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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, August 28, 2005
To observe the unofficial end of Summer, we will not be publishing this newsletter next week. Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend! See you in September.
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Hoaxed Again
Tips & Tricks: Website Icons
Featured Computer Term: Web Based Email
This Week's Topic: Folder Searches
Websites of Interest: Labor Day; American Garden Museum
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Special Feature: Hoaxed Again
Mars passed extraordinarily close to Earth in August 2003: True.
Mars will pass extraordinarily close to Earth in August 2005: False.
We all get many emails daily telling amazing stories, passing along vital information, giving warnings of dire situations. Many, if not most, of these are hoaxes. Before forwarding them to everyone you know, take a moment to check out the story first.
snopes.com is a website that lists “urban legends, common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, celebrity gossip, and similar items.” If the email you received is a hoax, more then likely you will find it on this site.
You can look for information by either the search box or browsing through categories. To use the search box, click in there and input a keyword. Click the Go button. This will display a results page where you may find information about the topic in your email.
http://www.snopes.com
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Tips & Tricks: Website Icons
Wouldn't it be nice to have a desktop shortcut for web pages you visit often? Then, all you have to do is double click the icon and Internet Explorer will open with that website already there.
Here’s how:
Open Internet Explorer and go to the website that you would like to create the icon for. Make the window smaller so that you can see part of the desktop (click the Restore button in the top right corner to do this).
Note the website’s address in the Address Bar. To the immediate left of the http is a small icon (usually a blue e). Point to that small icon in the address bar, hold down the left mouse button and drag it to a blank area of the desktop. Once there, release the mouse button.
This will create an icon on the desktop that you can use to go directly to the website.
Note: If you use dial up to access the Internet, sign on and then minimize the window. Double click on the icon and Internet Explorer will open with that website already there.
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Featured Computer Term: Web Based Email
Question: What is web based email?
Answer:
Web based email is email that you can check using your web browser.
Outlook Express, for example, is not web based email. It is called an email client because it is a program on the computer whose main purpose is to work with email. Once you check your email with Outlook, by default, the email is removed from your Internet Service Provider’s computer and stored on your computer.
Web based emails are stored on your Internet Service Provider’s computer and can be accessed from any computer using a web browser. These emails will remain on the Internet Service Provider’s computer and will not be stored on the computer that is viewing the email. Some web based email, America Online for example, will store read email for a limited number of days; after that, the emails are deleted. Others will set a limit on space. Yahoo sets a 1 gigabyte limit. Other examples of Web based email are Hotmail and Lycos.
It is a good idea to sign up for a free web-based account. When you register products, or sign up on websites or shop online, you can use this address rather than your main account. This can help reduce the amount of junk email you receive.
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of?
Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its
definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Today's Topic: Folder Searches
If you have folders with many files in them, you can quickly search for a file with this tip.
Right click on a folder; from the resulting menu, left click Search or Find (depending on your version of Windows). This will open a Find or Search window that is automatically set to look in the folder you just right clicked on.
Try this with your My Documents folder. Right click on the My Documents icon on the desktop; left click Search or Find. In the window you now see, note that Look in is already set to My Documents. Type in all or part of the filename, click the Search button, and you will see the results in a list on the right side of the window. To open the file you are looking for, just double click on it.
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Websites of Interest:
Labor Day
Visit our website for links to some informative and fun Labor Day websites.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/laborday.html
American Garden Museum
Visit this site to explore gardens across the United States. If you appreciate the hard work that goes into gardening, you can spend hours looking at some of these lovely places. You will also find info on plants and flowers by clicking the botanical link on the left.
http://www.americangardenmuseum.com |
