in terms of bytes, than the sum total of the letters in it; the document file also contains information about the document, such as formatting, modification dates and so forth. For example, a Word 2002 document containing the single letter 'A' is still roughly 20,000 bytes in size.

Bytes are abbreviated to 'B', so a 100 byte file will be displayed as 100B. 1024 bytes make up a kilo-byte (KB). So, in the above example, the Word document is roughly 20 kilo-bytes in size (20,000 bytes). Indeed, for most home use purposes it's easier to think of a kilo-byte as being 1000 bytes; the reason for it actually being 1024 is tied up in how the computer actually stores information, and involves maths, binary numbers and more complexity than most people are willing to bother with at this stage.

Anyway, if you see a file is 1.2KB, you know it's roughly 1200 bytes in size. Simple.

A mega-byte (MB) is roughly 1000 kilo-bytes (again, it's actually 1024), which makes it 1,000,000 bytes. So a 3.2MB file is 3200KB, or 3,200,000 bytes.

A giga-byte (GB) is roughly 1000 mega-bytes, or 1,000,000 kilo-bytes or 1,000,000,000 bytes. If your computer tells you that you have 150GB of free disk space, then it's roughly equivalent to 150,000MB or 150,000,000KB or 150,000,000,000 bytes. One hundred and fifty thousand million instances of the letter 'A' ...

All files on your are made up of bytes - pictures, music, videos, the various components of Windows itself. How many bytes in size a file is depends on what format it is in; a 3 minute piece of music, for example, may be 3MB if it's in .MP3 format, but 30MB in size if it's a .WAV file. A picture from your digital camera will vary in size depending on the resolution you use (and explaining resolution on cameras is a lesson in itself). So there are no set rules on how many 'songs', pictures, videos or so forth your computer can hold. If you consistently get something from the same source - pictures from the same camera, music from iTunes and so forth - then the size per minute, or per image, will remain fairly constant, which will help you calculate how much of your remaining space they take up.

But let's have a look at what you can hold on your computer, with some approximations. We'll assume that you have 150GB of free space remaining.

If you're storing movies, and each movie is roughly 1GB in size, you have room for 150 such movies on your computer (150GB/1GB).

If you're downloading music, and each piece is roughly 2MB in size for each minute, then you can hold 500 minutes of music per GB, or a total of 75,000 minutes of music. That's over 1000 albums, or 25,000 three-minute songs.

If your photos are about 1MB in size, then you can hold 150,000 of them - 1000 pictures fill 1GB of space, and you have 150GB of space.

In the examples above, a movie is equivalent to 500 minutes of music (about 140 'songs') or 1,000 photos. But, as we have said before, this all depends on your file formats; there's a lot of variation.

Finally, whatever you store on your computer's hard-disk, remember to take back ups, either to CD/DVD or to an external hard-drive. Nobody wants to lose their stuff, after all.

MAY NEWSLETTER

Our May Newsletter is now available on our website at www.abcomputertraining.com.
It includes tips on how to keep your computer clean, shiny and working.

Snakes Alive!

On 18th April AB Computer Training paid a visit to the Illawarra Reptile Show at Koonawarra. Thsi was a fantastic display of herpetology, with traders selling everything you need for the reptile in your life, as well as a show of the finest snakes, lizards and chelonians in the area.

You can see some pictures on our Flickr stream.

Hybrid At HARS

Tonight AB Computer Training were visitors at the Illawarra Business Chamber's meeting at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Museum at the Illawarra Regional Airport in Albion Park Rail. The meeting was hosted by Toyota, who unveiled their new Hybrid Camry, which is soon to be built here in Australia.

The meeting was well attended, and we took the opportunity to network with other local businesses, whilst admiring both the cars, and teh historic aircraft which provided a backdrop to the event. Needless to say we took a few photos (click on them to see bigger versions):

What's under here?



It's the new Toyota Hybrid Camry:



See under the bonnet:



And a view from behind the wheel:



Catherine got to meet Illawarra St George Dragons player Matt Cooper:



There are other pictures on our Flickr stream.

