I remember getting my first Dell in the late 90′s and it was an incredible and customized PC. It’s crazy to think that less than 15 years ago they were basically the pioneer is this area. You had many different selections to choose from to custom you pc such as processor, ram, graphics card, modem, ethernet, speakers, optical drives like cd or dvd, hard drive size, the software you wanted it to come with preloaded on the pc & many more. My original dell that I bought sometime around 1998 still functions in my house as a guest computer.
Because of the way computer technology advances often referred to as Moore’s Law(where processing speed and memory double approximately every 18 months) this system is no longer the fastest. However, it still serves as a computer to those relatives who always seem to put some type of spyware on my computers somehow. This computer has been through a lot and was used for several years exclusivity and has still yet to have the need to replace a single component. Although, I did upgrade the memory at some point. This experience has made me believe Dell was an amazing quality brand for many years.
Dell was the #1 PC manufactorer from 1999 to 2005 minus a small period time when Compaq & HP the 2nd and 4th largest manufactorers respectively merged. In 2005 PC growth slowed considerable and by the end of 2006 Dell had been retaken by Hewlett Packard. Dell seems to have cut out both research and development as well as customer service. Most of the computers I purchased from 2005 onward have had some issues. I’ve had 4 of my 5 desktop pc’s have an issue with the power supply. My laptop battery doesn’t work and needs to be constantly plugged into an outlet to maintain a charge. Many of my friends and co-workers have had various issues with their Dells as well.
In 2010 I ended up building my own computer and haven’t thought about it much since. Since I’ve talked with my boss a bit about the Dell brand(he hates it and says if he gets something from Dell it always breaks) I’ve realized it a lot more about how far its fallen off. My sister’s quad core pc broke after minimal use. Another friend attempted to have their laptop replaced 3 times but they couldn’t even get the right screen for it. The cooling is often bad in their gaming laptops and I’ve heard many cases of overheating. Another friend said their laptop ran fine at around 100C until it would overheat. It seems nearly every Dell has a shorter life span now. I no longer have the faith in the brand I once did.
This is a review for the TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-File + State 2011.
(disclaimer: I am not an account or CPA you should consult them before making any tax related decisions.)
It’s tax season again and it’s time to file your taxes for the year 2011. If you’ve bought TurboTax in the past you would know it is the most used tax preparation software available. If you haven’t used TurboTax before and you want to do your taxes yourself this is your best option. You will save money on your taxes and get the job done quickly.
There are two versions of TurboTax blocks essentially the same product but one is downloadable the other is the actual box they’re both the same price $45.98. So if you want the product immediately you can gain access by purchasing the downloadable product:
Downloadable Version
If you’d rather have the box you will have to wait a few days but it comes with free shipping. This is the cheapest available deal for TurboTax Deluxe from a reliable vendor:
Turbo Tax Deluxe Mailed to you.
Here are some of the benefits of using TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-File + State 2011
Guaranteed accurate calculations: Should you incur any IRS or state penalty due to a TurboTax calculation error TurboTax will pay both the penalty and interest.
Guides you step by step through your tax return. Through some simple questions it searches for more than 350 different deductions and credits
Handles big life changes that might be complex such as: job change, marriage, bought a home, had a baby
Full service respresentation by tax professional; you’ll never have to meet the IRS if you don’t want to.
Transfer last year’s tax info no retyping necessary
Easily import PDF from prior years
Import financial data from software such as Quicken QuickBooks 2007 higher and Microsoft Money
Free one-on-one expert tax advice live by phone or chat. Plus you’ll have instant access to answers to commonly asked tax questions on every screen
Here are some of the potential draw-backs:
Costs an additional $19.95 file the return with the state which is sort of hidden/unmentioned.
Pushes the more premier version for those with investment income but you don’t need in a much situation is rather complex.
Some issues with the mac version with both updates and password protection.
