Firefox 6 Ready for August 16 Release

Mozilla states that it is on track to release Firefox 6 next week according to notes posted on the company's website. Developers have signed off on Firefox 6 and also anticipate no problems that could delay the release date of August 16 for the most recent upgrade to Mozilla's web browser according to meeting notes.



According to the notes, "On track with a few bugs still remaining. No concerns for Tuesday." Mozilla has used a new rapid-release schedule ever since the spring of this year. This new schedule delivers a new version of Firefox every six weeks, a move that many analysts and critics are comparing to the same one Google uses to update its Chrome browser for the last year.



Firefox 5 was released back on June 21, six weeks ago next Tuesday. Mozilla is already working on Firefox 7 and plans on releasing it on September 27. In addition to that, if the rapid-release schedule works like it is supposed to, Firefox 8 will become available on November 8 with Firefox 9 becoming available on December 20.



Firefox 6 includes multiple, noticeable changes to the browser, including highlighting domain names in the address bar. Both Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 do a similar thing by making domain names boldfaced. In addition to that, Firefox 6 also reduces start-up time when users rely on Panorama, the multi-tab organizer for Firefox.



Some users, however, are upset by the change of pace for Mozilla and Firefox including corporations like IBM, which have installed the open-source browser on tens of thousands of Windows PCs. However, that has not frightened Mozilla, who has not backed off of the rapid-release schedule at all. Though, in response to enterprise complaints and concerns, Mozilla has established a committee in order to take feedback from users.



As well as releasing Firefox 6 next week, Mozilla also plans on releasing Firefox 3.6.20, an update that will include security patches and other fixes to the 2010 edition retained by nearly 1 in 3 users of Firefox. When Firefox 6 ships, users running Firefox 4 or Firefox 5 will be offered the newest edition via the browser's update mechanism that is triggered when the "About Firefox" dialog is opened.



As of the end of July, only 11% of Firefox users were still running Firefox 4 and 48% were running Firefox 5. What do you think? Are you excited about the release of Firefox 6? What are your thoughts on Mozilla's new rapid-release schedule? Let me know in the comments section below.



Source: Computer World - Mozilla on track to ship Firefox 6 next week

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How-To Change Your Computer Name

When you first setup your computer you are prompted to NAME your computer.  I know some computer beginners have other people set the computer up for them, or honestly don’t remember this step if they did it themselves.

Your Computer name is used to identify the computer on a network.  I noticed as well that most of the time when you setup the computer that manufacturers will have this filled with a recommendation.  Its normally the make and model of the computer.

At my home we have more than one computer.  I setup a home network, and I want to be able to identify the different computers easily.   You could name your computer by location (kitchen, basement, bedroom), or by user (bob laptop, sue tower).  If you want to rename your computer after your pet?  That is YOUR choice!

As you might have guessed Today’s How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner is:

Renaming Your Computer

First I must note that you will need Administrative Rights to do this. 
Second Note:  Close all documents, web pages, etc.  You will need to restart the computer when you are done.


You will start by clicking on our start button (red finger), and show our start menu.
We will be looking for the control panel (yellow finger).

Once you see your control panel look to the left hand side


Control Panel has two views.  We want to be sure you are NOT on the classic view.  You notice the white dot I circled?  Click on Control Panel Home if you white dot is next to classic view.







We are looking for the System and Security Section . (In Windows XP ‘Performance and Maintenance’)
We will click on the green words, System and Security







Find the SYSTEM (same with Windows XP) section, and notice:
Click on the blue See the name of this computer in blue letters (Windows XP Click on computer name tab.  You should see the computer name and workgroup name.)


Your next screen is again broken down by sections.  You want to look for Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings





My blue arrow above is pointing to your computer name.  That is what it is called presently.

The Red arrow is pointing to CHANGE SETTINGS. 


We will click on CHANGE SETTINGS, and at this time you may get prompted by your computer for either Admin password, and other screen asking if you truly wish to continue.  We do want to do this if we are going to change the name on your computer.



