This newsletter has been produced to help
you get the most out of the Internet,
and to keep you, as an Actrix customer, informed of developments and services within the
company.
Past newsletters may be viewed at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/
Questions and comments about the newsletter can be emailed to editor@actrix.co.nz
Other inquiries should be emailed to support@actrix.co.nz
Web Searching (Part 2) Last month, you may recall, we looked at the various ways in which different search engines work, and how they rank pages for presentation to the searcher. You will recall that there were basically two types, search engines and directories. This month I want to look more closely at "true" search engines and how you can use Boolean logic and other "tricks" to save a lot of searching time. To use search engines effectively, it is essential to apply techniques that narrow results and push the most relevant pages to the top of the results list. The main search engines that use these types of techniques are AltaVista, Northern Light, Google, Excite and Go. These search engines don't appear as "user-friendly" as search sites like the very popular Ask Jeeves, but when used properly, they can give better and much more specific results. Read the stuff on Boolean logic slowly if you're new to searching.
It isn't half as complicated as it sounds. |
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Norrie says........ "Don't be foolean, |
Boolean Logic There are two types of Boolean logic: full and implied. Full Boolean logic uses the words AND, OR and NOT. Implied Boolean logic uses the symbols + or -. Boolean AND: In order to make sure our search engine returns only pages that contain all three of those words, we could use implied or full Boolean logic by entering either of the following into the search field: Implied: Napster +RIAA +MP3 Full: Napster AND RIAA AND MP3 The search engine will not return pages with just the word Napster. The search engine will only return pages where the words Napster, RIAA, and MP3 all appear somewhere within the same web page. Thus, the "Boolean AND" helps to narrow your search results as it limits results to pages where all the keywords appear. |
Boolean AND NOT:
AND NOT tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing one keyword but not the
other. For example if we wanted to find information on dolphins (the aquatic mammal), but
not be bombarded with webpages devoted to Miami's American football team, we could use
either implied or full Boolean logic as follows: Implied: dolphins -Miami Full: dolphins AND NOT Miami The above examples instruct the search engine to return web pages about dolphins but not web pages that are likely to be about the Miami Dolphins. Use AND NOT when you have a keyword that has multiple possible meanings (such as "dolphin" in this case). The need for AND NOT often becomes apparent after you perform an initial search. If your search results contain heaps of irrelevant results (e.g., Saturn the communications company rather than Saturn the planet), try using AND NOT to filter out the undesired websites. Boolean OR: Linking search terms with OR tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing any, some or all keywords. We could use either implied or full Boolean logic as follows: Implied: Including two or more words with nothing surrounding or separating them is equivalent to OR. Full: Parrots OR budgerigars OR Cockatiels When OR is used, the search engine returns pages with a single keyword, several keywords, or all keywords. Thus, OR expands your search results. Use OR when you have common synonyms for a keyword. You can surround OR statements with parentheses for best results. To narrow results even further you can combine OR statements with AND statements. For example, the following search statement locates information on purchasing a used car: (car OR automobile OR vehicle) AND (buy OR purchase) AND used Note: Use AltaVista's Simple Search for implied Boolean (+/-) searches, and use AltaVista's Advanced Search for full Boolean (AND, OR, AND NOT) searches. |
Phrase
Searching Surrounding a group of words with double quotes tells the search engine to only retrieve documents in which those words appear side-by-side. Phrase searching is a powerful search technique for significantly narrowing your search results, and it should be used as often as possible. E.g. "John F. Kennedy" "New Zealand" "global warming" You can even combine phrase searching with implied Boolean (+/-) or full Boolean (AND, OR, and AND NOT) logic. Implied: +"heart disease" +cause Full: "heart disease" AND cause The above example tells the search engine to retrieve pages where the words heart disease appear side-by-side and the word cause appears somewhere else on the page.
