Everything costs money, and most of the time it's true that you get what you pay for. However, there are some free utilities that you might find useful for business purposes that I'd like to share with you.

The first is called Aero Snap. It's a feature that will come with Windows 7, so if you're planning on being an early adapter you don't have to worry about it. What it does is allows you to move any window you're using to the side of the screen, release it, and it'll automatically conform to a half screen window. If you have a big monitor, what this allows you to do is open two programs and look at them at the same time, which sometimes happens. Say, for instance, you have a bunch of numbers typed into a word processing program that you need to type into an Excel spreadsheet. You can snap one of the programs to the right, the other to the left, and instead of constantly flipping back and forth between programs or having to print your list out to work from it, you'll have both programs there readily and can just go about your business.

Do you have a fax machine? If not, you can still receive faxes from any source via email. There's a neat utility called J2 Messenger that's been around for years now. You just sign up for a free account, and they'll give you a fax number to use. The thing is, your fax number won't be local, but it works. To get a local number you have to pay a small monthly fee, but then you can use it to send electronic files as faxes if the need arises, which it often does. Since Vista didn't come with a fax program unless you got the professional version of it, which a large percentage of people didn't, this might be a way to help you get around that issue.

Something else about Vista is that Google Desktop, one of the best programs in the world for being able to find files on your computer, isn't compatible with Vista. There's another free program for that called Copernic Desktop Search, which is pretty good. It's free, which means that when you decide to use it you'll not only get a little bit of advertising, but it will also search the internet for your search term. That's a little bit irritating, but it will get the job done.

Once again, there's a superior desktop search program coming in Windows 7 if you want to wait for that.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Escobedo

Would you love to listen into police radio frequencies? Juicy Development has released version 1.2 of their Police Scanner for the iPhone. This neat little app can be used to listen in on police or firefighting frequencies. Whether there is an armed robbery in progress or a small house fire, anyone will be able to hear how the necessary resources are deployed and the status of dealing with the situation.

The design of the app has a clean and sleek look to it, making it easily accessible to the user while providing a simple interface to browse the various frequencies. The streams are clear and the access is practically immediate so that you are not simply listening to a feed that has already happened, but one that is currently on going and up to date.

With a listing of over 1100 different streams for EMS, police officers, and firefighters, many of the users in fact tend to be off duty employees with the ability to be good Samaritans if they happen to be within the vicinity of the situation that is taking place. The latest version has improved the functionality and the software is compatible universally. Whether you are using the application through the 3G network, the Edge Network or on a wireless LAN device, your accessibility will in no way be hindered.

The program has a black facade with an easy to use play and pause button. The window provides information of the frequency and the label for the stream you are listening to. All in all, Police Scanner provides a useful app for anybody who wants access to EMS, Police, and Fire frequencies.





Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_Anne_Williams

What comes to mind when your think of technology? For some people technology conjures up images of computer circuitry or the internet, for others the latest cellular communication devices or flat panel television sets are the first thoughts that pop into their heads. And for yet others space walks and Mars rovers come into their thoughts, but at the center of all of these different answers is one underlying theme, computer circuit boards.

Computers have greatly altered the way in which people work, communicate and associate with each other. The images that come to mind at the mention of technology often include a circuit board as the central focus of technology. And that is an accurate portrayal of what modern technology is all about. At the center of every electronic gizmo and computer is a printed circuit board. Printed circuit boards or PCBs as they referred to in the industry, have been included in many technologies over the decades. First introduced by an Austrian born inventor named Paul Eisler, in the 1930s, PCB manufacturing began as a military project within the US until the technology was released to the electronics industry after the end of World War II.

Since that time PCB manufacturing has evolved to become smaller and more intricate in the designs that are carved by lasers into the polymer layers that coat a copper plate. Copper being a conductor of electricity, is used in PCB manufacturing to guide electrical currents through the PCB to the components that run the electronics and computers associated with technology. Today PCBs are found in every electronic device and computer on the face of the planet.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Coisson