Telling secrets is good for my emotional well-being, so here's one for you: I use my PC for things other than business. "Horrors," I hear my editor saying, typical for a guy who thinks building a 3D spreadsheet is fun.
My take is obviously different. I pay a bundle in time keeping the beast fine tuned, so I might as well use it to do things that may improve the quality of my life. You're wondering just what things, right? Okay, I enjoy jazz, and between Live365 and Napster (it's legit, not to worry), I've listened to dozens of new artists. Gardening is another passion; with the Internet, I finally learned how to stop the dreaded blossom-end rot. And my birding reached new heights when I started using the birding program AviSys to manage my life lists.
So I'm thinking that maybe you need a little high-tech help with your hobbies, too. After a little digging, I found a few products you might like. And who knows, maybe you have a buddy or two who might get a kick out of them as well.
Movies, Music, and TV
DVD Profiler: If you have movie DVDs floating around your home office, you may want to keep track of the contents. Or maybe learn more about the movie details--say, the cast or director--as well as noting who borrowed the DVD (and hasn't returned it yet). Give DVD Profiler the DVD's UPC code and the free program checks its online database for details.
Movie Review Magic: My cousin Judy writes movie reviews for fun. Her reviews are so good that she's been picked up by Rotten Tomatoes, a neat site that has both snippets and full movie reviews. Judy sends her reviews to an e-mail list; if you're interested, you could browse old reviews or sign up for her mailing list at her plain-vanilla site.
But here's an alternative to my cousin's approach: Movie Review Magic. This program creates a professional-looking movie review Web site--all you need to do is write the reviews. At $80, the program is expensive. But there's a 30-day trial version, and the author's site offers some smart marketing techniques to promote your site.
Movie Reviews and TV Listings: While I'm talking about movies, I really need to tell you about two great review sites, the Internet Movie Database and MetaCritic. IMDB, one of my faves, has been around a long time. Nudging a spot next to IMDB in my Favorites list is MetaCritic. This very cool site does an amazing job of rating movies (as well as games and music) by weighting averages of scores by more than 30 nationally known movie critics.
And as long as you're clicking around, check out TitanTV, a nifty site that, among other goodies, provides customized listings (and searches) for DirecTV satellite viewing.
Catalog Your CDs: I must have 200 music CDs, and now I finally know what's on all those discs. CD Trustee built a nifty database for me, with little work on my part: I just popped each CD into my PC's drive and the program automatically looked it over, matched up the CD with an online database, and got all the info on its tracks. In 10 seconds, the CD drawer popped open so I could repeat the process for the next CD.
It's a pleasure to immediately locate info on a disc by searching on a song, artist, composer, or CD title. Check out a screen capture from my collection. CD Trustee costs $40 and there's a limited use trial version available.
If you'd prefer a freebie, something that's similar but not as comprehensive, try CDmax. This program grabs the artist, title, and track list information from an online database. The product's free; but if you like it, please donate $15 to the creator.
Dig This: Men have a way of really messing up romantic moments. Watch this commercial for a prime example (notice the guy's typical response at the end of the clip). [2MB video.]
For Health Nuts: Diets and Biofeedback
Weight-By-Date Basic: There's no denying I'm not as svelte as I was twenty years ago, so I've been watching what I eat. One challenge of dieting, besides eating less, is keeping track of all sorts of things: activities, exercise, calories, avoiding snacks at deadline. For $22, you might try Weight-By-Date Basic, which I'm using. (There's also a $20 version for the Palm OS.) The most valuable part for me is using it to maintain daily targets for each nutrient, to keep myself on track.
The Journey to Wild Divine: In my first career as a licensed psychotherapist, I learned the value of biofeedback for reducing stress. Recently, I spent a few hours trying The Journey to Wild Divine, a product that combines a kind of "game" with a biofeedback device that connects to a PC's USB port. Game is in quotes because it's more of a Myst-like journey through a virtual world. Wild Divine gives you a way to experience how biofeedback works.
Wild Divine's biofeedback apparatus has three sensors that attach to the fingers. I use my feelings and thoughts--actually, my heart rate and galvanic skin response--to control images on the screen. For example, breathing deeply keeps three balls juggling, or staying relaxed aims a bow and arrow at a target. BTW, throughout the journey, there are guides to explain what you're supposed to do.
I found Wild Divine a brilliant way to become familiar with biofeedback techniques, such as lowering my heart rate; I also recognized many breathing exercises from having practiced hatha yoga on and off for years. One disappointment is not being able to view graphs of my biofeedback responses, something the program logs but doesn't let me see. The Wild Divine Project says that feature will be available in a future version.
Be warned, though--Wild Divine isn't Doom. It moves slowly, something I eventually enjoyed because slowing down is often what I need. The journey purports to take around 15 hours to complete. And it's not cheap: Its $160 price works out to $10 an hour. (I imagine I'd revisit many of the exercises, though.)
Dig This: Imagine you're facing a big project (like writing this column) and you need a diversion. No problemo. Click over to the Neen site and check out samples of the artists' work: (Hint: click on the numbers, not the names.)
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