TCS - From The DealsGuy

From The DealsGuy

Bob Click
Greater Orlando Computer User Group
From the July 2003 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter

Alas, Its Another Goodbye From a Great User Group Supporter

I was about to release the August column to my editors when I received Bonnie's e-mail with the sad news that Casady & Greene is closing their doors after 19 years in business. Bonnie Mitchell, their users group coordinator, sent out her sad goodbye to all of us who are users group contacts. While we were only connected with C & G for eight years, many of you have met Bonnie at APCUG and regional events across the country. She was always ready to help with review products and prizes for drawings. C & G supported us when the expense of it might have been questionable, but they were there when we needed them. This recession is certainly taking its toll in the business community, and in the process, the user group community is losing some great friends along the way. Thanks for everything Bonnie, and good luck in any new endeavors.

Eliminating The Competition

I read that Palm has declared its intention to purchase Handspring and they will do business under a new name, but with two different units, one for handhelds, and the other for "so called" smart phones. Since Palm is not an APCUG sponsor, it looks like Handspring will be gone too. According to Value Line, Handspring's liquidity was deteriorating and revenues were significantly below last year's levels. Sales for both have been declining. Perhaps it's time.

Ink Jet Deal Is Jetting Back Again

I don't often repeat a deal, but this one was very popular. Susie McLean of Inksell.com agreed to repeat the original deal offered last year and extend it until the end of this year (2003). The differences are; the expiration date, the coupon code, and free shipping on orders over $49.00 (an improvement). I am repeating it below with the changes.

"InkSell.com is a discount printing Supply Company that specializes in cartridges for all makes of ink jet and laser printers, solid ink printers, copiers, and fax machines. We sell brand names, new compatible cartridges (for most brands), and remanufactured cartridges and refill kits. Our compatible cartridge quality is certified to match that of the manufacturer and our prices are up to 70 and 80% less. We would be happy to offer DealsGuy readers a 10% discount on purchases at our online store.

"A discount coupon code will be valid through December 31, 2003. To redeem the 10% discount, (not valid with any other discount or offer), simply visit our site, [ http://www.inksell.com ], place your order and continue to 'check out' where there will be a blank to enter the discount coupon code (DealsGuy2003). The discount will be automatically calculated. Should anyone have questions or need assistance, phone customer service at 1-800-255-0483, or send e-mail to [help@inksell.com]. Don't forget the free shipping on orders over $49.00."

Its Not Free This Time, But Its Still A Bargain

Colleen Toumayan from Executive Software e-mailed me to let my readers know that they have a good price on Undelete and Diskeeper bundled together. The bundle is $39.95 and would normally be $59.90 if bought separately. About Diskeeper: "they say built-in defragmenters are slow, labor intensive and use too much system resources to keep up with the performance demands of today's computing needs. Ultimately, they don't get used. Running Diskeeper is like hiring an expert to constantly monitor and maintain your system's maximum performance."

About Undelete: "you store a lot of data on your computer, and you need to protect it 24/7. Re-creating accidentally deleted files takes a lot of time, and using backups to restore deleted files is not always reliable-especially if you've created and deleted something between backups. New Undelete replaces your recycle bin with a Recovery Bin, which catches all the files you delete so file recovery is quick and easy."

These products in the bundle are for home use and you can check them further at [ http://consumer.execsoft.com/home.asp ] to order them if you wish.

What's Going On Your Web Site?

If you have a Web site, it often helps if you know all the statistics about the visitors. One problem though, if you're using the free space given to you by your ISP, you probably have no access to the log for it (and can't use this product). On the other hand, if you have a paid Web space, usually you have access to the server log for your site. You should find out if your server log is accessible. You could analyze things the hard way and download the log file, then sift through it manually to see what you can determine. Sure it will work, but it's time consuming. I know in my case, I'd like to know which files were hit, and for how long.

I talked to Sane Solutions about offering a discount on their products and they agreed to do it. I have to say, their NetTracker Professional software is already much cheaper than another well known software for the same purpose, but Sane Solutions feels theirs does it better. They did not give me a product to review so you will have to do your own evaluation, but you can download a fully functional two-week trial version to evaluate. Check their Web site at [ http://www.sane.com ] and look at the product descriptions.

NetTracker Professional sells for $495.00 and NetTracker Enterprise is $995.00. Darryl Cunningham, sales manager of Sane Solutions, said that if you call him with your request, he'd personally handle the order giving you a 20% discount on their products and support. Wow! That's $99 just on NetTracker, making it very competitive! The 20% discount is good on all orders through August 31, 2003. You can contact Darryl at 1-800-407-3570 ext. 122 to order. Don't forget to tell him you heard this from the DealsGuy.

Talk About Tweaking!

Many of you have used TweakUI and loved it. It performs many very useful tasks for Windows. Lee Reynolds of Boca Raton Computer Society Inc. wrote some time ago in his monthly "Nibbling At The Net" column about another even more useful utility that he feels is much better than TweakUI. It is Xteq X-Setup and can be found at [ http://www.xteq.com ]. It's absolutely free for home users. However, they do take donations if you enjoy using it.

This product has an incredible number of features that you can hardly imagine. It is also updated constantly. To add to its value, it also offers to help other software such as Office 97 and 2000; not to mention hardware installed on your computer. Sounds like a great product. Thanks for letting us know Lee.

That's it for this month. Meet me here again next month if your editor permits. This column is written to make user group members aware of special offers I have found or arranged, and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of any products, no matter how enthused I might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click [Bobclick@mindspring.com]. Visit my Web site at [http://www.dealsguy.com] for past columns. I have also been busy putting up some interesting new articles on my Web site, so take a look. My thanks to the authors I was able to reach. However, they don't all answer their e-mail so I miss posting many very good articles there.



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Tulsa Computer Society 7/01/2003
Don Singleton, President