DeletedSoul has pointed me to an excellent service called, BudgetTracker. It is a free service that allows you to manage pretty much everything that deals with money. BudgetTracker’s initial intention was to make a service to make it easy for people to manage their budgets, but as time went on, users have submitted suggestions and they have met their suggestions. It is now much more than just budgeting. You can manage your income, expenses, bills, transaction, calendars, and a whole lot more. This company is not new, it has been around since 2003, and because of this, they have expanded their services offering and it really is great. I have given it a try and I was very impressed with everything that I can do and I was especially surprised that the service was free. Let me note that I am just going through a few of the features. I would need to write a novel to cover everything else! Lets take a look.

The first page you come to when logging in your your info page that will provide you with a basic overview of your finances. You can see your income, bills, calendar, budget, and even your grocery list all on the main page. This allows you to quickly see how much money you have budgeted. Also, with the calendar being there, you can easily see if a bill is coming. Right now I can see that my phone bill is coming… yeah, anyways. How about we add some items that we need to budget now. These are things that you have to or feel the need to spend money on each month. Things like phone payments, car payments, entertainment, food, groceries, gas, etc..

Now, you have two ways of going for adding your budgets. You could go into the “My Budget” area, or you could use their “Budgeting Wizard.” Just to get an idea, I first used the “My Budget” area. I added a category, Bills, and then the sub category, Cell Phone. I set it to some bogus amount of money and told it to expect the payment each month starting on the day I receive the bill. This will now show up every month on the calendar. After doing this and seeing that working, I went and tried out the “Budget Wizard” that makes this a whole lot faster. The wizard is what you see above. It is a form of about 30 optional fields. They are fields asking for the amount of money you spend on gas, food, entertainment, bills, etc.. After going through the wizard, everything was filled out and it really dawns on you how much money you spend each month (ouch). My next step was to add to my income.

The income page is important. It is to track your total income so it can calculate into your budgets and bills. Adding an income is simple. Go to the bottom of the “My Income” page and you will see the form. You fill in the name, the start date, the recurrence (once a week, month, etc.), the amount, if it goes to a certain account, what category it belongs to, and lastly if you want it to show up on the calendar. Once this is in, it will now automatically handle your income. I have set one for work (note that the money amount is fake and is just meant for show here) and it will repeat each week on Thursday. Every Thursday a new record will show with the amount I have entered adding to my income.

BudgetTracker also allows you to view your calendar and all transactions that you have set. The calendar shows all the events, such as monthly payments, paychecks, and other expenses. Looking at this calendar kind of brings a sick feeling in my stomach though because I can now see how much money I am going to have to spend… oh joy. There is so much more that you can do with BudgetTracker. You can manage tasks, bookmarks, keep up with your stock portfolio, contacts, grocery list, financial book suggestions, budget calculator, reports, graphs, and the list goes on and on.

Honestly, I am very impressed with this service and find it amazing that it is free. Great work to the BudgetTracker team. You have been around for a while and it is clear that you try to meet everything that your users suggest. Great work.

View BudgetTracker (thanks DeletedSoul!).

JotSpot has done it once again. They now have released an amazing collaborative editor called, JotSpot Live. I have written about real-time applications in the past, but this one is all web-based and requires no need to download any applications to use it. JotSpot Live allows you to signup and create pages that you can work with others on at the same time and see every change made. This is not like Writely because it isn’t focused on whole rich text documents, rather it is focused on making notes and ending up with a document everyone agrees on.

TechCrunch (also has written about JotSpot Live) and I have been testing around with JotSpot Live today and I personally love it and find a to be an excellent use of today’s growing technology. We have found some good qualities and also some bad. Lets get started on the review:

When first signing up, you will be asked to create a page or to be expected to join a friends page. You will see something similar to the above. As you can see, I have two pages that I have been using to test JotSpot Live. In the screenshot, if I were to make it longer, you would see that below it would show an area for pages that you can collaborate on that belong to your friends or fellow employees. When you click on a page, it will then bring you to the editing area.

The area that you edit your pages in are very nicely laid out and easy to use. Features such as double clicking and drag-and-drop make it very easy to use as they make it feel like an application. One the right of the page is a column that shows people that are currently in the page, much like a buddy list. If it is your page, you can also invite someone to join by adding their email address in the invite field. Once they are invited they can come back at any time. On the left side is the editing area and this is where all the fun begins.

Adding and editing to a document is very simple. It involves basic triggers that you are used to in your everyday computing life. You click on add to bring up an area to add content and you double click on an area to edit content. In the above picture, I am in the edit area testing out the formatting that you are given. You have your basic bold, italic, links, headings, etc.. As you are editing the page, it will inform the others in the page that you are currently working on it. When you are done, click on “Save” and it will then update the page along with everyone else that is viewing it. Seems to work great and is fast at responding.

As TechCrunch and I were testing JotSpot Live, we did run into a few problems and questions. Sometimes when clicking on an area as someone is editing and saving it, it will cause an mixup and halt the page from you. You then have to refresh the page to get back into action. Also, we both wondered if there were any way to remove pages or people that you have invited to your pages. We did not see anything about this.

Overall, JotSpot Live is excellent. I have been waiting to see a service like this for a long time and am very glad that JotSpot had picked it up. Great work to the team.

The service is free for 5 pages only. You can upgrade to two other plans: Team ($4.95 per month) or Workgroup ($19.95 per month).

View JotSpot Live - Real-time web-based collaboration.

SpyDefense is an great new free spyware application that makes it easy for beginners and complex for advanced users. Not to mention, the beautiful design that makes using the interface a joy. “SpyDefense utilizes our proprietary technologies to provide advanced spyware scanning, and removal quickly and precisely. Combining our unique scanning technology with user friendly controls and interface, provides a complete spyware software package for users of all skill levels.”

SpyDefense sounded great, so I have decided to give a a go. After using it, I fell in love with it. Here is a basic overview of what you get with this spyware application.

Above, I am currently in express mode, which is meant to be very easy for beginner users. Just how simple is it? So simple that I just click on “Scan” and the rest was performed automatically for me. Once it completes the scan, which only takes a few minutes, it will say that the scan has been completed and the basic results. Well… that was easy! It then has a link directing to the Advanced area. The advanced area is really slick.

The advanced mode of SpyDefense is still not hard to use, but it provides a lot in means of customizing and other complex options of that sort. You have the ability to change file sizes checked, what folders to look through, scan all user profiles at once, cleaning and removing options, and a nice scheduling area to tell it when to run.

Lets now go to the main advanced area. You will see an overview of the last run that you have made. I luckily had zero return, but my first scan did say two. You may now be asking, but how about viewing your history of scans? Ok, simple (see a pattern?). In the screenshot above, you see that I am over the link, “Last scan results.” Click that and you will then be shown a listing of your previous scans. You can remove them all, remove each individually, and view the details of the scan. Next, you will want to click on, “Scan Details.” It will then bring up the results in a new browser window. I thought this is a great way of presenting the history. You will see something similar to what you see below:

Nice clean web-based overview page with a basic overview of the files found and what has been done to them. Excellent. I am really happy with the application. It seems to work great, is very easy but complex at the same time, looks pretty, and it is everything that I need. Oh, did I mention that it is also free? Yes, that too. It’s free.

View SpyDefense - Simple for Beginners, Complex for Advanced Users. (via Genbeta)

I was led to Workspot today, via del.icio.us, and the only words that came out of my mouth was, “Wow.” Now this is impressive. Workspot allows me to use Linux, something that I have never really had the time to use all that much, and amazingly online (there is an online demo). I have always wanted to get the feel of the Linux environment and now I can. I have not subscribed to the service, but it is apparently free. You get all your basic functionality, although it seems some applications are restricted. Also, Workspot does run a little slow, but they say they plan on purchasing newer and faster servers to handle the load.

“Your GNU/Linux desktop is actually sitting on our servers in California, and the screen graphics are transported in real-time, to appear in a Java applet running within the web page. This applet is GPL, open source software: VNC (Virtual Network Computing), code formerly maintained by AT&T’s Cambridge laboratories. This lab has since closed, but, as is the nature of open software, the code lives on.” (Workspot F.A.Q)

I was also surprised that Internet works. That’s Solution Watch open in Firefox in the screenshot! Everything runs a little slow, small, and is a little slim on the quality, but that is okay with me because this is just really slick.

