A Forum for Personal-Computer Users — August, 2006
August Program: King Ink (bring your printer-cartridges for filling)
Monday, August 7, 2006 at 7:30 PM, UAW-Local-14 Hall, Jackman & Northover (between Laskey & Alexis Rd), Toledo, Ohio.
In
This Issue ...
TPCUG Data
From the Prez
Minutes
Treasurer’s Report
Membership Expirations
Computer Investing Group Meeting
TOLTBBS Information
TPCUG’s
Website:
http://www.toledopcug.org
Coming Meetings: Monday,
August 28, October 2, November 6, December 4.
Officers
President: Floyd Miller
Vice-President: Rick Snyder
Treasurer: Steve Tryc
Secretary: Sándor Halász
Standing Committees
Computer Shows: Steve
Tryc
Librarian: Open
Membership: Roy Ballogg
Programs:
Lester Miller
Public Relations: Lavern & Eugene
Curtis
Complaint Dept.: Helen Waite
SIG Leaders
Internet SIG: Jim Bell ............ 419-877-1109
Statement of Intent: The Toledo PC Users’ Group is a not-for-profit corporation, formed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information regarding the use and enjoyment of personal computers.
Affiliations: TPCUG is a member of APCUG (Association of Personal Computer User Groups), which provided the APCUG logo.
Meetings:
Meetings are generally held the first Monday of each month, at
UAW-Local-14-Hall, 5411 Jackman Rd., Toledo, OH. In the event of
emergency, members may be reached during meetings at a pay phone in
the hall, 419-473-9571.
Visitors are always welcome at monthly
meetings!
Executive-Board meetings are generally held
after the regular monthly meetings.
Membership: Dues are $25. per year. To obtain an application, call any officer or member.
Moving? Notify the Membership Chair to redirect your newsletters.
Copyright 2006: The Toledo PC Users’ Group, the publisher of this newsletter, is a not for profit organization. Although it asserts a copyright for the newsletter, permission is granted to reprint this publication in whole or in part for any noncommercial use, with credits acknowledged.
Newsletter Deadline is the 15th of each month. All members are encouraged to contribute articles and reviews for this newsletter. Submissions may be made by email to the editor.
Advertizing: Business cards (2”×3½”) will be run in three issues for $5. Commercial ads: $10 for ¼ page; $20 for ½ page; $30 for ¾ page; $40 for full page. Larger ads are run in two issues from a graphics format, JPEG or GIF or … Members may place free ads for the sale of computer-related personal items on a space-available basis. Contact editor for details.
Production Notes: This newsletter was compiled with Microsoft Word 6 for Windows, Open Office 1.1.5, Brief, and Notepad.
TPCUG Mailing List: If you are on the Internet, keep in touch with club doings by subscribing to the TPCUG mailing list: Send e-mail to “tpcug-request@toltbbs.com” with only “subscribe tpcug@toltbbs.com” in the body of the message. You will then receive communications sent to the list through e-mail.
340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 new web addresses created by internet chiefs . . . so we won’t run out of space soon, then
By Jonathan Richards
TO THE lay observer it seems like an infinite network of computers, servers and cables stretching around the globe.
But the worldwide web is filling up. So quickly, it turns out, that programmers have had to devise a new one.
Of the internet addresses available, more than three quarters are already in use, and the remainder are expected to be assigned by 2009. So, what will happen as more people in developing countries come online? The answer is IPv6, a new internet protocol that has more spaces than the old one: 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 spaces, in fact. “Currently there’s four billion addresses available and there are six billion humans on Earth, so there’s obviously an issue there”, said David Kessens, chairman of the IPv6 working group at RIPE, one of five regional internet registries in charge of rolling it out.
Every device that is connected to the internet—websites, computers and mobile phones—needs an internet address to locate it on the network.
When the internet was developed in the 1980s, programmers had no idea how big it would become. They gave each address a 16-bit number, which meant that the total number of available addresses worked out at about four billion (2 to the power of 32).
But as use grew, it became clear that the old protocol, IPv4, wasn’t big enough, so a new one was written based on 32-bit numbers. That increased the number of available addresses to 340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion—enough for the foreseeable future, Mr Kessens said.
IPv6 does not involve any new cables being laid, nor will there be any burden on customers, for whom the change will appear seamless. It will, however, greatly improve the quality of certain internet services, in particular phone calls, which are not suited to IPv4.
“The big change is going to be in peer-to-peer services like gaming and file-sharing, which are going to become much easier to use”, Mr Kessens said.