The Systems Properties window will open first.
If you look to the top make sure you are on the ‘Computer Name’ tab.
If you notice my mouse is over the ‘change’ button in the picture.
Click the CHANGE button.
Computer Name Changes Screen will pop up next.

In the white box is your current computer name.  You can click inside that white box, and change it to what you want at this point.

Keep in mind spaces and special characters can’t be used.  If you want two words like “Bob computer” you need to use “Bob-Computer”.  You notice I used a symbol much like a minus sign between the words.

In the picture the OK button is greyed out in the COMPUTER NAME CHANGES screen.

Once you enter your new computer name?  The OK button will become available to click.  You may click this once you made the changes you wanted.

Most of the time you are asked to restart the computer so the changes are completed.  You may need to close all your other files, web pages, etc. before you tell the computer to restart.    You will see all your open files, programs in your task bar.

How-to Change your Computer name in Windows XP

The process is similar, except some of the labels are different.

Start button to Control Panel
Click Performance and Maintenance
Click System
Click on computer name tab.  You should see the computer name and workgroup name.



Click your ‘change’ button, and enter your changes in the area provided.
If you change your workgroup you may get a thank you and welcome message.

Click OK to finish, and you will be prompted to restart your computer.


If something is not clear, or you feel something should be added to our lesson? Please feel free to leave your comment or question in section we provided.




Also please subscribe by leaving your email in the box supplied, and you will received future lessons by email as they come out.





Thank you for reading our How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner on Renaming your computer!!

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New Finger and Stylus Gestures Could Be Coming to Windows 8

A lot of people are excited about the upcoming operating system from Microsoft known, as of right now, as Windows 8. Windows 8, or whatever it is named upon release, is the highly anticipated successor to the the immensely popular Windows 7 operating system currently out from Microsoft. However, some new developments are leaking their way onto the internet, including the fact that Microsoft has unveiled several patent filings that are pointing to new finger and stylus gestures that could be incorporated into Windows 8 tablets.

These patent filings were actually filed back in 2010 but Microsoft just published them last week. These new patents show that Microsoft believes finger and stylus gestures can work not only separately but together as well in order to offer a user-friendly means of input on new touch screen devices. This new method that would recognize both methods of input would recognize the first method as your finger and the second as your stylus. Using both your finger and your stylus could then create a variety of gestures, a lot of which seem to be geared more toward image editing though could be put to other uses as well.

For example, a copy gesture would allow you to tap on an object with your finger and then move it around with your stylus. A cut gesture would allow you to split an object in half using fingers, a stylus or both at the same time. A brush gesture would assist you in removing part of an image and then storing it somewhere else on the screen. A staple gesture may be used to stack multiple objects or images on top of each other and a stamp gesture would create duplicates of whatever you wanted.

The upcoming Windows 8 operating system for tablets was unveiled by Microsoft at the D9 Conference back in June. Microsoft is expected to release more information and details about the OS at the upcoming Build Conference in September, with a beta possibly ready for developers to test out at that time as well.

Source: CNET - Windows 8 could see new finger and stylus gestures

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How-To Rename Computer Folders

Welcome!  Last Time we spoke about Creating a Computer folder.  Today’s How-To lesson for the Computer beginner is about Renaming our Computer Folders.

We may do that to get better organized, or because we have a typo!

You will need to find the location the computer folder that you wish to rename first of all.

It can be on your desktop or elsewhere.

First thing we do is we will RIGHT CLICK on the computer folder icon itself!





A menu will appear and we will move to the ‘RENAME’ section.  Then click on “RENAME”



 

The name area will be highlighted similar to our picture stating “NEW FOLDER”.  You don’t need to click in that area at all.  You just start typing.  Once you have renamed the folder to what you have chosen hit your enter key.


 

I have changed our folder to PHOTOS.

Rename Computer Folder

If you are within a window you can also rename the Computer folder a second way



Make sure you Highlight the Folder that you wish to rename by clicking on it once.







Look at the top of your window for the word FILE

Click On FILE, and you will get a number of menu options

You are looking for RENAME

You would then click on RENAME












And your Folder name will appear highlighted.





