SURVIVAL!

SURVIVAL TOOLS

CARE OF YOUR COMPUTER |DANGEROUS CREATURES |SURVIVAL TOOLS

PROTOCOLS

This seems this is the appropriate time to mention certain protocols on the Island Internet.

You may or may not have a website of your own. You may merely visit the Island for sun and fun, to swim in the waters, to get a tan and eat a few coconuts. However, if you decide to build your own Virtual Hut on the Island you will be part of the online community. There is one rule to mention. In this free wheeling environment it is easy to forget this one rule.

Rule: When on the Internet, thou shalt not steal.

This means that while you visit the sites of the web if you see a very charming graphic, well, sure, you can right click and have it all to yourself. Open it up, look at it at midnight, put it on your desktop and enjoy. But if you take that pretty graphic and place it on your website you may have infringed on a copyright. The same thing applies for TEXT, documents, web pages. This page for instance. It is protected by a copyright message on the bottom of the page. If a website has a statement that says "Copyright " that means thou shalt not grab and use anything on that website without the owner's express permission. Even if you don't see a "copyright" notice you may run afoul of the law if you steal something from pages. Quite frankly, the © on my main index page is enough to protect ALL my pages from theft.

Some websites say, "this is free to download but if you use it, please, we would like a link that states the source." By all means, please provide the artist with acknowledgement. That isn't much to ask as payment and it is part of the protocol of the Internet. Visit Grey Day or find our what The Eleventh Commandment is all about.

Maybe you see something you like, but it is copyright protected so you think to get around the "thief" designation by linking to the graphic. Every time someone looks at your webpage, they can see the other person's graphic (or text). However, this is called "bandwidth theft" by the natives and is frowned on as some people have to pay for the traffic on their page. They may (rightfully) resent paying so you may use their graphic. That is a no-no. There are many links to copyright law sites at GreyDay if you wish to learn more.

And yes, Virginia, good webmasters know how to check to see if their pages or graphics are being used elsewhere without permission. There are several ways actually.

DON'T ANNOY THE NATIVES

It is wise to brush up on your netiquette while exploring the Island Internet. When in Rome, do as the Romans do...

Whether it is email or mailing lists there are a few standards.

1. Sending a sentence or worse, gasp!! an entire letter by email, by instant message or to a mailing list in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS is considered "shouting" and is not polite except in extreme circumstances.
2. Replying to a previous post on a mailing list, with the previous letter included, in full, when your remark only pertains to one sentence, is a waste of space and time. Polite people snip the previous posts.
Forwarding a joke, which was a forward of a forward is extremely rude. The recipient has to click on 4, 5, 6, 8....10? previous letters to get to the joke, or story, or subject. Most natives will hit delete and ignore your offering. Unless they have nothing but empty time on their hands and no one else on their email list. Some of us work, you see. What is wrong with copying and pasting the joke into a fresh email and sending it off?
Worse than that, some of these Forwarders leave all the previous email recipients in this pile of email which a spammer could use for fun and profit.

SURVIVAL TOOLS

Here are some Survival Tools you may wish to use. It may depend upon your particular internet lifestyle whether these will be helpful.

While listed here, please note that the terms and conditions of any downloads may change at any time. SolsticePoint.com will not be held responsible for anything listed below which is no longer available.

PLEASE don't email SolsticePoint.com and ask how to install or use any of these. The websites describe all terms, conditions, costs and specifications. SolsticePoint.com receives no compensation for listing these programs. They are useful things found to be dependable and useful.

1. WinZip is a file compression utility. Duh, what's that mean, you say? Let's explain. It makes big files into little files to save storage space or for ease of transmission across the Internet. Add a 900 kb file to a Zip file and the program makes another file called yourfilename.zip which is as small as 200 kb. Find the latest version at winzip.com but it is downloadable at many sites.

2. NoNags is a favorite website because sometimes a small program is needed, but it isn't feasible to spend $ for a one time use. NoNags maintains a list of FreeWare and ShareWare that you may download safely (they check all the files for viruses) and they also rate the programs with little duckies. (2 ducks is so-so, 6 ducks is very good indeed) They carry only software that does not Nag you to buy it. If you have an ISP that knocks you offline every 20 minutes, for instance, you can probably find a program to run on your desktop that will prevent this problem. Hate pop up advertising windows? There is very likely a small program that can stop those annoying ads as well. Lots of other little helpers can be found including free versions of expensive software. Maybe you want a free graphics editor. Or to try an antivirus program before buying it. Interestingly enough, you will find NoNags at NoNags.com

P.S. In case you wondered: FreeWare means the program or download is FREE while ShareWare is usually a sample of a product which has limited functionality until registered and paid for. Some ShareWare programs count down and quit working after a number of days, while others one may merely have some functions disabled until you pay and register the program.

3. WS_FTP LE is a fairly easy to use FTP program. It is free for personal or educational use. If you have a website and need to upload files this is a stable program and the price is right. If you don't know what FTP is and don't have a website, don't bother. WS_FTP LE

4. Acrobat Reader is a cross platform file reading utility that you may need sometime or the other to read online documents. Many .gov sites use Adobe Acrobat. Sites that post these files usually have a download button on the page. Feel safe and secure--go ahead and download as needed.

5. If you have a web site Arachnophilia is a HTML editor which helps one create web pages. It is "careware" and it is suggested that you read the owner's definition of that term. It is very enlightened. As a matter of fact, reading his entire site will benefit your Internet experience. Find Arachnophilia here.

6. Different computers run at different speeds...literally. One computer may lose a few minutes every week and another one may gain a few minutes per month. At the Arachnophilia site there is a program one may download (under careware terms) called About Time. This program synchronizes your computer clock with the World Clock at any of several locations. This is a definite Survival Tool for an astrologer. (see other web pages at SolsticePoint.com about astrology)

7. CallWave offers an internet answering machine that takes messages while your phone line is tied up while using the computer. It is a solution for those who don't want to pay for a second line or can't get voice messaging from the phone company. The free version requires a small (miniscule) payment to the local phone company for call forwarding if you don't already have that function (mine costs 75 cents/month). For a few $ a month the CallWave upgrade provides some extra niceties (like caller ID and personalized greetings) as well. But if you install Zone Alarm, you must set Zone Alarm security to Medium for it to work.

8. Speaking of phones.... For those tying up their phone lines, EFax offers a free internet fax service. This is handy if you have friends who like to send faxes at 4 am. They won't wake you up anymore. The others won't get a frustrating busy signal when your computer ties up the phone line for hours on end either. The free version doesn't allow you to send faxes, but for some people that's ok.

Don't forget the essential virus protection tools listed at the Dangerous Creatures page!!

CARE OF YOUR COMPUTER |DANGEROUS CREATURES |SURVIVAL TOOLS