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Welcome to today's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Saturday, November 24, 2001
In this Issue:
Featured Computer Term: Flat Screen Monitor
Topic: Internet Errors
Progressive Learning Series: Microsoft Word - Tables
Featured Website: Stain Removal Guide/Fabric Link
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As an addendum to the article on Virus Hoaxes in the October 29 version of this newsletter, the following is a recommendation by newsletter subscriber Theresa:
In your last e-mail you wrote about Virus Hoaxes. I have a hyperlink you can click on that will tell you what is true and what is false about a lot of things. A friend of mine sent it to me. There is so much to read; it covers so many subjects. You will have to click on it, and take your time and go through it. I hope you look at it and pass it on.
I took your class in Wantagh and enjoyed it very much. I also enjoy getting the newsletter too! **
Thanks Theresa!
We looked at snopes2.com and found a lot of good information about Virus Hoaxes - what is true and what isn't. This website is really worth taking a look at before continuing the spreading of rumours via email.
Right now there are many emails going around spreading the rumour about a bill in Congress that will start charging a 5 cent fee for emails. There is NO bill in Congress that is trying to charge 5c per sent email. This is a hoax!
http://www.snopes2.com
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Today's Featured Computer Term: Flat Screen Monitor
The following is a question from a newsletter subscriber:
Question: I sent for your Buying the Perfect PC manual and received it already. Thanks so much for your quick response!
I’m not thinking about buying a new computer right now -I purchased your book to learn more about my computer (and I did!). My grandson, who's a computer whiz, suggested that I purchase a flat screen monitor. What is a flat screen monitor and what should I look for?
Thanks again for this great book and please let me know when you put another one out.
Answer: A flat screen monitor, also know as a flat-panel display, is a very thin display screen. Nearly all modern flat-panel displays use LCD (liquid crystal display) technologies.
The advantage to a Flat Screen Monitor is size. Regular monitors take up so much room on a desk that there’s no space for anything else. A flat screen monitor is only about maybe 3 or 4 inches thick so they take up much less room.
The quality on these monitors has improved greatly in the last year or so and the prices have dropped significantly, making them affordable for home use.
If you are looking to upgrade your monitor, here are some tips to go by.
Buy at least a 17" monitor. It will be much better on your eyes.
Make sure it has lots of controls to customize what you like. Find out where the controls are and how you use them.
Do NOT buy a monitor with built in speakers. It's too expensive and the quality is not as good as a good computer speaker system.
When you’re buying a monitor (or a whole new computer), spend time in the store viewing the screen. You are the best judge of what will be good for your eyes. If you’re thinking of purchasing something mail order or on the Internet, go to a store locally and take a look at it first.
One side note: if you leave your computer on for long periods of time, such as doing downloads, and are not around, turn off your monitor. It uses a great deal of power.
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Important Reminder!
Holiday Games and Downloads
During the holiday season, there are tons of little programs that do all kinds of neat stuff.
Games such as Elf Bowling and Snow craft are lots of fun and great time wasters. There are also programs that put little elves on your desktop, lights around the edges of your screen, and so forth.
Most of these programs are harmless; some may not be. When you receive one of these from a friend or download from the Internet, don’t forget to take a moment and run a virus scan on the file before you open it. Otherwise, you might find an unpleasant surprise inside.
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Today's Topic: Internet Errors
The following is a question from a newsletter subscriber:
Question: When I try to log onto a Website, about 25% of the time I get an error message that says Web Page Not Available or http501 not enabled. What is this and how do I enable it? Thanks.
Answer: There are a couple of reasons that this may be happening. The address may be wrong or you may be typing in the wrong address. If you clicked on a link from another place, that address might have been input in that website incorrectly, or the website could be what's called a gravesite. That means it was there at one time but the people who ran it lost interest, ran out of money, or whatever and took it down.
It could also be server problems. Perhaps you and a thousand other people are trying to visit the website at the same time. The computer that this website is on may not be able to handle all that activity.
In any case, try back a few times -- later that day, the next day. If you keep getting the same error message for the website, you can assume the address is wrong or the website is gone.
None of this is unusual behavior for the Internet -- sort of the nature of the beast.
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Progressive Learning Series: Microsoft Word
Tables
Would you like to make a list in Word? Let's suppose that you want to make a list of names, addresses and phone numbers of the members of your club. Open Word and open a blank document. Now choose Table from the menu, then Insert, then Table. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, enter the number of columns you need into the 'Number of columns' entry box (you can type in a number, or you can use the up and down arrows to enter the number). Click OK to close the dialog box and continue.
Notice that you don't need to set the number of rows right now. Into the first row, type the heading names (for our example, First Name, Last Name, Street Address, etc.). Now, add the first name and the related information. To move to the next column, press the Tab key. To add another name, you will need another row. At the end of the current row, once again press the Tab key. This will create a new row.
Don't forget to save your document when you add a new name.
Note: If you don't have Microsoft Word on your computer, this works the same way in Microsoft Works.
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Today's Featured Website: Stain Removal Guide/Fabric Link
The holiday season is upon us. That means lots of food, drink and guests. The following websites offer information on removing all kinds of different stains from all kinds of different fabrics. You may want to put both of these websites into your Internet Favorite Places for future use.
Stain Removal Guide
This guide is part of The International Guild of Professional Butlers' very own Web site. You do not have a to be a professional butler, however, to visit this page. It's full of helpful household information that anyone will find useful. There's an alphabetical listing of various offenders, from adhesive tape to yellowed white nylon, and how to remove (or at least lessen) them.
http://www.butlersguild.com/guests/general/stain_removal.html
FabricLink.com
Let's face it...your home and laundry are in for a hard time the next few months. There's nothing like wine stains from a holiday dinner toast gone awry or washed-and-dried chocolate or candy canes left in your child's pockets. And then of course, there's "mud season" -- also known as winter. How do you deal with such messes? Find out at this site.
FabricLink calls itself the "premier educational resource for fabrics, apparel, home fashions, and care topics." What that means is that you can look up information on stain removal and laundry tips, how to read a label, storage, product recalls, what fabrics are made of, what fabric terms mean, and a lot more. You can also submit your most troublesome quandaries to an expert in the Ask Kathy section. Overall, it's a great resource.
http://www.fabriclink.com/ |
