Cruzio/The Internet Store Newsletter - Number 44, March 21, 2001
1. Cruzio voted best again! Many thanks!
2. Brown bag workshop tomorrow, March 22nd, at 12:30 pm at MAH
3. Cruzio member wins $200 worth of services!!
4. Spam update
5. Are we looking at a long summer of blackouts?
6. Senior Center DSL up and running fast
7. Revamp of local listings
8. Naked wife virus
9. Computer Troubleshooting Brown Bag on April 19th
10. About This Newsletter
11. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support)
1. Cruzio voted best again! Many thanks!
Once again -- and for every year since 1996, in fact -- Cruzio
has won the Metro's "Goldie" award for Best Internet Service
Provider and www.cruzio.com has won the Goldie for Best Local Web Site.
We thank you, our customers. Clearly you're the ones who voted
for us or who spread the word. We promise to try even harder next
year. It's an honor and a privilege to work in a great community
like this one. Aww, we are blushing now!
2. Brown bag workshop tomorrow, March 22nd, at 12:30 pm at MAH
Thinking of adding an online presence to your store or service
business? Cruzio provides a way to do so. Please attend our
lunchtime workshop on:
"ShopSite: Web Store, Easy, Fast, Inexpensive"
It will be held tomorrow, Thursday, March 22nd, from 12:30-2pm
at the Museum of Art and History, 705 Front St. in Santa Cruz.
This month's event is FREE! Normally, business brown bags are
$5 to attend, which can be applied to domain, web or e-commerce
hosting fees after attending. Attendance is limited to the first
20 participants.
ShopSite is a Web Store, which includes a shopping cart. It
provides everything you need to set up an online store to sell
products and services to a world market. ShopSite is available
with your Cruzio Internet Office domain and is easily administered
through your Web browser. Call Cruzio for more information, or e-mail
office@cruzio.com
3. Cruzio member wins $200 worth of services!!
During the lucky timeframe between February 14th and March 17th
-- otherwise known as Valentine's to Saint Patrick's Day -- Cruzio
entered everyone buying a new service into a drawing for $200 worth
of free Cruzio products. The drawing included both brand new customers
and existing customers buying a new service. Yes, we value our existing
customers and wanted to give you all a chance at the prize! Yesterday,
through an extremely technical random process, we picked the winner.
We are proud to announce it's (drum roll ............):
Beth Purcell!
So Beth will have $200 credited to her account. Thanks to everyone who
participated. It was a lot of fun!
4. Spam update
Cruzio is working hard at a solution to "spam", or junk e-mail.
In the past few weeks, we have been conducting the first tests
of our new filtering software and this week we plan to load it on
an all-new, high-powered machine for further testing and refinement.
Cruzio does not consider itself the best authority in determining what
email should be delivered to _your_ mailbox. Our approach is to give
_you_ the tools to filter your mailbox on our server. Incoming email
which is filtered out according to your criteria will be set aside in
a separate email box. You will be able to review the contents of this
email box, which will be periodically and automatically emptied so as to
prevent a massive buildup of filtered email on our servers.
This solution is similar to one currently available to Cruzio members
on their home machines, when using e-mail programs which support
filtering. The main difference is that Cruzio's filters will divert
spam before it is downloaded to your machine, so that spam will not
slow your e-mail transmission as it currently does.
We still have at least a month of work ahead. It is crucial that we
have a thorough testing period. But relief is in sight, and the project
is going well. We will keep you updated. In the meantime, filters
are already available for many common e-mail programs, and we can
recommend several measures. We provide instructions for using mail
filters on your own computers, and other advice, at:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/email/spaminfo.html
5. Are we looking at a long summer of blackouts?
Cruzio is prepared for blackouts, rolling or otherwise. We have
backup generators to keep your e-mail flowing and your Web sites
visible to the world, even if power is out in parts of Santa Cruz.
But we have to admit that computer use has increased the burden
on our state's electricity. Here are some tips from Cruzio about
reducing your computer-time power usage and protecting yourself
in case a blackout does roll in:
- Your computer's "at rest" mode saves about 40% of the electricity
used by the computer. But turning your computer off saves 100%
of the electricity. So if you are going to be away from your
desk for more than an hour, shut it down all the way.
- Remember that local lighting for your work area saves watts over
lighting up the whole room.
- Use Compact Fluorescent Lights for ambient lighting. Although the
bulbs cost more initially, they last much longer than incandescents
and use about a quarter of the electricity for the same level of
brightness. Cruzio has instituted a program of giving away these
bulbs to our employees, more than 40 distributed so far!
- Don't wear a tie and jacket to work in the summer! That
lowers the need for air conditioning.
And be ready in case a blackout does interrupt your computer work:
- Use Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS's); don't just plug
computers directly into wall sockets. And use a UPS that's
powerful enough for your computer. Simple surge protectors
won't prevent computers from suddenly shutting off when power
to your house or office is cut. A surge protector may save your
equipment, but not your work.
- Save your work often; Uninterruptible Power Supplies are not
100% reliable.
- Keep backups of all important files. Power ups and downs can wreak
havoc on computers. A floppy drive, zip drive, DAT tape drive
or CD Rom drive and burner are very, very handy when you have
files whose loss would be costly.
Cruzio is also looking into renewable power sources such as solar
power. We hope lots of businesses are doing the same.
6. Senior Center DSL up and running fast
Cruzio is happy to announce an upgrade in the donated service we
provide to Senior Net of Santa Cruz. We are long-time buddies with
this group, and had donated ISDN to them for years. But now they
are up and running on Cruzio DSL. We hope they enjoy the increase
in speed and convenience (DSL can be over 10 times as fast as ISDN,
and it's "always on"). The Seniors use routers to split a single DSL
connection among many computers, so that all the computers can use
the Internet simultaneously. It's a great use of the technology.
For more information about DSL, please check:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/dsl.html
If you'd like to see what Senior Net of Santa Cruz is up to, they
have a great Web page:
http://www.seniorcomputer.org/
7. Revamp of local listings
Cruzio provided a nice space on our home page for local calendar,
classifieds, and directory listings put up by our customers. But the
housekeeping was labor-intensive, and we decided to let it go if we
couldn't do it right. As of Thursday, March 22, the calendar,
classifieds and directory will be removed from our home page and
your account administration control panels. We are always interested
in providing services to local residents, so that people can use
computers to strengthen their ties to the community. Just FYI, we
still provide:
- A list of local businesses doing online sales at
http://www.cruzio.com
- A list of local computer and e-commerce consultants, Web and
graphics designers at http://www.cruzio.com/consultants
- A list of personal and business Web pages, free to all Cruzio
customers at http://members.cruzio.com/index.html and
http://www.cruzio.com/commercial
If you would like to be listed in any of these resource guides,
please check the URL (Web address) listed above for a instructions.
All eligible entries are listed free of charge, because Cruzio believes
that an open system is best for the community.
8. Naked wife virus
If you did not heed the warning on keeping backups in case of power
outages, there is another reason to back up your computer files:
computer viruses. We were abruptly reminded of this two weeks ago
when a virus appeared in e-mailboxes all over the country, instructing
people to open an executable attachment to see a picture of a naked wife.
If the executable was activated (by clicking on it!) the Windows operating
system was destroyed and the computer needed to be re-installed from the
original CD.
When something like this happens, some people find, to their dismay,
that they do not have their computer's system CD. Viruses can also
destroy other files on your hard disk, and people are unhappy when
they notice that files are gone and can't be recovered. But these
are two calamities that can be prevented ahead of time.
- When you buy a computer, find and save your system CD. There are
many situations where it comes in handy.
- Always back up important files to floppy or Zip disk, tape, or CD.
- Use virus-detection software, and
- Don't open executable files that come in e-mail unless it's
something you are expecting!
More information on viruses can be found at:
http://www.cruzio.com/support/email/e-mailfaq.html#virus
9. Computer Troubleshooting Brown Bag on April 19th
Cruzio will be hosting a free business brown bag evening event on Basic
Computer Troubleshooting on Thursday, April 19th from 6:30-8pm at Cruzio.
The event, co-sponsored by Grey Wolf Computer Systems, will give an
overview of basic troubleshooting tips for both Mac and Windows. Learn what
you can do yourself, when technical support can help, and when to call
a professional.
To register, visit http://www.cruzio.com/support/business/brownbags.html
10. 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.
11. 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:
831 459-6301............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,
Priya, Stephen, Paul, Tim, Gershom, Kelly, Allyson, Laura,
another Chris, Jessi, Steve, and Michelle (the grownups); Jake,
Annika, and Carly (the kids)
My children told me the babysitter makes excellent meals. "Delicious!"
said my six year old. "Like eating at a fine restaurant" claimed my
nine-year-old. I was curious. The kids never like anything I cook,
so I asked the babysitter "What do you cook?" "Fried butter sandwiches,"
she replied.
