NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, January 2007
The Deals Column
by Bob (the Cheapskate)Click, The Dealsguy
Greater Orlando Computer Users Group
bobclick@mindspring.com
(click to email author)


Last month I asked the editors for their experiences with dizziness and I heard from more than I thought I would. Almost all of their dizziness experiences were a bit different, as well as the cures, but a few people said they ended up not needing the cure because their problem eventually went away. Mine has improved some, but no thanks to any medication; it made things much worse. I read an article that I’ll share with you and it’s about an often-misdiagnosed type of dizziness. You may find it interesting. http://www.ericksontribune.com/Home/HealthSecrets/tabid/71/newsid410/5386/Spinning-out-of-control/Default.aspx

While I’m at it, here are a few more articles I found interesting.

New Take On Returns
I saw this interesting article about Lowe’s new system to handle customer returns. Even if you can’t find your receipt, they can help you, but this new system also discovered 8,665 fraudulent return attempts in a six-month period http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GRKIQWOE4P0V2QSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=201806189.

This One Concerns The Rapid Development of Linux
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202404635 It had an accompanying article about seven features coming soon, but I couldn’t find it on the Information Week Web site.

From Spinning Platters to No Moving Parts
Are you tired of having a cup of coffee while your computer boots up? Read this article about the future development of computer hard drives that will speed things up. Just switch on the computer and start using it. http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202404347.

What a Fraud!
In November I included an announcement for Advanced WindowsCare Personal that was supposedly freeware. A reader informed me that after it scans your hard drive, it does not remove the errors it found unless you purchase the paid edition. Sorry about that one.

Below are more announcements that I received, but I have not tried them. Do your homework if you are interested in any of them.

Are All Your Simple Projects Organized? They Will Be Now!
SimpleProjectToDo.com announces the availability of SimpleProjectToDo 1.26, the newest version of its tool for keeping track of a small project. The software is aimed at individuals and small project teams.

When you launch SimpleProjectToDo you see a tabbed window listing the tasks to do along with the summary and notes for the currently chosen task. Clicking on any of the tabs opens the window that displays its tasks. Clicking on the Now tab lets you see the tasks that you need to take action on now and clicking on the Later tab shows those that can be done soon. Finally, the Much Later tab tells you about the tasks that can be completed much later.

To add a new task, click on the Add Task button, set its priority (Now, Later, Much Later), category (Problem, Improvement, Other), (Problem, Improvement, Other), and choose the status that can be Open or Closed. If you have ideas or technical details relevant to the task, you can add them too. Important tasks can be highlighted to look more prominent. Now the task is displayed in its assigned tab. Type in the keyword and the program quickly returns the results. Narrow your search for the tasks by enabling only those filters you are interested in. If you need to view or show the tasks list to someone else, you can print the tasks on paper.

It offers multi-user support, making it easy to collaborate within a team. When teammates make changes to the tasks on another computer, those files can be merged together. Changed tasks are marked in red and the new tasks in blue.

SimpleProjectToDo 1.26 runs under Windows Vista, XP and 2000. It is available for $49.95 (US) through the SimpleProjectToDo store. User group members get a 30% discount by using the coupon code “XW-7812-DEALS” when you download the product. The coupon is valid for single user licenses until January 31, 2008. Licensed customers get free upgrades and e-mail technical support for 12 months from the date of purchase. More information and its free trial copy, are available at http://SimpleProjectToDo.com

Direct download link: http://simpleprojecttodo.com/uploads/file/SimpleProjectSetup.exe

Do You Keep Track Of Your Own Finances? Try This, And Its Portable
Alzex announces the release of Personal Finances Portable 2.1. When you get a pay raise, you might start considering a major purchase, or perhaps saving money for your child's education, based on the fact that you will have some spare money. But the month with a pay increase comes to an end and you realize that, actually, you’ve ended up with no extra money because, somehow, you spent it all. In that case, Personal Finances may come to your rescue. It’ll record all expenses and help you see where your money goes. It shows the total sum and percentage structure for categories, overall balance and balance on accounts.

Personal Finances has a user-friendly multilingual interface, scheduler, password protection and a very useful expense addition ability with one click. It can import/export data from/to .txt or .csv files. The application has a multiple database support and allows you to create an unlimited number of databases. Detailed information on all transactions is available for any time period. There is also an unlimited number of sections, subsections, categories, etc. Besides the basic ones, the application allows users to add more currencies upon inserting the exchange rate. Personal Finances allows you to sort by fields and group names, or by transaction. The program has the capability of logging regular transactions automatically.

If you are an active and mobile businessman, or just a globetrotter, why keep a record of expenses in an ordinary notebook and copy those notes into your home PCs after returning home. The features making Personal Finances Portable unique in its category is that you can install and run the application from a USB flash drive; consequently, your "personal accountant" will be portable and always at hand.

Personal Finances Portable 2.1 runs under Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista and costs $24.95 (USD) for a single-user license. User group members get a 20% discount on the purchase of Personal Finances Portable by using the coupon code “pf43M5G,” valid from now until March 2008. Licensed customers are entitled to priority technical support and a year of free upgrades. Your purchase is secured by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Additional information on Personal Finances Portable 2.1, as well as its evaluation copy with a 30-day trial period, is available at http://www.financessoftware.com.

Download link:
http://www.financessoftware.com/downloads/PersonalFinances_v2.1.exe (2,73 Mb)

Another Portable Application For Road Warriors
Smart PC Solutions, Inc. announced Reach-a-Mail 3.0, a portable flash drive e-mail client which lets you use another computer to send and receive e-mails without leaving any traces behind. There is no need to install any additional software, or fear that someone may steal your login and password if you send an e-mail through the online mailing service at an Internet café. This utility supports 10 languages and includes a collection of artistic smiley faces. Reach-a-Mail is a small program that you download to your desktop computer and install onto almost any kind of portable memory device, such as a USB flash drive. The program comes with its own default configuration. All you need to get started is to set up your e-mail accounts and import your contact lists.

This program has a straightforward import feature that lets you import, not only accounts from your desktop Outlook Express, but also e-mail messages and contacts so you don't have to tediously copy-and-paste the data or perform extensive typing. You can also import account settings from another Reach-a-Mail installation. Reach-a-Mail allows you to export e-mail messages and contacts, as well as save attachments. Importing takes only a short time depending on the volume of information you are loading.

Once you have everything in the flash drive, you're free to travel around the world! Simply go to an Internet café or some other place where you can find a computer with access to the Internet, plug the flash drive into the USB port to run Reach-a-Mail and go about sending and receiving messages as you normally would. When you're finished, remove the drive and that's it. No traces are left on the computer and your e-mail correspondence is safe.

Reach-a-Mail 3.0 runs under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. It is freeware and is available immediately from . A commercial professional version of Reach-a-Mail with RSS reader functionality, no ad attachments in messages and better speed is also available for $29.95 USD at http://www.smartpctools.com/order.html.

That's it for this month. I’ll have more new product announcements on my Web site (most not offering a discount). Meet me here again next month if your editor permits. This column is written to make user group members aware of special offers or freebies I have found or arranged, and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of any products, no matter how enthused I might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click bobclick@bellsouth.net. Visit my Web site at http://www.dealsguy.com

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