I’m just a little bit fed up with Microsoft and Vista. I can’t believe that Gates is going to stop selling XP on new computers when Vista is such a mess.

Oh, sure, it’s nothing like the fiasco that was Windows ME. That was a totally different ball game. Vista just frustrates me. Not to mention some PC makers actually sell Vista on computers with only 1GB RAM - or less. And people buy these computers!

I love helping friends and family with their PCs but Vista is going to be the death of me. I’m checking on life insurance quotes just in case I happen upon another Vista upgrade on a machine with 512 RAM. Installing Vista on such a computer ought to be a felony.

I never cared much for screensavers. I know some people download all sorts of screensavers and love switching them every few days. I’d rather just turn off the monitor. I’m boring like that.

My granddaughter Kendyll, though, loves any screensaver. She’ll watch the underwater fish for a few minutes or mazes and picture collages for much longer. One of her newest favorites is one with bouncing golf balls. It came installed on the computer, a second hand machine that I picked up at a yard sale. For some reason I found myself staring at the darn thing, too! So I searched online and found something similar that I’m going to install on one of my machines to test out.

If anyone knows of any other bouncing ball screensavers, give me a yell.

I’ve been using computers for a very long time and I’ve discovered some interesting software along the way. When I first upgraded from a 386 to my first Pentium running Windows 95, I thought I was in digital Heaven! With a whopping 2G hard drive, I had room to store every graphic and file I could find. And I did just that.

When you add internet access to the mix, and my obsession with new software, tutorials, and instruction documents, it’s no wonder my 2G hard drive filled up so quickly. I’m a digital packrat and I certainly packed that hard drive full. Being the tweaker that I am, I set about searching for ways to free up space using various utilities and disk cleaners. One thing I discovered in my searching was that I had many duplicate files. I also had files in various folders with the same name. Problem was, I didn’t know if it was just the name that was the same or the file as well. When you have hundreds of graphics, going through them one by one can be daunting.

Way back then, I had some software that would do a basic file compare, although I never did figure out exactly how it worked. Oh, I could do some basic comparison, but the software was really not that stable and my computer would usually crash before I was able to do what I really needed. Since that time, I’ve searched for software that would compare folders and files, not just for cleanup but also because I now have multiple computers and sometimes I need the same data on each machine.

I’ve finally found a file compare utility that works flawlessly. Compare Suite is a quick download and installed on both my Windows XP machine and my Windows 98SE machine. Just out of curiosity, since the site doesn’t list Windows Vista in the system requirements, I installed it on my Vista machine and was thrilled to find that it works on that platform as well.

I decided to do some comparisons so first up was a folder comparison. My Windows 98 machine is the most cluttered of my computers so I chose a couple folders and watched as Compare Suite showed me just how many duplicates I have! No wonder I’m running out of space! I also noticed that my Windows XP laptop is getting full and I suspect it’s because I have two Wordpress installs on it, for when I’m testing themes and plugins. I compared the two themes folders and found that I’m duplicated a number of those. What a waste of hard drive space!

I noticed a number of text files with the same or similar names also, so I did a text file compare to determine if they were the same or if I’m just not very creative when naming my files. Uh, a little of both since some were identical files, saved in two different locations, and some were different files with the same name. I can’t imagine how I would have discovered those files if I hadn’t been using Compare Suite to make the task easier!

Finally, I decided to compare some files on two of my jump drives with the files on both my Windows 98 and Windows XP machines. These are my soap and toiletries formula files and website files. I need to keep these synced so I was anxious to test Compare Suite in that capacity. Sure enough, I was able to easily sync the two computers to each other as well as to the jump drive. Perfect!

It sure would have been great if I could have found a software solution like this over a decade ago when I first bought my Windows 95 machine. I really needed it then. But I need it now, too, and I’m glad I found Compare Suite. This one is a keeper!

If you give it a try, please drop me a line and let me know how you like it. You get a 30 day evaluation period, so there’s nothing to lose. And you might find out that you really can’t live without it, just like I’m discovering. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.

All you have to do is look at my websites and blogs to realize that I don’t have any graphic design talent. Whether we’re talking about pencil and paper or digital, I’m severely lacking in that creative aspect. I’m not complaining or feeling sorry for myself; I’ve learned to accept that and focus on my strengths. It’s just that when I find a piece of software that turns something that appears so very difficult into something really easy, I get really excited. Like now. And since I’m going to tell you about this software, you should keep in mind my low aptitude for these things.

