CDs collecting dust? Swap them for some new tunes

 

By JIM BROOKS

Oldtimers like me will remember when Compact Discs first made their debut in the personal electronics field as devices for playing recorded music.

Like most people my age, I had long suffered through the hiss and pops of vinyl records, the wavering sound and annoying track changes of 8-tracks, and the wow, flutter and mangled tapes with cassettes.

Compact Discs were marvelous! I can remember my first demonstration of a CD player. It was playing one of the Beatles' early albums, and I recall hearing -- for the first time -- Paul McCartney and John Lennon's breath between lines in "I Saw Her Standing There."

My old favorite songs took on new vitality and freshness when I listend to their Compact Disc versions. I soon bought CD versions of many of my old vinyl record albums.

That's been quite a few years ago, and my family has amassed quite a CD collection -- many of which have been silently gathering dust for the last few years. I've always hated to give them away or sell them, it just goes against my pack rat nature.

Fortunately, there's a new Web site that offers a service that can improve my music collection and at the same time, thin out those dusty seldom-played CDs.

SwapIt.com's mission is simple -- send them your dusty old music CDs in good, resellable condition, and they'll give you credit for them toward purchasing other used CDs in their massive collection.

In my college days, there were similar offers at area music stores; however, SwapIt.com offers some real pluses.

First, you can count on SwapIt.com always having hundreds of thousands of guaranteed complete and defect-free CDs in stock.

Secondly, the price for swapping a CD "in" is always the same as the "Swap Out" price, which means that SwapIt.com doesn't mark up their CDs.

SwapIt.com provides you with free postage-paid CD mailers for you to send your CDs to them. Their shipping costs when you purchase CDs with your SwapIt.com credits are reasonable -- and cheaper than what I used to pay a big name music club.

I've been shuffling through my stack of dusty CDs to see what I might be able to ship to SwapIt.com; they have a Beach Boys CD box set I've wanted for quite some time.

Make an audible difference in your life by gathering your CDs and visit www.swapit.com on the World Wide Web.

DOMAIN GAME. Network Solutions, the company that once assigned all Internet domain names, believes it's time to make new domain names available.

In a position paper sent to ICANN, Network Solutions is recommending that two new top-level domains be created to relieve the overcrowding in the .com, .net and .org top-level domains.

ICANN is the nonprofit group responsible for technical administration of the Internet, and the entity that would approve the creation of new top-level domains.

Network Solutions has recommended the addition of ".shop" and .banc" domains to the existing pool of domains.

The .shop domain would be open to all registrants, and the .banc domain would be specifically for use by banks and financial institutions.

Network Solutions isn't alone in identifying the need for new domain names.

ICANN's own Domain Names Supporting Organization has spent months trying to come up with recommendations for its own suggestions for new top-level domains.

One of the concerns over the creation of new top-level domains is the belief that new domains would lead to additional cybersquatting -- individuals who buy domains with company names or trademarks in hopes of selling the domains for a quick buck.

Whatever the obstacles, there's one thing certain -- there's no shortage of demand for new domain names.

FIELD TEST: EUDORA 4.3. Back in Febrary, Qualcomm announced a major change in its distribution of its ever-popular Eudora e-mail program.

Eudora has long been a favorite bit of e-mail software for Internet users, beginning back about 10 years ago. And it's always been available as Eudora/Eudora Pro -- the commercial pay-for version -- and Eudora Light -- the free-to-download version that millions of Web surfers tried and used over the years.

In February, Qualcomm unveiled Eudora 4.3, it's latest-and-greatest upgraded and cutting edge e-mail client -- available for the first time in three "flavors."

• The "Light" version has most of the commercial versions' features, but doesn't include spell checking and some very neat e-mail management tools.

• The "commercial" version is still available via the Web and in stores for $49.95 with a rebate available.

• The third and newest option is the "sponsor-suppored Eudora 4.3," which simply means that small square window displays small ads periodically -- and it offers the full functionality that the paid "commercial" version does.

After some initial concerns about dealing with more boxes and ads on my desktop, I downloaded Eudora 4.3 and installed it in the "sponsor-supported" mode.

My concerns were groundless, as the ad box is small and doesn't block any features or portion of the screen.

The benefit of course is gaining free access to the powerful e-mail management tools that Eudora 4.3 offers at no cost. I've found the program to be far superior to the e-mail clients from either Microsoft or Netscape, though you may have your own preference.

Eudora 4.3 might be just the ticket if you have a second or third e-mail account you need to access. It easily manages multiple e-mail accounts, and features automatic spell checking and the ability to change fonts, formatting and color as well as display HTML-formatted e-mails.

For more information on Eudora 4.3, visit their Web site at www.eudora.com.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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