EMAIL TIP

For those of you who use Pine as your email software, here's a shortcut that will save you time and help you with message management. It's a little-known feature of version 3.91 that you can set up each entry in your address book so that any time you send a person an email message, the cc/carbon copy of your sent message can go into a folder of all correspondence with that person, instead of the generic "sentmail" folder. Here's all you need to do:

1. Open Pine
2. From the Main Menu choose "a" to open your address book
3. Arrow down to the address book entry you'd like to edit
4. Press "e" to edit the entry
5. In response to the prompt "Edit which field?" press "g" (fcc=folder carbon copy)
6. In response to the prompt "Edit Fcc:" type the name of the Pine folder you'd like all your sent messages to be stored in, and press the "enter" key
7. Pine should reply "Address book edited and updated"

INTERNET TIP

Bad request! Unauthorized! Forbidden!

Confused and intimidated by error messages that show up when you're surfing the 'Net? Take a look at Internet errors explained: What went wrong? What can I do? C|Net has compiled a list of the most common error messages, complete with what they mean and what you can do about them. Here's where you can decode those 403's, 404's and "Failed DNS lookup" messages.

Their "two golden rules of URLs" should help you out of most of the situations that cause error messages, and can help you to not take them personally!

Some web sites soften the blow when they show an error message. My favorite error message of all is:

CATASTROPHIC ERROR!

The file you requested was not available.

The file does not exist on this server. Perhaps the URL you entered is not correctly spelled, or has missing punctuation, etc.

Whatever the case, it would be easier to pick up a dime with your nose than to access the file you requested.

You're working in a program, and suddenly something goes wrong. Your mouse is frozen. Your screen is frozen. What do you do?

Before this happens to you again, visit Crash 101 for all the steps to take. I'll give you a hint: the first step is DON'T turn off your computer! There are a lot of alternatives to try before using the "three-finger salute" or "Vulcan nerve pinch."

USEFUL URL O' THE MONTH

Shopping for a new "favorite" search engine? Give Northern Light a spin and see what you think. NL's unique feature is that each search will create a set of "custom search folders," (subject, type, source, or language) on the left side of the screen to help retrieve relevant items and narrow your search.

For example, if you're searching for information on arthritis, NL may create folders named Rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme disease, www.arthritis.org, etc. You can view the documents in each custom search folder simply by clicking on it. When you select one custom search folder, NL creates a new set for the next level down.

Besides searching the Web, Northern Light also accesses a database of information contained in journals, books, magazines, and newswires. This "special collection" is now fee-based, though all abstracts describing the premium articles are free of charge.

If you don't like Northern Light try Ask Jeeves, and make sure to ask Jeeves a random question!

FUN URL O' THE MONTH

Check out 101 Uses for those extra mouse pads. My favorite is "insoles for shoes -- [to] cushion those tired feet after you've spent a hard day at the public service desk."

RECIPE O' THE MONTH
is Broccoli Woccoli Salad.

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