The duty of all things is to give joy; if they do not give joy they are either useless or harmful.

I'm visiting the Continent for a month. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, I'll still be in touch via email and cell phone. Message me. I'll reply as soon as I can.

How Much Is Too Much To Spend on E-Commerce?

"An early (four-to-six-month) return on investment of approximately 10 to 22 percent would be an early indicator that a specific e-commerce software initiative has significant potential to affect a business' bottom line," Rosall said.

If economy is of primary concern, you could consider FreeHostingWeb.com, "Faster, smarter website hosting. No monthly fees." (One time setup fee of $49.95).

Geeks. Laws. Everything in between: "Greplaw is a production of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Greplaw's goal is to create a frequently updated, highly interactive forum for the dissemination and discussion of legal news concerning information technology."

If you're not using Eudora as your email client you can stick your head back into the sand at Microsoft Land and curse the darkness that accrues to Outlook and Outlook Express... or you can download a copy and begin to enjoy the world of email like you did twenty months ago.

If you ARE using Eudora, extend its reach with help from the folks at Interweb. "This site contains a listing of existing EudoraTM Plugins for WindowsTM, and also some very useful Add-ins. There are currently 43 plugins and 42 add-ins."

The browser wars are over for the time being and it appears Internet Explorer is the most used software on the Internet. It's not the most convenient for many multi-user families who have come to depend on the management features available in Netscape that allow access to individuals' configurations at startup. This links for you: Netscape 7 Help and Tips.

"Mensa Workout": Brain Games!

Clay Shirky writes about the Internet, Economics & Culture, Media & Community and Open Source. In "Half the World" he debunks that commonly misused equivocation regarding digitally challenged peoples the world over who must certainly HAVE used a telephone before today.

If you're like most computer users, you use your browser to view jpegs, notepad or Word to open your documents and Windows Media Player to play multimedia files. And you need this security update: 26 June 2002 Cumulative Patch for Windows Media Player.

Or Maybe Not!

MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box: Maybe it's time to reconsider your dependence on Microsoft...

Library costs in the real world: You knew all those periodicals weren't promotional copies sent to the library for free, didn't you?

MrExcel.com is an entire community of Excel power users who are dedicated to helping you unleash the power of Excel.

Windows 9x/ME VBScript Tools from Bill James · Microsoft MVP: a few little things PowerTools was missing....

IndigenousMedia.org: "The beginnings of a network of indigenous journalists," from around the world, this group hasn't posted since the 22nd of May. They've taken the first steps to disseminating their message on the Web, a campaign for the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide, and I hope they flourish.

What's good for weblogs is good for the web. Believe this and together we'll all make the web a better place. Read "30 days to a more accessible weblog," apply just a few of the suggestions you'll find there and you'll be adding your contribution to a ubiquitous internet.

What the web is good for: 1. The Internet Picture Dictionary a completely free, online multilingual picture dictionary designed especially for ESL students and beginning English, French, German, Spanish and Italian language learners of all ages. 2. The American Sign Language Fingerspelling Converter. Only too wonderful!

Demistifying the Command Line: It's still there, hiding behind your Graphical User Interface, the black screen with the blinking cursor that allows you to access the raw power of the operating system. It's still around and it's not going away so you might as well acquaint yourself with it.

Seven Things Marketers Want From Vendors: The future of the Internet isn't in the hands of former Worldcom and Enron executives. If you want to know what the next biggest thing is, listen to the marketers.

The "Delete Key" never did what you thought it did. In 'War Room,' they have ways of making a PC talk

Want to delete data from your computer? Here's the Farwell approach: "You take the drive out and you hit it with a sledgehammer — and then you shred it." Anything less, and he's going to resurrect some of that data.

R2 Studios writes and distributes freeware. Unique, useful and absolutely free, they sound like they just stepped out of a timewarp circa. 1996 or '97. Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each program and if you're running old, slow gear like I am, this could be a godsend. Tonic is Instant Messaging software for the LAN - room to room in a SOHO household, between cubicles in an enterprise, without having to access the internet. Many other titles available.

Warchalking: WIFI - Wireless Fidelity, is just catching on here in Honolulu. Elsewhere this new technology is spreading fast enough that an enthusiastic group of freeloaders has, "hit upon the idea of creating a hobo language for wireless access points. Find a node, and leave a chalk symbol for others to find the node with a minimum of all that tiresome netstumbler business." Look for these symbols on a wall near your favorite coffee shop and be informed whether or not free access is available.

Doctors vs. Geeks:

"The problem is that none of the geeks' efforts stemmed from the worlds of physiology, endocrinology, nephrology, neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology, or any of the other dozens of -ologies that medical school students are inundated with. We were technology generalists and that high-level system view of information flow, system interactions, and design insight necessary to build a complex information system was completely at odds with the medical culture."

I've emailed this link to my neighbor who's an Interventional Radiologist and a serious home networking geek himself, and asked him to comment by email to the author, cc: to me. I'm going to enjoy hearing his take on this article which raises some interesting philosophical questions about the value of life and living and, in the end, praises both professions.

The .bat file is alive and well at Gord's World of Batch Files. "On these pages are batch programs -- 55 in all -- that edit, copy, delete, swap, compare, create, generate, locate, navigate, test, store, restore, recover, backup, and other things done with files, folders, and disks."

The Converter's Paradise: because sometimes you don't need the whole shebang, you just need the write tool!

Interaction Design Patterns: A handbook of Information Architecture Hypertext navigation and an object lesson in same.

Fiftieth: This short-short-story-in-dialogue may ring familiar for those who attended their class re-unions this summer, no matter what year you did - or didn't - graduate.

Email etiquette: The short course on effective email exchange in the Enterprise. Most of us, but certainly not all of us, practice these common sense tips every day. Compare your use of email with these suggestions and adjust as needed.