Here is some information on the new Illinois Hardest Hit Mortgage Program and a link to apply. Maybe you know someone having trouble paying their mortgage that this can help?
If you know any woman with any type of cancer you have some idea of what a tough fight it is for her - and for her family. And the day to day living with it gets even tougher. The people at this great non-profit foundation help by offering free professional housecleaning and maid services to help improve the lives of women undergoing cancer treatment.
These nice folks partner with over 800 professional residential maid services that are insured and bonded. These companies' provide four free general cleanings - one a month for four months to patients accepted into the program
Applications for this service can be filled in online by women with any type of cancer so long as they are currently under treatment. (They necessarily need to limit the number of applications received online each day.)
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Got something that's been bugging you -- from a hangnail to a headache and beyond? These folks make it easy for you to pin point the problem and then learn just about everything there is to know about the condition.
Simply let them know your sex and age (you can use the program anonymously). Then start clinking on the mannequin as you drill down to the specifics of your issue. Along the way, or when finished, you'll be prompted with suggestions and finally presented with a ton of information regarding your complaint.
Good way to gather information and become an informed patient in advance of a doctor or hospital visit!
If you had to, could you list just about every important thing in your house? These folks have helped thousands of homeowners/renters or business owners to maintain their home inventories since 1989 with their home inventory software program that helps you organize, manage and catalog a detailed list of everything you own.
Their software is now free and automatically organizes each inventory entry by category. The program tracks each item's, location, owner, serial number, model number, description, purchase and replace prices, warranty information, extended warranty information, appraisal information, and includes a 32,000-character memo field for each item. You can enter as much or as little information as you wish.
If your eyes begin to glaze over when someone asks if you have a complete home or office inventory, then this may be worth looking into. The price is right!
Ever get into a debate on whether that coleslaw you bought last week is still edible? How about the Gherkins or Spam you haven't opened since you bought them? This great place will give you a quick and snappy answer. (See below).
Consumer Reports, ABC, CBS, Readers Digest and even Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray think highly of these folks and the Washington Post calls this great place "The ultimate shelf life guide"
With this resource you can win any debate about food life and become the family and neighborhood food guru. PS Answers to the above: Coleslaw- three to five days; Gherkins - two years; Spam - two to five years.
Healthy information - even if you don't like coleslaw, pickles or Spam!
Dumping your old expired meds down the toilet? Maybe that seems like the easy solution - but it's a bad idea because it messes up our water supply and cumulatively could make a lot of people sick --- including you!
These folks have helped prevent 123,000 pounds of unused medications from harming our citizens and the earth. Their flagship system is set up to make it easy to get rid of your old meds in an easy and environmentally safe manner.
Here's how it works. When you arrive at this site you will find a search box for your zip code. This will provide you with a list of participating pharmacies where you can simply drop off your old meds. They ship it to a processing plant where it is safely repurposed into a risk-free renewable resource used in the manufacture of building materials.
These folks - with your help - can keep medical waste out of our water supplies and landfills -- for a greener, healthier planet.
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
It hurts a lot when you forget an important birthday! Some nice folks have come along and set up this special service that will send you a reminder seven days before the event and another one day before -- so you'll never forget a birthday or special event again.
Just enter (or import) your birthday, anniversary and/or holiday lists and they take over by sending you a reminder e-mail and by making it easy to send cards right from their site. And they have a pretty extensive bundle of event categories with cards to match: Birthdays, Anniversaries, Lots of holidays, Health, Congratulations, Humorous, etc.
And best of all, unlike many similar services, there is no cost to you!
We'll bet, at one time or another, you've bought a laptop, computer, camera or other gadget and two weeks later found out there is a newer model with better features out on the market - or the same model at a reduced price. Arrrggghhh!
These folks go to bat for you and help avoid the arrrggghhhs by predicting future product releases so you can purchase with no regrets. They make model predictions by matching hundreds of thousands of devices to their model lineages and applying proprietary advanced algorithms.
These price predictions help get you off the fence so you can pull the trigger with confidence and save money. They claim that their prediction algorithms utilize billions of observed price movements and other data spread over 40 distinct factors.
There has to be a good reason that this great place was visited by over 15 million folks last month and was featured in 121 books, on CNN, WABC in New York, Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay, and USA Today's Hot Sites.
