The number of people online has grown to over three quarters of all U.S. adults, according to a Harris Poll. That's an estimated 172 million people. Among adults surveyed by phone in February and April 2006, the study found 77% of adults are now online, with 70 percent using the Internet from home. The percentage of adults who are online at a location other than their home or work also remains steady at 22 percent.

While the research is likely valid, numbers can do funny things -- this makes it look like 99 percent of the adult U.S. population is online, but remember, that's only among the 2,032 people surveyed, who were contacted by phone. We all know the Digital Divide spans across the country, with many areas unable to access the Internet, and many, many families unable to afford computers or an Internet connection.

Count your blessings!

What new technology does he crave? Get Dad a new ...

Cell phone or PDA,

Digital camera with built-in camcorder,

A new laptop, or a

Portable music/video player.

MP3 players play more than music. You can download audio books and walking tours, for everything from Chicago's Millennium Park to the streets of Paris.

Maybe Dad needs a new desk chair... A report on NPR, May 20, 2006 mentioned a study by the U of C at Berkeley, showing neck and shoulder pain was reduced by about 50 percent when computer users sat in a chair with arms. Taking weight off the upper body during long sessions at the computer was shown to have significant benefits.

When designing web sites, I've mentioned this to many clients. People don't look at a web page the way they look at magazines and newspapers. The eye usually roams the page in the shape of the letter C or a backward Z. And why does the web use graphics? Because a photo or graphic is usually where the eye will stop roaming.

Now, I've come across this interesting visual example from Marketing Sherpa.com's Eyetracking Study which uses" heatmaps" to illustrate how online shoppers look, scroll, and click on home pages, category pages, merchandise pages, and internal search result pages. The orange and yellow areas show the greatest eye contact.

Do you need to r-e-l-a-x ? Rita Emmett's 28 minute relaxation break CD is fabulous. Here's a link to the books & CD's Rita Emmett sells. I even take a copy of her relaxation CD when I travel. It's super for calming the mind.

It helps frazzled, overworked computer users, new moms who don't get enough sleep, and people too wound up at the end of a long day.

Click this link and scroll down to "Helpful Stuff to Handle your Stress"...

1. Pre-sort incoming e-mail with a Message Filter. Look in the Tools menu of Netscape, Outlook or Outlook Express. You can put all your e-newsletters in one folder to read when you get time, all work and family correspondence in separate folders, and one for follow-up. Just a quick glance at each folder shows you if there's new mail. If you don't want to pre-sort incoming mail, you can drag messages into those new folders to avoid Inbox clutter.

2. During Summer, when all your friends are away on vacation, cancel your unwanted email addresses: old addresses from AOL, MSN, and other providers you haven't let go of. It's the perfect time to alert everyone to a new address, and cancel those old accounts you're still paying for.

3. In programs like Word and Excel, when you're in a document you want to email, click File / Send to: and it will jump to your email program so you can compose a message with the document already attached.

4. Too much music on your computer? Downloading songs can eat up enormous disk space. Click My Computer, then click Search, and find files that end in MP3. (To do so, in the search box, type *.mp3.) If they're out-dated files you don't want on your hard drive, highlight them, right-click and choose Send to CD, to have about 600 MB of music on CD instead of your hard drive.

5. I am not trying to make you feel guilty, but... If you haven't backed up your data lately, take a look at the Museum of Disk-asters here. Especially click on the Road Rage one before you back out of your driveway!

1. You still have over 100 messages in your Inbox.

2. You never finished reading last month's list of six signs. (Archives are available at www.cclarity.com/page4.html).

3. You can't do online banking because you forgot your password.

4. You've never read an overseas newspaper online.

5. You don't know how to use your local library's web site. From home you can search the catalog, see if books are available, read the list of CDs & DVDs available, and check out the month's programs, movies and free classes.

6. You have so much paper on your desk, you can't find your keyboard.

Exhibiting at Printer's Row Book Fair June 3rd was terrific. Thanks to all those who stopped by and signed up for this e-newsletter. I hope you're all enjoying the start of a beautiful Summer.

Helen Gallagher

Phone: 847-998-6240, www.cclarity.com

Feel free to forward this issue of Computer Clarity's monthly e-newsletter to your friends, or invite them to subscribe on my site at www.cclarity.com. There's no charge.