Oh, and I promised to say hello to Libby Geen of Formula Training Solutions.

ILLAWARRA WOMEN IN BUSINESS AWARDS

ILLAWARRA WOMEN IN BUSINESS had their awards last Friday, 26th March. It was a packed house of some hundred and fifty people and there were four awards ranging from the Best Home Based Business to Young Business Woman of the Year.
A great networking event with business cards and literature being handed out by one and all. Some inspirational speakers and a good time was had by all. AB Computer Training were there as first-timers but I've no doubt that it will be an event we will be eagerly following, if not participating in, in future years.

ADA LOVELACE DAY 2010

WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Everyone probably knows a woman in science and technology. It could be your GP, a teacher or your local pharmacist; however, the term does tend to conjur up visions of the likes of Madame Curie.

Today I would like to aknowledge the expertise and dedication of a scientist with whom I had a close association for a number of years - Barbara Taylor BVSc MRCVS. A Bachelor of Veterinary Science and a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons,her training must have taken at least five years to complete, but it is the compassion and empathy that she shows towards her patients and their owners that is a quality that is somehow lacking in the commonly held view of "scientists". Perhaps this is why one can probably reel off the names of a dozen or more male scientists but find it harder to think of females in the same role.

(Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging which celebrates women in science and technology. For more details, and to pledge your post, visit the Finding Ada website.)

Parking In Wollongong

According to the Illawarra Mercury, it appears that the new parking meters in Wollongong's CBD are getting off to a slow start:

Shopper Shun Meters

In terms of clients we have little to do with central Wollongong, so this would not seem to be an issue for us at first glance. However, like any business, we do have odd jobs we need to do at banks and various stores there, so we do make short trips into the centre. Certainly knowing that timed spaces are not now occupied by people using them all day is going to be a plus; but really it's only the two hour spaces that are any use to us; for a one hour trip the car-park for Crown St. Mall offers better value. To be honest there's still a lot to be said for parking a little further down Kenny or Keira St if you can find a space; five minutes walk gets you into the centre, and the on-street is untimed and free. Certainly worth considering if you want an extended trip to the centre.

What is interesting is the comments that some of the pay stations are already not working. This is only the first week of operation. Are they untested, or just prone to breakdown?

Helpful Tips #2 - Passwords

How secure are your passwords? If the answer is ‘not very’ then you could be leaving yourself open to risk from identity theft and fraud.

The problem is that short, simple password are, whilst easy to remember, open to attack by hackers using simple brute-force approaches to ‘guess’ password. And once a password is guessed, your accounts are open to theft and exploitation.

So what makes a password simple? Using consecutive keys on the keyboard is one example – the password ‘123456’, whilst easy to remember, is also easy to guess. The same is true for ‘qwerty’ (the first six letter keys on a standard keyboard. Indeed, passwords which make use of consecutive strings of characters are all equally insecure – ‘abcdef’ may not be a password made of keys which are next to each other on the keyboard, but it’s still an easily guessed combination.

As well as consecutive characters, using slang words, trivial phrases or words which can be found in the dictionary all have risks. Using the same password on multiple websites is also a risk.

A recent study revealed the ten commonest passwords currently in use worldwide:

123456

12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123

So how do you make sure that your passwords are secure?

• Firstly, avoid passwords on the above list. In addition, avoid choosing passwords which make use of information which fraudsters can easily obtain about you – your date of birth, home address or even your mother’s maiden name.
  
  
• Use different passwords on different accounts wherever possible.
  
  
• Avoid using single words which are found in the dictionary (for example ‘princess’ in the above list). Some automated attacks simply crack passwords by running through lists of words from the dictionary. If you do use a dictionary word, use a long one.
  
  
• It's a good idea not to allow your computer to remember your passwords. Even if no one else uses your computer, if it is stolen the thieves will be able to access your private information and even hijack your identity.
  
  
• Mix up letters and numbers, and use the Shift key. Most systems use ‘case sensitive’ passwords, which means that they treat capital letters differently from small letters. Thus ‘ABCDEF’, ’abcdef’ and ‘AbCdEf’ are considered to be three different passwords. Some systems allow the use of characters other than letters or numbers – ‘&’, ‘%’, ‘?’, for example.
  
  
• Make sure that your password is as long as possible; one more than eight characters long is good.
  
  
• Change your passwords regularly. Once a month is ideal, but even every six months is better than never.
  
  
• Use different user names and passwords on different accounts.

Phrases make good passwords – a line from a favourite poem, song or rhyme. If you just use the first letter of each word in the phrase, then that is even better; ‘Once a jolly swagman camped beside a billabong’ is an easily remembered phrase, and gives the password ‘Oajscbab’. Easy for you to remember, but hard for someone to guess. And note the use of the upper-case ‘O’ at the beginning.

Microsoft offers a password checker tool which can be used to check how secure they are.

Following these simple tips can protect you and your family from fraud and identity theft. And they’re all easy to implement.

Danger: Virus Targets Facebook Users

Whilst I'm sure that you are all well aware of the dangers of spam mails telling you to click on attachments, if you are a facebook user it's worth being aware of this:

Facebook Password-Stealing Virus

On the subject of Facebook, the Daily Mail in the UK have got themselves into trouble over an article they published linking it to paedophile activity:

Facebook Threatens To Sue 'Daily Mail'.

Wings Over Illawarra

Last month we attended the Wings Over Illawarra open-day at the Illawara regional Airport in Albion Park Rail. Like many others we were stuck in a long queue of traffic to get there; worse in our case as we wanted to go somewhere else first, so had to sit in a queue to get past the airport, then queue up coming the other way to get into the show. There was also a fair wait to get out of the event once you left the car park.

Anyway, the RTA and the police have raised concerns about the volume of traffic. Not sure what they can really do about it, though; the Princes Highway through Albion Park Rail has always been a bottle-neck, and will be until the deviation round the back of Albion Park itself is built. Our work with AB Computer Training means that we spend a lot of time on the road; if we make a trip through Albion Park Rail we have to allow for extra journey time because you can never tell how badly clogged up it's going to be.

The part about the distinction between an 'open day' and an 'air show' is interesting as well. Pedantic, but of importance to the organisers, I guess.

Helpful Tips #1 - Dismounting Memory Devices

USB memory sticks/flash drives, wireless internet dongles, some cameras, MP3 players and certain other devices need to be properly dismounted from your computer. You should not just unplug them, as doing so can possibly corrupt the device and even data on your computer.

To dismount your device:
1. Click on the Unplug or Eject Hardware icon in the taskbar’s tool tray – this is the icon with the green arrow
2. Click 'Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device'. There may be more than one entry here if you have several devices connected to your computer. Usually you can tell which device is which by the name.
3. Once you click on 'Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device' a notification balloon should appear to let you know it has dismounted correctly. Close it and unplug the drive.

If the drive will not dismount it may be because it is still in use on your computer. Check that any documents or files on the drive are not open in an application (for example, a document may still be open in Word, or an image in Photoshop). Check that there is not an explorer window open for one of the folders on the drive. In all of these cases close down the window, and try dismounting it again.

Sometimes even this is not sufficient. In this case you will need to log out of Windows, and then disconnect the device.

It is always safe to unplug a device whilst the machine is shut down.

Was this information helpful to you? Let us know - leave a comment below, or drop us an e-mail.

Go Hawks!

The Wollongong Hawks are now one game away from the NBL title - tomorrow night in Perth they play their third game against the Wildcats.

Update: Why not combine watching the game with a evening out? Go and see it at West's Leagues Club, in Unanderra. Indeed, if you see us there we can discuss your computer training needs as well.

Are Year 9 Laptops Useless?

This story in today's Illawarra Mercury is interesting.

Are the laptops rolled out to Year 9 students in NSW of no real use? Any laptop is obviously better than none, but if it's not possible to install useful software or peripherals on them, then just how much use are they? Access to websites is a tricky thing, of course. Take a site like the photo-hosting site Flickr. As a source of useful pictures for school projects its benefits cannot be denied. But there's also images there that are unsuitable even for your average Year 9 student. How do you allow acces to one but block the other? Or do you just block the site altogether?

