All 25 Wizards are explained here. The statements that have a
light-aqua background apply only to the JavaScript version of iMarvel. The
statements with a tan background apply only to the all-HTML version of
iMarvel.
1. Address Book:
The Address Book is a place for you to keep e-mail addresses.
When you click on any name in the Address Book, the
name and address is automatically placed in the Mail Wizard. You can even
address a message to multiple recipients: to do this, hold down the [Ctrl] key
while you click on multiple names in the Address Book.
The buttons in the Address Book are used as follows:
- Delete Address: To delete a name,
click on any name in the Address Book and then click this button. To delete multiple names, first
hold down the [Ctrl] key while you click on all the names
that you want to delete. Then click this
button to delete them all.
- Lookup: Click here, and you can search online
directories for names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for
anyone you want to look up.
- Add Address: To add someone to the Address Book, fill in the Send
To: box and the Name: box in the Mail Wizard, then click this button.
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See also: Mail Wizard,
Memo Pad.
2. Alarm:
To set a simple alarm, simply click on the box
labeled Hour and type the hour you want the alarm to go off. Then click on
the Set button to set the alarm.
Currently, the all-HTML Alarm Wizard is used to set events in the
Schedule Wizard. It doesn't actually sound audible alarms.
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All the other fields are optional:
- Minutes: Type in the minutes (if you
don't, ":00" is used.)
- AM/PM: Select "AM" or
"PM".
- Month/Date: Select a date (if not,
the alarm will be set for a time within 24 hours.)
- Repeat: You can repeat an alarm any
number of times. Example: if you put "2" in this box, the
alarm will ring, then repeat two more times. To repeat an
alarm forever, put "999" in this box.
- Frequency: You can put any number of hours in this box,
such as 24 to make it a daily alarm. You can put in any
hours:minutes combination, for example 1:30
to make it ring every 1.5 hours. Or, you can use one of these
abbrevations: for a weekly
alarm, put W. For a weekday (Monday-Friday)
alarm, put WD. For a yearly alarm, put
Y. For monthly alarms, put M.
Type: Select an alarm type:
- The Memo Box will pop up a message window when it goes off
- The Radio Alarm will visit the site you have selected in
the Radio Wizard, and also play the RealMedia clip. If no site is selected,
ABC News is used.
- The Midi Alarm will play a file called
"alarm.mid" (a Bach melody.)
Optionally, you can also type a memo that will appear in a message window.
- The Visit Sites alarm will
visit all sites selected in the Favorites Wizard.
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Tip: you can use the tab key to move between boxes, and the
space bar to push the AM/PM radio buttons.
The Alarm Wizard is one of the neatest things about iMarvel!
It is often better than any other alarm device, because it gives you
both an audible reminder and a visible reminder whenever you pass
by your computer. Here's some of the alarms that
everyone should consider setting in their iMarvel program (or
any other scheduling program):
- If you do any important work with your
computer, a great thing you can do with iMarvel is to set a
Memo Alarm to pop up every 15 to 60 minutes to remind you to
save your work. Many people
have had computer crashes that wiped out their unsaved
work.
- Use iMarvel as a "reminder system." Think about
anniversaries, appointments and any events you look forward to
but sometimes miss. When you schedule appointments, you should
set the alarm to go off well before the appointment time, to
make sure you have enough time to prepare for it.
- Think about some good habits you'd like to get into. If you
have trouble remembering to back up your hard disk regularly, you
can set a repeating alarm to remind yourself to do that daily.
The possibilities are endless: feeding the dog, a health/hygiene activity, whatever!
- Leave a message, reminder or love note for someone else who
uses the same computer.
- Yearly flu shots around mid-October. Many places offer flu shots,
including public health clinics and some stores (CostCo sells
them for $8.) It's very important, but also very easy to forget.
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When you set a Radio Alarm or a Visit Sites
alarm, iMarvel may stay online and only log off when your
software disconnects. Internet Explorer will
normally log off after 20 minutes. To change this setting, click
on the View or Tools Menu, Internet Options line,
Connection tab, then Settings button.
Here are some more things you can do with the JavaScript alarm:
- Have iMarvel give you the news you want, at the time you
want. For example, you can set it to play a news site every
morning at the time you want, instead of waiting for the network
news to come on.
- Customize the MIDI alarm. Currently it plays a Bach melody.
If you prefer a different MIDI file, copy it to the /starbase7/
directory as "alarm.mid" (e.g.
"C:/starbase7/alarm.mid")
- How about using it for inspiration and/or learning? Find a
supercool site on the web that updates content daily (e.g. a
"cool site of the day" site), and have iMarvel download it for
you each morning. If you go to Yahoo and search for "of the day"
(remember to type the quote marks, to get exact-phrase matching),
you'll get over 3000 categories and sites, including Poem of the
Day, Joke of the Day and many more.
- Let's say you're eagerly waiting for news of some important
upcoming event on the Web. You can use the "Alta
Vista" URL in the Radio Wizard to set an alarm to periodically search for any
term you wish.
- You can use iMarvel to simultaneously download a lot of
different sites that you like to visit regularly. For example,
you could construct your own "morning briefing" of the
news you want. Set the alarm for anytime in the morning, and
it will all be downloaded in about 5 minutes.
To create a morning briefing, take the following steps:
- Add the sites you want to visit to the
"Favorites" Wizard.
- While holding down the [Ctrl] key, click any number of sites listed
in the Favorites Wizard.
- Set Visit Sites alarm to visit those sites regularly. Remember
to put
"999" in the "Repeat" text-box, which will make the alarm
repeat forever.
Notes:
- You can minimize iMarvel to the Windows 95/98 taskbar, and alarms will
still be activated.
- When you add a Memo Alarm, try to use alphanumeric
characters (A-Z, 0-9). The browser can't accept quote marks
or apostrophes.
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See also: Calendar Wizard,
Clock Wizard,
Schedule Wizard.
3. Business Wizard: The following options are available:
- Order: Type any office-supply item you want, and click the GO button.
You'll get an instant quote from the online site of Office Depot.
- Track: You can type any airbill number for an express package from
UPS, USPS, DHL, FedEx or Airborne. Click the GO button, and their online site will
tell you the status of the package.
- Links: The 9 links you see in this Wizard will take you to some
of the best online sites for small business.
- Advisor: The SCORE site (Service Corps of Retired Executives) will help any budding entrepreneur or executive get his or her start.
- Government: The Small Business Administration (SBA) can help you with its sections
on Starting Your Business, Disaster Assistance, Financing, Expansion, Pro-Net (government contracting), Regulatory Fairness,
Ace-Net (venture capital), SBA Outreach for minorities, and A Shareware Library of Programs to Run a Business.
- Networking: The Access Business Online is a business-to-business website designed to help businesses work together online, through the BizWiz Network of more than 300,000
companies. It is recognized as a valuable resource if you want to make contacts, or are buying or selling a product or service. All industries. All markets. Worldwide.
- Get Funding: CashFinder is a loan site that specializes in lending to businesses.
- CEO Express: This is an excellent portal and reference site for all business people.
