Send yourself a reminder, via text message

One of the few things that the iPhone is not particularly good at is setting reminders/alerts.  Too much work, through too many menus to set up a simple reminder.  I got a simple, and free, alternative.  Try Oh Don't Forget.  It's a website where in a few quick and simple steps, you can create a text message reminder to yourself.  The site sends your text message to you, when you say you want it.  Problem solved!

Free Alternative to Microsoft Office

We all have or had Microsoft Office in our lives.  It's a very useful set of programs to get things done.  If only Microsoft didn't charge an arm and leg for it.  For years, your alternative was OpenOffice.  Now the future for OpenOffice is in doubt, so where do you turn?  You could try LibreOffice, but it is bogged down with a clumsy, outdated interface and file compatibility has been an ongoing issue.  Well, if you are not a fan of Google Docs, try Kingsoft Office Suite.  It has three programs, Writer, Spreadsheet and Presentation.  It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office documents and has a feature that Office has yet to adopt, tabbed views for documents.  If you have multiple documents open, each one gets its own tab, just like your web browser.  This simplifies switching between documents.  There is a free version, which does everything you need.  A Standard and Professional version are also available ($50 & $70 respectively), the one feature you get with them that is not with the free version is the ribbon interface that you currently have with Office 2010.  If you are sick of Office, give it a try.

Selecting multiple files in Windows can be easier..

If you are one who finds yourself selecting multiple files in Windows, you know what a "joy" it can be to use the Ctrl and Shift keys to select multiple files at once.  Here's an easier way to handle the task.  Open the Folder Options (foiund in the Organize menu in Windows 7), then select  the View tab and enable "Use checkboxes to select items".  Now it's a little bit easier on you!

Looks like the XBOX 360 is coming to you for $99

The Verge is reporting that begining next week, you will be able to get an XBox 360 with Kinect for the cheap price of $99.  The catch? You have to sign up for a $15-a-month, 2 year contract for XBox Live. It's worth considering what would happen if the same model that makes smartphones affordable were applied to game consoles.  

This idea is, in a word, brilliant. It takes the "subsidized hardware with back-end royalties" model already in use by game-console manufacturers and kicks it up another notch.

Consoles today are already subsidized. Retailers charge almost no real mark-up, and the consoles themselves are for minimal profit, or sometimes below cost. The retailers do this to make money selling games. The console makers (Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo) make money by charging a royalty on every game sold. Microsoft may lose money selling Xbox 360 consoles, but it makes back money on every Xbox 360 game sold, from any publisher.  The idea looks like it may work, but then again, do you really want another monthly bill.  Also, do you really want to pay a termination fee to stop playing your XBox?

A quick easy way to create secure passwords for every site

Here's the problem: You need a robust, virtually impossible to crack password. You need a different one for each and every site and service you use (to limit the fallout if hackers steal a password database). And you need an easy way to remember those passwords.

The simplicity of the answer is a bit astounding, but it does create secure, different passwords for every site you have.  How?  Follow along:

1. Come up with a single, secure password you can commit to memory, one that mixes letters, numbers, and symbols. In this case, you might use a familiar word like HassleFree, but modified thusly: Hassl3fr33!. All I did was replace each "e" with a "3" and tack on an exclamation point. That's now the baseline password (for purposes of this example--not in real life).

2. Whenever you sign up for a new service, use the name of that service as the prefix, then add the unique password. Thus, for something like Amazon, the password would be AmazonHassl3fr33!. For eBay, it would be EbayHassl3fr33!. And so on.

Presto! You've got a lengthy, secure, unique password for every site, one that you can easily remember.

Is it the perfect solution? When it comes to passwords, I'm not sure there's any such thing. A hacker who steals a password database could probably extrapolate the method--if he looked closely and really thought about it.  However, as a start, it's pretty secure due to the length of the password. 

You forgot your iPad on the plane, now what?

Most cellphones are lost, believe it or not, in taxis.  I recently returned from Orlando Florida and I must say that I can understand how people can accidentally leave a phone or iPad in the airport or on a plane.  What I did not know was that most airlines will keep it for up to 30 days and will try to return them to you.  In the case of iPads, they are finding it almost impossible to do so.  Airlines say they are warehousing hundreds of iPads and other tablet computers and e-readers left behind by travelers. Carriers try to reunite the devices with their owners but are often thwarted by the lack of ID tags, password protection and Apple Inc.'s reluctance to track down owners based on serial numbers.

Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal that talks about how often we lose devices and hard it is for Airlines to identify who they belong to.  Here's how you can protect yourself with your new device:

For a new device

--Apple can engrave information on the back. Securely taping a business card to the device works, too.

--Buy a brightly colored case that is easy to spot in a messy airplane cabin. A unique case will also help airline personnel locate the device in a storage room.

--Enable cloud storage for sensitive data, such as Apple's iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox.

--Go to settings on your iPad and enable Find My iPad.

--Set up your screen saver to display a phone number that someone can see even if the device is locked.

--Keep serial numbers of all devices in a safe place. That will help the manufacturer's customer-service representatives offer guidance.

Before a flight

--When purchasing a plane ticket, provide a phone number that the airline can use to contact you.

--Write down flight numbers and seat assignments for each leg of your trip to help airline personnel narrow their search.

After you realize it's lost

--Contact the airline immediately and file a claim. Check the carrier's policy on how long an item is kept before being donated or sold to a third-party company.

--On iPads, enable Find my iPad. The location of the device will be displayed on a map. It can play a sound—overriding volume or silent settings—to help with the search.

--On the Samsung Galaxy Tab, enable the Find My Mobile feature to trace the location of the device.

Last resort

--On the Kindle Fire, Nook, Sony and other e-readers, go online or call customer service to de-register the device. That keeps anyone who finds it from making purchases using credit-card information associated with the device. Also cancel any automatic subscriptions until the device is found.

--On iPads, go to the iTunes store to cancel any automatic subscriptions and remove credit-card information associated with the device.

--Apple and Samsung let you initiate a remote wipe to restore the device to its factory settings. Data can be restored using your most recent backup from the cloud.