kcnews APRIL 2001

CONTENTS
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INKJET PRINTER
MICROSOFT .NET
MONEY INSIGHTS
SURF BY PHONE
LASSO ICONS
WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN
JESUS WAS GAY!
SNOW WHITE IS A SEXY VIRGIN!
WEB VISITOR TYPES
WEB TEXT MAKE TO ORDER

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Keyboard Shortcut Du Jour
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SWITCH BETWEEN MULTIPLE WINDOWS OPEN AT THE SAME TIME
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Example: a word file and an email window are open. How do I switch between them?

If there are more than two applications open at the same time, do not release the Alt key and press the Tab key to move through the selection.

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HOUSEHOLD ITEM
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INKJET PRINTER
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Every digital home and office should have an inkjet printer. It's hard not to find one that isn't cheap, fast, and with incredible photo like quality. Epson and Hewlett-Packard are the ink jet kings. Today you'll pay $150 to $200 for a top notch inkjet, and there are plenty of special deals well under $100.

Since the purchase cost of these amazing devices has come down so much, you need to research the COST-PER-PAGE. This ranges from about 7 to 30 cents. Ink cartridges sell for about $30 to $40. Expect to use at least 2 or 3 of these per year - and you'll need one for black and one for color printing. So it can pay to pay a little more up front. For example, the Epson Stylus Color 980 ($220 street) is a winner with a cost-per-page of only 7 cents! So do your homework - go comparison shopping at the KC TechShop.

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!

APRIL DEAL$:
HP DeskJet 648C Color Inkjet Printer ONLY $69.99 (after rebate)
Canon MultiPASS MPC530 five-in-one printer, copier, fax, phone, scanner ONLY $99.99 (refurbished)

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WORD OF THE MONTH
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MICROSOFT .NET
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.NET is Microsoft's next generation Internet vision. What is .NET? Microsoft's attempt to take over the Web? Vaporware? Microsoft's defense against a court imposed breakup? A jumble of tools and technologies that Microsoft is unable to communicate as a coherent strategy?

One thing is clear: The .NET initiative is the most significant change to the company's strategy since Windows 3.0. So even if only a small part is executed, it means major changes in all product areas: operating systems, applications, development tools, and online services.

.NET is meant to make the second generation internet experience richer. An infrastructure! A set of tools and services! A flood of applications! Above all, a vision of a new user experience.

1) The net will be your personal network, housing your applications, data, and preferences. Instead of buying software shrink-wrapped, your organization will rent it.
2) The PC will remain your principal computing device, but you will have "anywhere, anytime" access to data and applications on the net from any device.
3) You will have many new ways to interact with your application data, including speech and handwriting.
4) Boundaries that separate your applications from each other and from the net will disappear. Instead of interacting with an application or a single Web site, you will be connected to what Microsoft calls a "constellation" of computers and services, which will be able to exchange and combine objects and data.

We will be hearing about "THE INTERNET CLOUD" as new products come to market. Imagine a range of "smart" thick and thin clients with full access to your data and linked with a series of networks that includes mobile, home, and office devices. We will move from device to device. Our data, identity, and preferences will be available on each device.

Smart phones will be among the first .NET products. For example, a smart phone with voice recognition and speech-to-text to manage e-mail, take dictation, and manage schedules. Data will be stored on a remote PC, and its applications will be hosted by a service provider. Word-processing capability will be a tailored subset of features found on a full-fledged PC.

Some think the Web-enabled devices will REDUCE the role of the PC. A MORE LIKELY prediction is that the home PC will become the HUB of a local "cloud," hosting core local services and linking lesser tools to the net. The PC will integrate home electronics, kitchen appliances, and mobile devices. It will become a router for satellite TV, cable, telephony, and other remote services.

The home PC will become physically smaller and more mobile. Expect greater use of voice recognition, speech-to-text, and video in .NET-era devices.
[Source: Internet World]

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SITES FOR SORE EYES
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MONEY INSIGHTS
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We all have our ways of saving money. We suggest that you bookmark these "Sites For Sore Eyes" for reference:

Comparative data on financial rates such as mortgage and CD rates, auto loans, credit cards
http://www.bankrate.com/

Info on rates, fees, financial products and services. Calculators to compute borrowing, investing, and spending options.
http://www.financenter.com/

BARGAIN HUNTING IN THE AMAZON
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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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SURF BY PHONE
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New services called "VOICE PORTALS" use a regular old telephone to access e-mail, stock quotes, driving directions and other info from the net!

Dial a (usually) toll free number and follow the prompts to check news, weather, sports scores and more. Despite limitations, voice portals are handy when you don't have access to a computer.

GLOBALCOM CALLING RATES
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GLOBALCOM has great LONG DISTANCE RATES!
Check out VOICENET "PRECISION" and "POWER" CALLING PLANS for USA:
* 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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LASSO ICONS
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Need to select a number of contiguous items in a window or on the desktop? Whoa cowboy! Grab your mouse and lasso them in!

