If you are new to the Internet then these distinctions will assist you in appreciating the Internet more than being frustrated by it. Digital information transfer, electronic bulletin boards and the early Internet were designed for text transfer and display only.

Early computers had size restraints on memory and storage that are inconceivable to those introduced to computers after 1996. Information storage space was once sized in bytes. Today, it is sized in megabytes (millions of bytes) and gigabytes. Programs once had to be written in hundreds of bytes. Today, they are written in hundreds of megabytes. Early modems transferred data at a rate of 900 baud or less. Today (1998), a low transfer rate is considered to be 56,000 baud.

In less than a decade many of these changes have taken place.
Yet expanded facility and sophistication of the basic Internet programming code (HTML: Hypertext Markup Language) has changed little. Often, the new coding instructions that have been introduced are particular to one make of browser so that they may be interpreted correctly in Netscape but not in Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), and the reverse. To have documents that will display equally well on many computers using different browser programs and having different access and computer speeds, one is wise to use as FEW coding features as possible in presenting an interesting page.

Typically, one page of text can be stored in 2K of space.
A full page image can occupy 2,000 K of storage space.
A digitized picture for high resolution printing might occupy 2,000,000 K. (2 megabytes). Yet on most computer displays, the 2 meg image will not appear any better quality than the 2,000 K image, but, it will take very much longer to load and be displayed by the program.

Most Internet users do not want to wait 2 minutes for a webpage to display after they have contacted the Internet site, IF, they can see almost the same thing in 10 seconds. Also, millions of colors can be digitized into an image, yet less than a hundred will be uniformly displayed across the differences of most computer displays. So, often, less is better.

When it comes to considering sound files, storage sizes and transfer times can be multiplied 10 to 100 times that of image files. Compact disc digital quality sound is much higher in fidelity than that possible from phonograph records or magnetic tape variations. Transferring it over the Internet is too slow to be considered practical. The simplest and more standard digital file format on the Internet has been .wav files. But it may take 2 minutes to download a file which plays in less than 10 seconds.

Since many of the frequencies in hi-fi sound cannot be heard by most people, up to 80% of the sound bulk may be removed to form MIDI files. These are now tiny files compared to waves and for their size they may play a comparatively long time. But MIDI files often sound like a 90 piece orchestra with 88 pieces removed. So MPEG files were created to synthetically bulk up the sound ... a little like MIDI files with implants and Wave files with extensive surgery AND implants.

To increase your enjoyment and benefit from the Package files, small sound files have been added to some pages. Don't expect hi-fidelity. If you like a tune and want a better quality, BUY the commercially available version and reward the artist and publisher for making that quality available. In the meantime, you will enjoy your Health Balance Package files more than those which must be accessed from the Internet.

Most of the sounds in the Package are .wav format sounds and are playable by Netscape 3.0 and most other, and later, browsers. Some .midi format sound files have been included also. These require plugin applications, which are included with many later browsers and can be played by Winamp 9, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and other "helper" programs. Wherever possible, all Package files were originally coded to display correctly on Netscape 3.0 and will display well on most later and larger browsers.

Small sound files as effects or as music have been added to some files.
In most instances, if you want the sounds to play, you will find the controls at the bottom of the page. Scan down, pick your choice --- there are often two, then go back to the top of the page to begin reading, or, choose a section selections. If you like the music and it finishes before you finish with the page, you can restart the music by Selecting the Play [->] button from the sound control box.

If you don't like the music or sound effects, or have heard enough, you have a few options:

1. Turn off you speakers;

2. Unplug your speakers;

3. Go to START/Settings/Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio

   Ensure that the "Show volume control on the taskbar" option
   at the bottom of the page, is ticked; then close dialog boxes.

   A loudspeaker icon will be in your Windows taskbar.

   Left click once, and a slider control icon will appear.

   Ensure that the "Mute" option at the bottom is ticked.

   Click on the desktop to close the instruction box.

   When you want sounds to play again, return, and deselect "Mute".

4. You can also adjust the Volume by following the above option and adjusting the Volume slider control with your mouse pointer rather than muting the sound.

5. On many of the pages that have an embedded sound file, a sound Activation control button and the name of the sound will be displayed near the BOTTOM of the page. Clicking on the button will replay the selection without your having to reload the page.

CAUTIONS:
Use of a sound Player plugin or other accessory program to enhance the quality of the sound from the original file, may present problems.

The Health-4-All Package Files have been coded for efficient use OFFLINE, to save you the frustrations and costs that can be associated with online Internet access: program failures, slow and varying connection speeds, potential virus interference, lengthy loading of image and sound files.