Keep your netbook files in sync with Syncables

When you’re using your netbook as a companion to your primary PC, you need software to keep everything in sync. One solution is Syncables, a software solution that comes standard on the HP Mini 110 line, with support for syncing to any other PC. Here’ s a video demo of how Syncables works.

Keep in mind you don’t need to have an HP Mini to use Syncables. You can also download Syncables and use it with any combination of two or more computers.

Back-to-school Notebooks and Laptops from HP

As you shop for a new laptop to take to school this fall, check out the new lineup of notebook computers from HP. From the ultra-portable Mini 110 Netbook, to the small but powerful HP dv2, or the full-featured dv6, there’s something in the HP lineup of notebook computers to meet any of your computing needs

HP dv2 Review

Want to watch Blu-ray movies on the go? Want to take your entire home media experience anywhere and connect to an HDTV via HDMI? Read my HP dv2 review to find out why it might be the perfect solution.

How do you watch a DVD on Windows Media Player?

“How do you watch a DVD on Windows Media Player?”

To watch a DVD with Windows Media Player you need a special codec pack capable of decoding MPEG-2 video. Versions of Windows XP typically did not include this type of codec. If you have Windows Vista Home Basic, you will also need to acquire one of these MPEG-2 codecs. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate both include an MPEG-2 codec that should make playing DVDs possible. While these codecs aren’t free (because you’re paying to license the technology designed to make DVD playback possible), you can get them for about the price of a single DVD. My favorite option is the CinePlayer DVD Codec Pack. Once you install the codec pack, DVDs should play in Windows Media Player anytime you put a DVD in your computer’s DVD player.

5 Audio Books by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim, and he is the sixth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize for his novel Kafka on the Shore. He is considered by critics an important figure in postmodern literature and The Guardian praised him as one of the “world’s greatest living novelists.”

A Wild Sheep Chase
An advertising executive, infatuated with a girl who possesses the most perfect ears (an erotic charge for him) uses a picture of a sheep with a star on its back. This catapults him into a weird adventure to find the mythical sheep up in the wilds of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island. There are strange encounters, a hotel with an extra disappearing floor, and other oddities.

After the Quake
In 1995, the Japanese city of Kobe suffered a massive earthquake. Nearly 6,000 people died. After the Quake was the imaginative response from Japan’s leading novelist, Haruki Murakami.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. During a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, sexuality, the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be the closest of all.

Kafka on the Shore
Kafka Tamura runs away from home at 15, under the shadow of his father’s dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing dramas.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Toru Okada is going through a difficult time. He is without a job, his cat has disappeared, and his wife is behaving strangely. Into this unbalanced world comes a variety of curious characters, a young girl sunbathing in a nearby garden; sisters who are very peculiar indeed; an old war veteran with a violent, disturbing story. Okada retreats to a deep well in a nearby house. And the story unfolds.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!

Do you have these 6 Outlook Add-Ins?

Extending Outlook with add-ins is an excellent way to increase your business productivity. It’s an even better deal when you can do it for free. From automatic printing features to knowing when your contacts are awake, these 6 Free Outlook Add-Ins will make all the difference in your personal productivity.

5 Audio Books by Lee Smith

Lee Smith is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her home roots in the Southeastern United States in her works of literature. She has received many writing awards, such as the O. Henry award and the Academy Award For Literature. Her recent book The Last Girls was listed on the New York Times bestseller’s list.

Black Mountain Breakdown
Her mother’s pride and joy, young Crystal Spangler has a keen intellect, the body of a beauty queen, and the heart of a poet. When she leaves Appalachia to attend college and follow her dreams, she faces a dazzling future. But something lurking in the shadow of Black Mountain is calling her back, something that will change her life forever.

Cakewalk
This collection of nine stories, ranging from poignant ballads to delightfully inventive forms, showcases Smith’s celebrated talent. The stories will make you chuckle and leave you with a satisfying sense that no matter how unruly or warped life may seem, equilibrium can be found after all.

Fair and Tender Ladies
Twelve-year-old Ivy writes her first letter to a Dutch pen pal, who never replies. She also writes many more to her sister Sylvaney, who is mentally disabled and illiterate. Gaining more from writing than receiving any replies, Ivy continues a colorful stream of letters during her long life. Through births and deaths, marriages and funerals, the decades of Ivy’s life are captured in a rich dialect that carries the sounds and sights of the Appalachians in each syllable.

Family Linen
Sybil Hess, a polished, Southern apartment manager has visited a hypnotist in a desperate attempt to discover the source of her blinding headaches. But in one session, a mysterious, Gothic childhood memory plays before her eyes. Now Sybil is racing against time to find an answer to one urgent question. Is her quiet, genteel mother a murderer? Stretching between Sybil and the truth is a loony tangle of sibling rivalry, family lore, and jealousy.

