A place for computer nerds (and I mean it with all due respect) to answer all our burning questions.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Answers

My first one is:

Say I work for a tightly-budgeted international non-profit that wants to offer its website in English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin and whatever else. How do we do it?

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Our resident computer nerd says to try Systran, that they may have something like what you need for non-profit companies...

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Al, you read my mind. I'm coming to the MATH kids to answer my burning tech question: I want to buy a DVD for Fathers Day. I know nothing about them. I don't want a piece of junk, but I'm on a limited budget.(ok, I'm just cheap. shut up.) Can anyone clue me in on what the features are for a DVD player? We have satellite TV and I'm coveting a Tivo. Any votes on which tech toy is better, the DVD or the Tivo?

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

I was recently upgraded to Windows 2K Professional Edition. Yes, professional! Whooo!

Explorer (not IE) is driving me nuts. I always want to see the file details and everytime I open a new folder, I have to set Views to Details. I can't find anywhere to set it permanently. Please help.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

TiVo rules!!! much better than a DVD but also more expensive, so there's that

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

The kind of DVD player you want depends on what you want to do with it. If you just want to just watch movies and don't have a surround sound system, the basic DVD player is fine. You can get one at Target for less than $100 and it should have all the features you need.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Melissa- If Win2K isn't vastly different than 98, this is what should work: Open an Explorer window set the way you want. From the View menu, choose Folder Options. In that window choose the View tab. At the top it says something like "You can make all folders look the same." and you can click "Like This Folder". I apologize if you've tried this and it didn't work.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

On the DVD tip -- there are also systems you can buy for under $400 that have the DVD player, receiver and speakers all in one set. Sony makes one like that. They work just as well as a regular DVD player, but they have everything together in one unit (speakers are, of course, separate, but come in the same box). That's if you want to go ahead and do the whole home theater thing. One of the nice things about DVD players is the dolby digital sound and you can't really take advantage of that with just two speakers or the TV speaker.

On TiVo -- a lot of people don't know, but if you already have digital cable and spend lots on that, you could always switch to Dish Network. They have a unit that has a TiVo-like recorder built in. It works fine, it holds 35 hours, and altogether I'm only paying about $70 a month for a gajillion channels, TiVo and a bunch of HBOs. That's less than what I was paying for digital cable. Local channels plus multiple UPNs and WBs are included.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Beth - Thanks for you help! I found it!

Win2k is slighty different, I found Folder Options under Tools, but with your help I knew what to look for.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Omar -- how's the reliability with the Dish Network? My parents have satellite and every time it rains they lose their signal. I'd like the gajillion channels but wouldn't be able to handle the rage if the screen went black during my favorite show.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

I've had dish for a year and it's only gone out like twice, and only during really violent storms. By comparison, my cable used to go down at least once every two or three months without explanation. (I still keep Road Runner as my ISP and that goes down on occasion too).

It probably also depends on what area you live in. If you're rural with tons of trees around, that might make a difference.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Al:

There is also Worldlingo.com.

I work with a couple of translation companies who ... looking at my files ... There is mcelroytranslation.com and transperfect.com.

I've worked with the people at transperfect.com -- Wendy Peel, in particular. They're great, fast and reasonably priced. Though, I've only needed them for documentation. But, I think some of them do translation work for both web and print.

Good luck!

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

I think that my TiVo died on me last night. I'm all distraught and stuff...but of course, this only means that I can get one of the new ones that are scheduled to come out in December that hook into our ethernet line.

You always have to see the silver lining, you know?

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Apparently my journal isn't coming up properly in Mozilla. Anyone know why that would be?

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Anybody got any advice for creating e-mail newsletters? Gotta do one for the job. I've never done an HTML one before, only basic text, but they want something fancy. Personally, I think the text ones are fine.

Anyway, it doesn't matter what I think, I'm only the marketing manager, right?

But, whatever - how do I do it? What do I use? Dreamweaver?

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Maybe this link can help you: http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/email- newsletter.htm

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Funny you ask, Al, since designing pages for e-mail campaigns is my, um, job. You can either hand-code them or make them in Dreamweaver, pretty much exactly how you'd design an HTML page for anything else. The sending them out part is a little more tricky, but the design part is same as it ever was.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Can I just say I hate receiving HTML email? Hate. Hate. Hate. It does unkind things to Lotus Notes, which is my required-by-work email client. Even at home with Outlook, I still prefer not to receive HTML email. I am a text-only kinda gal.

But, back on topic, I'm thinking of finally making the move to broadband. What's better? Cable service, like Roadrunner, or DSL?

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Can I just say I hate receiving HTML email?

Oh, you can say it. Loud and proud! Because I also hate it. Not only that, half the people who will be receiving this publication are in deepest, darkest Africa or India, where they probably receive their e-mail on a coconut. But, you know, what can I do? The boss wants to do it.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Not only that, half the people who will be receiving this publication are in deepest, darkest Africa or India, where they probably receive their e-mail on a coconut.

Don't ask me why but this slayed me.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

My two cents on the cable vs. DSL debate for Julie:

I have a cable internet access and am quite happy with it. My computer geeky coworker has DSL and is quite happy with it.

Computer geeky coworker says cable is faster.

Drawbacks to cable modem - the cable company has to come out and install a box and run a cable to the computer. If you live in a a house it's no big deal. If you live in a condo or apartment building, the entire complex has to be wired. DSL runs on your existing phone line.

Drawbacks to DSL: Special equipment may have to be installed on the phone lines to carry DSL. The phone company does this at one of their locations. If DSL has been available in your area for a while you probably won't have to worry about it. Computer geeky coworker was one of the first people in his area to sign up for DSL and it took weeks for them to get the phone lines 'clean' enough to carry DSL.

I would go by cost if I were you. (We had cable access before DSL so I went with the cable modem.) You'll need a modem for both so look for a package deal including the modem. Cost seems to vary from region to region.

One side effect to getting faster internet access? If you have an older, slower computer it slows down your download time. My old Pentium 133Mhz didn't cut it. I've got a 925 MHz Athlon now. Yeah baby!

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Funnily enough I just got sent info on a program that does just that... (Guy wrote a backup app we used for awhile, and this is his new thing...)

Check out http://www.newsletterease.com/ for more info.

Carl

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Oops - shoulda been more specific as to the ? I was answering - the "that" is rgd'ing email newsletter software...

Carl

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Any advice on how to send my resume via email when the recipient insists I paste it into the body of my message? How can I keep the formatting when I do this? I know if I cut and paste my regular resume straight from Word that, depending on the email client the recipient uses, they may get something that's completely screwed up (indents all wrong, no bold or underlines, etc.). But, if I send my resume with verrrry minimal formatting it looks unprofessional and as if I don't know how to put together something that looks good. Help!

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2002