Newsletter - Internet Edition

The September meeting was a graphics enthusiasts pleasure. MGI Software, Inc. presented their array of programs. These ranged from PhotoSuite to VistaView.

The meeting began with a discussion by Jon Slough on the current viruses and tips on how to protect your computer. Jon wrote a help article which is posted on the EPCUG website.

Next Bob Brown went through the list of nominees for the Board of Directors positions, and opened the floor for any additional nominations The motion was made to close nominations and then seconded.

Since all positions held only one nomination each, there was a motion to accept all nominations by acclamation (meaning we accept all the unopposed nominations). The vote was taken to the floor, and all approved.

Jim Pressler then asked for a round of applause for last year’s officer’s to recognize them for their efforts. He thanked all the officers from last year for jobs well done, and for making his year an enjoyable one.

After the break, David B. Whittle of MGI Software was introduced and he spent the rest of the meeting working his magic with photos and videos. It was amazing to watch some of the products work, and some things just looked so easy when they should have been difficult. User friendliness is one of the areas that MGI has strived to master, and I think they have been successful.

One of the first programs Dave focused on was MGI PhotoVista Virtual Tour (R). This program is truly awesome.

By taking multiple pictures of your surroundings, you can easily create a panorama view. Or, by taking pictures all the way around an object, each at about 10 degree intervals, you can create a 3D view of it. When saved properly,, these can be viewed in any current browser (JAVA does need to be enabled).

Amazingly the size of the files generated for these two types of projects were less than 2 megs for the panorama view and less than 1 meg for the 3D object. Dave showed us from start to finish how to do a panorama view, and marveled us with how easy it is.

Video Wave rivals Adobe Premier for about 1/4 the cost. Bringing in video clips and stills you can edit to your heart’s content. Clipping and enhancing with transitions and text and effects until your finished product becomes a full-fledged movie. This can be saved in many formats including RealAudio, MPeg, Avi, and others.

PhotoSuite includes the typical editing tools with the added feature of morphing abilities. Many enhancing features are applied with the brush with very little tweaking. Most programs require you to use a masking method to apply feature such a light/dark or sharpen/blur specific areas.

But its amazing feature is the ability to stitch together multiple pictures. So that what was too big for one picture, can now be one large graphic. You can several shots of an entire fence row, or very tall building together and make one graphic.

Dave finished the night by giving the group some tremendous prices on MGI software. If you were not able to attend, you can still take advantage of these prices until the October meeting. Do not wait until then to get information on them, email me (nisly@epcug.org) and ask for the MGI information. You will then need to get the order form to mail in.

Recent computer virus outbreaks remind us all of the need to protect our computers and ourselves against these dangerous threats. Be it Sircam, Code Red or Nimda, these are real threats to the health of your computer.

How serious can these threats be? In a worst case scenario, you could lose the entire contents of your computer’s hard drive. That, I think, is enough to take the threat seriously. The good news is this is not Armageddon. There are steps you can take to protect yourself and your computer. Collectively, I refer to these steps as “safe computing.” I should point out no procedure is foolproof. There are always new viruses which take advantage of something we had thought was safe.

For example, until recently, it was thought merely surfing the Web would not expose you to a computer virus or worm. Nimda changed all that. In one of Nimda’s means of spreading itself, you could infect your computer merely by visiting an infected Web site. The virus or worm is contained within the HTML code that makes up the site’s Web pages. True, any responsible Webmaster would take the site down as soon as the infection is discovered. The site would remain down until the infection has been cleared up. However, anyone visiting that site (between the time the infection takes place and when the Webmaster realizes he has an infected site) could become infected. On a busy site, that could run into thousands of users.

Another thing Nimda taught us was the importance of keeping your Windows installation up-to-date. The Windows security flaw that allows Nimda to do its dirty work was discovered as long as a year ago. Microsoft immediately released a patch fixing the flaw but it was not widely publicized. Please see the accompanying article for information on using the Windows Update utility to fix any problems your particular Windows machine may have.

If there is no foolproof way of protecting yourself, why even bother, you may ask. I like to compare it to using seat belts when traveling in a car. Seat belts won’t save you in every accident. But your chances of surviving an accident are greatly improved if you do wear seat belts. Put another way, it is better to have a good virus protection plan and not need it, than to need virus protection and not have it. The following steps can limit the risk of a virus getting into your personal computer and damaging it.

1. Use anti-virus software. There are commercial versions (Norton and McAfee are two) and free packages (Computer Associates’ InnoculateIT is one example). Which brand you prefer is less important than getting and using the software. Most anti-virus software has two components. The first is a program that sits in the background and watches for viruses or virus-like activity. When a virus is detected, the virus’s action is stopped and you receive an alert. With the exception of AOL, the memory resident anti-virus software should also scan incoming E-mail messages for viruses. This doesn’t work with AOL because AOL does not use a normal POP (post office protocol) mail client.

