Table of Contents

(click on any article title to move directly to that article)

The Podium--A Quick Overview of this issue

Tech Flash – VIRUS ALERT: Genuine Viruses vs. Internet Hoaxes

Special Feature -- Adding Cemetery Maps to your web site.

Winter 2002 Calendar of Events - Where will MBS be this Quarter?

Did you know? - How to obtain a Nexus XP User's Guide on CD.

Hints and Tips - Helpful Suggestions and other items of interest

TechFAQs – Build a query to aid genealogy searches

Sites Unseen – Interesting Web Sites

Some thoughts from the CEO - Celebration of Life and Conversion to Nexus by Fred Miller

It seems like we are always saying it (and for that matter, who isn’t), but it has been really busy here at MBS over the past couple of quarters. As most of you know, MBS released the newest version of Nexus this fall. With that, the list of new clients and new updates have been increasing, as has been our workload. Let us add, we are loving it! What we are really loving is how pleased everyone has been with the new Nexus XP. As you can see on the Nexus Conversion article beginning on page four, the praises on XP have begun to roll in already.

While you are there, be sure to take a bow as Fred Miller offers a pat on the back to the ICFA and its members in their ongoing Celebration of Life.

As you move into the center of our newsletter, you’ll be entering into the heart of our technical section. With special features on clickable maps for your web site and Internet virus hoaxes, we’ll be sure to get you thinking on page two. If you’re looking for more information, learn how to get your digital copy of the Nexus XP user’s guide on CD in the "Did You Know ?" section or visit industry specific events listed in the bottom left corner of the page.

On page three, take a tip or two from our Hints and Tips section. We also encourage you to visit our Sites Unseen for interesting and useful places to visit online. Lastly, in our TechFAQs section, Gerald shares his special insight on searching for and adding a new person in Nexus XP.

As always, we hope our newsletter finds you well and you find it’s contents interesting and useful. If you’d like to see us do a special article in the future, please contact our newsletter editors at 1-800-844-4447 or email us at info@mbs-intl.com. Until next time, have a happy winter and try to stay warm. Spring is just around the corner!

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For Article Suggestions, Copies or Requests, please email Tom Balducci at tbalducci@mbs-intl.com.

For Site Corrections or Suggestions, please email jmcquiston@mbs-intl.com.

Thank you.

We all know the scenario, you get an email from a friend describing a virus that is destroying people’s hard drives. The letters usually tell you what to look out for, ask you to pass the letter on and to warn others. I received four of these myself in the past month. One of these warnings described a real virus to watch out for. The other three, well...they were hoaxes.

Well intended though these are, they can be time consuming if not dangerous to your computer should you follow through on the advice in the email. Of course, that one real warning reminds us all that there are real viruses out there, we need to keep our computer’s anti-virus protection up to date and we can’t open attachments we haven’t requested.

So, how can you tell if the viruses described in these letters are genuine? One very simple suggestion is to perform some quick online research about the supposed virus. Of course the web is a very big place to turn for information. Rather than full scale searches, first visit the web site of the company who created your anti-virus software or their competitor’s sites. Two hot spots are www.symantec.com (they produce Norton Anti-Virus) and www.mcafee.com (they produce VirusScan).

Once you reach their site search on the name of the virus described in your letter or search on some detail about the virus such as the expected subject of the message. Typically you’ll be returned information on the virus. If it’s a real one, then the web site will review what to look for, what the virus does and how to clean your PC. If it’s a hoax, be assured, these sites will say that instead and your work is done.

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So you have a web site. Maybe now you’d like to add maps of your cemetery to it. As many of you know, if you have IMAP you can already save basic images of your cemetery maps and put them online.

BUT, what if you want more? Using today’s technology, MBS has the ability to convert your cemetery overview maps into "Clickable HTML Image Maps". These maps are similar to the ones that you see all over the web today. Often, they show the United States and let you click on a given state to find more information about services for that state. All you do is click on the state and go to another part of the site offering more information on it.

Imagine combining this concept with your own cemetery maps. Visitors to your web site can view an overview of your cemetery. If they’d like to see a given section, monument, mausoleum or landmark, they can click on that area of the map and move to another part of your web site. This part of the web site then holds the information you’d like shown for that section of the cemetery. What goes on the second page is really up to you as you have the full flexibility of a web site at your disposal. Add pictures, text and graphics of the section or landmark.

What is involved with getting your maps into a clickable format varies. First, you’ll need to have your own web site. If you need help starting one, MBS can offer advice or help to get you started. Next, you’ll need a digital copy of your cemetery map. If you are an IMAP client now, you already have one. Just let us know and we can help you choose your options for the links from your map. If you aren’t an IMAP client, we can digitize your cemetery’s overview and convert it to a clickable image map.

Lastly, what about cost? That will vary a bit depending on what you want. To get the basic package to add to an existing web site, plan on about $20-25 a link. For a mid-sized cemetery, already mapped in IMAP that would total about $400-500. For those of you without IMAP, tack on the cost of having your cemetery overview formatted or digitized.

Regardless of your needs, call us today for an estimate or email us at maps@mbs-intl.com. To see an example, visit our site at www.mbs-intl.com/RiverOaks/RiverOaksCemetery.htm.