People go here, when they are going to travel to or do business, to find out a ton of information on just about any city or town of consequence in the US. For example, you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about Vermillion Township, IL - population 325 - density: 14 people per square mile.
The information at this great place has been gathered from a wide variety of sources and includes graphs of latest real estate prices and sales trends, recent home sales, a home value estimator, hundreds of thousands of maps, satellite photos, stats about residents - race, income, ancestries, education, employment, geographical data, state profiles, crime data, registered sex offenders, cost of living, housing, religions and much much more.
Even though there are other sites where the data may be more current (at a considerable cost), if you ever need to do some quick research on any city, zip code, or neighborhood for any reason, from considering a move there to just checking where somebody you know is staying --- this is a good place to go!
How many times has a message appeared on your computer screen asking if it's OK to report an incident or error report to Microsoft? We'll bet they have never come back to you with a quick solution (or any solution). We'll even bet that they have never come back to you - period.
If you are running Windows XP, here's how to make that pesky nag screen go away for good: Right-click on My Computer. Select the Properties/.Advanced tab/ Error Reporting button and select the "Disable error reporting" option. Leave a checkmark in the "But notify me when critical errors occur" box.
That move alone will eliminate all but the most critical nag messages - the ones that never bring you a solution.
That's it and Shazam - the evil empire is off your back!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Here's the choice. If you are a graphics professional you can go out and spend lots of bucks for image editing tools. On the other hand if your livelihood doesn't depend on top of the line software and you just want to occasionally crop, edit and touch up a photo and other graphics, then these folks can help.
This "cloud based" program will do all of the usual editing you'll need. You can create a new image, open and edit an image from your computer or the web and create an image library - all without having to install any software.
There are a lot of unsavory places on the web that are out to getcha! A few of the tools in their arsenal are viruses, phishing, and spyware. They're out to get your credit card numbers - your passwords - or even crash your computer and remember that by the time you visit a Web site it's usually too late.
When in doubt go to this tail saving site first - insert the URL and get an instant report showing if it's safe or not. You'll feel more comfortable traveling the web knowing that this free service comes to you from Norton -the security experts.
Are you getting overloaded with programs that slow down your computer? Would you like to eliminate some of the mess that loads up every time you start your machine each day? Would you like to try some new programs without cost and run them from the" Cloud"? If so it will pay you to visit this forward thinking site.
These people have put together over a thousand applications that you can launch from the web with no installation -- so you can use them instantly - no matter where you are.
How many times has a message appeared on your computer screen asking if it's OK to report an incident or error report to Microsoft? We'll bet they have never come back to you with a quick solution (or any solution). We'll even bet that they have never come back to you - period.
If you are running Windows XP, here's how to make that pesky nag screen go away for good: Right-click on My Computer. Select the Properties/.Advanced tab/ Error Reporting button and select the "Disable error reporting" option. Leave a checkmark in the "But notify me when critical errors occur" box.
That move alone will eliminate all but the most critical nag messages - the ones that never bring you a solution.
That's it and Shazam - the evil empire is off your back!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Here's the choice. If you are a graphics professional you can go out and spend lots of bucks for image editing tools. On the other hand if your livelihood doesn't depend on top of the line software and you just want to occasionally crop, edit and touch up a photo and other graphics, then these folks can help.
This "cloud based" program will do all of the usual editing you'll need. You can create a new image, open and edit an image from your computer or the web and create an image library - all without having to install any software.
There are a lot of unsavory places on the web that are out to getcha! A few of the tools in their arsenal are viruses, phishing, and spyware. They're out to get your credit card numbers - your passwords - or even crash your computer and remember that by the time you visit a Web site it's usually too late.
When in doubt go to this tail saving site first - insert the URL and get an instant report showing if it's safe or not. You'll feel more comfortable traveling the web knowing that this free service comes to you from Norton -the security experts.
Are you getting overloaded with programs that slow down your computer? Would you like to eliminate some of the mess that loads up every time you start your machine each day? Would you like to try some new programs without cost and run them from the" Cloud"? If so it will pay you to visit this forward thinking site.
These people have put together over a thousand applications that you can launch from the web with no installation -- so you can use them instantly - no matter where you are.
Just three days out from the global lights-out event, Earth Hour 2011 has reached record participation, with 131 countries and territories registered to take part, on all seven continents, with all G20 countries, thousands of cities, and iconic landmarks and public figures set to join with hundreds of millions across the world to celebrate action for the planet.
