I guess there really isn't a good segue into a discussion of cremation so I'll just start there. Recently our local newspaper carried an article that said that there are two kinds of people in the U.S., those who want cremation and those who want a traditional burial. The article went on to show the results of studies that identified each group. (Sources: NFO Research, Inc.; Mediamark Research, Inc.; and Claritas, Inc.) Among the findings are that those who favor cremation support gay rights, listen to new age music, and own Apple computers. Those who favor traditional burials support school prayer, listen to country music, and own satellite dishes. I have my own theories about why this is so, but they are only my opinion. If there are any sociologists out there who want to take a stab at it, I will gladly include your comments in my next column.

Speaking of newspapers, have you noticed how many Apple iMacs are showing up in the comics included with your newspaper, and in some TV shows? I think I have this one figured out. The artists who draw those comics prefer Macs for their own use because Macs support their creative efforts. The same can be true of TV shows although I'm certain the more cynical among you will say Macs are showing up on TV shows because Apple pays for product exposure. Could be I guess, but it is still nice to see. I realize that this matters zilch to the betterment of mankind, but it always makes me smile to see them prominently displayed.

Observer Raymond Arias was having trouble with his e-mail system recently. He uses Microsoft Outlook. There were times when his mail would go out without any problem and other times when it would not go at all. He doesn't think he has had any problems with incoming e-mail. He tried checking all the things that might be a problem, such as his preferences. He also called the tech support for his ISP. There is no correlation between including or not including attachments. Nothing worked and the mystery continued. He asked if I had any ideas. After thinking about it for awhile I decided that something might be corrupted that involves his application. I don't know what it could be, but sometimes that seems to be the only answer. My recommendation was to reinstall his software and see if that helped. If anyone has had this problem and solved it, I know Raymond would like to know.

Here is yet another interesting problem that I had not previously encountered. Working through it was worthwhile because it could easily happen again from any number of sources at some point in the future. For about a year I have been selling items on eBay, the Internet auction site. I purchased a software package to help me manage my inventory, keep track of auctions, contact buyers, etc. It has been a tremendous help and has worked perfectly until last week. Suddenly, it started transposing dates and words, giving me -A instead of the correct name, etc. I went through some of the same steps Raymond tried with his e-mail problem. I checked all the preferences and the applications instructions. I ran Norton's Disk Doctor to see if something was wrong with my computer. I even tried reinstallation. I was now at the highest level of my expertise (it took about 15 minutes to get there) and was getting ready to e-mail the author when I received a message, along with other users, that explained the problem. It seems that eBay changed a significant page on its site and that change affected the way my application works because my application automatically pulls down information created by eBay. The important thing here is that as the eBay customer I could not tell the page had been changed. It gets worse. The application author stayed up all night modifying the software and sent all her customers an update to download and install. Great, it was working again and all was well. For half a day. Then it started doing the same thing again. We received another message advising us that eBay had switched back to the previous style and that we should go back to using the version we were using before the problems started. OK, I could do that because I had not trashed the old version. (I have this secret fear that if I do that I will loose everything that was created in that older version.) My son tells me that will not happen, but I just tell him that we all have our idiosyncratic tendencies and this is one of mine. Back to the tale, the old version worked great for the rest of the day, but by morning it was back to its evil ways. eBay had changed their pages yet again and our author had to prepare and send out yet another update for us to download.

I have a year's worth of financial information saved on this application and it is information I will need come tax time. I make a backup every day because it is important. It truly would never have occurred to me that the problem with my application could be related to eBay's operation. I just don't have the technical expertise to even think that way. In my frame of reference, if something didn't work it was always a self contained problem. Even with electric typewriters, once we had plugged it into a different outlet to see if the electricity was out, we knew we had to get the typewriter fixed. Had not the application author stayed active with her application and her customers I would probably have had to search for a new software package and painstakingly reloaded all my data without ever knowing the real problem.

Remember this if you try to use software without paying the shareware fee. It can come back to haunt you.

One last thing. Back in January of '99 I wrote a column that included information about a great application that I had discovered called WebAddressBook. This application is a free, on-line personal information management tool. If you are not familiar with it I hope you will go back and read that particular column because this is a great tool for newbies. Author Ryan Jorden was kind enough to drop me a line this week to tell me that the company and the application have a new name and a new URL. The application is now called junglemate. Ryan explained the new name this way: "our service is akin to being your best mate in the Jungle we call Earth". Ryan's company is Norada Corporation, they have just launched a new, paid, service called Solve360™. According to their Web site, Solve 360 is "a unique, real-time conferencing system." This is something small business owners might want to check out. As I understand it, this service allows instant messaging in a secure environment. I know that in my work environment it would be a great time saver.

If you have any questions, comments, or tips, let me know and I may include them in a future column.