PPP
Design
Are You Connected?
Volume 12
What's New 
Miniature Portable Hard Drives
These portable wonders allow you to carry gigabytes of data in a shirt pocket. Many offer 60 gigabytes or more of memory in a package that will fit in the palm of your hand. The possible uses for these gadgets is endless. Imagine transferring your current office project to a portable hard drive and transferring it to your home computer in a matter of seconds, avoiding the need to haul that laptop or burn a Cd. What if you have 300 megabytes of photos (high quality digital photos can take up a lot of space) that you want to show your parents or children? Can you imagine the hours you would spend emailing all of your prized pictures? Why not place them on your portable hard drive and the next time you visit transfer them to their computer in a matter of seconds.
Most of these drives don't require a battery because they use the power from your computer to complete the transfer. These tools are fast to, many offer USB II connections and some even offer fire wire. This means that your can transfer data at rates of 400 megabytes per second, or even faster.
Many of these gizmos offer MP3 Players built in to the drive so you can listen to music as you transport your contents to another computer.
There are some small versions that can fit on a key ring and offer smaller amounts of memory. Whatever you need to transfer can probably be handled by one of these portable units.
Links to a few portables are in the Hot Links Corner.
Signs that you live in the year 2002.
1. You just tried to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
3. You call your son's beeper to let him know it's time to eat. He
emails
you back from his bedroom, "What's for dinner?"
4. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.
5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South Africa, but
you
haven't spoken with your next door neighbor yet this year.
6. You check the ingredients on a can of chicken noodle soup to see if it contains Echinacea.
Signs that you live in the year 2002. (cont.)
7. Your grandmother asks you to send her a JPEG file of your new born so she can create a screen saver.
8. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
9. Every commercial on television has a website address at the bottom of the screen.
10. You buy a computer and 6 months later it is out of date and now sells for half the price you paid.
$ Marketing Your Site $
Does Your Email Address Help or Hurt Your Image?
One of the glaring tip-offs that a company is really Net savvy is the effort they put into looking professional. Well designed web site. Lots of content. Reliable server. But little things can make a difference.
Little things like the email addresses used in relation to the business. When I visit a business site and notice that the webmaster's email address is billybob@aol.com or sue0954@yahoo.com or some other free email service, I have to wonder who I'm dealing with. How professional is this business?
Use only email addresses that are part of the company domain. Messages can still be forwarded to any other address using an email alias without the sender ever knowing, but make your official addresses @yourdomain.com.
If your site is hosted by PPP Design, an Email @yourdomain.com is available for free. Take advantage of this option and enhance your business image.
