Cruzio/The Internet Store Newsletter - Number 29, November 23, 1999
1. Cruzio and Cruzio customers donate to Second Harvest Food Bank
2. DSL coming! Sooner every day!
3. Brown bags are a big success -- keep suggestions coming
4. Holiday hours & holiday class dates
5. Cruzio classes for December
6. Do you have an older browser? Many have Y2K problems.
7. Internet Office enhancements
8. How to get your own domain name (myname.com)
9. Web project for Santa Cruz's First Night celebration
10. How can we serve you better? Let us know.
11. About This Newsletter
12. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. Cruzio and Cruzio customers donate to Second Harvest Food Bank
Every year, Cruzio donates a substantial sum to the Second Harvest Food
Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. This money goes to families
and individuals who are hungry. In the past, we've put a donation
container in our lobby where customers can leave food for the Food Bank.
But people don't often bring cans of food when signing up for an Internet
account (I guess this is not surprising).
This year, Cruzio decided to make it easier for our community to make
a sizable donation to the Food Bank with us. For every new account that's
opened with us between November 25 and December 25, 1999, Cruzio will
donate $10 to the Second Harvest Food Bank. We hope to raise enough money
to feed hundreds of people much-needed holiday meals. It's a great way for
business to work with the community to make a difference, hope you agree.
2. DSL coming! Sooner every day!
The days are zipping by and Cruzio is hard at work preparing our
shiny new DSL services for customers. The writers are writing, the
engineers are engineering. It's a bit like Santa's workshop. We have
DSL on several test machines and we really like it. On December 1, 1999,
DSL service will be available to our customers.
DSL is a relatively low-cost, high-speed way of accessing the Internet.
For more information on DSL, see our web site. You can jump from
www.cruzio.com, or to be more precise, go to:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/dsl.html
3. Brown bags are a big success -- keep suggestions coming
Cruzio had a great Brown Bag lunch in early November, "Investing On-line".
Lots of people asked interesting questions. Both attendees and presenters
wanted to do it again, and we probably will do another investing Brown
Bag next spring. Also, please e-mail events@cruzio.com if you'd like
to lead a Brown Bag or with any topics you'd like to see presented.
Our next two Brown Bags will be on DSL: what it is, who can use it,
and why. Cruzio CEO and beloved founder Chris Neklason will be the
host. Please bring your questions!
The first "Intro to DSL" Brown Bag is on Monday evening, December 6,
from 6 to 7:30 pm. No sandwiches, but light refreshments provided.
The second "Intro to DSL" Brown Bag is on Thursday, December 16,
at lunchtime.
The cost is $5 per person, $6 more (total $11) if you'd like a
delicious sandwich lunch for the afternoon Brown Bag.
If you'd like to attend a Brown Bag, please go to
http://www.cruzio.com/support/business/brownbags.html
You can pre-register right there. Please pre-register if possible,
especially if you'd like a sandwich.
4. Holiday hours & holiday classes
Cruzio will be providing Internet service, as always, 24 hours
a day throughout the holidays and our technical staff will be
monitoring our systems throughout.
But Cruzio's offices will be closed on several days. That means
no technical support except for system-wide problems, and our
storefront will be closed as well. Plus, there are a few changes
to our normal class schedule. Here are the details:
Wed 11/24/99: Cruzio's offices closed for staff DSL training
but Wednesday's Netscape Composer class WILL be held
Thu 11/25/99: Cruzio's offices closed for Thanksgiving
Fri 11/26/99: Cruzio's offices OPEN
Sat 11/27/99: Cruzio's offices OPEN
Fri 12/24/99: Closed for holidays
Sat 12/25/99: Closed for holidays
Fri 12/31/99: Closed for holidays
Sat 1/1/2000: Closed for holidays
(But note: our engineering staff will be at work both
these days, including midnight 12/31/99, to watch for
any Y2K problems).
5. Cruzio Classes for December
In December we'll be offering our E-commerce classes again, along with
two other series. As always, the class series are fairly short (4 weeks),
reasonably priced ($100 to $250 for the series), and arranged for the
convenience of busy people (evening hours and downtown location).
In all classes, we present extremely practical information that you can
put right to work.
In December Cruzio will be offering:
- Using the Internet -- Tues evenings, 6:30-9pm
This series offers tips, tricks, and helpful information
on e-mail, web browsing, web searching and more. Taught by
the knowledgeable, patient Sam and Amy.
- Publishing on the Internet, beginning -- Weds evenings, 6:30-9pm
Putting web pages on the 'Net is easy. Let your creativity
shine with an introduction to the craft, offered by
Mark, John and Kathy.
- E-commerce -- Thurs evenings, 6:30-9pm
Once you've got your web pages up, add transaction
functionality so that you can sell things on the Web.
Taught by Kathy, John and Mark.
6. Do you have an older browser? Many have Y2K problems.
If you've got a browser that's earlier than 4.0 for Netscape or Internet
Explorer for Macintosh, you'll see some problems after January 1, 2000.