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NOTE ON IMPLIED BOOLEAN LOGIC (+/-): When a
phrase search is combined with additional keywords using implied Boolean logic (+/-), you
must put a plus or minus sign before the phrase as well as the other keywords. Do not put
a space between the plus sign and the word. +"Blowing in the Wind" +Dylan
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These search sites support Boolean logic:
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Domain Searching In addition to the title search, other helpful field searching strategies include the domain search, the host search, the link search, and the URL search. The DOMAIN SEARCH allows you to limit results to certain domains such as websites from the United Kingdom (.uk), New Zealand (.nz) educational institutions (.edu), or military sites (.mil) and so forth. Implied: +domain:uk +title:"Queen Elizabeth" Full: domain:uk AND title:"Queen Elizabeth" Implied: +domain:edu +"lung cancer" +smok* Full: domain:edu AND "lung cancer" AND smok*
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Dr. Seuss Explains
Why Computers Crash: If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and the bus is Interrupted at a very last resort, and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort, Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report. ~~~~~ If your cursor finds a menu item Followed by a dash. And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash, And your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash, Then your situation's hopeless and your systems gonna crash! ~~~~~ If the label on the cable on the table at your house says the network is connected to the button on the mouse, but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol, that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall, and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss, till your icons in the windows are as wavy as a souse, then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, 'cuz sure as I'm a poet the suckers gonna hang! ~~~~~ When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk, And the macrocode instructions cause unnecessary risk, Then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM, Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom! |
Buy Your New Vodafone Prepay through Actrix Networks Get a Free Hands-free Headset and Go into a Draw to be one of Five
to Win That's right! Actrix have teamed up with Digital Mobile to bring you the following great deal on Vodafone prepay mobile phones - exclusive to Actrix customers! Purchase any one of these six prepay phones using the Actrix online order form and you will receive a hands-free headset free of charge. You'll also go into a draw to be one of five to win $149 free airtime with your purchase.
Here's how it works: Check out the offer at www.actrix.co.nz/DigitalMobile where you
can learn all about the phones, their benefits and features, and about the offer itself in
more detail. Go to the online order form, fill it out and click submit. Your phone will be
shipped to you within 48 hours by overnight courier, and you will be billed through your
Actrix account. It's that simple!
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Now for the good news, the defense. If you
remember the very first article I wrote, and you are up to date with your Windows updates,
you are safe from the Kakworm virus. Microsoft has released an upgrade through their
Upgrade Site that prevents all viruses such as the Kakworm from being run. However, there
are yet more viruses similar to this one, and many still to come that your computer may
not stand a chance against. This is why I urge you to make sure you are up to date with your protection. Now, if I have left some of you behind with my terminology, do not worry, for next month I shall be picking up where I left off with the security side of things, and most of the terms used in this article will be covered then. I have included a few links to virus protection sites here and the current Top Ten list below for your information, but I really don't care if you get nothing else from this article other than the message - UPDATE and STAY THAT WAY. Doing this will save you both time and money in the future! Thank you. Dean Moor StarTech www.startech.co.nz |
![]() This is an anti-virus program I personally recommend (and sell!).
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10 Most Prevalent In-the-Wild
Malware Surveyed by Trend US (week of: 06/11/2000 to 12/11/2000) 1. VBS_KAKWORM.A A Nasty Trojan That is embedded in an email! Just viewing this email will infect you! 2. TROJ_MTX.A 3. TROJ_BYMER 4. JOKE_RABBIT 5. TROJ_QAZ.A 6. JS_SEEKER.A 7. TROJ_SKA 8. VBS_LOVELETTER.AS Yep, still going strong! Last week this little beauty was number 1 9. JS_SEEKER.B 10. VBS_NETLOG.WORM
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Some Useful Sites, and Some that Make You Wonder! | |
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http://www.bbspot.com is a very entertaining site that presents you with an alternative to the daily news that always seems so bad. This collection of seriously written silly articles sure tickled my funny bone. Be warned though, some of it gets a little twisted. My favourite? "Head-Hunting Firm Decapitates 250." |
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www.kakaporecovery.org.nz - One of New Zealand's most threatened bird species, the kakapo, has entered the computer age with the launch of a new Kakapo Recovery Programme website by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark. The new website has been jointly developed by Comalco New Zealand, Forest and Bird, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) to increase understanding of New Zealand's distinctive green 'parrot of the night'. |
