Internet Roundup of Black Friday Deals

Computer World has a holiday gift guide containing 18 economical, expensive, and just plain weird tech gifts for your friends and family. But these are hard times and so you may find this comprehensive list of best Black Friday deals more interesting. My interest of late has been about Netbooks (mini-notebooks). I’m surprised that Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is at 5 and HP Mini 1000 didn’t make the Top 5 in this list by PC World.

Before you jump on to the buying binge, Lance Ulanoff, the Editor-in-Chief of PCMag Digital Network, warns of what not to buy, what to buy, and things in between. That is one wonderfully timed useful article, eh? Lance also announced today that the PC Magazine will be completely digital (no more printed editions) from the Feb 2009 issue. Whether it is because of the current recession that hit the publishing industry like Hurricane Katrina or because of any other reason, I welcome the change. Is there anybody else in line?

Those of you who feel plain lucky should also make it a point to give a shot at the HP Magic Giveaway. Who knows? You could win several PCs.

You must agree with me that free deals beat everything else. So here is a useful list of ten favorite free Windows programs that I discovered on Reich Consulting. Instead of Brian’s suggestions in 2, 3, 4 and 5, I use Notepad++, KeePass, Free Download Manager, and simply don’t dig Firefox as much as the fans do. Still, there are a few programs like Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 and Quicken Online (which isn’t exactly a PC software) that I should start using.

I wish you all a very happy thanksgiving.