Free Faxing (sort of free)

FaxZero offers a free fax service but there are a few catches.  I’ve reviewed several in the past and understand why they do what they do (hey, nothing is totally free to anyone).

Anyway, the deal is if you want to send a fax from your computer, like say a PDF or Word Document you’ve got three issues to deal with. 1) Ad on Cover Page, 2) 1 Document – max 3 Pages and 3) a Maximum of 2 free faxes per day.

I wail say though that considering everything and as much as we really don’t fax that much anymore – this is a good deal.

Here’s the Link and happy faxing (if you’re still into that).

FaxZero.Com

Alternative To (pick your software)

This is one of the coolest sites I’ve found in awhile.  Basically you pick a software program you use and this site will find free or almost free alternatives. 

From the Site:

Tired of crappy software?

AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations

Here’s the Link for Desktop Software  --- And here’s the link to Mobile Software.  If you’re looking for something unique or just want an alternative, this is the place to visit!.

Free Internet Service Providers from All-Free ISP

I’ve always been leery of such services because you end up with a bunch of “Crap-Ware” or an abundance of “Pop-Up” ads that you (at least me) can really give a crap about.  However, if you’re traveling and just need a connection for a few days, this site provides a pretty good listing with reviews. They claim to have about 44,000 available options, so it’s probably worth a look.  I know I use it when I travel and don’t need much more than the basics.

From the Site:

All Free ISP is the fastest way to find a cheap or free internet access service provider in your local area. With this comprehensive database of free isp local dialup access numbers, you can quickly find all free internet service providers in your local calling area throughout the USA and Canada. We also provide detailed information and ratings for each free isp to help you compare the free ISPs and select your new free internet access provider. Plus, All Free ISP now includes a selection of full-service, discount ISPs!

Finally, finding a discount / free ISP is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

14 Portable Web Browsers for Windows

Compliments to “The Download Squad”.  I read a ton of blogs and RSS feeds every day, and this one is going on my Thumb Drive.  Download Squad never fails to come through with super-interesting stuff like this.  Thanks guys.

Click here for original Article – Again from The Download Squad.

Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7 - IT Samples

Description

Network Activity Indicator displays the old 'two monitors' icon in Windows 7 that flashed blue to show network activity on the System Tray.

Unlike the original Windows XP utility (that has individual indicators for each interface), this program indicates outgoing and incoming network packets on all available interfaces.

Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7 - IT Samples

Airytec Switch Off

Shutdown your PC automatically or remotely from any computer or mobile phone

From the "About" Section of the Website: "Switch Off is a lightweight easy-to-use tray-based system utility that could automatically shutdown, suspend or hibernate your system. This could cut your electricity bills and save the Environment by lowering your PC power consumption. It could also disconnect dial-up and VPN connections to cut your internet service bills as well. Build-in operation set could be easily extended by adding your own scripts. Automation options allows you to schedule all operations daily, weekly, past specified time or when PC becomes idle.

Utility has user-friendly intuitive interface designed to seamlessly integrate into your Vista or Windows 7 system and to provide quick access to all operations through the system tray icon. Simple password protected Web interface allows you to initiate operations remotely from any computer or mobile (cell) phone with web browser installed. Utility features small system and resource requirements, needs no additional frameworks or libraries to operate, works when either user is logged on or not, available as full and portable versions."

** I've tried it and it works **

Quanp - 10Gig Online Storage

With 10G of Storage, this could be a DropBox Killer.  It's too soon to tell, but I'm trying it and have had great success.  I like it.

http://us.quanp.com/

vitamin d : features

I don't normally post tools that aren't free, but this one is pretty darn close. It's not free past one camera, but for my needs that's really all I wanted (at first until I started using it). If you want an extremely easy and feature rich security camera monitor, this is the one. I'm personally going to buy this one because it serves all my needs, works flawlessly and I've got more than one camera.

From the site:

vitamin d : features: "The ideal monitoring software for home and small business

Vitamin D Video detects people and moving objects in video streams for security and monitoring purposes. It runs on a PC or Mac, and uses off-the-shelf USB webcams or network (IP) cameras.
For the first time, professional performance with real-time alerts is available to everyone."

