My 2¢ Worth

here's another new Internet scam making the rounds. Well... it's likely not the only new scam — just the only one I'm aware of.

s I understand it, an E-mail message supposably originating from DarkProfits.com arrives asking for your credit card number and expiration date, further stating that your card has already been charged and upon verification your order will be shipped.

ell I checked out the Dark Profits Web site and despite its name I doubt the E-mail originates from there. It's just a forum. I imagine the E-mail headers were forged.

ll I can say is you should NEVER give out your credit card information except at a Web site where you have initiated an order for a product or service. And then make sure you're on a secure server.

on't know how to tell? Look for https in the address bar of your browser. Most standard Web site addresses begin with http — the s tacked on the end designates a secure server.

Feature Article

Home Office Ergonomics

by: Rachel Goldstein All Freelance Work

Long office hours are often necessary for freelance professionals. This is exactly why so many of us have chronic headaches, cracking wrists, tingling fingers, and stiff necks. All of these symptoms can be avoided by designing your home office with ergonomics on your mind. This article will summarize the basics of home office ergonomic design.

CHAIR - Your chair is the most important piece of furniture in your office. You want to find a comfortable chair that has the following characteristics.

1. Adjustable height
2. Lower, raise, and tilt backwards
3. 16" to 20" off of the floor
4. Lumbar support
5. Good backrest and wide enough to support shoulders
6. Chair's seat should allow 1"-4" of space between edge of chair and your knees
7. Front edge of seat is curved
8. 5 wheels
9. Padded armrests that can lower or raise

Before you purchase your chair, make sure to give it a test drive. If possible, move the chair that you like in front of a desk and see how it feels. Adjust the seat so that your feet are flat on the floor. When you do this the lumbar support should fit into the small of your back. If the chair fits your body and meets our guidelines, purchase the chair. A good chair will cost anywhere from $400 - $2,000.

DESK - Before purchasing a desk, evaluate your needs. What is your profession? What equipment will you be using? How much desktop room will you need? Make sure to allow space for computer equipment, telephone, Rolodex, other office supplies, and writing room. Make sure that you will have room for heavily used items on your desk, or you might have to constantly stretch, twist, and turn to reach items that you need. Height-adjustable large tables are found to have cost-effective benefits. These tables let you move from keyboard to side table without having to hunch your shoulders.

KEYBOARD / MOUSE TRAY - Since it is so important to have your wrists at the right height when using input devices, a tray system is important to consider as an option. Choose a system that has the following features:

1. Height adjustable
2. Adjustable angle
3. Allows for upper arm relaxation by right angle position of arms.

You should place your keyboard 28"-30" off of the floor. If your keyboard is too low you will slump over your keyboard, and if it is too high you will strain your wrists. You should also purchase a wrist pad for in front of your keyboard to cushion your wrists.

MOUSE - The use of a mouse causes injuries to many people. The mouse often causes twisting of the hand into uncomfortable positions, which causes wrist injuries. Try to use the mouse with a sweeping movement, instead of a quick, twisting motion. Use your mouse as little as possible, but if you find that you can't do this, consider purchasing a trackball instead. Trackballs are good because you can program a lock button so you don't have to click and drag.

KEYBOARD - Split-and-Tilt keyboards tend to be better for your health than flat keyboards that most people use. A good keyboard will not flatten your hands and bend your wrists.

LIGHTING - Good lighting in your home office is important to reduce eyestrain. Here are some lighting suggestions:

1. Make sure lighting isn't too bright.
2. Avoid white reflective furniture.
3. If you are using a desk lamp, choose a low wattage light bulb. Direct light toward papers, not eyes.
4. Use blinds or drapes to eliminate outdoors light.
5. Avoid bright lighting on your monitor.

MONITOR - It is important to position the monitor correctly to ensure your good health.

1. Position monitor to minimize glare.
2. Adjust monitor so that the screen is slightly below eye level.
3. Clean screen on a regular basis.
4. Position yourself about 20"-24" away from the monitor.
5. Center your monitor on the user.
6. Keep your head at a comfortable level.

GOOD POSTURE - Ergonomic equipment will do nothing for you if you don't assume correct posture. Make sure of the following:

1. Relax shoulders
2. Wrists straight
3. Back in contact with lumbar support of your chair
4. Legs in contact with your seat
5. Feet on the floor
6. Elbows at a right angle when typing
7. Upper arm and elbow close to body
8. Head and neck straight

Now that you know your ergonomic basics, use this knowledge to your advantage. Position yourself and your equipment correctly to ensure a quality-working environment. Healthy working to you!

**************

www.Allfreelancework.com - 1000s of freelance jobs, articles, and resources.

Custom text in the status bar of the browser

Display your own custom text in the browser window's status bar by adding the following JavaScript to your source code. This can be placed in either the <head> or <body> section of your page, however, I suggest putting it in the <body> as close to the bottom as possible for faster page load times.

Replace the text in red with your own custom message.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
<!-- ;//
function SB_MESS()
{ status="Your_Status_Bar_Message"
setTimeout('SB_MESS()',1); }SB_MESS();
// -->
</script>

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

How to defrag faster and safer

by: Emil Malmberg LIUtilities

Are you trying to run Defrag on your Win95/98/ME/2000 system? Is it taking too long? Then you've come to the right place! Give me 5 minutes and I'll tell you how to speed up your defrags considerably.

Why do we need Defrag anyway? When Windows creates a new file on your harddrive, it will search for some empty space, and save the file at that location. When a file is deleted, you will get a hole at that location which is later filled by a new file and so on. The problem is, not all files are of the same size. The solution is to split the files into smaller equally sized parts. This way, when you delete one file and save another one, the parts of the new file will fit into the holes of free space. This works very well, but, after a while your files will be scattered all over your harddrive. When you try to read a particular file, your computer will have to search your harddrive for all the small parts. This will obviously take a lot of time. (Imagine trying to read a book with the pages in random order.) When you run Defrag, all the small file-pieces on your hardrive will be reorganized so that all the parts of a particular file are stored sequentially, in one place. This can increase the speed of your system considerably! (Especially if it has been running for a long time without defragging.)

Why does Defrag take so long? When Defrag is reorganizing your harddrive, it is very important that no other programs are using the harddrive. If some program decides to save a file while you are defragging, the defragmentation process will often be interrupted and start all over again. Because of this, defragmentation may take a lot of time.

So, what's the solution? To make sure that the defragmentation is not interrupted, here are a few things you should do before starting defrag:

1. Terminate all processes not critical to the system. Use WinTasks to find out which processes to terminate. (Leave system processes (red) and anything related to defragging.) Anti-virus programs should be stopped from within that program. (there is usually an option to temporarily disable virus scanning.) Read the process descriptions to decide if a process needs to be running while defragging (WinTasks 4 has built-in descriptions for most system processes and many other processes as well). After you have terminated all unnecessary processes, save the current process configuration to a preset (In WinTasks 4, press the small "key" button next to a preset button to save the current process list), so that you can easily restore the defragging configuration later.



2. Disable screensavers or other programs starting after a few minutes.



3. Disable any scheduled programs like virus checks.



4. Increase the priority of the Defrag program. You raise the priority from normal to high by clicking the "inc" button once in WinTasks 4. After increasing the priority, the icon to the left of the process name will change, and the priority column should tell you that the selected process(es) are now running at "high" priority. You can also save priorities to a preset, to make it easier to restore the correct settings the next time you need to defrag your harddrive. (Presets are available in WinTasks 4.00 or later)



5. Don't use your computer while Defragging!

WinTasks can be found at www.liutilities.com

**************

Emil Malmberg is senior software developer for LIUtilities.

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