Feb 14 06
DONA'S COMPUTER CAPERS©
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by Dona Z. Meilach
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2. FLASH DRIVES AS ADVERTISING MEDIA
3. MULTITASKING WHILE
DRIVING?
4. POWER SQUID- AN INTRIGUING CLEVER
GADGET
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So many new products and ideas appear all the time that it's hard to keep up and know who will be turned on by what. But you readers have been generous with your comments and I thank you for your feedback.
1. MEDICAL EXPENSE MANAGER
Anyone who uses the NET for research knows that looking up one thing leads to ten others and it's hard to stop. So when I saw a NY Times article about Quicken's new direction, it made me aware of their recently introduced MEDICAL EXPENSE MANAGER software. Anyone who gets bills (are there any who don't?) from their insurance provider, and their doctor knows that caveman style hieroglyphics are still very much in evidence. Curious, I had to check out the program that led me a Website, titled, www.about.com that offers several free newsletters. One newsletter targeting financial news netted information about Quicken and MEDICAL EXPENSE MANAGER. Here was a growing, swelling group of users who were helping Quicken improve the program. Their FAQ interaction could be of interest to all of us who resent the obfuscation that insurance companies use to befuddle their clients.
Keeping track of medical bills is the goal MEDICAL EXPENSE MANAGER. But don't stop there. Explore the offerings at About.com. I couldn't tear myself away from their channels covering Arts & Leisure, Automotive, others about, Business, Cities And Towns, Education, Electronics & Gadgets, Health & Fitness, Style, and Shopping from a total of 24 subject areas, all with a multitude of articles, instructions and further downloads. Medical Expense Manager from Intuit lists for $50. See it at: http://quickenmedical.com/
2. FLASH DRIVES AS ADVERTISING MEDIA
Don't be surprised if you get a mailing with a cute looking flash drive imprinted with a company name. The latest advertising/promotional message may be on flash drive that you pop into your computer's USB port and run exactly as though it was another external drive content.
Depending on how long you've been around computers, you may remember when 5/14 in disks, then 3 1/2 in. disks were mailed bearing a company's logo and message. They were used as give-aways at conventions and trade shows. Next came CD's, and then DVD's that run from your CD drive…and some maybe from your television set. For a short while half-size CD's were sent also, but they never seemed to catch on.
Now, flash drives are being setup as the newest media message vehicle. I received one recently from the Whole Wheat Foods organization public relations department providing information about the organization, images, and recipes to use in my cooking column.
The flash drives are available in different shapes, colors, and capacities. You can have your logo printed on them. True, the contents can be deleted and the drive re-used but with a logo on it, the company name will always be at hand. Because they're reusable, they won't clutter up the environment as do CD discs when they're no longer viable. While it's hard to find enough creative uses for obsolete CD's, flash drives are another story. Just put them on a chain and they might make a nice piece of jewelry.
More information and pricing about using flash drives for promotions can be found at
http://www.memory.com/cuusbfldr.html
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3. MULTITASKING WHILE DRIVING?
If you drive and take notes, apply mascara, talk on your cell phone, you could be in for some serious trouble. That kind of trouble has recently been studied and documented by a study at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The tune of $3.7 was awarded to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) by the National highway Traffic Safely Administration (NHTSA) to study the problem and what might be done about it.
Using 100 leased cars with specialized instrumentation, similar to, but better than, that used for black boxes on airplanes, data was collected to observe drivers in their natural settings. Data was collected over a 13-month period and covered approximately 2 million vehicle miles. It netted 15 police-reported and 82 total crashes and collisions, 761 near crashes, 8,295 evasive maneuvers of less magnitude than a near crash.
These events were recorded with video, which drivers quickly forgot were even in the car. Conclusions were that "driver error" was a contributing factor in more than 90% of all near crashes while 80% of all crashes and 65% of near crashes involved the driver looking away from the forward roadway prior to (within 3 seconds) before the event. The database contains extreme cases of driving behavior and performance, including severe fatigue, impairment, judgment error, risk taking, secondary task engagement (multitasking), aggressive driving, and traffic law violation.
Most significant, and already widely publicized, is the secondary task distraction caused by hand-held wireless devices. But the most dangerous contributing factor was fatigue…racking up responsibility for 12% of all crashes, greater than the 2 to 4% previously estimated. Divers who suffered from moderate to severe fatigue were 4.7 times more likely to be involved in a crash than an alert, attentive driver.
VTTI researchers are planning additional studies in the hopes of delving more deeply into real world driving behavior with the goal of improving transportation safety and saving lives.
Gee, I believe most of us could have predicted nearly similar conclusions for a lot less than the $3.7 used by the VTTI.
4. POWER SQUID- AN INTRIGUING CLEVER GADGET
Chances are that any of the power strips and surge protectors in your office are capable of holding only half of the plug ins for which they're designed. Too many of your rechargeable units, and auxiliary electronic gadgets, require adapter plugs that cover two or three of the female outlets on the unit.
Enter the Power Squid from Power Sentry, that lets you plug in 5 adapters without overcrowding. While the company thinks of it as a squid with tentacles, to me it looks like a head with a bunch of pigtails of different lengths. The extensions, or tentacles, are purposely graduated in length so the adapters don't conflict with each other.
The Power Squid is not a surge protector but you can plug it into one. It
lists for $15.00 but is heavily discounted from several vendors. Search Power
Squid and you'll find it for as little as $9.99.
Dona
Meilach is the author of over 85 books with 10 on computers. Her latest books,
just out, is IRONWORK TODAY; INSIDE & OUT from Schiffer books.
www.schifferbooks.com.
Other computer organizations interested in running this column should contact
the author. The column is also available free. Subscribe DCC: Contact dmeilach@msn.com. Dona’s Computer Capers may also be found at
http://www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard..