kcnews MARCH 2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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RECYCLED SHORTCUTS
DIAL-UP MODEM
ReplayTV & TiVo
GLOBENEWS!
E3 DATABASE
ENERGY SAVING TIPS
GREAT GRAPHICS IN MS WORD
EXPANDING EXPLORER FOLDERS
PDF
ANNA, CANOLA, AND NIGERIA

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Keyboard Shortcut Du Jour
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RECYCLED SHORTCUTS
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Time and time again I have stated that everyone who uses a PC (or Mac) should take a class in order to learn how to operate the machine. Just like everyone who uses a car takes drivers education!

Recycled for the umpteenth time, here are the FOUR BASIC KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS that everyone should know. All in one row at the lower left of your keyboard. If I taught the class these would be taught on the very first day:

KC TECHSHOP
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DON'T GO SHOPPING BLIND!
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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!

MARCH DEAL$:
Pacific Image 1236P Scanner for ONLY $19.99 (after rebate)
Canon BJC-2100 Inkjet Printer (with Printer Cable) ONLY: $39.95 (after rebate)
Intel Easy PC Camera WebCam - great for video phone calls ONLY: $49.99

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HOUSEHOLD ITEM
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DIAL-UP MODEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With all the talk about broadband internet services - DSL and Cable - the simple DIAL-UP MODEM is still one heck of a device! 55 percent of all people getting online will be using dial-up connections even by the year 2004.

A new faster and more flexible V.92 standard is now out, and at a street price of $30-50 the 56k modem is an incredible deal. So much bang for so little buck! That makes it our HOUSEHOLD ITEM of the month.

Anyone with a PC, laptop, Mac, or other device that can dial into the net should have one! Many companies offer free internet access (e.g. NetZero, Lycos, BlueLight) and most ISPs offer internet access for anywhere from $5 (AT&T) to $22 per month (behemoth AOL and runner-up Earthlink). That gives you one of the greatest technology deals in history. All that information for pennies per day! And this amazing device just got better!

Why the new V.92 standard? It increases the UPLOAD SPEED of data transmissions, allows a data call to be PUT ON HOLD to take an inbound voice call and SHORTENS THE TIME it takes to MAKE A CONNECTION.

Analog dial-up modems are the only truly ubiquitous method of getting online:
- all you need is a phone line
- no additional service fees
- no set-up procedures
- easier than DSL or cable

IT'S FREE! U.S. Robotics will offer V.90 modem owners a FREE SOFTWARE UPGRADE to the V.92 standard. External modems using the V.92 standard will initially cost about $100. And PC Card versions will hit the streets within the next three months.
[Source: Richard Shim, ZDNet News]

Dial Up Resources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Free eCommunications Guide (all about free internet access):
http://www.fecg.net/

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WORD OF THE MONTH
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ReplayTV & TiVo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is a DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER or DVR?

Two companies, TiVo and ReplayTV, sell DVRs. These devices let TV viewers ELIMINATE COMMERCIALS!

What else can they do?
* pause live programming and then resume watching from the point you left off while the rest of the program is still being recorded.
* automatically record every episode of your favorite programs with a single command regardless of when those shows are broadcast.

How do they work? Taped shows are stored on a massive HARD DRIVE for later viewing. NO hassles with bulky videotape cassettes!

ReplayTV has the better system to get rid of commercials: a 30 second skip button. You just push the remote control's skip button one or more times at the beginning of each commercial break and the ads simply vanish. The TiVo unit has a fast forward button with three different speeds

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SITES FOR SORE EYES
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NOT YOUR NINE O'CLOCK NEWS: GLOBENEWS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GlobeNews is a monthly e-Zine by Kahl Consultants for the Global citizen.

Keep on top of events WORLDWIDE: politics, travel, society, environment, technology. No, it's definitely NOT your nine o'clock news.

E3 - THE ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY EXPERT DATABASE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Energy and environmental experts around the world can register themselves with the E3 Database for free. Find an expert in the field you are looking for at the E3 Database:
http://www.kahl.net/eee/

BARGAIN HUNTING IN THE AMAZON
---------------------------------------------
Amazon.com now has an Outlet! The biggest bargains throughout the Amazon.com universe are here.
> Up to 50% off toys and electronics and up to 60% off kitchen essentials
> books for less than 5 bucks, CDs for less than $7, and a slew of videos for under $10?

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KC TIPS
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ENERGY SAVING TIPS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In California everyone's talking about energy consumption because of our power crisis. PCs don't use as much power as other devices in your home or office. They use about 50 TO 300 WATTS. Monitors use 80 TO 120 WATTS. Depends on your machine, how it is configured and the CPU speed.

PCs costs pennies per hour. But every watt counts! TURN OFF THE MONITOR when not in use and USE THE ENERGY SAVING TECHNOLOGY in your machine.

Folks think it's better to LEAVE MACHINES RUNNING rather than turn them off when not in use. Wrong! Today's computers and electronics are mostly solid state, and there is NO HARM DONE when you turn them on and off.

