How I do it on my PC

RIVER BENDER - November, 2012

　

Tracking investments: Every Saturday I access Yahoo Finance at http://finance.yahoo.com/ and download closing prices of our stocks which I have set up in a portfolio at Yahoo Finance. I then copy/paste the new prices into a stock spreadsheet I created and immediately can see our total net worth and the gain/loss of each security for the week and year. The spreadsheet also computes other data that enables me to check how investments are performing, including dividend yield and purchase of additional shares from dividend reinvestment. The spreadsheets are printed and saved in notebooks.

Tracking bit speed: I'm subscribed to Suddenlink for 15 mb/sec download speed. Since August I have been recording bit speed daily on a spreadsheet using http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ (at Washington DC). Readings are as high as 20 mb/sec and as low as 4 mb/sec with the average at 12.5 mb/sec after 300 tests. It would be interesting to hear what others are experiencing.

Use Microsoft's System File Checker (SFC): When your PC acts strange, it may have a corrupted or missing system file. The SFC tool troubleshoots missing or corrupted system files and repairs or replaces them. Here's how to use it in Windows Vista and Seven: Click Start/All Programs/Accessories then right-click Command Prompt, and click Run as administrator (important). If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow. At the command prompt, type sfc /scannow (yes - a space after sfc). More info is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

What's on my desktop: I rarely use "Favorites" in MS Internet Explorer and instead create desktop icons for all programs and web sites I access constantly. I have about 70 icons on my desktop and group them together based on their function, i.e., web sites are on the right and programs on the left.

Watch free movies: Everybody has heard of NetFlix which rents movies online, but here's a new FREE movie site I discovered at http://www.crackle.com/. There are lots of free movie sites but most are on a trial basis or require you to establish an account or download a player or the movie itself, Crackle is simple. Just click on the movie and it plays.

Getting weather in motion fast: I'm impatient and hate waiting to see weather in motion after going to the main Weather Channel site. But did you know you can put an icon on your desktop for weather in motion? After it displays, click on File/Send/Shortcut to desktop.

Get free grocery coupons: There are lots of free coupon sites on the web but most are very similar. We use CouponBug at http://www.couponbug.com/. Also I assume everyone knows by now that Walmart accepts food prices advertised at Food Lion and Piggly Wiggly so take along the current ads with you and save money.

Clean out junk: I clean out junk daily from my PC using FREE CCleaner at http://www.piriform.com/CCleaner

To be able to click on websites in this article, go to my index of articles at http://pages.suddenlink.net/davew/dwindex.htm