The other anti-virus component is disk scanning software. This scans the contents of a disk drive for viruses. The memory-resident program should load every time you start your computer. There should be a small icon in the System Tray (at the lower right-hand corner of the screen) showing it is working. The disk scanner is loaded only when you need to run it. A good rule of thumb is to use the disk scanner weekly on your hard drive. It should also be used on any disks (i.e. floppies or CDs) that have been on another computer as well as on disks containing new software. Even name brand software disks can have a virus.

2. Keep your anti-virus software updated. New viruses appear daily. The instructions that came with your software or in the online help should explain how often (weekly is a good rule of thumb) it should be updated and how to do the update. Usually, updating involves downloading a file and then installing the file. The better anti-virus programs (Norton Antivirus is one example) allow you to do the update by clicking an update icon or button from within the software. In the case of Norton Antivirus, the Live Update utility both downloads the update and installs it automatically.

3. Good E-mail habits: Though your mother warned you about strangers, the truth is you can get computer viruses from close friends and relatives. While simple, plain-text E-mails pose little threat, E-mail attachments are another story. If you receive an E-mail attachment, even from a friend or relative, call that person and ask if they sent it. If the answer is no, do not open the attachment. Delete that puppy fast! Usually, opening an infected attached file is what infects your computer. Tell your friends, colleagues and relatives you would prefer not to receive E-mail attachments. If they must send an attachment, ask them to call you to let you know the message is coming. One reason E-mail attachments can be dangerous is viruses often send copies of themselves to everyone in your address book. Those E-mail messages will have your name and address on them. This is why it is dangerous to assume any E-mail from a friend or acquaintance is safe.

4. Downloads: Downloaded files may seem like a good way to get a virus. The fact is most downloaded files are harmless. However, if you do download files, use your disk scanning software to check them before you use them.

5. Back up your hard drive: The most serious virus attack can result in losing everything on your hard drive. Consider yourself lucky if this does not happen to you. The only defense against this is to have good backups. Today’s large hard drives make backing up to floppy disks impractical. A better solution would be to use Zip disks, a tape drive or, if you have a burner, compact discs. Some folks suggest doing a complete backup of the hard drive monthly and doing incremental (backing up new or changed files since the last backup) backups weekly. In practice, unless you have lots of time on your hands, this may not be feasible. The main point is to do regular backups and keep the disks in a safe place. This practice can also save you if your hard drive or your entire computer dies on you.

In addition to having anti-virus software installed on your computer, there are also Web-based virus scanners that allow you to do a virus scan of your system online at no cost. One example of this kind of service is PC Pitstop (pcpitstop.com). Some people feel this may be a better alternative because you the end-user do not have to worry about keeping the software updated. One reservation I have about this approach it is missing is the memory-resident virus monitoring software. PC Pitstop can do a good job of checking your computer’s hard disk. But it will do nothing, for example, if you open an infected file on your computer or if you receive an E-mail with an infected attachment..

I must emphasize there is no surefire way to prevent computer viruses. The only way I know of is to never turn the computer on. That’s certainly not very useful. Hopefully, these tips will keep you from enduring a virus episode.

As incoming President, I would like to share some of my thoughts and ideas about what EPCUG has accomplished and where I feel it should head during the coming year.

Our group masthead carries the message “Users Helping Users”. It has come to my attention by various means that we are doing better in some areas than others. Certainly we have had some considerable success getting the recycling program organized. At this point it is largely a self sustaining Special Interest Group (SIG). I think that we can be proud of our accomplishment here. We also have an enormously successful Genealogy SIG that is enthusiastically supported by many of our members.

It is the area of general help that I feel needs attention. We need to organize a new users SIG that would concern itself with the basic nuts and bolts of operating a computer. From the outset we need input from the membership to determine the direction of this SIG. Most of us have holes in our computer knowledge. For the most part we may be OK, but there are still facets that we don’t understand. Brief statements of what these needs are can be conveyed in three ways.

1. By posting on the EPCUG Email List.

2. By e-mailing a Director (please make some indication that this is EPCUG business in the subject - messages from unrecognized e-mailers stand a good chance of being deleted to avoid viruses).

3. A sheet will be provided near the sign-up sheets at the meetings.

Informal verbal comments at the meetings will probably get lost in the shuffle. With sufficient membership input a SIG will be formed. Sherry Nisly has proposed a SIG structure that would not make this project a burden to any one person, but the first step is to determine the level and areas of interest.

Since I have brought up the matter of the Email List, I would like to point out that at present only about one member in four can be contacted in this manner. Of course, if you are not online this is understandable, and the demise of the free Internet providers does not help. If you do have online capability, please get on the list - you won’t be inundated with e-mails or spammed.

Finally, we are going to try to have hardcopy for members to take home when howto presentations are given at the meetings. To date, Jon Slough has probably set the standard in this area. Jon’s handout on networking is an example of what I feel we should accomplish. This will probably take some time since this will involve expanding our in-house publishing capability.

