Number 231 - July 2002

UPDATE
The Value of Q&A     The first article in the Beginner's section is the direct result of a question (the Q part) being asked at the last meeting. All of the "experts" at the meeting knew what was meant by the question and had indeed set up their screen format to the desired state. However, noone could describe how it was achieved. That is, no on-the-spot answer (the A part) could be given. There have, of course, been other examples of the value of the Q&A sessions but usually they are demonstrated by more immediate responses. Finding Help     Brian Lewis shows us several sources of information on the Internet where we can seek information on a variety of subjects. Read this article, not only for the subject matter of the sites mentioned as for the techniques of searching for information. Also don't overlook the search capabilities of our favorite search engine, www.google.com.     Learning From Mistakes     A good lesson is given in the article Mistakes Can make You Stronger. Concentrating on the reasons why a method of doing something didn't work is a waste of time and may divert you from learning and applying techniques that really do work. Concentrate on the positive is the message.	Emphasis on Hardware?     Sometimes it just works out that way. We didn't start out with the preconceived idea that we would concentrate on hardware in this issue. It just happened that after we were through gathering articles for this issue of the newsletter, there is a preponderence of hardware-related items. Even the Communications section carries an article on how to use your computer and software to send and receive Faxes, functions normally associated with a piece of hardware, the Fax machine.     As is our custom, the articles range in subject matter and detail from relatively simple to somewhat technical. Long time members and newcomers alike should gain something of value in the wide-ranging subject matter, and as is often the case, the authors' experiences will strike a sympathetic chord with many of you. General Surfing     In the General Interest section, well-known computing author Steve Bass gives us the benefit of his web surfing experience by listing some of his favorite shopping sites. His comments on cost comparisons and including all costs are worth noting.     Also in this section, Burton Shane offers a unique point of view on the use of the Internet to access remarkable views of the earth as provided by Landsat's satellite imagery. This is all part of NASA's Digital Earth project to acquire digital imagery of sites all over the earth. Worth a look.
Number 231 - July 2002