It took me less than three minutes to download and install Morpheus Photo-Morpher on my Windows Vista machine. The software opened, I selected “New Morph Layout” and I was presented with a screen asking for two photos to be morphed together. That was pretty easy to understand but that was also the hard part. What two pictures should I morph together? I skimmed through my pictures folder and saw my son, Boomer, with a mohawk. That’s it! I’d morph Boomer!

After I added his long, curly hair before picture and his mohawk after picture, I clicked continued reading the step by step instructions. I selected the “add dots” tool to add a dots or points to the original picture. The software automatically placed a corresponding dot on the second the picture. If the corresponding dot was not positioned properly, I just clicked on the “move dot” tool and placed it where I wanted. I kept adding dots until I thought I had all of the vital points marked. And then I clicked Preview.

Oh, WOW! Seriously, I never thought I could actually morph two photos like that. I keep looking at it and I’m still amazed. I really did this. All told, including the time it took me to look through the help file to learn how to render my newly created morphed image to a file, I completed this in under 20 minutes. Not bad for someone who is afraid of graphics software!

So, what do you think? (Click the play button.)

Not bad, huh? I had so much fun playing with this that I want to morph all kinds of pictures now. I was thinking, everyone says how my kids all look so different and yet they look alike. What if I morphed my kids with each other? Or how about if I morphed each of their baby pictures into their “now” pictures. wouldn’t that be cool? Can you think of fun and creative ways to use Morpheus? Why don’t you give it a try then come back here and let me know what you did with it? I’d love to hear if you liked it as much as I do!

This post sponsored by Zoombli.

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I’ve been on the lookout for free or low cost software to replace some of the big name bloated programs that I’ve used in the past. I’ll probably stick with my graphics software but I’m very interested in finding more streamlined budgeting software.

Most that I’ve used has entirely too many features for me. In the past, I just ignored what I didn’t need but why bog down my computer with unesscessary stuff?

I’d like to be able to enter all my monthly expenses, enter total for recurring payments, and have a way to check off anything that’s paid. I also need to be able to add income at non-regular times since our paydays are not on a regular schedule.

That’s it. That’s all I want. I just need to keep track of what comes in and what goes out. Is there software that does only that?

If you’ve been reading here a while, or if you’re reading here via RSS, you may not be paying much attention to my sidebar. That would be too bad. There are goodies in my toolbar!

If you look over to the far right and down a bit, you’ll see the GiveAway of the Day widget. Every day there is a new piece of software being given away. That’s right, it’s free. Sometimes the software is worth $10 or so and other times, like just this past week, it’s worth more than $100.

Of course, there’s a catch. The catch is that the software is available for only 24 hours. You have to download and install in during that 24 hour period. But it’s worth checking it out each day. This is like the world series of Online GiveAways. Seriously, these are great programs and all you have to do is get them before the 24 hours expires. How great is that?

So come on over and check out the newest title in my sidebar. You just never know what you’ll find.

That’s the motto at OldVersion.com and it’s right on the money. There’s a lot to be said for a good, solid piece of software that does the job properly. Sure, sometimes we want more features and sometimes a few bells and whistles make our work more fun. But more often than not, I’d rather be able to do the job without navigating through 17 extra menus and a cumbersome help file. And way too often, a new version means more bloat, more bugs and more frustration.

So, what will you find at OldVersion.com? And do you really need an old version of software? Well, recently, I did need an old version of software. I know that a lot of people upload files using something like FileZilla, which is fine. I’ve used it and it’s okay. But I really prefer WS_FTP from Ipswitch. The LE version is no longer available; it’s been replaced by WS_FTP Home. So when I got my new computer, I headed over to OldVersion.com and downloaded the 5.08 version. It does just what I want it to do and it runs fine on my Windows Vista machine.

I also have some older computers that I still use. Sometimes, new versions of software don’t run as well on older computers. After mistakenly allowing RealPlayer to update itself on an older Windows98 computer, I headed over to OldVersion.com to grab a previous, non-bloated version of RealPlayer. No more sluggishness and memory leaks!

Whether you need an older version for an older computer, a piece of software no longer being developed or you simply like an older version better than the current one, OldVersion.com probably has it for you. Give them a look!

Time is money. In my attempts to save time - and money - I sometimes end up costing myself both. Specifically, I don’t pay attention, I work too fast and I end up deleting files that I really wanted to keep. Sometimes I can grab them from the recycle bin but other times, they’re just gone forever. I then spend the next hour or so trying to do the impossible as I search frantically in every nook and cranny of my hard drive or banging my head on the desk and calling myself not very nice names. I can’t tell you how many files I’ve lost over the years.

I can tell you it’s fewer than it was a week ago.

