Computer Tools
Hello Computer User:

The other day I decided to see what I could do with my computer. Although it has a 200+ CPU, and a 1997 motherboard, I use many current programs to do much of the work. I use several older versions when I find out that they run better than the newer versions. Some examples are Copernic 2000, Mass Downloader, Download Accelerator, True Space 6 Demo, Win Amp 262 and 278.

There are over 10 thousand books on the Internet that you can download. I picked up a couple of chapters from "The Brothers Karamazov" and copied the text I wanted to read onto the clipboard then setup True Space 6 to convert the text to speech using a talking head wire frame to voice the words. I used a full sized head in the front dimension, and medium speed using the Microsoft Mike voice. In this way I could go about my house work and listen to the story being told.

Copernic uses dozens of search engines all at once to find the books you are interested in reading. Mass Downloader will download as many parts of the same book at once as your computer and network bandwidth will handle. I have downloaded movie clips using twenty one downloads at once. There is a speed up of the download well over the top rated speed of the modem, and the network card in my computer.

Another thing I tried is copying the text into a free Speed Reader. This program helps you speed up you reading. You can view the text 1, 2, or 3 words at once, and select the speed of the frames from 1 to 34 a second. You can also select the color of the background, and the color of the text. There are many similar Speed Reading programs that you can try. I just picked one of the easiest ones I saw, and began using it right away.

Happy Computing,
Phil Cutrara