Link

I detested the old serial port, which really could handle only one device. Put both a modem and a mouse on your PC’s serial port and you had buckets of trouble.

The Parallel interface normally just hooked up to a printer. But then you could add other devices, such as a scanner, but that configuration was unusual and not easy to set up.

Then along came USB and “plug and play.” It was marvelous. No more installing device drivers or having to power-down the computer just to plug in a gizmo. USB is a dream.

The problem, of course, is that too many manufacturers are skimpy when it comes to festooning the PC case with USB ports. Let me shout this out:

FOUR USB PORTS JUST AREN’T ENOUGH!

Oh, and on a laptop? You’re lucky if you have three USB ports. Granted, mobile computing shouldn’t involve a lot of wires, but only two USB ports? C’mon!

Fortunately, USB is an easily expandable standard. Not only can you obtain USB hubs, some USB devices feature their own armada of USB ports. Then you can even add USB expansion cards to your system, giving you more primary USB ports and even USB 3.0.

My iMac is a perfect example of a computer with too few USB ports. It sports only four. All four are used, presently, because I have 15 USB devices plugged into that computer.

First, I have a seven-port USB hub, which is almost full of devices. Then I have an external hard drive. (The second external drive connects to the FireWire/IEEE port.)

My DAS Keyboard connects to another USB port, but it has two additional USB ports. One is used by the mouse, the other is hogged by the second external monitor, which also hogs a USB port on the computer itself. Fortunately, the external monitor features three USB ports, one of which is connected to another USB hub.

Yes, it’s a tangled mess of USB devices on my computer.

Preferably, I like to keep external hard drives plugged directly into the computer. I suppose I don’t have to do that, and it would make things easier, but we all have our PC peccadilloes.

In the end, I’m thankful for what I have, USB overload and all. It’s still much better than the old days with the tangled ganglia of cables, devices, interface standards, and nonsense. Give me limited USB ports over that setup any day.

Also, I don’t have any insider contacts or spies within the ranks of the mobile device manufacturing companies. I’m completely out of the loop on technology coming down the pike.

Just say that I have a feeling.

My feeling is that soon a new set of super tablets will appear. I should be specific: Super-size tablets are coming. I’m not referring to convertible laptops, which are already out there, but rather to tablets in the 14-inch-and-up size. Heck, I see 21-inch tablets before the sun sets on the year 2014.

As people begin to realize that they can get all their “computer” work done using a tablet, they’ll start switching from PCs. That migration is already underway.

Eventually, those same people will want the convenience of the tablet, but miss their old widescreen LCD monitors. While having a mobile device is nifty, just as there are laptops and desktops, eventually consumers will clamor for large-format tablets. They want their widescreen to watch movies, read books, and play games. For those users, mobility comes second.

True, if you take, say, a 21-inch tablet and give it a Bluetooth keyboard, you effectively have a cheap desktop PC. But that user doesn’t want the full-on PC! They want a tablet, one that stays in one spot. Yes, that concept seems counterintuitive. That’s probably what’s keeping the manufacturers from developing such a device presently.

I recall how adamant Steve Jobs was about the original iPad’s size. He insisted that the 7″ tablet size just would not work. Yet today, the iPad mini is the best-selling model. The Nexus 7 is one of the hottest-selling Android tables. People definitely want smaller tablets. I think the opposite could also be true.

Especially for home-bound, Wi-Fi only tablets, the larger format could be the next big thing. The process will start with some manufacturer, say Samsung, coming out with a 14-inch Galaxy Tab. Then . . . expect the floodgates to open.

Remember, you read it here first.

The program’s death began in the early 1990s, when it became obvious that Microsoft was switching from DOS to Windows. 1-2-3 never made the transition.

Link

The Byte Buyer Offices were in Kearny Mesa in San Diego, off Aero Drive. The magazine was growing, so my offices were upstairs while the rest of the crew worked downstairs. That was fine by me.

I considered myself more of a “Special Guest Star” than a real employee. Being self-employed before, I wouldn’t mind being fired. So I had more of a cocky attitude than the other employees. I could be brutally frank, which occasionally took the publisher by surprise. He did, after a while, appreciate my honesty.

The magazine continued to grow. When I wrote my first article, The Byte Buyer was 32 pages. It was averaging 80 pages after I’d been editor a while. Eventually it pushed 120 pages, which was the maximum the printer allowed before the binding method had to change.

