The Ides of September 1999

E-MAIL TIP Is it time for a Netiquette refresher? Do your friends and colleagues ask you why you "shout" at them when you send e-mail messages typed in ALL CAPS? Have you been sending HTML-ized e-mail to Pine users? If so, it's time to mend your ways! Do yourself and others a favor and visit Online Netiquette UNCENSORED and the classic (and certainly more sedate) The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette by Arlene H. Rinaldi. In short, "As a courtesy to your fellow Netizens, mind your manners and play nice." INTERNET TIP In last month's Ides I showed you how to personalize your Netscape 4.x Personal Toolbar by adding buttons that lead to your most-used Web sites. There's yet another way to make it easy to revisit often-used Web sites -- by creating desktop shortcuts. Follow these steps to try it out: Go to the Web site Right-click with your mouse somewhere on the Web page Choose "Create Shortcut" from the dropdown menu (or "Internet Shortcut" in Netscape 3.x) A small window will pop up to confirm the description and URL of the shortcut. If you want to modify or rename the shortcut, click in the Description field and type the text you prefer. Click the OK button. Your new shortcut should appear on the Windows desktop. If you want to create desktop shortcuts from your bookmark file, follow the directions at the Netscape Handbook: Bookmarks shortcuts and tips. This method will work in both Netscape 3.x and 4.x . WINDOWS TIP Whenever you get an error message and need to contact your technical support person, it helps a lot if you can supply the exact wording of the error message. Many times the wording of the error message is so lengthy it's impractical to write it down, or if you've already rebooted the PC it's difficult to let your "Techie" know exactly what the wording of the error message was. However, since commandment #1 of the Ten Commandments of Tech Support Callers is "Thou shalt knoweth the exact error and be prepared to recite it when prompted by thine Tech Support Personnel," maybe you should try the following tip to make solving your PC problem easier. Following these steps will create an exact "screen shot" of the error message, so you can either e-mail the error message as an attachment, or print it out and fax it to your Techie. With the error message on the PC screen, press the Alt key and the PrtScn or PrintScreen key. Even though it looks like nothing's happened, you've actually copied the error message to the Windows Clipboard. Next, open Paint (click Start|Programs|Accessories|Paint) and press the Ctrl and V keys (or click Edit|Paste) to paste into it the copy you just made. You should see the error message automagically appear. Click File|SaveAs on Paint's menu bar, and choose a folder and filename (for example, save it in your "My Documents" folder as "errormsg") and click the Save button. You've now created an image in "bitmap" format that has a ".bmp" filename extension (errormsg.bmp). Open your e-mail software and send an e-mail message to your Techie, explaining the problem in detail and giving a full description of the PC, and let him/her know that you're attaching a copy of the error message that appeared on the affected PC's screen. (If you use Pine, you won't be able to send an e-mail attachment -- fax your Techie a copy of the printout instead.) If you need a refresher on sending an e-mail attachment, visit Newbie-U's instructions for Netscape 3.x or instructions for Netscape Communicator 4.x. If you want to print the error message in order to fax it, click File|Print on Paint's menu bar. When the problem is solved, thank your Techie! If you follow these directions, and keep your Techie supplied with chocolate (Keetra also accepts Peeps), maybe you'll never get the Top 12 Things You Don't Want to Hear From Tech Support. USEFUL URL O' THE MONTH For many years the Reference and Loan Library has purchased American Library Association Annual Conference Cassettes and made them available for loan. You can choose from recordings of 1999 conference programs like "What's on the Menu? How to Tell Junk Food from Gourmet Information Sources", "Good Books--Great Groups: How to Set Up and Run an Adult Book Discussion Group", and "Kids Have Rights/Parents Have Responsibilities/Librarians Have Ulcers". To borrow any of these audiocassettes, send your interlibrary loan request through regular I.L.L. channels. FUN URL O' THE MONTH A couple of months ago I was listening to National Public Radio's Morning Edition when they played a song that I think you'll enjoy -- the refrain is "No cellphone, no pager, no e-mail, no fax". You can listen to it by visiting the Morning Edition Web page for that day and scrolling down to the hyperlink for "Getting Away". Note: you'll need to have the RealAudio Player free browser plugin to enjoy this tune. However, if you don't have speakers on your PC, catch the lyrics to "Gilligan's Island Year 2000, or Two Digits for a Date" and sing the words to the tune of, you guessed it, the theme from "Gilligans Island". RECIPE O' THE MONTH is Swiss Chard Quiche.

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	This issue of The Ides was written on September 15, 1999 The Ides is written by Joy Schwarz. Please direct any questions, comments or recipes to schwarz@winnefox.org URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/idessep99.html