Announcements

OK - All I Can Say Is "WOW!"

We had a tremendous response to our language software deal on Friday. A big thanks to the hundreds of you who have already placed your orders :-) The shipping department is getting a lot of overtime this week!

Again, we have 19 different language titles from Talk Now and they are only $12.97 each. Plus, we still have our "Buy 2 or more Talk Now titles and get a free headset microphone ($19.95 retail value)" deal going on. So, if you want to learn more than one language, now's the best time!

The program uses games, quizzes, and similar methods to teach you how to speak in your new language. Of course, it's full multimedia, so you can hear the words pronounced for you (by both a man and a woman). It's a lot of fun - more than I ever thought it would be! From start to finish, the whole thing is very interactive. I find it’s a lot easier than trying to listen to cassettes or reading a book.

Again, I think this is one of the best language series I've ever seen and it makes leaning a new language incredibly easy. I tested the "Talk Spanish Now" and feel I could be fairly good (not fluent or anything, but able to communicate) by using this software for just 15-30 minutes a day for a week or two.

Anyhow, here's the link for more info: http://www.worldstart.com/store/talknow.htm

PS - Don't hate yourself for missing out on this one! It's a fantastic deal.

Computers 101

Q:
I was on the internet and got Error Code 404. What is this?

A:
It happens to all of us. We're surfing along, and up comes an error. What do all those error codes mean? Here's a quick rundown of the most common:

400 - Bad Request - You probably typed in a URL wrong, the server has no clue what you're looking for, or you aren't allowed to have access. Usually, it's a matter of the URL being typing in wrong. Maybe you mixed upper and lowercase letters or something.

401- Unauthorized Request - you tried to get to something on the web server you're not allowed to play with. In other words, you ain't on the party list.

403 - Forbidden - You can't access the page. You may not have access (it may require a password), or it may be blocked from your domain.

404- Not Found - The page you were trying to look at was not found on the server. This is probably the most common error you'll come across. What has probably happened is that the web page you were going to has been removed or re-named.

500 - Internal error - Usually caused by a CGI error. You fill out a form, but the script used to process it is not working properly.

503 - Service Unavailable - The server may be overloaded, down, or have other similar problems. Try later.

--Steve

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

Tip of the Day

What’s a Favicon, and can I get one?

This one goes out to all you webmasters out there! (Yes, you are a webmaster even if all you have is a one-page site that lists your favorite food, your pet’s name, and the greatest place you ever went on vacation!)

Have you ever bookmarked a site and then tried to find it again later in the sea of bookmarks that spills down from your Favorites menu?

If you’ve ever bookmarked Yahoo or Google or ESPN and you’re using Internet Explorer 5 or above, you got a special, custom icon in your favorites menu! Nifty, huh?

THE COOL PART

The cool part of this all is that you don’t have to be Yahoo! or Google to set one of these custom icons up! They’re called “favicons” – it stands for FAVorites ICONS, get it? And they’re really simple to install. If you’ve got a web site, you can install a favicon and be the envy of your peers. (If your peers are kind of geeky, anyway.)

HOW TO DO IT

1. Get on the Internet and look up ‘favicons’ in your favorite search engine. A quick search turned up http://www.royaltyfreeart.com/favicons.html, which has a .zip file with tons of possible icons. There are lots of related sites out there, so find an icon you like. (Or you can grab one of the freeware programs that will let you make your own!)
2. Once you’ve chosen and saved your icon, right-click on it in Windows Explorer and select ‘rename’ from the menu that pops-up. Rename it “favicon.ico”.
3. Upload the newly renamed file to whatever directory is home to your web site. This usually requires you to use FTP, unless you have a web-based file transfer system, like in Geocities. Make sure the file is sent as a ‘binary’ file, not ASCII, if you have the choice.
4. Bookmark your site! You can bookmark any file that is in the same directory as your favicon, and your browser will find the file and use it in your favorites menu.

THAT’S IT?

Yup. Simple, hey?

Certain browsers may occasionally stop showing the icon for a while, and then one day it will just randomly reappear – just one of the quirks of the Internet. If you want to show a friend and the icon happens to be ‘missing’ at that moment, you can make them reappear by re-bookmarking the site.

Have fun!

-- Tom Dalton

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

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

An Atlas of the Universe

Have you ever wondered what the universe actually looks like? Now you can with the Atlas of the Universe.

The page contains nine different maps to give you an idea of what the universe actually looks like. The nine maps start with the nearest stars and then move out ward farther and farther away from the Earth. You can even see the negative version of these maps. And there's even a glossary to explain some of the terms used on the page. Have fun with your look into the galaxy.

http://anzwers.org/free/universe/

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