- Credit Check: The EquiFax site lets you run a credit check on any potential customer.
- Online Office: HotOffice is a good "online office" site for businesspeople and professionals. For a free site,
Visto
is very good (a PC Magazine Editor's Choice.)
- Law Office: Nolo Press has some very good self-help legal guides to help you understand the law, patent inventions yourself, etc.
- Travel Office: BizTravel.com is recognized as the leading online business-travel site.
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Note: the all-HTML version currently allows you to track only UPS packages.
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See also: Finance Wizard,
Investment Wizard,
Mall Wizard.
4. Calculator:
This calculator's wide display lets you see everything
you type, so you don't have to worry about whether you mistyped
a number.
You can click on the numeric keypad to enter numbers and operators
into the Memo Pad display, or
you can type numbers and operators on the keyboard (including the "="
sign.) The "Format"
key will align all numbers in a neat column for you. The
"Undo" key will undo the most recent calculation.
"MC" clears
memory, "RM" recalls the memory to the main calculator display,
and "M+" adds the display to the memory.
"Sqr" squares
the display, "Sqrt" finds the Square Root.
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With the all-HTML version, all calculations are done at the iMarvel
web site. Type some numbers and operators into the Display text-box (e.g. "5
+9.95+7.49".) When you press return (or click on the Calculate
button), our server will calculate and
display the result. There are also 12 operations listed in the calculator.
When you check any of the boxes next to an operation, that tells our server
to perform that operation, after calculating the result. The operations
are performed in the order in which they are listed (e.g. "x 100" is done
before "Square".) The "Column Format" option, if checked, tells the
server to list all of its operations so you can examine their accuracy.
The all-HTML calculator is different from the JavaScript calculator
in that the Memo Pad is not used to enter numbers or display results.
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There are 3 Memory
functions: MC will clear the memory to zero, m+ will add the number in the Memo Pad to
memory, and rm will recall the memory to the Memo Pad.
See also: Memo Pad.
5. Calendar:
The calendar displays the upcoming 7 weeks. The current date is
highlighted by a gold-colored rim. Holidays are shown by a gold-colored
underlined date with a special graphic background. The day of the full
moon is shown by a moon-image bakground. If a holiday falls on the day
of a full moon, a yellow circle will appear in the upper left corner of the
date box.
The following additional options are available:
- Online Calendar: This button will open a window to
Visto,
a good calendar/freemail site (a PC Magazine Editor's Choice.)
- On TV: This will display a schedule of upcoming TV events.
- Movies: Displays a schedule of upcoming movies in your area.
- On Web: Displays a schedule of upcoming online events,
courtesy of broadcast.com.
- View: This displays a full-screen calendar, described
in the Schedule documentation.
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See also: Alarm Wizard,
Clock Wizard,
Schedule Wizard.
6. Clock:
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The upper clock is a local clock, showing your local
time and date (the same time as your computer's system clock.) If you want to
make the time more accurate, reset the system clock. In Windows
95/98 you can do this by double-clicking on the little
time-stamp on the taskbar.
To see the current time, click on any box in the Clock or
World Clock areas. If you would like the clock to continuously
update itself, see the Advanced Commands section. But keep in mind that
continuous updates increases the likelihood of a browser freeze or
shutdown.
The Clock Wizard will automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time.
You don't need to adjust the clock to fall back in fall, or
spring forward in spring.
The World Clock will show you the time and date in virtually any
country in the world. You simply click on the select-box labeled
"Zone" and select the region you want. The clock will
immediately show you the time and date there.
The World Clock is not perfectly accurate. It assumes that
every other country has the same adjustments for Daylight Savings
Time as your own country. That often isn't true, especially in
tropical regions. Also, some browsers do not correctly implement
World Time, and can be off by 3 hours or even more.
There's also an Alarm Clock clickable icon that allows
you to set a timer alarm.
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The all-HTML clock has a Timer Alarm function. To set an alarm, fill the
two text-boxes with the length of time you want. For example, if you
want the alarm to activate in 1.5 hours, fill the 2 boxes with 1 and 30.
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- Clicking on the Clock clickable icon will open a site that
shows accurate current time for virtually any location.
- The Time Zone Map clickable icon will open a
map of the world's time zones.
See also: Alarm Wizard,
Calendar Wizard,
Schedule Wizard.
7. Control Center: The following options are available:
- GoTo Search:
Type any keywords into the GoTo Search Box and it will return a listing
of relevant sites. All search engines have their advantages and
disadvantages; the advantages of the GoTo.com engines are its simplicity,
fast loading, superior relevancy of results, and 40 listings returned
per page.
- Help Pages: This is the online
manual, which is the latest version of the documentation for iMarvel. There is
also an on-disk manual in your /starbase7/
directory, although this may not be the latest manual.
- FAQ Page: This is a well-organized online
list of frequently-asked-questions, a great resource if you need a quick
answer.
- Chat Room:
This is an online chat room at iMarvel.com. Live tech support is
available weekdays, during most daytime hours.
- Discussion Forum:
You can post any kind of iMarvel-related message here for other iMarvel users
to read, as well as our staff. Usually someone will answer it within a couple
of days.
- Save: iMarvel uses two methods to save its settings
(such as the alarms you may set when using the Alarm Wizard.) First, it automatically
saves them as a "cookie" file on your hard disk. This means
that you can close out your browser without losing
your settings. But cookies aren't a permanent solution: you can't transfer
a cookie to another computer, and they can be lost if your browser crashes.
So iMarvel also gives you a chance to
save iMarvel's settings by clicking the "Save" button.
You should save settings (preferably to a file named
"/starbase7/saveset.htm") at least daily.
Cookies can be no more than 4000 bytes in size, which limits the
number of alarms and other saved data to about 30-70 entries.
- Auto-Save: If you check this box, iMarvel will remind you to save
your settings 10 minutes after you make any important changes.
- Restore: You may need to use this option if it appears that
your browser is not displaying iMarvel correctly. Clicking this button will surf your browser to
the saveset.htm file. That file has a button in it which will restore
iMarvel's previous settings when you click on it. Any cookie file will be
overwritten.
If you get a new computer, you may want to transfer iMarvel
to it. To do that, just copy the /starbase7/ directory to
your new computer, then load /starbase7/imarvel.htm into your browser, and click
the Restore button.
- Hoo-Hah! If you click this button it will launch the
Hoo-Hah Directory.
- Reset: This button reloads iMarvel. Some
browsers are quirky in how they reload pages. If you click the reload
button on your browser, it may redraw the images correctly, but draw the page
format incorrectly. Another way to reload the page is to click on the
address bar and then press [Enter] or [Return], which may draw the pages but fail to
update the images. Bottom line: if the page looks wrong, try another
reload method.
- Special: This button is currently unavailable, but in the
future it will implement some advanced commands.
Advanced Commands:
The following advanced commands are available in the
iMarvel Control Center. If
an option is marked "(Default)", iMarvel starts with
that option already enabled. To give the command, type it into the
box after the "Special:" button and then click that button.
