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Spend a lot of time surfing the Net? Now you can help others as you get smarter with the freerice.com site.

The idea is pretty simple: Learn a new word… help feed the world. It starts out slow, asking you the definition of a word. As you pick the correct one, the words get progressively harder. There are 55 levels of increasing difficulty. So far, since the site went online last fall, few have gone past level 48,

But with each correct answer, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
How so? Ads, that’s how. Advertisers attach banners at the bottom of the vocabulary screen. The money they pay the site pays for the rice. You can even see a video of the rice being distributed.

The site makes no money. It has just come up with a way to help feed the world… to date… about 47 tons of rice to 22 countries.

Now here’s a cool idea: A TV Silencer, mutes your TV when the phone rings. Actually, it also works with DVDs and stereos… as long as it has a remote control. You install a gizmo at the landline connection (it wont work with cell phones) hook it up to a small infra red emitter aimed in the direction of the television and, whenever the phone rings, it mutes your TV. Just like magic. Cost is $69.

Spam now makes up 80 percent of all email. Put another way, only two of 10 emails are good. Fighting back can be daunting but I have some suggestions that can ease the burden on your in-box.

Spam…it’s out of control. Guess how much junk mail has accumulated over a 30-day period with my PCMike e-mail address? Over 164,000. Now tI used an old e-mail address that has been heavily linked on the Web and I allowed the spam to accumulate to demonstrate just how bad it is.

Here are my top three suggestions on how you can fight back against spammers.

1)First, never unless absolutely necessary, write out your e-mail address on the Web. Spammers have harvesting programs that capture them.

2) If you do have to post it, don’t use the “@” sign. Spell out the word AT and D-O-T for the dot com part to trick those harvesters.

3) Finally use an anti spam program that has a Bayesian filter. Bayesian filters detect spam through smart analysis and the programs actually learn and gets better over time.

There are two Bayesian spm programs I recommend.

Spam Bully is the best tool to block the spam that I’ve tried for Windows and PC users, especially those using Outlook.. For Mac users, I like Spam Sieve. These programs are easy to set up and powerful tools that identify and trap the spam and get it down to a manageable amount.

Spam can never be eradicated but if you follow my suggestions, you’ll get it under control.

What would happen if your computer was stolen, or you lost everything on your hard drive? Scary thought, right? That’s why it is important to back up your data. Do you? If not, thanks to a new gizmo from Apple, it’s never been easier to be prepared.
Our digital files are valuable beyond words. Some of us have thousands of photos on our hard drives, even more songs or TV and movie clips. Then there are our documents, letters and financial info.

I don’t need to tell you how important it is to back up.

But until Apple’s Time Capsule came on the scene a few weeks ago, backing up our computer files was tedious. Time Capsule automatically backs up everything, every hour, every day so you no longer have to worry about losing your digital life. A 500 GB version costs $299. A 1 terabyte version is $499.

Working with a program called Time Machine that comes standard on Mac’s latest Leopard operating system, Time Capsule does all the backing up seamlessly. But it does more than that.

Time Capsule is also a superfast WiFi base station, operating in the new 802.11n format which just about doubles the range of older WiFi stations. You can also plug a printer into the back of Time Capsule and wirelessly print from anywhere in the house.

This is the most advanced backup device and WiFi station I have ever seen. I have my main PC and two laptops backed up on it and feel so secure about it, I’m almost smug.

The system works best with Macs.

For PCs, meanwhile, there are some new tols that can help WIndows machines be more efficient, too.

Did you know that there is now a 50% chance of being infected by an internet worm within just 12 minutes of being online using an unprotected, unpatched Windows PC? This is according to Sophos, one of the big anti-virus companies. That’s how bad it has become. Even the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness team says “the average time-to-exploitation … for an unprotected computer is measured in minutes.”

An outfit known as MacroVirus is offering free scans of your computer to see whether you’ve been hit. clean and repair your entire system and get it back to it’s original performance. MacroVirus not only detects and removes Viruses, but also Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms and a host of other dangerous parasites that detererate computer performance and invade your privacy.

A recent study found that over 90% of computers are infected by some type of malware picked up from internet usage. MacroVirus claims to protect against ALL of them.

The Internet is a huge buzz machine, a place where gossip, trends, fashion and the latest news is analyzed, shaped and spread. And a lot of that buzz originates in online communities… chat rooms and forums.

There’s a brand new tool that does to online forums what Google does for Web pages.

It’s called Twing… and what it does is search the postings in forums and discussion groups. A lot of the content found in these active online communities is missed or not indexed by the traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo and the like.

Twing concentrates on them and returns listings from dozens of categories and thousands of online forums. Type in your phrase and you can search by posts, topics or forum.

