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Volume XX Number 17 December 2001
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Competitive Information for Negotiators

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   Table of Contents:
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1.  Introduction and Welcome:  To our new subscribers and our new readers, we thank you for reading.
2.  Feedback and Comments:  From previous postings.
3.  Editorial: Proximity Functions & Truncation, Part III. by Robert Lett.
4.  The Lighter Side: Health Secrets, Part I.
5.  Next issue Contents.

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Introduction and Welcome
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   I would like to say WELCOME ABOARD to all our new subscribers this month!!!
I hope you enjoy our Newsletter.

UNITED WE STAND:
   To donate blood, call the Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or America's Blood Centers at 1-888-BLOOD-88 to schedule an appointment. Find your local American Red Cross online.
   To provide tips and information to the FBI about these attacks.
   NEW YORK STATE WORLD TRADE CENTER RELIEF FUND.
   The NY Fallen Firefighter Rescue Workers Fund.


If you have any questions, comments, or online research articles to be submitted, please feel free to contact us.
   Please keep those requests and comments coming.

   We've been in the business to business online database research information services since 1981. To see more about what we are currently offering at this time, see our Handbook Information Page, learn how to do your own Business to Business Research.

Editor/Publisher Contact Information:
   Editor: Robert Lett
   Publisher: Infinite-Data Publishing
   4455 Torrance Blvd., #842
   Torrance, CA 90503
   (310) 793-1604
   http://www.infinitedata2000.com
   Contact Us

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Our subscriber list is NOT made available to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber and reader, we respect your privacy.

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   Every now and then, you just have to relax: Check out The Game Directory. Here you can play the #1 game on the net!!! And possibly win prizes!!! This site is not affiliated with Infinite Data.

   To find that special gift:
The Gift Directory; Finding the right gift is only a click away!!!

   Find toys of all kinds at:  The Toy Directory; For those hard to find toys on your list!!!

   Click Here to view our previous Newsletters, now online.

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Feedback and Comments
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   FREE INTERNET. Freedomlist at http://www.freedomlist.com provides an extensive listing of free Internet service providers. The last time I looked, there were 542such listings in 57 countries. Updated.

   Pre-Employment Background Security Checks now online at Pre-Employment Screening Service.
Our pricing has been updated. Please click on the above link for more information.
Infinite Data's Press Release.

   Our News Clipping Service is available online. We scan over 15,000 publications each day for articles that interest you and your industry. Let us do the research for you!
Click here to see the benefits of our News Clipping Services!

   We also have our general information request form, check out our General request form, which is for nonspecific information requests.

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Editorial - Proximity Functions & Truncation, Part III. by Robert Lett.
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         Proximity Functions & Truncation, Part III. by Robert Lett.

         Adjacency Operators.

   An adjacency operator enables you to retrieve only those database resources that contain your submitted query term keywords side by side. Keywords tagged with an adjacency operator must occur directly beside each other in a database resource, but may be in either order.

   Adjacency operators are useful for locating individuals' names and proper nouns that may be indexed in reverse order (such as Lett, Robert). Using adjacency operators may be particularly advantageous when researching in the following types of resources:

Note: An adjacency operator is equivalent to a proximity operator with a range value of one word (lett NEAR/1 robert).

The query term Franklin ADJ Benjamin will seek database resources containing the keywords "benjamin" and "franklin" side by side but in any order.

Therefore, the query term Franklin ADJ Benjamin will search the database for both "franklin benjamin" and "benjamin franklin."

   Finding what you want online isn't that hard, but you have to know where to go to get it. Now you can perform online research yourself, and make money doing it for others - check out The Handbook for the Information Professional.

   Truncation.
Truncation, also known as stemming, is a tool that enables you to broaden your search by retrieving resources that include alternate forms of a keyword. Truncation invokes an inclusion logic (similar to the AND Boolean operator). However, truncation typically results in much broader search results than other methods.

Most search engines that support truncation allow multiple keywords to be truncated within a single query term.

While the AND operator signifies inclusion for a single term, truncation signifies inclusion of an unlimited number of terms based upon the keyword that is tagged. You implement truncation in a query term through the use of a special operator called a wildcard.

   Wildcards.
A wildcard is the syntactical character used to specify truncation for a keyword in a query term. The universal wildcard character is an asterisk (*). Some search engines recognize a symbol other than the asterisk for truncation. Lycos, for example, once recognized a dollar sign ($) as a truncation wildcard.

   Uses of Truncation.
Truncation can be used to achieve a variety of research goals and to overcome specific problems commonly encountered with simple queries. For example, truncation can expedite a search when:
* the exact spelling of a query term keyword is unknown
* there are multiple accepted spellings of a keyword resource (theater - theatre, color - colour; cantaloup - cantaloupe - cantalope)

Truncation will also match database resource words that are unrelated to the keywords tagged with the wildcard. For example, the keyword sing* - intended to locate variant forms such as singer, singers, singing - will also locate matches such as singe, single, singular, and possibly foreign words, such as the French singulier.

Consult a search engine's Help or FAQ file to:
* verify that the search engine supports truncation
* check the exact syntactical character or symbol recognized as a wildcard by the search engine

   You can learn how to find this information and much more. You can do this research yourself, we'll show you how. To see more options, check out: The Handbook for the Information Professional. You will be glad you did!

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The Lighter Side: Health Secrets - Part I.
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         How to avoid becoming a victim.

   Unless you're a physician, you can't diagnose your own illnesses and decide by yourself whether or not you really need an operation. But you can - and you should - seek a second - and third - opinion if you're considering any operative procedure.

Fully a quarter of the surgical procedures performed in the United States each year are of very limited benefit - or entirely useless. It's valuable to become familiar with the types of preceidures that may be performed unnecessarily:
* Arthroscopy.
* Biopsy of the skin.
* Breast biopsies.
* Carotid endarterectomy.
* Coronary bypass.
* Endoscopy.
* Hysterectomy.
* Lumbar laminectomy.
* Tonsillectomy.

Surgical procedures that are often performed unnecessarily: Knee surgery, prostate removal, hysterectomy, repair of deviated septum of the nose and pediatric surgery. Finding: When the state of New York required about one million people on state insurance policies to get second opinions on these procedures, the number of actual operations dropped significantly.

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In our Next Issue:
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1. Introduction and Welcome: To our new subscribers and our new readers, we thank you for reading.
2. Feedback and Comments: From previous postings.
3. Editorial: TBA.
4. The Lighter Side: Health Secrets, Part I.

   To have the InfiniteData2000.com's Newsletter sent to your email FREE, Click Here.
   To unsubscribe to InfiniteData2000.com's Newsletter, Click Here.

Editor/Publisher Contact Information:
   Editor: Robert Lett
   Publisher: Infinite-Data Publishing
   http://www.infinitedata2000.com
   mailto:x@infinitedata2000.com

Turn those online hobbies into $95 and up per hour.
Find information on anything or anybody from your home computer.
The Handbook for the Information Professional.

    You can check out our previous additions of this newsletter at: Infinite Data's Past Newsletters

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