Fred and Susan's Easy Net Solutions
Roy S. Carson
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Dear Internet Friend:
We enjoy listening to conversations about the Internet. Of course there
are the fanatics, the skeptics, and those who are "experts" but have never
been on the Net.
Recently, we heard a psychologist who heads a psych department say the net
is a waste of time, because professors send email instead of walking across
campus and talking to each other. (We've been in academic departments where
people just sue each other. Any email would have been greatly appreciated --
as long as it was not a lawsuit via the net!)
Thanks for reading the newsletter and for all of your thoughtful feedback.
Have a great weekend.
Susan and Fred
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The Net of It
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Internet Banking Solutions
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The Net . . . like the personal computer itself a few years ago . . . has
been in need of a "killer application," one really good use to make it all
worthwhile. At last the killer application of the Net has been found.
Online Banking. IBM and a consortium of large banks are finally getting
their act together. The company is called Integrion. This is company
that will create standards and hopefully put online banking on the Net.
As far as we are concerned, Online Banking is the "killer app" for the Net.
What online banking means to us is paying vendor bills, making money
transfers from one account to another, having financial statements
integrated with it and (blue sky) one day having electronic data
interchange (EDI) between all companies so that invoicing, accounts
payable, accounts receivable, and payments can flow easily--without paper.
This will truly enhance productivity. Part of this, of course, must
include being able to make and receive electronic payments via the Net
easily. All the controversy over credit cards and weird ways to pay on
the Internet is getting old.
To make this all happen there must be standards, standards, standards.
Let's hope this happens soon.
If you would like to read more on this subject, check out the following
resources.
http://nytsyn.com:80/live/Latest_columns/253_090996_114007_31253.html
http://techweb.cmp.com/net/online/current/ncweekly/current/news1.htm
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More Internet Solutions
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!!!Free Internet Access for Everyone!!!
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Not too long ago, we heard about Juno's free e-mail service. It is free
because it is advertiser-supported. It works and is effective for the
individual that requires e-mail only. That got us thinking. It seems to
us it may be only a matter of time before complete Internet access is free.
For example, let the Coca-Colas of the world place unobtrusive ads in our
browser (that's how Juno does it). This would put their name in front of
us constantly and, for this small price, all of us could have free
(universal) access.
Of course we could all ignore the banner ads just the way we currently do
on TV, in the newspapers, on billboards. . . . So, since this is an
election year, we vote for free Internet access.
- Juno's free e-mail service is available for download at:
http://www.wideweb.com/juno
A subscriber let us know of another equally good FREE e-mail
service. http://www.freemark.com
There is no doubt that currently e-mail is the power tool on
the Internet. We both get most of our Internet information via e-mail.
Either the information is popped directly into e-mail or it reminds me to
visit an important site. Many businesses, Web sites, and people I discuss
this with think I am crazy when I mention this. However, any time I try
to make my bookmarks work for me, they get unruly within a day.
Ultimately, I ignore them.
There is a good recent article in NetGuide. Robert Seidman, the author,
has a very successful e-mail newsletter. He is also Editor at Large of
NetGuide Magazine. He has over 10,000 e-mail subscribers. If you want
some information on the power of e-mailing, he brings out some very good
points.
http://techweb.cmp.com/net/magazine/current/columns/insider.htm
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Voluntary Subscription Fee
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Like many newsletters and digests on the Internet, we have decided to ask
for a voluntary payment for our newsletter--$20 per year for 50 issues.
Receipts will go directly to defraying publication costs, compensating for
our time and effort, and enabling us to create additional useful sources of
information on the Internet.
SOMETHING FOR YOU=85 All paid subscribers will receive a FREE BOOK (your
choice of either Internet Success With Fred or 301++ ways to get ahead --
business success from home). Both books, published by Vanatech Press,
retail at $19.95, and are illustrated.(Internet Success With Fred has been
carried by Barnes and Noble/301++ ways to get ahead has been a library
favorite around the county.) As an added benefit, shipping is free.
