How To Send an Email to a Fax Machine

Five Free Online Services to Send an Email to a Fax Machine:
"I’m not really the type of person that sends faxes all that often. There may be an occasion or two when I have to forward information to my insurance company or the Human Resources department at work, but those times are very few and far between. However, since I don’t fax very often, whenever I do have a need to send a fax I used to scramble to find an available fax machine. After I started writing for MakeUseOf, I decided to reassess this occasional need and come up with a solution that would make use of available free online technologies and resources. I started looking for an answer to the question, “Can I send an email to a fax machine?”"

I don't know about you, but like the author of the article, I very rarely need to send a fax. However when I need to, it's a struggle to send one out. I have avoided buying one of those All-In-Wonder fax/printer/copier machines for low these many years. They take up too much office space for the amount of times you need one.
This article from MakeUseOf shows you five of the most popular on-line email to fax services, and guides you through using each one. The services are simple, straight forward, and did I mention FREE!
Read the article, pass it on to someone who needs it, and don't forget to visit the MakeUseOf Web Site,  it's excellent.

Inflation ”An Old People’s Disease”

The Great Depression of 2006 BlogSpot - Inflation An Old People’s Disease”:
"I can't remember how many times my grandpa told me; when he was a kid, the price of a loaf of bread was a nickel and how he worked in the oil fields for 50 cents a day. When I graduated from high school in 1964 gold was at $35 per ounce and our coinage was silver.
At the age of 17, inflation had no real meaning. I had no past to compare it to"

This is a insightful little article, a must read for Boomers of all ages. I think it will jog a few memories, and make you wonder what our financial future has in store for us.

I have my own moment to add to Jim's "milestones for government induced inflation".
In the early Seventies, we were paid by cash or check. I remember complaining that all of the bills I was getting paid in were new and freshly printed. I couldn't seem to get my co-workers to realize that something was wrong, and there was a danger involved with printing so much new currency. No one seemed to care, the general response was that "money is money", and everything was well with the world as long as "the check cleared."
I wonder what they're saying now?

I for one am getting a little worried.

Ditch the Granny Knot to Tie Your Shoes More Efficiently - Knots - Lifehacker

Tie Your Shoes More Efficiently Lifehacker:
"Over at Runner's World they've put together an instructional video to go along with an informative article on the difference between Granny Knots and Reef Knots. Well tied shoes are important to runners, but anyone can benefit from the simple change in knot tying-methodology."

The subject of the article is great, the solution is great, the video is greater, but this may be one of those "ya can't teach an old dog new tricks" things.
I gave it a shot, and I'm going to keep trying because I'm tired of my laces coming untied during my morning "power walk". BUT after close to 60 years of Granny Knots, it's going to be tough.

Update:
It Works.
It's been a few days, and after much trial and error, I'm getting the hang of it.
The highpoint was when I used the method on a pair of ankle high "urban walkers" (boots) that I love. I stopped wearing them because after an hour the laces would come loose, but not any more.

Overcoming Digital Obscurity

Five Best Photo-Printing Sites - Photo printing - Lifehacker:
"Once upon a time people took photos and dutifully carted their film down to the photo shop to get developed, waiting to see how the photos turned out. Now people immediately check whether or not the shot was good on the display of their digital camera, and more often than not stuff the photos onto their hard drives or upload them to their Flickr accounts, but never get around to actually printing them and preserving them in a physical form. If you've been meaning to get around to printing more photos and saving them from their fate of digital obscurity, the following five Lifehacker reader-selected sites can help you."

I'm one of those people who doesn't take many pictures, and when I do I just store them on my PC never to be seen again. Then I read this article and realized I was not alone. Banning photo's to Digital Obscurity is a common disease.
Don't let yourself become like me, read this article and you too can bore friends and co-workers with a wallet full of family photos. The article is a LifeHacker reader survey and review of the 5 best on-line photo printing sites. I hope that it will save your digital photos from the same fate as mine.
Enjoy!

