Question: Joanne asks, "My Outlook Express won't delete mail anymore. How can you fix that?"
Answer: Good question, Joanne. One of two things is happening here: either your Deleted Items data file has become too large, or it has gotten corrupted somehow. Now, if your file has gotten too large, you can compact it. Just open Outlook Express, click File, then Folder, then Compact All Folders. We'll have a link in the show notes for today in case you missed it. On the other hand, if the file has become corrupted, then the best thing to do is to shut down Outlook Express and delete that file. When you restart Outlook Express, it will recreate an empty one for you. Since that procedure is a bit more involved, we'll have a link to it, again, in the show notes.
Cool Site: NiNite.com: We love free software here at TechTipFriday. And this week's cool site is all about free software, not to mention free time. Ninite.com lets you just check a bunch of boxes and then two clicks later, off you go. The Ninite installer will fully automate the setup of the applications you've selected. No clicking next, no clicking finish, no extra toolbars to uninstall when you're done; just pure, unadulterated free software. To be fair, Microsoft Office 2007 is a trial version, and there may be others like that, but I didn't see them. If you want to know whether something's been updated, just run your installer again. The latest versions of the software you choose will always be set up on your computer. You don't have to set up an account, and it doesn't matter if you have 32 or 64-bit Windows. Ninite knows. I made a quick list of 11 programs, some of which I already had, to put Ninite to the test. It skipped four, installed one that I didn't have, and updated the rest, all in about 9 or 10 minutes. The installer was small, only around 300k. It began downloading the first app, then while that one was installing, it downloaded the second. When the installation of the first item finished, it just started right in on the second one, and so on. For IT Professionals, there is a Ninite Pro that has several additional features and doesn't necessarily require visiting the website first. This site almost qualifies as a gadget, too.
Cool Gadget: Creative Labs' D100 Bluetooth Boombox Speakers: For this week's cool gadget, I found Creative Labs D100 Bluetooth enabled boombox speakers. Pair these speakers up with your phone or other Bluetooth device, and you can get great bass response from the D100’s twin 3-inch speakers. They run $70-$75 and come in blue, green, black, and pink. The only bad thing about it is you can't use it as a speakerphone. They don’t have a remote, but I don't call that much of a drawback. With the Bluetooth, you can keep your music player in your pocket as you move around the room, which is cool; but if your player is like mine and doesn't do Bluetooth, these speakers have an aux jack so you can plug them in. It runs on a couple of AA batteries, which are not rechargeable, but you get 10-15 hours from a set of alkaline batteries.
It's All "Geek" To Me: End User: This week's term is End User. The End User is nothing more than the person the device, service, or software was designed to be used by. So when you use your computer, you are the end user. When you listen to this show (and thank you for it by the way), you are the end user. You are the final consumer of the finished product. For instance, when I sell a computer with Windows on it, Microsoft wrote Windows and sold a copy to a distributor. I bought that copy of Windows from the distributor, and used it as part of the computer that I turned around and sold to the End User, who agrees to the End User License Agreement. Being the final link in the supply chain makes you the End User.
