Announcements

National Geographic - Gone Forever?

Here's the story:

For the last couple years, we've been able to feature The Complete National Geographic, (currently a 32 CD ROM set that includes every page from every National Geographic magazine from the original in 1888 thru 2000).

A couple weeks ago we were told - by the publisher - that these are no longer going to be made. The reason was not due to lack of interest—this was the #1 reference title in the country almost every week. Nope, the problem is that the photographers were not being paid royalties on the images. They sued to stop publication and won.

Now, when you consider how many images National Geo had for the last century or so, that adds up to a lot of royalties. Even if the photographers were only paid 1 cent for each sale, you're still talking over $1700 added to the price! And I somehow don't see them just taking a penny a pop.

So, National Geographic had to tell the publisher (Topics) to stop producing these. We got in on the last batch they had and once they're gone, we are not going to be able to get more.

The publisher isn't optimistic about these ever getting published again. If they do, it could be years before it happens and who knows what photos may be missing? This just became an instant collectors item and just about everyone here has grabbed one. If you want in on this, get to the site now!

Here's a description:

The Complete National Geographic features over 1,200 issues and let me tell ya—I had a terrific time going through all the old articles, pictures, and ads. Each issue is presented exactly as it was when it was originally published—every page, every picture.

I spent over an hour just browsing through dozens of old issues. I especially like to look at old advertisements, you know, checking out what the "cutting edge" stuff was way back when.

With all the changes taking place in the world today, it's a lot of fun to see how things were in the past. It's amazing to look back and see how some of the "revolutionary" stuff got started—and how some of it never did. This collection is like having a personal time machine that can show you the world the way it once was.

Here's some more info on the program:

- 185,000 Spectacular photographs and illustrations.
- 1,285 issues in all
- Search engine helps you locate the issue / content you're looking for.
- Over 9,500 articles!
- Over 196,000 pages in all!
- Print any page with the click of a mouse
- And more!

The price on this is only $64.97 with FREE US SHIPPING (list $149.95)! Everyone has told me to raise the price one these, but for now we're going to sell them at our normal discounted rate.

Here's the info and order link:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/national-112.htm

Needless to say, there is a very limited quantity of these available, so head to the site ASAP if you want yours! We sold out of MS Picture It Silver the other day, and I'm betting it's going to happen again with this. Remember, once these are gone, there are no more available.

Don't miss out!

Computers 101

Q:
Yesterday you mentioned checking system properties. How do I do that?

A:
Well, you *could* click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel, then open the System icon.

Here's the quicker way...

Hold down the ALT key and double click the My Computer icon on your desktop.

And you get this:

Now you can find out almost everything you need to know about your system.

~ Steve

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

Tip of the Day

Get Yer Computer Details

Want to figure out all your computer specs? Stuff like CPU speed, RAM, Hard Drive space, screen resolution, etc? It's actually not as easy as it should be. Maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell, you have to go to separate areas in Windows to figure this it out.

So here's a how-to chart:

RAM & Windows Version -
Right-click My Computer and select Properties. The screen that pops up will give you info on what version of Windows you're running and how much RAM is currently installed in the machine.

Hard Drive Space -
Open My Computer, right-click the C: drive, and select Properties from the resulting menu. You'll get a handy little Pie chart that gives you used and available HD space.

Screen Resolution -
Right-click the Windows Desktop and select Properties. Hit the Settings tab on the resulting screen. You'll see your resolution and color depth listed there.

CPU Speed -
Windows XP will actually give you this if you right-click My Computer, Properties. However, older versions of Windows won't give you the slightest hint as to the CPU speed.

So, what can you do?

First place to look is towards the top of the screen when the computer first starts up. Some machines will display the type of processor and speed. If you have some sort of splash screen come up when you first turn on the computer, try hitting the Escape key. Sometimes that will remove the splash screen and let you see the "real" screen behind it.

If that doesn't work, you may need to find a third party software utility to check CPU speed. I haven't run one of these for a couple years, so I don't really have a good one to recommend. However, if you head to: http://downloads-zdnet.com.com and type "CPU speed" into the search engine you should be able to come up with several good (and probably free) utilities that can get you CPU speed for you.

~ Steve

Have an original tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/writers-guidelines/index.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Hot Rod Magazine

I love hot rods! I've always wanted to build my own hot rod from the ground up. If you've been a fan of the magazine for years, you will love their website.

You can read about the technical side of hot rods, get important how-to information, check out their featured cars, project cars, the history of hot rods, and find out about rodding events around the country.

I loved the sweet pictures of the flaming ’51 Kaiser Special.

Cruise on over!

http://www.hotrod.com/

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