The most useful commands are "/M5",
"/Y14" and "/F26".
- /Y5: Update clock every second. May cause program
shutdowns on some browsers if they don't handle JavaScript
well.
- /M5: Update clock every minute. Also may cause shutdowns,
on rare occasions.
- /N5: (Default) the clock is updated only when clicked on,
or when an alarm is activated.
- /47: Decrease the hour shown on the World Clock by one.
Useful if your browser doesn't display the World Clock
correctly.
- /57: Do not adjust the hour shown on the World Clock.
- /67: Increase the hour shown on the World Clock by one.
"/77" would increase it by 2 hours, "/37"
would decrease it by 2 hours, etc.
- /Y11: (Default) use .JPG pictures for the Calendar Wizard
("M1.JPG" through "M12.JPG".)
- /G11: Use .GIF pictures for the calendar
("M1.GIF" through "M12.GIF".)
- /N11: Don't use pictures for the calendar.
- /A13: Always open new windows when opening "Sound
Site:" URLs. When this URL is a RealMedia URL, the
RealPlayer program should then be "spawned" by the
window and close it out. If it doesn't close out the window, you
can try the "/M13" or "/N13" commands.
- /D13: (Default) Whatever iMarvel believes is most appropriate
for your computer.
- /M13: Open new windows when opening "Sound Site:"
URLs, except for ReadMedia and ".mid" and
".wav" URLs.
- /N13: Never open new windows when accessing RealAudio URLs.
There is usually no need to spawn new windows if the URL is
always a correct sound URL. However, some browsers will close
down iMarvel when directed to play a sound URL. If the
"/N13" option is used, iMarvel will close down
whenever it opens a "Sound Site:" URL that is illegal,
or when the URL points to a web page instead of a sound.
- /Y14: Set the pixel depth and width for any new browser
windows that iMarvel opens. We recommend that you try out
400x600 windows at first to see how it looks. Then increase it
to dimensions about 15% less than your monitor's screen
resolution. All numbers are rounded off to the nearest number
divisible by 20.
If you type "1" when you're asked
for the screen width, new browser windows will occupy the full width of the
screen.
- /N14: (Default) new windows will be opened at the depth and
width that your browser prefers.
- /T26: (Default) iMarvel will use "GIF Tailing"
to try to make sure that graphics are not loaded from the cache. However,
some browsers (mostly Macintosh ones) do not allow this, so the graphics won't
load at all.
- /F26: Do not use "GIF Tailing." If your browser has
trouble loading graphics, use this option.
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See also: Directory.
8. Directory: There are two versions of the
Directory Wizard, an image version and a text version. Whichever version you
use, you simply click on a Wizard name or icon to go to that Wizard. If the
Wizard is not contained in the current iMarvel page, it will be loaded into
the browser window.
See also: Controls.
9. Favorites:
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The all-HTML version of the Favorites Wizard keeps your Favorites list
at iMarvel.com, so you don't have to worry about ever losing any of your
Favorites because of a disk crash.
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The following options are available in the Favorites Wizard:
- Add: The "Add" button will add a site
to the Favorites list that is shown in the select-box. First, fill in the
"Site Name:" box. Then fill in the "Site URL:"
box (ignore the "Extra URL:" box, which is used
only for the Radio Wizard.) Web addresses should be preceded with
"http://".
Then click the "Add" button. Normally, you'll need to
reload the iMarvel page to see the new additions.
It is recommended that you keep only 10 or 20 favorites listed
here (use your browser to keep bookmarks of sites you don't often visit.)
- Open: To open any web page, input a URL
into the "Site URL" and/or "Extra URL" text-boxes.
You can type the URL yourself, or you can select a site from one of the
"Favorites"
select-box. If you click "Open" with nothing in the URL
boxes, you'll visit the ABC News site and hear their hourly RealPlayer
broadcast.
The Favorites Wizard has an "auto-complete" feature: if there's
no colon (":") in the URL, it fills in
"http://", "www" and ".com" for you. For example,
when you type "yahoo" in the "Site
URL:" box and then click "Add" or
"Open", iMarvel will make it
"http://www.yahoo.com".
You can open more than one site simultaneously. To do this,
hold down the [Ctrl] key while you click on multiple sites in the select-box.
Each site will be opened in a separate
window.
If you open several sites simultaneously, they will take more
time to download. You could try doing something else for a while, then
come back to the computer. All the sites will be fully loaded for you
within a few minutes.
- Clear: The "Clear" button will clear the three
text-boxes in the Favorites Wizard.
- Delete: The "Delete" button will delete any site
that is named in the "Site Name:" box from your Favorites list.
When you surf to a web page that you want to add to iMarvel,
follow these instructions to add the page as a "Favorite". This procedure
is meant for Windows 95/98, but MacIntosh users can also do it using slightly
different commands. First, open a window to the site you'd like to add. Then take
the following steps:
Type The Site Name:
1. Click on the "Site Name:" box of the Favorites Wizard.
2. Type in a name that describes the site and/or page.
Get The Site URL:
3. Click on the address bar at the top of the new site window,
to select the URL.
4. Type [Ctrl]-C to copy the URL to the clipboard.
5. Click on the "Site URL:" box of
iMarvel (if text is there, delete it.)
6. Type [Ctrl]-V to copy the URL from the clipboard.
7. If there is any text in the "Extra URL:"
box, delete it.
Add The New Site:
8. Click the "Add" button.
9. Click the select-box that you'd like to add the site to.
10. If you want to
add the site to another select-box in the Radio Wizard, repeat steps 8 and 9.
If you want to add a sound source, replace step 7 above with these steps:
Add The Sound URL:
7a. Right-click on any link on the new site window that plays a sound source. The
link can be text or graphical. To determine whether it's really a RealMedia link, first hover
the mouse arrow over the link or graphic and look at the "status line", the grey bar at the
bottom of the window. If it ends in .smi, .ra, .rm, .ram or .ram then it's
RealAudio-compatible. If you can't see the ending because the window is small,
try enlarging the window. If you can't do that, continue on and see if it's a RealMedia link
in step 7d.
7b. If you're using Internet Explorer, click on "Copy Shortcut" to copy the
link to the clipboard. On Netscape Navigator, click on "Copy Link Location". On some
older browsers, you may be able to copy text links, but not graphic links. In that case, you'll
have to discover the URL of the link and type it in manually.
7c. Click on the "Extra URL:" box of iMarvel.
7d. Type [Ctrl]-V to copy the URL from the clipboard.
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After you've added Favorites, always save your settings by clicking
the Save button in the Controls Wizard. After you Save
your settings file as /starbase7/saveset.htm, you should
save it again under a different name, as a backup copy. We
suggest naming files "backup1.htm" through
"backup7.htm", one copy for each day of the week.
If you don't think you'll use a Favorite often,
you should delete it. This will reduce the clutter of unused
URLs, and iMarvel may run a little faster.
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Here's some ideas for adding more Favorites to your Personal iMarvel :
See also: Internet Traffic Wizard,
Search Wizard.
