I feel sorry for those people who are interested in computers and the Internet, but who's native language is not English.

With all the hype, lies, hip-hop terms, misspellings and computer jargon that one sees in your email, it's difficult enough for any English speaking person to read, let alone understand the meaning or even the implications of the 24/7 gobbledygook.

So what if your mother tongue is French or German?
Well at least you can read the characters ..and you  probably learned some English at school too ..

Now what if you were born in China or one of the other remaining 60% of the world on-line who don't speak English?

I can imagine that the "English speaking" Internet must be a bewildering mine-field where one could only observe, dumbfounded from the sidelines, at the grotesque mesmerising spectacle that is "the web".

If I was unfamiliar with English, I may be tempted, but I would be very reluctant to leave my name and address at any old web site, even if the offer seemed obvious. I've heard too many bad stories.

That explains why I've been getting so many emails lately that are from ÖйúÃñÍø.com - they have a great offer on: s£½1Äê¹ú¼ÊÓòÃû£s. But how am I gonna ask if they have a size 12 in that?

Ok so I haven't got the Korean character set, but I think you can start to see what it's like to be "a foreigner" trying to communicate with the "western world". When every email and web page looks like  the above example, you can begin to feel what it's like to be an alienated by the English speakers.

The other huge gap that is usually forgotten by us is the difference in the value of the  world's currencies.

To a North American, a software title costing $59 might seem a reasonable price. To an Aussie that's
more than $120. To the citizens of some other countries, $59 is astronomical. Buying items on the Internet must be a rare and expensive experience.

For the vast majority of the world's people, $59 varies between the equivalent of a week's wages to a year's income!  Not that a poor person would ever want to buy that software, but it serves to illustrate the terrible inequality of life that leaves the majority of humanity under-privileged under-nourished, under- educated and in need of help from the rest of us.

OK this month's country is Australia, which by now you will have guessed is my home.

So have a beaut month and I'll see ya's all later ..
gotta throw some snaggers on the barbie and have another coldie. Cheers!

Dr John K. Flynn B.D.Sc.
The Xerostar Times Editor 
Caring for Creative People

Programs that conflict with each other, lost Internet connections, and sometimes the whole thing comes crashing to a halt --this is a productivity tool? 

Well, we're here to help. We deal with the various problems that arise on a regular basis, and through our experience, offer you some of our favorite tips to help you fix, work around, or maybe just cope with your computer. 

We'll help you speed up your system, make Windows look the way you want it, diagnose system crashes, improve your Internet connections, and more. Read on and learn about how to deal with some of Windows' greatest frustrations and how to make your Windows system run more smoothly than ever before. 

Back it up. Backing up your entire hard disk might be impractical, but make sure all your data files, customization files, Registry, and application configuration files are backed up. Don't just do it once --make it a regular habit. 

Make sure you have up-to-date Windows start-up disks (Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Startup Disk). Be sure to have copies of all your device drivers handy as well. 

Store your user names and passwords on paper and keep them somewhere safe. If you forget your Windows password, having it in a file on your PC won't help you. 

The Windows Registry is not something to be fooled with unless you have some experience using it already. Even if you are familiar with the Registry, you should be extremely careful not to stray from the task at hand or you'll risk severely damaging your system. 

Did we mention that you should back up your PC? 

Partition your hard disk. Put your data files on a separate volume from your operating system and programs. Put a copy of your operating system on a separate hard disk as well: It will make backups and reinstallation of software much easier. 

Paste a copy of each program's serial number to its CD jewel case, or use a permanent marker to write the number on the CD itself (on the label side!). 

If you're on a network, keep a copy of all your network settings (IP address, DNS, gateway, network card settings, and so on) handy. 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you have no compelling reason to open the case or upgrade your operating system or applications, don't. 

No kidding, we really mean it: Backup is important. 

For a list of PC problem-solving resources: 
Click Here
             ..

I've chosen to make this Forum 'public' so anyone can participate, so feel free to tell your friends!
To view the Forum:   Click Here
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Learn the secrets that the Top Internet Marketers use to explode their businesses into million dollar
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Most people harbour a particular image of Australia, such as the Opera House or blood-red Uluru (Ayers Rock). Yet these famous icons do scant justice to the richness of Australia's natural treasures and its cultural diversity. Australia offers a wealth of travel experiences, from the vastness and drama of the outback, to the spectacle of the Great Barrier Reef and its islands, the cosmopolitanism of Sydney and arguably some of the best beaches in the world. Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography in this huge country. It is this sheer vastness, and the friction between the ancient land steeped in Aboriginal lore and the New World cultures being heaped upon it, which gives Australia much of its character.

Full country name: Commonwealth of Australia
Area: 7,682,300 sq km
Population: 19.5 million 
Capital city: Canberra (pop: 313,000)
People: 94% European descent, 4% Asian, 1.5% Aboriginal
Languages: English, Aboriginal languages (plus numerous other European, Arabic and Asian languages)
Religion: 75% Christian, 1% Muslim, 1% Buddhist, 0.5% Jewish 
Government: Independent member of the British Commonwealth
Prime Minister: John Howard
Governor-General: Dr Peter Hollingworth

GDP: US$418 billion 
GDP per head: US$22,000
Annual growth: 4.5%
Inflation: 3% 
Major products/industries: Minerals, oil, coal, gold, wool, cereals, meat.
Major trading partners: Japan, ASEAN, South Korea, US and the EU.
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This download of ChessRally lets you play chess over the Internet, your local network, e-mail, or against several challenging computer opponents on your PC and contains both the Free Edition, a free full-featured e-mail chess game, and the Gold Edition, with all of the other features which is free for 15 days. At the end of the Gold Edition trial, if you choose not to upgrade to the Gold Edition, the Free Edition is yours to use for as long as you like without restrictions or nag screens. 

