How to subscribe to daily e-mail news
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): I received a record number of responses to my article last week on e-mail management. The majority of those who wrote to me wanted to know how to subscribe to the daily e-mail news I mentioned in that article.
One thing that has struck me about these e-mails is that, in spite of the complaints you might have read about the quality of English language teaching at our schools and universities, most of these notes were written in excellent English. Of course, you could always edit a few things here and there, but, overall, the senders managed to make their messages very clear.
All the e-mail messages that I've received so far seem to support the old hypothesis that total immersion in a foreign language will force us to learn that language more effectively and efficiently. I've noticed that our young professionals, especially those working in multinational companies, are able to learn English very quickly, due to the constant exposure to the language in their work.
Anyway, let's leave the debate on the best language teaching methods to the experts. Today we will look at where we can get lots of useful, and free, daily information on the Net.
General News
For general news, you can subscribe to CNN Interactive (http://cnn.com/EMAIL/). All you have to do is fill in the form, which looks like the one in the accompanying picture. Once you're registered, you will receive their news e-mail every day.
You can choose to receive the daily updates in the HTML format, which means you'll get all the graphics and animated pictures. Or, you can opt for the plain text file, which will be much faster. If your e-mail software is not capable of displaying HTML files, then you'll have to choose the latter -- which I would recommend, anyway.
What I like about CNN's HeadlineNewsMail is that the E-mail contains brief summaries of the topics. Only when we want to read the full story do we have to launch Internet Explorer and visit the website. Other free news mail services normally give us the listing of the sites only, and then we have to double-click on the addresses to read them on the web.
Interestingly, CNN will also provide a custom news page for you if you register. Just go to the home page (www.cnn.com) and then click on Custom News on the left panel. You can select the subjects you want to read about and CNN will place them on your custom page. You'll need a login name and a password to access it, though.
The 75-year-old TIME weekly (www.time.com) also has a free service called Afternoon Update. However, the service requires the new HP Instant Delivery System. At a pre-specified time, the software will connect to the website, grab the pages in Adobe Acrobat format and print it on your HP printer -- not a preferred mode of receiving updates in light of our raging economic crisis at the moment.
Another favorite daily update of mine is Hot Spots from Air Security International. I happened to find their address (www.airsecurity.com) in a past issue of TIME. Every day they send me an update of hot spots -- places in the world where trouble is brewing. It also provides the latest public announcements from the U.S. State Department, which reminds all traveling American citizens of possible dangers anywhere in the world -- including, sadly, in Indonesia. To subscribe to Hot Spots, go to their website and click on the Hot Spots button on the left panel.
IT news
CNet news (www.news.com) has been the top favorite of IT professionals and journalists for quite some time. It is packed with up-to-date news on enterprise computing, e-commerce, the Internet, personal technology, consulting communications and what have you.
At the CNet site you can even check out job opportunities, listen to their radio programs and even watch TV broadcasts. CNet will send you a newsletter from time to time to let you know what they offer. To subscribe, just type in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the left panel, and click on the Subscribe button.
As a computer user, you may also be familiar with PC World, one of the most popular computer magazines on planet Earth. Their websites are chock full of news, tips, software downloads and, of course, advertisements. PC World will also send you their daily Tipworlds that cover a lot of things including virus alerts, Windows 95 tips, desktop publishing tips, hardware upgrade tips as well as tips for SOHO entrepreneurs. To subscribe, just go to their site (www.pcworld.com) and enter your e-mail address at the bottom of the right panel. I find many of the tips they send out quite useful.
PC Magazine and the other Ziff-Davis publications can be found on their ZDNet website (www.zdnet.com). PC Magazine will send you e-mails periodically, usually to draw your attention to the contents of their latest issue. The newsletter is edited by Bill Machrone (if you read the printed magazine, you'll be familiar with him).
Another prominent group in IT publications is CMP (you must be familiar with their magazines: Byte and Windows). You can subscribe to CMP's daily e-mail newsletters just by going to http://www.cmpnet.com/delivery.
And, since most of the software you are using is undoubtedly the product of that company in Redmond called Microsoft, why not get the tips and news and even software updates directly from them? Good news here, as Microsoft has just made available the contents of their US$229 TechNet CDs on their websites. You can now get expert tips, product reviews, white papers and a plethora of other goodies for free, as long as you register. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/register/. They will also send you their flash e-mail periodically.
These are just a tiny fraction of free news services that are available on the Internet. The beauty is that you don't have to go to their sites to obtain the news, they deliver it to you gratis. Now, whatever you do, don't blame me if your phone and Internet connection charges are sky high next month!