SCREEN SAVER PROGRAMS put FLYING TOASTERS and other images on your screen. They WASTE ENERGY by lighting the monitor, taxing memory and CPU. A better solution: TURN OFF THE MONITOR or put the monitor into SLEEP MODE.

Today's PCs are supposed to go into sleep mode automatically after a specified period of inactivity. That's part of the EPA's Energy Star (www.energystar.gov) requirements. The two common types of sleep mode are STANDBY and HIBERNATION.

In STANDBY MODE, the state of the machine (programs that are running and data in memory) is copied into memory that stays alive while the machine stands by.

The hard drive, monitor and components are turned off, but a tiny amount of power keeps the memory alive so it can store data it needs when the machine wakes up.

STANDBY MODE is available on Windows 98, ME and 2000. Problems can occur if peripherals or accessories on your machine are non compliant or not functioning properly. Many machines will fail to wake up from this mode, so test it out first!

The Intel Instantly Available PC (IAPC) technology should improve the situation. It will power down to sleep mode when not in use and quickly awaken.

HIBERNATION MODE is similar to standby with one important difference: instead of writing your machine state into memory, it copies it to your hard drive, then shuts the machine off completely. Hibernation is not available on older machines.

HIBERNATION WORKS BETTER THAN STANDBY. In the event of a power failure or blackout DATA WON'T BE LOST.

It takes a bit longer to go in and out of hibernation (data has to be transferred to and from the hard drive). Still, it's a lot faster than a standard shutdown and startup!

To set power management in Windows go to START - SETTINGS - CONTROL PANEL. Click the POWER ICON. If you see a tab for hibernation, that's YOUR BEST OPTION. Otherwise, experiment with the standby options.

If your machine does not go to sleep or wake up properly, TURN OFF the energy saving features. Check your PC manufacturer's Web site or call tech support to see whether there are any software updates that might improve power management. And always TURN OFF THE MONITOR when you leave the room.
[Source: SF Gate]

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!

GREAT GRAPHICS IN MS WORD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You betcha! Microsoft Word actually has useful graphic tools! At least MS Word 2000 does.

Where are they?
Where you would probably never expect - in the INSERT PULL DOWN MENU.
Select INSERT and then PICTURE. There are several choices:

AUTOSHAPES
Add flow charts, arrows, hearts and a large number of pre designed images.

WORDART
Make designs out of text. You can create the monumental three-dimensional letters familiar from Hollywood titles in the last century, or vertical text to annotate the side of your Web page. You can choose the type face, text and colors.

CLIPART
A small library of clip art, from animals to office machinery to George Washington, and a pointer to even more images on the Web.

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WinTips
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EXPANDING EXPLORER FOLDERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Say you're in the double paned WINDOWS EXPLORER (not the Internet Explorer) and you want to expand every branch of a folder. Don't waste time clicking all those PLUS SIGNS individually. There's a much easier way!

Select the folder and press the ASTERISK KEY on your NUMERIC KEYPAD. Every folder inside the top folder will expand instantly!

OK, so you're finished and you want those folders to fall in again? Don't just click the minus sign next to the top folder. Doing so will collapse the branch, but the next time you click that plus sign, it will appear fully expanded again.

To put those branches back where they belong permanently, CLICK THE MINUS SIGN next to the TOP BRANCH, then PRESS F5.

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AOTM (Acronym of the Month)
=======================
PDF
~~~
Portable Document Format (PDF) is the open de facto standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. A lot of websites offer files in this format.

What is so neat about this file format from Adobe is that it preserves all of the fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document. It doesn't matter what application and platform were used to create it! PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by anyone. They can be viewed with a free Adobe Acrobat Reader. To convert any document to PDF, even scanned paper, you need to use the Adobe Acrobat 4.0 software.

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!!Hoax & Virus Alert!!
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ANNA, CANOLA, AND NIGERIA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That highlights the worst trash in our email last month.

The Anna Kournikova virus affects Windows users who open every email attachment blindly. They probably also don't scan for virii. So look out for AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs - it is an email worm (hence the vbs ending, which stands for Visual Basic Script) masquerading as a jpg picture of international tennis star Anna Kournikova. If you open this attachment it will mail itself to EVERY ADDRESS in YOUR address book. Great way to make new friends.... NOT!

Next up - Canola shmanola! A convoluted warning about the supposed DANGER OF CANOLA OIL which links canola oil to practically every disease known to man, including mad cow disease. I like the name of the rumormonger who supposedly wrote this rubbish: Ronald W. Frye.

And lastly, the infamous decade old BUSINESS PROPOSAL FROM NIGERIA. This "4-1-9" scam is essentially a variation of the "something for nothing" routine. This one states that YOU can make a few million bucks by letting some guy in Africa use your bank account... yeah right!

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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STOP SPAM!
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Junk mail - or unsolicited mail - comes in many shapes and sizes. Junk mailers refer to it as "direct mail". Junk emails are called SPAM. They can quickly clutter up your In Box. The REDUCE JUNK MAIL site has some handy TIPS to help you protect your privacy and reduce SPAM.

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 environmentally conscious 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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ODE TO THE SPELL CHECKER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

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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

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Technology
Use it appropriately
Put it in our hands