This and That Technology Tips Post-Thanksgiving Shopping - Google & iPod Stuff November 23rd, 2005 It's that time of the year when we think of our loved ones, enjoy a few days (or the whole week) away from work and then open our pocketbooks and wallets to show how much we care for our loved ones. Or do we have to spend to show our love? We provide both sides of the equation. Later in the newsletter we explore more wonders of Google. We travel the globe both through Google Earth, Google Satellite and through the non-profit Confluence Project. Question of the day: Will Google stock hit $1,000 a share by 12/31/2006 or sooner? Enjoy the holiday season - regardless of your shopping proclivities..... Holiday Cheers, Clyde A Shopping We Will Go - or Will We? Black Friday - coming soon - to a shopping mall (or online) near you! www.BlackFridayAds.com http://bfads.net/ http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/ http://w888.lunarpages.com/bf.htm http://www.bargainshare.com/index.php?showtopic=43186 Black Friday is known in America as the busiest shopping day of the year. In advance, the above helpful folks have gathered most of the ads which will appear in newspapers on Thursday and Friday (if you haven't seen them already). The good  news about many of these - as opposed to years gone by - is that you can buy a lot of the stuff online - instead of heading to the stores at 5 am! This just in: CompUSA came out with their sales flier - they're actually opening up at 11:59 pm on Thanksgiving Night - the earliest sale I've seen yet. Great for us late night shoppers! or Buy Nothing Day http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/ http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/ http://www.ecoplan.org/ibnd/ib_index.htm http://www.do-not-zzz.com/ (do nothing) http://www.hireanorganizer.com/ (get stuff out of your residence or office) Biggest shopping day of the year for shop-a-holics. If you want to rebel or make your voice known that this is an illness - not a fun event - make your voice known by not buying anything - take a hike - take a bike ride - play with your kids, grandkids, great grandkids, nieces, nephews, cousins - "do nothing" - or remove stuff! Cool Site of the Month - Woot http://www.woot.com/ Each day they have different deals. They have incredible prices. Some past deals include: all 10 Matrix DVDs - $29; Color LCD TV Wrist Watch - $79. The deals change around 10-11 pm PST. ***************************************** Give the Gift of Computer Support this Holiday Season We'll give you the gift of Computer Support in return While we're talking about gift giving for the holidays, how 'bout giving a gift of Software Training, Software Tech Support, Hardware Support - or even the infamous Wireless Networking? We at In The Moment Computing are here most days and most hours to help you when your computer breaks down, you lose your Internet connection, you can't print, or you just want a tip or two on working your digital camera or your iPod, your cell phone, or your iPod cell phone. Why not give the gift that keeps on giving - an In The Moment Computing gift certificate? We offer phone and email support worldwide. We can log on to your (or your friend's or your relative's) computer, with permission of course, and solve a problem without even entering the residence or business. We've been doing this for about 10 years. Why not trust the experts, instead of some Geek at a Big Box store? Gift Certificates start at $20. Bonus for you - every 1 hour of service you purchase gets you 1 hour of complimentary service. ***************************************** Email Program Updates Eudora/Thunderbird Email Programs Eudora 7.0.16 (Windows-only on new version, 6.2 for Mac) www.Eudora.com Tutorials: http://snipurl.com/k0po Thunderbird 1.0.7 (Windows, Mac, Linux - approximately 30 languages) http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ All 30 versions: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/all.html Two wonderful alternatives to Outlook/Outlook Express - both are free for the taking. I've used Eudora since 1994 and don't plan on switching any time soon. With this new version of Eudora, you get much faster search capabilities and better IMAP support. Note: once you install new version of Eudora, it will perform a one-time indexing of all email boxes/messages (which could take several hours) for faster searching. With Thunderbird, you get an Outlook Express-type email system - which is much faster then Outlook Express at receiving/sending mail and has great built-in spam protection. It has versions for Mac, Linux and Windows and is localized for Polish, Punjabi, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese (2 versions), Albanian, English and many more! Google Your World Google - the $423/share company - keeps on rolling As long as Google keeps churning out the products, I see no end in sight for this wonderful company. I've been trying out Yahoo and MSN searches lately, just to compare - no comparison. Can't get even close to the fast answers I can get on Google. Google Earth (Windows 2000 and XP Only, Mac version - in the works) http://earth.google.com/ A very cool desktop application where you can view the world from your desktop. Enter any address, anywhere in the world, and you can fly across the world and see a satellite image of the location. My favorite so far is the Colorado river leading up to the Grand Canyon. Send me your favorite location! There are 2 additional versions - Google Earth Plus ($20) and Google Earth Business ($400) which add many cool features for those whose livelihoods depend on mapping geographical areas (such as real estate agents, architects, insurance underwriters and more). You need a very fast computer with lots of RAM to run this application plus a high speed Internet connection. If you're unsure if you have a fast enough computer - download it and see what happens. In the "It's A Small World After All" Dept. Degree Confluence Project http://www.confluence.org/ This is a massive project which is attempting to map out the entire planet (excluding the ocean) 49 miles at a time. There are thousands of