Maki & Brian DeLaet EduCyber founders

June 2004 EduNotes

EduCyber is pleased to present the June edition of EduNotes. Tips on getting more from email, defragmenting your hard drive, upgrading your computer and your health and your computer are all a part of this month's newsletter. Enjoy and as always, send feedback to edunotes@educyber.com .
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Email Tips
Is email helping you get your job done better / faster / more intelligently? If not or if you're not sure, try these tips:

1. To keep spam from filling your mailbox, read the privacy notice of every web site where you submit your email address.
   Just recently a client complained that he went from very little spam to about 40 a day. After a little investigation, we found that he had submitted his email address to a suspect site and that led to the deluge.
2. Create subfolders in your email program to store important messages, keeping them out of your inbox but still readily available.
3. Go through your sent items. If there are messages you need to keep, file them in the subfolders you created. Delete the rest.
4. Make sure you empty the trash / recycle bin / deleted items folder regularly (at least once a week).
5. Use filters to help you keep track of your incoming messages.
   Each email client (program) works a bit differently but you can tell the program to take messages from boss@mycompany.com and put them in the boss folder. That way you can easily catch these messages and ensure they don't end up getting deleted.
6. Create an alternate address (like hotmail or yahoo) to submit if you think a web site might send you spam. Check the account regularly and get rid of the spam.
7. Find out if your email client has junk email filters. Microsoft Outlook, for example, has filters that allow you to designate mail from certain domains or from certain people to be junk and those messages, when they arrive, zip right past your inbox and into the trash.
8. Make sure that you have the latest updates or patches for your email client. This is especially true if you use Outlook or Outlook Express as hackers and virus creators love to target Microsoft products.
9. Use your address book to its fullest extent. Too often I have seen clients trying to type someone's email address into their address book when they could have dragged it straight from email to the address book, saving time and eliminating the possibility of mistyping it.

Using these tips will make your time using email more efficient.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Defragmenting
Have you defragmented your computer lately? With the age of gargantuan hard drives, many people have left this little step behind. And even if you have been brave enough to locate the defrag tool in Windows XP, you were probably greeted with a Microsoft recommendation that your disk doesn't need to be defragmented at this time.
We recommend however, that you defrag your hard drive on a regular basis. The nice part about defragmenting your hard drive regularly is keeping the hard drive optimized and improving disk access time which translates into better performance.
There are at least three different ways to access the Windows defragment tool in XP. First you can double-click My Computer then right click on your C drive and choose properties. Next click on the Tools tab and then on Defragment Now. This will open the Disk Defragmenter Tool.
You can also click on Start and then on Control Panel, double-click on Administrative Tools and then double-click Computer Management. Once there, you click on Disk Defragmenter.
Another way to open this tool is to click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Whichever of these methods you use, when you're done you will be at the Disk Defragmenter Tool. From there you click on the drive you want to defragment, typically the C drive and then click on defragment. This process could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on the size of your disk, the number of fragments, and the processor speed.
If you have too much time on your hands, you can watch the little red lines of fragmented files turn to nice blue lines of files that are not fragmented.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Upgrade Time
Ready to get rid of your old computer and upgrade to something stronger and faster? Great. The only problem is that so is everyone else. Already the price of computer memory (RAM) and LCD flat panels have reversed their downward spiral and are working their way upwards. Computer sales are up significantly this year and that trend will likely continue as the economic recovery pushes businesses to expand and to upgrade aging equipment.
But the deals are still there. Just yesterday I spoke with a friend who said she couldn't afford another $2500 computer, that being the price she paid for her system several years ago. Actually, since she has a nice 17” monitor she can replace her high-priced, outdated computer for $800. That $800 will get her a new, 3.0 Ghz computer with 512 MB of RAM.
What should you focus on? Still the single most important part of your computer is your CPU. Get the fastest one you can afford as upgrading this later is usually not an option. Right now (and this changes frequently but as of this writing) the fastest processor (another term for CPU) you can get is 3.4 GHz. We're not too fond of the Celeron processors so recommend going with a Pentium 4.
Make sure you get a big enough hard drive. Wait, the previous article referred to today's hard drives as gargantuan so what's the deal? If you are going to join the music craze and download music from iTunes or Napster (which is now doing legal business), you'll eat up a lot of space quickly. Having said that, an 80 GB drive should be more than enough for most purposes.
Memory is probably the next most important. We recommend nothing less than 512 MB of RAM as newer programs are using a lot more memory (and using it very well, we might add). As we said, RAM is expensive right now but buying it together with a new system is usually the most inexpensive way to go.
Ready to bite the bullet and get that LCD monitor before prices edge even higher? You can get a 17” monitor for around $450. A 15” can be had for around $300.
Call us (720-275-4646) if you would like assistance in purchasing a computer to meet your needs.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Computers Can Be Dangerous To Your Health
Especially if they fall on you. But more realistically, if you sit in front of a computer for large blocks of time on a daily basis, you should be aware of the health problems associated with doing so.
Eye strain from gazing at a monitor. If you get headaches, especially around your eyes, while sitting at your computer, consider getting a filter. Remember telling the kids (or being told as a kid) not to sit too close to the TV? This is a similar situation. Too much of this and your eyes hurt. A filter to place over your monitor can lessen the strain and ease the headache.
Other problems associated with monitors are related to the height of the monitor. Most guidelines say the top of the viewable portion of the monitor should be about level with your eyes. Any higher and you'll find your neck and shoulders getting stiff as you hold them at an unnatural angle to see. We had one client who went spent a lot of money getting a special desk so that the monitor could be lower than the keyboard. This enabled him to look through his bifocals and focus properly. Just one more thing to consider.
Then there are the arm, elbow and wrist problems associated with keyboards and mice. A good friend recently switched to a trackball to try to alleviate carpal-tunnel symptoms. It has mitigated the problem somewhat but she is still contemplating surgery. The most ergonomic you can go is with a Dvorak keyboard and a wireless trackball. Since learning to type all over again doesn't appeal to most people, we recommend getting a natural keyboard which splits the keyboard down the middle and rotates each half into a more natural position for the hands. I've been using one for four years now and love it.
I haven't switched to a wireless trackball yet but I do use a wireless infra-red mouse. In addition to saving the hassle of getting the wire stuck or having it be too short, I can now place the mouse where I want to instead of wherever the cable will reach. The infrared part saves me from having to clean the ball and rollers on a regular basis – though this became much less of a problem when I gave up buttered popcorn at the computer.
What we have found to be the best solution is to not spend the whole day in front of the keyboard. Even when that big project is due, you'll get more done if you take a break. Go for a walk. Stretch. Do some office exercises. Walk around the office / building / block. Whatever it takes to reduce the physical stress and strain.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Like what you just read? Send your friends a copy or direct them to our site so they can get it, too!

© 2004 EduCyber, Inc. This newsletter is brought to you by EduCyber, Inc. EduNotes can be viewed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week online at http://www.educyber.com/edunotes/ . Visit us on the web at http://www.educyber.com or call us at (720) 275-4646. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute all or part of this newsletter as long as this entire copyright message is included.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
For questions email us at info@educyber.com , or to be removed from this monthly newsletter distribution, send a blank message to newsletter-leave@educyber.com from the address you are subscribed to the newsletter as. To rejoin, send a blank message to newsletter-join@educyber.com .