Features:

Video clip rules

---

Detect people or unknown moving objects

Determine if an object is:

- Inside or outside a region
- Entering or exiting a region
- On top of a region
- Entering or exiting through a door
- Crossing a boundary
- Loitering

Send an email if a rule is triggered

Play a sound if a rule is triggered

All video is temporarily kept up to 48 hours whether or not any rules triggered recording

Search view

---

List of video clips with thumbnails

One-click filter for type of object or any rule

Display color-coded frames around people, objects, and rule regions

Video playback controls, with keyboard shortcuts

- Play and replay shortcut
- Previous and next frame
- +/- 2 seconds
- Previous and next clip
- Beginning and end of clip
- Markers for when objects appear

Playback speeds: 1/2x, 1x, 2x, 3x

Video storage resolution: QVGA (Starter Edition), VGA

24-hour time bars showing video clips and temporary video

Export clips to standard video format (.mp4)

Delete clips

Monitor view

---

View live video of connected cameras (port forwarding required to process and view cameras on a different network)

Add, edit, remove cameras using a Camera Setup wizard

Manage rules for each camera

- Enable and disable rules
- Schedule rules to run at specified times or days
- One-click access to video clips recorded by that rule

Gmail Backup

I personally have a bazillion gmail accounts and probably rely on at least 95% of them for different aspects of my life. I also really like the new 'offline' feature of Google Labs, however sometimes when the sun, moon and stars get aligned just so, things can go wrong pretty quick. As much as I like Google and the services they offer, when those things get aligned just right, for whatever reason I'm totally, um....how shall I say it? Screwed? Yep, that's the word. If Google didn't exist I probably wouldn't either, which is why I totally rely on this service. Please donate if you have a few extra dollars laying around. It's saved my butt more than a few times.

Sinplet from the site:

Gmail Backup: "Description
This program is aimed to backup and restore of your GMail mailbox. You will need to activate the IMAP access to your mailbox, to do so, please open your GMail settings and under POP/IMAP tab activate this option.

The messages are stored in the local directory in files which names follow the format YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-nn.eml where YYYY is the year, MM the month number, DD is the day number, hh are hours, mm are minutes and ss are seconds when the e-mail was SENT. For the case there is more emails with the same timestamp there is the number nn which starts with value 1. Label assignment is stored in the file labels.txt which is the plain text file and it pairs the emails stored in the file described above with the assigned labels."

What is Neat Chat

I gotta say this is one of the quickest ways to start a private chat between a few folks. I've tried it and used it on many occasions just to get a quick group together and have a quick conversation. It's simple, quick, and just plain works.

From the site:

What is Neat Chat: "What is Neat Chat?
Neat Chat is the easiest and fastest way to have an online conversation with a group of friends or colleagues. No signups or software installs are required. You simply use a web browser to communicate via Neat Chat.

What is so appealing about Neat Chat? The process of starting a chat session and inviting people is dead easy!

To start a chat session, all you need to do is go to our homepage, enter your nickname, and click the Start Group button. Once you do that, your chat session is started, and your browser loads the session's chat room. You then invite people by sending them the URL of the chat room. When your invitees access the URL, they enter the chat room to chat with you. It is as simple as that!

Neat Chat provides you a clean, fast, and robust chat room. You can share files, send private messages, and change your status through an intuitive interface. If you are late to a chat session, no problem! Neat Chat allows you to access all the conversations that took place in your absence.

Below is a screenshot of a Neat Chat session. And, by the way, did we mention Neat Chat is FREE?"

WhosRich.me

I've checked this out and to be honest, it's kinds skeerey?!?! But...um, ahem, um...not sure I'd use it daily, however.....um......here's the skinny:

From the Site:

WhosRich.me: "What?Why?How?
WhosRich.me is a social utility that makes it easy for people to track their friends' shopping habits. This utility gives eager shoppers a scene to show off their new purchases and to receive feedback from mates."

FREE PC Profile, Audit, and Diagnostic Report Utility

This is a way cool utility for those of you wanting to literally "Look In My PC". I carry this on my USB stick and it's saved me countless hours of time. Here's the scoop..

From the Site:

FREE PC Profile, Audit, and Diagnostic Report Utility: "LookInMyPC generates a complete, comprehensive system profile that includes information on all installed hardware and software. Additionally it provides system diagnostic information such as details on running processes, installed services, startup programs, Windows updates and hot fixes, active network and Internet connections, TCP/IP port usage, event log detail, and much more. All this is provided in an easy to read, formatted report that you can view and print using your web browser. We have also hyperlinked many items so you can quickly and easily 'Google' them to find out what they are or if some programs might be spyware or viruses. It is also completely non-invasive and makes no changes to your computers settings whatsoever. We have even included a handy function that allows you to create a full system profile and diagnostic report and automatically send it as an email ZIP file attachment to a tech support or help desk person."