This is a great way to see what online users are saying, an instant reality check on hot topics or subjects you want information on from real people. The site is free to use, though if you register – also free – you can save your favorite searches and forums.

The online video trend shows no signs of letting up with a brand-new site opening this week that sets a new standard for the video-on-demand movement with scores of old and not-so-old TV shows and movies that can be watched online for free.

The Hulu site opened for the public Wednesday and of all the online sites that are now showing video, this is the best I’ve seen. I got so hooked reviewing it Wednesday afternoon that I watched a half-dozen “Saturday Night Live” skits I’ve missed lately, plus a few of the old favorites from vintage “SNL” shows, a “Simpsons” episode and, for 1:46 minutes, the powerful thriller “The Usual Suspects.”

The site is jointly owned by the News Corp. (Fox TV) and NBC Universal (NBC) and is filled with TV clips and full episodes from popular, currently running NBC and Fox shows, such as “Arrested Development,” “Prison Break” and “Heroes.” There’s talk that CBS may join the partnership in future days. ABC is doubtful as it seems to be going its own Disney way.

Besides the current shows, there are plenty of classic programs and reruns, too, like “Adam 12,” ” Hill Street Blues” and “Starsky and Hutch.” You’ll also find sporting events, music videos and what Hulu says will be a growing list of fairly recent full-length movies. To watch the movies, you need to sign up for a free account. But all the viewing is totally free.

What’s the catch?

You have to watch commercials that sandwich around the shows you choose to watch. I encountered one at the beginning of everything I watched. The commercial that ran before “The Usual Suspects” was the 1:45 trailer for the new “Leatherheads” movie starring George Clooney. After that, the movie ran, uninterrupted by any other ads. At other times, when I clicked on a category or browsed a genre, a short commercial would also play, but nothing anywhere near as obnoxious as the 20 minutes of ads that air during a typical prime-time show during its regular broadcast time on TV.

On Hulu, you watch the videos at your computer online and they stream pretty clean. Obviously, you need a broadband cable or DSL connection. You wouldn’t want to try this with dial-up.

But watched on my Comcast home cable connection, I noticed barely a trace of the herky-jerky, stuttering video glitches that other streaming sites struggle with. The programs and movies played almost as if I was playing back a DVD. The quality of the images and sound was excellent. Now I don’t know if that will change when a lot of people discover the site and it starts playing a lot of simultaneous streams, but Wednesday, it was about as flawless of a streaming experience that I have ever had watching online video.

You can watch the shows and movies in a box on the Hulu Web page or, by clicking a button, full screen. You can also pause it (which I did several times to take phone calls). If you want to see a scene over again, just drag the player marker on the control window back a bit.

I’m very impressed with Hulu. There are lots of TV shows and movies in lots of different venues. It’s only going to get better. I think this is going to be hugely popular and a site we’ll look back on as advancing online entertainment to new mainstream levels.

The one down side is the programs have to be watched “live” on Hulu. You can’t download them.

There are, however, sites that do let you download TV shows. Here’s one. It’s a membership site but it has TV shows, movies, music and thousands of files you can download right to your computer. It works with Macs and PCs, too.

eBay and online auction sites have changed the way America shops. But of all the copycat auction sites out there, I’ve found an inauction site with a twist. This one scours police property rooms around the country and sells off unwanted or unclaimed property that somehow ended up in police hands.

The site is www.PropertyRoom.com and it’s bursting at the virtual seams with pretty cool stuff at very hot prices. In design, it looks and works like similar online auction sites. Browse the categories and place your bids.

But right away, you notice some pretty good buys…. Check out power tools …jewelry… electronics… computers… automotive stuff, like car stereos, GPS receivers and speakers.

The site has arrangements with police property rooms across the country, moves out the unclaimed or forfeited stuff to its own warehouses and then cuts the cops in on a part of the proceeds.

The site says it sells about 98% of everything it lists… and should the rightful owner find his stolen stuff online, it offers a service called “Steal it Back” that returns the items. All the owner has to do is provide the serial number.

Then…. there are other sites that specialize in auctions of other items.

For example, very month across the United States, thousands of vehicles are seized by different Government agencies (IRS, DEA, FBI) & Police departments and auctioned off to the public. Due to certain laws these vehicles are listed and sold at up to 95% OFF their original value and auctions many times start at $100. This site lists 3,000+ updated auctions nationwide, with listings in every state.

Here’s another government auction site, this one of just about every type of surplus, seized, and abandoned property you could imagine. Once you join this site, they give you access to our unparalleled database of over 2,000 federal, state, and local government agency auctions in your state and on the Internet.

Finally, don’t forget good old eBay. Here’s a guide on how to make and save money on eBay. The site claims 95%of eBay sellers are wasting money because they do not know the answers to some simple questions. This causes expensive mistakes. You can take the test and see what you can do on eBay.