I think the author gives the best description of this program from Sensecandy. I’d like to just quote his description here:

“Imagine being in a beautiful forest. You sit in front of a small creek under the cool shade of giant trees. The sound of the water calms your mind, and the fluttering butterflies whisk your worries away. This is the experience that this screensaver tries to capture. The screensaver features animated, high-resolution scenes of creeks and butterflies (this can be turned off). The scenes are complemented by sounds of flowing water and chirping birds. It’s like watching a movie!”

While this is a very relaxing screensaver, and I really like the sounds, unfortunately, it is not for the timid CPU owners. It is recommended that you have at least a P200 for good animation. I have an AMD K6-2 400, and when I set it to use all 7 scenes, there is a distinct transition between them. As each new scene sets up, there is a stuttering of the sound the first few seconds. This occurs with each new scene, so in my opinion, you would not want to set Opal Creek to change scenes very often.

As I said, I really enjoyed the sounds, and the scenes are very realistic, with the exception of the little colored blobs that are supposed to be butterflies. I was very disappointed here. Not only were they not good graphic butterflies, you know the animated one that you see all over the Internet? They were just poor renditions of colored blobs that flittered around the screen. I actually felt they were distracting, so I turned them off completely. You can set Opal Creek to be full screen resolution, which I thought would hinder the animation, but it did not. I enjoyed the scenes more when they were full screen.

Opal Creek Screensaver does not simply run a loop of graphics to create an animation effect, it uses random numbers to give a more dynamic animation. The shareware version has only 2 scenes, you get 7 scenes with the full version. The author sells the full version for $7.95, but donates $1 of each sale to Earth Share.

When Wes Herschberger first started working in the computer industry in 1983, a top of the line business machine had 64K of RAM, two 360K floppy drives and cost a whopping $1,995 and you could purchase an accessory hard drive of a whole 5 meg of space for $2,000!

Working in middle-market management for the Tandy Corporation, Wes learned a great deal about big business. One of the ideas he came out of that position with is that there is always an easier way to do things. Big business has a tendency to move slow and Wes feels that if you keep the layers of management out, as much as possible, things will get done smoother and quicker. Keeping things simple enables you to keep things moving forward. Wes feels there are three essentials to a good business:

1. Good customers
2. Good employees
3. Good financials

Leaving Tandy in 1992, Wes returned to work for his father’s Radio Shack. In 1992 he bought the dealership and started building Maple Tronics systems. By early 1994 the computer side of the business had grown to be such a significant portion of the business, that Wes opened Maple Tronics as a separate entity. Within one year, Maple Tronics was proving itself and growing so strong that Wes sold the Radio Shack portion. At that time, Wes and two employees were in a 2000 sq ft building.

In April of 1996 Wes moved his company to the Linway plaza and hired Maple Tronics’s sixth person including himself. They renovated four times in the next 5 years, including moving the educational facilities to a separate 3000 sq ft building. This and an additional purchase of some building space, expanded Maple Tronics to a total square footage of 10,000 in the two facilities. By the time Wes was ready to move again, he was up to around 45 employees. Today, including some part-timers, Maple Tronics has grown into two companies and 64 people.

Until 1997 Maple Tronics was primarily a products only business. At that time, Wes reset some of his business goals and started aiming towards increasing his business to be at least 20% services. Services, such as, education, labor, Internet provisional, DataCenter services, etc.

For a company to survive in the computer industry, they need to increase the services provided rather than being a products only business. A great deal of the reasoning behind his is the continual decrease in the prices of computer components. Ten years or so ago, a good solid computer ran about $2500. Today, a computer with so much more included than ever before, will barely cost $1100.

This decrease in price has caused the volume of computer sales to increase tremendously over the years. Not only is Maple Tronics selling a more powerful computer with so much more to it, they are selling so many more of them. But, they still can not survive without a percentage of the business being service oriented. Wes expects to increase the service portion of Maple Tronics from its current 21% to about 27%-28% by the end of 2001.

Early in 2000, Maple Tronics became involved with wireless Internet. In June of 2000, Wes spun MapleNet off as a separate company and then merged it with Goshen Technical Services (GTS). The bulk of the ownership of MapleNet remains with Maple Tronics, the remainder is with Gene Crusie from GTS. The ownership of Maple Tronics remains as it has for years, with Wes and his wife owning the bulk and two others each owning a small percentage.

MapleNet is Internet provisioning and wireless. Whether the buildings are across the road or across town, connecting them with wireless technology is the business of MapleNet. They not only connect their own customers, they do work for other ISP’s and companies, installing antennas and towers.

Maple Tronics is a core of sales and services. The do consulting and administration on networks as big as 1000 PCs with 8-9 servers in schools and large corporations all the way down to two computer networks.

When I asked Wes about using the self install networking kits, either wireless or using the phone lines, he said that for a business, he tends to not recommend them. With a business, it is so important that the network be 100% stable, that any degree of instability is unacceptable. So, while the ‘home networking’ methods are cheaper, they are designed for home users, and not a business for a very good reason. Secondly, most small businesses do not want to be involved in their network. They want someone else to install it, and then to be able to forget it. They do not want to understand it or maintain it. They don’t want to see the technicians for repairs, they only want to see them again when it is time to increase the size of the network.

