Symantec & McAfee Fined $750K

Finally, someone had the guts to bring Symantec (Norton) and McAfee to task about their shady auto-billing/hard to unsubscribe tactics.
New York's Attorney General fined both of them $325,000 each.

I just wish all the states in the country would do the same. Reminds me of AOL Hell when they wouldn't let you unsubscribe, and if they did, they kept charging you for their services anyway. Symantec and McAfee do too. If you can't seem to find where to unscubscribe from their services, it's the way it's meant to be. They don't want you to find out how to unsubscribe. I know with McAfee you have to call them, but make sure you have all your subscription key numbers handy, otherwise you're out of luck. They got ya. LOL

It should be just as easy to unsubscribe from their services as it is to subscribe.

Open Office

www.openoffice.org Absolutely free. Just like MS Office and compatible. Save files as .doc, xml, or native Open Office. Save big bucks.

Writer is the word processor.

Impress is a 'powerpoint' type slideshow presentation program. You can save as pps or the openoffice file extension. It comes with the Open Office download and install.

Calc is the spreadsheet program.

Draw allows you to make your flowcharts and diagram graphics.

Base is the database for all your addresses and contacts.

Version number is up to 3.1 now. It's not so buggy as it used to be. Works great on XP and Vista. You may want to keep your fonts you get from MS Office. I had to go search down a free something like TempusSans font from the web. And Papyrus, I like those fonts. I don't care about any others.

You'll also have to find a spellcheck for email, which is easier than you think. Just do a search on it.. you may find something you think is better than the one from MS WORD integrated.

You might expand your horizons..........

Readability- For reading Web articles

I found the greatest gadget, or rather, text tool for web sites that have long articles. If you're like me, I read tons of articles online, blogs, news, and interesting facts. As you know, or don't know, I just bought a new LCD monitor with optimal resolution of 1280x1024, which makes reading a little less enjoyable. I could increase the viewable font size, but sometimes the native browser view settings do not work.........

Ready for this? Readability An Arc90 Labs experiment to clean up the web page (ads ), change the font size to your specs, and makes the article more readable and enjoyable. No squinting. It's free. No sign up either.

All you do is bookmark the Readability page in your links bar. When you are on a page with an article you want to read, click on the Readability link and your settings will automatically change the article into your specific configuration, making it more readable. Magic!

I've been using it for two weeks now, and I hope Arc90 Labs continues to let me use it forever.......

Monitor Madness

I went on a mission to find just the right LCD monitor. Little did I know. I soon learned a lot!

First I hunted for a super widescreen a little bigger than the 19" CRT monitor I already had. I figured it was big enough, but a widescreen would give me the opportunity to see a couple of documents side by side. I could read one while typing another. That would be awesome.

So I spent a week reviewing widescreen LCD monitors. A little thought kept nagging me in the back of my brain. Would my old display card handle the wide resolutions? I researched another week. I learned my computer hardware was ancient.. only 7 years old. My, how time flies. I'd have to replace the display card, power supply, and maybe even the processor... good grief. I was beginning to think I wasn't going to be able to get a slick thin monitor at all.

I was off to find a LCD monitor that fit my display resolutions, if they made such a thing. It took me another week to decide which LCD vga 5:4 monitor to buy! yes, I found several that would work with my display card.

I finally decided on a Samsung 943N 5:4 LCD monitor. Setting it up was a breeze, but getting the text half way big enough for me to see it was another matter.. but not too bad. Before, I'd just lower the resolution... At these higher 'optimal' resolutions, you have to fool with the settings. If you can find them and if you know where to look. I increased the windows native font dpi, downloaded MS Clear Type, and fiddled with the font size in my browser. I can see clearly now! Except those web sites that don't care whether anyone can see the 8 point font or not without including the script to enlarge it. That's not funny!

Well, it helps if my glasses are clean too.