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April 2003 EduNotes
EduCyber is pleased to present the April 2003 Edition of EduNotes. Check
out the opportunity for improving your computer's performance below. Also,
in this issue you'll learn about different office packages that are available,
find out where to get the latest news on the war from a variety of sources,
and find out what Ed Cyber has to say about wireless networking. Enjoy
and as always, send feedback to edunotes@educyber.com.
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Spring Cleaning
Ready for some Spring Cleaning? For the month of April you can get some
great assistance. While you're cleaning house, let us come and clean your
computer. We'll help you physically clean the computer (blowing out all
the dust that's collected inside over the years) as well as help clean
out unnecessary files and otherwise improving your computer's performance.
All this for only $50. Call (720) 275-4646.
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Keeping Up With Office Software
Another Microsoft Office Suite Upgrade looms on the horizon. Wondering
whether you could or should try to keep up? Considering an upgrade to
Office XP starts at around $200 for a retail version, many of us are likely
to throw up our hands and give up. But there are alternatives that are
becoming increasingly attractive, both because of price and because of
the features offered.
The original word processing software, WordPerfect, is coming out in a
bundled office suite this spring as well. WordPerfect Office 11, which
includes WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Presentations, will start at around
$150. A professional edition will also be available that will include
the Paradox database program. I wouldn't be surprised to find it available
for as low as $100 as they try to increase their user base. Earlier versions
are available now for as low as $50 online. In any case, WordPerfect is
a perfectly good alternative to Word and is certainly more affordable.
And for Mac users, AppleWorks is available for around $80. AppleWorks
lets you work with text, spreadsheets, and presentations in one application.
It also has database capabilities. AppleWorks has been around in one form
or another for a long time and since returning to the Apple fold (it was
ClarisWorks for a while) it has continued to improve along with the Mac
Operating System.
Probably the best buy out there is StarOffice, sold by Sun Microsystems.
You can get StarOffice 6.0 for as little as $60. While Sun has pulled
the free downloadable StarOffice 5.2 (they have to feed their kids too,
I guess), 6.0 is a full featured suite containing Writer (word processor),
Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentations), Draw (drawing program), and
Base (database). StarOffice integrates very well with MS Office products,
meaning it can open files from those programs and save into formats compatible
with those programs. Make no mistake, Sun wants to get market share from
Microsoft. I'd say that StarOffice is a pretty admirable attempt at doing
just that.
Some of these products may not be as readily available from your local
office supply store as others but they are available online from places
like Amazon or Buy.
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Online News
This war marks a real coming of age for Internet news. People are turning
to the web in record numbers and in new ways (e.g. turning to their newspaper's
web site for breaking news) to stay abreast of what is happening. The
following are just a few places you can visit to learn more about how
the war is going. You might want to take a look at some sites around the
world to see what others are thinking and writing about the war. These
links are just provided for your information and should not be construed
as an endorsement of any of these sites.
Fox News http://www.foxnews.com
CNN http://www.cnn.com
BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Google http://news.google.com
US Department of Defense http://www.defendamerica.mil/
Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/
Canada.com http://www.canada.com/national/
International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/frontpage.html
The Times (London) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
Turkish Daily News http://www.turkishdailynews.com/
Moscow Times http://www.moscowtimes.ru/
Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/
Gulf News http://www.gulf-news.com/
Non-English Sites:
Le Monde http://www.lemonde.fr/
Bild http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/index.html
You can also visit the web site of the Arabic Al Jazeera TV station at
http://www.aljazeera.net/
(at last check their English language site (http://english.aljazeera.net)
was not functioning)
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Ask Ed Cyber
Dear Ed,
I got another computer last week so my kids can do their homework while
I'm using the main computer. We need to set up a home network but I don't
want to have to make holes in walls or floors to make this work. Can you
help?
Unwired
Well Mr. (Mrs.?) Unwired, it sounds like you are a prime candidate for
a wireless network. And as wireless networking comes more into its own,
the choices for setting it up are growing. There are no fewer than three
technologies for wireless networks: 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. The
newest and fastest technology is g.
I recommend setting up a wireless "g" network. Assuming your
main computer already has a network interface (a high speed internet connection
would use this), you really only need two pieces of hardware (plus a cable
or two) to network your computers so you can share a fast internet connection
and share files or printers.
The first piece of hardware you need is a wireless router. My favorite
is a Linksys Cable/DSL router. These start at around $130. You unplug
your high speed internet connection from your computer and plug it into
the router. Then you take another cable and run it from the router to
your computer. Follow the directions for the router to configure it for
your Internet access. For a small network like yours, you can have the
router use something called DHCP. This will make connecting the second
computer to the network easier.
The second piece of hardware is a wireless PCI card (again I like the
Linksys). Install the PCI card - costs around $70 - in an available PCI
slot in your computer and install the drivers when prompted. If you set
up encryption on your router (and I do hope you set up at least some basic
encryption), you'll need to tell your computer what the wireless key is
and then you should be ready to go.
If you choose not to install any encryption, there is a good chance that
someone will hack into your system, use or delete your files and / or
steal a ride on your Internet connection. The bottom line is - use encryption.
Of course, if you need help with any of this, you can call my friends
at EduCyber (720)275-4646.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely, your Techno Dude,
Ed Cyber
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Old Computers
Don't you hate throwing away an old computer? In some cases, it could
even be illegal. If you've got an old or aging computer and you don't
know what to do with it, contact us at info@educyber.com. We work with
several places that can either use or recycle your old computer.
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site so they can get it, too!
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