kcnews1_2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Keyboard Shortcut Du Jour
2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SPECIAL
ONLINE AT THE MOVIES
KC TECHSHOP
LEARN THE NET
IS YOUR COMPUTER A TURTLE? THINK TUNEUP, NOT REPLACE
SNEAKY AOL
COMMON FILE TYPES
EMAIL ABBREVIATIONS
STALIN AND NOSTRADAMUS?
BOOLEAN LOGIC = SEARCH FASTER
FREE INSTANT FOLLOW UP EMAILS

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Keyboard Shortcut Du Jour
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OPEN THE START MENU:
CTRL+ESC
Left thumb and middle finger, then use ARROW keys to select an item.

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TECHNOTIP
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2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SPECIAL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read it in this month's AstroNews!

ONLINE AT THE MOVIES
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Dim the lights, grab popcorn, and... click a website?

Yup, even with a 56 k modem you can enjoy online movies. Naturally a broadband cable or DSL connection giveS bigger and better quality. Your office may have a T1 line or maybe even a T3. Then you can watch quality movies - on your lunch break!

OK, you'll probably need some plugins (which you might already have), some require you to register (you're john doe?), some use cookies (wipe up those crumbs), some tax your machine's resources (oh oh, think i better reboot!).

But it's classic stuff. Original content. Stuff by nobodies. Stuff by hollywood's hottest names. It's all here!

Anteye - interactive community where viewer is creator is viewer.
http://anteye.com/

Idealive - matches promising independent musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers with deep pocketed investors
http://www.idealive.com/

IFilm - film portal and directory links to thousands of films and resources for film fans, filmmakers, and entertainment industry professionals.
http://www.ifilm.com/

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WORD OF THE MONTH
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KC TECHSHOP
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DON'T GO SHOPPING BLIND!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go shopping at the NEW KC TechShop!

* MONEY-SAVING RANKINGS - the very best sites for comparison shopping, reviews and infos.
* "SWEET SPOT" SHOPPING LISTS - for PC DESKTOPs and LAPTOPs. Get the best price-to-quality ratio!

JANUARY DEAL$:
1) Canon BJC-2100 Color Inkjet Printer with Bonus Printer Cable ONLY $39.95
2) Refurbished Agfa Snapscan Touch USB Scanner 600 x 1200 dpi ONLY $$44.99
EVEN BETTER:
Canon Printer $27.96
Agfa Scanner $38.24
With this code: C3F6A

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SITES FOR SORE EYES
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LEARN THE NET
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What if i told you about a site that thousands of businesses, schools, libraries, ISPs, and many other organizations everywhere have linked to to provide user-friendly comprehensive INTERNET TRAINING FOR EVERYONE! YES, EVEN BEGINNERS!

Yup, one amazing website to help YOU learn!
* How to surf the web
* Use email
* Find data online
* Webdesign basics
* Everything it takes to LEARN THE NET.

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KC TIPS
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IS YOUR COMPUTER A TURTLE? THINK TUNEUP, NOT REPLACE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When computers slow down, the first thing people do is rush to buy new hardware. There are more effective and cheaper ways to solve the problem.

Your system: once speedy as a hare, now a turtle. Invest in faster processors, more memory, speedier hard disks, what the heck, how about a new computer. Or not?

Maybe all it needs is a tuneup. An older system, properly maintained, can outperform a modern machine that isn't. A common problem is DISK FRAGMENTATION. By defragmenting a disk, you gain performance. This is just one of the many methods to keep computers functioning smoothly.

HARDWARE UPGRADES
Intel, Compaq, Dell. They want you to believe a Pentium III is barely adequate for writing letters to mom; all serious users MUST use a brand new Pentium IV, right? NOT! Everyday users will be satisfied with a Pentium II or III with adequate memory and proper maintenance. But a PII won't be sufficient for graphics-intensive tasks, large databases or software development.

CPU technology is at least a year beyond current software. It is better to wait until the price of today's high-end CPUs have dropped by 20 to 50 percent. Even if your machine is suffering from slowdowns in performance, it is vitally important to identify the cause, rather than simply upgrading.

TRY THESE TOOLS:
* Window SYSTEM TOOLS - under START-PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES (especially DEFRAGMENTING)
* NORTON SYSTEM WORKS - $50 for something that should be standard on every machine
* Add a drive, delete unnecessary files to create more space or replace the current drive with something larger
* Defragmenting (see below)

TRY THESE TIPS:
* Don't frequently install and uninstall software. Programs do not uninstall cleanly and leave files and configuration settings behind
* Keep track of applications running in the background. Programs are started automatically during bootup and run constantly. See the icons in the system tray (bottom right, the little box where the time is displayed). RealPlayer is one of the worst offenders, and tricky to remove
* Eliminate any nonessential program from the startup group. "OfficeStartup" makes MS Office launch faster, but not much. Dump it!
* Background programs combined can slow down a system noticeably
* Multitasking works well, but not with too many applications at one time, particularly memory intensive stuff (graphics, databases, etc.)
* Don't let a program accessed once or twice a day consume resources
* Don't click-click-click. Responding slow? Clicking several times results in running several instances of one command or program. Be patient.

DEFRAGMENTING
The primary cause for performance drop over time is disk fragmentation. Information on a disk is broken up into parts for storage. Thanks to modern hard drive design! A typical hard drive stores information in segments of 4KB. A one-page text document can be 10 times that size, and spreadsheets graphics can be hundreds or thousands of times larger. So the system breaks it into parts placed in empty sectors. These are often not close to each other. The system has to look in 10, 100 or a thousand places before a file can be displayed.

