Get a Free (Legal) Copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007

Microsoft is giving away free copies of Office Professional 2007 and Groove 2007 at its launch events across the country. Although typically designed for I.T. pros, small business owners, programmers, and the like, I don't believe there are any restrictions on who attends. See http://www.microsoft.com/business/launch2007/signup/default.mspx for more details.

And as I've already said twice on this blog, Office 2007 is amazing. You don't have to take my word for it; you can try it without even having to install it by viewing the test drive. Feeling slightly more adventurous? Download the trial.

Saving Some Pennies on Gas

This tip seems rather obvious now that I've heard it: buy gas during the coldest part of the day if possible. You're charged for gas by volume, so you get more for your money when you buy at a time when the gas is most condensed.

Freeware Feature: OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (yes, the .org is part of the name)
Purpose: Office productivity (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.)
Web site: http://www.openoffice.org/
Skill level required: Beginner

Ok, I'm cheating. I'm highlighting a program I already alluded to once. But I'm continually surprised by how many people have not heard about OpenOffice.org.

Microsoft Office is very popular, but can also be very expensive. (Although on Tuesday, January 30, 2007, Microsoft is releasing the Home and Student Edition at a decent price for home consumers.) OpenOffice.org is one of the most competent free alternatives, and is definitely worth a look if a) you can't afford Microsoft Office, b) you like to have a variety of options when it comes to your software, or c) you just hate Microsoft.

OpenOffice.org includes:

• A word processor
• A spreadsheet program
• A presentation program
• A graphics/diagram program
• A database program
• An equation editor

Different components of the product are at different maturity levels. And OpenOffice is absolutely no match for Office 2007. It lacks the polish of Microsoft's venerable suite, but it has its place. If you are still using the basic "suite" that came with your computer, try OpenOffice.org.

Curious About the 'Ove' Glove? Me Too.

I thought I had graduated from mittens when I finished second grade. Although I understand that mittens are more appropriate than gloves if your main goal is warmth, I hold dexterity in higher regard that comfort. So I was quite distressed that for handling hot items in the kitchen--a situation in which dexterity is particularly desirable--, the mitten was the only heat abatement device available.

Then the 'Ove' Glove showed up, and the following transpired:

1. I thought, "it's about time."
2. I thought, "what an unfortunately irritating name."
3. I thought, "I want one"
4. I found out that it sells for $14.
5. I thought, "ouch."
6. I waited. (This is what I do when I want something and it costs too much. I may have no reason to believe that the price will go down, but if I wait long enough, I wear myself down. In this case, I waited about a year--maybe longer.)
7. The second-generation 'Ove' Glove was born. It now has silicone grips.
8. I bought one.

The 'Ove' Glove has two benefits over an oven mitt: 1) it's a glove, 2) it has high heat resistance since it's made out of Kevlar and Nomex by Dupont. Yes, they sound like a couple of Norsemen, but I assure you that the 'Ove' Glove is not made from burly Scandinavians.

The 'Ove' Glove does deliver, in that it allows excellent control while providing good protection against heat. I'm a cheapskate, and I still believe it's worth $14. However, I hope somebody makes a cheap knockoff.

Everything was going fine, but I felt I had to give this new item a more scientific test. So I turned on a burner on my electric stove, to the Medium setting. I allowed plenty of time for it to heat up. I held my outstretched hand about an inch above the burner for as long as I could stand it. I made it about 4 seconds.

Then I put the 'Ove' Glove on and tried the same thing. Things were going pretty well for a while. I couldn't feel much heat until about 15 seconds. Even at 30 seconds, I was quite comfortable. But around that 30-second mark, I saw smoke. That development was quite intriguing, and at this point, I decided that the test was concluded. From what I can tell, the silicone grips seem to have begun melting--just a little bit. Do with that information what you will. My guess is that if you refrain from senseless experiments, you'll be fine.