For this reason, Maple Tronics has always leaned more towards the higher end products, both for their business clients and their general home users. They decided early on, that there are “ three thing that distinguish one company from another, and that’s quality, service, and price.

In order to compete with Walmart, Best Buy, and similar chains, price would be the most important factor. That is the primary concern for major chain stores. Since the major chains are capable of such lower prices based on sheer volume, a smaller company must rely on quality and service. Maple Tronics strives to keep their prices affordable, but know that they cannot match the department store level. They strive to justify the extra cost of providing a higher quality product by assuring the customer receives better service with it.

The bulk of Maple Tronic’s buying is to businesses. I was surprised that their percentage was 80% to businesses with only 20% coming through the front doors. While quality and reliability are at the heart of a business dealing with Maple Tronics, the key issue for the home user is service. Particularly for a new user, or others that do not care to learn more about their computer than how to run it, servicing or upgrading it is simply out of the question. So, this is something that is built into the pricing structure at Maple Tronics, and rarely does a customer ever feel short changed. Tech support and service is something that Maple Tronics feels is important. The personal approach to their customers shows in word-of-mouth advertising and referred business. I know many clients of Maple Tronics and this is a recurring theme. The care given to customers shows.

Education is another service provided at Maple Tronics. They have three instructors who hold classes in general applications; Windows, Word, Excel, etc. The fourth instructor is their Microsoft Certification Instructor. He is certified to teach people to teach others. Maple Tronics is also a certified testing center.

Another portion of the Maple Tronics business is Abstractions. Abstractions is their web design area. One area of Abstractions is web site development. Many of their sties are visitor interactive, and client serviceable. Maple Tronics sets up the site and then the client can take care of the daily maintenance and updating.

The second area of Abstractions is the DataCenter. This is set up to do hosting and off-site storage. The storage can be for files that are accessed by a company’s multiple locations, or for back up purposes. Whatever a company needs that will help productivity or efficiency. This also includes streaming audio facilities for radio stations. For efficiency and protection, information into the Data Center is strictly by fiber. The DataCenter is secured both physically by 2 levels of fire proof security doors, and electronically by a *super* power back ups unit. This unit will support the DataCenter for up to ten minutes. But that amount of time would never be used, as there is a generator out back that would be up and running with in several seconds after the back ups kicked in.

Maple Tronics service area covers south to Lake Tippecanoe, east through LaGrange and Noble counties, north into Sturgis, and west to Michigan City.

Maple Tronics does not rely on industry testing for new products. They will bring in 10-12 units of any new component and rigorously test them to see first hand meantime failures, RMA procedures, and such areas. Michael Hochstedler is primarily in charge of the R&D aspect and he is very particular and demanding of the results before recommending new products. Because of this, the return rate of products is extremely low.

I asked Wes about the value he places on certification of technicians and other personnel. Wes explained that a twofold answer was required to answer that question. As far as their job and what they are required to do and how he judges their performance, certification means nothing. How he judges an employee is based on personality, goals, and skills. Good communications skills one of the primary requirements. Another is problem solving skills. Certification at least signifies that the person has the ability to be able to concentrate and function, and that they understand the terminology. Stability and a definite purpose in life, Knowing where they want to be 5-10 years down the road, are areas that Wes considers important. Wes does have a lot of certified personnel on staff, but that is not what makes them good employees, its their drive and enthusiasm that makes them great.

I asked Wes about his business goals. Rather than giving me figures and numbers, which are always a variable thing, Wes gave me his overall philosophy goal. “I’m not in this business to become a wealthy person. I love building things. We made money, we make good money. But, we turn around and we take that money and turn it right back in and reinvest right in the company to continue to grow it...”

While Wes is no different than anyone else who wants to make money and prosper, Wes gets his biggest kick from knowing that he has 60+ employees. Of which, at least 55 are full-time. He fully expects to outgrow his brand new facilities in about three years., The biggest reason for this is that it takes more people to create income from services as the same amount from product sales.

“We want northern Indiana, Goshen, Michiana area, to be an area that is recognized and is known for its technical savvy people and businesses that are in place. So, what ever we can do to make that happen, that’s what our goals are.

If you’ve taken the time to put your music collection on your computer, you’ll probably want to listen to it through a good stereo system. Even if your stereo isn’t in the same room as your computer, there are several options for connecting the two, including direct analog cabling, USB Audio devices, wireless audio transmitters, and network audio receivers.

The most basic concept of connecting audio equipment is that inputs must always be connected to outputs. Sometimes you will still get sound if you mistakenly connect a sound card output to an output of a stereo receiver. When in doubt, connect the sound card output to the CD jack on your stereo-it’s always an input.

