Archive for category free stuff

Speek Your Mind- Free Teleconference Calling

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Speek. All opinions are 100% mine.

Wow, social networking and teleconferencing is really growing! I’ve been on a mission for finding various (free) web-based telecommunications programs. On is network chat (still searching), another is VoIP (getting there), and another is something that kind of mixes the two. I dislike Google. Talk very mush; Skype is so-so (too many doodads and buttons), but here’s a new thing I found: Speek.com! This looks terrific!

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It’s a program comparable to Skype and GoogleTalk. Speek handles cell phone calls, landline calls, and VoIP calls! Speek prides itself on speed and reliability, too, saying that your call will start on time, every time. That’s cool!

If you are interested, you can click here to register for private beta. I’m checking it out already. I have registered (easy to do). I already tried dialing out a conference call (it worked!). I think this is perfect for the small business– you can’t beat the price (free) and Speek is really convenient. You can even schedule calls. Nice.

Speek will import your contacts from Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, or even a CSV file. Speek so far is pretty simple and NICE and easy to navigate. It’s still in beta, so some things are still in the works, and feedback is extremely important. Check it out, give it abuzz, and leave feedback. I think Speek will be better than Skype. It’s definitely friendlier, easier to navigate, and they seem really willing to listen to consumer feedback. They’ve got a new app, too– be sure to give Speek a try! I think Speek looks neat!

Visit my sponsor: Talk up our private beta

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Free Audio Uploading Site

I was recently on a hunt for a p;ace where I could store my audio tracks– preferably for free. The video-sharing sites abound, it’s crazy there are so many! But I have had a difficult time finding a site where I can upload my audio.

Then, Kim Komando comes out and announces one! Cool. 8-)

It’s called Zoopy. It’s free. I haven’t tried it out yet because I am still sifting through all my audio; but it looks very good! It has an embeddable video/audio player which you can use for blog posts (perfect for me! I do a lot of tutorials and it’s helpful to have audio and visual aids). Check out the terms of service. Looks good. I’ll have a full-fledged review on it after I’ve tried it for a while.

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File Taxes Online for Free

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of eSmart Tax. All opinions are 100% mine.

Every year, more and more people take advantage of the convenience, speed, and ease of online filing for taxes. Fling the taxes is painful and stressful. Doing ALL that paperwork makes the task absolutely onerous. I know, I am self-employed and am slammed with tons of paperwork (not to mention, tons of taxes)! There’s a website that will make filing your taxes a little easier– it’s eSmartTax.com, and you can file for free at their website! Moreover, they have a very neat deluxe version geared specifically for people who have the surname Johnson: Johnsons file free! Actually, the new spokesman for eSmartTax.com, Daryl Johnson, may find it helpful! Did you know that there are over 2 million people in the United States named Johnson?! That Johnson is the second-most common name in this country?! (I assume the most common is Smith). eSmartTax.com wants to make filing taxes as painless and quick as possible, for people named Johnson and those with other names. :D eSmartTax.com also offers a more extensive deluxe version that you can purchase, as well. It’s very affordable– under $10! See the website for more information on filing taxes with eSmartTax.com.

Doing your income taxes is painful enough. Alleviate some of the discomfort with the convenient eSmartTax.com.

Visit my sponsor: eSmartTax.com

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Finding Literature Online

It’s winter for us in the United States– that means more inside activities. For us, it means more reading. I have a stack of books that I’ve ordered from the library, but there are several books that I desire to read that my library does not carry (I like history books, especially ancient civilizations and British history; these seems to be in short order at my library, which carries a ton of fiction stuff).

I considered getting one of those e-reader gadgets (like the Kindle or Sony e-Reader) but the price tag gave me sticker shock. But I found that one doesn’t really need one of those gadgets to read books, not really. There are a ton of e-books to be found online. And if you have a netbook, it’s as easy as starting up a browser or opening a pdf file. Here’s a quick list of e-books to be found online. All of these sites have free books and other forms of literature to read.

Google Books
By far, Google has the largest selection of books and magazines, new and old. I like their library because they have many books that have been out of print for decades , which are very useful to me for my research.

Project Gutenberg is a huge site, with thousands of books you can download or read online.

The Christian Classic Ethereal Library has many old books and documents online for reading.

American Rhetoric has a large database of speeches, documents, videos, and more.

The Classic Bookshelf The website is a little hokey (old), but they have a searchable database and some great classics online.

The Open Library is good.

The Online Books Page is run by the University of Pennsylvania and has a searchable database.

Diploma Guide.com has a listing of free books and textbooks you can read online, as well as a listing of universities in the U.S. (public and private) where you can search for more.

The Internet Archive Text Archive
This website has a large selection of older books.

The Cornell University Library has some very old journals from early America. And The Making of America has a selection of older books, too.

Children’s Storybooks Online has children’s books.

And this list just scratches the surface! If you still haven’t found a particular book, try searching for “read books online” and/or the title or genre of the literature you want.

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Well That Was Easy Peasy

About a year ago, I got the tiny Asus Eee PC, pre-loaded with a Linux operating system, Xandros. While the OS wasn’t too bad in of itself, it had a ton of junk in it that I couldn’t uninstall (like a goofy Chinese dictionary, and a Mr. Potato Head Paint program). The OS gobbled up all hard drive space except for a meager 200 MB.

Asus Eee 2

I have tried an Ubuntu OS a few months ago, but couldn’t get the thing to connect to wireless, so I went back to the original Xandros. It was shortly after that I heard of a new Ubuntu OS made specifically for netbooks, called Easy Peasy.

ep2

IT’S GREAT!!! We love it! It was a breeze to install, a breeze to use. It really is Easy Peasy. There were some excellent instructions here, and the Easy Peasy Wiki was helpful, too. The only issue I ran into was installing the OS onto the netbook– you can run it from a USB drive, which is very cool. But I wanted to install it onto the netbook. It was easy enough (guess that’s why they call it Easy Peasy, huh?), but I wasn’t expecting it to run off the USB first.

I think it’s a good, speedy alternative to Windows for any netbook. There’s been a massive influx of alternative Windows-less programs (such as Firefox, Open Office, etc) and Easy Peasy works with them all. Very nice. Thumbs up from Mrs. M!

P.S. Easy Peasy is free, by the way. ;)

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