KC News 2003

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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COOL TRICKS
PAINT SHOP PRO
GOOGLE
KC TECHSHOP
UNWANTED FAXES
POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
MOTHER'S DAY VIRUS
INTERNET SECURITY
MOST FRUSTRATING VOICE MAIL PHRASES

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Keyboard Shortcut Du Jour
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COOL TRICKS
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We're not alone in our constant reminders promoting savvy computer usage. Michael Duffy at northbaybiz.com has this to say:

It pains me to watch people use Windows sometimes. Recently I was sitting in a conference room watching someone demonstrate a browser-based application.

The application would open a new window, which would be whatever size Internet Explorer happened to remember. The demonstrator would mouse carefully up to the upper right-hand corner of the window and click the middle "maximize" button. The button is relatively small (particularly when the screen is set to 1024 x 768 resolution or above), so acquiring the target (in human factors parlance) was difficult.

TRICK 1:
To maximize any window on a Microsoft Windows system, just double-click the (blue) title bar at the top of the window. Because of its size, it's faster and easier to acquire. Double-clicking the title bar again will restore the window to its "normal" size (i.e., whatever size the application remembers).

TRICK 2:
If you always go to the Edit menu to cut and paste, you'll save a lot of time this year by learning the keyboard shortcuts for Cut, Copy and Paste (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, respectively).
TRICK 3:
You should also know that double clicking a word (as opposed to painfully click-and-dragging over the word with the mouse) will select it.

If you type a lot and don't use these shortcuts, you're working too hard with the mouse.

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--------------------------------
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===============
HOUSEHOLD ITEM
===============
PAINT SHOP PRO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Photoshop by Adobe gets all the kudos as THE image editing program to use. But Paint Shop Pro (PSP) by Jasc is the appropriate tool for everyone except professional designers.

Whether in your office or at home, PSP is the better software. It is intuitive, easy to learn, and packed with features. Oh, and did i mention that it costs much much less than Photoshop?

PSP 8 is the latest greatest version that has just been released. Download a free trial version from the JASC site.