Connect high-level (also called line-level) outputs to high-level inputs, and connect low-level outputs (such as a microphone) to low-level (Mic) inputs. Do not use the receiver’s phono input jack because this is designed for a very low-level signal and has a special equalization circuit. Avoid using the sound card’s headphone or microphone jack to connect to other equipment unless you have no other choice.

Most consumer sound cards have 1/8" mini phone jacks. A mono jack is used for the microphone input, and stereo jacks are used for the line-in, line-out and headphone. Better sound cards may have separate RCA jacks for the left and right channels. These are the same kind of jacks found on most home stereo systems. High-end sound cards may also have connectors for digital inputs and outputs.

The simplest connection between a computer and a stereo system is to run a cable directly from the sound card’s line output to a line input of your stereo. To record from your stereo system to your computer, connect a cable from a line-out (or record) jack on your receiver to the line-in jack on your sound card.

If your sound card’s line output is an 1/8" stereo mini-phone jack, you’ll need an adapter cable (male 1/8" stereo mini-phone to dual male RCA). These cables can be purchased from most consumer electronics stores, such as Radio Shack, Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics.

USB audio devices perform the basic functions of a sound card, but outside of the PC, and are less likely to pick up noise from the PC’s electronics. USB audio devices can be used for both recording and playback and are a good solution for notebook computer users who want higher quality sound.

The Roland UA-30 (www.edirol.com) is a flexible USB audio device that supports both Macs and PCs. The UA-30 works great and includes just about every type of input and output connector you might possibly need.

Wireless audio devices can transmit a stereo audio signal up to 300 feet. These devices typically include a transmitter and a receiver with standard RCA line-level input and output jacks. Wireless audio devices provide more flexibility than hard cabled connections, but are much more prone to interference compared to other types of connections.

The MP3 Anywhere Digital Audio Sender by X10 (www.X10.com) is a good wireless audio device for most users. It sells for under $100 and uses the 2.4 gHz spectrum to reduce interference and provide a high quality connection. The MP3 Anywhere also includes a remote control and software, which allow you to control most popular player programs.

The ideal way to transmit audio from your PC throughout your house is by streaming the audio from your PC via a network. A network audio connection eliminates the loss of high frequencies, interference and hum typical of analog cable and wireless connections.

The Rio Receiver (www.riohome.com) is a very capable network audio device that allows you to access individual songs and playlists from your PC anywhere you have a telephone or network jack. The Rio has an LCD interface that displays song title, artist name and other information, and also includes a remote control.

Whatever your choice of PC to stereo connection, you will be able to use your computer as a digital jukebox and take full advantage of the latest digital music technologies to play high-quality music anywhere in your house.

For more information on connecting your PC to your stereo, pick up a copy of The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook ($19.95) from www.TeamComBooks.com or read it online for free at www.MP3Handbook.com.

ArtIcons Pro is a simple to use program for creating & editing icons, organizing and maintain icon libraries, extracting icons from files, and converting files to and from icons.

If you want to build an icon library from the files on your system, ArtIcons Pro will search the files within specified folders on your system, as well as within any subfolders it contains. ArtIcons Pro automatically breaks the extracted icons into more manageable libraries of 1600 - 1650 or less. You can then use ArtIcons Pro to eliminate any duplicate icons cause by having the same file multiple times on your system.

From these libraries, you can export individual icons, either as icons or converted into graphic formats, such as gif or jpg for use in other programs. Icons can be edited and manipulated within ArtIcons.

System Req:
16 MB RAM, P133 MHz, 2MB Hard Disk, True Color video mode

Price:
Shareware $19.95. Pro Version $29.95. (includes many more advanced functions eg. import/export .gif/.psd files) 30 days trial with limited icon scanning.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT
on ArtIcons Pro
for User Groups ONLY

It is no secret I am not a great fan of Microsoft or the software it produces. I will tell anyone who is willing to listen, “It’s not your fault! Blame those Nazis at Microsoft!” Trouble is, Microsoft’s Windows operating system is fundamental to the computers most of us use.

True, there is the Apple Macintosh or Linux. Truth is, most of the world runs Windows. Most of us find we have to live with Windows in order to do our jobs. That said, there is one thing Microsoft does that is truly a good thing. For a number of years, Microsoft has made patches and bug fixes available to users of Windows 98 and later versions of Windows at no cost. Trouble is, not many people know Microsoft does this.

Called Windows Update, anyone running a computer with Windows 98 or later can take advantage of this free service. On many computers there a Windows Update icon built into the start menu. You get there by clicking the Start button. Windows Update should appear near the top of the start menu.

To use Windows Update: 1. Sign onto to your Internet Service Provider. 2. Click the Start Button and then select Windows Update from the start menu.

Alternatively, you could: 1. Log onto the Internet, 2. Open Internet Explorer. 3. In the address bar, type in the address: www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and press Enter.

Making use of Windows Update has always been a good idea because it is a free and easy way to make sure you have all the latest Windows enhancements on your computer. What Windows Update will not do upgrade Windows 98 to Windows 2000. To do that, you have to go out and buy an upgrade package. When Windows Update first appeared, some people were skeptical of something that would tinker with your operating system while you are online. If something goes wrong, you could wind up with a computer that won’t boot into Windows, they argued.