10. Finances: The Financial Wizard will help you optimize your
personal finances. The following options are available:
- Headline: The headline at the top shows you some recent interesting
consumer news, click on it and you'll see the full story and all the other
recent consumer headlines.
- Term Lookup: The "Term Lookup:" box allows you to find the definition of
any financial term. Type in "mortgage" for example, and you'll get about
14 definitions of different mortgage terms.
- Links: There are nine links to some of the best financial
sites on the Internet. The number next to the Loan link shows the
latest loan rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (as reported the previous day
at BankRate), which you should watch if you're thinking about buying or
refinancing a home.
- Bank: Wells Fargo Bank, rated as one of the best banks by the Gomez Advisors.
- Card finder: A credit-card finding tool that will find you a card at a rate you'll like.
- Credit report: Click this to get a free instant report on your credit rating status with a major credit bureau.
- Job finder: Monster.com is the largest job-hunting resource on the Web.
- Insurance: InsureMarket will compare insurance companies and their rates.
- Loan: At BankRate.com you can get comparisons of loan rates of various kinds, from many lenders.
- Real Estate: The MicroSoft HomeAdvisor site is one of the largest and best real estate sites on the Web.
- Quicken taxes: The Quicken site is a great all-around site for personal finance help, with a good section on saving money on your taxes.
- Yahoo finance: Another very good all-around finance site.
See also: Business Wizard,
Investment Wizard,
Mall Wizard.
11. Investment:
The Investment Wizard will help you invest your money (although
nothing can take the place of wisdom! "A fool and his money are
soon parted.") The following options are available:
- Headline: The headline at the top shows you some recent
interesting investment news, click on it to read more about the story. Most
news is provided by the online financial site Forbes.com.
- Get Quotes: Type some stock symbols in the text box,
click the GO button, and you'll
see the most recent available stock quotes for them (delayed about 20 minutes,
however.) Here's some examples of what you can type in:
- $INDU: Dow Jones Industrial Average
- $COMPQ: NASDAQ Composite Index
- $SPX: S&P 500
- $TYX: 30-year bond interest rate
- $XAU: Gold/Silver index
- MSFT: Microsoft
- AOL: America Online
- IBM: International Business Machines
- Set: After you type in some stock symbols, click this button
to remember them (so you don't have to type them again.) This feature is
useful for storing your stock portfolio in iMarvel.
- Get: Recall your stock symbols to the text box.
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- Market Summary: The green table shows you a market summary,
updated twice daily, at about noon (EDT) and 5 PM.
- Links: The various links help you research investments further.
- Real Time quotes: Most sites delay stock quotes by 15-20 minutes. Real Time Quotes are a must for any day trader.
- Find ticker symbol: At this site, you can type in any company name to find its ticker symbol.
- Broker: Muriel Siebert was the #1 ranked broker by Smart Money Magazine, and the #1 ranked mutual fund site by Forbes Magazine..
- Market Data:ClearStation is a financial advisory Web site that helps you make better investment decisions by
identifying and interpreting stock trends. You'll get a great combination of graphs, daily computer-generated stock ideas and in-depth education. There are sections on
Daily Investment Ideas, Portfolio Tracking, Stock News and Research, and Member Discussion. Registration is free, and by joining you'll be able to create an online
Portfolio and Watch List. ClearStation was nominated for the 1999 Webby Awards.
- Stock Picks: TheStreet.com has very high standards for journalistic integrity: for example, their writers are not allowed to own any stocks, and therefore write unbiased stories.
- iFAQ: Here's a page that answers all your basic financial questions and defines many investing terms.
See also: Business Wizard,
Finance Wizard,
Newspaper Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
TV Wizard.
12. Internet Traffic:
In the graphic on the right side of the Wizard, the only number you need to look at is the
large yellow number. A "50" means that internet traffic is about average.
A lower number means there is more congestion, while a higher number means that
surfing conditions are better than average. you can click on the graphic
to see the latest report on Internet traffic conditions, courtesy of Andover.net.
The following options are available:
- USA: Click here to see the latest report on Internet traffic
in America, courtesy of Andover.net.
- Check: Click here to refresh the traffic graphic, to get the latest
reading on Internet traffic conditions. If you don't get an updated
graphic, it's because your browse is caching old images (in that case, refresh
the page to get the new graphic.)
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See also: Favorites Wizard,
Search Wizard.
13. Jukebox:
The Jukebox uses MIDI files, and in the future it will play MP3 files too.
Most browsers come with a MIDI player already installed,
but it usually sounds tinny. The
Crescendo site
offers a free basic plug-in (but once again, it's tinny) as well as a
better-sounding advanced plug-in for about $20. The
Yamaha
plug-in is another nice-sounding MIDI player, and it's also free.
There is an optional "software synthesiser" that's free for 3 months, but the
player sounds fine without it.
However, Yamaha's installation instructions are somewhat difficult to
understand. The final option is to connect some sort of external MIDI
device, a subject that is best investigated at more specialized websites.
The following options are available in the Jukebox Wizard:
- Song Links: Clicking on a text link will open a separate window that
plays the song. When the song is done, the browser will cycle through
the 12 songs (to vary the playlist, sometimes a song is skipped.) If you
want to skip to another song, you can click on a link to change the
song.
- Jukebox Icons: You can click one of the three jukebox icons
to visit web sites with more MIDI jukebox songs.
Within a few weeks, we'll make available a program to allow
customization of this Wizard. You'll be able to add or change the
MIDI files to any songs you like.
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See also: Radio Wizard,
TV Wizard.
14. eMail:
The Mail Wizard is a good way to quickly send
e-mail over the Internet. The Mail Wizard gives you these benefits:
- Fast Speed: There really is no quicker web-based e-mail
program anywhere! When you send e-mail, it's sent in a separate
window without waiting for a response from the server. This way,
you can start writing another message immediately, or continue
surfing the Web.
- Carbon Copy: You can e-mail a copy to your own e-mail address.
- Signature: You can create a signature to put at the end of all
your messages.
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The Mail Wizard's main drawback is that it does not yet allow you to
receive and read e-mail. When someone replies to the messages you send from
iMarvel, you'll receive the reply with your usual e-mail application.
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Before using the Mail Wizard for the first
time, set your "signature". Write the usual ending for
your messages in the Display area, then click the "Set Signature"
button. Then whenever you compose a message, you can click
the "Sign" button to add it to your message.
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To e-mail a message, first fill in the "Send To:" and
"Reply To:" boxes with e-mail addresses (you can use the Tab key
to move around.) Fill in the "Name:" box if you want to
make an entry in the Address Book. The "Subject:" and
"Carbon Copy:" boxes are optional.
Now compose a message in the "Memo Pad:" area.
You can use all the normal editing keys to move the cursor around,
including the arrow keys. You can Select some text by holding
down the Shift key while you move the cursor. You can then hold down the [Ctrl]
key and press "X" to delete that text to the clipboard (or press
[Ctrl]-C to transfer a copy to the clipboard, without deleting
it.) Anything in the clipboard can be pasted to and from
your other programs, normally by pressing [Ctrl]-V.
