"Alice in Computerland"

Alice stared at the box. It was the size of a picture book and opened like one, but would only open once. Alice had heard of others of it's type - big boxes with long pieces of string joining bits and pieces.

Alice blinked. Would she ever be able to understand this magical wonderland.

And just then the fairy appeared and...


Whoa, hang on. I'm not a fairy! I'm a pixie. I'm the "Pixel Pixie."


Yes, it was the Pixel Pixie. She appears as many forms - that cute puppy or kitten or paperclip that shows up from time to time. She does know more that I do about these machines. Perhaps I should let her take Alice on her journey.


And rightly you should. So, let us start with the basics.


Alice blinked again. What were the basics? For she was one of the truely uninitiated (having just appeared suddenly out of an 18th Century socio-political children's novel into the techno-fantasy world of the early 21st Century).

"This," explained the Pixel Pixie, "is a computer."


Ooooooooh.


"Your 'Oooh's' are unnecessary. Yes, it is an awesome machine. Yes, it has a fascinating history, but so does the automobile and so does the printing press and, for that matter, so does the wheel and fire, but they are simply one more in the chain of progress."

"But how does it work?" asked Alice.

"Let us start at the beginning." Suggested the Pixel Pixie. "When the first computer was born their first goal was to make a machine to do mathematics."

"But I'm not good with mathematics." said Alice.

"Well," responded the Pixel Pixie, "then you can be thankful that the computer has gone beyond that. Now the computer is used for art, science, economics, you name it. But beware, for deep in the computer lies a complex beast that, if not understood, can detract from sensibilities, cause unnecessary anguish and undermine bank accounts.

"Consider this machine. You know of the obvious features - the keyboard where you type your commands," said the Pixel Pixie, "the mouse where you direct your desires, the microphone where you speak your words and the speakers where you hear the result. And let's not forget the all important screen where you see the results of your actions. But haven't you ever wondered what happens to your commands?"

"Well, um, no." responded Alice. "Not really."

"I don't blame you" said the Pixel Pixie." Most people don't. They see the computer like any other machine - like a television or a radio or an automobile. But when the mechanic of your car tells you that your headlights need fluid, do you really believe him?"

"I shouldn't?"

"Oh dear." murmured the Pixel Pixie, "well, that I'll leave to my counterpart, the Mechanic Mystic, but let us take the journey..."

Alice dissolved, shrinking, at the will of the wand of the Pixel Pixie, to the size of a speck of dust. And together they entered the wonderland of the computer - in this case, Compaq laptop, through the heat exhaust port and through the fan.

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Alice, "it's most dusty here."

"Yes," agreed the Pixel Pixie. "Sadly this is one of the most neglected places in a laptop computer. More people should make sure their computer ventilation system is properly kept clean, but unfortunately few do. Many a computer has suffered an unnecessary death because the computer cannot breathe, overheats and dies, A simple call to Widget Incorporated, for a few dollars, could save the life of your computer."

"Enough of death, let us continue."

"Agreed," said the Pixel Pixie. "Let us start with the engine room. As I said earlier, the first computers were made for mathematics and, like it or not, that's all a computer does. For the purpose of our journey, let's think of a computer as being a series of rooms. Let's start with the Processor room

"There's only one of them - or at least there used to be one. Now they're making computers with two or four of these rooms and there may be ones with even more than that in the future. Have you heard of the terms 'dual processor' or 'quad processor'?"

"No," said Alice, "I haven't. After all, I fell down a rabbit hole in a pasture in 1700 and something (or was it walking through a mirror, or, come to think of it, there was that guy 'Carroll' who gave me something he called 'opium.')"

The Pixel Pixie. blinked several times while she listed to Alice's story.

"Well, moving right along. The processor does the work in your computer. A dual processor does twice as much work and a quad processor does four times as much work."

"What kind of work?" asked Alice.

"See those guys?" asked the Pixel Pixie, and she pointed to a line of machines holding numbers who. when handed another number, would turn it into yet another number and then, when a clock chimed, would pass it to another machine like them or would hand it to..."

