Once upon a time, I found a blogger was reposting my entire articles, pictures and all, on her blog, as if they were her own. I couldn’t find a way to contact her, so – assuming she was one of the many “sploggers” who do this intentionally – I talked about it in a new article. It turned out she ...Read More

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Speaking more than one language can be personally fulfilling. It may also give you an advantage in the job market. It takes discipline and work to learn a new language, but if you’ve looked into classes or language learning CDs and books and gotten the impression it would cost hundreds of dollars just to get conversational, there’s good news. The ...Read More

Posted in Personal Development, Technology No Comments »

Microsoft Office is a wonderful suite of programs, but it’s not cheap. And some people I’ve talked to just can’t get used to the 2007 version and don’t want to. If you’re looking for free alternatives, you’re in luck – there are several options out there, and they will replace all but a couple of Outlook features.

Open Office is ...Read More

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There’s nothing more personal than a handwritten letter, but few of us can find the time to write these days – especially if you can type quickly. So what’s the second most personal touch you could put on your correspondence? A font in your own handwriting.

It’s also perfect for digital scrapbooking – your own handwriting on the digital scrapbook pages.

These ...Read More

Posted in Fun, Technology 3 Comments »

In these frugal times, many of us are cutting back on shopping and entertainment costs, but we still need to have fun. If you like PC games or installing cool new software apps to play around with,  there’s a way to do it: a new program, every day, free, plus a nice selection of free games. These are not little ...Read More

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After a while, PCs slow down. The more software you load, the more files you store, etc. Even with blazing fast hardware, things can happen that slow down your computer’s performance. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do about this. Some of these little fixes are really simple, even for those of you who aren’t too confident with computers. Others ...Read More

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With all the PC viruses and trojans that were going around in April, I started trying out a few free programs to keep my PC safe from infection. I had heard from some people who got infections on work computers running Symantec and lots of firewalls and all that other juicy protection most home users can’t afford. I discussed this ...Read More

Posted in Featured Articles, Technology 3 Comments »

We don’t often review products around here because there’s a bit of a stigma attached to it: some bloggers do paid reviews, and that makes readers feel like they can’t trust them. Therefore, it’s our strict rule only to review products that have really blown us away – products we’d happily recommend to friends who know where we live. My ...Read More

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I recently started tracking the things I do and how long it takes me to do them. I felt like I was breaking my back to get things done and didn’t have nearly as much to show for it as I should. I knew there had to be a way to work smarter. One of my discoveries completely surprised me: ...Read More

Posted in Organization, Technology No Comments »

In the New York Times, David Pogue writes:

“(I’ll never forget watching a book editor at a publishing house painstakingly drag across a word in a word processor to select it. After 10 minutes of this, I couldn’t stand it. ‘Why don’t you just double-click the word?’ She had no clue you could do that!)”

I’ve known programmers who don’t know the ...Read More

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