cCleaner - and Freeware

I've been using cCleaner for a long time now and would recommend it to keep your harddrive clean of the crap you accumulate when you surf the web. It's Freeware and you can get it from filehippo.com.

cCleaner is an excellent utility which gives you back space on your harddrive. On one machine I almost got back 500mg when I ran this utility the first time.

Filehippo is an excellent freeware site for getting free Antivirus such as AVG and other goodies.

If your machine has been hijacked by some nefarious spyware you should first get Hijackthis. this utility gives you a listing of your registry and then you can get help with some sites which help yo udetermine who the bad boys are .

This utility will give back to you disk space taken up by cookies, temporary files, and other junk that accumulates on your machine over time.

TTFN

Smart Consumer Tips - Complaints and support

Today, I was reading Smart Money and I saw this article for the Smart Consumer to get help to report unfair business practices or if you have been treated unfairly by a business.

The sites listed below are Free to use and a few offer paid subscriptions. Hope you find it useful

Did you ever call a company and get stuck in an endless cycle of voice prompts? Well that happens to me all the time. I found the site gethuman.com which lists more than 500+ (and growing) tips on how to get to a real human!

BTW: One of the easiest ways is to press "0" when you get to any prompt.

What if you wanted someone to climb the the phone tree and then CALL you back! then you should try:
NoPhoneTrees.com.

• You select the company you want
• Key in your phone Number
• The service calls you back!

So what if you are consumer with a gripe and you need help? Here are some sites for you to consider

• Better Business Bureau - Good for consumers, business. Find out about a company and of course complain!
• Complaints - Free site to post and research complaints
  
• Planet Feedback - Much larger site, includes sample complaint letters and community!
• If you don't mind paying: Try out letterchamp.com for paid consumer advocacy
• If all fails you can also go to your state's Attorney General. I loved the context sensitive US map which gives you direct link to the AG for your state.
  

Productivity Blogs and freeware

Came across this blog when I was reading Windows Secrets

This C-Net Workers Edge productivity blog talks about all those Windows stuff that you need to use. I just found out about a whole bunch of XP Keyboard shortcuts that I didn't know existed. Of course you can subscribe to it with your Yahoo home page.

I read too many computer magazines and I'm a sucker for freebies. Here are some really good Freebies that were recently published by various computer magazines.

• Computer Shopper May 2008 - 25 Downloads you Need Now
• PC World - May 2008 - 101 Fantastic Freebies
• PC Magazine - April 2008 - Best Free Software
• Tech Support - April 2008 - 46 Best Ever Freeware Utilities

I personally recommend C-Net for all your tech fixes.

Take a look at Gizmo Richard's top picks of the best utilities and Tech Resources. Good site for Vista Tips

TTFN - I hope you know what that means. If you don't here's the answer

College Humor

If you really want to waste your time when you are surfing, you can go over to College Humor and check out the hours you can waste here. Of course a majority of the stuff here is adult oriented.

Facebook Addiction

These days I find myself addicted to facebook. As is the case for me after everyone in the world has used something, I'll get into it. I find myself signing on more than once a day just to see if anyone has sent me a message or if anyone new that I might know is signed on. I think I'm on the initial onset of Facebook addiction.

Newspapers and Articles

Are you a newpaper and/or reference article junkie? Well the sites below will quench your thirst for this type of fix for sure.

1. Web site Kidon Media-Link (www.kidon.com/media-link) features links to the home pages of 19,000 newspapers, magazines and other news sources worldwide... Web site MagPortal.com (www.magportal.com) also lets users search for articles from a wide range of publications that are available for free on-line.
2. Google News (http://news.google.com) is a great place to search for articles published in the past month. Google News has an “archive” search feature for older articles, but older articles usually aren’t available free.

If all else fails, you can always go to your local library to the reference desk.

Finding People on the Web

Have you wanted to find someone on the web, but only know their name and city? Well I came across these sites that let you do just that. I often Google myself and see where I appear on the web. Proves one thing that there is never such as thing as being private once you are on the internet.

Here are some tips for searching for people:

People. Enclose both first and last names in quotes and search it as a phrase, rather than search the names as separate key words.

Example: Search “Firstname Lastname” rather than Firstname and Lastname.

In subsequent searches, try common nicknames instead of this person’s formal first name. If you know this person’s middle name, search yet again with this inserted between the first and last name... then change the middle name to a middle initial and search one more time. If you do not know the middle name or initial, use Google and insert an asterisk between the first and last name as in “First * Last.”

If the name is common, add this person’s state of residence, job title or spouse’s name (but not in the quotation marks) to your search to better focus the list of results.

Example: Searching “Bob Smith” yields an unmanageable one million-plus results on Google... but searching “Bob Smith” together with the word “Arkansas

1. Pandia - People and email search. Includes links to various sites which can be utilized for people search and tools. Found this site to be the best one source shop for searching for people because of the links to the other search sites.
   
2. Zoominfo - track people down for free through their professional history, because it identifies job titles and current and former employers.
3. Reunion - It's free but most of the details you want are premium. Even with this site you can get one year free subscription if you act on an offer from their site.
   
4. Pipl - provides basic facts and contact information, plus links to search companies such as USSearch and Intellius, that will scan public records to locate the person you are after. These sites typically charge $10 to $50 to access an individual’s complete records, but they often provide basic information, such as hometown and spouse’s name, for free.
   
5. Return to Google and search the name again in combination with these new details, as described above... or to search the spouse’s name.

28 Best Money Websites - Jan 2008

I read Money magazine almost religiously every month and I came across this article that was great.

The 28 Best Money Sites. Take a look. I found this article to be a great compliment to my free website with similar content for Best of the Web. Below are some direct links to sites of interest
Categories include:

• Investing

• Shopping - Are you a smart shopper?? It always pays to comparison shop, especially when you can get rebates and coupons to save more money!
  

• You know those mailers you get at home from Valpak? You can customize them for your zip-code. Use discount codes when you shop.
  

• My favorite site that I've used for a years now provide both on-line and off-line shopping

• Personal Finance

• Professional and Personal Networking
  

• Searching on the Web
  

Blog Overview

So I've been adding entries to this blog for about 3 months now and the content has varied.

I started out with some personal thoughts and then I went to write about sites that I've visited or read about. I think I prefer the second (my favorite sites). Where do I find these links? I find them in various magazines and news papers that I read as I get the time.

• Money - Must read on a monthly basis
• Smart Money - I just started reading this in 2008
• Computer Shopper - I've had this subscription, but is quickly outliving it's usefulness
• PC World - Can't be a geek without this publication
• Newsweek - I found this to be very insightful on a global basis
• Time - Used to read this, but stopped. Check out their Blog index
• New York Times - I'm still a few weeks behind in my Sunday times!
• Bottom Line Publications
• Asbury Park Press - My local paper in NJ

I'm sure you are thinking that I probably have way too much time on my hands. I really don't.

I welcome feedback from anyone if with your opinion on the content of this blog. I'm trying to make regular updates, but we'll see how that goes

I already have my Family Links site which is a megasite for links, but this blog allows me to create ad hoc links that I like and come across in my readings.

Over the past week, I've now made this Blog subscribable for all of you who have Yahoo, iGoogle.

Well enough for now TTFN.

Discounted Newspaper Home Delivery

From this site order discounted Newspapers delivered to your home. Now I just have to find time to read all the newspapers!

Key in your zip code to find out which discounted subscriptions.

I subscribe to the Asbury Park Press and love to read USA Today