Click once NEXT to the first item you want to select. While holding down the mouse, drag the pointer to CREATE A BOX around all the icons you want to select. Let go, and every icon inside the selected area will appear highlighted.

If you miss an icon, you can grab it holding down the Ctrl key as you click it. Just don't forget the Ctrl key, or you'll lose the whole selection.

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AOTM (Acronym of the Month)
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WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN
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ISDN It Still Does Nothing

Handy Acronym Links (or HAL):
BABEL : A Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms
http://online.dossnet.com/babel.htm

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!!Hoax & Virus Alert!!
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JESUS WAS GAY!
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Those silly writers of urban legends sure know who to pick on! There are several long running legends affecting Christians. Like Procter & Gamble is owned by devil worshippers. Another is the claim that the FCC is banning religious broadcasting in the United States. Yet another - more than a decade old but making the email rounds for the first time this year - the allegation that there's a film being made which portrays JESUS CHRIST and the disciples as HOMOSEXUALS.

For many Christians this is about as offensive as it gets. This legend comes in the form of a petition - an exceptional vehicle for RUMOR MONGERING because it spreads moral outrage under the guise of a solution. People sign and forward it thinking they're doing a good deed. But they're only passing along an urban legend.

SNOW WHITE IS A SEXY VIRGIN!
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TODAY I GOT AN EMAIL ENTITLED "Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL story!"

It was sent from someone named "Hahaha" with the email address <hahaha-@-sexyfun.net>

There was an ATTACHMENT named "sexy virgin.scr." BING! Warning signals flashed in my brain. An STUPID email from a COMPLETE STRANGER with a "*.scr" attachment. SCR? That is the extension for a SCREEN SAVER! Is someone sending me a screen saver?? HEY! This could be a virus!

I traced the source... the email address said it came from SEXYFUN.NET, so my next stop was that website. AHA! This is what it said:

There you have it. That was easy! I found out that this was the W95.Hybris.gen WORM (similar to a virus). NEXT STEP: HIT DELETE! Case closed.

Remember to play it safe on the net. Don't trust internet fairy tales. When in doubt, HIT DELETE.

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NetTips
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WEB VISITOR TYPES
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Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman says there are a variety of web visitors with different goals and attitudes:

1) Viewers who would rather watch TV. They surf in search of eye candy and other audiovisual jolts. They use text only as directions to the next surprise.

2) Users who want information for their work: Stats for their report or your business plan as a model for their own. They love "hit and run" retrieval, they hate to scroll, and no one has ever built a site that they stick with.

3) Readers (a rare breed). They scroll through long documents, even books. Or they'll download what they find, print it out, and read it in an armchair.

4) A new group is listeners. Sight impaired or not, they use programs that read text off the screen. As voice programs improve, more people will adopt them.

Each of these groups needs a particular kind of text, and if they don't find it on your site, they'll move elsewhere.

WEB TEXT MAKE TO ORDER
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Your visitors want information. But unless they're all READERS (see above), you need to adapt your text by cutting, hooking, and organizing.

CUTTING is essential for text adapted from print. If you're archiving documents, include summaries. Web visitors only read at 75 percent normal speed. So CUT ALL TEXT BY 50% - especially if you're adapting from print, which relies heavily on transitional phrases that don't belong in hypertext.

If you're creating original text, cutting short will keep your text focused. If text makes sense when cut in half, leave it! If you need more text, add it word by word until you have just enough.

Be tender with visitors who read your text. Write "use" instead of "utilize." Write "decided" instead of "made a decision." Cut paragraphs of non-essential info. Every word and phrase should have to fight for its life.

HOOKING an impatient visitor is vital. Your readers are skimming and scanning, so use both HEADLINES and text to grab them. Headlines should be simple and informative. Text can exploit gimmicks long known to magazine writers for catching readers' interest.

"For example," he said, "use quotation marks because people seem to prefer reading what someone actually said."

* questions - they make us seek the answer,
* unusual statements - we love surprises,
* promise of conflict - we love fights,
* news pegs - to tie content to the coattails of some big current event, and
* direct address - we love personal attention.

A hundred words in one solid block of text is a symptom of "paragraphosis", in which the eye becomes unable to focus or track through a mass of type. A chunk could have two or three short paragraphs, each with a subhead, all surrounded by lots of white space.

Organization can also mean junking declarative sentences and offering just fragments. Sometimes. Not always. Bulleted lists? Great!

Put the visitor's needs first. On the Web, the customer really is always right, and vanishes the moment you indicate otherwise.

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

THE PLUG
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THE PUNCH LINE
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Nursery Photos Database
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This amazing site uses public records to collect pictures of newborn babies at over 98% of hospitals and medical centers. Try find your own and check out your family members, friends and colleagues. And you were worried about your credit card data?

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