As we did above just start typing.  There is no need to click at this point.  Once you have renamed your computer folder to what you had chosen you will then hit your ENTER key.

If you ever wish to change a document name?  You would follow the same procedure, but clicking on the document name instead of the computer folder.

Pretty easy right?


 
If something is not clear, or you feel something should be added to our lesson? Please feel free to leave your comment or question in section we provided. 




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Thank you for reading out How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner on Renaming your computer folder!!

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Java Standard Edition 7 Finally Released by Oracle

Oracle has finally shipped Java Platform Standard Edition 7, otherwise known as Java SE 7, in what is the first major update to the programming language in over five years. Oracle let news of this out in a company announcement yesterday. This is also the very first release of Java SE under the ownership of Oracle.

According to Oracle Chief Java Architect Mark Reinhold in a webcast earlier in the month, "We all know for various business and political reasons that this release has taken some time."

According to an estimate by Oracle, some 9 million developers from around the globe use Java. Tiobe Software also estimates that Java is the most widely used programming language in the world, bumping off C and obliterating C++ with twice as many users. Over 3 billion devices around the world run Java and it is deployed by 97% of enterprise desktops worldwide. In addition to that, the Java runtime is downloaded over a billion times each year.

Since Oracle acquired Java as part of its January 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the company has come under a lot of scrutiny from a plethora of different quarters for its management. Back in December, the Apache Software Foundation withdrew its participation from the Java Community Process, stating that Oracle did not govern Java as a truly open specification. Oracle has also sued Google for "inappropriate use of Java" in Google's Android mobile OS.

According to Senior Director of Engineering for Red Hat's Middleware Business and Red Hat's Primary Liaison for the JCP Mark Little, however, "The new release is solid, though it is more of an incremental release than anything else."

The new version of Java addresses many of the trends that have overtaken the field of computer programming over the past 10 years. It offers increasingly improved support for the growing number of non-Java dynamic languages that are designed to run on Java Virtual Machine. In addition to that, it also features an API for simplifying the task of running a program across multiple processor cores. Also, the range of actions that programs can take with file systems has been vastly improved as well.

Source: Computer World - Oracle releases Java SE 7

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How-to Make a Computer Folder Shortcut to Desktop

  These are pictures of computer folders. 

Today’s How-to Guide for the Computer beginner will be on Computer Folders.  More Specifically we will make a folder on our desktop.    Some people refer to this as Folder Shortcut on Desktop.

Try to think of a computer folder much the same way as the ones you buy in to store.  Heck you can even make them into some of huge penda flex folders that we see as well.  It really depends on what you use your computer for, and how you want to keep things together.

How To Make A Folder On Desktop

Find an open space on your desktop, and then we want to right click.



<<<< This top menu pops up, and you want to look for ‘NEW’.  You will hoover over (don’t click) on NEW for the second menu to appear.










^^^^^ This second menu opens, and you need to look for “FOLDER’.  At this point you may click on folder.


If you look at your desktop at this point you should see a computer folder similar to this one pictured. 

The blue highlight is waiting for you to NAME the folder. You don’t have to ‘click’ anything.  Just start typing the name you want to call this computer folder.  Hit your enter key when finished.

I have decided that I want to place my vacation pictures in a folder on my desktop.  I will name this folder photos and push my enter key.  When I double click on the folder I named, “PHOTOS” it will open to show my contents of this folder.  At this point it would empty of course.

Now I have made the decision that I want to make an addition folder INSIDE my photo folder to represent each trip I made.


I can do that VERY easy, by looking at the top, and clicking on FILE. 

I will hover over to NEW, and additional options appear.

We will click on our option, “FOLDER”.

The new highlighted spot will again appear just as it did when you made your first computer folder on the desktop.   I will name my first folder TEXAS, and hit ENTER.  I will then click on an open space within this window, and repeat the process of File, New, Folder, and then name the second computer folder ‘SPRINGFIELD’.

I had two trips – one to Springfield, and one to Texas.  I have a folder for each trip inside my PHOTOS folder on the desktop at this point.