How is this possible? Through the use of a pretty hefty Java applet. “The magic is a Java applet, an AES encrypted, graphical connection to a Linux desktop. It works through every Java-enabled browser, and through most corporate firewalls. It works through fast native clients too, available on Linux, Unix, Windows & Macs. Transfer files easily to your Workspot, with the secure WebDAV protocol, available on all platforms.” Very impressive, indeed.

I am using this to learn the environment, but there are a lot of other uses as well. I don’t think I am going to subscribe though. I just want to get the feel of hour the system works. And you know what else is great? They plan on releasing a GPL distribution of the server software.

One last thing: I noticed that when you go to subscribe, it shows that the total comes to $0.00. BUT, in the F.A.Q., it shows that it is $9.95 a month. Has anybody signed up to this yet? Does anyone out there know what the deal is with this? Otherwise… this is just amazing. Great work to the crew behind Workspot.

View Workspot - Linux… through your browser!

Slawesome is a really… awesome service that actually lets you record your voice without the need of software and send it to someone so they can hear you for free. You are given the spotlight for two minutes as you record yourself using a simple mic and Macromedia Flash. Registration is free and easy. You get an inbox, outbox, the ability to make your messages private or available for the public to hear, and you can send it to anyone that has an email address! Lets take a look, shall we?

What you see above is the main page of Slawesome. The page lists three of the last public messages that allows you to hear people speaking their minds. I tell you, I have heard some quiet good messages and a lot are really funny. That alone makes the service worthwhile for me! But, listening to the main page gives you an example of the quality that you can achieve through the service, which is great quality by the way. Of course, I would imagine your mic takes a big role in that as well. So, you may be asking how you record your message and let people hear it? To record, you want to go to the Compose page, just like an email service.

Above is the Compose page which allows you to record and send a message to someone. The process is very, very easy. Fill in an email address that you want to send to, a subject, and now you are ready to record. What is involved in recording? Simply, get your mic ready and click the red button and start talking! You have two minutes to speak your mind, which is more then enough for me. I love how easy it is. Many services make you download a client to record yourself. Slawesome is just a click and go. It’s quick, very easy, and it sounds great too! If you feel you couldn’t get everything out in your two minutes available, don’t worry, you still have an area that you can fill in notes. Once finished and happy with your recording, click send and your all done. Lets now head on over to the Outbox, which will allow you to view your message sent and to make messages public or not.

What you see above is just like a normal email service, your outbox. This page allows you to easily view all the messages that you have sent and allows you to listen to each of them. When you click on the title, you can view the more detailed page that includes the notes along with the recorded message. This is great and all, but you may be asking, “How do I let the public hear my message?” Simple. Just go to your message in the outbox and look under the column, “P:.” Under this column, you will either see one of two icons per message. A lock or a check mark. If you see a lock, this means that it is private. If you see a check mark, this means its public. To set one to public or private, simply click on the icon to switch it. That’s all to it folks.

Also, you may be wondering what your friend will receive in their email when you send them a message. Below is a copy of the email I have sent to myself so I can see. Just a simple message that will show your notes and then a link to your message. Gotta love the, “Dude!” in the beginning too!

Dude!

I’m using slawesome.com to send you this message.

This is me, testing Slawesome. Slawesome is Awesome. At alpha stage, I am pretty impressed. Great work, indeed.

Click here to listen and reply to the audio part of the message:
http://slawesome.com/message/view/bbenzinger-########

That’s slawesome!

Brian Benzinger

That about covers it! Slawesome is pretty awesome and was created by three masterminds: Bavak Nivi (The man with the plan), Frederico Oliveira (Design and Development), and Dave Horner (Flash Developer). All of you have done an excellent job. I really like the outcome of it and hope to use it often when sending messages to my friends. The guys over at TechCrunch have also wrote about Slawesome, if you are on the look for more. Speaking of, Frederico Oliveira also writes at TechCrunch and worked on the development of Slawesome. Good work!

View Slawesome - Voice Email that’s awesome.