For the past week, I’ve been playing with a piece of software that has made me smile every time I used it. From the test files that I created and purposely deleted to a number of photos that I accidently trashed, and text files I deleted by mistake, I’ve been able to recover files that I thought were gone forever.

HandyRecovery claims to work on all versions of Windows. I figured that XP was probably a given; it’s the newest, well-tested version of Windows. My concern was whether I’d be able to recover files from my old Windows 98SE machine and my new Vista machine. Sometimes the newest OS is as problematic as the backward compatibility issue with the older OSes. And so the testing began. I created and deleted both text and jpg files on my computers then proceeded to install the software.

First thing, after installing HandyRecovery (which, btw, went flawlessly on both computers), you are instructed to analyze your hard drive. This was my first glitch, not because of the software but because my 98SE machine has a very full C: drive and not enough memory (which is why it was replaced). I managed to analyze most of the drive but the computer just couldn’t keep going to the end. I know the limitations of this machine so I decided to analyze this computer’s second hard drive instead. I knew it wasn’t as full, although it’s larger. I stopped to create, save to D: drive and delete a few text and jpg files then analyzed. Sure enough it made it through without a hitch.

I want to repeat that the issue I had with the C: drive had nothing to do with the software. To be sure it wasn’t an issue with backward compatibility, I later installed the software on a Windows 95 machine and it did run on there. I don’t use that machine much, but I’m a techno-packrat and can’t throw away computers. Besides, old computers come in handy for testing stuff. I later ran HandyRecovery on my 98SE machine overnight and it did, in fact, complete. As I guessed, the slower processor, limited memory and full to capacity hard drive was the issue.

After analyzing the hard drives on my 98SE machine, I was able to locate the test files and restore them. Using the Filters button on the tool bar, I entered *.jpg or *.txt and checked “Show deleted files only.” I clicked the “Advanced” button and chose my dates. Waited a moment and bingo! There were my files!

HandyRecovery flew through its steps on my Vista machine in less than a minute. I found my deleted files and restored them as easily I had on my 98SE machine. This all seemed too easy so I thought I’d try to locate a file that I’d deleted previously, about a week ago. I had intended to delete it so it was okay if I couldn’t find it.

This is where my enthusiasm for this software wanes just a little. Since I didn’t know the exact date that I’d deleted the file, I ended up with quite a long list of files from which to choose. I right clicked on a file and selected “View.” To my dismay, the view was hexadecimal. That didn’t give me a fast and easy way to determine if the file was the one I wanted. I did read the help file and used the “find” option to locate the text I knew was in the file. It took me 6 tries to find the file I wanted. Not really so bad. The problem is that if I had been looking for an image file, I have no idea how I’d find it using the hexadecimal viewer.

Admittedly, I am more of a hardware person than software person, although I often tinker with both. I imagine there are those who can utilize the hexadecimal viewer and see no need for anything more. I’d like a more visual way to determine which is the file I want. Considering the super easy-to-use interface and very reasonable price of this software at $39 for four computers, this is something that any computer user would be advised to keep loaded and ready to use. Given that, a more user-friendly viewer option would make this perfect for everyone from the novice to the experienced windows guru.

I’m really impressed that HandyRecovery worked as well with my FAT32 system as it did on my NTFS Vista machine. The “probability of recovery” column is an added bonus and was right on the money, too. I didn’t try to find files on deleted partitions but if it works as well as the rest of the program, I’d say HandyRecovery is worth a lot more than the current price.

All in all, this turned out to be a keeper. It’s one of those things you hope you never need but it sure is good to have when you do need it. You can try the 30-day limited version before you buy which allows you to recover one file per day. You’ll also get limited tech support until you purchase the full version. I’ll bet you’ll be hooked on it just as I am, though. Go ahead, give it a try.

I have no problem paying for things I want but I sure do love to get freebies. I never knew how many freebies were out there until I got online. The first freebies I discovered were the great free computer programs, aka freeware, at various sites. Some of my favorite software is free.

I’ve been visiting a site every day, anxious to download the latest daily giveaway. Giveaway Of The Day doesn’t offer freeware. Rather, each day the site offers one piece of software, normally costing $20 or more, for free. You have to download and install it during the 24 hour offer window but that’s the only requirement. Not bad, eh?

So far, I’ve downloaded file converters, screensavers, video and graphics programs, hard drive utilities and so much more. These are full feature programs that work forever - no time limit on the software.

What are you waiting for? Get on over to Giveaway Of The Day to check out the latest offering. And for an easy way to see the latest Freebie, stop by here every day to check the Giveaway of the Day widget in my sidebar, all the way over to the right and down a bit.