Envision It!

New Project Showcase

Jan. 2005

Environmental Defense

Want to Do Something?

Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are clean air, clean water, healthy food and flourishing ecosystems.

Through their program areas, Environmental Defense brings together experts in science, law and economics to tackle complex environmental issues that affect our oceans, our air, our natural resources, the livability of our man-made environment, and the species with whom we share our world.

The organization also produces Web sites, print and email newsletters, fact sheets and educational materials on "green" behavior and business practices that can help sustain and improve our environment.

Here's how you can help.

Environmental Defense also maintains a 750,000-member Action Network, which joins environmental and social groups around the globe, and alerts an online community of activists to send emails and faxes on timely issues to legislators and other policymakers. This online tool has been successful in alerting concerned citizens to raise their voices about pending government actions and environmentally-unfriendly business practices. Sign up here.

Help Desk

Basic Training Workshop
Slated for Feb. 18

Whatdayamean, "E-mail Client"?

What you absolutely, positively need to know about your computer and the Internet.

A lot of our questions are, indeed, frequently asked questions (FAQ), so we'll feature one in each edition of the newsletter. Better listen up. There may be a quiz! :-)

Q. I just left AOL and got a new service provider. They sent me the information to set up an account in my e-mail client. What's an e-mail client?

A. The basic architecture of the Internet is divided into two big categories— serves that "serve" information, and clients that reside on your desktop and receive the information. Your browser, for example, is a client application. It receives and parses coded information it downloads from a server. Likewise, your e-mail application such as Outlook and Outlook Express, are clients. In order for you to receive e-mail using one of these applications, you need to add your new user ID, password, and the name of the incoming and outgoing mail server to the application. You can get this information from your Internet service provider (ISP).

Many of my clients know very little about their computers or the software applications that allow them to surf the Internet and use e-mail. Many have learned how to use the computer on a need-to-know basis, which creates problems when a new need arises.

So, I’m going to offer a workshop Feb. 18 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. entitled “What you absolutely, positively need to know about your computer and the Internet.” Click here to sign up.

The two and a half hour workshop will covers PC basics, Web basics, and e-mail basics. The workshop will also give you the vocabulary to communicate with help desk people, repair people, Internet people, even the occasional “propeller head!”

This is an opportunity to learn in a small, safe group or people who also know very little about computers. The group will be limited to six participants.

The price is $75, which includes a workbook that can serve as an easy reference and lunch. Call 310-836-7141 or email marcia@visionquest.tv for more info or to let me know you'd like to attend.

Now You Can Search TV and Video Content

Yahoo and Google launched video search features on Jan.24. Google Video (in beta, of course) offers users the ability to search the content of television programs from leading TV content providers including PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN, among others.

"What Google did for the web, Google Video aims to do for television," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products.

The Google Video beta enables users to search across the closed captioning content of a growing number of TV programs that Google began indexing in December, 2004. .

Entering a query such as (iPod) will return a list of relevant television programs with still images and text excerpts from the exact point in the program where the search phrase was spoken.

Yahoo steps up the integration of its video search by adding a tab to the homepage and partnering with TV search player TVEyes to help it better index video content.

Yahoo!'s video index includes content from its own network, including video from Yahoo! News, LAUNCH, and Movies, along with exclusive partner content from Mark Burnett Productions and JibJab. The company also has video search partnerships with AtomFilms, RealNetworks, and IFILM.

Internet Marketing Showcase

Newsletters and eZines
Free 60 Day Trial

Vision Quest Multimedia Offers a Turn-key Solution

All of us entrepreneurs are too busy to see straight, and I know that the last thing some of you want or need is another job figuring out what to put in a newsletter much less writing one. If that description fits you, you don't have to do it. I'll do it for you.

As a veteran journalist and marketing communications professional, I am highly qualified to gather and edit informative tidbits of news in your industry and mix that with your upcoming events and/or special promotions in order to produce an effective monthly e-newsletter. You approve it before it goes out, and I do the rest.

Call 310-836-7141 or e-mail marcia@visionquest.tv for a quote.