So, someone gave you a new iPhone, IPod video, Creative Zen Vision, Archos PVR or other fancy device for the holiday and now you need to know how to copy your DVDs to it so you can take them with you?

Or maybe you didn’t get one of those, but you’d like to load a few movies onto your laptop for when you travel? I also encountered these issues so, after wasting almost two entire days searching for a simple guide and installing at least 10 different programs, I finally decided on two different methods to share. I hope this saves someone else countless hours wasted.
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Most people don’t know this, but Microsoft maintains a large library of additional templates and documents that open right up in the Office suite. There are templates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and just about every other Microsoft application.

Here is a rather complete categorical listing of the available Microsoft templates. Enjoy!
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Lately I’ve been very unhappy with my cable modem provider, formerly Comcast and now Time Warner. I constantly have intermittent problems and I’m certain that my service is not running as fast as it should.

Thanks to a little software application by PC Magazine, I’m now certain that my hunch is actually correct.
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There are several sites out there that are designed to help keep track of your travel rewards programs (Points.com, AwardWallet.com, etc.).

However, there is also some free software which might work better for folks who prefer to keep all of that personal information on their own laptop as opposed to some site out on the Internet which they have no control over.
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SpringDoo is a great little site that allows you to send a video e-mail to whomever you wish as long as you have a simple Webcam.

They have a fantastic, and quite amusing, little video that demonstrates how to use the service here. So really, you have no excuse to not try it out if you’ve got a Webcam.
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Have you noticed that Outlook’s native Spam protection is severely lacking? Well, there is a great little freeware application called SpamAware which will increase your Spam fighting abilities.

The software installs quickly and easily and works as advertised. It adds a number of new options and works with both Outlook and Outlook Express. The software is also written by a very nice guy, Joachim Marder, whom I remember helping beta test another program for many years ago called Treesize.
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Anyone that has ever clicked on a PDF document in a web page and then waited, in excruciating agony, for the unbelievably bloated Adobe Reader to open it knows exactly what I’m talking about. So, why not do something about it?
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Frisco Style magazine recently published an article that I authored, which has my top tips for digital photography.

The article is geared towards those who are getting started and need some good tips to point them in the right direction. Among those tips, I advise people to use Google’s free Picasa for image management and FastStone’s free Photo Resizer for adjusting image sizes and watermarking.

You can download Google’s Picasa separately by selecting the link above or you can download the Google Pack which includes it as well as several other Google apps that I highly recommend.

Ever wished you could get something off your computer while you were out of the office or away from home? Well stop dreaming because here are four free ways to make it happen!
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You see all those little links at the side of the page that say “Subscribe”? Well, those are made possible by a technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). They allow an automated program to quickly check a web site and present only what’s been updated since the last time you visited.
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It seems I’m constantly adjusting the volume on my computer, and its just not a pleasant thing to have to do. Finally someone has come up with a very simple and convenient way to do it with the mouse.
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Google offers a great little download which I highly recommend. It includes several of Google’s best freeware offerings and, most importantly, an automated service to keep them all up to date.

Select the following link to download the package:

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