Several service providers, including AOL and Yahoo!, have applied for space on the new network, and IPv6 is in use in some countries, including the Netherlands. But the big driver is likely to be the release next year of the new version of Microsoft Windows, Vista, which is understood to contain some IPv6-only applications. The US Government has told departments to make their systems IPv6-ready by 2008.
The Department of Trade and Industry said it was aware of the changeover, but that it was up to large providers to take the lead when it occurred.
Both protocols can work on the same network and IPv4 will not be decommissioned.
ONLINE, ON THE PHONE, ON THE UP
- 50 billion
- the number of e-mails dispatched every day wordwide; in 2001 the traffic was less than 12 billion
- 88 per cent
- of e-mails are junk including about 1 per cent which are virus-infected
- 32
- The average number of e-mail messages received per person per day. This is rising by 84 per cent each year
- 440 million
- the number of electronic mailboxes in use, including 170 million corporate ones, growing by 32 per cent per year
- 1,035 million
- the total number of mobile phone text messages sent each month in Britain
- 37
- The average number of texts a user sends per month compared with 21 in 2001
- 1 million
- the number of children aged under 10 in Britain—one in three—who own a phone
- 8
- The average age at which a child gets a mobile phone in Britain
My granddaughter, who is 8, who has a computer as a learning tool, who has become aware of the importance of money, made out a forged check payable to her in which she recorded the “UMT” (umount) − 50 + 100 + 3 PS − U − K (please use calculator). I guess that would work just fine, but PS − U − K would hardly work in working with the humungus number above. With an answer line of 10 or 12 digits it would take a lifetime or maybe more than one lifetime to arrive at such a number. Come to think about it, I suspect, that it would be impossible!!! Looks like a problem for a string of Cray Computers.
We share this Jonathan-Richards story to emphasize again the importance of computers in our lives. In comparison to the big scheme of things what one PCUG member does is but a grain of sand in the whole earth, but put all those grains of sand together and you begin to see what we do on a daily basis adds up to a huge, huge number.
What I'm trying to say is that you need all the help you can get lest you get completely lost in an incomprehensible maze. You need resources, literature, sharing, logic, stumbling on to the answer, and of course the Toledo-PCUG meetings. Come to learn. Come to share. Come for encouragement. Come to Find a computer buddy.
See you at the Aug-7th meeting. Bring your “thinking cap”.
As always: Visitors are welcome and Members are expected. Hopefully visitors will become members.
Respectfully submitted,
/Floyd L. Miller, Your Prez
This refers to 32-bit, not 16-bit binary numerals.
The latter runs up to only 65536. The description in the following paragraph is surely incomplete.
The quoted number seems 2128.
Editor
The meeting was called to order at 19:47 by F. Miller, president.
The minutes were accepted.
The treasurer s report (total $1390.32) was accepted, subject to audit.
Seven members of 23 were present.
R. Snyder and R. Ballog reported that they had passed on to N. Sherman the resolution of the earlier meeting, and that she was glad.
The Internet SIG meets on the third Monday by Jim Bell in Whitehouse; those who wish to share a ride meet at the Asbury Church on Dorr St, around 6:30pm.
L. Miller announced the August program, King Ink and cartridge-filling. There was a message from the library, that there is more about patents.
Old bizness:
The Linux group (TALUG) meets at TU in Palmer Hall on Wednesday at 6:30pm.
The current set of officers is the slate to vote on.
Respectfully submitted by Sándor Halász, secretary
Balance Ending 6/15/06
Balance Ending 7/15/06
Steve Tryc, treasurer
08/05/2006, 2:00 PM–4:00 PM
Heatherdowns Library,
3265 Glanzman Road,
Toledo, Ohio 43614
419-259-5270
Cost: FREE
Bob Adams has devised a free downloadable spreadsheet to evaluate a company's Annual Report quickly and easily. Data can be entered manually, or most of it can be imported from BetterInvesting's Online Premium Service. We will also look at other useful spreadsheets from Bob Adams as time permits.
No registration, no fees; just come to learn.
For more information on the computer group, to add a friend to our mailing list, and to send ideas of possible programs, please contact Donna Bardis at (419)517-3279 or pop3.utoledo.edu!pbardis
For more information on the event, contact Charles Bard, nwbuckeye.betterinvesting.net!cbard
Reminder of the address of our chapter web page for more info at all times: http://www.betterinvesting.org/chapter/nwohio