Once we receive your $20 voluntary donation, we will ship your free book
within 48 hours. You must include your shipping address with your book=
order.
You can view covers of these books and read more about them by visiting our
online Branson book site at http://www.branson.com/branson/vanatech/
(But don=92t order your free book from the 800 number listed at the site,
unless you want to pay full price!)
If you feel that you are receiving value from this weekly newsletter, then
help us survive and thrive. Send $20 to Fred and Susan Klopfer,
212 Blue Waters Court, Hollister, MO 65672 USA.
Thank you.
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Letters from Cyberspace
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If you have any comments, please take a moment to forward them to us at
sklo...@vanatech.com
>From Virginia . . .
I think that the Net is slowing down at certain times. Last night, for
example, I logged on to review a site, but it didn't come up within 3
minutes. To check whether it was the site's fault or the Net's, I moved
over to one of mine. Mine usually comes up within 20 seconds, but it
didn't come up within 2 minutes last night. Also, when I tried to access
my email last night, Pegasus just sat there and finally got disconnected.
I first noticed the slowdown last week. Wednesday was very slow during
the day.
Anyway, I do think that we have a problem coming on.
Fred's Comment . . .
Frequently, I think the slowdown is directly caused by the local Internet
Service Provider (the ISP) not the Internet itself. I have tested that
assumption and frequently it has proven true.
So if it keeps being a problem, get another ISP--there are lots of them
now. In fact, if you look around (or ask me) one will probably turn up
that is cheaper than the one you're using--unless you have one of those
many freebies.
By the way, we've found that some people have two ISPs with two different
e-mail accounts. That way for an extra ten bucks or so a month, you're
never without e-mail and access to the Net. You can even get your mail
forwarded automatically from one account to the other, so you only have to
look for it in one place. Then if that account goes down or gets too slow,
just flip over to the other.
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Solutions of the Week
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- Are you Wired? - Well . . . Hot Wired wants you to be. They have come
out with an excellent site. The site contains most of the search
engines and most of the subject areas of interest to all of us. This
includes business, stock market, health, entertainment, government,
politics, news, magazines, libraries and much more. In all there are 24
different subject areas. This is a must see site. Plan on exploring it
for a long time and make sure you bookmark it, put it on your desktop or
have easy access to it. Make sure you check this site out! Now!
http://www.hotwired.com/wiredsource/
- Searching and finding things on the Internet is always an interesting
"battle." Here is an article from PC Computing that summarizes most of
the major search engines. You may learn something about them that you
didn't know. We have found that if we are doing a "serious" search, it is
worth using all of them. That is easy to do by going to any one of
several different sites. One that we use frequently is C|Net's at
http://www.search.com
The article: http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea1096/sub2.html
- The Intranet (that's TRA not TER) - Most articles that we read about the
Intranet are mumbo jumbo, high tech, hype it up, sell the Intranet.
Intranets may be great, but the bottom line is the bottom line.
Conventional wisdom says, "the Intranet is where the money is." The
InTERnet is Free-net and the InTRAnet is big bucks. The site below is a
good, non-technical article about Intranets. It has some good, practical
information.
http://techweb.cmp.com/net/magazine/current/features/intranet/intranet.htm
- Trade Show anyone? - Do you need a good excuse to get out of town? Check
out this site to see where there is a good trade show. They have them for
just about any industry and in many countries. Happy learning, partying,
and traveling.
http://www.tscentral.com/
- Politics as Usual? - Maybe not. Phil Noble, the Internet consultant to
this magazine (Campaign and Elections), does not think so. He believes
that by the year 2004 the Internet will have changed all the rules of
politics. Check out the magazine and his article, "Net the Vote," for some
valuable insight.