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To send off the message, simply click "Sign", and
then click "Send Now".
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To send off the message, simply click the E-Mail button.
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Here's explanations for the many features you see
in the Mail Wizard:
- Name: The name of the person who will receive the message.
- Add?: When you check this box and fill in the Name:
field, the address will automatically be added to the Address Book when you
send the message.
- Reply To: Your e-mail address, where you'll
receive replies to messages you send.
- Send To: The e-mail address you're sending the
message to.
- Subject: What the message is about.
- Alphabetize: This will alphabetize words or lines in the
Memo Pad.
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- Carbon Copy: Check this box if you want to send a
copy of the message to your own e-mail address.
- E-Cards: This opens a window to the
Blue Mountain Arts
web site, where you can send free electronic greeting cards by e-mail.
- Organizer: This opens a window to the
Magical Desk
web site, which gives you free e-mail, a calendar and address book.
- FaxAway: To address your message to any fax machine, type
someone's fax number in the Send To: box, then click this button.
This feature uses the "FaxAway" faxing service , which covers all of America. At the time
of this writing, they give you about 15 free faxes, then they charge about
10 cents per fax. Sign up at FaxAway before
you use this feature.
- FreeFax: You can use this button to address a message to
someone's fax machine using the "TPC-INT" free faxing service.
This service is available in about 10%
of America, along with many other countries where coverage may actually be more
complete. To get a complete list of covered areas, send any e-mail to their
auto-responder at tpccover@info.tpc.int.
- ICQ Chat: To address your message to someone's ICQ pager,
type their ICQ number in the Send To: box, then click this button.
- Mailto: This link launches the default mail program for your
browser (such as Outlook Express), using the address listed in
the "Send To:" box.
- NetGram: If you click this button, it adds "@netgram.com" to
the Send To: box. The NetGram service allows you to send e-mails to
postal addresses for less than a dollar each. To learn about the service and perhaps sign up for it,
visit NetGram.
- Next Message: This clears the text-boxes, to prepare for the
next message.
- Preview: Click this to see how your message looks in a separate window.
- Recommend: If you like our programs and you think
your friends will too, click this button to recommend them to
your friends.
- Send Now: To send the message right away, click this link.
- Set Signature: The contents of the Memo Pad are stored
as the usual ending for your messages whenever you click the
"Sign" button.
- Sign: Clicking this link will add the stored signature to your message.
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See also: Address Book,
Memo Pad.
15. Mall:
The mall has some great online stores, many top-rated by site judges like
Bizrate.com,
E-Smarts and
Yahoo Internet Life.
They give you excellent value for your money: most give you a discount of
at least 15% off normal retail prices.
The Mall even
has a "Free Stuff" site and two "Shopping Agents" that help
you shop for the lowest prices. Both were rated among the "Six
Hottest Shopping Bots" by ZDNet. Three sites in the mall were picked
among the "5 Top Shopping Sites" by PC Magazine, when they picked the top
100 web sites: mySimon, Amazon.com and etoys. Before you go shopping, you may want
to read iMarvel's Online Shopping Tips
page for some helpful tips.
The following options are available:
- Headline: The headline at the top shows you an "offer of
the day" for a great product at a low price. Click on it to see the full
offer, and all the other recent shopping offers.
- Shop For: Type whatever you're shopping for in this text-box.
- Shopping Spy: Click this button to use the "Bottom Dollar"
shopping agent to search for the item you typed into the "Shop For" text-box. This
shopping agent will compare prices for you at several different online stores. (Note:
there is a select-box in the Bottom Dollar store on the right end of the mall, listing categories
such as Books and Electronics.
You should choose a category there before you click on the Shopping Spy.)
- mySimon: Click this link to use the "mySimon"
shopping agent. MySimon is the unbiased site for
comparison shopping on the Internet. Shoppers compare millions of
products from over 1000 merchants in categories like books, music,
movies, apparel, computers, electronics, toys, sporting goods, gourmet foods
and wines.
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- Text Boxes: In a text box in any store, you can
type whatever you're shopping for. Click the GO button to find it
at that store.
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- Store Signs (Amazon.com, etc.): Click a store sign to go
straight to the store. In the future, we plan to add a version of
each store that
you can actually keep on your hard disk.
- Info: If you click here, a window will be opened that will
present you with information about this store. Usually it will be information
from the Bizrate.com directory of online stores. There, you'll find a wealth of
information about the store, its policies and how highly-rated it is.
- Go: Click this button to go straight to the store.
- Find: Click here to search this store for whatever you typed into the
"Shop For" text-box.
Some of the stores are:
1Travel.com: 1Travel.com is one of the best full-service
discount travel sites online. They have link on their home page that you
can click to check the flight schedule of most airline flights. It's
also a very customer-friendly travel shop, top-rated in a study by
emarketer.com, and ranked #2 among all leisure travel sites by the
Gomez Advisors site. Almost every travel subject imaginable is
directly accessible from their home page!
Amazon.com: The largest and best bookstore on
the Internet, which also sells music, videos, electronics, toys, and holds auctions.
Beyond.com: One of the Internet's best software stores.
30000 software titles are offered at low to moderate prices, with over
2000 titles available for
immediate download and usage. We're impressed by how well
designed and easy-to-use their site is.
CDNow: This online music store has won the top
rating for music stores in numerous online rankings. You can listen
to thousands of music samples, without necessarily buying the music.
Their automated "Album Advisor" helps you find good music
based on your own preferences. And their service is great!
You can create your personal "My CDNow" page, which lets
you keep a Wish List of items you might want to purchase in the future,
see discographies of artists you love, get updates on new releases and
more. They even allow you to return CD's after you've opened the
package (other online music stores will only allow you to return
opened CD's.)
FreeShop: At FreeShop, you can find free and trial
offers for many product categories.
eToys: At E-Toys, you can search for children's toys,
games and software. Their search engine can help you narrow down the
choices by letting you specify the price range, toy category and the
age of your child. If you'd rather trust humans to help you pick toys,
they have a "Picks of the month" feature. Their "low
price guarantee" is a great added attraction.
Magazine Mall: A magazine shop with great discounts,
great service and a family-friendly emphasis.
Reel.com: A video store with a "Movie Matches" feature:
you just type in the title of one of your favorite films, and Reel.com will
provide a list of "Movie Matches" -- similar films that cover the same
subject, appeal to the same audience, or provide a similar moviegoing
experience. They also carry over 85,000 movie titles (new or used) for
sale. Many are hard-to-find classics. VHS, laserdisc and DVD formats
are available, all at 15% below suggested retail. You can watch trailers
of recent releases, or visit their "Cinema Univeristy."
See also: Tips Wizard.
16. Memo Pad:
- Store: This button will store the Memo Pad in a "cookie" file on your hard disk.
- Recall: This button will recall a stored memo from the cookie.
- Clear: This button clears the Memo Pad.
- Select: This button selects all the text in the Memo Pad.
area.
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- Clear All Fields: This clears the Memo Pad, and also clears the
fields in the Mail Wizard if it is on the same page.
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See also: Address Book,
Mail Wizard.
