Riding Shotgun with Rick

The new ASUS Eee PC 900 is finally available in the United States. Like its release earlier this year in Asia, the 900 version is selling like hot cakes in the U.S. too. I have been using the 4G version of the  original ASUS Eee PC since November 2007 and wrote a few articles about it that can be found here. I originally bought it to try it out and see what all the fuss was about, but quickly became attached to its ultra portability and usablity.

I Stumbled on this extremely interesting video the other day answering the questions, "How do people find the time?"

The speaker explains how many hours are spent watching TV and how just carving 10% of that time can harness tremendous amounts of brain power to work together on the web. The more I thought about the video, the more I was amazed so I wanted to share it with you.

Click here to watch the video and then come back here and leave me a comment about your thoughts on the subject.

Those of you who have kept up with me over the years know that I'm not a utility junkie. The fewer utilities and installed programs the better for me.

That being said, I admire and cherish great utilities that serve purposes I need. Some of my favorites over the years include Tech Smith's Snag It screen capture tool and Camtasia which I use to create our video tips. I also am never without a desktop tape calculator. My current favorite is the Moffsoft Tape Calculator.

A couple of months ago I reviewed a couple of the online backup services and really liked (and continue to use) the Mozy Backup service. Today, Mozy announced the release of their online backup system for Macintosh users. You can read more about it and try it out by clicking this link.

Microsoft Framework .NET consists of a set of tools that allow programmers to tap into some web related technologies for creating rich, interactive applications for our computers and web sites. Unfortunately, it sometimes causes problems as well. This week alone, I helped 3 Quickbooks users overcome problems with their programs hanging or failing to start by uninstalling and reinstalling the .NET Framework.

I started using Gmail exclusively as my email program of choice almost eight weeks ago and haven't opened Microsoft Outlook since. I wrote about it three weeks into the process, and decided to give another update today.

Last week, I was charged with finding a computer for a customer who only wanted it for Internet, email, and word processing. He didn't want to add any games, extra programs, or anything else to it. My first thought, as I was listening to his needs, was Ubuntu. One other request was not to break the bank on cost. Lastly, he told me that he would be hooked up to a high speed cable Internet service.

Upon talking a little more, I explained my idea bout an Ubuntu Linux machine. He asked, "Does it do Internet? Email?" I said, "Yes." He agreed that it sounded fine to him.

My favorite online application suite, Zoho, just got a little more powerful today for spreadsheet users. The Zoho spreadsheet, known as Zoho Sheet, added two huge features today; Macros and Pivot Tables.

Power spreadsheet users use these two features often and will appreciate Zoho Sheet's new found power. For an overview, watch this video from Zoho:

We love getting your feedback on our articles and tips. Unfortunately, too few of you participate. Our most commented articles are our Cameroon Pet Scams and desktop wallpaper articles. I did get a few comments on my annual plea for tax reform, but I'm always surprised at how few comments we get compared to the number of visitors to our site.

We do have the ReCaptcha system to thwart automated robot spammers on our site, but the words are generally easy to decipher (plus they help the Library of Congress digitize their library). If you have a tough time reading the cipher, you can hit the refresh button to get two new words (see picture). You can hit the refresh button as many times as you want. Also, keep in mind that the cipher's are not case sensitive. I would recommend clicking the little speaker which gives you an auditory cipher to decode, but they generally are much harder than figuring out the two words.

There you have it...I'm on my knees groveling for comments. We love reading the comments and encourage you to leave them often...and invite all your tech friends and family to visit the site and do the same! Thanks.