http://www.camelect.com/
http://www.camelect.com/july/net.the.vote.html
As long as you are in a political frame of mind, you might want to check
out Politics Now. This site has article "feeds" from Newsweek, Washington
Post, Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and National Journal.
http://www.politicsnow.com
- Mutual Funds Anyone? - If you invest or desire knowledge about Mutual
Funds, this site is for you. Oh, by the way, here is a good example (or
bad as the case may be) of using Frames and Applet technology that slows
down access to a Web site. Here is first-hand experience of a high-tech
design that is a nuisance. However, the content is good.
http://www.mfea.com/
- Mutual Fund Quiz - As long as we are talking about mutual funds, why not
take a quiz about mutual funds? Learn how much you know about mutual
funds.
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/cgi-bin/GDML/gdmldb?money-mutual-fund-quiz
- Life Insurance - LIFE-Line is an educational site designed to provide you
with straightforward, unbiased information on life and health insurance.
Learn about what to look for in an insurance company and agent . . . what
complicated terms really mean . . . and what your life is worth to your
loved ones. Just click, and the education begins.
http://www.life-line.org/site1.cgi
- Are you healthy? - As long as we are talking about life insurance, we
might as well check out a site about health. There are all kinds of
articles and a search engine for health-related articles. I needed to know
something about vitamins so I checked it out here.
http://www.reutershealth.com
- Quicken on the Net - Intuit (the famous maker of Quicken financial
software products) has a very interesting Web site. It is interesting for
many reasons. Of course their goal is to sell product. However, to add
value they provide information about insurance, banking, news (in many
industry categories), and investments. It appears they will also be
offering a personal news service shortly. This is going to get as boring
as search engines . . . soon. If you are a fan (or not) of Intuit products
check this site out.
http://www.qfn.com
And if you are interested in online banking here is an interesting article
about Intuit.
http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/960916/tech/stories/intuit_1.html
- Controversy Online - There is a lot of conversation about the issue
of . . .are people telling the truth when they are online (chat rooms) or
when they're creating other content on the Net? Check it out.
http://www.norwich.net/~randyg/images/86.gif
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Corporate Skills May Pay Off
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Relax and think for a moment . . .what skills have you acquired from your
employment over the past months or years? Can you organize projects? Use a
computer to build a spreadsheet or type a letter? Can you write personnel
policies? Design modular equipment? Are you good at showing people how to
perform tasks? Even if you have to turn in the company cafeteria card on
your way out the door, the corporate bean counters can't keep any of the
skills and experiences you've acquired on the job (not that they wouldn't
try) ...
FREE: We are offering a free online selection from "301++ ways to get
ahead--business success from home to our subscribers." The selection is from
the chapter called "Corporate Skills Pay Off." We wrote this book for
Vanatech Press and it has many great ideas and resources for people who want
to start full or part time home businesses, and it contains loads of
specific, useful, home business ideas...
Send an e-mail to sklo...@vanatech.com to receive this free information.
Be sure to include your email address so we can send you this free chapter
right away.
BTW, you're invited to take a peek at SUSAN'S LITTLE INTERNET BLACK BOOK
http://www.cf.ac.uk:80/uwcm/pr/black_book.html where you'll find dozens of
intriguing and educational hyperlinks in cyberspace. This is the newest
edition of the Black Book.
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"Later Gator" (with football season upon us, we changed the programming).
Also, if you could, briefly tell me why you are departing. This will help
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Wishing You Net Speed
____________________________
| Susan Klopfer, MBA |
| Fred Klopfer, Ph.D. |
| Editors |
| P.O. Box 646 |
| Branson, MO 65615 |
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Copyright =A9 1996 Fred Klopfer and Susan Klopfer All rights reserved.
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Let Fred and Susan do your surfing... Send blank message to
fre...@infoback.net and enjoy Fred and Susan's Easy Net Solutions...
Also you're invited to visit Susan's Little Internet Blackbox at
http://www.cf.ac.uk:80/uwcm/pr/black_book.html
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