On Saturday, March 26, 2011, at 8:30 pm, Debra Kukulski of RE/MAX Unlimited Northwest will take part in Earth Hour—the world’s largest global climate change event.
By simply turning out all non-essential lighting for one hour in my office and home, I will join tens of millions of concerned citizens throughout the world in calling for action to save our planet for future generations.
On Saturday, March 26, 2011, at 8:30 p.m. local time, I am taking part in Earth Hour—an event led by World Wildlife Fund in which millions of people around the world will unite by turning out their lights for one hour to make a bold statement of concern about our planet and climate change.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries/territories participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.
In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries/territories officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.
Earth Hour 2011 will take place on Saturday 26 March at 8.30PM (local time). This Earth Hour we want you to go beyond the hour, so after the lights go back on think about what else you can do to make a difference. Together our actions add up.
Earth Hour 2011 has garnered support from global companies and organisations as diverse as: Nokia, PWC, FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, Canon, Baidu, Naver, National Geographic Channel Asia, Bloomberg, Starcom, Mindshare Pocoyo, Clearchannel, Credit Suisse AG, Coca Cola, IKEA, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Hostel World and CB Richard Ellis.
During Earth Hour, international landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower and Great Pyramids have gone dark alongside the city skylines of Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv and more. To see it for yourself, check out this video:
But Earth Hour isn’t just for national landmarks and big cities—anyone can participate, whether it be individuals like you and me or schools, businesses, organizations, and our state and local governments. I hope you will join me for this amazing event and help send a message that the time for action on climate change is now. To sign up and start spreading the word, visit http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx?intro=no
Please help me spread the word. Let’s switch off our lightsand send a powerful message: by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in the fight against climate change.
Participating in Earth Hour is easy, fun and absolutely free. To get more information and to sign up to for Earth Hour 2011, just visit www.earthhour.org/USA and agree to turn out your lights from 8:30-9:30 pm on March 27, 2011.
Earth Hour is organized by WWF. With almost 5 million supporters and a global network in over 130 countries/territories, it’s one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and build a future where people live in harmony with nature.
This Saturday, 26 March, at 8:30pm local time iconic landmarks across the globe will go dark for Earth Hour including:
• The world’s tallest building – Burj Khalifa, Dubai • The Empire State Building, New York • Times Square, New York • Christ the Redeemer statue, Brazil • National Monument, Indonesia • London Eye • Eiffel Tower, Paris • India Gate, Delhi • The Alhambra, Spain • National Mausoleum, Pakistan • Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal • Table Mountain, South Africa • Brandenburg Gate, Berlin • The Obelisk, Argentina • Milad Tower, Tehran • Duomo, Milan • Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates • Davis Station, in Antarctica • Jet d’Eau, Geneva, Switzerland • Opera House, Sydney • Presidential Palace, Lima - world heritage site • Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe • Parliament Palace in Bucharest, Romania • Queen’s Palace, Madagascar • Government House, Hong Kong • Royal Castle, Sweden • Denmark’s Kronborg Castle • Santa Maria del Mar Basilica, Spain • Royal Palace, Thailand • China World Trade Centre Tower 3 (the tallest building in Beijing). • Presidential Palace, Indonesia • Niagara Falls, Canada • Hanoi Opera House, Vietnam • Rembrandt Square, Amsterdam • The Merlion, Singapore
In 2010 hundreds of millions of people across the world, in 4,616 cities, in 128 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour, but switching off the lights was only the beginning. This year Earth Hour asks people to go beyond the hour, and use Earth Hour to commit to an action, big or small, that they will sustain for the future of our planet.
Energy efficiency isn’t just good for the bottom line. As citizens of the world, we all have a stake in the future of our planet and must seek to operate in ways that don’t deplete our world’s limited natural resources.
In the time leading up to Earth Hour, we will be taking a closer look at ways we can operate more efficiently, waste less and reduce our environmental footprint. That’s because I care about the future of our world and want to do what I can to make a positive difference.
We want The United States of America to turn out more lights than any other country in the world during this historic event and so hope you’ll join us, and encourage people you know in the community to also take part. Don’t forget—March 26th at 8:30 pm, switch off.
People all over the world have already signed up! Will you please join us?