Fancy Strut
Speed, Alabama, is celebrating its sesquicentennial, 150 years of proud existence, and its whimsical inhabitants will definitely not let the event pass without a party. Eccentric resident Miss Iona is there to chronicle the events in her society column featured in the Messenger and to make sure the “zestful preparation” is carried out in a proper southern fashion.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!

10 Audio Books by Nevada Barr

Nevada Barr is a mystery fiction author, known for her “Anna Pigeon” series of mysteries, set in National Parks in the United States. Barr has won an Agatha Award for best first novel for Track of the Cat.

Track of the Cat
The young naturalist, Anna Pigeon, has moved to the Southwest wilderness to be a park ranger. Her peace is shattered one morning, though, when she discovers the body of another ranger deep in Dog Canyon. How did the usually cautious woman die? Although at first the evidence indicates an attack by a mountain lion, Anna soon suspects that there are craftier predators afoot in the wild grasses.

A Superior Death
As Anna Pigeon spends her days patrolling its shores, the surface of Lake Superior fills with tourists. In the depths below lie an ancient ship and the bones of its sailors. But when two tourists dive down to see the wreck, they discover that a new body has joined the skeletal crew. As Anna tries to discover how and why, she encounters secrets darker and more deadly than the waters surrounding the corpse.

Blind Descent
A fellow ranger is injured in a suspicious accident while exploring the mostly unmapped Lechuguilla Cavern in New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns. During a fleeting moment of consciousness, the victim calls for Anna Pigeon. Battling her paralyzing fear of small spaces, Anna descends into the lifeless underworld to uncover what really happened.

Blood Lure
Park Ranger Anna Pigeon has joined a bear research team in the vast park that spreads from Montana into Canada. One terrifying night, a bear finds them. By morning, their camp is in ruins, and the youngest member of the team is missing. A few hours later, the body of a camper is discovered: the neck broken and face mutilated. As Anna sets out to find what, or who, is responsible for the carnage, her search will stretch all her resources, physical, mental, and moral, to new limits.

Deep South
When Anna takes on a position as district park ranger of the Mississippi Natchez Trace Parkway she faces an angry staff that refuses to work with a woman supervisor. But she pushes that difficulty aside when she stumbles over the body of a teenage girl, shrouded in a hood reminiscent of the KKK. As Anna searches for the truth amidst lies and evasions, she discovers the overgrown woods, thick with kudzu, hold dark secrets that can only lead to violence.

Firestorm
Ever since a fire began raging through Lassen Volcanic National Park, Anna has been acting as medic and security officer for the spike camp firefighters. As the blaze dwindles and the camp demobilizes, she stays behind with a small crew to rescue an injured man. Suddenly a thunderstorm whips the remaining embers into a deadly firestorm. After the inferno passes, Anna discovers a crew member didn’t make it, but a knife, not the fire, killed him.

High Country
Anna is lodged in Yosemite National Park’s historic Ahwahnee Hotel when four employees disappear. Sensing evil, Anna hikes a snowy trail to the high country, only to discover a disturbing reality that may end her adventures once and for all.

Hunting Season
When Park Ranger Anna Pigeon answers a call to historic Mt. Locust, once a producing plantation and inn on Mississippi’s Natchez Trace Parkway, the last thing she expects to encounter is a naked and very dead man. His body bears what looks like the brutal scars of an S&M ritual gone terribly wrong. When the deceased turned out to be the brother of a candidate for the office of local sheriff, a host of cover-ups, hidden agendas, old allegiances, and buried secrets begins to emerge.

Ill Wind
Haunted by personal demons and cut off from her friends and family, Anna Pigeon seeks solace in the quiet ruins of Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. But the solitude is soon interrupted. A mysterious illness is afflicting tourists to the park. When an asthmatic child dies and a ranger colleague – and friend – is murdered, Anna must find out the truth.

Bittersweet
When strong-willed schoolteacher Imogene Grelznik is forced from Philadelphia by scandal, the only position she can find is in rural Pennsylvania. There she meets Sarah, a beautiful young student whose bright light of potential is on the verge of being extinguished by her father’s arrangement to marry her off to an abusive, unfeeling man. Branded as lovers, Imogene and Sarah must flee to Nevada amidst suspicion and accusation.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!

7 Audio Books by LaVyrle Spencer

LaVyrle Spencer is a American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame in 1988.

Bitter Sweet
Newly widowed, and still beautiful, Maggie Pearson Stearn has returned to Wisconsin to start a new life. Her husband’s recent death has left an empty space in Maggie’s heart, but she soon finds a new zest for life with a promising business venture and the rekindling of old friendships – and a love affair with her high school sweetheart. But he is married, and she finds herself caught between 2 generations of selfishness and disapproval – her mother’s and her daughter’s.

