Ask Mr. Modem! – May 2007     
www.MrModem.com 

Q.  My wife and I are on the road with our RV most of the year. With gasoline prices skyrocketing, is there some Web site where I can find the lowest prices as we travel around the country?  Keep up the good work with your newsletter, Mr. M.

A.  Yes, indeed, there are several excellent sites for that purpose, though I imagine filling up an RV these days has to an eye-opener. Talk about gas pains!  At the American Automobile Association (www.aaa.com), type in your ZIP code and press Go > Automotive > Gas Prices > Fuel Price Finder. Here you can check gas prices at more than 85,000 stations. Additional gas-price monitoring sites include: Fuel Me Up (www.fuelmeup.com), Gas Buddy (www.gasbuddy.com), and Gas Price Watch (www.gaspricewatch.com/new).

Q. Is there anything that prevents me from sharing my Comcast cable Internet connection with my neighbors by using a wireless router?

A: Absolutely. It’s called the Acceptable Use Policy, which is part of Comcast’s Terms of Service Agreement that you entered into as a subscriber of their service. Specifically, Section IX under Prohibited Uses and Activities (www.comcast.net/terms/use.jsp) states that you may not “resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the premises the ability to use the Service (i.e. Wi-Fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, or on a bundled or unbundled basis.” So the short answer is, “Fughetaboutit.”

Q.  Can I display more than one time zone in the time display of my computer?

A.  Displaying multiple time zones can come in handy if you do business or communicate with people in other cities. Microsoft’s free Time Zone (http://tinyurl.com/d2tr9) for Windows XP displays time in up to five cities within a small tray-like icon that remains visible while you work on your PC.  As an alternative, try the ZoneTick World Time Zone Clock (www.zonetick.com) for $25, which replaces the Windows system time display with a list of time zones from which you can select the ones to be displayed. Very cool.

Q.  I’m using Outlook Express and I can’t figure out how to make the letters bigger for all email that I’m sending. When I’m composing a new message, I click the font size drop-down arrow and check size 18, but it keeps going back to size 12. Any help would be appreciated.

A. When you're in the new message window, any changes you make will only apply to that specific message, so you’re not establishing any default settings in that manner. To make the font-size change permanent, click  Tools > Options > Compose > Font Settings and select the font style, size, etc. you want to use, then click Apply > OK to establish the default font which will be used in all subsequent messages.

Mr. Modem’s DME (Don’t Miss ‘Em) Sites of the Month -  May 2007

iSerentiy
Bring a little peace and tranquility to your world with this soothing site. Iserenity has 31 different sound and image environments that will help you relax. Of course, if your computer is on the fritz and the soothing environments won’t play, you’re talking a whole new level of stress.  Bonus Tip: Try out the different sounds with your speaker volume set to a low level. I tried the “Fan Fair” environment, but my speakers were too loud and I jumped about four feet in the air when the %*#@ “soothing” environment began blaring.  
www.iserenity.com

Nostalgia Central
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a scroll down memory lane through the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.  Categories include news, pop culture, music, television, movies, and a day-by-day chronology of noteworthy events. For example, in May 1967, 40 years ago this month, Australian Aborigines received the right to vote. It seems like only yesterday, doesn’t it?
www.nostalgiacentral.com

Planarity Flash Game
Warning: This is addicting. Place your cursor on the dots and drag the lines around (the dots are at the end of the lines) so that none of the lines overlap. I made it all the way to Level 2, and almost made it to Level 3 before I lost consciousness from all the excitement. Have fun, and don’t say I didn’t warn you about its addicting nature. 
www.planarity.net

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