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A web site where you will find a huge choice of ezines covering every interest.

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If you've seen one of these sleek, futuristic panels, you may know the effect it can have: a quickening of the pulse, an inability to blink, the sudden urge to sell your car for cash. 

A flat-panel TV is only about three inches thick, so you can put it where a traditional set would never fit — hanging on a wall, for example. Just as on flat computer screens, flat-panel television images are much brighter than the pictures on standard sets, easier on your eyes (because they're flicker-free), and far cheaper to run, consuming 60 percent less power. These screens are absolutely flat, too, eliminating all glare and reflection from room lights. 

L.C.D. flat panels, by the way, aren't the same thing as plasma flat panels. Plasma sets are the really big ones — 40 to 61 inches diagonally — that you see hanging in trade-show booths, on movie sets and at Bill Gates's house.
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This magic program produces realistic 3D images of Books, Boxes, CDs  and DVDs. There is no other 3D cover program that comes close to this one
You can get a sneak preview of the results at our new web site. www.ebook3dwizard.com

You can download the free trial version and take it for a test run. Have a look at the examples, we think you'll be impressed with what this program can do.

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This is cutting edge software for the eBook author!
This program was designed to convert an MS Word document into a series of HTML pages. This allows an eBook author to create a large .exe eBook within a very short time frame. Until now, this has not been possible.  The program automatically links all pages ready for the compiler and there are many other features that are time and labor saving. Your eBooks become works of art. Our new web site can be seen at: www.ebook-composer.com

Shortly, you'll be able to download the free trial version and take it for a test run. 

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This is the very first in-depth critique of George Harrison's solo career since the break-up of 
The Beatles. 

Important Announcement!  May Sale!
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This web site is dedicated to finding suitable partners for Aussie blokes. Men are sent on a 2 week tour of Siberia (during summer) where they join a group of Siberian women who seek a husband and a new life.
The web site design is based on the beautiful carving that is part of the old wooden buildings in Tomsk,
Siberia. 
The tour is conducted by Visit Siberia.com
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The Australian Flag came into being after the the federation of the Australian States into the Commonwealth of Australian on 1 January, 1901.
Read about the origins of the Australian Flag and what the symbols mean. 

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Do you enjoy word puzzles or playing with words?
Are you a Scrabble®  fan?
This fascinating program will help you solve the
most difficult word puzzles. The manipulation of English words is taken to a new level. 
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A beautifully an uniquely decorated web site that's worth a visit for those seriously interested in the culinary art of Australia. 

YUMMO!! Food, food and more food!  We have some great and very unusual food in Australia - Vegemite, Lamingtons, Damper, Anzac Biscuits, Iced Vovos mmmm YUM!  or what about Stockman's Bootlaces, Curried Yabbies and Rice or even Dogs in Blankets?

If you feel like having a taste of the normal and not-so-normal Australian cuisines - then check out the recipes and history to some of these great foods at this web site!

The Australian Cuisine pages are only a part of Kim Holden's main web site Virtual Australia and there are links to her other web sites KH Design 
(Kim is a professional web site designer)
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I am a former elementary school music teacher from DesMoines, Iowa. I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons--something I've
done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability. I've never had the pleasure of having a protégé though I have taught some talented students. However I've also had my share of what I call "musically challenged" pupils. 

One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby. But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel. But he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he always say, "My mom's going to hear me play some day." But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in. 

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons. I thought about calling him but assumed, because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching! 

Several weeks later I mailed to the student's homes a flyer on the upcoming recital. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his Mom had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing. "Miss Hondorf...I've just got to play!" he insisted. I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. 

Maybe it was his persistence or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would home at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance 
through my "curtain closer."

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he' run an eggbeater through it. "Why didn't he dress up like the other students?" I thought. "Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?" Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen Mozart's Concerto #21 in C Major. 

I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from pianissimo to fortissimo.. from allegro to virtuoso. His suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by people his age After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause. 

Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. "I've never heard you play like that Robby! How'd you do it?" Through the 
microphone Robby explained: "Well Miss Hondorf...remember I told you my Mom was sick? Well, actually she had cancer and passed away this 
morning. And well....she was born deaf so tonight was the first time she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special."

There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to 
myself how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil. 

No, I've never had a protégé but that night I became a protégé...of Robby's. He was the teacher and I was the pupil. For it is he that taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself 
and maybe even taking a chance in someone and you don' know why. 

This is especially meaningful to me since after serving in Desert Storm Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal 
Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995, where he was reportedly....playing the piano. 
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A tongue in cheek guide to Australian culture with  a shed load of classic Aussie recipes and other tit bits that Dan would like to share with you. You will need a good sense of humor and some imagination to enjoy this collection of exaggerations Aussie oddities & some crude jokes.

To visit Dynamite Dan's web site Click Here
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Classroom Antarctica is designed to help both teachers and students gain a greater awareness of the global importance of Antarctica, of Australia's role in Antarctica, past and present, and our commitment to its future. We can learn much from studying Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and their ecosystems, how scientific programs are supported there and how people live in the harsh, isolated environment.
To visit this web site please Click Here