old version

Acronis True Image Backup 9.0 [OLD VERSION]
$49.99
I have used Acronis True Image 9.0 since 2006, after upgrading from Acronis True Image 6.0. It is a great product. After a major hard drive crash, I was able to restore my computer without missing a beat. It is great for automatically backing up your entire system, every night. Acronis automatically creates incremental backup files after it has first created a full backup image. Restoring individual files, that you accidently delete or modify, is also very easy to do with Acronis. I highly recommend this product.

The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad
$15.00
Through his collection of short essays, Joel recreates the exhilaration, confusion, awkwardness, satisfaction, insight, and quirk in being a divorced father. Stories like "Lazy Dadurday" offer a glimpse into those special moments and new routines with dad after a split, while others ("Beige Food" and "Sponge Bob Wins") are humorous commentary on the world in which his children live.

Though the main theme of the book centers around fatherhood, there are several chapters that would make anyone smile, not just parents. I mean who hasn't taken their mother to the Oscars, blown off law school or been on the Wheel of Fortune? And Joel's tongue-in-cheek rants against things like the greeting card industry and parking lot etiquette are the stuff of an endearing curmudgeon in the making.

But for all the fun, Humoirs is not just a bowl for sugary cereal for readers to smile over after every bite-sized chapter. Joel balances sweetness with seriousness opening up about male post-partum depression and his son's Chiari malformation diagnosis. His honesty on such weighty topics gives the book a depth that readers can sympathize with without having to give into pity.

Flipping through the pages brought on an eerie familiarity, like Joel had actually been chronicling my own experiences as a newly divorced father. "It took a divorce to make me a better father," Joel states in describing how he found his "inner parent." This is the exact thought I have when spending time with my children, and it gives me a sense of comfort knowing I am well beyond the beginner level of parenting. Humoirs is not just a great read; it also gives a voice to divorced dads working without fanfare to stay involved in their children's lives.

The entire review can be read at Clark Kent's Lunchbox [...].

Apple Logic Express 8 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]
$99.00
I do only amateur MIDI-based music composition, no audio recording. Thus I can't comment on the latter. For the former, however, Logic Express offers all the tools I need to edit MIDI-events, and access to the tools will feel natural to anyone already comfortable with the Mac-way of doing things. Garageband's capabilities as a MIDI-event editor are rudimentary, where as Logic Express's capabilities are extensive. This was the main reason that I left Garageband and switched to Logic Express.

For amateurs with little knowledge of the concepts of a software instrument and the choosing of its parameters to create a sound, Logic Express can appear to be formidable even though thousands (especially if you buy the assorted Jam Packs) of parameter choices are built-in. Understanding the software instruments in order to create your own sounds will require study and experimentation if you are new to this.

The only editing that appears to be absent from Logic Express (I've only seen it in the application, Vision, that died many years ago after Mac OS 8 was retired) is scale transformations; that is, given something written in a major scale, being able to semi-automatically transform it into a minor scale, or even esoteric scales, such as Phrygian, Lydian or Mixolydian.

And lastly, perhaps an unnecessary note of caution: just as you can't write a novel with Microsoft Word unless you have a story to tell and understand how to tell it, you can't write music with Logic Express (or any other music creation program) unless you understand enough about music to do so.

Broderbund Print Shop 21 Deluxe [OLD VERSION]
$49.99
Great product. The price was excellent. I will recommend it to all my friends.
Thank you