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Jan 17-18 ICFA Sales Management and Marketing Conference Las Vegas, NV

Jan. 20-21 SC Cemetery Association Annual Mid-Winter Workshop Columbia, SC

Jan. 21 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Feb 8-24 Winter Olympics Salt Lake City, UT

Feb 14 Valentine’s Day

March 6-9 International Order of the Golden Rule Annual Conference San Antonio, TX

March 12-13 Western Cemetery Alliance Annual Meeting Dana Point, CA

March 13-15 Interment Association of CA Annual Spring Conference Dana Point, CA

March 27-April 4 Passover

March 31 Easter

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Did

...the complete unabridged Nexus XP User’s Guide is available on CD?

If you are a licensed user of Nexus XP and would like a digital copy of this document call MBS Technical Support at 800-844-4447 or email them at support@mbs-intl.com. Look for this document online in the coming months.

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Use the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar to start your programs. This Quick Launch toolbar is found along the bottom of your desktop. Clicking on icons here is the same as starting programs from the desktop or the start menu. As the toolbar is customizable, you can add, delete or move the icons from your favorite programs and have a quick launch option for these tools.

Before you start, it's best to remove any icons you don't need (Windows or its applications automatically installed most of these). To remove an icon, right-click it and then select Delete. Note: The Desktop icon--which looks like an ink blotter with pencil and paper on top of it—is very useful for a quick route to your desktop. Don't delete it.

To add an icon to the taskbar, drag a shortcut from the desktop, any folder or Windows Explorer and drop it into an empty space in the Quick Launch area.

Of course, the taskbar will quickly become too crowded to be useful if you're not careful. To increase the space available, first place your pointer at the top or right edge of the bar. Then, after the pointer turns into a double arrow, click and drag the edge up or right until everything fits.

If you are in Windows Explorer you can activate the find tool to look for files by pressing Ctrl-F in any folder.

Alternatively, on the desktop, you must press F3 to achieve the same results. By the way, F3 also works in all folders too.

Entries on the start menu Programs appear in the order in which they were created. This order can be changed to alphabetical order in Windows 98 SE or later. To do so select Start,>Programs, from your desktop. Then right-click anywhere within the Programs list. Now select Sort by Name from the shortcut menu. Groups--or submenus--will appear at the top of the list (alphabetically) and individual programs will follow below them, also alphabetically. You can also do the same in submenus by following the same steps.

While working in a windows based program to undo one step click Control+Z on your keyboard.

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TechFAQs

Q: When entering a contract in Nexus XP I’m not asked if I need to enter a new person. How can I search for or add a new person without going to the "Add Person" menu?

A: After entering a contract and while on the Purchaser Pin field, if the enter key is hit, you are allowed to search for a person. If the person is not found you are returned to the purchaser pin field. To then add a new person, right click in the Purchaser Pin field and choose "Add New" from the menu that appears. After the person is added you will be returned to the contract entry screen to complete the contract

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Sites Unseen

www.mapinfo.com               www.ups.com

www.mbs-intl.com

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/—Website of the National Resource Conservation Service—Information on Soil and water conservation and US environmental concerns.

http://www.irs.gov/—Website of the Internal Revenue Service complete with tips and FAQs on tax preparation.

www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm—Web site of the Center For Disease Control which sheds light on health related hoaxes and rumors.

www.olympics.com—Official site of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT.

Sites Unseen is a list of interesting, informative and helpful Web sites we thought might be useful to you.  If your cemetery or cemetery-related business has a Web site, e-mail the address to us at tbalducci@mbs-intl.com.

Recently, the only American soldier killed to date by enemy fire in Afghanistan was laid to rest. I watched much of the ceremony on TV. Buddy after buddy came up to the mike and told a story, some funny and some quite emotional, about their chapter in the life of our fallen hero. They often spoke of "Celebrating the Life" of their comrade.

That morning I had seen an advertisement in USA Today inviting everyone to come to Disneyland to "Celebrate a Lifetime".

Indeed, "Celebrating a Life" is as common on TV these days as it is in the industry; virtually all celebrity services refer to this new mantra of passage.

Maybe I'm full of baloney, but I think that the ICFA can take full credit for reinvigorating the process of the final rites. "Celebrate a Life" was our slogan.

I well remember back in the early-90's when America was truly down on the funeral and cemetery service industry. The baby-boomers were coming of age, in particular burying their parents, and were absolutely incensed at the stamp 'em out process being used at funeral and burial services. They wanted meaning; they wanted individualization. Television documentaries vividly demonstrated the insensitivity of the services.

In 1993, the then ACA formed a Memorialization Committee to specifically address this issue. Slowly but surely and with enduring effort on our part the process was turned around using…what else…Celebration of a Life as its catchphrase. To my knowledge, no other industry association even addressed the issue, but even if they did…"Celebration of a Life" has been adopted nationwide and it is our doing.

Congratulations, ICFA and its members, on a job well done. Just another example of what this dedicated group can do when they try.

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For the MBS staff, the most exciting thing is that after almost five years of development just to stay up with technology, (Windows, Y2K, and Windows XP) we are positioned at the cutting edge of software development. We now have an opportunity to do some long-anticipated product enhancements. That work is underway.

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