Primo PDF – a hassle free PDF converter I personally use Primo PDF to publish my journals which I compose in Microsoft word and convert them to PDF before I email them. It’s a definitely one of the most hassle free PDF converters available online. It is available for free on Primo PDF. Once the software is installed you can covert about any file that can be printed on your PC to a PDF file!

There are several options on the software that allows you protect the PDF document via passwords. Once I send my journal, I don’t have to worry about anyone making changes to it, unless I give them my password. I would highly recommend this software to anyone who needs a hassle free PDF converter!

Express email is stored in a set of dbx files in a subdirectory of Documents and Settings. You can find the exact location where they are stored by opening Outlook Express and clicking Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder. Within the folder given above, you’ll find a number of dbx files like Folders.dbx, Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx, etc. Back them all up to create a copy of every email currently stored in Outlook Express.

To restore the email, copy the backup files to a directory on the target machine and make sure they don’t have the Read Only attribute set. Open Outlook Express on the target machine. Click File, Import, Messages, Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and follow the prompts to import your messages from the backup directory.

What is new in the DVD Cloning World? Today it is DVD-Cloner III, which is the new generation of cloners with completely new designed encoding and burning engines, supporting episodic DVDs with customized favorite titles, chapters, subtitles, and audio copies. One is able to preview their favorite chapter and with its new interface, it makes it much easier to use, while supporting more DVD burners.

DVD Cloner III with a powerful CSS decryptor copies almost any DVD and receives my gold. This product offers everything from exact 1:1 DVD copies to automatic compression to episode selection. DVD Cloner III also offers a high level of flexibility and customization, including multiple languages and format options, and is compatible with most burners and DVD players.

SnagIt by TechSmith Say goodbye to the old fashion print screen and say hello to SnagIt. As a software test I often have to describe an error message to a developer this usually meant I had to manually type the error message. I also often have to asks questions about something I see on a website that I am testing. Let me just say a picture is worth 1000 words. Lengthy email conversations which usually ended in a visit to the developers desk are virtually nonexistent. SnagIt makes capturing anything on your screen very easy.

You can also say goodbye to capturing the entire screen. When you start the capture you control what you capture on the screen. SnagIt is a must have for all users. Let me tell you ways that I use SnagIt. I use Google Maps a lot for directions. When I have the map on my screen I simply select the Hot keys Ctrl+Shift+A (which is customizable) up comes the capture hand icon, I select the map, then the Capture preview window appears. This is where I add text, arrows, and bubble comments to the picture. Select Ctrl+enter and the capture is sent to your desired output. I typically select a .jpg file format to clipboard. Then I can either paste the pic in a email or a word doc. I also use the SnagIt to edit pictures. They offer a variety of editing tools and is very simple to learn how to use them.

My description of the product is not doing it justice. I highly recommend you download a 30 trial. They give you full access to everything! I use it mostly for work as a communication tool, but it has plenty of possibilities. I will be using it to help edit a picture for my brother-in-laws wedding invitations.

Are laptops really more expensive than desktops? Of course they are, you say. But the answer depends entirely on how you use your PC. If you are like many who leave their PCs on all day in order to run file sharing programs and distributed computing applications, the answer may be a resounding “no.” Why? Because you have to factor in how much electricity you pay for to keep your machine whirring along. Though they have improved over the years, desktop PC producers have to shave as many pennies off the price of their product to stay competitive, and they have to use leading edge performance parts which simply are not engineered for low power use.

Laptop producers have quite the opposite approach, because one of the main things a laptop buyer looks at is battery life. Let’s say we matched two modern systems from the same vendor. A Dell Inspiron E1505 runs about $700, while a more or less equivalent desktop, the B110 comes in at just under $300. That’s a $400 dollar price difference. Let’s suppose you ran that system for 3 years, or 26,280 hours. Every watt of extra average power that the system draws would cost you, over that time period, about $3 to $6. So what’s the difference in wattage? Well, even at full power, the Dell laptop will not consume more than 65 watts of power. The desktop, on the other hand, will easily use 150 watts on average. Again, this is for people who run things like SETI or otherwise keep their boxes busy day-round, but even in cases where machines are allowed to idle, the power management on laptops is usually much more thorough than in a cheap desktop. So in the end, the price difference really isn’t that extreme, and certain users may actually save money in the long run by getting a laptop — you’re just paying up front for electricity savings.

Opensource PVR/Media Center MediaPortal is a great piece of opensource (yes, free) software that allows you to almost completely run your entire home entertainment system from that old computer collecting dust in your closet. You can record and pause live TV, schedule future recordings (it actually provides you with a great number of options to record once, record weekly, etc), and organize all of your media.

You can easily go from watching live TV to listening to your favorite MP3s with one remote. The flexibility and price of this software do, however, seem to come with a price. After installing, we found it entirely too difficult to get a working program guide for the software to use. Luckily, the development community surrounding this software seems to have a built up a decent wiki with a number guides to help new users get started. The real question that remains in my mind, though: is it worth it? The upcoming release of the new Tivo comes with a price tag of nearly $400! If you don’t want top of the line, though, you can pick up a current model for around $100 bucks – definitely reasonable for what is quickly becoming an entertainment room necessity. MediaPortal