It’s that time of year again. Tax time. Not fun, by any means. But thanks to technology, tax prep programs and special Web sites, it does get a little easier each year. If you’re ready to start on your return, I found a Website that offers some great suggestions on finding the right prep package for you.

The all-new Software.com tax center offers reviews and guides to the various brands of tax preparation software available for instant download along with comparison charts. It’s an easy-to-use resource for people seeking more information on tax software, and whether its best to download a stand-alone program or use an all-online service.

You fill in your requirements and it works through the different products available until you find the appropriate tax software option.

There’s also lots of resources you can find in the site, on everything from what is deductible to how to back up and save your computer preparation work. If you need expert help, you can even get a free phone call with a real life tax expert to help you do your taxes right, with the right forms and deductions.

Meantime, here’s some other tax tips. This site promises to help you save taxes by setting up an online business.

And this site tells you how to lower your taxes by finding legal and proper deduction loopholes.

Here’s my video on the guide to finding tax prep software:

As we upgrade and replace our electronic gadgets and cellphones, the dilemma many of us face is how to dispose of the electronic rejects. There are lots of recycling centers but a new one offers a twist… it actually pays you for your electronic cast offs.

The site is called My Boneyard and it offers one of the more innovative ways to dispose of our no longer needed electronic gear.

It takes in used computers, monitors and the like, as well as mobile phones.

Type in the brand name, model number, carrier and condition and it tells you how much its worth. Then, if you want, it sends you an email with a prepaid shipping label.

Send the electronic reject back and they in turn send you a prepaid Visa card with whatever the market value of the used gear is.

The site makes its money by ether refurbishing and reselling the gear it takes in, or recycling it.

Bottom line is you get rid of your gear, get some spending money and know that your electric junk isn’t polluting the environment. A good deal all around.

Websites:
Juliet Shops www.julietshops.com
Romeo Shops www.romeoshops.com
iTunes www.itunes.com

Stumped for a Valentine’s Day gift idea this year? Never fear, we have some suggestions sure to help cupid and please every Romeo and Juliet out there.

Where else to start but JulietShops.com, a site that helps women find special Valentines gifts for their Romeos… like flashlights…golf books…icebuckets and… how about this… a stereo iPod docking station and toilet paper holder for the bathroom… $99.

For the guys, there’s the companion site…RomeoShops.com. Same drill here, but romantic gifts. How about the Raspberry Honey Dust set for $26.99. Dust in on your honey and she smells like honeys, with a touch of raspberry. OK…. There’s also an assortment of other items to get her…. Cashmere pajamas… chocolates, truffles..jewelry…soaps…candles and the like.

Here’s a cool idea. Over at the iTunes store they’ve put together a whole bunch of Valentine’s Day love songs to download…from Frank Sinatra… to Romantic Jazz to Hip Hop Love Songs. I didn’t know there was such a thing.

And there’s one more item, just in time for Valentines Day. The first pink iPod nano. Available online and at Apple stores.

Sites:
MySPace videos http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids
YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com
syBlip http://www.blip.tv
LiveLeak http://www.liveleak.com

Technology has changed a lot about wartime but personal technology like video cameras and laptop editing gear in the hands of soldiers is being used in some rather creative ways to show the folks back home what’s happening… the good, the bad and…the silly.

Go to any video sharing site these days and do a search for Iraq or Afghanistan and you’ll find a lot of material captured… without official permission… by soldiers. Some of it is dramatic. And some of it has shown some wrongdoing but a lot of it is… well… foolish and fun… of lip syncing and dancing.

The Navy tried to ban a video taken aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan but… it’s everywhere… showing a bunch of female sailors in a very slickly produced put on of their macho male counterparts…. Dancing and singing all over the massive ship.

All over the Net are similar videos, from Iraq, where the image of heavily armed combat soldiers dancing in a war zone makes for silly fun.

Soldiers get bored and with not much do in their down time, video cameras clearly fill a void.

Ever wondered what is significant about your birthday? Or what happened on the day, or year you were born? It used to be, parents saved newspapers from their kids birthdays, newspapers that yellowed, smelled musty and were all to easily lost forever in some obscure box in the attic.

Nowadays, all you have to do is head over to the Internet.

My favorite of all these when-you-were-born sites is this one, from a site called The People History. It’s organized by decade, by year and various subjects and even has video. Pick a year and there are all sorts of interesting facts… and old newsreel videos of the most momentous events that happened that year.

A site called Pro Genealogists has a nifty free feature that has you input your birthdate and it returns events that happened on that specific day and year, as well as famous people who died or share your birthday.

Finally, here’s the Kakorama site that tells you what song was number One on the day you were born as well as what was on Time Magazine’s cover, popular movies and cool inventions.