Manage Your Money Online - For Free

Having read a post about ClearCheckbook on www.makeuseof.com, I decided to check it out. After spending about 5 minutes on the site (after a simple and free sign up maybe 2 minutes), I realized this was exactly the application I have been looking for the past several months. The best part about the application is you control everything manually. You have complete control over the accounts (Cash, Checking, Savings, and Credit) you set up along with the expense categories to assign. Additionally, ClearCheckbook provides up to date reports to view trends or charts of how and when your money is used. You can set up automatic recurring reminders to pay your monthly bills. Not that I will need this feature, but you can work in non US currencies.

I had previously been using my own version of this application in an Excel spreadsheet. One of the best features of this website is that you can access the data from any internet connection.

Staying on top of your finances, especially your expenses can be a great advantage to your overall financial status. Knowing where your money is coming from and where it is going is very important. For anyone that does manage your checkbook or would like to start, I would recommend at least taking a look at ClearCheckbook.

Here are just a few ways ClearCheckbook can help you stay on top of your finances:

• Balancing - Ability to balance your checkbook from anywhere you have internet access.
• Reports - View based on your spending and what you're spending your money on.
• Mobile - Specially designed interface for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Manage your finances from anywhere you have a cellphone or wifi connection!
• Automation - Automatic recurring transactions and notices so you never forget to pay your bills.
• CheckBot 2.0 - Update your account from your cellphone SMS or AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Google Talk Messenger services.
• 100% Free! - That's right, ClearCheckbook doesn't cost a penny! It's completely free to use.

Groups Urge FCC to Keep the Internet Open

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission needs to take steps to keep the Internet free of interference from broadband providers, such as the slowing of peer-to-peer traffic and the tracking of subscribers' Web habits, several witnesses told the FCC at a hearing Monday.

The FCC should take fast action against broadband providers that block access to legal online applications, especially those who don't notify their subscribers, said Marge Krueger, administrator of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) for the district covering Pennsylvania and Delaware.

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MS Offers 1st Hints at Anti-Apple Marketing Blitz for Vista

Microsoft this week offered a window into the first phase of a mega million dollar advertising campaign designed to clear up 'misconceptions' about the quality of its Windows Vista operating system exacerbated by in-your-face marketing efforts on the part of longtime rival Apple.The first series of ads in the campaign were reportedly met with rave reviews last week when they were previewed at Microsoft’s employees-only Global Exchange conference.

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The End of Human Help in Stores?

Imagine standing in a retail store desperately looking for help from someone, anyone, and being directed to … a computer screen.“No one here can help you," a clerk might say. "But someone 1,500 miles away probably can."This just might be the future of customer service. Two companies, with products named Live Agent and Live Support, hope that consumers who today wander aimlessly through store aisles looking for help would be happy to use video-conference kiosks instead.

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OpenOffice 3.0 Promises to Bash Office

OpenOffice is the result of over twenty years' software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: OpenOffice does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.

Easy to Use
OpenOffice is easy to learn, and if you're already using another office software package, you'll take to OpenOffice straight away. Our world-wide native-language community means that OpenOffice is probably available and supported in your own language. And if you already have files from another office package - OpenOffice will probably read them with no difficulty.

It's Free
Best of all, OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any licence fees. OpenOffice is released under the LGPL licence. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.







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Analysts: 150 U.S Banks Nationwide May Fail Next Year

As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, U.S. regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year. But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And which one could be next?

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WJS's Walt Mossberg Reviews 3G iPhone

Smart-phone shoppers who have been waiting for a cheaper iPhone that runs on faster cell networks might want to take the plunge on the iconic device's latest iteration, but service costs have risen and battery life has dropped.

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Master Your Digital Media with VLC

Cross-platform media player VLC is often referred to as the "Swiss Army knife of media applications" for good reason: Not only does VLC play nearly any file you throw at it, but it can do so much more. From ripping DVDs to converting files to iPod-friendly formats, let's take a look at the four coolest things you can do with it.

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Healthy Employees are a Win/Win for Everybody

“Almost a third of companies offering health insurance benefits to their employees also provide a wellness program of some sort. Fitness, smoking cessation and weight-loss programs are provided most frequently, according to 2006 employer health benefits survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The telephone survey contacted 2,122 randomly selected public and private employers,” according to a CNN article.

Recently, MedCom began offering reimbursement to its employees for active enrollment in health and weight-loss programs. The atmosphere within the answering service industry is primarily a sedentary lifestyle. This 24/7 job typically requires agents to be deskbound in order to properly handle clients’ calls just as in most call centers. Consistently sitting behind a desk restricts the amount of activity agents get throughout the day. By MedCom offering to offset costs of joining weight control programs, meetings with health counselors, nutritional guidance and exercise plans, the MedCom administration hopes to motivate their employees to begin or even continue taking action to improve their health.

In addition to offsetting the cost of these wellness programs, MedCom implemented a smoking cessation plan. The goal is to help employees quit smoking. Quitting smoking along with active participation in wellness programs can enhance the overall company’s health. This improvement in health can go a long way for both the employees and the company.

"Health and wellness programs at work are a win/win situation for everybody," says Richard Taylor, vice president of human resources at Intel. "We keep our insurance costs down, and the employees are offered free health and wellness opportunities."