Announcements

Amanda's Back :-)

We have worked out a deal with Amanda (she handled the Cool Site of the Day section for awhile) - she's going to write them for you again. See, all that "I really miss Amanda" e-mail you sent us paid off. Of course, if you have a site you want to share, send it to her at:

amanda@worldstart.com

Welcome Back Amanda!

Virus Troubles

Geeze! We're still getting a ton of those "Elkern" viruses sent to us. Fortunately, Norton AV is catching them all. It's been awhile since we seen such a bad outbreak.

So, please be careful with any attachments you get - even if it's from someone you know. I think we've had around 500 infected e-mails come in over the last week or so (and yes, it starting to get really annoying :-).

Again, this one is NOT something you want on your machine. It can delete files, send your personal info out for all to see, send itself to your address book (it really likes to do that), propagate over a network, crash your computer constantly or any combination of these.

It's also a real pain to get rid of once you're infected (we're talking potential re-install-windows-type pain here).

If you don't have anti-virus software, PLEASE get some. We have a super deal on Norton AV- only $19.95 after mail-in upgrade rebate. We ran out of these quickly last Thursday, but were able to find a handful more. Not sure how long these are going to last though.

So, get to the site ASAP if you're not protected. This is a bad one and it's just not worth taking a chance on (unless having your computer send out your personal info is something you enjoy). Here's the link:

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

Got Money?

If so, then you should join the hundreds who grabbed our deal on Quicken 2002 over the weekend! It's only $8.97 with FREE US Shipping!

This is the most popular money management program on the market. It helps you balance your checkbook, track investments, pay your bills, graph your spending habits, keep tabs on your loans, and tons more. For more detail, head to:

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

Not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep this one in stock - so grab it while you can!

Computers 101

Q:
I have a surge protector on my computer. Someone told me I should get one that I can use with my phone lines as well. Is that really necessary?

A:
It's actually good advice. When we think of power surges, we tend to picture power line jolts. Well, telephone wires can also carry a dangerous surge into your computer. I've repaired (and seen) more than a few computers that were damaged due to telephone line power surges.

Most people don't know it, but phone line surges are more likely to cause damage than power line surges.

Why?

Your computer's power supply acts as a built in surge protector. Even if a surge gets through your regular surge protector, the power supply may be able to keep it from doing any damage (and no, this doesn't mean you can scrap your surge protector). Your modem offers no such protection.

Oh, when you buy a surge protector, try to find something better than those little power strip things. Although they're better then nothing, they are notoriously unreliable. Most computer stores can sell you a good quality surge protector that protects your computer from both power line and phone line surges. I personally like the ones that come with protection guarantee - usually they run $25.00 and up.

Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm

Tip of the Day

Icon Hide & Seek

Do you have awesome wallpaper that's obscured by all those nasty little icons cluttering your desktop? Well, here's how to make them all disappear, at least temporarily:

Win 95 / 98 instructions:

First, you're going to need to have Active Desktop installed and active. If you have IE 4.0 or better, you're probably all set in this department. Here's the blow by blow:

1. First, open My Computer or Windows Explorer. From the View menu, go to Folder Options, then click the View tab.

2. Now, under the Visual Settings section, click the "Hide icons when the desktop is viewed as a web page" checkbox. Hit OK.

If you already had your desktop set to be viewed as a web page, you'll find all your icons have magically disappeared. To get them back, right-click the desktop and select Active Desktop, then click the "View as web page" menu item. That will shut off the "view as web page" property and all your icons will re-appear. Right-click and repeat the procedure to get rid of them again.

Win ME / 2000 Instructions:

1. Right-click your Desktop and select Active Desktop from the resulting menu. A sub menu will pop up. If the Active Desktop item doesn't have a check next to it, click it (Win 2000 users need to make sure the "show web content" item is checked instead).

2. From the same sub-menu mentioned above, click the "Show desktop icons" menu item to turn them on or off.

Win XP Instructions

This one is actually the easiest of the bunch- if you know where to look.

Just right-click your Desktop, Arrange Icons By, then click the "Show Desktop Icons" item.

Why the PhD's at Microsoft decided it was a good idea to stick the "Show Desktop Icons" item under the that the "Arrange Icons" menu is a head scratcher for sure, but that's where it is.

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Wacky Newz

This site features weird news collected from all over the world. You start by choosing a category:

Latest Weird News: This section contains all the current weird news.

Space Cadets: This section contains weird news involving people doing stupid things.

Bizarre: This section contains weird news containing involving the bizarre and unexplained happenings.

Celebrities: This section contains weird news involving celebrities.

Crime Time: Yes, you guessed it weird news of dumb criminals.

Bird Brains: This is where you’ll find wacky news about animals doing strange things.

And last but not least the House Blend: Where you’ll find a collection of the weird, wacky, unusual things that happen in this world.

Reading through these sections I had a barrel of laughs. I think you’ll enjoy them too, how better to brighten up your Monday workday? My favorite though has to be the dead woman winning an election. You can read about her in the bizarre section.

http://members.aol.com/JACO70/wackynewz1.index.html

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

amanda@worldstart.com

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