2009: Software and Tips

Posted on June 28, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Open Loops

This past week I came across a few things that have really helped me out:

In Finally a real tip to speed up Outlook 2007! : Bizzia – Business News and Commentary – Finance and Business Tips, I found real help to a serious problem at work. Outlook 2007 would take 5 minutes to launch, and switching to the application once it was running was taking at least another minute. This article got the launch time down to nothing, and further uninstalling Google Desktop (which I didn’t really use) took care of the switching time problem.

I was horrified when I did maintenance on my daughter’s netbook to see that FoxFilter started making its lockdown features a paid feature. Since whitelisting sites is necessary for my six-year-old, I did some research and came up with ProCon – Parental Filter Add-on for Firefox. I find it easier to use than FoxFilter because I can white list a site without having to navigate to a special page. I can also customize the message shown. (See “How I Locked My Daughter’s Netbook Down” for how I had locked down the netbook)

If you want to stick with FoxFilter, you can get the old (free) version back via FoxFilter 6 is back [again]!! « Practical Ideas on Gaze Guarding.

My daughter was not using her computer because Webkinz doesn’t play well with the smaller netbook screen. Webkinz on Netbook Solution …. – MyDellMini took care of the problem.

Looking at ways to motivate my daughter to do chores was getting to be a hassle. A site I ran across, Handipoints combines chore charts, goal setting and a Webkinz-like interface where they can earn and spend bonus points in one. The free service is great, and my daughter is working toward earning the subscription. More on this in the future, when I see how it works out.