Jake Ludington

I love reading: online news, books, magazines -- put text in front of me, and I'll read it. My reading comprehension starts to decline if I push myself beyond a 350 words-per-minute pace. Someday, I hope to cross the 500 wpm mark. And, with some ... practice and the help of AceReader Pro, I just might get there. What is AceReader Pro? AceReader Pro is a software tool designed to improve reading skills through three distinctive toolsets. An assessment tool tests for current reading skill and tracks progress through periodic skill testing. A training tool teaches users to become more proficient ... (view more)

Do your eyes ever get tired from reading the screen? Have you ever wanted to listen to your emails and documents -- rather than read them? Quite often, I'm faced both these scenarios. And since I do a lot of traveling, it's not always feasible to ... bring my laptop along with me to get caught up on some reading. So, when my eyes are exhausted and when I just want to sit back and relax, I use a program called TextAloud to listen to my documents and emails. How does TextAloud work? In a nutshell, TextAloud converts text into spoken audio. With TextAloud, you can either listen to the audio ... (view more)

If you have an e-mail address, you probably also have at least one 'forwarding friend' to e-mail every joke, urban myth, and karma-building novelty message in circulation. If you don't have a forwarding friend, chances are, you are the forwarding ... friend. Don't get me wrong -- there's no shame in forwarding jokes, stories, and other bits of textual entertainment. There are, however, 3 Golden Email Etiquette Rules one must follow when forwarding messages, and they are: Remove all '>' or '|' tags before sending the message. They make jokes hard to read and they bloat the message size, making ... (view more)

To me, Christmas time means reminiscing with great holiday songs from the past. Each year I visit my folks, it's customary to hear the sweet melodies of Bing Crosby played on the record player. For some, the static and the pops heard while a record ... plays are part of the nostalgia. However, the truth is that over time, records and cassette tapes deteriorate and the quality of sound diminishes. Dealing with Digital Media on a regular basis, quite often I'm asked how to convert records and cassettes to a more versatile format. Converting old records and cassettes to digital formats is a labor of ... (view more)

Removing invalid Windows Registry entries with a Registry cleaner, like Registry Mechanic , helps reduce errors and is a necessary part of keeping the operating system clean. Additional performance benefits can be achieved by eliminating Registry ... fragmentation and compacting the Registry database. Several tools assist in compacting and defragmenting the Registry, including Registry Compactor. What is the Windows Registry? The Windows Registry is a database containing all the information about the operating system and installed applications. The Registry stores information about things like ... (view more)

If you think you might be getting a new computer during the upcoming holiday season, make sure you bookmark this review! The one dreadful thing about upgrading to a new computer is the process of having to transfer all your applications, data, and ... files from the old computer to the new one. Fortunately, there is a program called "Move Me" which can make upgrading to a new computer completely hassle-free. What is Move Me? Move Me is an application to simplify the process of configuring the settings from your old computer on a new computer. Move Me transfers all Windows preferences to ... (view more)

After countless hours of campaign style games like War Craft and first-person shooter games, I still enjoy a good puzzle game. Lobstersoft Games makes an addictive timewaster in the form of Arcade Lines. What is Arcade Lines? Arcade Lines is a ... puzzle game requiring players to line up five or more game pieces in horizontal, vertical, or diagonal rows to prevent the board from filling up. Arcade Lines Rules of Play Pieces may be moved to any spot on the board as long as there is a clear path. Game pieces move horizontally and vertically, but not diagonally, making the game more challenging as ... (view more)

Last month, I emphasized the importance of backing up files in my review of Eazy Backup. Eazy Backup Review Even with regular backups, files can still get lost or deleted accidentally, especially when they are stored on the Compact Flash or Secure ... Digital cards commonly used in digital cameras. Fortunately, Recover represents an affordable solution for restoring files when they are unintentionally deleted from your system. What is Recover? Recover is a utility for recovering deleted files and files missing due to disk failure from FAT 12, FAT 16, and FAT 32* formatted drives. Side Note: FAT ... (view more)

Just recently, I discovered another totally cool screensaver. Quebec based Esm Software makes Active Media Player Screen Saver, an application designed to play streaming video while your computer is idle. What is Active Media Player Screen Saver? ... Active Media Player Screen Saver (AMPSS) is a screensaver application capable of playing live video streams in MPEG, AVI, ASF, WMV, or QuickTime format. AMPSS also plays full motion video from your hard drive, giving you unlimited choices for video playback. Active Media Player Screen Saver: Features Play local or remote files: Play video files from ... (view more)

Screen captures are useful for documenting error messages, showing other people how to perform a specific task, and for proving you really did get the high score. Using the key combination of Alt-Print Screen may work for situations where you want ... to paste your screenshot into Word, but sending screens via e-mail is tedious without a helper application. Capture&Send 2003 is a great application for quickly e-mailing screenshots. What is Capture&Send 2003? Capture&Send is a program designed to make screen captures and e-mail them to other computer users. The program runs in the ... (view more)