The fact is, as any longtime Windows user surely knows, that can happen even if you don’t use Windows Update. In my business, I’ve run Windows Update on countless computers of all shapes, sizes and brand names. I’ve never had Windows Update trash a computer.

With recent virus outbreaks of Code Red and Nimda, using Windows Update has become even more critical. These and other viruses take advantage of security flaws in Windows. You can fix these flaws and limit the risk from attacks like Code Red and Nimda through Windows Update. What is interesting is Microsoft published a security bulletin and a patch that addressed the security hole used by Nimda back in October 2000. The reason you may not have heard of this was because security bulletins are not widely publicized. The issue only became common knowledge when Nimda struck in mid September.

Had you used Windows Update regularly, you would have the patch already installed and Nimda might not have been an issue for you. On the other hand, if you have not used Windows Update for some time, if you have not already been hit by Nimda, you may still be vulnerable.

Once you get to the Windows Update Web site, look for a link that says “Product Updates.” Click on this link and you will be taken to a page showing the available updates for your particular computer. You should also see a message informing you that the site is determining which updates you need. The Web site automatically determines which version of Windows you are running and what updates are available but you have not yet installed.

The updates page has three main sections: Critical Updates, Recommended Updates, and Picks of the Month. The Critical Updates and, to a lesser extent, the Recommended Updates, are the two most important sections. The Picks of the Month are downloads you may be interested in but do not absolutely have to have. The Critical Updates section will include the bug fixes and security patches discussed previously.

If it has been some time since you did this (or if you have never done a Windows Update) there will likely be quite a lot of stuff there to download. On some client machines, I have downloaded up to eight megabytes of updates. On my own computer, which I update quite frequently, the updates are often less than a megabyte.

In either case, it would be a good idea to take a look at the instructions for your particular set of updates. It might also be a good idea to print these out for future reference. In most cases, the updates will download and install automatically once you click the download link. If you are doing this for the first time, go get a cup of coffee or make yourself a sandwich. The download and install process will take a while so you might as well find something else to do while you are waiting. Surfing to other Web sites or playing Quake is not a good idea. The updates are making changes to your computer’s fundamental operating system files. You want to allow your computer to give its undivided attention to this process. In many cases, when the download and installation process is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer to finish the process. You should go ahead and do this.

The Recommended Updates are updates that are a good idea but not absolutely critical. Here is where you will find updates to Internet Explorer. You say you use AOL and never mess with Internet Explorer? The truth is, if you use AOL, you use Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer operates underneath the AOL software. Internet Explorer also is involved in many basic Windows operations. Windows Explorer is one example of this. Because Internet Explorer is a fundamental part of Windows, sometimes upgrading to a newer version can fix problems with the way Windows works.

The picks of the month are software you may be interested but do not absolutely need. One example may be Windows Media Player. If you use this to play music CDs, this would be the place to get the latest version. In fact, the newest version of Windows Media Player is one thing that differentiates Windows Me from Windows 98. Those who paid to upgrade to Windows Me may be chagrined to learn you can get the latest version of Windows Media Player for free. On the other hand, if you never use Windows Media Player, there would be no need to download it.

It doesn’t hurt to browse the Picks of the Month to see if there is anything there that might interest you. The Critical and the Recommended Updates, though, are what you should be most concerned with. Running Windows Update on a regular basis will insure your computer has all the latest bug fixes and security patches. This does not take the place of anti-virus software. Using Windows Update alongside your anti-virus measures will insure you are doing everything possible to keep your computer safe and secure.

So you have been living in the dark ages for years and have finally decided to build a web site. Well, it is about time but there is so much that you need to consider before plopping down a bunch of cash. Part of this is because there will be a number of upfront costs relating from setting up the site and selecting a host to a number of ongoing costs from annual host site fees to the cost of maintaining your web site. And that is all before we start to think about what will be on your web site so it is really best to go through all of this thinking and planning beforehand as planning things out will save you time, money, aggravation, and probably, even keep you from losing customers.

Planning, Planning, and More Planning
Primary in your planning should be cost, how much are you willing to expend on the project. This makes a major difference on what is included in the content and presentation of the web. Also it impacts on how often it is updated. By coming up with a budget for initial expenses and ongoing maintenance and fees, you can then build the web site to suit your expenses and then compare that to what your expectations are. We will get back to this shortly.

Second in your planning is identifying what your intended audience is and how often you want them visiting your site. Are you looking for people that have never heard of your business before? If so, you will probably be very disappointed. Do you have any clue as to how many web sites and news groups there are out there? Or how many search engines that need to be updated? Unless you have something very specific to present, you may discover that a search will bring up thousands and thousands of pages and yours will certainly get lost in the morass of millions of web pages out there already.

