MS Office 2007 add-in's

Various Add-in's for Office 2007 from Microsoft. After downloading and installing, they can be found at Start, Microsoft Office, Office Tools.

Save files as PDF or XPS files in Office.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Outlook 2007.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3f28d5dc-25a4-41bd-9c98-67c47c6cd8ff&displaylang=en&tm

Live Search Maps Add-In for Microsoft Office Outlook adds maps, driving directions, traffic information, and travel time to the scheduling capabilities of Outlook.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7A0BCE98-EAB4-40A3-B7EC-43C09D6AE8CB&displaylang=en

Get Started Tab for Word 2007. This add-in adds a Get Started tab to the Microsoft Office Word 2007 Ribbon. Commands on this tab give you easy access to free content on Office Online that helps you learn Word 2007 quickly.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=F587370C-FDAE-4EDE-B528-AC58031A5DFF&displaylang=en

Get Started Tab for Excel 2007. This add-in adds a Get Started tab to the Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Ribbon. Commands on this tab give you easy access to free content on Office Online that helps you learn Excel 2007 quickly.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8A5AF9D7-08A7-41BA-8844-76BB94228957&displaylang=en

File and Printer sharing in Vista

This is where you start learning how to share in Vista. Happy reading..

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool

The Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool checks your Internet router to see if it supports certain technologies. You can use this tool on a PC running either the Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system. If you're planning to run Windows Vista, this tool can verify whether your existing Internet router supports advanced features, such as improved download speeds and face-to-face collaboration using Windows Meeting Space.

The tool is intended to be run from a home network behind a home Internet (NAT) router. Running this tool from behind a corporate firewall or on operating systems other than those specified above won't produce accurate results. This tool requires administrator privileges to run.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/tools/igd/default.mspx

Jungle Disk

Being a paranoid freak about backups, I keep looking at online backup services.

I am currently trying a beta service that uses Amazon's servers for backup.
It is called Jungle Disk. It is simple, seems to work well and is cheap - 15 cents a month for a gigabyte plus 20 cents a month per gigabyte of uploaded data. The program will automatically backup changed files. You have to be a Amazon.com member or signup for same for billing purposes.

http://www.jungledisk.com/
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/executive_tech/article.php/3674056

Using Vista

I become more impressed by Vista everyday.

Nothing spectacular: it just looks good and works well. I also keep finding built in applications like the automatic defragger that impress me.

I also like the new 'ribbon' command bar in Office.

One drawback - access to Vista files by other computers on the network is disabled by default (for security reasons) and enabling access is not straight forward. The good news is that it works well once your have tracked down the various settings that need to be changed.

Spamihilator

This spam removal tool comes highly recommend by a columnist I trust. I have not tried it. Supposed to work with all POP3 email programs. Free.

http://www.spamihilator.com/

CallingID Link Advisor

This is a nifty utility. Hover your mouse over an URL in an email, word document, etc and it shows you who the owner is. GREAT for detecting phoney URL's in email's.

Free download:
http://www.callingid.com/Default.aspx

Update: I removed it as it seemed to slow my system down.

Zappos.com - buying shoes online

After hearing a lot about buying shoes online from Zappos.com and not finding anything I liked in the local stores, I tried their service. It is GREAT.

Large selection, good prices AND 1 day free shipping. And free shipping if you want to return the shoes.

I am a happy customer.

http://www.zappos.com/welcome.zhtml

Have blog posts delived as email

Would you like to receive posts to this and other blogs automatically delivered to you as email?

There are many programs to do this. Google RSS to email
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS208US208&q=rss+to+email+service

Adesso - a file sharing program.

Send/share your large files (music, videos, etc) with friends. It appears to be an online backup system also. Warning - beta test. I have not tried it but it sounds interesting.

To demonstrate the power of rApps, we’ve just launched a private, limited beta of Adesso’s first consumer application, TUBES – a fast, easy and fun way to send, share and publish your digital content to any personal, private network of friends, family and communities. Stay tuned for more Adesso rApps over the coming months...

http://www.adessosystems.com/

QuickTime Alternative

Apple's QuickTime program for Windows is used to view certain types of videos over the Internet. I have never been fond of QuickTime, especially since Apple started including iPod software with it.

QuickTime Alternative is just what it says - an alternative program to using QuickTime.
I downloaded/installed QuickTime Alternative Light and it hung up when I selected the 'System Restore' feature. Powered off; Vista recovered and QuickTime Alternative Light installed fine when I did not select the System Restore option during installation.

Free from:
http://codecguide.com/download_qt.htm

Drobo - automatic backup/storage

Fully automated storage you don't have to manage.

Chances are, you get passionate about creating or collecting digital content, not about managing the storage where it lives. For you we've created Drobo, the first robotic storage device that takes the pain out of keeping your content safe.

Drobo combines up to four hard drives into a big pool of protected storage. Start with two, grow to four, then upsize smaller drives—get Terabytes of protection.

Add drives to Drobo at any time. Mix 'n match capacities, brands or speeds. No downtime, data migration, or waiting to access new capacity. Drobo works the way you do.

Hard drives get bigger and cheaper all the time. Don't buy storage capacity until you need it. Buy capacity "just-in-time" possibly saving you hundreds of dollars.

Just connect Drobo to your Mac or PC. No software required. No RAID levels. No management or configuration. Drobo does everything for you.

Get rid of multiple external drives. Avoid the complexity of RAID. Attach a Drobo storage robot to your system and let it manage your storage so you don't have to.

http://www.drobo.com/
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Web camera software - free

EasyWebCam is fully featured web cam software with a great looking interface that works 'Out of the box'. With its superb 'Live Video feed' feature and the 'motion detection' feature you will never need to use any other web cam software. You can have 'email alerts' sent to you when motion is detected, upload to any ftp server or just use our FREE web space. It's very easy to use and set-up but if you need more, then just explore the advanced settings for image manipulation etc. You can alter the uploaded HTML page or the web cam 'Gallery' feature and choose how many images to archive for online viewing. It even works with a WAP enabled mobile phone or a PDA for remote viewing. Pop up windows show you 'Whos Watching you' when using the server feature. At the end of the day you can use the 'slide show' feature to preview the day’s activities on your own computer. Now with SmileCam(tm) support and a built in DynDNS client.

http://www.msagentsoftware.com/easyfreewebcam/index.html

SpeedGuide - DSL tools

A variety of tools to help you check/analyze your high speed network connection.
http://www.speedguide.net/sg_tools.php

Google stuff

Guide to using Google search:
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference_print.html



Call 411 for free using Google Voice Search
http://labs.google.com/goog411/index.html

Vista - part 4

I have been doing quite a few Vista setups on new computers and having very few problems.

Still haven't fully figured out network sharing due to the security restrictions.

Dick