Notice the Desktop folder name in red, and the two different trip computer folders that represent the locations.  Location one – Springfield.  Location two – Texas.


I went two main cities in Texas as part of my trip.  I went to Dallas and Fort Worth.  I have decided I want to break up my pictures into two additional folders by city name, but IN the Texas Folder itself!

Just as we did above we will double click on the “TEXAS” computer folder.  I would follow the same directions that we just did for Springfield and Texas. 

Click File, New, Folder, name the folder “Dallas” and hit ‘enter’.  Click on a open space within the open folder.  Click File, New, Folder, and name the computer folder ‘Fort Worth” – click enter.  If you notice at the top once you clicked on Texas?  You can confirm you are in right place by looking at the TOP line I pointed to in Red.

When I double click on Fort Worth or Dallas to place my pictures in those folders?  That top line would read:  Photos – then Texas – then Dallas
or

Photos – Texas – Fort Worth.

This is how I organized my vacation pictures.  I have folder on my desktop named “PHOTOS”, and inside I organized them even MORE by location.  Then in Texas I again organized the by City – Fort Worth and Dallas.  All I have to do at this point is import the photos!

Rename Computer Folder

OPPS!  Did you notice that I misspelled ‘PHOTOS”?  Its says “PHTOS” instead!  Yikes!  Lets fix that shall we?

Close out our folders menu completely, but clicking on the red “X” in the top right hand corner.  We should be looking at our desktop again at this point.

Find our computer folder on our desktop, and then we will again RIGHT CLICK on the computer folder Icon itself!



A menu will appear once again, and we will move to the ‘RENAME’ section.  Then click on “RENAME”



I will then be presented with the highlighted area once again, and I can correct my mistake!  Remember just TYPE don’t click on the box to edit.





Now that I have fixed my spelling error – did you notice the appearance of the file folder changed as well?  I copied our first screen shot on purpose so you can see the visual of the difference between what it looked like when we started, and what it looks like now.

Our Final product if you look closely?  You have your ‘main computer’ (outside folder), and additional folders inside (Springfield and Texas).  I think that is NEAT!

 
If something is not clear, or you feel something should be added to our lesson? Please feel free to leave your comment or question in section we provided.




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What is a Computer Application? Application Software?

In the past I did an article about the differences between Hardware and Software.    Then I wrote about what is a computer process. 

 

I have noticed that I come across questions that get a bit more technical in nature.  I decided I would try to explain in laymen terms today one of the more technical terms you may have heard about.

 

Today’s How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner is:  What is a computer application?  What is application software?

 

I think the best way to explain it is to introduced first what we call:

System Software

 

System software is programs that make you computer run.  It would be your operating system for example.    The system software is what makes your computer work.  It tells you computer to turn on, tells your computer hardware what to do.

 

I would say most of the time we take our system software for granted, because we don’t do to much literally with it.  The system software basically helps operate our computer.  It tells the machine – this is the keyboard, this is the monitor, this is the memory, etc.  It also shows the computer what to do with those things.

 

As you may see in  our picture today there are other technical system software categories as well.

 

Here is a brief description with additional pictures to show you system software.

 

Computer Application or Application Software

 

A computer application or application software would be a program like for example, Office 2010.  Office 2010 is what they call a Suite of programs.  It has more than one program you can use.  It may include Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.

 

It laymen terms?  Its another word for a computer program or an executable file.   You execute the file most of the time by double clicking the programs icon.

 

Software that allows users to do things like create text documents, play games, listen to music, or surf the web are called Application Software.  If we view out picture today we can see programs that we may use to do some of the tasks mentioned.  If you deal with pictures (graphics) that would also be an computer application or application software.

 

Here is an article that goes into more technical terms for the computer application, or application software.

 

Computer Hope has a webpage called, The complete listing of Computer software.  These are all computer applications or application software.  Keep in mind new software is coming out all the time, but it sure does look like they nailed most of them!

 

That is our How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner on Computer application, application software, and system software.

 

If you have any questions, comments or concerns?  Please leave you note in the area supplied below.

 

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