Bygones
6 years after her bitter, angry divorce, Bess Curran is unexpectedly reunited with her ex-husband, Michael, when their 21-year-old daughter, Lisa, becomes pregnant and plans to marry in her mother’s wedding dress. As Lisa’s antagonistic parents absorb this news, they find themselves forced to consider whether 16 years of love can really be erased by a legal decree.

Family Blessings
A widowed woman in her forties, Lee Reston has overcome many obstacles to raise her 3 children and run a prosperous business. Tragedy comes once again when a motorcycle accident kills her eldest son. Lee turns to his best friend for comfort, and as they mourn together, she finds emotions stirring within her that she never thought she would feel again.

Forgiving
Sarah Merritt arrives in the Dakota mining town of Deadwood in 1876, intent on finding her runaway sister and starting a newspaper. Setting up her printing press in the middle of Main Street, Sarah finds herself at odds with handsome, headstrong Sheriff Noah Campbell, who places her under arrest. From the battle of wills between Sarah and the sheriff emerges a story of innocence lost and regained – and a love destined to overcome all odds.

Home Song
A new student transfers to principal Tom Gardner’s school and Tom realizes that this boy is his son – the product of a one-night stand years before. As the Gardners careen toward disaster, they must decide if there are sins of the heart that are beyond forgiving.

Small Town Girl
Tess “Mac” McPhail is one of country music’s brightest lights, a multimillionaire accustomed to public adoration and the demands of a stellar career. 18 years after leaving her hometown, Mac is summoned back by her sisters to help care for their widowed mother. But as the pampered star learns to treasure the newfound commitments of family and community, her relationships are threatened by her return to Nashville and the trappings of superstardom.

Spring Fancy
Confident, practical Winn never dreamed that her perfect wedding plans could go awry. But Joseph knows that the heart does not lie, and though Winn is promised to another man, it is with him that she’ll find the love of a lifetime.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!

8 Audio Books by Leonard Deighton

Leonard Deighton is a British historian, cookery expert and novelist, perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine.

Billion Dollar Brain
In the shadowland of propaganda, paranoia, and free radio for dissidents, a millionaire madman prosecutes his own private Cold War, with extreme prejudice. Under the bitter skies of a Finnish winter, across the vast expanses of the USA, and between the tense worlds of both London and Leningrad, Len Deighton’s coiled spring of a story shows the master spysmith at his very best.

Bomber (Dramatised)
Bomber is the story of the final mission of RAF Lancaster bomber WF183, call sign O, Orange, which took place one night in 1943. It is also the story of the many men and women, British and German, whose lives were irrevocably changed by that night’s bombing raid.

Faith
After her years on the “other side”, Samson’s wife, Fiona, is finally back in his life. But she knows about the affair with Gloria, and she’s not taking it well. His boss warns him that his job is on the line. His best friend, Werner, is exiled and in disgrace. It’s 1987, and the Cold War is turning to ice. Everyone is grabbing for that one last shred of glory. And Bernard, caught between his job, his ethic, his past, and the two women he loves, finds there is no one he can confide in, nothing to depend on – except faith.

Charity
Veteran British spy Bernard Samson continues to peel away the mystery surrounding his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski’s murder. Once again, he’s forced to confront the key relationships in his own life, while his father’s specter hovers over all, a deadly force to be reckoned with even now. With no one he can trust, few leads, and even fewer truthful answers, Samson doggedly traces his way back to the fateful night in Berlin when he saw Tessa get shot.

Funeral in Berlin
In Berlin, Colonel Stok of Red Army Security is prepared to sell to the West (for a price) an important Russian scientist, and our hero is to act as a receiver. Set in Berlin, France, and Prague, the whole complex plot is slotted together by the brilliantly drawn characters in it, and once again the bleak world of the secret agent is chillingly evoked.

Berlin Game
He was the best source the department ever had, but now he desperately wanted to come over the Wall. ‘Brahms Four’ was certain a high-ranking mole was set to betray him. So they decided to put Bernie Samson back into the field after five sedentary years of flying a desk. The field is Berlin. The game is as baffling, treacherous, and lethal as ever.

Mexico Set
Bernard Samson knew Erich Stinnes already; Bernard had been interrogated by him in East Berlin. But Bernard risks being entangled in a lethal web of old loyalties and old betrayals. All he knows for sure is that he has to get Erich Stinnes for London. Who’s pulling the strings is another matter.

London Match
Bernard Samson hoped they’d put Elvira Miller behind bars. There was one troubling thing about Mrs Miller’s confession, something about two code words where there should have been one. The finger of suspicion pointed straight back to London. And that was where defector Erich Stinnes was locked up, refusing to say anything. Bernard had got him to London: now he had to get him to talk.

The audio versions of these books are great for our busy lives and since most people have an MP3 player attached to them at all times, it’s great for you too. Plus, if you sign up for the free trial of the AudibleListener Platinum plan, you get 2 audio books for free!