"Memory or disk space!" exclaimed the Pixel Pixie, as though she had pronounced the meaning of life. "But don't get the two confused," warned the Pixel Pixie.

"Why not?" asked Alice. "What is the difference?"

"This is where I become a true pixie," said the Pixel Pixie. "This is where I will save you money.

"There are two concepts here and both are often, mistakenly referred to as 'memory'.

"Let's start with a thought exercise."

"I'm not sure I can do that," exclaimed Alice, "having not thought much at all in my life."

"Well," said the Pixel Pixie, "Let's see how far we can go." She walked across the green circuit board and pointed to a slab of black boxes: "Did you have a dream last night?"

Alice was perplexed. "Uh, er, I guess so." She mumbled.

"Do you remember what it was?" asked the Pixel Pixie.

"No," Alice admitted.

"Good," said the Pixel Pixie, "You've just learnt your first lesson about computer memory. Let's assume that while the computer is turned on it's like your dream - it can remember everything, but when you turn it off, it's like when you wake up. That memory is gone. And, even when you're rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you might remember fragments of your dream, but unless you write it down it's gone forever.

"Back in the early days of computers, sometimes the memory would last, not for a long time, but for a few seconds - it's called "residual memory" and today it can still screw things up. Which is why we recommend that if your computer freaks and you have to totally pull the plug then you give it a few seconds before restarting (a good habit, but maybe this is old school).

"The point is that if you want it to last then, like waking from a dream that you want to keep, you have to write it down. This is disk space.

"Disk space is permanent memory - 'memory' as it's spoken of (or "ram" as it's termed - 'random access memory') is temporary, but disk space lasts forever! (or until you erase it)"

"But," exclaimed Alice, "it's all memory. And what about this 'flash memory' that I hear of?"

The Pixel Pixie drew a deep breathe, as though about to embark on a long journey (for she was).

"The 'Flash Memory' circuit is the only living threat to the traditional 'hard drive' and its story is an old, but interesting one.

"Once upon a time there the chip. And it was good, but it was hard coded - once written there was no way to change it. It was called ROM which stood for "Read-Only Memory." These chips were created from scratch and were unchangeable. Progress came up with a way to change them - we came up with a way to burn the information into the already made chips - instead of having them made from scratch. These chips were called PROMs - 'Programmable Read-Only Memory'

"What more could you want." Alice shrugged, for she had an idea. As full of tea and crumpets as the temporally challenged rabbit and his psychopathic hatter friend had filled her, as experientially intoxicated as she felt, the answer fell fully on her waltesque lips...

"Erasable!" Alice proclaimed with triumph. "We want to be able to erase the memory!"

"Correct!" Exclaimed a new voice. It was the most often heard, yet ubiquitously neglected voice of Flashy - the flash memory chip. Consider him to be the wandering mystic who roams the Kansas prairies, circumstantially redirecting young girls on a crusade to save their puppy from a dreadful fate during inclement weather, but if you think that this is an intolerable cross-mixing of fairly tales then imagine the Mystic Memory Manager to be an ally of the Pixel Pixie.

"I know everything," said Flashy. "Until someone tells me not to. My ancestors," he continued, "had an advantage over the PROMs. They could remember everything until they were exposed to light - ultra-violet light, to be precise. They would lose their memory if they were flashed with ultra-violet light. If you get your hands on an old circuit board then you will see my ancestors with stickers over their heads - they lived in houses with little windows on them.

"And if the curtains of the window were opened then everything the knew would be lost. They were the EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory."

"Now we live in a new age. We live in the age of the EEPROM - Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory." Said Flashy with some pride. "This is me and we are the greatest challenge to the hard disk. Disky has had the advantage for too long. Ever since the late 1960s has disky held the market. We, the "flash memory" are coming out and we will hold the future! The term 'flash' may have come from the use of UV light to erase our ancestors, the EPROM, but a new light dawns!"

