MAKE-USE-OF collects computer tips from a half dozen different bloggers and hands them to you.

http://www.makeuseof.com/

450+ COMPUTER PROBLEMS SOLVED

     450+ COMPUTER PROBLEMS SOLVED: Do you want exceptional freeware to solve exceptional problems? Click below:

http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html

“40 UNUSUAL WEBSITES YOU SHOULD BOOKMARK”

     Not your usual list, that’s all I can say. Much of it deals with unusual cell phone applications.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/40-unusual-websites-you-should-bookmark/

EASY GRAPHIC TUTORIALS FROM GIMP

     GIMP has graphics tutorials that enable you to “use GIMP for your graphics needs without learning advanced computer graphics methods.” It also has graphics tutorials at the intermediate and expert levels.

http://mmmaybe.gimp.org/tutorials/

Make Your Life More Convenient

GRAND CENTRAL PHONE NUMBER

     GRAND CENTRAL gives you ONE NUMBER for calls on your cell phone, home phone and work phone. It will “let people call you from a web page without showing your number.” Even though you have only one number, it can “ring different phones based on who's calling.” Plus many other features, and GRAND CENTRAL won’t be going out of business any time soon, because it was just purchased by Google.

     Apparently it’s free.

http://www.grandcentral.com/

GET RID OF A BAD CELLPHONE CONTRACT

     “Stuck in a contract with a wireless carrier that just doesn't work for you?” asks TIME MAGAZINE in its listing of 50 best sites for 2007. “Suffer no longer. CELLSWAPPER makes it possible to walk away without having to pay an early-termination penalty, which can range from $150 to $250 depending on the carrier. Once you've registered as a user on the site, you can offer to turn over your own plan to someone who needs one on a short-term basis or browse for a new one to acquire yourself. Many swappers offer incentives — the old phone, accessories, cash — to sweeten the offer.”

http://www.cellswapper.com/

OH DON’T FORGET

     “Just type in a cell phone number and a brief message (‘Pick up dry cleaning’) and this site sends it out as a text message to that phone on the date and at the time you specify. The site detects your time zone so you don't have to include that, nor do you have to even register or look at any ads,” says TIME MAGAZINE in its listing of best sites for 2007.

http://www.ohdontforget.com/press/

EMAIL THE FUTURE

     You don’t do text messages? TIME MACHINER says it “is a new mini-app that lets you email people in the future. Use it to remind yourself to do something that you’ll more than likely forget, keep your future self on the straight and narrow, even wish your friends happy birthday . . . the possibilities are endless!”

     So I sent a TIME MACHINER email to Bill on April 19 due to arrive April 30. The site informed me the email was being “frozen and stored at extremely low temperatures” to keep it fresh until its due date, which I of course found thrilling.

http://www.timemachiner.com/

MALWARE-FREE DVD MP3 RIPPER

     This “free DVD MP3 Ripper can extract audio from DVD, VCD/SVCD and MPEG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2) files into MP3 which can be played in MP3 Players. The program is a freeware and does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.” My McAfee Site Advisor gives it a green light, meaning that the site is correct in saying it contains no malware.

http://www.dvd-mp3.org/

THE AWESOME HIGHLIGHTER

     Have you always wanted to highlight passages in yellow ONLINE? Well, here you go. And, so far as I can tell, it’s free.

http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/page/highlight