Electricity Cost for a Home Entertainment System: $8.08/month

I'm continuing to use my electricity meter to learn about my electricity costs. Here's my latest finding:

Home theater details:
Panasonic 36" CRT TV
Motorola Moxi DVR
RCA DVD Player
Sony HT-DDW900 5.1 surround sound system

Test Results:
Hours plugged in: 335
Hours in use: (The electricity meter doesn't track this data. I suspect I watch as much TV as the average person.)
KWH: 34.09
KWH charge: $.09988

Subwoofer (separate test)
Hours plugged in: 217
KWH: 2.23
KWH charge: $.09988

Extrapolated monthly cost: $8.08

Move Over, Consumer Reports. The Consumers Are Talking.

I've been a Consumer Reports fan for years, but lately it has let me down on some items. For instance, when I was researching toaster ovens, I found that some of the top-rated models in Consumer Reports were hated by reviewers on Amazon.com. The reverse recently happened when I purchased my surround sound system; Consumer Reports has the Sony HT-DDW900 rated dead last in its review of 14 Home Theater In-A-Box systems. But the consumers at Amazon and Circuit City think it's great, as do the few consumers who posted reviews on cnet.com and epinions.com. (By the way, that system can be found at WalMart (in-store) for $198; don't get stuck spending $250 or $300 elsewhere.)

Now I'm in the market for new tires for my car. The set I currently own was highly rated in Consumer Reports not long ago, but I've gotten only 40,000 miles out of them instead of the rated 65,000 miles. So I did consult Consumer Reports again this time around, but my growing distrust of CR drove me to look for consumer reviews. Thankfully, I found TireRack.com. I had heard of it before, but I didn't know how useful the site was. Try it out for yourself the next time you're looking for tires; it's the first (and maybe last) place I'm going the next time I need to research tires.

Freeware Feature: Picasa

Picasa
Purpose: Editing and organizing photos
Web site: http://picasa.google.com/
Skill level required: Beginner

Picasa, Google's photo editing and organization program, is one of those "wow--this is free?!?" programs.

Forget installing the software that came with your camera, and forget about buying any other photo editing and organization program--at least until you've tried Picasa. Most people just need a way to import their pictures from their camera, perform some basic editing like cropping and redeye fixes, and find the pictures they want once the pictures are on the computer. Picasa handles these basic tasks admirably, and the occasional upgrades offer real, useful improvements. (So if you're running an old version, be sure to give the most current version a try.)

As with my other Freeware Feature posts, I'm not going to provide a full review, nor am I going to list all the great features. Google already has a product tour that can handle the latter. But I will tell you one of my favorite features. I love the new "experimental" feature that allows you to search your picture collection for certain colors. This is really quite amazing; I can find all my pictures that have the color red in them. This is great for people who like to be creative with photos (whether they're into graphic design or something less daunting), but it can be of use to anybody.

Oh, and I guess I have to mention the geotagging feature. Wouldn't it be neat if your camera had a GPS receiver built into it, and it could record global positioning coordinates in every picture you took? Then you could find all of your Colorado vacation pictures by looking at a digital map of Colorado that was linked to your picture program. Well, when you combine Picasa with Google Earth (which is scheduled for an upcoming Freeware Feature post), you can do just that--even if your camera doesn't have a built-in geotagging feature.

Protecting Your Friends From [Some] Spam

As an I.T. director, I often get asked questions like, "I keep getting these junk emails about [some subject]. Why am I getting these?" Clearly there are a number of people who don't know how spammers get email addresses, and that lack of knowledge is hurting them. Perhaps someday I'll write about how spammers get your email address, but a) that's not the focus of this post, b) a simple Google search provides a decent education on the topic.

In an unabashed act of selfishness, I'm going to tell my friends and family how they can help protect me from spam.