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WORD OF THE MONTH
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GOOGLE
~~~~~~~
Google is THE search engine on the web today. And most people don't use half of the incredible features it contains.

So last time we had an article entitled ADVANCED GOOGLING with plenty of tips on how to use those incredible Google features.

Reverse Phone Book:
Got a phone number in the USA that you want to find an address to? Simply type it into www.google.com and voila!

If the number is listed the address that number is registered to will appear. And then you can even click for a map showing that location. Give it a try using my number: 415 4990838.

Mail Order Catalogs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next time you want to order something using a mail-order catalog try Google Catalogs.

Google Catalogs offers an impressive list of US based catalogs. You can choose a catalog and see each page in full color. Or search for any item your heart desires. Or browse from a list of hundreds of catalogs!

Links to a Website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who's linking to your website? That's easy, simply go to Google and type "link:" and your website and you'll get a pretty good idea!

To check who links to my own site at www.kahl.net I typed in "link:www.kahl.net" and got hundreds of results. Now you try!

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SITES FOR SORE EYES
==================
KC TECHSHOP
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our regular readers know that our KC TechShop is the place to get help for online shopping.

* MONEY-SAVING RANKINGS
Best sites for comparison shopping and reviews.
* "SWEET SPOT" SHOPPING LISTS
DESKTOPs and LAPTOPs. Best price-to-quality!
NEW: desktop and laptop shopping lists have just been updated.
* GREEN PC Section

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KC TIPS
======
UNWANTED FAXES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Are you receiving unwanted faxes from companies on your fax machine?

In the USA and many other countries unwanted faxes are illegal. You can report the offending companies or you can take them to court.

The US Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibits sending unsolicited advertisements to your home or business. The only companies that are legally permitted to enter your home via your fax machine are companies with whom you have "an established business relationship." Even then, you can tell the company to stop sending you faxes and by law, that company must stop.

You can also call the FCC’s Consumer Center at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

BLOCK UNWANTED FAXES:
Blocklist.com is a private company that offers a free fax filtering service to businesses and consumers who want to reduce the junk faxes they receive. The goal of this service is to reduce the amount of paper and toner wasted by these unwanted advertising faxes.

Businesses and consumers can sign up for this service so that unwanted faxes are routed to a Blocklist.com website. Participating responsible fax broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada pay for Blocklist.com's fax filtering service to reduce consumer complaints and increase their efficiency.

SUE THEM:
If you are really angry about this invasion, you can take those fax-senders to court. Sue them for up to $1500 in damages per violation, so save those junk faxes. You may need them as proof in court. The statute of limitations is four years, i.e., suit can be brought up to four years after the junk fax is received.

If anyone has had experience with stopping unwanted faxes do let us know! And we'll keep you posted on our fight against unwanted faxes.

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WinTips
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POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love it or hate it, PowerPoint is here to stay.

Hundreds of sites support Microsoft's presentation software. The selection of sites has jumped noticeably since last year's release of PowerPoint 2002, with its expanded animation technology, new tools for diagramming and rotating images, and improved ways to print and preview presentations.

PowerPoint isn't the only slide-show software on the market but it is the king of its universe. Analysts consider PowerPoint the category killer; it accounts for at least 95% of the presentation-software market.

Digital Studio by Sonia Coleman
Has over 200 PowerPoint template kits free for personal use, tutorials, presentation tips, and links.
www.soniacoleman.com

PresentationPro
Has templates, tutorials, links, and "power tips" illustrated in sample presentations.
www.presentationpro.com

Presenters Online
Site sponsored by Epson has tutorials, links, sound files, clip art, and tips on everything from room arrangements to effective closings; great for newbies.
www.presentersonline.com

Presenters University
Site sponsored by projector manufacturer InFocus has tutorials, how-to articles, free templates, clip art, Presentation Pointers E-mail newsletter, and a many articles on crafting and delivering great presentations.
www.presentersuniversity.com

Website Estates
Has attractive free templates, a wealth of PR, marketing, and E-business tools, resources, and links, and a rich library of links. Easy downloading makes this site especially useful for beginners, but beware of pop-up ads.
www.websiteestates.com

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!!Hoax & Virus Alert!!
================
MOTHER'S DAY VIRUS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CERT Coordination Center, an Internet security clearinghouse, is warning computer users to beware of a potentially destructive Trojan horse timed to coincide with another holiday - Mother's Day.

A Trojan horse known as Peido-B, VBS/Inor.B, or the Mother's Day Virus is making the rounds.

Like most Trojan horses, Mother's Day includes an executable file attachment that, when opened, downloads and runs on the victim's machine.

The Mother's Day message masquerades as an UNDELIVERABLE MESSAGE, but if the recipient opens the attached file, the sender may be able to gain control of the computer.