I'd love to see participation from more people and homeowners in these and any community in Northern Illinois: Cary, Oakwood Hills, Crystal Lake, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Tower Lakes, Port Barrington, McHenry, Johnsburg, Algonquin, Lake In The Hills, Lake Killarney, Homes along the Fox River and Chain of Lakes, Buffalo Grove, Huntley, Hampshire, Marengo, Carpentersville, Elgin, South Elgin, Fox Lake, Wonder Lake, Woodstock, Harvard, Hebron, Antioch, Spring Grove, Volo, Lakemoor, Lakewood, Island Lake, Wauconda, Lake Barrington Shores, Pingree Grove, Maple Park, Elburn...etc!!!
AN EASY WAY TO KEEP OFF THE SPAM LISTS!Looking for an easy way to stay of those cussed spammers lists? If so here's a neat service that's hassle-free. No need to register or sign up or pay for this one. Just a way to create an e-mail address on the fly that serves only one purpose - to keep you off the spammers lists when you register at a web site. So long as you have no need to hear from the site owners this system works like a charm.
These nice folks let you think up "throw away" e-mail addresses whenever you need to "register" to enter a web site or get to some information you want. Just make up the address and they create your temporary e-mail box automatically. For example you can be Foghorn@mailinator.com - or BigLestor - or RogertTheDodger - or PrettySally --whoever you want to be! Just use your made up address and if you need you can check your mailbox there for any replies within the following two hours. After that the box disappears.
And best of all - you'll never get any spam from the hooligans!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Are you suffering from password fatigue? We'll bet that you either live dangerously and use the same password everywhere or are going batty trying to remember or hide your 926 different versions!
Here's an easy to use small and simple password vault that works with any program, not just browsers. The handy auto-type feature avoids the chore of switching back-and-forth between windows to copy/paste user names, passwords and other account info.
Nice people - they give it to you without your having to dole out any shekels!
Of course when you get behind the wheel you don't drive over the speed limit - usually! But if, occasionally your mind gets distracted and you wander 20 or so miles over the posted limit, you might want to visit this helpful place.
The National Motorists Association (NMA) provides this site where you can pick the state and city/town where you will be driving. There's a huge selection right down to the tiniest burbs (including 3 in North Pole Alaska for example).Then - Shazam - right before your eyes are the favorite speed trap locations and in many cases a description of any unmarked cars used.
This service is yours for the taking. But then again - you probably don't need it!
Your new PC usually arrives set up with the operating system and programs you ordered all installed. But did you know that in addition the hardware manufacturer often generates additional revenue from several manufacturers and installs their software on your new unit (whether you want it or not).
Although some of the furtive software may be useful, this helpful program immediately identifies this extra stuff and gives you the option to keep it or delete it from your system (known loosely and crassly as de-crapifying your computer).
Might as well make it your option because this helpful program is on the house.
Ever wonder how often a certain word appears in literature over a period of years - or even centuries. If so, here's a neat program that allows you to enter two or more words or phrases and instantly view a graph showing the rise and fall of their use over time.
For example: Enter "radio' and "computer" plus a time frame from 1800 to 2000 and view the ascent and decline of these two technologies over that period. Similarly interesting charts evolve from the following combinations for example: pirates/nuns, god/devil, and heaven/hell.
This search capability stems for Google's much ballyhooed effort to coral every printed word in the history of the world. Knowing them they'll probably do it. Google never ceases to amaze!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Here's a chance to play the market 24/7 and never lose a cent. How? Use this neat stock market trading practice/simulator site!
Both market novices and active traders come here to hone their stock picking skills. This ranges from seasoned hedge fund managers, to stay-at-home moms. The great thing is that you can practice 24/7 in a market simulated setting.
And you can do this trading in your fuzzy slippers and never lose a cent!
One of the time consuming irritants that comes with buying a new computer (or recovering from a crash) is searching for the software program keys and serial numbers in your e-mails, manuals and other various files and folders.
You can avoid a lot of that hassle with this little application that scans your Windows Registry for Windows product keys and other serial numbers and licenses and provides you a list with this valuable time saving information.
This is a good site to visit if you know anyone who could be/or is susceptible to a heart attack or stroke. It is a place to connect with heart attack survivors - a place to explore the stories of real survivors and to share your own.
In addition to lots of really good information including heart attack facts and early warning signs, these folks have a special offer that will help you to easily carry around your aspirin in case of an emergency. For a $5 donation to the National Coalition of Women with Heart Disease they will send you a special-edition pill tote that makes it easy to keep potentially life-saving aspirin on hand in the event of a suspected heart attack.