17. Newspaper: The following options are available:
- Headline: The headline at the top is updated within a
short time of breaking news. Click on it to read the full story.
- More Headlines: This link opens up a new window to a
list of headlines from many sources: Reuters news and sports, Salon, ZDNet,
Hollywood Online, Individual Investor, Science Daily, OnHealth, and some fun
features such as Tabloid News, Dr. Science and TheCase.com.
- News, Money, Life: These links lead to sections in the online
version of USA Today newspaper.
- Other Links: The 15 other links lead to some of the best news
sources on the Internet.
- Get Paper: This option will retrieve a newspaper
with several pages, presented as frames in a single window.
Check any of the checkboxes next to the
15 links, then click this button. The News Wizard will then retrieve a
newspaper that has the sections you checked.
If you
then use the "Print" option of your browser, all sections would normally
be printed. However, some browsers (such as version 4.0 of Netscape) will only
print out one section.
You can also read the newspaper online. In order
to read the lower sections, place your mouse arrow directly over the dividing
line between frames, and drag the dividing line up to the top of the window.
We recommend that you not check too many boxes. More than 5-7 frames may be
too much for your browser to handle. On some Macintosh browsers, this
feature doesn't work at all: you just see a blank window.
- Search Box: To research any news topic you can imagine, type
the news subject in the text-box, then click the GO button.
See also: Photo Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
Sports Scoreboard,
TV Wizard.
18. Newsphotos: This section is very simple:
just click on a picture to see the corresponding Reuters news story.
You can choose from six photos: World, National, Politics, Entertainment,
Sports and Science.
See also: Newspaper Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
Sports Scoreboard,
TV Wizard,
Weather Wizard.
19. Radio:
To use the Radio Wizard, you need a RealAudio player. The
latest version can be downloaded from
real.com.
MicroSoft's NetShow player might also work.
You'll need at least a 14.4K modem, with 28.8K needed
for full usage.
While listening to RealPlayer, it is best to avoid using other programs.
"DOS" programs are especially troublesome. You can have windows
open to other programs, but they shouldn't be processing
anything. If you do use other programs at the same time,
you may experience a program shutdown or system
lockup. The problem seems to be in RealPlayer or the operating system rather
than in iMarvel.
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The all-HTML version of the Radio Wizard is a collection of links to
some of the best RealPlayer sites online.
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The following options are available:
- Radio On: Clicking this button will start up the radio.
- Play It: To play any sound URL, first select any "preset",
then click this button.
- To TV: If you have the TV Wizard, clicking this button will
play the selected RealVideo URL in the TV Wizard.
There are about 45 sites listed in the 6 select-boxes in the Radio Wizard.
The entries tell you how frequently the news clips
are updated: for example, "(H WD 6A-1P)" means
"Updated hourly on weekdays from 6 AM to 1 PM."
(D)" means that it's updated daily.
Tip: When you're in a select-box, you can press any letter on
the keyboard to find the next entry that begins with that letter.
(example: in the "News:" select-box, press
"P" to select the PBS broadcast.) The Up-Arrow and
Down-Arrow keys can also be used. You can use the Tab key to move to the
nexe select box, and [Shift]-Tab to move to the previous select-box.
All these site entries are called "presets".
If you have the Favorites Wizard on the same page with the Radio Wizard,
you can easily add more presets to the Radio Wizard. You can add any type of
URL (web pages, sound URLs, etc.) Before adding sites, you can
click the "Clear" button to clear the three
"Site" text boxes. To add a preset to the Radio Wizard, type the
site name into the "Site Name:" box. Then fill in the "Extra URL:"
box with the Sound URL. You should also fill in the "Site URL:" box
with the URL for the site's web page. Then click the "Add" button.
Finally, click any of the 6 select-boxes in the Radio Wizard to add it to that
select-box.
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PRE-PROGRAMMED PRESETS: This list has many of the best sound-oriented web sites
available.
When you click on some links (such as Alta Vista),
you may be asked for a term to search for. If you just press the
[Enter]/[Return] key, you'll go to the site's home page without
searching for a term.
1. General News
ABC Hourly Update from ABC News, updated hourly (3.5
minutes). Includes sports, entertainment news.
Bloomberg World News from the Bloomberg Media
Center website, updated several times a day, about 3 minutes.
World news, from a business perspective.
C-Span Live, coverage of national political and
media events.
Fox News Live (for 14.4K modems) from Fox
Broadcasting at their World and National News site. News
summaries at the top of the hour.
Fox News Live (Video) direct from Fox
Broadcasting. Summaries at the top of the hour.
National Public Radio, on the hour. About 3 minutes
of national and world news.
Online News Hour summary by Jim Lehrer from PBS,
updated nightly (5 minutes).
2. Business
Bloomberg Business Report, a video report updated
several times daily, about 5 minutes.
Bloomberg Business News, a business report updated
several times per day, about 2 minutes.
BusinessWeek Hourly Report from BusinessWeek,
updated hourly on weekdays, 5:24 AM to 12:24 PM EDT (1 minute.)
The Dollar Holler from The Daily Rocket site,
updated daily (1-2 minutes).
3. Sports
CBS Sportsline Sports Minute, can really last 2
minutes or more. Updated daily.
ESPN SportsBeat from Brent Musberger at ESPN
SportsZone, updated hourly, 3:10 PM to 8:10 PM EDT, weekdays (10
minutes).
One-On-One Sports LiveLive commentary from sports talk
show hosts, available during waking hours.
4. Science/Technology/Educational Programs
C/Net Tech News Summary from Brian Cooley at
C/Net Radio, updated 8:00 AM, 2:00 PM PDT weekdays (15 minutes).
EarthSky science educational program from Deborah
Byrd and Joel Block at the EarthSky site, updated daily (1-2
minutes).
PC Week Tech Headlines Technology Headlines in RealVideo with
Stan Gibson, brought to you by the Ziff/Davis network.
5. Music and Entertainment Sites
Allmusic Reference Site: Look up song titles,
essays, album covers and other stuff. This excellent site covers
over 26,000 artists.
ComedyNet: See RealVideo clips of outrageous
comedy. It's one of the few R-rated links in iMarvel:
their racy disclaimer reads, "Bad language offend you? Are you under
age? Do you live in a friggin' glass bubble? We here at ComedyNet
do not refrain from using certain colorful words and phrases.
That's right! We don't hold back, you silly bastards! If you
are easily offended, maybe you could try "www.i-am-a-loser.com."
Film.com: Preview RealVideo clips of movies and
read about your favorite movies, stars and directors.
Imagine Radio: Create your own radio station,
which plays only the artists and music types you like. Over a
thousand artists are included.
Live Concerts, a web site that shows audio and video
of concerts broadcast live on the Internet.
Lyrics Server: Type in the name of a song, and this
site will serve up the full lyrics for it. If you ever have
trouble understanding the howling vocals of a rock star, you can get
the lyrics here. Look over your CD collection and investigate all
those songs you had trouble deciphering! Or if you have a
teenager, you can find out the lyrics to their favorite songs (if
you dare!)