Windows 95, 98 and 2000 have a manual defrag utility. A stripped down version of a commercial product. Also in SYSTEM TOOLS. Somewhat useful. A third-party defragmenter like that of NORTON SYSTEM WORKS is recommended. How often does a disk need to be defragged? Depends... start by running it once every other week.

MORE RESOURCES
Hardware and software manufacturers provide an online knowledge for their products
A few websites are generally more effective than manuals or "winging it." Try these:

SNEAKY AOL
~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are using one of the many free ISPs to go online, think twice before you install the new AOL 6.0. First of all their offer of a free 700 hours is kinda sneaky because you can only use them within the first month. Now how many hours can you surf in one month? I mean even if you surfed 8 hours a day straight for 30 days you would still only be online for 240 hours! But i digress...

The word is that if you install AOL 6.0 you may lose ALL YOU OTHER FREE ISPs (like Juno and NetZero). This is because AOL's Version 6.0 is sneaky in another way. It modifies your Microsoft Windows registry and DLL files. And it does this to the permanent detriment of any non-AOL dial-up accounts. Oops, sorry!

NEW GLOBALCOM CALLING RATES
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2001 has barely begun and GLOBALCOM already has great new LONG DISTANCE RATES! Check out the new VOICENET "PRECISION" and "POWER" CALLING PLANS for the USA! How does this sound:
* 4.9¢ per minute state to state
* 9.9¢ per minute domestic calling card calls (from any phone!)
* NO MONTHLY FEE - only a 5$ monthly minimum usage!

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WinTips
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COMMON FILE TYPES
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Last month we described Windows file types. Here are other common file types:

                   .ai      -- Adobe Illustrator file
                   .bmp -- Bitmap file
                   .cdr    -- Corel Draw file
                   .eps    -- Encapsulated Postscript file (printer language)
                   .gif     -- Graphics interchange format (used on Web)
                   .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe -- Joint Photographic Experts Group format (used on Web)
                   .png   -- Portable Network Graphic (used on Web, open with browser)
                   .psp   -- Paintshop Pro image
                   .psd   -- Adobe Photoshop image
                   .pcx   -- Paintbrush file format
                   .tif      -- Tag image file format
                   .doc   -- Microsoft Word file (can open in Wordpad)
                   .mpg, .mpe, .mpeg -- Movie clip
                   .pdf    -- Portable document format (Adobe Acrobat Reader)
                   .ppt, .pps -- Microsoft PowerPoint files
                   .rtf    -- Rich text format (open in Notepad, Wordpad or Word)
                   .sea, .sit, .tar, .zip -- Compressed file (need unzipping program to use)
                   .txt    -- Text file (open in Notepad)
                   .wks -- Lotus Spreadsheet file
                   .wpg -- WordPerfect graphic
                   .wps -- Microsoft Works text file
                   .wri   -- Write document (open in Wordpad)
                   .xls   -- Microsoft Excel file

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AOTM (Acronym of the Month)
=======================
EMAIL ABBREVIATIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People are always looking for ways to type less. That's how many of the common ABBREVIATIONS in email got started. They help in quick messages. Don't overuse! Try just a few:

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!!Hoax & Virus Alert!!
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STALIN AND NOSTRADAMUS?
Ever since Florida disrupted the national slumber of the Americans people on the web have been tossing around quotes such as:

"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."
Joseph Stalin

Did Stalin write these words? No... though the quote is attributed to Stalin, there is no evidence that he actually said such a thing.

"Come the millennium, month 12
In the home of greatest power,
The village idiot will come forth
To be acclaimed the leader."
Nostradamus

Did Nostradamus write these words? No. One reason we can be sure of this is that, at least as far as Bush detractors are concerned, the "prediction" comes across as clear and correct with a minimum of interpretation. In actual practice, the prophecies of Nostradamus require a great deal of creative fudging to make them seem relevant to current events.

Ho hum. Remember kids, play it safe on the net. Don't trust internet fairy tales. Scan for virii and verify your emails here:
http://www.kahl.net/hoax

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NetTips
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BOOLEAN LOGIC = SEARCH FASTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YO SEARCHER!
Get better search results - use the Boolean search terms AND, NOT, and OR!
HUH? Explanation is at:
http://www.newsbank.com/whatsnew/boolean/.

FREE INSTANT FOLLOW UP EMAILS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FreeAutoBot - A Great E-Marketing Tool.

FreeAutoBot automatically sends e-mail to everyone who requests further info from your site, banner-ad or e-mail (immediately).

Then FreeAutoBot follows-up with a series of e-mails (unlimited) to each recipient. You control when e-mails are sent - day, week, month, year or any combination.

And that's about it. Next Month our new features include a new category: HOUSEHOLD ITEM.
Now turn off your computer. Put on your rain coat and go play in the rain/slush/snow.

Alex
Kahl Consultants
http://www.kahl.net
Technology. Use it appropriately. Put it in our hands.

THE PLUG
========
Is your small business or organization performing? Have enough clients? Want to enhance your net presence? Our latest clients include:

If you got this far you obviously enjoyed KC News. Pass it on!
Please forward it to a handful of your friends. Remember, the best things in life are free.

THE PUNCH LINE
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CHILD'S PLAY
~~~~~~~~~~~
According to an MIT study, the median age of Internet users, now 26, is expected to drop to 15 within the next five years.

SCARY
~~~~~
I don't know the percentage of the Internet that's valid, do you? Jesus, it's scary.
Hunter S. Thompson, Atlantic Monthly

Kahl Consultants
P.O.Box 4284
San Rafael, CA 94903-4284
USA
Tel: +1-415-499 0838
Fax: +1-415-499 0833
www.kahl.net
Contact us

The award-winning Kahl Consultants. Helping small business in San Francisco Bay, Marin, Sonoma and globally.
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Technology
Use it appropriately
Put it in our hands