Last month's item about who are the doctors and who are not brought some interesting e-mail from people who found they were in the same situation, and didn't know it. They agreed with me. I only had one person who took the doctor's side (a PA who says he is honest with his patients). The doctor I see now does not have any PAs in his office.
Heard about Turbo Tax lately? It looks like Intuit has taken lessons from Microsoft with their "product activation" scheme, but Intuit uses a third party software called SafeCast (by Macrovision) to keep track of the computer it is installed on, although it continuously works in the background. It sounds like there have been problems, but their tech support doesn't have much patience. I read about a guy who had hard drive problems. He replaced his HD and that one also became defective. He really got an attitude from their tech support. If you want to know more, go to [ http://www.extremetech.com ] and you'll see lots of information about it if you do a search. The article I read was "TurboTax, So What Should I Do Now?" It also had a list of other products that use the same product activation scheme.
I have not installed any Microsoft products with the "product activation" scheme, and I have no intention of using them. I've read about others who are taking the same position. I have never used Turbo Tax and likely would have used Tax Act anyway. You certainly can't beat the price of Tax Act though, and it won't be reporting on you. In my case AARP volunteers did my tax return free.
A few months ago, I wrote about "Drive Rescue," but by the time the column was published, that freeware product was pulled. I believe a new, that you pay for, replaces it now. However, Ken Marple told me he found his original download and will send it to me. If anybody still wants it, let me know. Also, a friend says right now it is also available at [http://www.absolutefreesoftware.co.uk/freeware_general_utilities.htm]. He says the author states it has bugs, so beware. Ken Marple said he accidentally found his HD problem when he took off a virus detection software, and the problem disappeared. He had been running two AVs.
*There's not much in deals this month because I'm in the middle of company time, meaning lots of company visiting. Vendors didn't respond and I didn't have time (or ambition) to do any follow-up. The LensPen item is good until April 30, 03. [ http://www.lenspen.com ] Also, the Man-Machine "Cool One" Keyboard is still good. 301-341-4900. I hope you got your machine "fixed" with [ http://www.bigfix.com ] if you were having problems. Here is what I liked this month.
He found this on Clark Howard's Web site [ http://www.clarkhoward.com ]. "Telemarketers (and bill collectors) often use Predictive Dialers to dial outgoing calls. These are computers that keep dialing phone numbers on a list until they reach a live person. The Predictive Dialer then transfers that call to the first live operator. That's why you sometimes hear silence for a while before someone gets on the line when you answer the phone. Some of them are bold enough to play a little recording asking you to "Please hold on for an important call!" Yea, Right! Telemarketers and bill collectors don't want to pay their operators for dialing and listening to busy signals and answering machines, so they have a computer do it for them.
'The Predictive Dialer is programmed to hang up if it hears a Special Information Tone. (SIT), since it knows the line is disconnected. It doesn't listen to what's said after the SIT tone since it doesn't understand words. Here's how that information helps you. If you download a file of these tones, and then record it to the beginning of your answering machine message before your real message, the automated dialer will be tricked into thinking your phone is disconnected and you'll be removed from their calling list. No more calls from them! In no time at all, you should be receiving far fewer telemarketing calls.
'You could always spend around $40 to buy one of those popular zapping machines, but I'll take the freebie. Readers can find this free, small (44 KB) sound file, sit_disconnected.wav, at [ http://www.telephonetribute.com/tribute/signal_and_circuit_conditions.htm ]." Thanks for tracking that down, Jerry.
Here is a brief description of Centurian Guard: The Centurion GuardŽ Hard Drive Protection Device protects your system by write protecting the hard drive at the physical level, similar to the way that you write protect your floppy disks by setting the write protect tab.
And this is a brief description of Drive Shield: DriveShieldŽ is a new software based laptop/PC hard drive protection. DriveShield allows anyone who manages laptops/PC's to reset a system to its original configuration with a simple reboot.
Be sure to take advantage of this deal if you need the protection. I have not used either product so I cannot speak from experience. However, when I saw it demonstrated at a show, I was impressed. Of course a presentation is designed to make you want a product. You can also call them at 800-224-7977 and they say prices start at $58.00 a unit.
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 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. Also, I keep adding interesting articles (taken from user group newsletters) to my "Articles of Interest" page for viewing or downloading.
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