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CyberArtisans Web Developers Newsletter )
Keeping you up to date on the web October 2008
In this issue
  • Important Windows Update
  • Ultimate Geek Holiday Present
  • Basic Tech Tips

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    Welcome to the October 2008 issue of the CyberArtisans newsletter!

    Each month we try to present information that will be useful to you as a website owner and as a user of the web. If these newsletters are useful, please forward this to a friend. To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the bottom of this email.

    		Important Windows Update

    Normally Microsoft sends out product updates on "Patch Tuesday," the second Tuesday of each month. However, Microsoft considered the most recent update sufficiently urgent to send it out off-schedule last week.

    The update is applicable to all recent versions of Windows. The reason Microsoft considered this so urgent is that the vulnerability is similar to one that was exploited by the MSBlaster worm in 2003. This worm worked its way through the Internet at astonishing speed and created a lot of havoc among computer users.

    If your system is set to apply updates automatically you don't have to worry about this at all. But if you install updates manually you should go to the Microsoft Update page as soon as possible and install this update.

    		Ultimate Geek Holiday Present

    Looking for the ultimate holiday present for your favorite geek? Look no further. The WiFi T-Shirt sports an active decal that displays the current WiFi signal strength wherever you are. Quoting from the product description: "The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding wi-fi signal strength fluctuates. Finally you can get the attention you deserve as others bow to you as their reverential wi-fi god, while geeky chicks swoon at your presence."

    Well, maybe. Anyway, you can get it here:

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/illuminated/991e/

    		Basic Tech Tips

    Many of us who use computers 8+ hours/day have found a variety of shortcuts that make the work process faster and easier. We are constantly amazed that most people, even fairly experienced computer users, don't know them. We are also frequently amazed to find new shortcuts that we don't know.

    Recently, David Pogue, the personal-technology columnist for The New York Times, compiled a list of some of these tips. A few of them are listed below but you can go to his column to read the full list.

    • You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.
    • You can hide all windows, revealing only what's on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: hit the Windows key and "D" simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). That's great when you want to examine or delete something you've just downloaded to the desktop, for example. Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.
    • On most cellphones, press the Send key to open up a list of recent calls. Instead of manually dialing, you can return a call by highlighting one of these calls and pressing Send again.
    • When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don't. At least not until you've first confirmed its truth at snopes.com, the Internet's authority on e-mailed myths. This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and – especially lately – nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.
    • When you're filling in the boxes on a Web page (like City, State, Zip), you can press the Tab key to jump from box to box, rather than clicking. Add the Shift key to jump through the boxes backwards.
    • You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).
    • Whatever technology you buy today will be obsolete soon, but you can avoid heartache by learning the cycles. New iPods come out every September. New digital cameras come out in February and October.

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