The Byte Buyer grew so much, that McGraw Hill’s BYTE magazine eventually took notice and threatened to sue over the name. Their attorneys felt MGH owned the rights to the word “Byte.”

I argued to keep the name, but the publisher hated it anyway so the search was off for a new name. Eventually they came up with ComputorEdge, using the O in computor to ensure that no one would sue — but plenty of readers were curious about that choice.

The magazine also moved digs, relocating to a new office building. We occupied the entire bottom floor, so the building was graced with a huge ComputorEdge sign that you couldn’t see from the I-15 freeway.

Me at work in the ComputorEdge editorial offices, sometime in July 1988. The computer on the left is my writing computer. The one on the right is a two-modem BBS.

ComputorEdge continued to grow and prosper. It was an exciting time. I had a weekly computer radio show, and was often on TV. We had a great PR machine going, put on symposiums, started up a book publishing branch, and the company was ready to start franchising magazines around the country.

Occasionally I would dress up and play “real editor.” It freaked everyone out as they thought I was going out for a job interview. As if. Too bad I didn’t get the shoes right.

I could tell a boatload of interesting stories about events and hijinks that went on back in those days. Eventually, the lure of returning to work for myself grew strong. I started hitting up my literary agent for more book projects. Eventually I left the magazine, pretty much at the height of its popularity and success.

It would be only two short years later that I wrote DOS For Dummies. Being a magazine editor was the last real full-time job I’ve had. It was certainly an exciting time.

Obviously any information in my books is in need of an update because of this change, though the biggest issue is now that folks looking for the Talk app need to use Google Hangouts instead.

Manual Update Link

Back in 1984 I was just a year out of college. I wanted to be a writer, so I was writing stuff all the time and sending it hither and thither. Fiction was my first choice, and I was on the cusp of success.

In February 1984, I joined fellow online friends for a parachute jump. (That’s another story.) On the road to Perris Valley, one of them handed me a copy of a local computer magazine, The Byte Buyer. It was like a PennySaver or Nickel’s Worth, but specifically for computers. They were looking for writers.

Being eager, I wrote up an article for The Byte Buyer. It dealt with how computer users in those days loved to one-up each other. To my surprise, it was accepted and published in the April 13, 1984 edition. They wrote me a check for $75. Instantly I was a professional writer.

The Apri 13, 1984 issue of The Byte Buyer, with my article on the front cover.

Like most budding writers, I did the first thing that came to mind: Wrote more articles for The Byte Buyer. Surprisingly, they accepted pretty much everything. They even asked me to write more articles and features.

Eventually, in about 1986 or so, the magazine put me on a monthly retainer to write regularly for them. I had my own column, in which I wrote funny things about computers or nerds or PC culture.

Around that time I was working as a ghost writer for a computer book publishing house. I had acquired a literary agent and was seeking to write my own computer books. So my career was in a good place — even though I still dreamed of writing fiction and being a respectable author.

After I left the computer book publishing house, I experienced the terror of being self-employed. Wanting something more stable, I started sending out resumés, looking for a full time position as a technical writer.

As luck would have it, The Byte Buyer was expanding. They needed a full-time editor to handle the growing editorial tasks. The publisher asked me if I was interested. I accepted.

I didn’t know squat about being an editor. I couldn’t even spell. Magazine publishing was alien to me, although I did have plenty of experience with book publishing.

For the first time in my life, I had a job I thought was really cool. I was an editor of a magazine. Or, as I fashioned myself, Lord High Editor.

For most people, getting a table to replace your aging computer is an excellent choice. If you use your computer primarily to check email, social network, play games, and surf the web, then a tablet is a valid option. They’re portable, inexpensive, and you can opt for mobile data, which means you can take the thing with you anywhere.

If you use your computer more for productivity, say you publish the church newsletter, touch up digital photos, or write For Dummies books, then you’ll need a real computer to replace your decrepit technology.

The general buying process works like this:

1. Know what you plan on doing with the computer.
2. Find software to meet your goals.
3. Look for hardware to match the software.
4. Shop based on service and support.
5. Buy the computer!

You’ll notice those steps don’t include anything about brand names or stores. That’s because the most important part about buying a computer (or anything, really) is knowing what you want to do with it.

For example, say you need a computer to edit your photographs. That’s Step 1.

