Announcements

Microsoft Picture It!

We had a special on the Gold edition program of this program a couple weeks ago and ran out. We've had a steady stream of people just screaming (there's been a bunch of begging and groveling too) for the thing ever since.

Well, I've been able to locate A FEW more. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them at the same price (and believe me, I tried). Instead of $19.97, it's gotta be $24.97. I'm really sorry about that, but we can't afford to sell them for any less (we had to pay more for this batch). It's still a good deal though, since the retail on this is $59.95. Free US shipping on both, of course.

Now, we do have the Silver edition in stock for only $19.97. The only major differences that we can find between the two is the Silver edition comes with 100,000 + pieces of clipart vs the 150,000 in the Gold. In addition, the Silver "only" has 5,000 templates instead of 12,000. As far as program features, the two seem almost identical.

Here's the features for both:

You can create greeting cards, e-mail cards, calendars, newsletters, web pages, invitations, announcements, labels, animated greetings, business cards, flyers, signs, stationary, T-shirts, stickers, web photo albums, party sets, recipe cards, awards, certificates, banners, and tons more.

You can use your own photos or choose from thousands of different clipart images that are included with the package!

This also includes powerful photo editing tools. Remove red-eye, cut people out of photos and put them somewhere else (very cool feature), adjust brightness / contrast, add frames to your photos, turn color to B&W, and choose from different special effects that turn your photos into fine art prints! Oh, you can even print multiple photos on a single page (we've had a lot of requests for that).

Putting a project together couldn't be easier. Just choose the type of project you want, then follow the prompts. You're guided through step by step. Of course, you can also go into "do it yourself mode" and create projects from scratch if you prefer. It even includes movies that show you how to do basic operations!

Again, the price for the Silver Edition is $19.97. You can get more info on that one at:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/pictureitsilver.htm

The Gold Edition is $24.97 and can be found at:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/pictureitpublishing.htm

PS - Again, the quantities on this are limited! Don't miss out on this batch!

Computers 101

Q:
When I try to click my icons, they seem to "run away" from my mouse. I can't get to them and I'm having a hard time using my computer. What's wrong?

A:
I get this question a ton, so I finally looked into it. It's actually a virus, the "magistr" one to be exact.

If you've been infected with it for more than two months, it will cause the jumpy icon phenomenon referenced in today's question. In addition, it causes massive system instability, can mess up your BIOS, and delete all kinds of files. It will even take some text files and fill them with as many dirty words as it can (rated G newsletter or I'd tell you what word in particular :-)

Needless to say, this one is nasty and can really cause some damage. In fact, if it messes up your computer's BIOS, it can potentially render your computer useless. It's extremely well written and very robust for a virus. In other words - you don't want it playing around on your machine - ever.

Although it comes via e-mail, the subject line varies, as does the attachment. There's no way to even guess what to look out for. This is another one that distributes itself by sending to the people in your address book, so remember - just because you get an attachment from a friend doesn't automatically mean it's safe! If your friend is infected, he won't even know he sent it to you!

For more info on this one, Click Here

Be sure to check out our Virus Guide at the address below too. It'll teach you how to be safe when dealing with e-mail attachments and such:

http://www.worldstart.com/guides/virus1.htm

OK, now for my AV plug. If you're not running anti-virus software, WHY THE HECK NOT? We have Norton AV 2002, retail box with instructions, for only $19.95 after $20.00 mail-in upgrade rebate. Check it out:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/nortonav2002box.htm

Don't qualify for the upgrade rebate? Get the CD only version for $19.97 (Same CD that comes in the box - no rebate, no book)

http://www.worldstart.com/store/nortonav2002.htm

Tip of the Day

Refreshing Sites

Web link - http://www.worldstart.com/tips/refreshingsites.htm

OK, do you visit web pages with dynamic, frequently updated content? You know, stuff like news, stocks, and weather type sites.

Anyhow, have you ever noticed that sometimes you just can't get the stupid page to refresh? Sure, you hit the refresh button but it's the same page (and you just know it's been updated). Explorer is stubbornly refusing to re-load the thing properly.

Is there any hope? Are you going to be stuck looking at outdated information forever?

You'll be glad to learn there is a little trick you can use. Just put a question mark after the URL. Your browser, not being all that bright, will think it's a new page and re-load it for you. The question mark won't affect the page or the way it's displayed, so don't sweat that part.

Anyhow, here's an example. Let's say you went to:

www.worldstart.com

To make the page completely re-load, type this instead:

www.worldstart.com?

Oh, if you need to keep re-loading, you can keep adding junk after the question mark:

www.worldstart.com?1kjsdk

Cool huh?

Why does this work?

When your browser sees the question mark, it only loads the page in front of it. However, since the whole URL changes, you get a complete re-load of the page.

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Learn Your Ninja Burger Name

Have you ever wondered what your Ninja Burger Name is? No? Well why not?

Ninja Burger is a popular role-playing game. This name generator comes up with some interesting out comes. I was Kokuten Katayama-san and Steve was Seibei Fujita-san. Now I wonder what your secret Ninja Burger names will be…go find out.

http://www.ninjaburger.com/fun/ninjaname/

Do you have a cool site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda! Here's her address:

amanda@worldstart.com

Oh, and we're looking for non-commercial sites. We generally don't run sites that are strictly for shopping.