Silobreaker

I recently found this somewhere (sorry I don't remember where to give credit) and have found it my number one news source in the mornings while drinking coffee. Drudge is of course what I mostly use, but I'm leaning more and more to SiloBreaker for my quick fix of new.

From The Site:

About Silobreaker - Silobreaker: "About Silobreaker
Silobreaker is a search service for news and current affairs that aims to provide more relevant results to the user than what traditional search and aggregation engines have been offering so far. Instead of returning just lists of articles matching a search query, Silobreaker finds people, companies, organisations, topics, places and keywords; understands how they relate to each other in the news flow, and puts them in context through graphical results in its intuitive user interface.

The site pulls content on global issues, science, technology, energy and business from thousands of news sources, blogs, multimedia, and other forms of news media from around the world. With the engine’s focus on finding and connecting related data in the information flow, Silobreaker’s user tools and visualisations are ideal for bringing meaning to content from either today’s Web or the evolving Semantic Web, or both."

PstPassword - Outlook PST Password Recovery

This has saved me more times than I care to imagine. In fact, everything from Nirsoft is pretty much awesome. I Highly recommend you check out all the tools there.


From the site:

PstPassword - Outlook PST Password Recovery

PstPassword doesn't require any installation process or additional dll files. In order to start using it, just run the executable file, PstPassword.exe

After you run PstPassword, the main window displays the list of all PST files of the current logged on user (Under Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook). For each password-protected PST file, PstPassword provide 3 alternative passwords that will open the PST file. If the PST is not protected by a password, the 3 password columns remain empty, and the CRC value column is 0x00000000.
If you want to recover a password of PST file that doesn't appear in the default list, you can press F7 and select the desired PST file, or simply drag the PST file from Explorer window into the main window of PstPassword.
If from some reason PstPassword fails to read a PST file, an error message is displayed under the error column, and the item is painted with pink color.

Adland | all the adnews not fit to print

I'm warning you now that all the new commercials for SuperBowl are here, so don't watch if you want to spoil your fun.

The really cool thing about this site is they have all the ads from every SuperBowl from almost when it started. It's not really an "Online Tool", but a super fun time waster. Check it out

From the Site:

Adland | all the adnews not fit to print: "UPDATED: Friday, 02/05
In less than a week, Super Bowl Ad Madness will be upon us. And, typically, as the clock winds down, more and more is revealed from the brands we'll be seeing in the game. We bring you an update of the ad players for what you might see this coming Sunday.

Again, If you like to be surprised by the ads you see on February 7th during Super Bowl XLIV, close your eyes, hum a tune and click to read the next article. *Do not read on*. You have been warned."

Easily send large files directly between computers for free | FilesOverMiles

I have tried this service and it's OK, however.........It just wasn't what I was expecting. Couple buddies of mine swear by it, but I don't. Does it work? Yes. Is it easy? Yes. Why aren't you pleased? ummm, it's something you'll have to check out for yourself. It's a great concept, but maybe it just wasn't what I though it should be. Not the best answer, but this is one of those love it or hate it things. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either.

From the Site:

Easily send large files directly between computers for free | FilesOverMiles: "Your files are sent the shortest way - directly between the recipient and you. There are no intermediate servers slowing down the process. Try FilesOverMiles and send files between your home

computers to see how fast it is!"

Refural - Get paid for making Refural's

I've not personally used this site nor have I received any money from them....BUT - several of my friends do use it and they claim to also get paid.  I can't really say one way or the other if this really works, but I do believe the stories from my friends.  I'm actually going to setup an account tonight and give it a go.  A couple of bucks here and there is a good thing right now.  I'll keep you posted and how it all works out.

From the Site's FAQ Page:

30 Second Intro

As a user, your job is to simply: Send legitimate referrals and Get Paid. That's about it. After you send a referral and the business accepts & validates it, we'll send you your payment. It's really that simple.