"Putting aside the megolamaniacal tenancies of the flash drive," said the Pixel Pixie, "the distinction between long term and short term memory endures. When your computer claims 'insufficient disk space' then it does no good to increase memory. When your computer bogs down then it does no good to get a bigger disk drive (except that your computer can use disk space for memory but. oh my god is it slow)."

"And this doesn't even include video memory - special memory for the exclusive use of your screen (it's RAM - Random Access Memory - the temporary memory I mentioned earlier)."

The Pixel Pixie led Alice from the depths of the computer. Alice was stunned. "I had no idea that there was so much in a computer." She said. The Pixel Pixie nodded sympathetically. "I guess if I have problems then I should talk to someone who knows before buying anything."

The Pixel Pixie, gave Alice a hug and a tear formed in her eye. "There is so much about computers and you have just taken your first step." she said.

For once in her life, where the computer was concerned, Alice no longer felt in wonderland.

The Truth about Mpiskotphobia*

"It haunts me. I can't sleep at night."

"Um hmm." The Doctor scrawled a note on his notepad making the sound of understanding to show that he was listening attentively. He was your classic stereotype of a psychologist - grey hair with a beard, in a highcut suit, speaking, when he spoke, in a German accent.

"I thought they were harmless but that was before I understood. And then I started reading things, terrible things. They're watching me. Waiting to strike."

"Um hmm."

"I can't use it anymore." said the Patient, who could have been anyone, indicating the laptop computer he brought with him. "They might spring into action at any time and I'll be ruined!"

The Doctor turns to the camera and speaks.
"My friend here is suffering from an acute case of mpiskotophobia. The fear of cookies."
He returns to addressing the patient.

"I think what you fear is not the cookie, but what it can do to you. What would you say if I told you that there is no reason for your fear?"

"But I read things. They talk about how those things can destroy my computer. How they track me, like spies, always watching. Waiting for the right moment to drain my account and broadcast my doings to the world."

"You have been misinformed my friend. Cookies cannot destroy your computer. They are not programs. They do not 'run.' They sit quietly on your machine causing no harm. They are not viruses." The Patient gave a gentle shudder. "And you are right to shudder. Viruses can harm your computer or steal information. They are programs that do run without your knowledge. But cookies are harmless." The Patient was showing skepticism with a rolling of the eyes.

"I see your skepticism. Let me prove it to you. Open your computer." The Patient looked at the thing with horror. "You must," The doctor continued. "It is the most important part of your therapy." The Patient gingerly nudged the thing open, much as a person with a stick might turn over a rock covering a spider's nest. "Now turn it on." The Patient did so, with a quick stabbing motion, as though in fear of electical shock. The computer whirred into action. "Now let me show you." Quickly, the doctor opened a Windows Explorer window and navigated to the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\[the patient's login name]\cookies

"There's thousands of them! And the names, that's every website I've ever been to!" The Patient shrieked and began to hyperventilate.

"Not thousands. Only three hundred cookies can be stored a single user's system, according to the Netscape specification. And only twenty from any one domain. And they're not from every website. Only the ones that use cookies. Let's look inside one, shall we?" The doctor double-clicked a cookie file and it popped open in notepad (which it would do as cookies all use a .txt extension in Windows). Displayed on the notepad screen was, well, gibberish. "It looks scarey, but it isn't really. There are four parts to a cookie. They are:" And a scrolling screen dropped down behind the Doctor. It had four things listed:

The Data
The Domain
The Path
The Expiration Date

"Let us look at each of these parts in turn, shall we? First, the data. This is the information that the website is interested in. It is not your bank account number in Switzerland. It is not personal letters to your lover. In fact, it is only information that is known to the website when you visited it last time. This could be personal information if you filled it out in a form, but usually it is the pages you went to or your username and password."

"But why would they want to know that about me? Why are they after me?"

