NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, December 2005
The Deals Column
by Bob (the Cheapskate)Click, The Dealsguy
Greater Orlando Computer Users Group
bobclick@mindspring.com
(click to email author)


Bob Evans, Editorial Director for Information Week magazine, wrote about one of the most asinine cases of the law dealing with criminals that you could imagine. I already knew about the arrest, but was unaware of the other circumstances. He wrote about an accused spammer who agreed to settle charges brought against him by the Federal Trade Commission for $485,000, a small fraction of the $5.9 million he is alleged to have bilked from trusting consumers. The FTC’s problem with prosecution was the generous Florida bankruptcy laws that allow immense asset (homestead) protection. Bankruptcy laws in Florida have long been an attractive shelter for the wealthy to rid themselves of some debt while preserving multimillion dollar homes as a personal asset, although I don’t know what changes the new bankruptcy laws will invoke. Who says that crime (in this case spam) doesn’t pay! The article is located at: [html;jsessionid=CIB5ZHDNXSEI0QSNDBCSKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleID=164900917]

I read about a cell phone that never rings. That’s because it is actually a four-shot pistol in disguise. They say it is a bit heavier than a cell phone though. I guess that means you should keep an eye on strangers NOT talking on their cell phones. My observance is that most people are talking on them most of the time. I hate that when they are next to us in a restaurant and they are talking as if the other person can’t hear, or have it on speakerphone turned up loud.

New Web Pages
Some of you may know that user groups receive announcements on a regular basis for new products. Since most user group officers are already stretched to the limit performing tasks for their members, these announcements don’t always get passed on so I have posted several pages of them on special announcement pages on my Web site. Some of them sound interesting and if they offer us a discount, I try to use them in the column.

Need A New Web Site?
WebBuild Express sounds like a great tool for building your new Web site and Serre Murphy, president of Net Fulfillment Technologies Inc. was a vendor at the spring FACUG conference. I asked him for a deal for my readers. Below is information I have put together from their Web site. He is sending me a review copy so I should have some actual experience soon.

They say you don’t have to know how to program or write HTML code to use WebBuild Express. Using it, you can easily organize your site and create menus and links to the other pages, and to other sites. Using the unique "Dashboard" feature, you can include special functions like hit counters and search windows in your pages. Other features enable you to create backup copies of your work and to export data to other WebBuild Express users. WebBuild Express is designed to be intuitive and easy to learn and if you've used a modern Word Processing program, you'll be capable of using this Web design software to start building your own sites immediately.

This product also has plenty of undo/redo options just in case you have a problem making up your mind about the design of your Web site. It has Paste Special capabilities, which can be valuable in the design of your site. WebBuild Express organizes your pages by "Application." An application is the collection of pages, images, and other files for a Web site. You can build as many Applications using WebBuild Express as you want and there is no limit on the number of sites you can have, or the number of pages you can have on each site. A page in WebBuild Express corresponds to each page you will have on the published site. Each page can have a title, which will appear in the browser's tile bar, and other information that is useful for getting the page listed by search engines.

You can preview a page at any time by clicking the Preview Page tool button (or selecting "Page Preview" from the "File" menu). Page Preview will launch your browser and display the page you are working on as it will appear when published. You can also view an entire site by choosing "Site Preview" on the "File" menu. Site preview creates the html code for all pages in your application and is useful for testing links between your pages. You can use the "Send to Server (FTP)" choice on the File menu to send the files you have published (see paragraph above) to a Web server by supplying the Internet address of the server, your user name, and your password.

Check their Web site [http://www.nfti.net] for more information. They are offering us a 25% discount from the MSRP of $29.95 (already a bargain), making the final price just $22.45 until January of 2006, saving you $7.50. To download it at [http://store.esellerate.net/nfti/store], use the coupon code CPN8348901136, when it calls for it, to receive your 25% discount. Ordering it on CD-ROM will add $10.00. All these features and tech support too! On behalf of my readers, I thank Mr. Murphy for this special offer.

Announcement for SearchMyDisks 2.01.
I'm pleased to inform members of Users Groups that 10-Strike Software releases SearchMyDiscs 2.01 (formerly 10-Strike Disk-Pile). Please, find the press release for SearchMyDiscs 2.01 below for your information. Please note, our summer discounts are still available and the cost of registering the program is 20 US Dollars. Exclusively for Users Group people we've arranged a RegNow 10% discount coupon: STRK-G4BI-GRP

    Best regards,
    Dmitriy Stepanov
    10-Strike Software.

September, 2005; For Immediate Release
New disk cataloger and search engine helps PC owners find necessary CD or DVD in seconds.

SearchMyDiscs (formerly marketed as 10-Strike Disk-Pile) is a handy software application that helps folks with large CD and DVD collection quickly find the disk that has a needed file, photograph, music track or movie clip. This is how the program works:

First, a person inserts every CD or DVD that needs to be indexed into the PC. The program will automatically scan the disk, cataloging its contents. In addition to that, the program will store the file structure of the disk, thumbnail images and EXIF tags for photographs, MP3 ID3 tags for MP3 tracks, file properties (avi, exe, dll, jpg, gif, bmp, png, tiff, psd, tga, pcx, and other files). It's also possible and advisable to create short descriptions for certain contents of the disk. Plus, the program offers an option to create a file tree that contains files and folders stored on different disks.

After the first step is completed, the program is ready to be used. If the need arises to find that track or photograph, a person simply enters the name of the file or other search parameter, like the name of song, performer or album, and SearchMyDiscs will show exactly what CD or DVD contains the desired data. No more trying to discern scribbles on the back cover, inserting and ejecting disks or endless browsing. Reports, for instance "My MP3 Collection," (text or HTML) can be built on demand.

It's possible to organize CDs and DVDs into special groups (i.e. images, music, data) and one disk may belong to multiple groups. Second, SearchMyDiscs will store information on hundreds of disks without hogging all that disk space or system resources. A few megabytes will do. Finally, there is the "Borrowed Disk" feature that makes it possible to distinguish between the disks that are loaned out and the ones currently on the shelves. Plus, the program can search through zip, rar, arj, cab, sfx archives to find a file.

SearchMyDiscs 2.01 is available at http://www.10-strike.com/searchmydiscs/ for free download. The cost of registering the program is 20 US Dollars.

System Requirements:
A standard PC with Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP

Download:
http://www.10-strike.com/searchmydiscs/searchmydiscs.zip

Buy:
http://www.10-strike.com/order.shtml

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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