When you’re far away, email, ecards, and digital images maintain a connection with family and friends, but they can’t replicate the intimacy of home movies. Conversely, the logistics of recording and sending video over the Internet can be daunting. With Springdoo, you can’t send the entire family vacation video, but you can send a multimedia email up to three minutes long.

Springdoo is server-based and a snap to use. After you create a free Springdoo account, log into the company’s site, click a few buttons, enter a message for the email, and record your message. Recipients receive an email with a link to the Springdoo site where they go to play the message.

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If Windows’ free email client, Outlook Express, doesn’t offer enough oomph for you, but you do not require the robust communication and schedule management features of Microsoft Outlook, you might want to give Eudora a look. This serviceable email program, which is available in paid, sponsored (free with ads), and light (free, no ads) versions is a popular alternative to Microsoft’s offerings.

First, Eudora uses the general Microsoft interface framework, so the program, at first glance, will look familiar to Windows users. However, visual elements such as icons, menu items, and in some cases, operational logic are quite different from its Microsoft competitors.

Second, the Eudora’s New Account Setup Wizard to import a rather complex Outlook configuration, an unknown problem transpired that caused Eudora to crash and also caused Outlook to lose track of all our data folders, email accounts, signatures, and rules, and very oddly, the Rules And Alerts feature, as well.

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Windows NT-based systems, have a tool, the Windows Task Manager, that lets you force close running applications, reboot the system, and generally see what’s going on with your PC.

Much of the information the Task Manager provides is inscrutable to the average user. This is especially true of the Processes tab, which lists executable files. Some processes are easy to decipher. Others are downright unfathomable.

Enter Process Library Quick Access InfoBar, a free utility that illuminates the function of processes running on your PC. Once you install this tool, you’ll see next to each process a little blue circle with an “I” in it. Click it, and you’ll open a Web site telling you what the process is and does, what company or person authored it, and whether it safe to stop running it. If the name can correspond with more than one executable, you’ll find out, as well.

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Morpheus Photo Animation adds something to digital-image editing for fun. This suite lets you transform one photo into another, then export the result as an animation, a movie, or a still image.

All of Morpheus’ features are simple to use, thanks to the program’s wizards and a help panel. In all cases, the process begins by loading a starting photo and an ending photo, then placing “partner dots” on the key areas of the two images you want to mingle. For example, with two faces, you might place corresponding dots on the eyes, noses, and mouths, and around the head contours.

The dots are color-coded, so when you add a dot to one of the pictures, a dot of the same color appears in the other.We found it easier to add a few dots at a time and watch the result in the preview pane. The program can save morphing sequences as AVI, Flash SWF, or animated GIF files, and you can output individual frames to common image formats such as JPG, PNG, and TIF. A single menu command lets you swiftly e-mail the results.

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Keep your PC operating smoothly by using Registry Cleaner 4.0 to scan, identify, clean and repair errors in your Windows registry with a single click. Registry Cleaner cleans and repairs unwanted debris left behind by adware and spyware. This top-rated registry application is very powerful, yet easy to use, and will keep your computer operating in “like new” fashion.

URL: www.onlinesoftware.com

CrrstalCPUID is a utility for gathering various data about your PC processor.

URL: crystalmark.info

Like other productivity applications bundled with Microsoft Office, Access 2003 is typically viewed as the de facto database solution for home and small office users. It certainly merits consideration. The program is stable, secure, and stacked with features. Moreover, it’s priced reasonably at $229 and even more reasonably when bundled with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 ($499) or Office Small Business Management Edition 2006 ($499, available as upgrade only).

Unfortunately, Access also is an intimidating program to anyone creating a database for the first time. The program lures users in with an effortless installation, a variety of database templates, and several handy wizards that guide inexperienced users step by step through the process of creating a database. For example, creating a table was as easy as filling in a spreadsheet. Creating relationships among multiple tables, on the other hand, demanded an advanced understanding of database concepts.

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