The first thing I do every morning is read the newspaper. I want to learn what's happening in the world and that's the way I choose to do it. The first thing I do when I go online is look at my "start" page or portal. We can choose any page we want as the first page that opens when starting an Internet browser.
There are hundreds of different pages that bill themselves as portals or start pages with practically any page being a candidate for a start page. The only requirement I can think of is that it has daily (or more frequent) updates so that it is worth returning to again and again.
If you are a Netscape user your original start page was probably my.netscape.com but there is no need to stick with it. Likewise many Internet explorer browsers come with www.msn.com as their portal. Both of these pages can be customized to a degree, bringing you only the news you are interested in.
But outside of the basic news, there are hundreds of choices for portals. Here's just a few examples If you have a substantial investment portfolio, you might want to make http://www.schwab.com/ or http://www.datek.com/ your portal. If you are interested in health, you can choose a health portal like http://www.thedailyapple.com/ or http://www.drkoop.com/. Science buffs can start at sites like http://www.sciencenews.org/ or http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/. Computer geeks will enjoy starting at http://www.cnn.com/TECH/ or perhaps http://webopedia.internet.com/. Movie afficiandos can start at http://upcomingmovies.com/ or http://mrshowbiz.go.com/reviews/moviereviews/. Space fans can begin browsing from http://www.nasa.gov/ or http://www.spacedaily.com/ . Bookworms can enter cyberspace at http://www.bookbay.com/ or http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/.
Finding the perfect portal for you is as easy as finding a site you come back to time and again to get information from. Once you're there, tell your browser to make this page your start page. Netscape users can go to the Edit Menu and click on Preferences. Click on Navigator in the left pane (if it isn't already highlighted) and then in the Home Page section click on the Use current page button. If you are using Netscape and are using a version less than 4.0, you should upgrade it's free! Internet Explorer users Click on the Options menu and then click on Internet Options. If the General tab isn't on top, click on it and then click on Use Current.

Dear Ed,
I am a teacher at a public school. I recently purchased a new computer for use at home. It came installed with Windows 98. Windows 2000 is supposed to be released on the 17th. Should I upgrade?
'98 Education User

Dear Mr. or Ms. User,
You ask a very good question. Let me summarize the following by saying that I don't think you need to upgrade to 2000. Why?
Windows 2000 will be a good operating system for business users, providing the stability and security they need while working in a business environment. While your school may need to seriously consider upgrading, it is not such a must for the individual user, especially considering the cost.
Actually, 2000 is more of an upgrade for Windows NT than it is for 95/98 but the upgrade will work fine with Windows 98. It provides greater stability (in other words, it doesn't crash as frequently) than Windows 95 / 98 but is just different enough in the way that it works that I recommend waiting a while.
Don't get me wrong. Windows 2000 is definitely the operating system of the future in its support for new technologies like USB, AGP and IEEE 1394 (FireWire). I won't discuss these technologies here, but over the next few years these are the technologies that will be used to connect things to your computer. However, the gains you make aren't likely to make the cost of upgrading worth it. At the very least, I recommend waiting until the dust settles on the new release to make sure there aren't major bugs that need to be ironed out.
When the dust settles and if this new OS is all that it is touted to be, you might want to consider this upgrade again in a year or so. By then, depending of course on what happens in the courts, it's likely that the cost of upgrading will have come down considerably.

Web Site Review

http://www.yahoo.com/promotions/superspots/

Did you miss any of the superbowl commercials? Some were good and some were not but they are all available for viewing online at yahoo.
Whether you think advertising has become too prevalent or not (see this month's Edunotes for Educators for an article on Advertising in schools) you have to admit there were some interesting commercials here.

Sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? Only we're not talking about the kitchen table. Tables are very useful for formatting web pages.
When you create a file in a word processing program like MS Word or Corel WordPerfect, you have complete control over the layout and can be certain that the intended reader will see exactly what you see.
When you create an html file, on the other hand, there is no such guarantee. The file you create may look great on your PC with your 1024 X 768 monitor settings but look absolutely terrible on a computer where the settings are 800 X 600.
Tables can solve a lot of the formatting problems. When you create a page in html, whether you press the space bar once or 20 times, you still only get one space. Tabs are useless. Rather than get into why this is so, let's focus on what we can do to get around this.
If you put text in a table, it will let you create the same look as having nicely tabbed pages. For example, if you had a price list with tabs it might look like this:

But in HTML it would look like this

Motley Fool$10.40

Wall Street Journal$12.76

Internet Bubble$18.90

Create a table in HTML and it goes back to looking like this

The promise of high speed Internet access has arrived in a big way. DSL (see EduWords for definitions), along with cable, is transforming the way we access the Internet and even the way we use the Internet.
One of the things that makes DSL so palatable to the general public is that it doesn't involve running a completely new infrastructure. Since it uses the plain old telephone service (POTS) that already exists, the companies that sell DSL don't have to start all over and thus they can charge consumers less.
The bandwidth of a 56K modem doesn't even begin to compare with the bandwidth of DSL. Running in optimal conditions, a 56K modem can download data from the Internet at 52 Kbps (52,000 bits per second) while an ADSL line ranges from 1.5 to 9 Mbps (1,500,000 to 9,000,000 bits per second). If you're browsing for fun, this might not be such a big deal although graphics will load in your browser much faster. The business user will find a big benefit in downloading files or programs much faster. Following the old adage that time is money, you'll save big with DSL.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about DSL is the way it can and is changing the way we use the Internet. If you have enough bandwidth to quickly download programs, you can download the program you need, be it a spreadsheet program, word processing program, or calendaring program, without having to buy or license an expensive suite of programs. If you don't think this has Microsoft worried, you're still living in the 20th century.
DSL is available in large parts of the Denver Metro area. Companies like Covad, Jato, and Concentric are aggressively marketing their DSL services to compete with US West's megabit service. Visit their respective web sites to learn more.

Covad http://www.covad.com/
Concentric http://www.concentric.com/
Jato http://www.jato.net
US West http://www.uswest.com/features/megabit/ 

It had to be too good to last. The incredible inter- networked world we have created and dubbed the Internet is vulnerable.
The last week or so, we have seen large web sites get attacked and rendered inaccessible for hours. The attackers haven't broken into the web sites, instead they have simply bombarded them so that no one else can get through in what is called a "Distributed Denial of Service."
How does it work? Since the culprits have yet to be tracked down, we can't say for sure exactly but it works something like this A Hacker hacks into a computer on a network with low security and high speed Internet access. He or she then plants a program and exits. Later, at the appointed time, the hacker activates the program, which then begins bombarding the target site. Several of these programs distributed around can be quite effective in bringing down or tying up a web site.
So what does it all mean? Unfortunately it probably means that a lot of lawyers will make a lot of money as the companies / schools that own the computers that were hacked into are revealed and the companies being attacked sue.
It also means that if you have a computer network, you should take security seriously. Had everyone implemented appropriate security, the attack wouldn't have been possible, as the computers wouldn't have been hacked into in the first place.
For those in the IT business, it's good news in the form of increased job security but for businesses large and small, it will mean an increase in the money and personnel resources they set aside to ensure their network is safe.

We haven't had time to evaluate all of the following sites but feel they might be helpful in preparing personal or business taxes.
IRS Home Page
http://www.irs.treas.gov

The Tax Wizard Home Page
http://www.taxwizard.com/

Netscape Tax Preparation Links
http://directory.netscape.com/Home/
Tax_Preparation

Quicken Tax Center
http://www.quicken.com/taxes/

MSN MoneyCentral Taxes
http://moneycentral.msn.com/tax/

Kiplinger Tax Page
http://www.kiplinger.com/tax/