Introducing Personable.com's revolutionary software service. Personable.com enables you to instantly access your own Windows 2000 virtual desktop on our servers, offering Microsoft Office 2000 Suites and other software already installed and ready to be used. You select and rent the software you need, when you need it, and for however long you need to use it.

From Adobe, the makers of Postscript, Acrobat version 5.0 is here and it is noble follow-on to the major upgrade seen in Version 4.

Tip: The full-blown version of Acrobat is about a hundred bucks and it is worth ever penny if you need to distribute documents via e-mail or on your Website and want them to look like they did on your screen and when you printed them on your printer.

Another Tip: If you have an older copy of Acrobat installed on your machine, be sure to uninstall it before loading 5.0.
 
 

If you have a high-speed Internet connection, this may be something you want to check out for file backups.
  
 

ELetter is an Internet-based full-service postal mailing solution that lets businesses send mailings 24 hours a day from their desktop. ELetter brings professional high-quality mailings to resource-constrained businesses for the first time.

Simply provide the postal mail content and address list in electronic form, and we use the latest digital printing and mailing technology to do everything else. No more time wasted printing and folding, stuffing and sealing, applying postage or going to the post office—ELetter does it all for you.
 

Pretty self-explanatory . . . this is a free viewer from Microsoft for people wanting to view Excel spreadsheet files in read-only mode without a full copy of MS Excel.
 

It's free, and there are a heck of a lot of people out there using it! Works well with MS Office, Outlook, and NetMeeting.
 

The Quicknet Technologies Internet PhoneJack is a special sound card which enables a user to plug in a regular phone and make high-quality Internet telephone telephone calls. Another model (the Internet LineJack) includes an RJ11 port to connect a POTS line to—thereby making your computer a voice gateway to and from the Internet. Like more expensive multi-port models, these boards use hardware assist to offload compression and echo cancellation duties from your CPU. The goal is to get audible delays down below 50-60ms (the typical delays encountered on a regular phone) so the human ear cannot hear them any more.
 

JFax is one of the first, and certainly the most widely-used unified messaging system. Voicemail and faxes are sent to your e-mail account as a sound and image files, and multiple (up to 3) e-mail addresses can be set to receive these files. Never check for new voicemail again! Forward sound or image files to e-mail recipients. With (optional) POP3 account access you can also have your regular e-mail read to you via computerized text-to-speech from any phone in the world!
 

NetGram is a competitor to ELetter (see listing, above). NetGram specializes in printing and publishing tools via the Internet. The Internet is a wonderful communication medium; NetGram extends its use for individuals and businesses with hard copy publishing needs.
 

Probably the most widely-used Internet telephony client right now—but this is a fast-moving area, so keep your ear to the rail for new developments. This software allows you to call another Net2Phone user's PC from your PC via the Internet. For a small time-based charge you can also make calls to traditional POTS numbers via the Net2Phone gateway. Conversation quality varies based on software settings, connection, traffic, compression codecs, and so many other things it would be useless to mention them all here. Check it out for yourself, but please turn off your subwoofer when you call us!
 

Some people still hate it, but we think this latest version is finally the one we have all waited for. Still a bit quirky, but in our books the best for anyone using Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. Flexible and endlessly complicated (if you want it to be), it can be used right out of the box. Generally better, but different than the poorly-named Outlook Express package. Offers a lot of PIM features and good collaborative tools like shared folders synched via e-mail. If you want to be compatible with millions of MS Office users in the federal government and elsewhere, this is a must. Be sure to check the Active Setup Website for new and updated Outlook features.
 

Based on Qualcomm's CDMA technology for cellular phones, this free player gives you the ability to hear and record in .QCP format (a great alternative to .WAV files for speech files). PureVoice files are much, much smaller than .WAV files—and just as clear!

Tip: JFax supports this file format, so you can save a lot of bandwidth and specify to have your voicemail files sent to you in this format. The only drawback is that not as many people have this player, so if you plan to forward your sound files make sure your colleagues have this player.
 

The best and most widely used player for streaming audio and video files. Look carefully for the right link if you just want the free player as they try to upsell you.
 

Access your Windows desktop anywhere in the world! This is a new and promising product for executives who want to access their programs the same way wherever they are. Let us know how it goes. Consider also the Shared Desktop feature of Microsoft's new beta version (3.0) of NetMeeting.
 
 

Get your Digital ID now for secure, authenticated e-mail. Works with MS NetMeeting 3.0, Outlook 98, Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat 4.0, and many more. In this era of no trust, this is the way people can prove to each other that they are who they say they are. Codes take at least 4 unemployed French mathematicians with Cray supercomputers a month to break, and we don't think they'll even try.

Tip: Click here for more on encryption.

Another Tip: Few users have Digital IDs now, but it is catching on quickly and better installation procedures make it easier to work with. Installing into Internet Explorer is easy; installing into Outlook 98 requires concentration.
 

Synchronize MS Outlook on two or more machines—and get web access to your inbox and calendar! Download from MS Outlook Website.