Pollstar Concert List: Search for concerts by
artist, venue, or city. Find out where your favorite bands are
playing, or find out what events are happening near you.
Spinner.com: A great variety of songs for
listening enjoyment and purchase, with continuous-play
capability.
6. "General": A catch-all category for
various sites and search engines.
Alta Vista: A heavy-duty general search engine.
You can type in any musical term or lyric, and Alta Vista will
track down some sites for you. You could use it to find the name
of a song and who sang it, if you only know the lyrics.
Broadcast.com: A leader in broadcasts on the
Internet, with great variety ranging from TV simulcasts to live
concerts to audio coverage of Fortune-500 board meetings.
MIT's Radio Station Listings: You can search
for radio stations which broadcast on the Internet here. There
are over 4000 radio stations on the Web, from all over the world!
Want to find a radio station from your old hometown, or a city
you'll be visiting soon? Look here. If you still can't find a
suitable station, go to Alta Vista and search for "radio
<hometown name>".
Real.com Realplayer site: Go here to download
the latest version of RealPlayer so you can play sounds on the
Internet.
TicketMaster: Learn about concerts and other events
in North America, and buy tickets online.
Timecast.com Site Listings: A great
comprehensive all-purpose listing of audio sites.
As you experiment with the Radio Wizard,
you may run into some problems with sound quality.
Internet Radio is a young technology, so don't expect miracles
from it, especially if you have a 28.8Kbps modem or slower. Your
radio may take 10 to 30 seconds to load and run, and sound
quality will sometimes be spotty. Here are some ideas to get
better sound quality (I'll try to list the best ideas first):
- Make sure you have the latest version of RealPlayer (as of
May 1999, RealPlayer G2 has replaced version 5.0 as the best version). It has much
better sound quality.
- If you load a new web page while listening to the radio,
the incoming data will interfere with the radio reception. Try
pausing the radio to let the buffer catch up, or stop loading the
web page.
- The Internet may be in a congested state, with too many
surfers on it. The greatest congestion is usually between 8 AM
and 8 PM, peaking at 11:30 AM. Weekdays are about 30% more
congested than weekends. Try listening to the radio at a less
congested time.
- Try a different audio source. Maybe there's some problem at
the source of the audio signal. Try calling your ISP to ask which
sound sources are the most reliable in your area.
You could
also retry the sound source. The Internet may try a different
route to send you the audio signal, one that may be less
congested.
- The sound source may be on a computer far away from your
location. This means it has a greater chance of running into
"bottlenecks" on the Internet. Find out the location of
the sound source if you can, and try listening to less distant
sound sources.
- Check the web pages that contain sound sources. Sometimes
they upgrade their RealAudio capabilities (for example, they may
upgrade their 14.4Kbps audio stream to 28.8Kbps.)
- Get some good speakers. You could even try plugging your
computer into your home's stereo sound system. This will often
eliminate the "tinny" sound of the cheap speakers that
come with many computers, and can give you a great improvement in
sound quality and hearing range.
- Get a 56K modem. They can be had for about $100, as of mid-1999.
- You may have "line noise" in your telephone line
that prevents you from getting
optimal performance out of your modem. Unfortunately, this is a
hard problem to check. If nothing seems to improve your radio
reception, line noise is a prime suspect.
- Get a better Internet Service Provider. Often, a local ISP
will give you a better connection than services such as America
Online. Talk to a computer guru to find out who has the best
deal. Places that sell modems will usually be glad to help you.
- Ask your cable company if they offer cable-modem
connections. Try the phone company for ISDN or DSL connections
Ask the DSS satellite-dish company about a satellite connection.
All of these connections are very fast, and will cost you maybe
$40-$60 per month.
- Check out the help pages at http://www.real.com for more ideas.
See also: Jukebox Wizard,
Newspaper Wizard,
Photo Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
Sports Scoreboard,
TV Wizard,
Weather Wizard.
20. Schedule:
The Schedule Wizard displays
the alarms that have been set in the Alarm Wizard. You can
deactivate an alarm in this list by holding down the
[Ctrl] key and clicking on that alarm. If you click it again, the alarm
will be re-activated. On most browsers, an active
alarm will have a blue color. A deactivated alarm will just sleep in
iMarvel's memory.
The following options are also available:
- View: This will open a full-screen calendar in
a new window. You could use the calendar as your personal schedule.
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You can make it a picture calendar by placing pictures
on the /starbase7/ directory with iMarvel. They should be named
"m1.jpg" (for January) through "m12.jpg"
(for December.) For best results,
all pictures should be 50% to 80% of screen width.
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- Delete: The "Delete" button will delete all
deselected (inactive) alarms from the schedule.
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The all-HTML version keeps your schedule on iMarvel.com, where it will be
available from any computer you can access, and is safe from disk crashes.
Repeating alarms are updated whenever you click the View or Delete
buttons and refresh the browser window.
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See also: Alarm Wizard,
Calendar Wizard,
Clock Wizard.
21. Searching The Internet:
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The all-HTML version of the Search Wizard allows you to search some
of the best Internet directories immediately (InfoSeek, Yahoo and NetGuide.)
Simply type the search term, then click Go. To search about 40 other search engines, click the link labeled
All-In-One Search Page.
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Here's how to use the Search Wizard to search for anything on the Internet:
- Click on the text-box labeled "Find:".
- Type a search term into this box.
- Optionally, click on the select-box with the list of search
directories, and highlight one or more search sites. If you skip this step, you'll automatically use
the Yahoo search site.
- Click the GO button to start the search. On
some browsers, you can just press [Return] or [Enter].
You can simultaneously search multiple directories by
holding down the [Ctrl] key while you click on several search engines.
The following options are available:
- No: If you want to avoid sites with a certain term, type it
here. For example, suppose you want to search for information on mustang
horses, but don't want to read about the Ford Mustang Car, type "car"
in this box.
- At: If you want to search only one site, name it here. For
example, you could type "imarvel.com" if you want to search only the pages of
the iMarvel site.
- Exact Phrase?: Check this box if you want to search for the
exact phrase that you typed in the box labeled Find:.
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An effective trick is to use the tab key to move around to various parts of this
Wizard.
See also: Favorites Wizard,
Internet Traffic Wizard.
22. Sports Scoreboard:
Scores from many sports are updated up to 4 times daily (approximately
5 PM, 8 PM, 11 PM and 2 AM, EDT). Six additional specialized
scoreboards are available by clicking
the links on the left side of the scoreboard. Many of these scoreboards have
an "auto-refresh" feature, so the latest scores are always shown.
- NFL: National Football League scores and headlines at nfl.com.
- NBA: National Basketball League scores and headlines at nba.com.
- MLB: Major League Baseball scores and headlines at mlb.com.
- NCAA: College scores and headlines, mostly football and basketball at collegesportsnews.com.
- Other: Scores and headlines for other popular sports at cnnsi.com.
- All: Highlights from all sports at sportsline.com.
The following options are available:
- To see a specialized scoreboard, click a link on the left-hand side.
- To see today's latest scores, click the Today button
lower right.
