INFORMATION UPDATE
  December, 2004                              Number 57

 Welcome to INFORMATION UPDATE, the free monthly newsletter 
                 for information seekers.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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   => Do It Yourself - Yahoo! Shopping Smartsort
   => Did You Know? - Writing Skills for Hire
   => Notes, News and Announcements
   => Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

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DO IT YOURSELF - Yahoo! Shopping SmartSort
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Last month I attended a gathering of very plugged in, very
cutting edge librarians and Internet searchers.  I learned
so much I had a hard time deciding which innovation to share
first. 

With the holiday shopping season upon us, I thought you'd 
like to know about the Yahoo! Shopping tool for sorting 
results.  It's called SmartSort, and you'll have to try it 
to see how nifty it is. http://shopping.yahoo.com/smartsort/

The service is still in development, so choices are limited
at this point, but try clicking on best laptops.  You are 
led to a page where you can slide the markers over to 
indicate how important certain benefits and features are to
you.  This causes the results to sort according to the 
relative weight you place on the various features.

In response to:  How important is Processor Speed, I moved
the slider to "important."  For How important is Light Weight,
I slid to "very important."  This put an IBM ThinkPad at the
top of the list.  The text points out that the ThinkPad is
very light.  After looking at the cost of computers in this
list or results, I decided to set some price limits.  So, I
put $0 to $1000 in the price range fields.  Now the Dell
Inspiron comes to the top of the list, but the text notes
that this compter is rather heavy.  Apparently I need to 
decide which is more important, cost or light weight.

Have fun comparing the products currently included on this
site and bookmark it for future reference.  For comparison
shoppers, it's bound to be popular.

Thanks to Gary Price for pointing out this cool tool.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/

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DID YOU KNOW? - Writing Skills for Hire
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A recent article in the New York Times referenced a study
by the National Commission on Writing which says that "one 
third of employees in the nation's blue-chip companies write
poorly."  The article also stated that businesses are spend-
ing as much as $3.1 billion a year on remedial training to
correct this writing deficiency.

If you recognize the need for improved writing skills in your
organization, you can undertake to train those who show the 
need for improvement.  It is also possible, and in some cases 
desireable, to employ outside assistance with writing and 
editing.  Individuals with specialized writing skills such as 
medical and technical writing are available on a contract 
basis.  Report editing, research summaries and analysis, as 
well as general business writing can be outsourced to 
experienced professional writers.

For more information on employment of writers, consult the
National Writer's Union http://www.nwu.org/ and the American 
Medical Writers Association http://www.amwa.org

Or, contact Shamel Information Services, 858-673-4673

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Notes, News, and Announcements
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As promised last month, here's some more scoop on Mozilla
Firefox, the Internet browser alternative.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/  Firefox is giving
Internet Explorer a run for its money, and it works on Linux,
Windows, and MacOS X, among others.  Firefox is free, and it
promises increased security over other browsers.  Also its 
built in popup blocker will stop annoying popup ads.  The 
browser for Windows is 4.78MB, so it downloads quickly.  An 
Internet Explorer download could be as much as 75MB!  

If you decide to try Firefox, please let us know here at 
mailto:InfoUpdate@shamelinfo.com.  Have fun!

Information Seekers may now subscribe to Information Update
using the web form at http://shamelinfo.com.  If someone has
forwarded this newsletter to you, why not register for your
own free copy?  Use the form on the Shamel Information
Services web site at http://shamelinfo.com.

Please let us know what you like about Information Update.

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Shamel Information Services Web Site 
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The Shamel Information Services web site at 
http://shamelinfo.com contains Information Update archives. 
Just click on "Newsletters" and check for any issues you 
might have missed.

Cynthia L. Shamel, editor

Shamel Information Services

Telephone: 858-673-4673

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SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
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Copyright 2004 Shamel Information Services

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