"They're not after you. They want your username and password so that you don't have to enter it next time you visit the site." The Doctor explained. "Instead of asking for that information they simply get it from your cookie. They might want to know which pages you visit so that they can have more information about what interests people - what pages they should improve and which ones people aren't going to so they can drive more traffic to them or get rid of them altogether.

"And if it's a store they might want to know what items you looked at last time so they can make recommendations of things that might interest you, this time.

"The second part of the cookie is the Domain. This is important because a domain can only read and write their own cookies. They can't read or write someone elses. So if you visit, for example (and I'm not accusing you, you must understand), hotblondes.com," The Patient blushed, "and then navigate to christianitytoday.com, christianitytoday can't read the hotblondes cookie and condemn you to hell. Your secret is safe."

"But," the Patient interjected, looking at the list of cookie files on the screen, "I've never been to doubleclick.com so why do I have a cookie from them? Surely another site must have put it there. And how do you know about hotblondes.com?"

"Er, um, well, anyway, no, another site did not put it there." said the Doctor. "That is what is called a 'tracking cookie.'" The term "tracking" conjured up images of shady characters in trenchcoats monitoring the Patient's every move.

"T-t-they're tracking me?"

"Yes, but it's nothing to be afraid of. And while you might think you've never been to this site, I'm afraid you have, without even knowing it. You've seen the ads on webpages, right?"

The Patient shrugged assent.

"Well, those ads don't come from the site. They come from an ad service. The website owners subscribe to an ad service which serves up the ads. And because the ads originate on the service's servers, they have the right to send a cookie along with the ad."

"Why would they want to do that?" The Patient asked, fear now starting to be scared off by curiosity.

"Because they want to know how best to target their ads. They know, for example, you went to websitex.com and were looking at, say, wrist watches. They know this because the page sent the request to the ad service. The next time you visit websitex they can know that you're in the market for a watch so they can show, as the next ad on that page websitey.com which sells watches.

"If you think about it, this not only helps the ad service, by making it more likely that they will have successful advertising, but it also helps you because you might not like the watches at websitex.com but you might see the ad which shows exactly what you're looking for. That sort of personalized advertising can save you a lot of surfing time."

"I see. So they're not tracking my every movement on every page."

"Not at all. They can't see the cookies except the ones they've set. Now, let's move on to the path." Said the Doctor, tapping the chart where it said "The Path."

"This tells the website which part of the site the cookie pertains to. This can be any directory on the site. When set the cookie can be read from this directory or any lower directory. If set to the root directory the cookie is good for the entire site."

"And why is that good?"

"From a user's perspective it really doesn't matter. But for the website owner it is useful because it helps them divide up the cookie tasks to different part of the site. In the old days of the slow internet it also sped things up, slightly - every time you hit the page the cookies for that page are sent, so if you're hitting a page that the cookie is irrelevent to then there's no point in sending the cookie. It's just wasted bandwidth. But now that the internet is so much faster and cookies are so small, there's not really much difference."

"How small? That's another thing that worries me. Even though there can only be three hundred cookies, who's to say that they won't store entire encyclopedia on my computer and leave me no room!" The panic was coming back and the Patient began to sweat again.

"The Netscape specification says it, that's who."

"But I use Internet Explorer."

"It doesn't matter. The Netscape cookie specification was created by Netscape Corporation in 1996 and has since become the standard for cookies in all of the major browsers. And the Netscape cookie specification states that cookies can be no bigger than four kilobytes, or 4096 bytes. The most space cookies can take up on your computer is 1.2 megabytes. Considering that the average hard drive these days exceeds eighty gigabytes, this is almost no room at all.
"And if they get in your way, simply delete them. Go to the folder I showed you earlier, select the files and hit the 'delete' button. Off they go. And if you don't want them to come back then there are settings in your browser to block the cookies. But I don't know why you would want to. That would mean that sites you visit regularly would be asking for your login information everytime you go there, or would stop you from shopping at certain sites because many sites store your shopping cart in a cookie so that you can pick up where you left off if you go away and then come back.