So if it is new customers you are looking for, then be prepared to come up with a strategy of attracting them. From the e-mails I get, there are probably a thousand people out there that for an X number of dollars will guarantee a top hit on the search engines. Don’t believe them, you would only be throwing money away. There is no silver bullet but there are some software packages available to help you at least come close.

If you are interested in making information available to current customers and known prospects, then you already have your audience and this can be an excellent way to keep them informed of your products, updates, and news so what you need to do is to come up with a list of what you need to keep them informed about. This is the kind of site that many small businesses put together. The last type of web site would be just a general information site for prospects and casual browsers. Here you want to provide information to the general public and if you do catch a prospect, great.

The third issue is then how active your web site will be. I tend to lump them all into four major categories. A dead web site is one that has been forgotten by the owners. A static web site is one that is updated once a year, an inactive web site is one that changes maybe once a quarter, and an active web site changes at a minimum weekly. So, if you are interested in having people return to your site on a regular basis, then you need to consider the content and the kinds of information that will change on a regular basis to keep them coming back. Nothing kills return visitors more than coming back to a web site a couple of times and finding nothing new there. They stop coming back.

Unfortunately, this means having the means, money, and effort to come up with something new for those return visitors. Options for information that change on a regular basis can include third party news organizations headlines that appear on your web site, an online newsletter that is updated daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, new Information articles and reports that change, and finally, reviews and updates from the industry or government that you can reprint. If you also add a “Links Page” to point people to other sites of interest, be sure to check them on a regular basis.

Features for Your Web Site
Once you come up with answers to the major issues, come a ton of smaller ones and each one could add considerably to your ongoing expenses. As you hit each item, note them down as when it comes time to talk to a host provider for your web site, you will need to see if they can support that and at what cost.

Do you want a private area for your customers? This could be as simple as a separate web area not available from your main web pages or one that requires a user id and password to access.

Do you want a secure area for your customers? How much do you really want to keep other people and hackers out of this area.

Will you be selling products on the web using an online shopping basket approach? If so, we get into credit arrangements and banking issues to ensure payments are collected before your goods go out the door.

Do you want to give your customers access to your data files and databases on the web? This gets into the real of online databases and security becomes a major issue and expense.

Will you be making files and downloadable documents available on the web? Files can get to be quite large and time consuming to download via dial up access and this also increases the space required for your web site at an additional cost.

Will you be collecting personal or business information from people on the web? There are things like guest books and information pages that collect such information even to the point of setting up “cookies” to keep track of where people have been and what they last looked at.

Do you want to be able to show video clips, sound, and movies on the web? This also adds to the size of the web site and the need to make content small enough to download at dial up speeds. You will probably also have to put in links to pages that provide the players for what ever type of content you will be including so that people will be able to look at the clips.

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to start looking at web sites out there that have the type of information and content that you want to provide. You want your site to be eye appealing as well as full of useful content for your customers.

So now that you are committed, or should be, getting started is actually pretty easy.

Getting Started With A Name and Site
The first thing to do is to come up with your ‘dot com’ name. This exercise should really be done on paper before hand and I would suggest you come up with your ideal name and then a long list of alternatives. With so many sites out there already, you may find your choices are very limited. The easy way of course to see if it is taken or not is to simply get connected to the Internet, fire up the browser, and then tell it to look for www.yourfavoritename.com and see if it exists. You do have some alternatives if the name you really want is not available. One is to see if .org, or .net is taken, another is to look for another country code might work for you. How about www.yourfavoritename.tv ? Many countries will allow you to use the name with their high level domain for a fee and usually, those fees are very reasonable.

My advise though is to stick with the dot com, dot net, dot org, or one of the new dot names coming out that are licensed by ICANN, the Internet policing agency. There are a number of web sites out there that will tell you if any of these names are available and what I usually do is to go to Network Solutions, www.networksolutions.com and check through them. If you do find a name available, then by all means, get it locked in and buy the name. The cost will be usually $70 for two years.

The next thing to do is to select a host site to “host” your web name. I have done considerable research on this and have found that www.hostway.com out of the Chicago area, is very competitive, has a lot of features, is reliable, and at a good value. This is the company that I have used to host my personal web site and my business site. Cost of the host site ranges from $10 per month to over $250 per month depending on features and that is where the list above of features we talked about is important. The $10 site gets you one mail box, limited features, and space for a basic site with limited traffic to the site. This is what I have done with my www.sanbornsoftware.com site. You can look at that and see it is a basic, few frills and features, web site. Additional monthly costs will include multiple mail boxes and accounts, secure site for shopping carts and the like.

When selecting your web host, you need to consider access to it as well. Most host sites, including Hostway, have no dial up access for getting your email and updating your web site so you need to have regular Internet access. Now most people, already have Internet access from companies such as AOL, Microsoft MSN, Earthlink, or a local Internet access provider like I use. This gives me access to the email, Internet, and to allow me to update my web pages. But remember, you are paying extra for that access to that provider from usually $20 to $25 per month so when selecting the web host, you might check with your local provider to see what the cost is and if it includes local access. You may find the additional cost of hosting not that much more. Of course, if you are concerned with things like your site being always up and online, you might decide that a larger company is warranted.

