Trying to Look Through Windows 7

Well, we have Windows 7 up and running now. The good news is it runs fine. The bad news is the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor. This is a program you run first to find out which of your old programs and equipment will run with Windows 7. It lied to us.

The Advisor told us that two of our favorite programs: Greeting Card Factory and Microsoft Web Expression, probably wouldnt work without an upgrade. Thats technical talk for spending more money. It also said that we were going to have trouble with our webcam, (which was made by Microsoft) but the rest of our hardware was fine. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It didnt tell us that our coveted Okidata color laser printer wouldnt work. But in fact it didnt. Now this is more than an annoyance, because it means spending $400 extra to replace the printer, and not knowing yet how many more hundreds will have to be spent on other software and hardware. In other words, its going to cost a lot more than the price of Windows 7 just to get back to where we were before. Alternatively, we can all sit here twiddling our thumbs while we wait for Microsoft to correct the compatibility problems.

Did we mention that other than that, everything was fine?

Fast Pencil

Anyone can have their book self-published for the Amazon Kindle e-reader. But you might need help getting it in the right format. FastPencil.com offers free templates to handle this for your memoir, novel, childrens book, etc.

FastPencil will also publish a hard cover version of your book for $20, and distribute it to friends and family. For an extra fee theyll put you in touch with illustrators, designers, photographers and editors. For $100, theyll have it distributed to big book store chains, like Barnes and Noble, Borders and other major retailers. If your book sells, you keep 80 percent of the profit.

Amazon.com also offers a free self-publishing site at tinyurl.com/amazonpublish, showing you how to make your book available on the Amazon Kindle e-reader. You can also use Amazon Create Space to publish it as a hard cover book, CD, DVD, video download or Amazon MP3.

Time to Tungle

Tungle is a free application from tungle.com that makes it easier to set up meetings. It sends invitations to people in their own time zones, and books the meeting so that it works for everyone. No more worrying about: Did they mean Eastern time, Greenwich MeanTime, etc.

We tried it on an iPod Touch and it worked fine. It also works with the iPhone, and with computers running Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, iCal, Lotus Notes, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The people you invite do not have to be Tungle users.

SamFind

Samfind is a free application for the Firefox browser from database provider AskSam.com. We liked it.

Users get links on a toolbar at the top of the screen to make it easier to find your favorite news, social networks, blogs, banking, music, email and other websites. Click on video to see links to Hulu, YouTube, Bing Video and others. Click on music to get Pandora, Slacker, iTunes and Podcast Bunker. The news category has links to the BBC, Economist magazine, and other major sites.

Go to samfindbookmarksbar.com to get the Firefox add-in. If you dont use Firefox, you can just visit samfind.com to find the most popular websites in each category.

Compare My Docs

CompareMyDocs.com is a free web service lets you compare and merge up to six documents at once.

Six documents on the same screen makes us dizzy, so we just compared three. They opened up in narrow columns side by side on a single page, with the first column having a white background and the other two in different colors. Duplicate paragraphs are shown crossed out. If you want to eliminate the duplicates, you click on a check mark next to each. You can also click to include things in the first document that only appeared in the second or third. When you are finished with your merging, click save to make a new document incorporating all the changes. No changes are made to your originals.

The really nice thing is you dont even have to sign up for anything.

Free Lectures

You can get free college lectures at guidetoonlineschools.com/online-classes, or if thats too hard to remember, go to tinyurl.com/mp3class. The lectures are from a variety of schools, including the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Theres a huge range, including literature, economics, and science. You can download them and play them on your computer, iPod or other MP3 player.

Lost in the Taxi Latitudes

The shopping period right after Thanksgiving is prime time for leaving cell phones in taxi cabs. Over 30,000 mobile phones are left in New York taxis every six months but the build-up to Thanksgiving and holiday period are the worst times.

According to the regular taxi survey by Credant Technologies, New Yorkers forget on average of 5,000 mobile phones a month in taxis, and more than 500 other handheld devices, including iPods, laptops and memory sticks. And then of course there rain coats, umbrellas, purses, sandwiches, wallets, and on into the night.

Other items cabbies have found left behind are diamonds, a baby, a sawed-off shotgun, 12 dead pheasants, two dogs ,one cat, several toilet seats and funeral urns. Wait, were not through yet: There was also $5000 in cash, several sets of false teeth, artificial limbs, pork chops and a bra.M

This could be good material for a feature story. Ya think?