"Or you could simply wait for the cookie to expire. The last part of the cookie is the Expiration Date. When a cookie is set so too is an expiration date and when that date is passed the cookie is automatically deleted. A cookie with no expiration date set is available only for the length of the current session."

"I see." said the Patient, now starting to look visibly relieved. But then something dawned on the Patient who became agitated, another streak of panic starting to develop. "But who is to stop someone from stealing my cookie information when it's being sent?"

"No one. Cookies can be intercepted just like any other data on the Internet. Cookie information is simply part of the header information on an HTML page. And you remember what I told you in our last session, though, don't you?" The Doctor asked. Like a parrot the Patient repeated the mantra that the Patient was told to repeat while surfing the 'net:

"If you don't trust the safety of the information you are sending then don't send it."

"That is true. Remember, a cookie only has whatever information you give it. Apart from your IP address, but that's common knowledge, anyway. Anyone can randomly attempt to hit IP addresses and that why..."

The Patient picked up the beat, "a secure firewall is a must."

"Exactly! Very good." The Doctor commended. "But there is one more thing about cookies that you should know. If any sensitive information is being sent then the cookie can be marked as 'secure' meaning that the data can only be transmitted on a secure connection, meaning..."

"The data is encrypted."

"Excellent!" The Doctor applauded. "So you see there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to cookies. Cookies are not the enemy. They are your friends and make your Internet life so much more rewarding. Unfortunately, however, now our time is up."

The Patient carefully closed the laptop and snuggled it lovingly under the Patient's arm. The Doctor shook the Patient's hand warmly and walked the Patient out of the office. The Doctor then turned to the camera and spoke.

"It is sad that I see so many cases like this of mpiskotophobia. It is by far the most irrational form of technophobia. But our friend here is finally starting to get the message...

"Are you?"

The Doctor then turned to his secretary. "Remember to send the bill," he said, mentioning the Patient's name, "And confirm another appointment for a week from today. I'm sure the Patient return with a severe debt anxiety."

*Editor's Note: There is no such actual term as "mpiskotophobia." I totally made it up. I searched and searched but could not find any legitimate term for "fear of cookies." A shame, really, because the fear of cookies is both irrational and pandemic. There should be a term for it so I created this one. It comes from the Greek "mpiskoto" (a phonetic spelling) meaning "cookie" and, of course, "phobia" which comes from the Greek suffix "phobe" meaning "One that fears or is averse to a specified thing." [dictionary.com]

Comparing Social Media on the Internet

If you're trying to do low cost marketing on the internet, one of the places people (or any variety of media sources) might recommend to you is Facebook, MySpace, etc. While all of these can be great, you can be shocked or pleasantly surprised with what they are used for and how you can use them.

Facebook (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&id=preview) bills itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". It once was popular only among geeky college kids, but now is popular with people of all ages. It's still a great place for college kids to hook up - most universities have a "community" and most of them are closed to only members of that university. But it's also a good Web 2.0 application for online marketing. There are applications that allow you to add a business card, share links to your website, photos, books you're reading, music you listen to and more. The clean layout is nice too. This is an excellent place to start if you're comfortable with social networking and want to have some fun with your page and your identity.

My Space (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2F&id=preview) is billed as "a place for friends", but I have found it much more relevant for people who have a band or are 12. My Space has the ability to easily load up songs for a startup garage band and you can put your performance schedule on there as well. Beware though, the layouts are gaudy and the pictures and comments can be - well, "titillating". But this is almost a "must have" for anyone wanting to make it big in the music world. Most of the rest of us can really just skip it - unless you happen to have a lot of friends in bands. It's also a great way to get on the internet and spy on your 16 year old niece to make sure she's not pole dancing without your knowledge.
Linked In (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2F&id=preview) is the most serious and business-like network on the internet. If you're looking for clients, jobs or to hire someone this is your place. Hook up with former classmates, coworkers, friends in the neighborhood and post information about work experience, your company or any other networking information. It's a lot less easy to personalize, but far more effective if you're networking.

