The Machets’ Blog

Name: TrashMail Price: Free

Why does SPAM exist? Put simply, you provided your email address to someone who was may have given you something in return, but sold your email address on the way.

SPAM is unsolicited mail. It is both annoying and wastes time; however it is still very successful. Companies send these emails that most of us ignore. But there are some people, say 5% at most, who do buy those cheap watches or participate in special offers. This makes the whole thing worthwhile for the spammers.

Unsolicited messages are sent to you though a number of means. If you use a free email provider like Gmail, or a well known company such as AOL, spammers will probably get to you by guessing your email address. They send millions of emails to accounts that never exist. But that’s not the only way. As previously mentioned, spammers may buy yours and other people’s email addresses when you sign up for free or other account-based products. You are then promptly added to the list.

Other than creating a sophisticated, unique email address that will be hard to remember, you can create aliases when entering in your email address online. TrashMail is a very useful service which lets you create an email alias that expires after it receives X amount of emails or after a certain amount of time (whichever comes first). You can then safely give your email address to anyone you like, and SPAM will be largely reduced. This also applies to showing your email on a website (a forum is a good example). The team at TrashMail have created a Firefox extension where you can easily and instantly give out your @trashmail.net email address online, specifying where emails sent there should really end up.

Unfortunately, SPAM is not going to ever go away. The US and international courts may be tracking down and jailing/fining the biggest names in the ‘industry,’ but smaller spammers will always continue to cause agony. TrashMail is the best way to help reduce the waste of time that SPAM presents.

To view this video at its actual page, go to video.google.com

Windows Vista will be available from January 30, and Microsoft has made a timer that counts down to the launch date. You can see it below.

An 80 year old woman was arrested for shop lifting. When she went before the judge he asked her, “What did you steal?”

She replied: “A can of peaches”.

The judge asked her why she had stolen them and she replied that she was hungry. The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can. She replied “6″.

The judge then said, “I will give you 6 days in jail.”

Before the judge could actually pronounce the punishment, the woman’s husband spoke up and asked the judge if he could say something. The Judge said, “What is it?”

The husband said “She also stole a can of peas”.

Name: PDF Online Price: Free

PDFs (Portable Document Formats) are very useful read only files that you can download and email. The catch is that the major player for creating them is Adobe Acrobat, and it doesn’t come cheap.

Now, you can turn Word Documents among others into PDFs with PDF Online. Simply upload your document (maximum file size is 2mb) and provide a valid email address. Your converted PDF is then sent to you instantly.

PDF Online comes from BCL Technologies, a company which also makes easyPDF Print Driver; a fantastic program which lets you ‘print’ virtualy anything to a PDF (with no file size restrictions). It costs US$14.95 but is well worth it if you want to present your documents in a professional way.

In the coming weeks, you will quickly start to see two new logos on software and hardware packaging. “Certified for Windows Vista” and “Works with Windows Vista” stickers will be slapped onto the boxes. Basically, “Certified for Windows Vista means that the program or hardware meets specific requirements and there should be no problems using it.

Products that “Work” with Vista have not been altered specifically for Vista but all aspects should work fine.

You will be able to tell if the programs you use on Windows XP will work with Vista by running the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor; a small program which also recommends an appropriate version of the new operating system to suit your needs.

If you would like to listen to the new sounds of Windows Vista, Long Zeng has created a short video that compares the sounds to those of Windows XP. You can listen to them on Soapbox.

Shortly sending Office 2007 off to the manufacturers, Microsoft has completed Windows Vista and it too has been RTMed.

Microsoft confirmed that Windows Vista had been released to manufacturing on Wednesday.

Both Office and Vista will hit the stores worldwide on January 30, 2007, and those that had purchased a new Windows XP computer recently will be able to upgrade to the new operating system then.

It has been a very long ride for Windows XP’s successor. After a few screenshots of Windows Longhorn to the four major test versions, beta 1, beta 2, RC1 and RC2 (which I tried but didn’t review). This excellent version of Vista will see computing evolve.

Until Windows codename Vienna (Vista’s successor)!

So you know what to look for when you purchase Windows Vista, but which edition is best suited to you? When it is launched in December 2006 and January 2007, there will be two versions for businesses, and consumers will be able to choose from three ‘home’ editions.

Windows Vista Commercial Editions

Computer users in a business environment will be subjected to one of two versions of Microsoft’s newest operating system. Windows Vista Business will offer businesses security and other features that will assist in maximising productivity in the office. Windows Vista Enterprise will only be available direct from Microsoft as it is designed for large, global organisations with complex networks and systems.

Windows Vista Consumer Editions

There are three versions of Vista for home, standalone and small networked computers. The entry level system, Windows Vista Basic, is fine for anyone who does basic functions on their computer, including reading email, using the internet and running simple programs such as Microsoft Office Word. The Aero effects will not come with Vista, and this edition is suitable for cheaper or older machines. The most common edition of Vista will be Windows Vista Premium, which includes the infamous Aero interface as well as enhanced programs such as Windows Media Center (for home entertainment systems — and yes, it’s named “Center” and not “Centre”). But to get the best experience, you will need to spend about 30% of the price of a new computer to purchase Windows Vista Ultimate. The second and third major tests were review on The Machets’ Blog was the ultimate edition. It includes features that everyone will enjoy, from entertainment features like DVD Builder to Business applications such as the new in-built Windows Calendar. Ultimate edition is the only version of Vista that will support Tablet PCs, so the price of these portable computers is set to rise.

As in Windows XP, there will be another edition designed for emerging markets in third world countries. Windows Vista Starter will be sold as a legal alternative to using unauthorised copies in countries where piracy is abundant. Starter will lack most of the features and reasons that one would want to upgrade, however it is expected to be reasonably popular like its predecessor (Windows XP Starter Edition recently sold 1 million units).

Europeans will be offered the same business and consumer editions as above, but due to legal reasons that are trying to prevent Microsoft becoming more of a monopoly, these versions will not include programs like Windows Media Player, but will still be offered as a download.