If your weekend long Guitar Hero marathon has you itching to learn the real thing, How to Play Guitar Volume #1 from Guitar-Online is a great way to get started. These very accessible multimedia lessons from a professional player and teacher will guide you through the basic fundamentals of guitar playing. This set of tutorials will guide absolute beginners to the guitar and even those who have never studied music before through the basics of playing blues, rock, folk and even classical guitar.
These lessons will create the atmosphere of your own private lessons and will cover and help correct the common mistakes encountered by new students including challenges in cord fingering, rhythm, and musical interpretation. Each lesson introduces new more difficult material and builds on the previous lessons. Further lessons are available to take you all the way to some pretty advanced material.
Learn to play a real guitar at your own pace and have some fun!
Software.com Team
Posted: February 29, 2008 07:30 AM
How to Play the Guitar - Volume I
Terre Mouvante Cie.
Keep up on your reading but leave your hands free and rest your eyes. 2nd Speech Center is an award-winning text-to-speech player that will allow you to listen to documents, ebooks, emails, PDFs, or web pages instead of reading them on your video display. It can also convert digital text to MP3 or WAVE files so you can listen on the go with your mobile device.
2nd Speech Center supports dozens of additional male, female, and robotic synthesized voices so you will be able to find one that works for you. (Note most of the additional voices are at an additional expense though many free options are available as well. Details are available here.) 2nd Speech center also supports multiple languages including American English, British English, Spanish, French, German, Italian Japanese, Korean, Russian and more.
2nd Speech Center is integrated into many handy utilities such as talking alarm clock and talking reminders. "Dave, it's time to wake up now!" New users with low the simple and intuitive controls and expert users will love the powerful command line controls.
This is a great way to convert commute time to your time!
Software.com Team
Posted: February 27, 2008 06:35 AM
2nd Speech Center
Zero2000 Software
- Our Rating:

The most complete option for doing your taxes for 2007 is from H&R Block's TaxCut software. With TaxCut Premium + State + Efile you get everything you need to complete and Efile one federal and one state tax return along their Worry Free Audit Support if you need it. No need to figure out which version you need as it covers everything up through Schedule C Support for your home business.
The first reason I liked TaxCut Premium is true of the whole line of desktop products from TaxCut, it is much simpler to figure out which version to buy.
I personally spent many years working with the tax software publishers to figure out the best way to assist customers to attempt to determine the solution they would need to complete their taxes via huge displays, signs, screenshots, and product descriptions and I was very impressed last year when H&R Block threw away the old model of buying tax software and came up with a new one for their desktop software tax solutions.
No longer would a customer have to try and match their personal estimated input needs for the current year with the basic features of "Standard" products, the additional features in "Deluxe" solutions, or all the features of the "Premium" products. You do not always know what you are going to need before you start doing your taxes and I think people continued to do their taxes in "old" ways because of this complexity.
Customers now just need to know the desired outcome that they want when they are done and TaxCut Premium takes care of the calculations. TaxCut Premium handles your federal taxes from 1040 EZ to Schedule C calculations for those with self-employed income so you no longer need to fear you will not be able to calculate your personal taxes with what you purchase. If you live in a state with income taxes, you would purchase TaxCut Premium + State, and if you wanted to Efile for a faster refund you buy TaxCut Premium + State +Efile.
Simple!
While combinations like this are available in other product lines and these output features are available as additional purchases on other products, I really like to know up front what something is going to cost me. This is the second reason I like TaxCut Premium + State + Efile. One good price and you have the features you want and need.
The third reason, I like this TaxCut Premium combo pack was the inclusion by H&R Block with one free Ask a Tax Advisor session. You can interact with one of their advisors via phone or email to figure out that tax related issue has you stumped.
The last reason I like TaxCut Premium + State + Efile for 2007 is one I hope none of us will need. H&R Block includes Worry-free Audit Support if you Efile using this software.If needed, they will assign a tax professional to prepare you for your audit and assist you in communicating with the IRS. Seems to me just having someone to tell you what will be happening would be valuable if you needed it.
Software.com Team
Posted: February 24, 2008 02:38 PM
TaxCut Premium + State + Efile 2007 for Mac OSX
H&R Block Digital Tax Solutions
- User Rating:

MSRP: $69.95
Our Price: $57.99
The Internet has allowed an explosion in personal creativity because it has made it so easy to share our creations with the world. If you want to join in, Corel Painter Essentials 4 for Windows and Mac OSX is just the fun application you should use. It really is an easy-to-use Home Art Studio that takes you way beyond just editing and printing your photos. Take any one of your photographs and quickly and easily transform it into a painting of a number of different styles. Corel Painter Essentials 4 unleashes your creativity by helping you transform your photos into painted masterpieces that you will want to share.
Corel Painter Essentials 4 can help create some wonderful graphic elements with the many brushes, paints, tools and effects for standalone projects or full scale family & friends scrapbooks.
I've you are feeling very artistic you can start with a totally blank digital canvas and experiment and create all you want to by creating unique colors and using any number of the 90 digital brushes that are included. No paint and canvas supply costs to worry about and clean up is a dream.
Whether you are a photographer looking to create some new painted looks with your photos, a budding digital artist, or an old-school artist interested in trying out new ideas before you start the work in the physical world Corel Painter Essential 4 is something you should try out.
Software.com Team
Posted: February 22, 2008 11:14 AM
Corel Painter 4 Essentials Home Art Studio for Mac
Corel Corporation - Available throughout most of the World
- Our Rating:

The Internet has allowed an explosion in personal creativity because it has made it so easy to share our creations with the world. If you want to join in, Corel Painter Essentials 4 for Windows and Mac OSX is just the fun application you should use. It really is an easy-to-use Home Art Studio that takes you way beyond just editing and printing your photos. Take any one of your photographs and quickly and easily transform it into a painting of a number of different styles. Corel Painter Essentials 4 unleashes your creativity by helping you transform your photos into painted masterpieces that you will want to share.
Corel Painter Essentials 4 can help create some wonderful graphic elements with the many brushes, paints, tools and effects for standalone projects or full scale family & friends scrapbooks.
I've you are feeling very artistic you can start with a totally blank digital canvas and experiment and create all you want to by creating unique colors and using any number of the 90 digital brushes that are included. No paint and canvas supply costs to worry about and clean up is a dream.
Whether you are a photographer looking to create some new painted looks with your photos, a budding digital artist, or an old-school artist interested in trying out new ideas before you start the work in the physical world Corel Painter Essential 4 is something you should try out.
Software.com Team
Posted: February 20, 2008 06:42 AM
Corel Painter 4 Essentials
Corel Corporation
- User Rating:

- Our Rating:

MSRP: $99.99
Our Price: $49.99
Fluenz Spanish was designed by a small passionate team to create a language program that could get people speaking Spanish faster than any other product available. At the center of Fluenz Spanish software is a one-on-one instructor guide that will provide detailed video explanations of all the materials and lessons. Sonia, the instructor guide, will make all the difference in how fast you learn Spanish.
Fluenz Spanish works on three essential elements. The first is that the best learning happens through active instruction with the aid of an teacher or instructor who explains all words and phrases while guiding you through the learning process. The second is to focus on the many common links between English and Spanish grammar and syntax that will assist you learn more quickly and comprehensively. The last element is focusing on those words and expressions that make the most sense to the English speaker so they are able to communicate the most clearly in the least amount of time.
Fluenz Spanish is as immersive and well designed as possible utilizing the latest multi-media technology blending images, music, video, and Flash animation to motivate you to learn fast. Thirteen different kinds of workouts add variety to your lessons and dynamic Flash allows you to practice your new skills in realistic, useful settings like those you will encounter.
Whether for business or pleasure this is a fun way to starting learning Spanish fast!
Software.com Team
Posted: February 18, 2008 06:35 AM
Fluenz Spanish 1 Language Instruction
Fluenz
- Our Rating:
