Know Your Hardware - The Mouse

The mouse is one of two primary interfaces for the computer, the other being the keyboard. While a keyboard has more buttons, they are pretty standard in layout and design.

The mouse is a bit more complicated, though not much. They generally look like the one pictured to the right. The design is made to fit in the grip of a person's hand and dragged across a flat surface. When gripped properly, the fingers landing on the head of the mouse (where the cord is on the one pictured) will fall on top of one or two or more buttons. Generally only Macintosh mice have one button though as Windows and Linux both heavily use two buttons. Your mouse might also have a scroll wheel like the one pictured here in between the buttons. The scroll wheel can usually be programmed to do various tasks but in most cases it's used to move the contents of a window or document up and down. The scroll wheel will also often double as a third button.

Some more elaborate mice will have additional buttons on them, usually situated along the left surface of the mouse and meant to be pressed with the thumb. These buttons are generally programmable as well to do special functions. The two main buttons almost always serve the same functions. The left button is the main "action button" and will generally activate whatever the courser is set to activate on the screen. The right button will generally open some sort of menu. This menu will vary depending on which program is currently in focus on the computer.

For example, if you're using a word processor such as Microsoft Word, the right click will open a menu for things such as cut and past and formatting. You would then select one of these items by pressing the left "action" button.

The mouse is by default configured to work right a person's right hand and sits on the right side of the keyboard. You can reconfigure this in the system menu for use with the left hand on the left side of the menu. The commands discussed in this article will end up being reversed if you use this set up. You can access this setting in Windows by pressing Start -> Control Panel -> Printers and Other Hardware -> Mouse. The first option is to "switch Primary and Secondary buttons". This is also where you can adjust other properties of the moue such as sensitivity and the pointer though I'll not be covering that type of detail today.

If you're choosing a moue to use, there are several things to consider. The first would be the type of interface with the computer. Unless you're using a very old machine, the mouse will interact with the computer through one of two methods, there is the older style PS/2 Ports or the newer USB ports. If you're buying a mouse you should check to see if you PC has a PS/2 port since many newer PCs to not have these anymore (though many do have them). It's not an obsolete interface but it is being phased out. The PS/2 port is a round port about a half inch in diameter that looks similar to an S-Video port. Often it is color coded, Purple for Keyboard and Green for the mouse.

You might also want to get a Wireless mouse, though the wireless mouse will still require a dongle of some sort to recieve the signal. This dongle will generally be USB based. The benefit of wireless si that you're not restricted by an ugly cable that runs across your desk. The downside is, you'll need to replace the batteries in the mouse fairly frequently.

There are also three basic types of mice. Ball Mice, Optical Mice, and the Trackball. Technically the trackball is a while differnt beast but it serves the same purpose as the mouse.

Ball mice are quicly becomming obsolete. A Ball Mouse uses a ball with several rollers internally to detect motion. If you turn your mouse over and it looks like th eone pictured, it's a ball mouse. These are prone to collecting dist whichinterferes with the sensors on the rollers. They are still reasonably common because they are cheaper to produce and buy.

Optical Mice use light to track movements. They also give off a "cool" glow effect. If you turn your mouse over and it looks like the one pictured here, it's an optical mouse. These are not prone to the same dust problem but they tend to be more expensive. Also in my experience they tend to last a shorter period of time than a Ball Mouse, though mice are cheap enough that replacing them isn't really an issue. An optical mouse is more costly than a ball mouse but you can still find one for $20 bucks or less.

Finally there is the Trackball. The Trackball is a special kind of mouse that provides a bit more precision in movement. They differ from normal mice in that the ball that interfaces movement is on top of the unit. Instead of sliding the mouse around, you roll the ball. These are often used by people who do editing for precision and are good for people who don't have the dexterity or mobility to slide the mouse around. The main drawback is that they tend to be pricey and take some getting used to, especially for people used to a normal mouse.

That pretty much concludes the basics behind the mouse interface. The best all around option is a USB Optical mouse with a scroll wheel. It's simple to use and provides the most versatility.

What is this DRM Thing Anyway?

I've been downloading a lot of music through amazon.com lately and I noticed they are pushing that the music you get from them is 'DRM Free."

Now, I know what DRM is but I tend to follow such things. It occurred to me that many people have no idea what DRM means both as an acronym and for themselves.

DRM is and acronym for "Digital Rights Management." Digital Rights Management is a push by the entertainment industry to control digital media. The most common form of this media is MP3s, but DRM also works on other media including video files. Basically, it's encryption that only lets you say, play an audio file, on an authorized device, an authorized number of devices or even an authorized number of times.

DRM could be used to limit your number of plays on a certain music file or even to charge per play.

You see, the concept that the media industry likes to push is that you don't own music. Even when you buy a CD you don't own the songs on that CD. What you own is a piece of plastic that authorizes you to listen to those songs as the RIAA deems fit. That piece of plastic also happens to have those songs on it. In the eyes of the RIAA, ripping your CDs yourself is actually illegal since you're not authorized OT listen to music in that manner.

The largest peddler of DRM music is Apple with iTunes. iTunes music will only play on the iTunes player it's been authorized for on iPods it's been authorized to play on. Don't get me wrong now, I'm not trashing the iPod, in fact, I'd recommend the iPod if you want a nucer music player. i just don't recommend buying your music through iTunes. Get it from Amazon.com or some other DRM free music distributor and import it into iTunes.

So what is DRM free? It's just that, it has no encryption. You can copy it as much as you want to any number of computers and players that you want. Now, the tracks do contain some tracking information so you're not going to want to freely distribute these tracks to all your friends or worse, anonymous internet people with file sharing programs. But you can play them on pretty much any portable music player, including the iPod and copy them around to any of your laptops and PCs to listen at work or while traveling.

So when building your Digital Music library, be sure to shop smart and be aware of the possible pitfalls you may get into down the road.

Cloud Computing

Depending on how much you get around on the web, you may have heard the term "Cloud Computing". Today we'll cover the basic idea of Cloud Computing. You may already be doing Cloud Computing and not even realizing it.

This ties in some with the previous 5 Reasons to Get a Google Account post.

Basically, Cloud Computing is the idea of platform independent applications and storage. Applications are programs, storage is of course, where you keep your files. Most people think of applications as something that comes on a disk or in an exe file that the run and install on their PC. For example, you might install the application Microsoft Office and run it locally on your PC to edit documents and make spreadsheets.

Truth be told, you probably did not install this program at all. If you have it on your personal PC, it's possible it came pre-installed from the company that sold you the PC. If you're in an office environment, it was probably installed by your local IT department. The point is though, that it runs naively on your machine. When you open and save files, they are saved locally nd only accessable from that machine.

The Cloud Computing equivilant would be something like Google Docs. You visit this website and the application runs in your web browser. It'll work on most web browsers and run on any operating system. This is unlike Microsoft Office which runs on Windows or Macintosh only depending on which version you have and doesn't work in Linux at all.

The other benefit of Google Docs is that the files all save on Google's servers off "in the Cloud". This means that you could work on a document at home on your desktop, save it, then go work on it at your office later int he day, then again on your laptop from the coffee shop at lunch. There are methods of achieving the same sort of effect with Microsoft office but this si just one example of Cloud Computing and Google docs involves slightly less hassle.

Another good example of a Cloud Computing application is A.viary.com. While it's currently invitation only, it's effectively an entire editing suite of products that work "in the cloud" through your web browser. They currently only have a limited number of applications available but there's a whole world of possibilities.

Another benefit of working "in the cloud" is colaborative documents and file sharing. You can share a google document with coworker and both of you can make changes to it easily. Files created on a.viary can be shared with other members of the community who can then comment on them or follow your updates and files. This leads to another topic (for another post), Social Networking.

There are some limitations of Cloud Computing. For starters, you're generally limited ont he amount of file space available. The storage at many places is ususually pretty generous but if you do a huge volume of file production you may hit a roadblock.

Another limitation comes from development constraits and issues from working in a web browser. A web browser is not an operating system (yet and doesn't always alow for the same level of computing power that a dedicated locally installed application can provide. Google Docs is convenient and easy but it's still nowhere near as powerful as a real Office Suite.

That pretty much wraps up this little intro into Cloud Computing, I hope you've enjoyed it. We'll touch on this topic more in the future.

Know Your Hardware - The Monitor

Ok, for many of you, this might seem obvious, but for others it surprisingly may not be.

That display that you're looking at, the one with the pretty pictures, is your computer's "Monitor". I mostly want to point this out because when my kids started using a computer they kept wanting to refer tot he monitor as "The Computer". If asked to shut the computer off, they would turn off the monitor.

That box that's likely on the floor under your desk, table, whatever, that's your Computer.

Typically Monitors come in two flavors.



The older models that you'll be harder pressed to find are the CRTs. CRT stands for "Cathode Ray Tube". they take up large amounts of space, eat up electricity and produce a lot of heat. Generally speaking, if you're getting a new computer or looking to upgrade, you don't want one of these. The advantage is that like many older technologies, they tend to be cheaper than the alternative.

The other option is a flat panel.



These slick guys are the wave of the future (and current) times. They come in several varieties and sizes and many newer ones come in a 16x9 "widescreen" ratio. As the world moves to widescreen high definition so do standard display sizes. The drawbacks to these are their cost and the fact that they tend to be prone to "dead pixes". Dead Pixes are when a single pixes or dot on a screen stops working. The result is a permanent, generally very small spot that will only irritate you occasionally when you think you've mistakenly added a period to the line of a document.

There are of course other alternative monitoring systems. Many modern televisions double as computer monitors. They still fall into these two basic categories.

A "Gig"? That's like a band get together right?

I noticed in my last post I was throwing around terms like "2.5 gigs". I realize that what this means may not exactly be clear. A "Gig" is a "gigabyte", a way to measure space on your computer's hard drive.

You might also see it called a "hard disk". The hard disk is where the computer stores all of the data it's not currently using (and a bit that it is using but mostly not). Think of the Hard Drive as the file cabinet where you keep all of your papers. Better yet, think of it as your entire room, or even your whole house. Part of your house has some basic files and paperwork (emails and Word documents), part of it has the tools needed to play games perhaps, a basketball or a set of golf clubs, part of it stores utilities that help the house go, your plumbing or even just your yard rake.

The point is, the Hard Drive is where the computer stores information. This is different than Memory, the subject of a future post. Memory is what the computer is actively doing, the Hard Drive is more like a storage bin for things the computer might use.

Most basic modern computers include a hard drive with around 80 gigs or gigabytes of space. A higher end computer might go up to 120 or 150 gigs of space. Chances are if you have more than that amount of space you've specifically opted to either by adding Hard Drives or upgrading your initial purchase. Either way, you probably know about bytes and gigabytes.

Back to Gigabytes, a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes (more or less). There's an extra complicated step involving kilobytes not actually being 1000 bytes and such but for this explanation we'll neglect that small detail.

So, like I said, a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. A Megabyte is 1 million bytes. a Kilobyte is 1000 bytes, a Terrabyte is 1 Trillion bytes, a Pita byte is 1 Quadrillion bytes.

That's good enough for now. For the most part, people stick with Giga, Mega and Kilo. Anything smaller doesn't really matter, anything larger is for servers and specialized equipment.

Gigabytes really only come up for measuring hard drives as a whole or while installing large pieces of software or games.

Megabytes are really the most common form of measurement. Music files are generally 4-6 megabytes depending on the quality, digital camera photos tend to be about 1-2 megabytes unless you've got some sort of beefy SLR camera shooting in RAW format.

Kilobytes are pretty common too though with today's space and bandwidth their size is pretty negligible. Documents and emails run 50-100 kilobytes. For what it's worth though you could fit 10,000 100 kilobyte documents in 1 gigabyte. Even the most dedicated writer would have trouble filling an 80 gig drive with documents.

These measurements are generally abbreviated in a few standard ways. Gigs, Megs, Kilos (less common) are longer abbreviations. If you have a 5 meg download you're talking about 5 megabytes. Also you might see GB, MB, or KB floating around. Those stand for Gigabyte, Megabyte, and Kilobyte respectively.

Occasionally you'll see those without the "b" on the end but not often.