Bottom line: be wary of any messages that you are not expecting, even if they seem legit. And never open any unrequested attachments.

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/

KC WEB SERVICES
----------------
Kahl Consultants offers WEB SERVICES and HOSTING for small business.

* World Class HOSTING with personal service
* Online MARKETING Plans
* Website TRAFFIC Analysis
* Personal Attention

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NetTips
=======
INTERNET SECURITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Broadband Internet access is great - your door to the Internet is always open. But the Internet is a two-way street, and if your computer's downloading from it at high speeds, hackers could be sneaking out your personal files just as quickly.

Bored or malicious souls out there scan IP addresses at random, and if they find an open door to someone's computer, they might choose to spy on their files, or take over the computer completely to perpetrate some more wide-reaching mischief.

The best way to avoid it is by installing a firewall. Network firewalls can be configured to let traffic through (like a fire door), and sort out who gets in and who doesn't (like a security guard).

Firewalls come in two basic flavors--software and hardware. Hardware firewalls are better than programs like ZoneAlarm or Symantec's Personal Firewall since they are platform-independent and able to protect a small network with a single installation.

Feeling secure? Visit Steve Gibson's Web site. Gibson's one of the good guys, but if you visit two pages on his Web site, you'll see that he knows how the bad guys think. Click on the Shields Up! link and then the Test My Shields and Probe My Ports buttons. GRC.com will show you the IP address of your computer, and which of its back doors are open. If you're not running a firewall, the list of vulnerabilities will be quite scary.

One of the best reasons for installing a firewall is Windows. Microsoft's easy-to-use networking comes at a cost: once a hacker gets onto a regular Windows computer, he's got access to everything.

The basic role of a firewall is to close the ports that shouldn't be open, and to conceal as much about your computers as possible. To do this, a firewall will inspect and analyze all the network traffic to your computer (a process called stateful packet inspection), and do its best to conceal the presence of your computer's ports from all unauthorized access. Sometimes, the concealment isn't too smart. Some firewalls report the presence of a port, but say it's closed (an invitation to serious hackers to try and open it). The most effective firewalls "stealth" or conceal ports-they refuse to respond to any software that pings them. Hardware firewalls also perform network address translation (NAT), which conceals the computers in your workgroup's network behind a single IP address.

Because networking's such a technical subject, hardware firewalls need good administration tools to help non-technical users change settings with ease. And that's pretty much where all hardware firewalls fall short, since the devil's in the details. For this reason, you need to educate yourself about ports and their functions if you're going to do adequate diagnostics.

Stateful packet inspection (SPI): A must for any firewall, packet inspection does what it sounds like: It examines all the packets of information flowing through the Internet connection. What makes such inspections "stateful" is the interpretation of the packets or the analysis of whether they're being requested by the computer behind the firewall or not.

Network address translation (NAT): Each computer on a network behind a firewall has its own address. A routing firewall hides them all behind a single IP address, so that only one (secured) address can be seen by Web sites and hacking scripts.

Demilitarized zone (DMZ): This useful extra feature, like its military equivalent, is a safe place for people on one side to meet folks from the outside. In computing, it's an IP address (a computer on your network) that's opened to unrestricted two-way traffic, so you can conduct multi-user gaming or teleconferencing from behind a firewall. The computer that's exposed in this way needs its own protection, from a software firewall like ZoneLabs' ZoneAlarm or Symantec's Personal Firewall.

Virtual private networking (VPN): If you need to establish a secure link to a corporate office, the ability to allow tunneling protocols is essential. Most firewalls use a VPN pass-through technique (supporting IPsec or PPTP protocols); only robust firewalls like Linksys' EtherFast Cable/DSL Firewall Router let you configure encryption and authentication settings.

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

THE PLUG
========
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THE PUNCH LINE
==============
MOST FRUSTRATING VOICE MAIL PHRASES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. I'm not at my desk right now.

DUH? That's a hot lot of news. What a boring statement. Live a little. Let your callers know where you ARE. Not where you're not. Tell them, "I AM in the office all this week" OR "I'm in a sales meeting till 3 pm."

What a waste of time. The caller is thinking, "Well, if I'm so darn important, where the heck are you?" And maybe the call isn't so important to you. You don't need this one.

Dumb. Of course you are. Although, there are probably some that you're not sorry to have missed. Leave this one out! It's a given. Use the time and space for something else.

Based on Telephone Doctor surveys, most people aren't returning their phone calls in a timely fashion. If you're telling your callers you'll call them back, then do it. If you may not return the call...then try: "Go ahead and leave your phone number and I'll DECIDE if I'll call you back." (Just kidding!) Unreturned phone calls rank high on the frustration list.

Remember to at least tell the callers to hit ZERO for the operator should you need more information. The best would be to give a name and extension. Although for the most part, that voice mail comes on also. And then you're into Voice Mail Jail!

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.
Your comments?

Technology
Use it appropriately
Put it in our hands

KC News

KC News MAY-JUNE 2003 | COOL TRICKS | Vol.5, No.5-6