Hewie's Views and Reviews
By Hewie Poplock

Welcome to this issue of Hewie's Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ .

++++ Additional Auto Sockets
++++ The passing of an old enemy & friend
++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

++++ Additional Auto Sockets
I have a 2004 car that included a cigarette lighter socket and an additional power source outlet. I thought it was a good idea to have 2 outlets. For a long time, I had my GPS in one and used the other to charge my cell phone while driving on trips.

Now I am faced with a new dilemma. I have more items that need a power adapter. My cell phone was replaced with an IPhone. I will discuss the IPhone in a future column. I have an auto charger for it. I have a battery charger for my digital camera, and another for my laptop.

I decided that I like the IPod feature of the IPhone and have been downloading several podcasts and would like to listen to them while on a trip. I ended up getting a gizmo that sends the sound from the IPhone to my FM radio. It needs a power outlet. I thought that it would charge the phone at the same time, but I was wrong. I will need the charger in one socket, the FM converter in another, and the GPS using a socket.

What if I needed to charge my laptop or a camera battery? I am out of 12 volt sockets (cigarette lighter sockets). I was in a local Radio Shack and saw that they actually have a 12 volt DC 3-Outlet Car Power Adapter that allows you to operate up to three 12-volt devices from one car power adapter outlet. Who would have thought that I would need such a device?

++++ The passing of an old enemy & friend
CompUSA, one of the big-box stores for computers, TV, and peripherals closed about half of its stores early in 2007 and recently announced that it sold the rest to a liquidator and they would all be closed after the holidays.

It's with mixed emotions that I mourn their passing. Over the past few years, I have purchased a lot of computer equipment from them at good prices and many times with rebates that I always received. CompUSA has been a good source for my Apple IMAC friends, as they have been a huge outlet for MACs and MAC stuff.

On the other side of the coin, many of you know that in the 1990's I had a computer store. When CompUSA and the other big-box stores came to town, our business dried up. They were selling computers and peripherals cheaper than I could buy them wholesale. Within a short time, my partner & I decided to shut down our store.

Seeing CompUSA close is like watching the criminal go to jail or the electric chair. It gives me the satisfaction of seeing them getting their just rewards, but I will miss the weekly special offers.

++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

DOCX Convert Office 2007
http://docx-converter.com/
Convert a Microsoft Office 2007 .docx file into a simple html file

Computer Security Institute
http://www.gocsi.com/
Computer Security Institute (CSI) provides education on information, computer and network security, through conferences (NetSec and Annual), seminars/training, membership association, newsletter and publications

gotoandlearn.com
http://www.gotoandlearn.com/
Free video tutorials on using the Flash Platform by Lee Brimelow

Discover
http://www.megite.com/discover/
Discover From Your Favorite Topic or Web Page - crowdsourcing service for web browsing provided by a leading social news aggregator

Tech ARP
http://techarp.com/
Computer articles and reviews

TeXtra PodShow
http://textra.podshow.com/
Technology news with a lot eXtra! It is technology meets culture, analysis, and humor

DriverAgent.com
http://www.driveragent.com/
Fix Your Driver Problems Instantly with DriverAgent

JungleCrazy
http://www.junglecrazy.com/
All the craziest Amazon deals in one place

Jott
http://www.jott.com/
Free voice to text service. It is like your own personal assistant

LegalZoom
http://www.legalzoom.com/
Online Legal Document Services such as LLC - Divorce - Wills - Incorporation & More