It's a tricky problem. What do you think?

MARCH NEWSLETTER

MARCH NEWSLETTER - Now available on our website at www.abcomputertraining.com. It contains lots of useful information on setting up a network and articles on initiatives encouraging seniors to get connected and even the Pony Express. Take a look!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the Wollongong Hawks, who won their ABL semi-final against Townsville, and now face Perth in the final. An amazing comeback for a team which, last year, looked set to disappear forever.

Wings Over Illawarra

We had a great day at the Wings Over Illawarra airshow yesterday. Organised by the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, this event showcases various historical and contemorary aircraft, with static displays, and spectacular exhibitions of flying. Top attractions were the restored Constellation airliner, the RAAF Roulettes, and an amazing display of aerobatics in an F18 Hornet.

Here are a few of the pictures we took:

Wings Over The Illawarra 2010

On Sunday 28th February, the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) will be holding their annual 'Wings Over The Illawarra' event. We'll be there; why not track us down and say hello?

Details here.

Hawks Tickets Now On Sale

Tickets are now on sale for the Wollongong ahm Hawks game three semi-final match against Townsville on Saturday night at WIN Entertainment Centre.

More details HERE

AB Computer Training, Cordeaux Heights

Find us on True Local
AB Computer Training, Cordeaux Heights

MORE FREE LESSONS - Vouchers are out there now offering FREE introductory lessons on:-
INTERNET, EMAIL, FACEBOOK, EBAY, WORD PROCESSING, CARD MAKING.

Watch out for vouchers at a venue near you or give us a call on 4272 3559.

FREE LESSONS

Yes, that's FREE LESSONS!

Yes, for the whole of March 2010 we are going completely mad, and giving away free lessons. You see, we're so confident that you'll like the service we provide, that we're giving you a chance to try it out for nothing.

Choose from Beginner's lessons in - Windows, Google, Word, Excel, Powerpoint or Publisher*.

Find out about the other courses we offer at the same time.

Contact us on (02) 4272 3559, or email us at 'info@abcomputertraining.com' to book your lesson now.

*One lesson per person. Limited to residents of Wollongong, Kiama, Shellharbour and associated suburbs.

Central Parking

I'm not sure how this is going to affect things for us, but Wollongong Council does seem to be making themselves unpopular.

Mind you, the idea of a city centre that doesn't charge for parking, even off-street, is pretty much unheard of in the UK. Parking in Australia's pretty easy generally speaking.

Hawks!

Good luck to the Wollongong Hawks in their semi-final agianst Townsville tonight.

Full details here.

Branching Out

SENIOR GROUP SESSIONS
We will be contacting local Day Care/Respite Centres with a view to offering group Computer Lessons for seniors.
We can set up an internet capable network at the venue and provide help and support. Lessons can be selected for the group or individuals.
Sessions could also be run on a drop-in basis offering the facilities of an INTERNET CAFE but with the addition of support staff on hand.
N.B. Telstra is offering grants to non-profit senior organisations to encourage seniors to make use of computer technology. More information can be found on their website www.telstraseniors.com.

FREE COMPUTER LESSONS

LATEST PROMOTION - We are distributing vouchers for FREE computer lessons in selected areas. You may find vouchers at your local shops or coming directly to you in your mail box.
Vouchers entitle the holder to a choice of six "Beginners" lessons : Windows, Word, Excel, Publisher, Powerpoint or Google. Lessons arranged at a time to suit you - just give us a call - 4272 3559.
DON'T WASTE IT - PASS IT ON Should you receive a voucher and not be able to make use of it, please pass it on to a friend or family member. The offer is open to everyone - the only rule is only one free lesson per person.
For more information on lessons and courses visit our website www.abcomputertraining.com.

Get A Taste Of Technology

Starting on Friday 19th March is Wollongong Seniors Week.

As part of this event, advertised as 'Inspiring, Not Retiring', will be a number of sessions introducing seniors to the myseteries of technologies such as mobile phones, game consoles (the Wii, of course) and social networking.

So, once you're on Twitter or Facebook, why not look us up?

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