Thanks, Betty

Dear Betty,

Congratulations on your new Kindle! I love mine.

It is actually fairly easy to find free books for your Kindle. The easiest way is to start looking at Amazon’s website.

First, go to the Amazon Homepage at: www.amazon.com

In the menu on the left, point to “Kindle”.

In the drop-down menu, click on “ebooks”.

On the right hand side of the page, find the section that lists the top 100 books. Click on the tab that says, “Top 100 Free”.

If you are looking for a certain type of book, click on a category on the left side of the page. For example, if you click on “History” the top 100 column on the right will show the top 100 history books.

I found a free book on Harriet Tubman that I think I want to read. Just click on the link below to go directly to the book.

Harriet Tubman – The Moses of Her People [Illustrated]

Elizabeth

Thanks, Ina

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Dear Ina,

There are several online archives where you can get royalty free photographs to use in your power point presentations, and other publications. Here are a few:

iStockphoto – Has some free images, and some you can purchase.
http://www.istockphoto.com/

Stock Xchange – The leading free stock photo site (according to their website).
http://www.sxc.hu/

DreamsTime – A searchable database of images
http://www.dreamstime.com

I would have tried to find more sites, but I got lost looking around at all the beautiful images on these sites. Have fun looking around at the images, and don’t start looking if you don’t have lots of time to explore.

Elizabeth

Did you ever need to figure out how many tablespoons are in 1/3 of a cup? How about the number of meters in a mile, or centimeters in a foot? Would a program that can make all those conversions come in handy? It does in my house. We use it for everything from cooking to homework!

Convert is an easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!

Convert runs on the following Windows operating systems:
Windows 95
Windows NT 4
Windows 98
Windows 98SE
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows 2003
Windows Vista (32-bit & 64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit)

You can download Convert at the author’s website at:

http://joshmadison.net/software/convert

Elizabeth

Your newsletter has been so helpful to me, thanks so much. Janette

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Dear Janette,

First, you are still subscribed to my newsletter, so it is being sent to your address every week. Check your junk mail settings to be sure it is not being deleted.

The two programs you are looking for are:

1. WordWeb: You can find it on my website at: http://wp.me/pwwRq-IC

2. FreeCalc: Which is on my website at: http://wp.me/pwwRq-uM

All of my articles from the past two years can be found on my website at www.askTCL.com just click on the “More Questions icon.

Elizabeth

Moffsoft FreeCalc is a great replacement for your existing Windows® calculator. They took the standard Windows calculator functionality and added the following features:

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Adjustable calculator size – Make it any size you want and Moffsoft FreeCalc will remember the size and position next time you use it.

Tape – Save, print, or clear the simulated paper history tape.

Color schemes – Select a color combination or use your Windows color settings.

New keys – Clear Tape {CT}, double zero {00}, triple zero {000}, and memory subtract {M-} keys have been added.

Visible memory value – You’ll always know what’s in memory because it’s displayed on the calculator status bar.

Option settings – Flat buttons, always on top, tray icon, run on startup, and hiding the tape are some of the calculator options.

Digit groupings – Number groupings for easy to read numbers.

International support – Digit grouping and decimal point characters change based on your regional settings.

Tray icon – Turn on the tray icon for quick and easy access.

To download MOffsoft FreeCalc, click here to visit the download page.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Don

Dear Don,

The free version of AVG software has always been available at www.free.avg.com and I do sometimes install it for my clients. In the past 6 months, however, there have been so many malicious programs on the internet that are not viruses, but will quickly disable a computer, that I can no longer tell my clients that they will be safe with just the free antivirus. I always advise that they visit my website at www.asktcl.com and click on the link for AVG and purchase the full internet security suite. It is what I am currently using to protect my computers.

In addition to the AVG security, I like to set my clients up with two additional free programs.

First is spybot search and destroy at www.safer-networking.org . Once installed, you can update the program, and then use the immunize function to protect your computer against known threats. As long as the client remembers to update and re-immunize every week or two, this provides a good additional layer of protection.

The second program is Spyware Blaster at www.javacoolsoftware.com Spyware Blaster also has update and protection functions. In this program, you check for updates, then click on the item that says, “Enable all protection”. Again, as long as the user checks for updates, then enables protection, this program will block malicious software from getting into the system.

