Hot Pick! American Presidency Project

For a feeling of past times, check out the splendid online archive of presidential speeches, news conferences and radio addresses, “The American Presidency Project.” Search for “Reconstruction Finance Corporation” or other terms that interest you. Here is an excerpt from his annual message to Congress, 8 December 1931:

RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION

In order that the public may be absolutely assured and that the Government may be in position to meet any public necessity, I recommend that an emergency Reconstruction Corporation of the nature of the former War Finance Corporation should be established. It may not be necessary to use such an instrumentality very extensively. The very existence of such a bulwark will strengthen confidence. The Treasury should be authorized to subscribe a reasonable capital to it, and it should be given authority to issue its own debentures. It should be placed in liquidation at the end of two years. Its purpose is that by strengthening the weak spots to thus liberate the full strength of the Nation’s resources. It should be in position to facilitate exports by American agencies; make advances to agricultural credit agencies where necessary to protect and aid the agricultural industry; to make temporary advances upon proper securities to established industries, railways, and financial institutions which can not otherwise secure credit, and where such advances will protect the credit structure and stimulate employment. Its functions would not overlap those of the National Credit Corporation.

and the link to his signing of the RFC legislation.

Hot Pick! Copernic Desktop Search

After gathering documents, writing papers, and collecting images, how does one search them all? To deal with this problem, companies have come up with desktop search engines Windows Search comes built into Vista: type in the space at the bottom left corner of your screen and Windows Search will find files that contain your search term. The Apple equivalent is called "Spotlight." Google Desktop Search is also popular but very sluggish and privacy-invading.

These three programs find file names containing your search term but do not go to the precise location of your search term; instead, you have to open the file you think you need and then scroll through a preview screen (even worse, Apple Spotlight requires you to open a second program to simply Preview and scroll, scroll, scroll). The Window, Apple, and Google engines are also limited to a certain number of file types--you need to add plug-ins for additional file types. You also need to add "filters" to play PDF if you don't have Adobe on your computer.

The Windows and Apple search engines perform like go-carts compared to the Porsche of Desktop Searching: Copernic.

The free version of Copernic is

*Lighter and faster than its competitors

*Indexes remarkably fast

*The interface includes a built-in preview pane

*The preview pane can play music or video from within (no need to open a separate player)

*No need for plug-ins or filters: Copernic plays all file types "out of the box."

*Most important, the preview pane highlights your search terms and jumps to them as you hit on the term you are seeking. This is a REAL time saver if you are zooming through documents that are very long. No more futile scrolling.

*If you have Vista, install Copernic and check the box to replace Window Search. Turn off the Windows Search function so it isn't indexing too; you will see a major boost in the performance of your PC. Copernic works right from the Orb (the search space at the bottom left-hand corder).

Mac fanboys rave about Spotlight but it is clear they have not used the best Windows desktop search engine. I found Spotlight to be primitive at best compared to Copernic and even Windows Search. For all of the above reasons, Copernic is the tops! Show it to your Mac friends and then ask them for a demo of how they find information. Think of the famous advertisement: "Hi, I'm Mac Spotlight," "and I'm Copernic." Except this time Mac loses.

REVIEWS:

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/software/desktop-search-engines/

http://www.filesworld.com/downloads/file/fid,24670-order,1-page,12-c,desktop/description.html


http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/002800.html

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/102276/copernic-desktop-search-2.html