OpenOffice
Microsoft Office costs hundreds of dollars, depending on the version you buy. If you're looking for a new office suite but you don't want to hand over that much money, grab this free, surprisingly powerful suite instead. It has a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, a database, and a drawing program, and even a "mathematical function calculator" if you need that sort of thing.
No need to worry about compatibility with Microsoft Office formats: OpenOffice handles all of those, as well as open-source formats. Each program in the suite offers just about all the power you'll require.
If this free suite has any drawbacks, it's that the interface isn't as polished as Microsoft Office's, and it lacks a few bells and whistles. Still, free is free, and if you're seeking a way to avoid spending big bucks for a suite, it's a great choice.
Download Open Office | Price: Free
Outlook Downloads
Outlook is the program everyone loves to hate. It's bulky, and it can be slow, but it also gets the job done. Plenty of tools promise to improve Outlook--the following are our favorites. You'll cut through e-mail clutter, find Outlook information quickly, shrink the size of this bloated application, handle attachments better, and more.
Xobni
If you suffer from e-mail overload and want more out of Outlook, you need this program, which makes finding messages, contacts, and anything else in Outlook exceedingly easy. It's the best Outlook add-in I've ever used.
The program runs as an Outlook sidebar. For each e-mail, it shows information about the person with whom you're communicating, including all the "conversations" you've had with them; in essence, it sets up a threaded list of every e-mail between the two of you. You'll also see a list of every file you've exchanged, as well as the person's phone number and "social network," a list of people with whom that person has exchanged messages. It includes icons for sending an e-mail to the person and scheduling a meeting via Outlook, as well. For anyone who lives for statistics, the total number of messages you've exchanged appears at the top of the screen, along with more information that isn't of much practical use but is interesting regardless.
The add-on offers plenty more, too, including a Xobni Analytics utility that gives you more information than you need about your e-mail use. Want to know the average amount of time you take to respond to people by day, month, and week? It's in there. So is the median time you take to respond to specific people, and to people at a particular domain.
Those statistics, though, aren't the real reason for using this program: It's the only Outlook add-on I've ever tried that actually lives up to the promise of solving e-mail overload.
Download Xobni | Price: Free
Lookeen
This add-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007 performs lightning-fast searches, and offers several tools for managing and finding e-mail.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
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Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
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The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
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