Announcements

This One's Gonna Be HUGE!

Wait till you see the deal we have on this!

We have an AWESOME new utility program available called Check It! Suite. This set of programs does it all. Take a look at just a few of its features:

- Find hardware problems quickly and easily with the strongest diagnostic tests available.
- Optimize and speed up your internet connection (see our results below).
- Benchmarks let you see how your computer stacks up to similar machines.
- Tests hardware to see if it can handle heavy multi-tasking.
- Backs up internet connection settings.
- Speeds up system performance.
- Tune up your system.
- Speed up program launches and Windows load time.
- Protects against crashes.
- Helps you find problems when you can't get Windows to run.
- Helps you transfer and synchronize files - quickly, and easily.
- Includes automatic synchronization between computers
- Removes old, unused leftover files
- Can compress infrequently used files
- Compress and password protect sensitive files

And that's just a taste! The description page for this program is one of the biggest on the site due to all the features listed! (So, give it a minute to load when you take a look).

We tried this out and were VERY IMPRESSED with it. It has all kind of useful features and can help just about anyone get more out of their computer. It even has tons of stuff Norton doesn't offer (and ya know I like them)!

Just to give you an idea of what this may be able to do for you, we tried the Net Optimizer on our cranky Win 98 machine. Using a dial-up connection, it tried 3 different sets of settings that gave us increases of 67%, 102 %, and 16% to pick from (we took the 102% choice of course). Your results may vary, but it did take care of that computer's chronically slow connections. And that's only one of the dozens of components included!

The price? The retail on this is $69.95, most web stores are a little lower (PC Mall has it for $55.99 and Buy MIcro has it for $45.51, but that doesn't include shipping).

Our price for the same exact product? Only $24.97 with FREE US Shipping! This is the current version of the program and does come in the retail box. It's one of the best deals we've ever been able to offer. Note that this runs on all versions of Windows EXCEPT XP.

Get to the site ASAP for this one. Here's the link:

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

Quantities are limited, so don't miss out! In fact, this is almost impossible even for resellers to get at this price. We've had our suppliers begging us to sell them OUR stock! So, we're running it here first and promised them any leftovers (we sold around 1000 last time, so I'm guessing there's not going to be any left after tomorrow).

Computers 101

Q:
What's the address bar for in Windows Explorer?

A:
If you drop it down, you'll get a quick overview of the system drives and folders. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of folders on your C: drive. I normally have to do a ton of scrolling just to get down to where my CD ROM drive is, but by using Address drop down box, I'm only a quick click away. To give it a test run, right-click your Start button and select Explore.

In addition, you can actually run programs from it by typing in the full path to the program and hitting Enter (if you enjoy doing that sort of thing). For example, if you would like to run Windows notepad, type the following into the address box: C:\windows\notepad.exe

Oh, one more useless thing... If you are connected to the internet, you can type in a web address in the address bar and be transported there using Windows Explorer. Why?

Beats the heck out of me...

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

Tip of the Day

Man, That’s a Smooth Font!

Ah, reading on a computer! The soft hum of your power supply fan, the warm glow of your monitor, and that jagged, blocky text…

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just flip a “font-smoothing” switch or something to make those fonts a little easier to read?

If you’re running Windows 98 or above, you can!

Anti-aliasing is the technical name for a process that smoothes out the jagged edges of pictures and fonts. Most graphics programs do it automatically; however, Windows will do it for screen fonts in Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer as long as you select it from your Display Properties menu.

To do this, first open the Properties menu by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting properties. Then, click on the Effects tab on the top. Click the "Smooth edges of screen fonts" checkbox. (Windows 2000 will say, “font smoothing.”) Finally, click OK and notice the subtle, wonderful difference.

(And of course things will be a bit different for the Windows XP users: Right-click on your desktop, select Properties. Click on the Appearance tab, then click on the Effects button. In the window that appears, make sure the box next to “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” is checked and the Standard method is selected. Click OK.)

For smaller fonts, anti-aliasing only affects bold text, so you may not notice any effect in Windows Explorer or on your desktop. However, headlines on web pages and any larger text will be smooth and beautiful. This might be a good time to increase your display resolution and then bump up the default font size in Internet Explorer.

Now wouldn’t it be great if there were a button for “anti-crashing”?

Maybe in the next version of Windows…

--Tom Dalton

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

Special Feature

Fundamentals of Website Design (part 1 of 3)

If you look at any website and it has been planned really well, you won't be aware of the design; it won't jump out at you. In fact, you should hardly notice it at all.

As with any quality structure, good planning and good materials are crucial to a superior result. If you're going to be a builder, you have at least two choices. You can run to the junkyard and pick up whatever you see and slap it together using rusty, bent nails. Alternatively, you can spend some time planning, make a blueprint to follow, select quality materials, and then begin building. You already know which method is most likely to result in a structure that is visually appealing and interesting to all; however, the choice is yours.

Three fundamental components go into designing an effective website. Together, I call these three basics “The Design Triangle.” The foundation of the triangle represents the purpose of the site. One side of the triangle corresponds to the style and content component while the other side is testing (making sure the site behaves and looks as planned when viewed on different browsers with differing screen resolutions, etc.).

Let's begin with the base of the triangle: The purpose of your website.

Purpose
Identifying the purpose of your website is an essential first step. The first questions to ask include:
•Why do I want a website?
•What would be the purpose of the site?
•What 'online presence' do I need?

Some possible answers might be:
•To display a catalog of products or services.
•To maintain a "point of sale" online store.
•To showcase my company (background, executives, etc.)

It’s best to identify a single primary purpose, and then rank the others in terms of importance. Keep the main purpose of the site uppermost in your mind, write it down, and refer back to it as you proceed through the planning process.

The second part of this article: Style and Content, will appear in tomorrow’s newsletter.

--Kristine Woodall is President of Island Impressions, a Honolulu web design company.

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Armies of the World

Want to learn more about the armies of the world? Well this is the place to do it. Choose the country's flag that you would like to learn about to begin your journey. After choosing a flag, you are whisked away to that country's army homepage.

I choose Australia for my first journey and was whisked away to their homepage. Once there, you can read about the current news, look at their job postings (if you lived in Australia this would be helpful stuff), find out about traditions, and see photographs.

This is a really great learning tool, especially for those of you who have kids in school. Check it out!

http://www.army.com/

Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com