1) Timely Tips - "Word Watermarks"
2) File Find! - "XP-AntiSpy"
3) Sites-Seeing - "Castles of the United States\Smallest Web site\Don't Click!"
4) Email Funny - "Bank It!"
5) They Said It - quotes to give one pause
6) Hodgepodge - that what fits no where else

Greetings and salutations to you, Faithful Readers...it's nice to be able to share a bit of time with you once again! For those of you new to The Basement, thanks for joining--feel free to share with your friends!

A quick e-mail safety tip: Often I'll receive forwarded copies of newsletters, ezines, and other personal items that are passed on in their entirety. And just as often, these forwarded copies contain personal information about the original recipient, such as their e-mail addresses (as at the bottom, in this newsletter) or coded unsubscribe links. You may think, "But I know and trust the people I forwarded this to..."; but how about the people THEY may forward it to, and so on? This gives spammers one more source of valid e-mail addresses, and also may cause you to become unsubscribed!

Take a moment to strip off personal information when forwarding e-mail and do your part towards making the 'Net a safer place!

As always, feel free to drop me a comment on what you liked, disliked, or would like to see in the future! - Dave

A favorite topic with students in Word classes is personalizing a document with a watermark, which is a very light graphic that appears under the text of your document. This could be a company, school/fraternity/sorority logo, or perhaps a personal emblem... any picture suitable for the topic at hand!

To apply a watermark to your Word document, follow these steps:

1. Select Insert > Picture > From (Scanner, Clip Art, File, etc...) and insert your graphic on the page that will have the watermark. Don't worry about positioning it at this point.

2. Make sure your graphic is still selected - it should have little "boxes" on the corners and sides. Look for your Picture toolbar (above) somewhere on your screen - if it's not visible, select View > Toolbars > Picture.
3. Click the Image Control [Office 2000] or Color [Office XP] icon--pictured second from left above; then select Watermark [Office 2000] or Washout [Office XP].
4. Click the Text Wrapping icon (it looks like a dog...) and select Behind Text.
5. You can now position (click-and-drag when your cursor is a 4-way arrow) and resize (click-and-drag corners when your cursor has two arrowheads) your graphic to achieve your desired watermark!
6. You could also experiment with increasing or decreasing the picture contrast with the two "moon"-shaped icons, or increasing\decreasing brightness with the two "sun" icons!

Remember to check your Print Preview and make sure text is readable over the watermark, before printing!

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2) File Find- "XP-AntiSpy"

Screenshot

XP-AntiSpy, this week's File Find, will be useful for Windows XP users only. It gives you easy access to those hidden and hard-to-find "phone home"-features built into Windows XP. Increase your privacy easily and automatically with just a few mouse clicks. Quickly disable MediaPlayer "identification"; disable error reporting; even quickly and easily remove Microsoft Messenger (MSN) from your system! (click screenshot for more!) There's  a handy little description area at the bottom that describes each item on the list on mouse-over. A product of Germany, XP-AntiSpy is available in 10 languages through the link below. Download XP-AntiSpy here Updated 7/07

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Searching for a U.S.A. vacation destination? For something just a bit different, visit a castle or two along the way to wherever you go!

Castles in the U.S.A.? Yes--and you'll find information about over 200 of them at our first site, Castles of the United States. Fairly well organized by state, with pictures and descriptions of most castles. There's bed-and-breakfast castles, castles that are museums, armories, restaurants, schools and even personal homes! You'll find that at this site, a man's home is truly his castle! Become a bit politicized since my last visit...as has many things.

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Wouldn't be right if I said much about the World's Smallest Web site. So, I won't.

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Got the Blues? It could be worse! I've found a link to the worst sounds known to man. If you click the following, it may take years to forget these sounds. DON'T CLICK THIS LINK: You were warned! Still horrid 5 years later!

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4) Email Funny - "Bank It!"

Bank It! is a simple yet fun and addictive freeware game by PAWSoft. It is based on a very simple concept of banking accumulated points after guessing if the next number will be higher or lower than the last. The scoring system is similar to that used in the hit game show, The Weakest Link.

No need to answer inane questions or listen to insulting comments from the host to play Bank It! - another one of those simple games you'll have to play "just one more time!"

Funny downloads still available!

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"There are no knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns, that is to say there are things we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know." - Donald Rumsfeld Still as timely today as when it was first spoken!

6) Hodgepodge

< * > Alaskan Forest Service worker attacked by huge grizzly bear - "Think about it. This thing on its hind legs could walk up to the average single story house and could look on the roof at eye level." GORY PHOTO WARNING < * > Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? STILL TICKING! < * > This one's for Lou and Oscar (RIP)- "The Thunder of Paws... The Thrill of Victory... The Whine of Defeat" - WeinerdogRaces < * >

G'nite, and thanks for reading!

Dave Gretz

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