The more places an email address can be found, the more likely it is that a spammer will find and abuse it. Spammers can employ tactics to harvest email addresses in your address book, as well as email addresses in your email messages. It's common for viruses and worms to employ this tactic. So if my address is in your address book, or if you've ever sent email to me or received email from me, please be sure you're using virus protection. But with today's major email providers (Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) incorporating good antivirus measures in their programs, that advice may seem outdated and unnecessary. True enough. But there's one other thing you can do to protect my--er, your friends'--addresses.

If you've ever sent a message to a large number of people, you have probably used the To: field or the CC: field for your friends' addresses. When you do that, you're not only sharing your friends' email addresses with everybody else who received that email; you're also depositing all of those email addresses in all the recipients' mailboxes. As indicated above, that's a bad thing.

I'm not telling you to not send emails to a large number of people (although many people should cut down on the number of "forward this to all of your friends immediately" messages that they send). But there is something you can do to hide your friends' addresses from others--including spammers and viruses. Use the Bcc: field rather than the To: or Cc: fields. Let's say you're sending an email to 10 friends, here's what you do:

To: [yourself]
Cc: [Leave blank]
Bcc: [All of your recipients' addresses]

And there you have it--one of the best email etiquette tips that everybody should now. Now forward this to all your friends. ;-)

Freeware Feature: 7-Zip

7-Zip

Purpose: Zipping (compressing) or unzipping files

Web site: http://www.7-zip.org/

Skill level required: Beginner

Recent versions of Windows include a basic program for zipping and unzipping files. It's easy enough to use, but it may not meet all of your zipping/unzipping needs. (I occasionally run into people who have never used the Windows zip program before. If you're completely new to this, you may find this page useful, although Microsoft doesn't include screenshots.) If you find a compressed file that Windows XP can't handle, or if you want to do something slightly advanced like creating a self-extracting archive, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Some people mistakenly think that WinZip is freeware, but it's actually shareware. It's supposed to be registered if you use it beyond the stated trial period. So for me, at least, WinZip is out.

I stumbled upon 7-Zip one day on Sourceforge.net, a web site that hosts open source projects. It's completely free, and it has features that the basic Windows zip program lacks. It's not the only free zip program, but it's a well-respected one that is pretty much guaranteed to always be free.

3 Tips About Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

By now, you've probably had somebody tell you that you should use compact fluorescent bulbs in your home to save energy. Personally, I use them in virtually every room of my house. I also have a friend who wants to take all of his compact fluorescent bulbs with him when he sells his house (they are an investment).

These tips should be helpful when you're ready to take the plunge:

1. Use CF bulbs where incandescents limit you. Many (maybe all) lighting fixtures have limits on how many watts they can support, and that can limit how much light you can get from the fixture. For example, we have track lighting in our kitchen, and the track could handle up to 3 60-watt bulbs. I wanted more light than that, so I switched to CF bulbs, and now I have 5 or 6 13-watt bulbs in the same track. I'm still well below the watt rating for the fixture, and I have much better light output (measured in lumens) than my incandescents provided. So if the potential energy savings hasn't motivated you to change, maybe the promise of more light in your room will.


2. Be cautious when buying "daylight" bulbs. This flavor of CF bulb attempts to simulate natural sunlight. Although I'm happy with an incandescent "daylight" bulb that I purchased, our Feit Electric CF daylight bulbs were so bad, I had to take them out after 1 or 2 days. The odd color produced an eerie look to our living room, and both my wife and I hated them.


3. Not all CF bulbs are equal. I'm no expert on the topic, but certain brands and models have better "color temperature" than others. Some are rather dim and yellow. I've purchased a few brands including Feit Electric, GE, Powerwise, etc. I've found that the Powerwise brand produced the whitest light. Not everybody likes white light (some prefer "warmer" lights), but if you do, look for the elusive Powerwise brand. Our local Farm & Fleet store used to carry that brand, but it no longer does.