We'll bet you love being kept on hold when you call for support or about an order you placed. These innovative folks have a great system to beat the crazy machines that have you press 17 numbers and then hang up on you after a 22 minute hold!
Here's their solution. When you are put on hold, you can hang up and, when a customer service representative gets around to picking up, you'll get a call and be hooked right up. And these folks make it easy - they even have a built on phone book that makes most calls a one click breeze.
What makes this even sweeter (when they finally hook up) is that the company that would have you stay on hold is politely asked to hold for a second until you pick up!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
How many gift cards do you have kicking around unused? Maybe you really don't like the store or their merchandise. How about turning these dust collectors into cash?
These folks help consumers unlock the billions of dollars of gift cards that are never used. They offer a convenient and safe way to get the most out of gift cards. You can cash in gift cards with a minimum balance of $25 for up to 92% of the card balance. They'll also exchange your unwanted cards for purchasing power at stores like Amazon.com, or donate them for the benefit of your favorite nonprofit organization.
There will come a time when you really want to know what possessions you have collected in your home - in detail. It may be when applying for insurance. It may be (although we hope not) when it is necessary to file an insurance claim in connection with a fire or flood disaster - or a theft.
These folks make it easy with this easy and uncomplicated program. Just enter the rooms in your home and the contents of each room. You can list the purchase price, replacement price, and any other details such as a photo and/or purchase receipt. There's even a "donation room" that makes handling charitable donations and tax deductions as easy as pie.
And to top it off this neat program about the insides of your house is - on the house!
How about an easy way to call and conference up to 96 friends or business, social, club or church associates?
This neat service gives you a conference line with your own dedicated conferencing phone number and access code that is available 24/7. And there is no need to make a reservation. All you need to do is provide your call group with that number, code and the time to call in for a conference call of up to 6 hours! You can even do a recording of the conference and store it on your computer or distribute it to conference participants.
The icing on the cake is that you need only provide these nice folks with your name and an email address (no credit card necessary) to receive an instant account. You can start using it immediately - no gimmicks - no hidden costs - no chicanery - no hassle - just plain old free!
How would you (or one of your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews etc.) like to have your school paper graded (with comments) before you turn it in? A bunch of language professionals asked the same question and came up with a neat on-line program that analyzes and grades the content you paste into their form and then comes back to you with their comments lightning fast!
This service provides additional in-depth analysis tools to help writers. Some of the features include: plagiarism detection, spelling and grammar checking along with style and word choice analysis. And it's not just for students - the program is designed to check out other forms of communication such as letters, e-mails, speeches and short stories so you can try it out on your next missive.
To top it off, this neat paper grader is on the house!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Here's a place to have some fun by making a cartoon from any photo on your computer.
Just upload your photo and, with a couple of clicks, the photo subject becomes a cartoon character. You can then save the cartoon file and use it as an avatar, in an email signature file to use with letters or to make your greeting cards and party announcements quite unique.
And, of course, there is no cost to use this neat tool.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a team of hiring managers let you know what they think of your resume before you send it out to the world? These folks put a team of HR directors, job search experts and certified resume writers together and picked their brains. After a year of applying complex statistical analysis and natural language processing, they built the world's first and only model to automatically score a resume.
You simply upload your resume and - Shazam - their program instantly assigns a letter grade to your handiwork. With an "A" you can proceed with a high degree of confidence. Certainly with a "C" or lower you'll want to get back to the drawing board.
Although these nice folks have other advanced services available for a fee, this neat program is with their compliments.
Thinking of creating a website - or maybe a second or third website? Those folks at Google don't give up - now they are bringing you an easy way to create and share your own web site.
Their easy to use on-line program is powerful enough for a company intranet, yet simple enough for a family, organization, church or social club website. You can start your site from scratch or from a template using their service-rich features such as: single-click page creation; dozens of pre-built templates; customizable look and feel and; settings for accessing and sharing information.
And once you done they'll go ahead and host your new masterpiece - all without cost!
Have you ever sent an email and wondered whether the recipient received it? If so here's a great way to track your e-mails and not only find out if it was properly delivered, but also if it was read- how long it was read - if it was forwarded and if an attachment was opened.
These folks have a neat system that allows you to add a few additional letters to the recipient's e-address. That's it - they take care of the rest. You can even set up a message to self-destruct after it has been read!