Twitter (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2F&id=preview) is great for text messaging addicts. I find it's a bit too tied up in the minutia of people's lives for my interest, but if your family and friends are nuts about texting, this may be for you! I have yet to really enjoy this medium, but perhaps it's because I'm not a texter, so I'm reserving judgment until I have a teenager.

All of these networking tools have ways to control who adds you as a contact or friend and all can be private or public. All of them have ways where you have to verify how you know people and provide their email or some details about them that would make them want to add you.

The downside is that there are people who set up profiles and never really check them again. Especially in more "mature" (ahem) age groups. But some embrace them and have a lot of fun with them - adding messages, etc.

There are many other social medias out there, for people who work at home, Moms, Dads, single people, and people with lots and lots of specific interests - music, books, crafting and more. Those are great if you're networking among a specific group of people or if you just like finding people who have the same interests as you. However, this should wrap up the big "4" of networking - get out there and go public on the Internet! It's fun!

Find Mary-Frances Main on social networks at:
MySpace: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fsharkeysday&id=preview
Facebook: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fprofile.php%3Fid%3D630365837&id=preview
LinkedIn: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fwidgetinc&id=preview
Twitter: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=totl8icab.0.0.z69mklbab.0&ts=S0312&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FSharkeysday&id=preview

Important tips for a successful website!

Something that I think all of my customers have in common is that they have been given bad advice about websites at one time or another, so I thought I’d use my newsletter to give out some advice that might (or might not) fit your business. Here are things I think are really important to successful websites:

• Keep your site fresh and keep it fashionable! Even a new picture on the front or a color change, helps to show people that you are keeping your site up to date.


• Make the site a marketing tool. Think about why you have a site. Is it actually generating anything for you or your customers?


• Set up an e-mail program. This is a fantastic and inexpensive way to keep connected to your customers.


• Create an online reward for prized customers. This doesn’t have to be huge. Just give them something for coming to you.


• Speed loading time. There’s nothing worse than having people give up on you because it takes your site forever to load. Not everyone has a “state of the art” computer. Keep that in mind.


• Align the site to the organization and make sure your site reflects your business and who you are.


• Add testimonials or success stories. I think this is key! People may not believe you’re the best, but if they hear other people say you are, they might take notice!


• Being cutting edge doesn’t always mean cutting edge technology. Cutting edge technology costs money. For the same money, you could do other more cost effective things to generate business like Google Ad Words or supplemental advertising. “Flashy” sites mean the owner spent a lot of money NOT that they necessarily are making a lot of money. If you need to promote that type of image then do it but sometimes simple is best!.

I always tell my customers to start small You can always add on and move to other platforms (for shopping carts) but to put a lot of money in up front just because you think you have to is bad advice and I refuse to give out any of that!

6 Points to a Successful Blog

This is an article from one of our past newsletters:

1. Choose a topic that you know, like, and are passionate about. This way you will never get bored and will keep your audience always interested and asking for more.
2. Open a Blogger account. It is free and easy to use. You can also use the free WordPress accounts or if you're more internet savvy install Wordpress and host it yourself. Blogger is owned by Google though and because of this, in my experience, you run higher onsearch engines.
3. Almost always post a picture with a blog entry! It adds interest and color. You can easily load photos free with Webshots or Flickr . They can be items, arty, family (crop and be artsy if you want) or whatever relates to your topic.
4. In your blog's sidebar, create links related to your topic. It looks bare without them and it creates more usable content for your readers.
5. Post, post, post! Two or three times a week is ideal. Once a week is the borderline minimum that I recommend to keep your audience engaged and maintain adequate visibility in the search engines. You can "pre-write" posts and post them as you go along. Most blog sites allow you to write drafts - post when you're ready!
6. Make comments on other people's blogs. They will most certainly come to your blog to say hi or see who you are. Community is what's most important in blogging and there are a LOT of blogs out there. Set yours apart from the rest!