- To see scores from previous days or weeks, click the -1 and
-7 buttons on the lower right.
- To see schedules of future sporting events, click the +1 and
+7 buttons on the lower right.
See also: Newspaper Wizard,
Photo Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
TV Wizard.
23. Television:
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The all-HTML version of the TV Wizard is a collection of links to
some of the best RealVideo sites online.
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To play a
station, simply click on a button. If the Radio
Wizard is available, you can add more RealVideo presets to the
Radio Wizard, and then play them in the TV Wizard.
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The following additional options are available:
- On TV: This will display a schedule of upcoming TV events.
The following stations are pre-installed in iMarvel.
C-Span Live, coverage of national political and
media events.
PC Week Tech Headlines, technology headlines in RealVideo with
Stan Gibson, brought to you by the Ziff/Davis network.
Fox News Live (Video) direct from Fox
Broadcasting. Summaries at the top of the hour.
Bloomberg Business Report, a video report updated
several times daily, about 5 minutes.
The following controls are available at the bottom of the screen, listed
from left to right as you look at the TV Wizard:
- Play: Start playing the RealVideo clip (normally you don't need to
press this because clicking on a station button will start playing the RealVideo.)
- Pause: Temporarily stop playing the RealVideo clip.
- Stop: Stop playing the clip, and disconnect from the RealVideo source URL.
- Clip Position: You can replay parts of the clip with this
horizontal slider. Just move the clip position marker backwards.
- Mute: Switch the audio on or off.
- Volume: You can control the volume with this vertical volume
slider. There might also be a volume control on your keyboard or speakers to
turn it up some more.
The television may not work reliably, especially on older computers.
You can often avoid problems by never doing anything else with the computer
while the television is on. Turn the TV Wizard off before you do anything else
(including switching or adjusting windows in ANY way.)
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See also: Jukebox Wizard,
Newspaper Wizard,
Photo Wizard,
Radio Wizard,
Sports Scoreboard,
Weather Wizard.
24. Tips:
Currently, four tip graphics (Motivation, Cheapskate, Webmastering and
Shopping) are available, updated daily:
- Motivation: A great daily motivational tip! Just
click on the graphic to read an encouraging motivational thought.
- Cheapskate: A money-saving or time-saving tip, slanted
towards the home economist. Click on the graphic, and you'll visit
the CheapskateMonthly web site. There's loads of great tips there for
living better for less money.
- Webmastering: If you're associated with the website design
business, this shows a great daily tip for you. To visit the Association of
Ethical Internet Professionals, click on this graphic. There's some
good articles and resources there for webmasters.
- Shopping: The daily shopping tip features great deals you
can find online, articles to help you become a smarter consumer, and a
"weekly freebie" every weekend.
See also: Finance Wizard,
Mall Wizard.
25. Weather: The following options are available:
- Weather Search Box: Type in any zip code, or a city/state
combination (e.g. "Seattle, WA".) You'll get a weather report
on current conditions in your area, and a 5-day weather forecast.
- Weather Gizmo: The animated graphics in the middle of the
Weather Wizard tells you the current
time and temperature.
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When you click on a city name on the right-hand side,
it updates the graphic to see the current temperature. If you don't get an updated
graphic, it's because your browse is caching old images (in that case, refresh
the page to get the new graphic.)
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- Airports: This link will display any airport delays for your
area.
- Allergies: This link will display a national map of pollen
concentrations that trigger allergic reactions.
- Radar: This link will display a radar weather map, which helps you
see and predict local cloud cover conditions.
- Satellite: This link will display a satellite weather map, which helps you
see and predict local precipitation.
- Traffic: Click this link to get a report on traffic
conditions on local roads and highways.
- Interstate: Click this link to get a report on weather conditions
at various points along a local interstate highway.
- Maps: Click this link to create a map with driving directions
to any point in your local area (or anywhere else in America!)
If you should happen to want to manually customize this Wizard for
your own needs, here's how.
- Start up a simple text editor (for example, the Notepad
program that comes with Windows.) You can usually find
Notepad by clicking on Programs, then Accessories.
- Load the Weather Wizard into the text editor: the JavaScript
version is called jweather.htm, and the all-HTML version is called hweather.htm.
These files should be on the \starbase7\ directory.
- Search for "Seattle" in this file. Change any mention of Seattle to your
own hometown. If you live in a small town, you might need to use the nearest
city with a large population instead (say, over 20,000 people.) If you see the
letters "WA" (which is an abbreviation for "Washington"). Seattle is mentioned
about 3-5 times in this file, so be sure to change every mention of Seattle.
on the same line as Seattle, change "WA" to your own state's abbreviation.
- If you want to change the airport-delay checker to your hometown,
search for "forecast=SEA" in this file. Change "SEA" to your airport's
3-letter abbreviation.
- If you want to change the Traffic reports from Seattle to your hometown,
search for "wsdot" in this text file. You should see a line with
"http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/regions/northwest/nwflow/" on it. Change this to
a traffic-report URL for your hometown. At this time, the SmartTraveler site seems to
have the best traffic reports:
- Cincinatti: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/cintraffic.asp?index=15&city=cin&cityname=Cincinnati"
- Boston: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/bosmap.asp?city=bos&cityname=Boston"
- Milwaukee: "http://traffic.maxwell.com/mil/index.html"
- Philadelphia: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/phlmap.asp?city=phl&cityname=Philadelphia"
- San Francisco: "http://traffic.maxwell.com/sf/index.html"
- Washington DC: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/wdcmap.asp?city=wdc&cityname=Washington_DC"
- Chicago: "http://traffic.maxwell.com/chicago/index.html"
- Los Angeles: "http://traffic.maxwell.com/la/index.html"
- New York: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/nycmap.asp?city=nyc&cityname=New_York&area=metro"
- San Diego: "http://traffic.maxwell.com/sd/index.html"
- Minneapolis/St. Paul: "http://www.smartraveler.com/scripts/minmap.asp?city=min&cityname=Twin_Cities"
Another good traffic site is "http://rwa.metronetworks.com/rwadirect.html".
If you go to Yahoo.com and search for "[CityName] traffic", you'll probably
get some good results. Some other sites you may want to check out are:
- www.trafficstation.com
- www.accutrafic.com
- www.trafficsux.com
- If you want to change the Interstate highway weather report, look for
"Int90" in this file. This is an abbreviation for Interstate Highway 90.
Change the "90" to any Interstate highway near you that you're interested in.
State highways are not accepted.
- If you're using the JavaScript version, search for "Phoenix" in this
file. Change any mention of Phoenix to any city that has weather that you're
interested in checking. Change "AZ" (Arizona) to that state's abbreviation.
- Save the file as a plain text file (which some text editors call an "ASCII file"). The Notepad
program automatically saves files as plain text. Don't close the text editor
until you've finished all steps in these instructions.
- Use your browser to test the Weather Wizard. If it works, great! If not,
then use the editor to try again. If the Weather Wizard looks really strange, you
probably didn't save the file as plain text (in which case, you should
re-install iMarvel.)
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