This system is a truly glorifies "return receipt" on steroids but it goes way beyond the old standard certified mail and provides you with valuable intelligence.
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Do you get nervous when an e-mail arrives with one of those funny little URLs to click on? You know - the ones that look like http://tinyurl.com/freestuff32. You can be sure that the link you are looking at is going to end up at a place that is masked in the shortened URL
These folks have come up with a neat little one trick Pony that will quickly show you where you will end up if you click the little suspect link - before you click. Just paste the shortened URL into the box - click - and Shazam - your eventual destination is revealed without exposing you to the possibly nefarious villains.
Most shortened links are legitimate, but if not, this little service could save your neck!
We'll bet you have a bunch of old electronic gadgets and devices in a box or stored someplace around the house or office. We'll bet too that sometimes you scratch your heard and wonder why you're keeping these old cell phones, iPods, calculators, camcorders, laptops, monitors, etc.
This great place will help you clear some space - and maybe add a few shekels to your bank account. You simply enter the name and model of the product and its general condition. When this neat program searches, quick as a wink, you'll get a list of the companies that will buy your heirlooms and the price they'll pay. And, if no one will pay you for your trash, they'll give you a list of local places where you can have it recycled.
Every once in a while you may want to convert a file to a different format. For example from a Word document to a PDF file. Here's the hitch - often we need special (and sometimes costly) software to accomplish this.
To help you with this, these nice folks let us upload our file to their special on-line program where they automatically convert it to whatever file format you choose. Then they email it right back to using the format we requested. They will also provide you with web browser button so you can convert files from all your favorite websites with a click. The free version will handle all but the largest files.
Nice to know that service is there! It's quick & easy and, unless you need to convert lots of files on a regular basis, you can save some big bucks! And oh yes - it's with their compliments!
What a great place available now! Attention waterfront and nature loving renters! Bring the boat and fishing poles! Beautiful waterfront home for rent in Port Barrington. Right next to boat launch on channel, leading to Fox River. Almost an acre of wooded privacy and water views. Park with swings, Sandy Beach Located less than a block away. Lake County forest preserve only a few blocks away. Master Bedroom Suite with walk-in closet plus 2nd bedroom and den. All one level. Great room. Hardwood floors. 2 full baths. 2 car attached garage. Unique opportunity. References, Credit and background check required, potential tenant to pay 30.00 fee upon application. $1300. month firm.
Licensed Realtor has ownership interest-Debra Kukulski RE/MAX Unlimited Northwest. Please call (847) 516-6760 for further information.
We'll bet that when you've written some timeless prose you sit back and think, "No one on the face of the earth could have ever written as beautifully as that!" We have news for you - there is a good chance that your deathless prose style is very similar to some world famous author.
Now with this unique on-line analysis tool you can find out which famous writer you write like. This program analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.
There's a box right there for you to paste any text you have written - your latest blog post - any notes - a chapter from your unfinished book- you name it. The program works better if you paste at least a few paragraphs - so a bunch or your tweets won't cut it.
You may find out that you're the next John Steinbeck or Erma Bombeck!
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Ever get jealous of those computer hotshots who run two or three monitors side by side? Now with this neat little program you can have a desktop with limitless space!
Once installed you just move the mouse cursor to the edge of your screen and - Shazam -your desktop extends beyond the borders of your screen! The horizontal scroll direction is standard but can also be set to vertical - or both.
This is a simple and effective way to create unlimited desktop space and you can let those bigwigs with 3 monitors eat their hearts out. And like most tools mentioned here it won't cost you a cent!
Looking to enrich your brain? Many regularly visit this amazingly rich trove of "Ideas Worth Spreading". This non- profit organization presents on line videos from their conferences that bring together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design and more.
You can listen to the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the "talk of their lives" in 18 minutes. They make these enriching (and often very entertaining) talks available to the world without any cost. There are now more than 700 searchable titles available -- with more added each week.
Every once in while most of us have three or four words running through our heads - a little snippet that pops up from song from the past. And sometimes it drives us batty wondering what the name of that song was!
At this great place all you need to do is enter the words you are hearing - and Shazam - the program will give you all of the possibilities that contain that phrase (from their collection of more than 470000 song lyrics).
Just click on the song you want more lyrics from and you're in business. And, of course, this neat service is on the house!