Customer service can take a bit of time(often over half an hour to reach someone with the possibility of being disconnected.
It probably doesn’t work well if you have the operating system Microsoft XP 64-bit
Do you have some comments, additions, opinions or questions you feel should be included in this review? Drop us an email at:
This is a review for Dragon Naturally Speaking 11. There are many different versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking 11. In order for you to get the best results out of this software please read this article in its entirety. You may also discover it to be a quick easy way to save 30% or more on this amazing talk to type software.
In a hurry? Here is the Quick Review Summary:
Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 is a powerful piece of software enabling you to talk into a microphone and see your words transcribed on the screen. It has an extremely high built in accuracy which combined with a couple hours of training it to your voice will very often result in 99% or higher overall speech to text accuracy. The best price you can obtain this software for is available here:
How does Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 compare with the free versions of talk to type programs provided by both Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7?
Both talk to type programs provided by Microsoft transcribed words faster. The problem is they aren’t as accurate as Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 can be mainly because of user profiles and the fact that it evaluates phrases at once before transcribing. If you’re doing any type of writing that involves a lot of words you will be able to write a lot faster with Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.
How much will I benefit from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 talk to type?
How much you benefit from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 will depend upon several things:
How fast you type? The faster you type the less short-term results you have with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11. If you cannot touch type you will immediately benefit from the software especially if you’ve trained by reading for an hour or two. If you can already touch type you won’t benefit as much but you will be able to write faster very quickly. If you can type over 80 words per minute it may be a while before you see a great increase in speaking words over typing them.
How clearly can you communciate your words? The clearer you talk and the less noise present the fewer mistakes you will see Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 make.
How well your PC meets the Dragon computer system requirements? The more up to date your computer is the faster Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 will transcribe your words. This will also allow you to pause less as your constructing the next sentence.
How willing are you to spend a little bit of time to work with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 so it adapts to your voice? You can see significant improvements in the accuracy of transcribed words in under an hour of reading to the software successfully.
How much do you type articles, papers or any long passages of writing on the computer? The more you use the software to write instead of type the more value you will get out of it. For any student this is an excellent piece of software that allows you to complete your work much faster.
Many years ago I was running a 66 MHz 486. Windows 95 was brand new and I was envious of the Operating System because my computer’s system requirements weren’t enough to run it. Hell, even AOL 4.0 was a strain on my PC, especially if I went into a chatroom back then that supported colored fonts. I came across Windows 95 by accident on Amazon today and was surprised that it still costs almost $50 to purchase. You’d think an irrelevant OS would be free by now. To top that off, Windows 3.1 is being priced at $69.99 for a “new” copy! I for one am glad the Windows 3.1 days are over. Who would buy these things today?
I can’t help but notice that music videos these days are becoming more and more intricate. Dare I say they are becoming as interesting to watch as they are to listen to? While there’s nothing wrong with that, I think right now music videos are underappreciated by the world in terms of an art form. When I stumble on things like this Nero song, I can’t help but be drawn in by the visuals. The song itself is good too, but the video is edited and produced with the quality of a motion picture, while telling a story that adds meaning to the lyrics. Take a look:
I wanted to save this video so I could watch it again later, especially since YouTube tends to remove copyrighted content now and then. I stumbled on this website with a YouTube to Video Converter by ImTOO and was pleased to be able to download the video to my hard drive. Additionally, the software comes with the ability to multithread downloads so that it doesn’t take all day to pull a large video off YouTube. My connection is fast so that didn’t bother me all that much, but I was pleased to be able to save the file in high definition. I haven’t seen an application that pulled videos off YouTube with that ability yet. In case the link I provided for the software changes, I found it by googling “Download Free YouTube Downloader.”
Another cool application with ImTOO is their Video Converter Software. This enabled me to take the Nero video and convert it to an MP3 so that I could toss it on to my MP3 player. From what I can see the software can also extract pictures from videos, as well as convert between different video formats which can be handy from time to time.