You’ll need Photoshop or some software equivalent to edit your photographs. That’s Step 2.

Find a computer that can run Photoshop. The hardware requirements for Photoshop are listed on the software box or on Adobe’s website. Listed are the processor, memory requirements, storage capacity, and other features that are all parts of the hardware buying decision.

This is important: When it comes to buying computers, software drives the hardware. Unfortunately, consumers have been trained by the hardware manufacturers that hardware is more important. It’s not! You need hardware to run software, so the software dictates which type of computer you get. That’s why software is Step 2 and hardware is Step 3.

After figuring how much hardware you need, seek out service and support. If you’re okay on your own, get a cheap computer mail order or at a Big Box store. If you need more hand holding, or like having an ill computer fixed down the street instead of across the country, buy local! Trust me, there is no such thing as a cheap computer when you need to get it fixed. That’s Step 4.

Finally, buy the computer (Step 5). Don’t worry about next year’s model being faster or cheaper. When you need a new system, you buy it. The same advice applies to buying a tablet: Don’t worry about the next model. If you need it, buy it!

The most annoying examples of Flash are those stupid ads that fold out or pop up on a page. But if you want to see the videos or use interactive features on a web page, you have to tolerate the ads. That’s because minus Flash, none of that stuff would exist.

You can find articles on various Android web sites as well as in the myriad support forums about how Flash is slowly being phased out of the mobile web browsing market. You’ll read urgent-sounding notes about how Flash is unstable or it’s a security threat and blah-blah-blah.

I’m not sure why Google (and Apple, for that matter) are so intent on getting rid of Flash. Many moons ago I would accuse them of being like the old Microsoft, which once disabled competing technologies by deliberately coding around such software within DOS or Windows. (I actually caught them doing so with memory management software back in the 1990s.) But I don’t think that’s the case.

Most likely, the issue is money.

Well, isn’t it always?

Flash provides web site services, services for which you could get a specific app on your phone or tablet. For example, you could access YouTube, Skype, and Google Maps by using a web browser. On your mobile device specific apps are available instead. To me, it’s obvious that Google wants you to use the specific apps, not the web. My guess is that a monetary reason exists for that desire.

Regardless, the bottom line is that if you want to use a service on the web that uses Flash, you eventually will be blocked from that service when you use the mobile browser on your phone or tablet. It’s inevitable.

Finally, a warning: As Google works to fully disable Flash you’ll probably see some “Flash” apps appear in the Play Store. BEWARE! My guess is that many of them will be malware — or worse. Avoid such solutions!

First: Check your Internet connection.

Look at the notifications and ensure that you see the bars, the mobile network icon, or the Wi-Fi icon. If not, open the Settings app and ensure that the data connection is on and working. For example, choose the Wi-Fi item and check for the word Connected beneath the first network listed.

If you’re not connected and believe that you should be, turn Wi-Fi off and then turn it on again. You can also touch the desired network name and choose the Connect command. If that doesn’t work, then the network has a problem — and that’s an entire basket of troubleshooting in itself, but it’s not an issue with your device.

Second: Restart the app.

Apps in Android shut down automatically when the operating system deems it prudent to do so. Otherwise, apps run all the time. To force a shutdown, heed these steps:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Choose Apps, Applications, Application Manager, or a similar command.
3. Choose the All category. You might think to choose the Running category, but the app may not appear there, especially if it’s a core app.
4. Choose the stubborn app from the list.
5. Touch the Force Stop button.

The app ceases, closing up and whatever else an app does when it dies. You can now try to open the app again: Choose it from the Apps screen or touch its icon on the Home screen. Often times cycling a program in this manner fixes the booboo. If not, on to the Second procedure!

Second: Restart the device.

Just as with a PC, frustrating issues are resolved best by restarting the gizmo. Obey these steps:

1. Press and hold the Power/Lock button.
2. When you see the Device Options menu, choose the Restart command. Not every Android device features a Restart command, so choose Power Off if you don’t see it.
3. Confirm that you want to restart or shut down the device.
4. When the Restart option isn’t available, turn on the device back once it’s off.

If restarting doesn’t fix the problem, then it may be something deeper. The only consistent issue I’ve had that isn’t fixed by restarting are system updates. Sometimes the device gets stubborn when an update has been downloaded but not installed. Again, restarting the gizmo should fix that. If not, wait a bit and the update should take.