It's always GREAT to hear some good news about Real state in Illinois. Check out this short video from University of Illinois economist Dr. Geoffrey Hewings covering factors that will help the housing market and where we'll likely see future demand for housing in Illinois!
I know one of the things that keeps buyers from buying now is fear....fear of becoming unemployed, and that is definitely a valid fear. No one wants to take on a new mortgage they are not sure they will be able to keep paying.
Another fear I have heard many people express is fear of "taking advantage of another persons misfortune". I have found that many compassionate buyers and I can understand how they can think this as we are looking at so many foreclosures and short sales on the market today. Being a very compassionate person myself, I have heard so many of these sad stories and I try to help as many sellers as I can though this incredibly tough situation. It is not easy to hear of people losing their homes, every situation is so very sad. But what the buyers must realize is, the sellers that are trying to do a short sale WANT you to buy their home. It is much better for them than to go through a devastating (emotionally and financially) foreclosure. This is a much more gentle and kind solution for a seller in this situation.
In the case of a foreclosure, where the bank has already taken back the property, they also WANT the property sold. We have so many distressed properties on the market now, it really makes tough competition for the seller who are not in a distressed situation. REALLY Tough Competition! The distressed sales really put pressure on the other sellers to lower prices and stay competitive. The sooner we can move these properties off the market (by purchasing them!), the sooner the housing market can recover and the sooner prices can stabilize, which helps every homeowner out there.
So, please don't let fear keep you from buying in this market. You are not only helping yourself by getting a fantastic deal and historically low interest rate on your mortgage loan, but helping all of us homeowners, by helping the real estate market and prices stabilize.
It is time to come out and buy now.....fabulous deals everywhere you look, and rates are historically low. We usually do not have both of those things happening at the same time in the real estate market!
I am excited to share my news!! Pardon me for "tooting my own horn" a bit, but I am so honored to receive the RE/MAX Hall of Fame Award! Thank you SO much to all of my wonderful past clients!
ELGIN, Ill., Sept. 9, 2010 -- A group of RE/MAX affiliates from McHenry County, Ill., were among the elite agents who recently earned career awards from RE/MAX, the leading international real estate organization. Eight agents from three offices in the county earned these awards, which are based on continued sales achievements in the metro Chicago real estate market, which is among the most competitive in the nation.
RE/MAX affiliates are eligible to receive awards marking important professional milestones during their career with RE/MAX. These career honors include the Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award and Circle of Legends awards, which are distinct from the honors that agents can earn each year for their annual sales production.
All eight honorees in McHenry County were named to the RE/MAX Hall of Fame, which recognizes agents who have completed 350 or more real estate transactions during their career with RE/MAX. Those being welcomed to the Hall of Fame this year are: John Greener, Bill Hauck, Debra Kukulski, Jose Rey and Kay Wirth, RE/MAX Unlimited Northwest, Crystal Lake; Laura Heinberg, RE/MAX Connections II, Marengo; and Kenneth Koreba and James Schaid, RE/MAX Plaza, McHenry.
Across the RE/MAX Northern Illinois region, 119 RE/MAX affiliates have earned career awards so far in 2010."
If I can be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to call or email me. It will be my pleasure!
By the way, if you know of someone that could benefit from my high level of service, please call or email me with their name and daytime phone number and I will make sure to follow up and take great care of them. My business is over 87% referral and repeat clients and I am so grateful it keeps growing from your loyalty and referrals:-)
Although this neat search system is still in beta, these folks sure make looking for answers easy. They claim that they have built the smartest and most comprehensive question/answer search engine on the web by pre-searching millions of FAQ's spread across the web -- so that you don't have to.
This looks particularly powerful for researching computer glitch error messages that are often buried deep in computer and software manufacturers' FAQ sections on the Web.
We are always pleased to be of service to our Cyber Friends and to provide you with these monthly CyberTips. As members of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society we are always current on ways to expand our normal high standards of service with the very latest Internet and other CyberSpace strategies and tools. Click Here for hundreds of Cyber Tricks and Great Places in back issues.
Did you ever donate your old computer to a local charity? Or maybe gave it to your scatterbrained nephew? Of course you formatted the hard drive and figured that all of your data was gone. No way -- it was all there to be grabbed by the bad guys!
These folks give you a program that erases files completely and securely by painstakingly wiping the content of the files and fastidiously messing up its metadata, They claim that even J. Edgar Hoover couldn't recover your private data and sensitive information because it will be securely deleted and completely unrecoverable.
