Cruzio/The Internet Store Newsletter - Number 42, January 16, 2001
1. Cruzio Control Panels: manage your account easily
2. New tee-shirts in
3. Is Santa Cruz becoming "Silicon Beach"?
4. What's the weather like? Info on www.cruzio.com
5. Local class discounts for Cruzio customers
6. This month's Brown Bag Workshop: Save Money by Sharing a DSL Connection
7. Spam, spam, bacon and spam
8. About This Newsletter
9. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. Cruzio Control Panels: manage your account easily
For a few years now, Cruzio has provided members an easy way to manage
their Cruzio services via the Web. We've got a point-and-click interface
with lots of online help. With your Cruzio Control Panel you can:
- add and delete your e-mailboxes (every Cruzio basic account
comes with six)
- set up and remove mail forwarding, vacation services, and
mailing lists
- change passwords
- set up cool features in your Web space, such as password-
protected pages and search engines
... and much more. The more features your account type has, the more
powerful your control panel is.
Now there's an easy way to reach your Cruzio Control Panel. Just go
to the main Cruzio support page
http://www.cruzio.com/support
put your login, password, and domain name in the fields at the top
of the page, and click "Go". After a brief pause (we're making sure
your password and other info is correct) you'll go straight to your
Control Panel. Give it a try!
2. New tee-shirts in
Cruzio just got a shipment of new tee-shirts and oh my, they are very
attractive. A free tee shirt is included with every new Cruzio account,
but you can also come in and get one for a very reasonable $7 per
shirt. The latest shirts have the Cruzio outer-space logo on them
and are very discreet: just the Nina Paley artwork, no slogans. Colors
are olive green, dark blue, black (yes!), charcoal and periwinkle. Don't
ask why periwinkle was included. Anyway, please spruce up your wardrobe
with a Cruzio tee-shirt, as, frankly, it's very hip. And thanks to
Barbara, our General Manager with such excellent taste.
3. Is Santa Cruz becoming "Silicon Beach"?
Cruzio was recently the proud co-sponsor of a televised panel on
"Santa Cruz, Survival and the Myths of the New Economy". High-tech
author and former Wired magazine contributor Paulina Borsook was
somewhat the instigator of the much-needed discussion by presenting
her book, "Cyberselfish", at Bookshop Santa Cruz last week. Is
High Tech inherently selfish? Is a booming "New Economy" pushing
people out of Santa Cruz, never to return? Who's taking their place?
Unfortunately for the dramatic possibilities, the debate was terribly
one-sided as all participants, including Cruzio's President Peggy
Dolgenos, quickly agreed that the High Tech Boom has brought serious
problems along with benefits to Santa Cruz County. Rather than arguing
that premise, discussion focused on possible solutions to economic
displacement ... but the problem is a thorny one to solve. We
encourage the local community, including Cruzio's astute membership,
to think about what we would like Santa Cruz County to look like in
the next decade or two.
We'd like to thank the other panelists for providing interesting insight
into how non-geeks view the situation:
Sandy Brown from the Community Action Board
Frank Brunings, a local housing and redevelopment expert
David Werlin, AFL/CIO SEIU Local 415
Paulina Borsook, local author
Executive Director of Community TV, Geoffrey Dunn
Asher Brauner, Moderator, Bookshop Santa Cruz
Many thanks to the organizers of the event, Cruzio marketing director,
Kathy Bisbee, Bookshop's Kelsey Ramage, and to Bookshop Santa Cruz for
co-sponsoring the event. It was an intelligent and lively panel. Keep
posted for future Cruzio-sponsored community events.
4. What's the weather like? Info on www.cruzio.com.
Before I go out these days, I look at Cruzio's home page, www.cruzio.com,
to see whether I need an umbrella. That's because we have a new local
weather indicator right in the middle of our page. This is the time of
year it's needed most: last Friday the skies were an intense blue and
my daughter and I went out in tee shirts. Had we heeded the weather
forecast, as my husband later pointed out, we would have been better
prepared for the showers later in the day, by which we were drenched.
