NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, April 2006
The Deals Column
by Bob (the Cheapskate)Click, The Dealsguy
Greater Orlando Computer Users Group
bobclick@mindspring.com
(click to email author)


Personal
As time goes forward, my health gets more complicated. I have been a Type II diabetic for a few years now and other than some swelling in the legs, my sugar control is pretty good, which I assume many of you can relate to. Problem is I started the sugar control too late and suffered serious heart damage. Now it seems that I have developed a large blood clot in my lower leg, I believe from a fall, and the doctor put me on Coumadin (Warfarin), better known as rat poison. It has a long list of drugs that cause interactions. I am already a walking pharmacy so now it gets complicated. This turn for the worse seems to bring other unexpected complications. I have started getting temporary spikes upward in my blood pressure for no apparent reason, which sometimes causes a nosebleed. I am afraid to go anyplace these days because I might get a nosebleed, although I can stop it now rather easily. My doctor has prescribed medication for my blood pressure as a solution to the changes and I sure hope it works. Getting old sure gets complicated, but the alternative to getting old “really sucks.” It looks like I will have five more months on the rat poison, if I survive. I have talked to many people also taking Caumadin who tell me even worse stories about bleeding where you don’t want to and a lack of good control by their doctor.

Right now, I need a blood test at least once a week for my INR, (the clotting ability of the blood). The doctor says I can purchase a machine to do that test at home, but I checked on the Web and it would cost $2495 (no decimal point). I’ll let the clinic do the testing. Medicare only pays for that if you have valve problems in your heart. I’m still doing my best to continue cheating my wife out of the life insurance money. Whenever I start to slow down on exercise etc., I get a vision of my wife sitting on the beach of some south sea island with a stud sitting next to her, and she is writing a check on my insurance money for their next vacation. That little vision gets me right out of the chair to exercise.

How Secure is Your System?
I read an article in Information Week magazine that was both amusing and interesting. It concerned a company whose CIO hired security investigators to test how good their system stood up to being infiltrated. The director of the network operations center was sure they couldn’t break into the systems or facilities, but they very soon proved him wrong. Some of the weaknesses were so stupid that I had to chuckle, such as many of the passwords for work stations were written on a note taped to the machine or hidden under the keyboard. They gained access to limited access places just by calling the receptionist and telling them that some agents were coming in to do an audit and needed access, which was easily granted to the very people who made the call. Office keys were sometimes in the secretary’s desk. You can find this article at http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177100115 and you’ll find it enlightening.

Leaky Capacitor Update
A while back, I wrote about a leaky capacitor problem on motherboards that I read about in Ed Foster’s Gripe Line, and gave you the URL to find out more. Since then, I received a message from Carey Holzman, author of Healthy PC, who tells me that is a four-year-old issue and that there has been “some” resolution in the matter. He says he has covered it since it first came up four years ago and more information is available on his Web site. . Also a second URL: .

Great, The Bundle is Back
Colleen Toumayan from Executive Software sent a message letting me know that their “bundle” is back. For a limited time you can get both the award winning Diskeeper 10, Home Edition, and Undelete 5, Home Edition, products for just $49.95 plus S&H. I have never heard anything but praise about these fine products. Mine is not the latest, but it always works well, and fast. Use this link to order: http://purchase.diskeeper.com/checkout/addtocart.aspx?Item=1382.

ExtraLabs Releases Version 3.4 of Feed Editor (an edited announcement)

New RSS Editor Makes Anyone An RSS Guru!
ExtraLabs Software unveils Feed Editor 3.4, a full-fledged RSS editor that offers you an easy way to create and maintain RSS feeds and podcasts. Compared to other RSS editors in its category, Feed Editor combines an unprecedented number of features including support for various RSS formats, a podcasting support, a WYSIWYG HTML editor, an XML editor, an RSS Feed preview, an FTP upload and publishing, automatic date management and an ability to convert CSV or HTML to RSS, and back.

Feed Editor can create and maintain an unlimited number of RSS feeds and podcasts, thus letting you maintain and distribute multiple content streams simultaneously. To create a new RSS feed, you can use a New Feed Creation wizard that will guide you through the RSS setup process in a step-by-step fashion. Additional convenience comes with a built-in WYSIWIG HTML editor that allows you to edit a feed in much the same way as you would edit a word processing document. You can format the text, apply styling, and insert images and hyperlinks. Also, "Feed Editor" can generate a feed from a CSV and HTML file. Once a feed is ready, you can preview it and publish online using an FTP upload facility.

Read more about Feed Editor at http://www.extralabs.net/feed-editor.htm Download an evaluation version to try it for free http://www.extralabs.net/FeedEditorSetup.exe (1.72 Mb.)

ExtraLabs Software is glad to offer the newest version of "Feed Editor" with 50% off the regular price making it just $19.95. Also, ExtraLabs will offer all user group members an additional 5% discount on the purchase of the program during April and May. Follow this link for the extra discount: http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=74108&pc=312aY.

Feed Editor 3.4 runs under Windows 95/98/Me/2000/NT/XP/2003. Registered customers are entitled to free lifetime updates and premium technical support. Discounts for volume buyers are available.

If You Like Games, Check This Announcement
From the creators of “Zzed” comes a new game of Wonderlines by NevoSoft. Wonderlines is a remake of a popular game. Only balls and lines remind you of its predecessor here and the rest is covered with the charm of novelty. A player will see a new bonus system, a new intricate game play structure and a fresh interface design. The music and visuals are great.

Puzzle, Action, Zen Way modes are different, yet each requires special skills. Generally, the game stayed nearly the same yet now you match several balls of one color in a line, but also blow them up over certain brown squares. The challenge of the game is to remove all brown squares in each level. 70 levels of the game are very different one from another. Another merit of the game is new bonuses: the miraculous multicolor ball, dazzling diamond and clever hammer, triple or quadruple bomb and others, which help a lot while making your way through Wonderlines.

Wonderlines runs under Windows 98/ME/XP/2000 and costs $19.95 (USD). NevoSoft offers a 30% discount to user group members if you use this link: . Registered customers are entitled to the unlocked game play and lifetime technical support. An evaluation version of the game, that offers 60 minutes of game play, is available as a free download at http://www.nevosoft.com/wonderlines/wonderlines_demo.exe. Be aware that this vendor has no privacy statement on their Web site about protecting your information.

For more information, visit us at http://www.nevosoft.com Product page link: http://www.nevosoft.com/downloadable-game/en/games/wonderlines.html

That's it for this month. Meet me here again next month if your editor permits. Be sure to check the new announcement pages on my Web site. 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@mindspring.com. Visit my Web site at http://www.dealsguy.com.

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