Well, we all quite like giving Microsoft a hard time, but we all still seem to end up using their products, don’t we … To improve the whole experience, AddInTools offer a wide variety of enhancements to the standard Redmond offerings - today we’re talking about Office 2007, in particular Change Ribbon Style of Office 2007 - interface ribbon, menus and toolbars back the way you liked them, a welcome rollback to Office 2003.

AddInTools have the official Microsoft sanction, and offer plugins for not only Access, but the whole range, Word, Excel, PowerPoint …. Note the screen shots, on the right. The Customizer is easy to switch on and off as a tool, and can safely be removed without messing up the registry settings - well, it came off my machine quickly enough without mishap(!).

Frankly, you’re not just paying for a new skin, as if it were something you could get for free with Firefox or similar. We are all set in our ways to a greater or lesser extent and if productivity can grab that extra 5-10% for you, it’s going to start paying off.

A welcome feature is the multi-language support on the site and multi-currency purchase via Paypal - very useful if you want to avoid the fairly murderous charges that the banks are coming up with these days. There is also the 60-day money back offer if not completely satisfied deal and the regular two years guarantee - free updates as and when they arrive, and email support with the purchase of a license.

Well, it’s been quite a while since I had to sit in an exam room or in front of a panel of 3 bored professors hoping to whizz through the last few in the alphabet before they could get their lunch

Today’s site is all about the (US-based) social work exam, offering study guides and supplements designed to secure you qualification as a social worker via the ASWB social work licensing examinations - bachelor’s or master’s, with study material, sample test questions and reference tools. If it is anything like the web site it will be well-presented …

Study guides? We never had study guides in my day, had to do it all for ourselves, hunting through dry old textbooks, etc etc …

Apart from the certainties of death and taxes, there is another fairly major one - there just isn’t one perfect web hosting company to suit all requirements - just one of those things…

Some require reliability above all, (reselling becomes a lot easier in that case), some need the support and some people just need it damn cheap - the best we average punters can do to limit the fallout is to make the most informed choice we can before we start.

For a comparison site dedicated to web hosting, you might give webhostinggeeks.com a go - a little more variety in opportunities than some others in the field - although the usuals are all present, divided into budget, ecommerce, windows hosting categories etc.

Yes, well, we can all tell wonderful horror stories about people who never bothered to keep a backup of their site, novel, million images of cats and dogs - and lost everything by hitting the wrong button late at night having had a drink or two - they’re always other people - we do tend to keep a bit quiet about our own slight mishaps …

So, the advantage of storing everything online becomes obvious - IDrive Online Backup provides the usual 2GB storage of docs, photos, media files for free, and a two-stage paid plan divided by personal and business use, starting at $4.95/Month for 150 GB of storage - which is a pretty good deal considering that’s more than my whole hard disk, but then I am a bit behind on hardware solutions …

Basically you’re synching and archiving your files and folders - like a torrent of one - with the options of scheduling, favourites and an Explorer view, exactly as a standard ftp client. It’ll work with Windows and Macs, (unless I’m missing something, there’s no mention of Linux).

It probably ought to noted that the personal unlimited option is subject to the usual interpretation of “fair use” - and that can differ at times. Also to bear in mind, online subscription can involve automated debits.

Get your old skin back… and not just the old skin, but all the buttons to click as well.

So why just pay for a skin - it’s not just that. Since we are all to some extent creatures of habit,, the average power user does get used to doing things a certain way - Classic menus and toolbars for Access 2007 gets things back to how they were in terms of features obscured or even vanished by default in the 2007 version - get on back to 2003 …

See the screen shot, right.

They have the Microsoft sanction, as a recognised third party provider of software - not, I imagine, the easiest to achieve knowing MS and how they have always operated. Not only Access, but also, basically the whole range, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc. all in their 2003 forms. Install the software and get back the standard menus and toolbars.

One extremely welcome feature for non-US potential customers is the ability to pay in a variety of currencies, not just US dollars, (always fairly prohibitive on a credit card, if it isn’t a Paypal deal …) There is also a 60-day money back guarantee and the standard two years of free updates and support on purchase of a license.

For all nuisance calls, or perhaps because most humans are naturally shy and retiring and do like to be properly prepared, to check on who’s been calling before you return their calls, the service available is callerbase.com’s reverse phone database.

This service, as I understand it, is free for public numbers, giving details of zip code, area, city, phone carrier etc. whereas for cell phones and unlisted numbers, which aren’t public record, the paid reverse lookup comes into play.

In terms of security and privacy, the assurance is given that there’s no GPS or Wi-Fi interception going on to obtain these data, also that there is no notification to the number searched for.

Having tried it on a couple of publically-available numbers, it seems to do exactly what it says on the tin. But, obviously, do note that this is a US or Canada only deal…

For a web hosting comparison site, you might be in the mood to give webhostingrating.com a try - top-notch design on the page, and a little more variety in end-supplier than some others in this market …

Divided into the regular categories of unix versus windows hosting and a full checklist of the extras of python, ruby scripting etc. Plus there’s extra background information on the whole area of getting your dream site up and running, tips on choosing a domain name, ecommerce hosting and managed versus colocation.

The deal is exclusively in US dollars - but with the weakness of sterling at the moment that’s certainly no bad thing, I’ve certainly said goodbye to all UK packages - and now of course, the pound is climbing back up again.

At last - and it is scary to preface these with the fatal words - at last, the solution to that eternal problem of what to buy someone when you’ve absolutely run out of ideas, and they’ve got everything etc etc. Gift Ideas - enter a few demographics and get a answer…

The algorithm’s not too bad, a bit literal at times, and there is a preponderance of Google Products, still touchingly known as Froogle here, but, the wisdom of the Telegraph is that it is so … putting them top of the list in the shopping section of their list of indispensible websites (although I suspect I could dispense with ebay, never having used it …)

Today’s sites are that unusual thing - UK entrants, which makes a welcome change for that … and the niche is ecommerce, Shopping.com and Dealtime.co.uk, the shopping comparison sites, offering you sourced deals on the staple products of jewellery, consumer electronics, appliances and Lingerie.

Shopping.com, not a bad name, have been around for a long time - dealtime.co.uk is in some ways the amazon imitator, with a preponderance of ebay sourced merchandise. It is worth noting that with the flock-like similarity of all ecommerce web site design these days, the transition to the seller’s domain is hardly noticeable…

Do bear in mind that these are only facilitators - the deal is done with the participating merchants, who bear responsibility for price and description.

Well, it’s pretty clear on looking through the link sales adminstration panel - advertisements in RSS have been an abject failure. Not so surprising really, I guess…

So - back to good old email marketing and today’s site, goldlasso.com, offering email marketing software and services. Continue reading »