Picture yourself after a disaster in your home - a fire - flood or theft. The grief from the loss of a lifelong collection of furniture, collectables, paintings, jewelry, and just plain old family memorabilia, is just the beginning. The gut wrenching chore of itemizing all of your possessions follows any catastrophe like this.
These nice folks have developed a software package that helps you to create an inventory of your possessions prior to such a tragedy. This program is easy to use and its intuitive interface helps you organize your inventory by room and category. You can add multiple pictures of your possessions, room by room as you go along. You can also add replacement values. And when you're done, you can save your possessions file and print a hard copy report to store in a safe location off site.
This inventory can be a financial lifesaver in a time of disaster. - and it's yours for the asking!
Think you have a pretty jazzy password? Like maybe your mother's first name (nobody would guess that ;-). These people have come up with a formula (using 10,000,000 - the approximate number of passwords a regular computer might be able to test every second). They claim that with this they can calculate how long it would take to discover your password.
For example "grace" would take a hacker 38 seconds to crack. But add upper case and her birth year (Grace1934) and it would take the bad guys 42 years to break through.
Add a pound sign before and after (#Grace1934#) and the villains would get pretty grey while waiting the Million years it would take their computers to figure that one out!
Maybe their math is a bit fuzzy but the obvious moral of the story is to drive the villains coo coo with long and crazy passwords!
Here are a few photos from the Fox Lake Venetian Night Boat Parade and Fireworks this past Saturday on Pistakee Lake. Nothing like watching fireworks over the water from your boat! It's too bad the lakes were still no-wake until Sunday, so the Wonder Lake Ski Team did not perform and we were a little too far from the boat parade to get any good photos. I was looking forward to seeing them as I never have and they are supposed to be great. The event was held near Dockers Restaurant/Bar and Trinksi Island, south of the Route 12 bridge on Pistakee Lake. They also had a street fair, bank and vendors on land, but we stayed on the boat! One thing that I noticed that was a bit different than the Fox River Grove and Algonquin fireworks on the Fox River was that about 75% of the boats stayed after the show just to hang out on their boats and enjoy the beautiful night and weather. What a great evening:-)
The sailboats were out early in the evening on Pistakee Lake:
Boats starting to gather for the Boat Parade and Fireworks show:
It was also a nice sunset!
Here is the fireworks finale from the Fox Lake Venetian Night:
If I can be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to call or email me. It will be my pleasure!
By the way, if you know of someone that could benefit from my high level of service, please call or email me with their name and daytime phone number and I will make sure to follow up and take great care of them. My business is over 87% referral and repeat clients and I am so grateful it keeps growing from your loyalty and referrals:-)
You may not want to try this! But if you're really curious and want a good scare you can see what you'll look like in 20 years!
All you need to do is upload your photo. These folks use advanced face detection and morphing technology to predict what your face will look like in 20 or 30 years.
Try it with a photo of your worst enemy too - that's even more fun!
Are you sitting at your desk drumming your fingers waiting for a big download to finish -- or waiting for just about any computer process to complete? If these little daily aggravations get you uptight then we have a pleasant solution for you!
When you run this neat little app it will sit in your system tray and play elevator music automatically when you do something that requires you to wait. Or, you can double-click the icon anytime to start playing music.
And the best part is that this little one trick relaxation pony is on the house!
Getting ready to move? If so, this is a "must visit" place! Although there are dozens of websites offering free moving quotes to their users, this one has been around since 1994 and has deep connections with the moving world and uses those connections with 500 moving companies to give you the information you need for a smooth, easy relocation.
You'll get access to a ton of moving tools and a library of over 150 moving "how to" videos. And when you're ready you can get competitive quotes for local moves, long-distance moves, interstate moves and international moves. In addition you can access small move specialists, self-storage solutions, truck rental centers, specialty movers and even auto transporters.
Want the ultimate thrill ride? This one takes you through the entire known universe in 3 minutes! The folks from the Hayden Planetarium put together this video that starts in Tibet and zooms you out through time and space until you reach the edge of the known universe. And then they bring you back!
The trip takes you through a universe that includes the precise location of every object ever observed in the sky. From quasars to pulsars to black holes to nebulas -- it's all there!
Climb on board ---and be prepared for a jaw dropping experience!