Both of these free programs provide protection but do not need to be running in the background. This means that they don’t slow your computer down, they don’t conflict with your antivirus software, and they can both be installed on a computer at the same time.

I have used Ad-Aware in the past, and I have nothing against it, I just feel that the two programs I use are the best for my clients needs, and adding another program would probably be overkill.

The free version of anti malware that you mentioned is a good program, but it is better used after the fact to remove infections. I am pretty sure you have to purchase it in order to use it to prevent infections.

Elizabeth

Description from website: “WORDWEB FREE* VERSION WordWeb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words in almost any program. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia.”

I always like to have a good dictionary on hand, in fact, one of the things I love about my Amazon kindle is the ability to easily look up any word in whatever book I am reading.

The new version 6 of WordWeb gives me that ability on my computer as well. All you have to do is hold down the Ctrl Key on your keyboard, and right click on a word, and the definition pops right up on my computer screen. This is a great program, that I love to use.

Elizabeth

*WordWeb Free Version Licensing “WordWeb free version may be used indefinitely only by people who take at most two commercial flights (not more than one return flight) in any 12 month period. People who fly more than this need to purchase the Pro version if they wish to continue to use it after a 30-day trial period.”

It has been a little while since I have mentioned this little free program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury.

WorkRave monitors your computer activity (typing and moving the mouse). It then uses this information and reminds you to take breaks, and you can also set a daily limit for yourself. If you leave your computer for any length of time, Workrave will

Workrave alerts you to take a break in an undisturbing manner. When it is time for you to take a break, a small, friendly window appears asking you to take a break. The window automatically moves out of your way if you decide to keep on working, but it will keep reminding you until you take a break. You can even set the program to block your computer for the duration of the break.

On those days when I am glued to my computer doing research, writing emails, and even playing a few games on facebook, I really need to be reminded to take a break.

Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

I hope you can HELP ME!

 I have WinME. My Free AVG 7 stopped supporting WinME on April 30. And I can’t upgrade because of O.S. Is there a GOOD & Free online Antivirus program that will support this O.S.??

 We absolutely cannot afford to upgrade our computer. I am unemployed now and husband is looking at a possible job loss!

 Thank you for all you do. I have received your newsletters since getting this computer 8 yrs ago !

Alice

Dear Alice,

I can understand your dilemma, and I can understand the position of the software companies. Since the average life of a computer is 5 years, and after 10 years there are not many computers still running operating systems that old, software companies  do not find it cost effective to devote programming and testing to such a small percentage of the market.

Because the average person replaces their computer every 5 years, there are probably lots of people around you with an “old” computer that is actually newer than your computer that they don’t know what to do with. If you spend some time looking around, you can probably find a nice little computer that is running Windows XP. Look on places like www.craigslist.org  and www.freecycle.org 

I just did a quick search for free computers at craigslist and found several free computers in my area.

In the meantime, I was able to find you a solution that will work until the end of this year.  Avast Antivirus at www.avast.com still has a free version that will support Windows ME until the end of 2009.

There is also a free antivirus program called, ClamWin antivirus that works with Windows ME, at http://www.clamwin.com  but you must run scans with this program, it does not include a real-time scanner.

I hope this helps.

Elizabeth

Works in Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

MemTest is a RAM reliability tester that runs under Windows. It evaluates the ability of your computer’s memory to store and retrieve data accurately.  A correctly functioning computer should be able to do both these tasks with 100% accuracy day in and day out. A computer that fails these tests, perhaps because of old hardware, damaged hardware, or poorly configured hardware, will be less stable and crash more often. Even worse, it will become even less stable over time as corrupted data is written to your hard disk.

By running MemTest you can ensure that your computer’s RAM is correctly functioning. It is wise to test this when you buy a new computer, install new RAM, or change the configuration of your machine (for instance, to overclock it).  Are you the sort of user who likes to push the performance of your machine to the edge? Relying upon whether your machine will boot after your new BIOS tweaks is a poor way to determine the safety of your new settings. Use MemTest as a true test of stability.

Elizabeth