Free Full Version Office Suite

SoftMaker Office 2008 Free Full Version Download With Genuine License Key - My Digital Life:
"SoftMaker Office 2008 is reliable office productivity software that is designed for beginners and professional users. SoftMaker Office Suite consists of a word processor TextMaker 2008 with DTP features, a spreadsheet PlanMaker 2008, and presentation graphics program that can reads and writes all PowerPoint files called SoftMaker Presentations 2008. In addition, SoftMaker Office 2008 also comes with user-friendly interface and compatibility with Microsoft Office formats. The new SoftMaker Office 2008 has added a ton of features such as writes OpenDocument files, direct PDF export, OLE server, programming language BasicMaker (Microsoft VBA clone), VBA compatible macro programming, full screen mode, envelope generator, and booklet printing."

I found a great FREE Office Suite that you might be interested in. I use OpenOffice myself, but the reviews on this one are good enough for me to "give it a go" on my test machine.
Try it, and let me know what you think. I've added a new Contact page where you can email me directly instead of using the comments section. Give the new page a shot, I'd be glad to hear from you.
Enjoy!

Myth: Young People Know All About Computers

Use Better Tools to Be a Better Student in 2010 :
"Despite the proliferation of laptops and netbooks, the vast majority of students still use their computers like $500 typewriters. Stop working so hard and be a better student by leveraging some clever computer tools to your advantage."
"Every semester I get a new wave of college freshman into my classroom, most of them armed with laptops. For the last several semesters, I have been informally tracking how they use their computers. I always assumed that my students were using their computers to their full potential to help them with school, research, and such, but almost all of them were simply using their laptops as extremely expensive typewriters and instant-messaging terminals.
What good is all the computing power of the pre-1960s world sitting on your lap if you're not using it to make college life easier? The following is a guide for students everywhere that want to spend less time on the tedious stuff, and more time on the things like study and research that actually produce results."

Here's an interesting article about college freshmen and their limited computer abilities.

I've always maintained that in general, people young and old, are not as computer savvy as the media and computer makers think they are. I can't tell you how many people I've run across who tell me they are puzzled by the fact that they are proficient with computers at work, but when they use their home computer they're lost. They don't understand that the work computers run specialized programs geared specifically to their jobs, but their home computers are loaded down with generalized computer programs that they have to figure out how to apply to daily chores.

I'm reminded of a comment made by one of our local weather forecasters, Pati Darak Weather On The Ones, about a new laptop she just purchased:
“You'd think that when the laptop showed up it would do what I want, not what its programmed to do.”

So don't feel to bad about your perceived limited computer skills, most people only know a fraction of the capabilities today's modern computers offer. They're capable of doing a hell of a lot more than just email, web browsing, twittering and face booking.

A New Take On Debit Card Fees

Visa, Using Fees To Dominate a Market - NYTimes.com: 
"Every day, millions of Americans stand at store checkout counters and make a seemingly random decision: after swiping their debit card, they choose whether to punch in a code, or to sign their name.
It is a pointless distinction to most consumers, since the price is the same either way. But behind the scenes, billions of dollars are at stake.
When you sign a debit card receipt at a large retailer, the store pays your bank an average of 75 cents for every $100 spent, more than twice as much as when you punch in a four-digit code."

Even at my age, I find you can learn something new.

I switched from Credit Cards to one Debit Card many years ago. I got tired of the fees charged to both me and the merchants, and all the other problems associated with them. So I was quite surprised when I read this article about how all the fees are still there, only now they are being paid by the merchants and the banks. As the article points out we are talking big bucks here.

I will never understand why the merchants don't just give discounts to cash customers and save themselves some money. That way they would also have some leverage with the banks and card companies over rates, now they seem to have nothing to bargain with.

Update: The NYT article seems to be making the rounds among bargain hunter blogs. Sue Stock's News and Observer consumer blog has a post entitled  The Deal On Debit Cards. It has some interesting observations on the subject, so give Sue some traffic and take a look at what she has to say.