The bug has to do with secure Web sites, which the older browsers won't
see as secure. They will issue warning messages (something like, "This is
not a secure site") when none is appropriate. The bug is called "minor"
and is more of an inconvenience than anything else.
Older browsers are much smaller than new ones, and so they are very
handy for older computers. Cruzio has given out many of these browsers,
especially to people with older computers and/or limited memory on their
systems.
If you got such a browser from Cruzio, bring in the old disk and we will
give you a CD with the new browser, free of charge. Or, if you don't have a
CD drive, you might download a browser from the Internet. To get Netscape,
go to
http://www.netscape.com
To get a new Internet Explorer for Macintosh, go to
http://www.microsoft.com
The slower your connection to the Internet, the longer the download will
take. Plus, newer versions of browsers need more RAM in your computer.
If your RAM is just adequate, they still may run very slowly and
be worse than the secure-site bug we are trying to solve. So it's up to you;
new software = slower, but older software = inconvenient at secure sites.
The choice is yours.
7. IO enhancements
Whoa, intrepid Cruzio engineer Jay has been out there building new
features again! These are only for the "Internet Office" accounts,
available when you get a domain name at Cruzio. The latest enhancements,
available from the Internet Office admin pages, are:
- Optional weekly web reports delivered every Sunday night at midnight
- More password-protected mailboxes available on December 1st, 1999
8. How to get your own domain name (myname.com)
Many customers ask Cruzio about one of our popular services, custom
domain names. The process for getting a domain name is easy, and it's
not expensive (remarkably egalitarian!)
Step one is picking a name. If your name or your business name is Smith,
the name that immediately pops to mind (smith.com) is already taken. A
little imagination is necessary. To discover whether a name is taken or
not, please go to Cruzio's web site:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/utilities/whois.html
Enter a domain name (note: DON'T start it with www., and do end it with the
three-letter suffix, such as .com). Keep entering possible names until
you find one that says "No Match". That one's available.
Name found. Step two, contact Cruzio and ask us to set your name up
as an Internet Office account. That's a very full-featured account which
allows you to get e-mail sent to any address at your domain
(mommy@myname.com, info@myname.com) as well as many other useful features.
The Internet Office account, as its name suggests, is designed to help
you maintain a business or other organization (such as a family with
people in many locations) on the Internet.
And that's all it takes! A custom domain name works well with a Web site.
A Web site sets you on the path to E-commerce. Once you have the domain
name, there's much more you can do.
9. Web project for Santa Cruz's First Night celebration
Cruzio is helping to support a unique project with First Night Santa Cruz,
Museum of Art and History (MAH), and the Santa Cruz Technology Alliance
(SCTA), called "Webwall 2000: Message For The Millennium."
It's a community project encouraging collaborative expression and
celebration via the Web.
Everyone is encouraged to express their hopes and fears for the new
millennium by contributing a Webwall Postcard, Quote, or Splash Page. This
collective Webwall 2000 content will be presented on a giant screen at the
Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and other locations during the Santa
Cruz First Night celebration on December 31, 1999.
Cruzio will be offering access to our rental computers during store hours
from December 20th through the 31st to enter your Webwall postcard. Or to
contribute from home, visit
http://www.scta.org/webwall2000.
10. How can we serve you better? Let us know.
Okay, we keep asking this. But really, if you had a dream ISP, what
services would it provide that Cruzio doesn't? What would you like
us to do? We've got a "suggestion box" where you can drop a note:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/#suggest
and thanks, we appreciate the help.
11. About This Newsletter
Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we sometimes
have events and announcements that users need to know about. This seems
like the most efficient way to let people know what's happening. Hope
it's helpful. Please email support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions.
By the way, we would love to have a regular, predictable schedule
for this newsletter...but we simply do not send it unless there is real
news enclosed. Thus the haphazard datelines.
12. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and
sales information:
http://www.cruzio.com/support
To dial in to Cruzio, set your software to dial one of the numbers
below (note: we've expanded and joined modem pools, so you may be
using another number. If so, don't worry, it still works just fine).
56k: 459-9408
33.6 kbps and under: 459-6230
To call Cruzio:
459-6301............Use this number to check Cruzio's system status,
pay your Cruzio bill, find out more about our hours and location,
or to reach someone in customer service and technical support.
To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses:
support@cruzio.com.......for technical support
office@cruzio.com........for billing and ordering information
webmaster@cruzio.com.....for questions about Cruzio's World Wide
Web service
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, John, Julianne, Patton, Kathy, Mark, Martin,
Georgette, Jay, Tapati, Hilary, Jessica, Amy, Temoc, Sam,
Brittany, Will, Alec, Rachael, and Barbara (the grownups);
Jake, Annika and Carly (the kids)
Carly, age two, saw a fluffy black poodle walking by the road. "Look,
Mama," she cried out "It's Baa Baa Black Sheep!"
