The Machets’ Blog

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Name: Firefox 2.0 Price: Free

Mozilla has recently released the latest version of its popular web browser, Firefox 2.0. This release offers some new and innovative features for the market, including a better management system for extensions, better support for feeds, and better overall security.

Firefox 2 contains some other useful improvements such as a spell checker (for multiple languages of your choice) and new phishing protection. The page search now searches text fields as well.

This excellent web browser, coupled with the many extensions available, gives you the very best experience in your day to day web browsing.

Here are some proven ways to get rid of telemarketers.

1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.
2. If they start out with, “How are you today?” say, “I’m so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems. My arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died . . . “
3. If they say they’re John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located, how long it has been in business, how many people work there, how they got into this line of work if they are married, how many kids they have, etc. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.
4. (This works great if you are male) Telemarketer: “Hi, my name is Judy and I’m with XYZ Company. ” You: Wait for a second and with a real husky voice ask, “What are you wearing?”
5. Cry out in surprise, “Judy? Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?” Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of terror as she tries to figure out where she could know you from.
6. Say “No” over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each one, and keep a rhythmic tempo, even as they are trying to speak. This is most fun if you can do it until they hang up.
7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as sinister a voice as you can, “I don’t have any friends, would you be my friend?”
8. If the company cleans rugs, respond: “Can you get out blood? Can you get out goat blood? How about human blood?”
9. After the Telemarketer gives his or her spiel, ask him or her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you can’t just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.
10. If the Telemarketer is selling raffle tickets, tell him or her that you work for the same company, and that employees cannot participate.
11. Answer the phone. As soon as you realize it is a Telemarketer, set the receiver down, scream, “OH MY GOD!” and then hang up.
12. Tell the Telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask if he/she will give you their home phone number so you can call him/her back. When the Telemarketer explains that telemarketers cannot give out their home numbers say, “I guess you don’t want anyone bothering you at home, right?” The Telemarketer will agree and you say, “Me either!” and proceed to hang up.
13. Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.
14. Tell them it is dinner time, but ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation. For added effect, clanging of cutlery and dishes is recommended.
15. Tell the Telemarketer you are on “home incarceration” and ask if they could bring you some beer.
16. Ask them to fax the information to you, and make up a number.
17. Tell the Telemarketer, “Okay, I’ll listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I’m not wearing any clothes.”
18. Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. “Come on, Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon, how’s your mum?”
19. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up… louder… louder!
20. Tell them to talk very slowly, because you want to write every word down.

We have now reached an age that can travel back in time! The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a site that lets you see many websites as they were in the past. You can see the roots of Yahoo!, Google, even The Machets’ Website.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine has taken copies of many websites over the ages since 1997, and lets visitors see each version that has been archived. You won’t be able to see every webpage on the net, as some have been disallowed by webmasters, or couldn’t be found. Some images and links are also unavailable.

This service is very useful and interesting, and it is definately worth taking a look.

A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day every day, for a long, long time. So she went to check it out.

She went to the Western Wall and there he was walking slowly up to the Holy site. She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane in a very slow fashion, she approached him for an interview. “I’m Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?”

“For about 60 years.” “60 years! That’s amazing! What do you pray for?”

“I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship.”

“How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?”

“Like I’m talking to a wall.”

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Name: MP3tunes Price: Free (for 1GB)

A new service allows you to play your music on any computer in the world. MP3tunes offers 1gb of space for free, but the catch is the quality. The free ‘locker’ will stream music online at 56kbps (low quality) whereas paid packages greatly improve on the number.

MP3tunes is an excellent idea and has a decent implementation, but it is not the best for the free offer.

Microsoft has announced that its latest version of its popular web browser, Internet Explorer 7, will be released sometime this month. Internet Explorer boasts some new and exciting features that have been come standard in other web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, including tabbed browsing, a built in RSS feed reader and a phishing filter.

Microsoft will make IE7 available as a high priority update on Windows/Microsoft Update, meaning that all computers running Windows XP SP2 that have Automatic Updates enabled will receive it in due course.

Microsoft seems to be racing to release version 7 before its competitor Mozilla releases its new version of Firefox (both are currently in testing stages). We will post a review of the new Firefox 2 once it is released and more extensions become compatible.

After many months and many test versions later, Microsoft Office 2007 will be released to manufacturing this month. I received an email from Microsoft Beta stating that all beta support, download and other related websites will be shut down and moved to official public websites.

Office 2007 will come in many varieties, specifically targeted for businesses, home users and students. Office Basic will include Word, Excel and Outlook; Home and Student adds PowerPoint and OneNote, while at the other end of the spectrum Office Ultimate and Professional Plus will include just about everything. All Office 2007 programs will also be available separately at a higher price.

Microsoft Office 2007 Suites will be priced at a similar value to the current Office 2003 offers, with Home and Student valued at US$149 and Standard substantially more at US$399.

It’s been a very long testing period, but this time Microsoft have got it right. As previously mentioned in other posts, the most noticible and best feature of many Office products is the Ribbon; a bar at the top of the window which replaces the dropdown File, Edit, etc menus with everything you need at your fingertips. Unlike when 2000 and 2003 were released, Office 2007 includes some excellent new features and is the very best version yet.

If you would like to test the new version of Windows Vista, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll need a decent computer with a DVD burner and you will probably want to backup your data (if you’re not installing it on a test machine). Then, follow these steps:

1. To find out whether your computer can run Vista, download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.
2. If you pass, download Windows Vista.
3. If you do not have a DVD burning utility, download the free ImgBurn.
4. Burn the Vista image to a DVD using ImgBurn.
5. Backup your data to an external hard drive.
6. Visit this link to get a product key from Microsoft. You will need to sign up or login to your Windows Live Account (that has never received a product key). You’ll be able to use this product key on up to 10 computers. You may want to print it out.
7. Insert the DVD and install Windows Vista.

If you’re not that technically inclined, wait for Windows Vista to come out and read The Machets’ Blog Review.