Digi-Tales
Secrets from the Edge of the web
TIME SAVING WEBSITES:
"BellSouth Yellow Pages"
Forget about all those weighty tomes of business
yellow pages. Now the "Real Yellow Pages" are
online at a BellSouth website.
http://yp.bellsouth.com
You can search by category or by business name.
I find this invaluable for phone numbers and
often addresses and/or directions to a previously
unknown business.
Best of all, the category system matches the
existing yellow pages system of dividing
up business types. This means that you
need learn nothing new to be effective
searching for a business.
The only problem... Now what do we do with
the print version of the Yellow Pages?
I searched hard, but only found a few ideas:
Phonebook Christmas Tree
http://havasumagazine.com/craft3.htm#tree
Pressing Flowers
http://www.diynet.com/DIY/article/0,2058,408,00.html
Flattening Pasta Crafts
http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,22-24713,00.html
Distraction in Stressful Times
http://207.198.124.134/stopping/distractions.htm
If you have another use, please shoot me an email.
I will share it with our other readers.
NEW FAQs:
"What is Flash? How do I get the latest
Flash Plugin for my web browser?"
Installing this if you haven't already, is a true
Internet right-of-passage. It enables your computer
to provide animated and helpful programs that load
quickly and are very user friendly.
Flash is required for the "Mother Goose Rocks"
link at the end of this newsletter.
What is it? The Flash Plugin is a small program
that will allow your web browser to behave as if
it were more capable than it is. The "Plugin"
reference relates to a small piece of software
that can be added to the web browser; sort of
like a cartridge or battery pack in the real world.
This program provides a way of handling small,
quick loading multimedia programs.
How do you upgrade your computer? That ones
even easier to understand. Go to their website at:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
Click on the "Macromedia Flash Player" link.
Click on the "Download Now" button.
(remember where you save the file.)
Then run the file. It will do all the
work from there. Follow its instructions
and then return to the website with all the
fun and entertaining multimedia material.
If you encounter problems with it, please
feel free to call or email me and I will
gladly try to help out.
BUZZ WORDS: "MP3"
While known to millions this little TLA
(three-letter-acronym) is one of the most popular
on the internet. Search engines rank it above
most keywords for adult content and yet
is little understood by the people that use it.
Its mostly trivia, but I hope you enjoy the
brief treatise.
If you go to the online Dictionary...
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=mp3
You learn that MP3 is short for "MPEG-1, layer 3"
which while concise isn't very descriptive.
I also learned that MPEG was "Moving Picture
Expert Group," or that the people that develop
movies worked on it rather than the newspaper
people (they worked on JPEG or JPG).
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=Moving%20Picture%20Experts%20Group
All that is nice to know, but basically
MP3 = Music. It's that simple. Overnight,
a few software companies developed programs
that remove/copy or "rip" the music from
Music CDs and create the files that are MP3s.
We say, overnight, because suddenly everyone's
CD collection could suddenly be made into
files and thereby shared with their friends.
The best "ripper" in my opinion is MusicMatch.
Its website is http://www.musicmatch.com/
A likely more long lasting advantage was the
fact that these files were 10% the size of the
the original CD tracks, therefore 10 hours,
rather than 1 hour could be stored on a CDROM.
I will leave the news folks to predict the
outcome of all the legal battles, but MP3
is here to stay and used properly will
make it easier for all of us to have a
more broad selection of music everywhere we go.
If you would like to help learning about
MP3s or would like to chat more on this
topic, please feel free to send us an email.
HOME NETWORKING
To Be Wireless or Not To Be (Wireless)...
The chief question in setting up a new home
network is whether or not to go wireless.
While all home networks connect your various
PCs to one another, a wireless one removes
the largest barrier to most people; the wires.
Typically, computers would be spead in various
places in the home affording each user an
adequate amount of privacy. However, as running
wires to each location is expensive if done
properly, or messy if run along the halls
of the house. The result is that computers
to be connected are usually grouped closely
together to minimize wiring and often
productivity is compromised.
The key to success in network planning, is
knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
A typical hardwire network allows up to 100 mbps
(mega-bits-per-second) across the network.
This is roughly around 7 times faster from
PC to PC at your home than you can connect to
the Internet over DSL (assuming 144 kbps).
If you are planning on moving a large number
of files or backing up your system over the
network on a regular basis this is crucial.
A typical wireless network includes the ability
to hardwire PCs to the network, but also have the
option of using a wireless protocol called "Wi-Fi".
Wi-Fi and other similiar protocols run at slower
speeds than the hardwire network, and while these
speeds are roughly the same as the DSL connection
for Internet users, it makes large file transactions,
that would otherwise run quickly grind to a slow
crawl. Further, the wireless protocols are
based on signal strength, so should there be a
lot of interferance in your home, the transfer
rate could be even slower.
In short, wireless networks are perfect to extend
the reach of a system to the internet, but for
solid network sharing of files on a regular
basis, don't underestimate the value of the
hardwire capabilities to do the job.
If you could use some help with your home
network, please feel free to email or call us.
ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT:
"mothergooserocks.com"
http://www.mothergooserocks.com
This is the cutest little website I have seen
in a long while. It loads a small music player
program on the screen and the you may choose
from the music selections.
When you go there, be sure to try the
"Three Little Pigs". You will hear modern music
put to nursery rhymes and its evidence of
either some very clever or incredibly bored
people. Either way, we have a website well
worth a few of our idle moments.
Warning: It will cause, grins and chuckles!
I hope you enjoy the site.
--dedicated to the glory of God--
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will
be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good,
pleasing and perfect will.