So why not just call up the biz yourself and give them the referral? Well for one, you aren't guaranteed that they'll pay up -- even if your referral is legitimate. Our process protects the user so that the business pays for the referral before they even receive it. Secondly, you'd be banking on the fact that somehow the business will find the time to write and send you a check. Not likely. With the Refural process, the business pays right away and we hold their payment for the validation period after which we send your compensation. The process is totally electronic and you just sit back and get paid. It's quick, easy and effective for everyone!

Sending Referrals

By now we’re sure that you already know but we’ll say it again for good measure: Submitting referrals is totally free and you may submit as many as you’d like. There are 2 ways for users to submit referrals:

• Submit to Businesses that have a listing on Refural.com
• Submit to New Businesses and invite them to participate

The Validation Period

To help ensure quality referrals, we’ve implemented a validation period for businesses to contact and make sure the referral they’ve paid for is legitimate. Once they validate the referral OR the validation period expires, we will send you your payment.

Legitimate Referrals

First of all, we don't accept and will never except anything other than legitimate referrals. If a business decides that the referral isn’t legitimate, then we step in and investigate. At that point, we refund the business their compensation and notify the user that their referral has been rejected.

Making Sure You Get Paid

Once the business validates your referral OR the validation period expires, we will send your payment right away. The only way you won’t get paid is if you submit a referral that isn’t legitimate.

TruthOrFiction.com-Is that forwarded email Truth or Fiction? Research into stories, scams, hoaxes, myths, and urban legends on the Internet

I always tell my children, family and friends to ALWAYS check out the source and do the research before posting and or forwarding some silly email about this/that/andtheotherthing......Most of us have heard of and used Snopes which is awesome, but here's another that you can use to "double-check" those crazy emails you receive about the world blowing up next week. There is some type of Subscription you can buy if you want for about $20 / Year, but I personally think what I get for free is just fine.

From the site:

TruthOrFiction.com-Is that forwarded email Truth or Fiction? Research into stories, scams, hoaxes, myths, and urban legends on the Internet: "Be among the first to know about new eRumors, viruses, Internet hoaxes...and more!

FaxZero.com - Just plain works.

Yea, I know...there's a ton of free fax services out there, but of all I've tried, I probably like this the best. I rarely send FAX's, but when I do need to, this is what I use. It's quick, super easy and just plain works.

From the Site FAQ:

About FaxZero.com: "FaxZero lets you send a fax to any fax machine in the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada for free. You don't need a fax machine yourself, but you do need a valid e-mail address."


Q: How can you provide this service for free?
A: The service is supported by advertising on the web site and on the cover pages of the free faxes you send. We have a partnership with the good folks at Metro Hi Speed, who provide us with a great deal on Internet fax services.
Q: How does it work?
First fill out the fax form. Be sure to include your valid e-mail address and carefully type the Confirmation Code. (This simply helps us weed out abuse of the system.) Type the text of your fax or attach a file, then click the Send Free Fax Now button.
Next, a confirmation message will be sent to your e-mail address. Click the URL in that message. Your fax won't be transmitted until you do. (If you are using a spam filter, please add support@faxzero.com to your friends list first, otherwise you will not get the email from us and your fax will not be sent.)
We'll then attempt to deliver your fax. You'll receive an e-mail message to let you know when it's delivered. Or if it can't be transmitted for some reason, an e-mail message will tell you that.
Q: What type of documents can I send?
The easiest way to send a fax is to just type or paste the text of your fax into to the Enter Text to Fax box. Or, you can click the Browse... button to fax a file on your computer: you can send a PDF, Microsoft Word (.DOC or .DOCX or .RTF) file, or Excel spreadsheet (.XLS or .XLSX).
If you attach a file, any text in the Enter Text to Fax box will be ignored.
Q: Tell me about the ad on the cover page.
A: It's not really an ad, just the FaxZero logo at the top of the page. There is no FaxZero logo on the $1.99 premium fax. The cover page does not count as part of the 3- (for free) or 15- (for premium) page limit.

WhoAreIn

I personally don't have much need for this type of service because I'm a pretty boring person. However, from what I hear "on the street", this is the way to go. I've had several friends who recommend this as the place to go if you're going to organize say a "Movie Night" or more importantly some big Shin-Dig. Anyway, thought I'd mention it since it's very popular with people I know that do have a life....

From the Site:

WhoAreIn: "Organize Events With Your Friends
WhoAreIn is a free web service that helps you organize events with you friends.
No registration, sign-in with your Google account.
Create event in less then one minute.
Totally free."