2004 December

Got any good New Year’s Eve plans? We’re gonna welcome the New Year with new people, meeting most of them for the first time. One of my friends at Microsoft has invited us to a small, casual New Year’s Eve party. At first, I thought it was a trick - he’s the same guy who […]

Freeware. ToolbarCop is a browser extensions manager which can disable or eliminate the following browser add-ons selectively from Internet Explorer:
* Unwanted Browser Helper Objects (BHO)
* Toolbars (Tool Band)
* Standard Toolbar buttons
* Context menu Extensions
* […]

Freeware. InterMute’s CWShredder Update Defeats Polymorphic CoolWebSearch Spyware
Unrelenting Browser Hijacker ‘HomeSearch’ Is Easily Removed With New CWShredder
InterMute, Inc., a leading provider of best-of-breed Internet security and content filtering solutions, today announced a significant upgrade of CWShredder(TM) (Version 2.12) that eradicates browser hijacker HomeSearch. This polymorphic spyware takes control of a user’s homepage settings and […]

From My Kitchen not only simplifies your recipe storage and retrieval, it makes sharing recipes with others a snap! You can also access the From My Kitchen Cookbook, a recipe database on the Internet, where other From My Kitchen users have contributed their favorites.

AceMoney Lite makes it easy to manage a checkbook, create and manage budgets, juggle finances in multiple currencies, track spending habits, record expenses, transfer among accounts, and even do online banking. The account information can be shared or password protected. The program offers an easy to use interface that is straightforward and much easier to […]

Look at one of your thumbs right now. Is it green? If so, you should either head to the emergency room, or settle in with the fact that you’re a natural gardener. I personally am not a gardener in any way, shape, or form. I’ll get out there and mess with it when I have […]

Q: What’s the deal with screen resolutions? I have a hard time seeing some of the text and icons within Windows, and someone told me that I could modify my screen resolution in Windows XP to be something more suitable.

It’s year’s end. Frankly, I’m running out of ideas for new columns, so maybe it’s a good thing this year is almost used up. Probably starting in 2005, I will concentrate more on giving specific anecdotes of problems and successes in helping seniors achieve their optimum level of confidence on computers and the Internet. Since […]

People are often nervous about installing new programs on their computer and for good reason. You never really know how a new program is going to behave. I often have friends and family who call asking whether or not they should install this program or that program on their computer.
Windows XP includes a great […]

Most versions of Windows support both static IP addressing and dynamic IP addressing. Finding your IP address if you are using static addressing is as simple as opening the properties window for TCP/IP. If you are using dynamic IP addressing, you can find your IP address using the command prompt.
There are two commands available that […]

Dear Gentle Readers,
Yesterday Aunty reported that there were rumours swirling that Verizon was blocking most, if not all, inbound email originating from domains outside the United States.
That’s right. The word on the street was that Verizon for some reason known only to them had decided to block all (or at least nearly all) email […]

We signed up for another American Express card a few weeks ago, hoping to consolodate this month’s other American Express balances. American Express doesn’t work that way, apparently - despite what the salesperson told us. I’ve been a cardholder for about a year now, and have had few complaints about AmEx. Well, there was that […]

It’s true; the seventh version of the Acrobat Reader is light years better than 6.0 in terms of speed and UI snappiness. PDF is PDC (pretty darn common), so having a good PDF viewer is essential. If you haven’t already done so, go ahead and grab Acrobat Reader 7. I’ve got it installed alongside Adobe […]

Want to do well by doing good? YOU can make a difference in the fight to help the millions of victims of the recent tsunami disaster. You can also help yourself to some free software at the same time.
The gang at CoffeeCup Software are offering you all a real deal- donate to the relief effort […]

Two people wrote to me and said they won’t give up their old-fashioned coffee maker for the pod-style ones just yet. Ah, I should’ve mentioned that the review
wasn’t about replacing those, but a review of the single-brewers without comparing them to the good ol’ machines. Should’ve thought to mention that.
I love my Braun FlavorSelect […]

With the interest generated by films such as “Saving Private Ryan” and the HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers,” the history of World War II has become an interesting topic for discussion and study. Today’s site explores one person’s military service in that war, and tells it from the trenches, not from behind the lines. It […]

I’ve been a huge fan of Tony Little’s Gazelle for several months now. Out of all the exercise equipment I’ve ever used (at home or remotely), it’s been the easiest, cleanest, and most effective. It’s a glider, not an eliptical. Tony Little is more than a little annoying with his commercial, but don’t ignore his […]

It’s like the Lycos “Make Love Not Spam” project, only with all that concentrated computing power being focussed on the public good.
The World Community Grid is an organization whose lofty goal is to “create the world’s largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity”.
They do this by harnessing the computer power of your […]

Personal File Server is Web-based software that allows Web site visitors to download and upload files using only their favorite browser. It is a very extensible solution in sharing audio/video files, documents, or any other file type with ease. Files can be shared with colleagues and friends on a network, intranet, or Internet without needing […]

Cobian Backup is a small and simple utility to back up files and directories from someplace in your computer to another place in the same computer or to a shared drive in another machine. A pretty simple concept, really! You can set the program to automatically make a backup within regular intervals of time, for […]