Freeware Feature: PrimoPDF

Today I'm starting what I hope will be a 15-week series of Friday posts about free software programs that I find useful. Let me make this clear up front: I am not claiming that these are the 15 best freeware utilities in the world. I'm not even claiming that all of these are the best freeware options in their respective categories. They are just 15 programs I've found after years of hunting for software to meet various needs. I've tested all of them enough that I'm comfortable recommending them, and I still use most of them to varying degrees.

As I understand the license agreements, all of the freeware in this series is legal for personal, non-commercial use. Whatever your scenario, always read software licenses to ensure that you are in compliance.

PrimoPDF
Purpose: Creating PDF files from any application that can print
Web Site: http://www.primopdf.com/
Skill Level Required: Beginner

I've tried a few PDF creators, ranging from Adobe's professional ones to completely free ones. If you're looking for a free way to create PDFs, PrimoPDF is a great option. (I.T. departments can even appreciate the fact that unlike other PDF programs--such as PDFCreator on SourceForge.net--this one can run under limited user rights in Windows XP.)

As with many PDF creators, PrimoPDF installs a "printer" on your computer. When you print a file to that printer, the result is a PDF file rather than a physical, printed document.

A nice touch is that you can set some security on your PDF, including setting a password on the file, preventing printing, etc. (Note: You can never prevent a determined person from printing any document you give them--PDF or other. In a pinch, anybody could take a screenshot of any pages they want to print, and then print the screenshot. Don't heavily rely on this "security" feature.)

For details and screenshots, see http://www.primopdf.com/free-pdf-userguide.asp.

Amazon Price Alerts

Amazon.com sets the standard for online retailers, but it's not perfect. One feature that Amazon lacks is price alerts (NewEgg.com has this feature, as I suspect many other retailers do).

Let's say you're shopping for a particular item--a Black and Decker DCM18S Brew 'n Go Personal Coffeemaker, for instance--but you want to wait for the price to drop before buying. You could check Amazon's site every day while you wait for the price to drop. But if you have better things to do with your time, you could use one of these price alert services:

1. http://apricealert.com/ (recommended): This site is currently geared toward somebody who wants to take advantage of Amazon's 30-day price guarantee. (Apparently if a product's price drops within 30 days of your purchase, you can ask Amazon for a refund.) Enter an item number and your email address, and every time the price drops within 30 days of signing up, you'll get notified via email.
   The catches:


• The alerts work for only 30 days. I don't think the web site makes this clear, but the site's creator told me as much.


• You can't set a desired price. You may be waiting for the coffeemaker to reach $9.99 (which it has), but you'll get an email even if the price drops to $13.99. When I asked the site creator about this, he told me he would add the feature soon.


2. http://www.wishlistbuddy.com/: This site is geared toward the person who wants to be alerted when a particular item(s) reaches a particular price. Sounds promising, but there are a couple of catches that make this my second choice rather than my first:


• Alerts are available only for items on your default Amazon wish list, and the list has to be public. Those requirements are a pain, because your default public wish list should be just that--a wish list for your friends and family to use when buying gifts for you. I use other lists to "save" items I'm thinking about buying for myself or others, but I don't necessarily want those lists made public. I think this is an inherent flaw in wishlistbuddy's design.


• You can't cancel your account online. You have to contact the person running wishlistbuddy.com, and he'll cancel your account for you. Yes, the entire service is free, so I shouldn't be too hard on him; but it's not particularly difficult to program an "unsubscribe" feature of sorts. On the plus side, he emailed me back within just a few hours when I asked him some questions.

If/when the http://apricealert.com/ service adds a "target price" feature, we'll have a clear winner.

By the way, the coffeemaker mentioned in this post can potentially save money--particularly in a home where only one person drinks coffee. It makes only one cup at a time, meaning that it's faster than the average coffeemaker and cuts down on the amount of wasted coffee. It also comes with a permanent filter (no, it doesn't require the ludicrously expensive coffee pods; it uses a regular filter basket) and a stainless steel travel mug, so it's a bargain at its $10-18 price range.