Welcome to Bits, Bytes & Chips - Computer Services
It' was 2005 when the
Bits and Bytes
column first appeared in the Charlotte Sun and it has been a pleasure and
an honor to write a column each week. I hope that they have been informative,
educational, humorous and just plain interesting to read. This column
was never intended to be aimed at the technogeeks and as such it was designed
to be easy to understand and follow along. I have had the opportuninty to
visit with many of you in your homes and it is a good feeling to see file
folders of past columns sitting on the desk beside the computer. Bits,
Bytes & Chips is located in beautiful Punta Gorda, Fl.
This Weeks Column...
Does Anyone Really Know What Time It
Is?
Tick tock. Tick tock. “Time Has Come Today” sang the Chambers Brothers
in 1968. Chicago harmonized with “Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?” Then
followed their question with “Does Anybody Care?” Van Halen’s musical entreaty
was “Don’t Waste My Time.” In 1974 Jim Croce sang about saving Time In A Bottle.
Time, is something that we either have too much of or don’t have enough of. How
many times have you said, “I just plain ran out of time?” Or “I didn’t realize
what time it was.” Or my favorite, “Time just got away from me.”
Tick
Tock, tick tock. What is time? Time keeps everything from happening all at once.
Without time you wouldn’t be able to remember the past. Or for that matter, even
with time, why can’t we remember the future? Time also has different speeds.
Time flies, or time just drags by. We even say that time stands still. Sometimes
we lose time, or gain time. We give certain time specific events names such as
Christmas Time or Bed Time or Lunch Time. So with all this importance placed on
Time, how do we know what time it is?
Tick Tock, tick tock. Check your
wristwatch. What time does it say? Now, look at the kitchen clock. Is it ahead
or behind your watch? How about the clock in the dining room? Still a different
time? Now look at your VCR. I bet for most of you it says twelve o’clock. (Is he
a mind reader Martha?) “So what,” you say? Does it really matter if we are five
or ten minutes late or early? Two thousand years ago, two buddies would say,
meet me under the big tree at the new moon. So you would get there a few days
early, camp and wait because no one could actually tell the exact moment of the
new moon. Time then was plus or minus a few days. (So what are five or ten
minutes?)
Do you have Onstar in your car, or GPS on your boat? Did you
know that your position in the world to within a few feet is calculated by
measuring the time it takes for signals to bounce from you to satellites in
orbit? Stephen Dick, the United States Naval Observatory's historian, points out
that each nanosecond – one billionth of a second -- of error translates into a
GPS error of one foot. If the satellite time is off by the same five or ten
minutes as the clocks in your house, Onstar might send your tow truck to Tampa,
or Sea Tow might be looking in the Atlantic instead of Charlotte
Harbor.
All right, how do I actually know what time it is? The
genuine official keeper of time is the United States Naval Observatory. Here
they currently have fifty-nine atomic clocks from which they calculate an
average and answer Chicago’s question. This is the official world time. And here
is the answer to your next trivia question. Of the fifty-nine atomic clocks
currently used, ten of them are hydrogen masers and forty-nine are HP-5071
cesiums. (Gesundheit!) No, I don’t know what a hydrogen maser is either. But,
these clocks must be accurate because it is predicted that the average of these
clocks will be off by one second every six million years.
So… If you are
running Windows XP, double click on the time in the lower right hand corner. A
dialog box will open up and there will be a tab labeled Internet Time. Click on
it and put a check in the box that says automatically synchronize with an
Internet Time Server. Below that you can see two servers listed,
time.windows.com or time.nist.gov. Choose which ever you wish and let your
computer set its clock with the atomic clocks and display the most accurate time
currently possible. (Now go set the rest of the clocks in the house.) For those
using Windows Vista or 7, click on the date and time in the lower right corner.
A box opens up displaying a clock and calendar. Click on the link labeled
“Change Time and Date Settings. A new dialogue box opens and there are buttons
to change time and date and time zone. At the top of the dialogue box are some
additional tabs one allows us to display multiple clocks and the other allows us
to change the Internet time server that our prompt digital domestique uses to
keep accurate its clock.
Until next time. And, oh by the
way, don’t be late.
Court Nederveld owns his own computer consulting and fixit service –Bits, Bytes
& Chips Computer Services.
Services...
If you live in the Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte and
surrounding areas, Court is available for computer repair service and computer
training. He makes house calls. Some of the services available are:
Spyware
Removal - Virus Removal
Memory Upgrades - Windows Troubleshooting
Data Backups - Onsite Repairs
Wireless Networks - In Home One on
One Training
Hardware Repairs - Mailing Lists
Upgrades - Data
Recovery
Set up an Internet Provider - Set up or troubleshoot email
To make these text boxes with the shaded title, use use an
<h3> heading and a <p> for the text.
Court
Nederveld owns his own computer consulting and fixit service - Bits, Bytes and
Chips Computer Servies servicing Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. He makes House
Calls! You can reach him at
court@bitsandbytesonline.com or 626-3285.
About Me...
Court Nederveld spent many years maintaining
and servicing desktop computers, computer servers, switches and routers. Prior
to that, he taught 1000’s of employees how to use a new business applicaton for
a major corporation. Concurrently he taught the use of Word, Excel, Outlook and
many other general use programs. After retirement in 2003, he and his lovely
bride of over thirty years did a bit of traveling. (Did I say bit?) They
traveled 14000 miles around the United States in a 1966 Mustang convertible,
spending two months on the road. Court was asked by the Punta Gorda Herald to
document his travels in a weekly "From the Road" column which turned out to be
extremely popular with readers. Upon their return to Punta Gorda, Court was
asked to write a weekly computer column in the same style as the "From the Road"
series.
Now Court Nederveld is a popular
celebrity columnist. His column runs weekly on this site and
is read by over forty thousand readers. He is invited to speak to
clubs and organizations. His in depth and humorous insight on dealing with that
ubiquitous metal box, have brought accolades from readers and editors
alike.
2011 as part of a column series outlining self publishing
for those folks that have great stories to tell, a new book, Epicuria: Adventures That Really Cook! was
born. Late 2011 will see the release of a compendium of columns that were
printed since 2005.
I continue to make House Calls in Port Charlotte and Punta
Gorda, Fl and enjoy visiting with folks and helping them resolve their computer prolems.
How to ...
How To Copy and Paste:
Take your mouse, and place your
cursor at the beginning of the text in the box below, then click and hold the
left mouse button, while pulling your mouse over the text. This should highlight
the text. Now release the left mouse button. Now, with the cursor over the
highlighted text, right click the mouse for options, and select 'copy'. Now
place the cursor where you want to put the copied text and right click
your mouse again, and select 'paste' and you will have copied and pasted the
text.
Cut and paste is the same as above, except you choose
'cut', instead of 'copy'.
Shortcuts
To Highlight: Press 'Ctrl' + 'A'.
To
Copy: Highlight an area, as shown above, then hold 'Ctrl' + 'C' (For Mac users
'Apple' + 'C').
To Paste: Click your mouse where you want the text pasted,
and then press 'Ctrl' + 'V' (For Mac users 'Apple' + 'S'.
The ability to cut, copy, and paste is found in most
programs. Sometimes, the ability to do these tasks via the mouse is disabled,
but is still quickly achieved through the use of the shortcuts outlined above.