The DealsGuy for
December 2005
by Bob (The
Cheapskate) Click
Greater
Orlando Computer Users Group
 Bob
Evans, Editorial Director for Information Week magazine, wrote about one of the
most asinine cases of the law dealing with criminals that you could imagine. I
already knew about the arrest, but was unaware of the other circumstances. He
wrote about an accused spammer who agreed to settle charges brought against him
by the Federal Trade Commission for $485,000, a small fraction of the $5.9
million he is alleged to have bilked from trusting consumers. The FTC’s problem
with prosecution was the generous Florida bankruptcy laws that allow immense
asset (homestead) protection. Bankruptcy laws in Florida have long been an
attractive shelter for the wealthy to rid themselves of some debt while
preserving multimillion dollar homes as a personal asset, although I don’t know
what changes the new bankruptcy laws will invoke. Who says that crime (in this
case spam) doesn’t pay! The article is located
here.
I read about a cell phone that never rings.
That’s because it is actually a four-shot pistol in disguise. They say it is a
bit heavier than a cell phone though. I guess that means you should keep an eye
on strangers NOT talking on their cell phones. My observance is that most people
are talking on them most of the time. I hate that when they are next to us in a
restaurant and they are talking as if the other person can’t hear, or have it on
speakerphone turned up loud.
*New Web Pages
Some of you may know that user groups receive
announcements on a regular basis for new products. Since most user group
officers are already stretched to the limit performing tasks for their members,
these announcements don’t always get passed on so I have posted several pages of
them on special announcement pages. Some of them sound interesting and if they
offer us a discount, I try to use them in the column.
*Need A New Web Site?
WebBuild Express sounds like a great tool for
building your new Web site and Serre Murphy, president of Net Fulfillment
Technologies Inc. was a vendor at the spring FACUG conference. I asked him for a
deal for my readers. Below is information I have put together from their Web
site. He is sending me a review copy so I should have some actual experience
soon.
They say you don’t have to know how to
program or write HTML code to use WebBuild Express. Using it, you can easily
organize your site and create menus and links to the other pages, and to other
sites. Using the unique "Dashboard" feature, you can
include special functions like hit counters and search windows in your pages.
Other features enable you to create backup copies of your work and to export
data to other WebBuild Express users. WebBuild Express is designed to be
intuitive and easy to learn and if you've used a modern Word Processing program,
you'll be capable of using this Web design software to start building your own
sites immediately.
This product also has plenty of
undo/redo options just in case you have a problem making up your mind about the
design of your Web site. It has Paste Special capabilities, which can be
valuable in the design of your site. WebBuild Express organizes your pages by
"Application." An application is the collection of pages, images, and other
files for a Web site. You can build as many Applications using WebBuild Express
as you want and there is no limit on the number of sites you can have, or the
number of pages you can have on each site. A page in WebBuild Express
corresponds to each page you will have on the published site. Each page can have
a title, which will appear in the browser's tile bar, and other information that
is useful for getting the page listed by
search engines.
You can preview a page at any
time by clicking the Preview Page tool button (or selecting "Page Preview" from
the "File" menu). Page Preview will launch your browser and display the page you
are working on as it will appear when published. You can also view an entire
site by choosing "Site Preview" on the "File" menu. Site preview creates the
html code for all pages in your application and is useful for testing links
between your pages. You can use the "Send to Server (FTP)" choice on the File
menu to send the files you have published (see paragraph above) to a Web server
by supplying the Internet address of the server, your user name, and your
password.
Check their Web site [http://www.nfti.net]
for more information. They are offering us a 25% discount from the MSRP of
$29.95 (already a bargain), making the final price just $22.45 until January of
2006, saving you $7.50. To download it at [http://store.esellerate.net/nfti/store],
use the coupon code CPN8348901136, when it calls for it,
to receive your 25% discount. Ordering it on CD-ROM will add $10.00. All these
features and tech support too! On behalf of my readers, I thank Mr. Murphy for
this special offer.
*Announcement for SearchMyDisks 2.01.
I'm pleased to inform members of Users Groups
that 10-Strike Software releases SearchMyDiscs 2.01 (formerly 10-Strike
Disk-Pile). Please, find the press release for SearchMyDiscs 2.01 below for your
information. Please note, our summer discounts are still available and the cost
of registering the program is 20 US Dollars. Exclusively for Users Group people
we've arranged a RegNow 10% discount coupon: STRK-G4BI-GRP
Best regards,
Dmitriy Stepanov
10-Strike Software.
_____________
September, 2005; For Immediate Release
New disk cataloger and search engine helps PC
owners find necessary CD or DVD in seconds.
SearchMyDiscs (formerly marketed as 10-Strike
Disk-Pile) is a handy software application that helps folks with large CD and
DVD collection quickly find the disk that has a needed file, photograph, music
track or movie clip. This is how the program works:
First, a person inserts every CD or DVD that
needs to be indexed into the PC. The program will automatically scan the disk,
cataloging its contents. In addition to that, the program will store the file
structure of the disk, thumbnail images and EXIF tags for photographs, MP3 ID3
tags for MP3 tracks, file properties (avi, exe, dll, jpg, gif, bmp, png, tiff,
psd, tga, pcx, and other files). It's also possible and advisable to create
short descriptions for certain contents of the disk. Plus, the program offers an
option to create a file tree that contains files and folders stored on different
disks.
After the first step is completed, the
program is ready to be used. If the need arises to find that track or
photograph, a person simply enters the name of the file or other search
parameter, like the name of song, performer or album, and SearchMyDiscs will
show exactly what CD or DVD contains the desired data. No more trying to
discern scribbles on the back cover, inserting and ejecting disks or endless
browsing. Reports, for instance "My MP3 Collection," (text or HTML) can be built
on demand.
It's possible to organize CDs and DVDs into
special groups (i.e. images, music, data) and one disk may belong to multiple
groups. Second, SearchMyDiscs will store information on hundreds of disks
without hogging all that disk space or system resources. A few megabytes will
do. Finally, there is the "Borrowed Disk" feature that makes it possible to
distinguish between the disks that are loaned out and the ones currently on the
shelves. Plus, the program can search through zip, rar, arj, cab, sfx archives
to find a file.
SearchMyDiscs 2.01 is available at
http://www.10-strike.com/searchmydiscs/ for free download. The cost of
registering the program is 20 US Dollars.
System Requirements:
A standard PC with Windows
95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP
Download:
http://www.10-strike.com/searchmydiscs/searchmydiscs.zip
Buy:
http://www.10-strike.com/order.shtml
That's it for this month. Meet me here again
next month if your editor permits and check the new announcement pages on my Web
site.
This column
is written to make user group members aware of special offers or freebies I have
found or arranged, and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage, or
discourage, the purchase of any products, no matter how enthused I might sound.
Bob (The Cheapskate) Click [bobclick@mindspring.com].
Visit my Web site at [http://www.dealsguy.com]..
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