Now comes the difficult part of determining content, how extensive the site is to be such as the features discussed above, graphics, and how often it is to be updated.

Developing A Web Site
If you look at some of the splashy web sites out there such as Microsoft, Pepsi, CNN, and ESPN, you will see there is a ton of content, video clips, active buttons, and the like. They are very cool, great to look at, and they cost a bundle to develop and maintain.

My recommendation is to keep it simple. Nothing frustrates someone looking at a web page more than waiting a long time for graphics to download so keep them small. The best size for a graphic is the smallest you can make it and still keep it visible and recognizable. When scanning for the web and building graphics, keep them no more than 90 dpi in resolution size. Also when building your image, be sure to consider that most computers are still looking at images at a screen resolution of 800x600.

The more you can put together in the way of content, graphics, and images, the lower the cost of the project especially if you are using an outside source for development and if you do use an outside source for development, by all means, get copies of everything they do. If things go wrong with that developer, you want to be able to immediately pull the plug and move on to someone else.

Doing the web site yourself can actually be pretty easy with so many tools available today. It seems that every high end word processor, publisher package, and even many of the minor publishing programs will build the web HTML code for you. Tools that I use for web development include for graphics, Paint Shop Pro from Jasc software, and Photoshop from Adobe. For web development, I use Go Live from Adobe. Alternatives are Front Page 2000 from Microsoft, and Page Mill from Adobe. For uploading the finished web products to the host site, any FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program will work and I use WSFTP, available on the web.

Finally, as to cost, developing a web site can be quite expensive if you are having it done with outside help. This is especially true if you depend on the developer to do all the design work, scan images, build graphics, and the like. This type of work can take a long time and can be very expensive. The same holds true if you want them to develop the shopping cart, secure site, passwords, and database information on your site. For these types of features, look at what the host site can provide for you.

More and more companies are doing incredible things on the web from customer relationships management to selling all sorts of products and finding that it really enhances business. Then again, there are many who have sunk tons of cash into their web sites to only find that no one visits and those that do don’t stay long enough to see who you really are and what your business is. That is were the initial planning really pays off in the long run and it should for you and your business.

Because the home page is the first page visitors see when they come to a Web site, it’s vital that your home page supply the right content, use the right look and provide the right information to search engines examining your web site.

In choosing right content for your company or organization’s home page, you usually want to:

• Summarize what your company and Web site is about, so that visitors know what to expect (this also helps the Web site place well in search engines).
• Include hyperlinks to your major content categories. This also helps visitors easily navigate the site.
• Attract visitors’ attention. One way effective Web sites do this is to highlight key content from pages within the site (and provide links to the content) and also list what’s new on the site. Special sales or event info can also attract visitors’ attention.
• Keep the content on your home page short. Each featured section should contain only a couple of lines of text with one or two small images.
• Place the most important content at the top of the page. Visitors may never scroll down to catch the rest of the page if the content at the top isn’t of interest to them, so make sure to put your best content first.
• Choose content that reflects the feel of your company or organization.
• Think like a visitor and choose your content accordingly. Why would someone come to your site, and what can you do to make it easier for them to find exactly what they want?

To improve the attractiveness of your home page, you usually want to:

• Use your company logo. Keep the logo small, place it in a consistent location with a consistent size, and consider saving it as a transparent GIF using a stand-alone image editor so that the logo isn’t outlined with a solid color. If you don’t have a company logo (or have one in computer-readable format), consider hiring a graphics professional to create one.
• Use the same colors you use in other medium. It’s important that your company or organization provides a consistent look to visitors. If your web authoring tool lets you, the best way to achieve consistency is by applying a color scheme to pages is using an external Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), which is linked to all your pages.
• Don’t overload your home page with content. Overloading your home page makes it difficult for visitors to find the most important links and information, so choose some key elements to display and leave the rest of the page blank.
• Have good visual flow. Design your pages to attract the eye to the entire page, not just a single part of it. But be careful not to overload your page.
• Make sure that your home page (and other pages on your site) loads quickly even over a slow Internet connection. In general, pages should take less than 15 seconds to download over a 28.8Kbps modem. Microsoft FrontPage, the most popular web authoring tool, gives an estimate of how long it will take to download the currently open page in the lower right side of the FrontPage’s status bar, at the bottom of the screen.

One other crucial but overlooked part of designing an effective home page is preparing your site for search engines. In addition to submitting your site to the most popular search engines (like Yahoo and AltaVista), you should add some special HTML codes to your home page that tell search engines how to deal with your Web site.

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Get An American Flag That Has Flown Over the Capitol
This is very cool! Tell your friends! You can get an American flag that has actually been flown over the U.S. Capitol building. Flags are available in either cotton or nylon, and you can even request that your flag be flown on a specific date—it’ll even come to you with a certificate showing when it was flown. For details on how to get your own flag, go to: http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/call/us_flag.htm