great photos here of local areas all over the world. I like this site for its human touch. There are still 11,950 locations to be found - do you live near one of them? More Google Fun Google Base http://base.google.com/ Google Local/Maps http://maps.google.com/ http://local.google.com/ Once again, Google has taken a very expensive program, Keyhole, and made it free. They have recently combined both their map/direction service (like www.Mapquest.com - my favorite directions program) and added on their satellite imagery + their Google Local service. You can now find any location in the US with street maps or satellite images or both. This is a scaled back version of Google Earth and not as graphically oriented. Additionally, you can find a local business for almost anything (pizza, car repair, buying a TV, babysitter for examples). Click on the "find businesses" link which shows you two boxes. Then try typing  in "vegetarian food" and "Tucker, Ga" and you'll see where my good friend Cyndi finds vegetarian food. The ultra-cool thing about Google Local is that once you find a business, in addition to the business listing - you can find the website and oftentimes reviews of the business selected. ***************************************** Holiday Card Preparation Ready or not, the holidays are upon us. It's now time to get the holiday card list together, order the holiday cards (using favorite photo, of course), and address all those cards. Why not have the good folks at In The Moment Computing help with the process? We can help you in every stage of the process - setting up a permanent database, so you don't have to remember who to send out cards to,  ordering professional looking customized cards with photos, mail merging the labels to put on the card, and ordering online postage for the envelopes. Give us a call early, as this is a popular promotion, since we give 25% off our normal rates for this service. One number does it all: 408.732.8500 ***************************************** iPod and Music Player Fun The iPod phenomenon keeps on rolling unabated. Between this newsletter and the last published newsletter, the iPod Nano http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/ (the super small iPod) and the new iPod - with combination video and photos http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html - have been released. The iPod mini has now been discontinued and all non-shuffle iPods are in color. For past newsletters on the portable music movement and alternatives (oftentimes cheaper) to the iPod, please review past newsletters: http://www.itmcomputing.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?Terms=mp3 Speakers Sharing is something all of our moms taught us was a good thing. So, rather than be in your isolated space all the time with the white ear buds glued to your ears, why not share the music by plopping your iPod into one of these sound systems. Altec Lansing -  iPod Portable Audio System http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecmac/shop/detail.asp?dpno=190268 Bose for iPod - $299 http://tinyurl.com/cfsmo IceTune - Stereo Speakers and Charger for the iPod https://eshop.macsales.com/item/MacAlly/ICETUNE/ JBL http://www.jbl.com/home/products/series.aspx?SerId=HMM Macally iPod Accessories - lots of different accessories http://www.macally.com/new/new_ipod_accessories.html Podwave iPod Speaker http://snipurl.com/k5dz Fun iPod sites This includes a little of everything related to iPods. EvilLyrics (Windows) http://www.evillabs.sk/evillyrics/ Sing that Tune (Mac) http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/music/singthatitune.html See the lyrics as your music player plays - supports almost every music player: iTunes, Winamp, Musicmatch, etc... Extreme iPod - News, Download Software, iPod Reviews, Hacks and Accessories http://www.extremeipod.com/ iPod Hacks http://www.ipodhacks.com/ iPod InfoZone http://www.macspeedzone.com/html/hubs/central/other/ipod.html iPoding http://www.ipoding.com/ PCMag - MP3 and digital music players http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,1738,2359,00.asp PDASmart is the iPod, iPaq and PDA Repair and Parts Headquarters! http://www.pdasmart.com/index.htm Tips for tweaking iTunes - Download.com http://www.download.com/1200-20-5140547.html?tag=nl.e415-1 Lots of fun ways to improve on the iPod experience. CopyPod backup iPod Music from iPod to computer, playlists (Windows) http://www.copypod.net/ iPod And iTunes - Free iPod and iTunes utilities and software downloads http://mac.sofotex.com/iPod_And_iTunes/index.html Downloads to enhance the iPod experience. Major Makers of iPod Accessories If you can imagine it, it's probably sold here. Macally iPod Accessories - lots of different accessories http://www.macally.com/new/new_ipod_accessories.html Griffin Technologies http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/ ************************ Hope you enjoyed the ride.... Clyde Lerner, In The Moment Computing Phone: 408.732.8500 E-mail comments/feedback to: http://www.itmcomputing.com/contact_computer.php This newsletter is a service of In The Moment Computing and is Copyright 2005 Clyde Lerner. All worldwide rights reserved. If forwarding, please forward all of e-mail, not any portion therein. To see past issues of This and That Computer Tips newsletter, please visit the web at: http://www.itmcomputing.com/newsletter.php and click on "Archives." Please note: Unless requested, questions pertaining to this newsletter will be answered in a 3-4 week time frame. If you need a faster response, there will be a small consultation fee of $15 per e-mail response. You will receive a reply within 48 hours. "Complete Computer Help (Networks, New Computer Installs, Software Training) for Individuals and Small Businesses" "Designing your Perfect Website, at an Affordable Cost, in a Timely Manner" Eliminate and Destroy unwanted email: http://spamarrest.com/affl?1337207 Send a greeting card through the Internet so recipient gets card in their postal mailbox: www.sendoutcards.com/7197 - let me walk you through how to send a card - it's easy. ©2005 In The Moment (ITM) Computing. All rights reserved.