Sigh. Check it out, and bring your umbrella and long underwear
or sunscreen as needed.
5. Local class discounts for Cruzio customers
Since Cruzio no longer gives classes about the Internet (although we
still hold educational workshops -- see our DSL workshop in item 6 below)
we have asked local educational facilities to make discounts available
to our members. The first such arrangement is with New Horizons Computer
Learning Center. Cruzio staff and friends have attended classes at
New Horizons, and found them to be excellent. So we arranged a
coupon program with New Horizons: any Cruzio customer who comes in for
a coupon will get a free New Horizons class, at a value of about $225.
Drop by Cruzio's downtown Santa Cruz office, 903 Pacific Avenue, if
you'd like a coupon.
Please let us know of other local classes you find helpful, so we can
look for more Cruzio discounts in the community. We would like to help our
members find the resources they need. Computer learning never ceases;
even our most advanced users are always looking for good classes.
Alert reader Clay Olson, who is an Instructor at Santa Cruz Adult Schools,
noted that we had not mentioned SCAS in our previous list of places to
learn technical skills. Sorry, Clay! Our list was definitely not
comprehensive, and we are working on a better list for our Web site.
Clay mentions that he, personally, has helped about 2600 students to
get connected to the Internet. Good job!
6. This month's Brown Bag Workshop: Save Money by Sharing a DSL Connection
Thursday, January 18th 12:30-2pm in Cruzio's classroom,
903 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz
Setting up DSL and connecting your home or office computers is
easier and more affordable than you may imagine. Come to Cruzio to
hear experts Tim and John explain how to use DSL's tremendous speed
to power more than one computer's Internet connection simultaneously.
$5 to attend, plus an additional $6 if you'd like lunch as well.
For more information, and to register and order lunch, please go to:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/business
7. Spam, spam, bacon and spam*
A horrible deluge of spam, or junk e-mail, washed through the Internet
over the holidays. Although it's eased somewhat, Cruzio recognizes
that the spam situation is getting seriously worse. We are working hard
on relief. We are setting up a system by which users control their own
e-mail filtering directly on Cruzio's servers (our current recommendation
is that users use filters on their home computers, filters built in to
programs like Netscape 4.5 and Eudora Pro). We are proceeding carefully
so that no e-mail is interrupted or lost when we switch to our new system.
Engineering reports that the new filtering system should be available
in the second quarter of 2001. Thanks for your patience; this is a high
priority for Cruzio and it will be in place soon. In the meantime, please
check
http://www.cruzio.com/support/email/spaminfo.html
for methods of dealing with spam right now. There are several effective
options.
Cruzio does not make customer information available to other companies or
individuals. Cruzio also halts all e-mail which comes from an unverifiable
source. But spammers catch up to our efforts and we must do more.
(*Yes, the Monty Python "Spam Cafe" skit is the source of the name
"Spam" for unsolicited e-mail.)
8. 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.
9. 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
Cruzio's location:
903 Pacific Avenue, Suite 101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Cruzio's hours:
Sales hours: 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday; 10 am - 2 pm Saturday
Technical support: 10-6 pm, Monday through Friday, 10am - 2pm Saturday
System monitoring, including customer-alerted emergencies, 24 hours
per day, 365 days per year (leap years, 366 days)
Thanks very much from Cruzio:
Chris, Peggy, John, Julianne, Patton, Kathy, Mark, Martin,
Georgette, Tapati, Hilary, Brittany, Alec, Rachael, Barbara,
Raelani, Priya, Stephen, Paul, Tim, Gershom, Kelly, Allyson,
Laura, Sam, another Chris, and Jessi (the grownups); Jake,
Annika, and Carly (the kids)
Annika, age 6, showed some understanding of the housing situation in
Santa Cruz: "I found an affordable house for us, Mom. Actually,
it's our couch." She had made a house out of couch cushions.
