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Bobcaygeon
February has never been my favourite month, but this year it has been particularly nasty, with equally dismal weather and economic forcasts. Having just received my first big-city tax bill on a raw winter day, I decided to cheer myself up by writing a column about freebies on the internet, and logged in to check some of my favourites. The experience was far from cheerful, as I discovered that the tech-stock tsunami has now reached the shores of beautiful downtown City of Kawartha Lakes.
The internet has been one of the last places where you really can get something for nothing (at least no money). For instance, free internet service providers (ISP's) provide dial-up service for which the only "payment" is to allow a running advertisement along a small portion of your screen. The idea is similar to ad-sponsored television, or newspapers (such as the one you are holding right now!). Until recently, we had a choice of several free ISPs with local (Lindsay) phone numbers, but one by one they have succumbed to the dot.com domino-rally. Alta Vista and FreeLane disappeared back in December, along with their provider, 1stUp.com. Address.com, which had a different (Lindsay) phone number, deserted us that same week. And, finally, DotNow and FunCow discontinued their Lindsay and Peterborough service in early February. DotNow no longer lists any Canadian numbers, and an email to their web site bounced back (the internet equivalent of "address unknown"). FunCow, a Canadian company, did respond to my email, but weren't very promising ("we'll keep you posted").
Similarly, some of the internet-to-phone sites I had mentioned in a recent column are free no more. WowRing, for example, now requires a monthly subscription fee. However, a last-ditch search for some good news for this column turned up three survivors: HotTelephone, HotCaller and MaxPhone. HotTelephone has reduced its service from 30 to 15 countries and limits calls to 10-minutes, but is still free, supported only by ads. HotCaller gives you "points" for watching ads, then applies these to phone time (eg. watching 3 ads will buy you 2 minutes to Bermuda or 6 minutes to Canada). MaxPhone, also with a 10-minute limit, is perhaps easiest to use. It doesn't download any software to your PC. Just go to the site, listen to the sponsor's advertisement, then call your Mum - even if she's in England or Australia.
While the internet-to-phone sites are getting thin on the ground (or in cyberspace), there are still lots of free voice internet-to-internet choices. These aren't quite as handy, as both you and the person you're calling have to be online, but that's the only difference - and the price is right! One of the most popular voice-to-voice programs is at www.PalTalk.com . Come to our March meeting for a demonstration - it might have a pleasant effect on your 'phone bills.
And, one final glimmer of sunshine: At www.PrimaSoft.com I found a handy - and free- little "disk inventory" program, called Disk Analyser. It will list the contents of your entire hard drive, or any directory or sub-directory, sorted by date or (the really useful part), by size. If all those freebies are filling up your hard-drive, download one more, and start spring-cleaning.
Finally: apologies to anyone who waded to the Lions' Club through ice pellets, snow and/or freezing rain (depending on from whence you started) on February 8 to find that our meeting had been cancelled. The cancellation was posted on CableCable Channel 10, and to Kawartha-Online - so, this is a good place to remind anyone who hasn't already done so, to sign up to Kawartha-Online. Email me at the address below to find out how! Thanks again to Janice Craig, for bringing us the computer papers from Oshawa. They are available (free!) at the Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon libraries.
The Kawartha Internet Users' Group meets at the Lions' Hall, Main St., Bobcaygeon, at 7pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month. New faces are always welcome.