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http://www.phonespell.org/ - Ummm, perhaps you'd like to join the three million or so, so far, who have visited this site and entered their phone number to see how many different things it potentially spells. Perhaps... |
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http://www.adflip.com/ - This is an interesting, nostalgia-filled site for those of us who grew up during the sixties or seventies... It's like a giant archive of printed ad material, some of it quite modern. Worth a browse for a few moments. See what memories it brings back for you! |
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http://www.stairwell.com/stare/ - Stare Down Sally - Please don't visit this site or take on its challenge until you are quite completely and absolutely sure that you no longer have a life! |
Don't forget that Actrix have a multitude of useful, interesting and/or fun links for you to try. One way to get the most out of the Internet is to explore it with your browser, learn from it, and use it to enhance your life. You can find these links, assembled under many, many different categories by clicking the "News and Links" button on our home page. This is also where Actrix will post the latest technical news items, or anything that we feel our customers ought to know about what might be currently going on with our company or network. |
Introducing Actrix Web Design Services |
Norrie's Nerd Words Congratulations this month to the ten Norrie the Nerd chocolate bar winners for October: Joan Carter, Donald Gordon, Pascal Sigrist, Lyndsay McMillan, Alan Murgatroyd, Trevor Adair, Julie Herbert, David Merton and Colin Lundy! For those who don't know me, my name is Norton Theodore Nerd III, and I am Actrix Networks Ancient Geek! Each month I try and find some excuse to give away Norrie the Nerd chocolate bars to Actrix customers. Recently I've been asking questions about my life story which you can read at my home page: http://www.actrix.gen.nz/users/norrie. This month I thought I'd do something different (mainly to thwart the little team of clever cookies who pounce on the newsletters as soon as they arrive, fire off the answer to my question, and win themselves a chocolate bar every month). Good on 'em, but this time, the challenge is going to be
a little harder. I want to know about your favourite sites on the net, or about sites that
you think are really interesting and worth sharing with others. Email me the URL to a site
you think I might find useful or funny. The best ten entries will receive a Norrie the
Nerd chocolate bar courtesy of Actrix. Email your entry to norrie@actrix.co.nz. No porn sites, thanks. Enough
of those seem to turn up as spam!! |
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The
Internet is becoming an increasingly diverse experience - simple text and static pages
have given way to dynamic content and streaming multimedia. E-commerce has become a
multi-billion dollar industry. Technology is updating constantly to provide a better,
faster, and more useful online world for everybody. Actrix, as one of New Zealand's leading ISP's, is at the forefront of this new technology, and in the best possible position to meet your needs. Actrix can provide all the services and information for you to be set up, without the need for you to deal with a third party. Furthermore, the whole process can be conducted entirely online, and at no obligation. Why use Actrix Web Services? Because Actrix, as a national ISP, provides the full range of services, allowing you to access all aspects of online activity in one place. We have three distinct web design packages on offer, the first of which is described below: The Start-Up Templated Web Site $599 incl GST This is for new and inexperienced users who wish to set up a web site on the internet, of up to 3 (approx. A4) pages in size. Everything you could possibly need is taken care of. The site design, the web hosting on the Actrix servers, a dial up connection and a domain name (free for the first year). This service can be requested online and will be based on an existing template design. You will pay a fee of $599 incl GST (due on completion) for up to 3 pages. Actrix will then complete the website within 14 working days if your site presents no complications. To find our more, visit our online web design page at http://webservices.actrix.co.nz. You can place an order or request more information there. |
Congratulations are in order for Anton DeWaal, the Actrix customer who won a digital camera from Force Technology last month, simply for inquiring about the Maximiser Customer Relations Management software on offer from Force Technology. If you'd like to learn more about how Maximiser might be able to help your business, consult the October newsletter! |
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Bringing It All Back Home |
And so the thirteenth Actrix
newsletter comes to a close. Thank you to all those who have written in to express their
appreciation, make suggestions, or just to comment. My e-mail door is always open at editor@actrix.co.nz. I am particularly interested in
hearing ideas about internet related topics that interest or bewilder you. Yours, Rob Zorn |
Actrix - http://www.actrix.co.nz Norrie the Nerd - http://www.actrix.gen.nz/users/norrie Newsletter Archive - http://editor.actrix.co.nz Actrix Support - support@actrix.co.nz (0800-228749) |
Did you know that "gen" and
"co" are interchangeable in your email address? Help Desk Hours 6:30 a.m. - 1:30 a.m. Mon - Fri 8:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. weekends |