You can make international calls at local rates with Jaxtr

Are you dying to make an international call, but resisting because of the prohibitive charges involved? I recently discovered a website that will allot you a local number to make international calls. You will be charged at the local call rate. The site (www.jaxtr.com) is fast becoming popular and might just impose some sort of charges soon. I suggest you enroll immediately and make full use of all its free features.

To call your friends with Jaxtr, ensure that they too have Jaxtr accounts. The last time I tried the facility, India was among the countries that were allotted local numbers. However, it is temporarily unavailable now. But you can you use their voice mail and free sms facilities.

Another little-known communication tool on the web is Eyejot (www.eyejot.com). This site has combined the best of what email and live video chat have to offer and has created a platform that’s remarkably easy to use and works with any web browser, on any platform. Very often the person you want to chat with is not online at the same time. With Eyejot you can send video messages in seconds. The best part is there is no software to install. The site lets you record a video message and email a link to your friend. And your friend can reply with his or her own video message.

File-sharing: Have you ever had trouble sending a large file to someone? You needn’t worry any longer because www.mediafire.com lets you upload unlimited files and images and share them with your friends and family. You can access your files from any computer and also post links to them. It is very much like .mac that Mac users are familiar with. Registration is optional, but every feature of the service is available whether you create an account or not. However, creating an account is easy and free, and this allows you quick and secure access to your saved files from any computer.

Converting file formats has always been a big hassle. You needed special software to convert your videos taken with a mobile phone to a format viewable with most media players. Sometimes you need to convert your .avi movie file so that it can be viewed on an iPod, or even make a .pdf from a Word document. Just go to Zamzar (www.zamzar.com) and convert documents, movies, images and even YouTube videos in four easy steps. The only limitation is that your files cannot exceed 100 MB. You may not be able to convert an entire movie, but anything else is just not a problem.

Gaming: Are you into gaming? Then Armor Games is just the site for you. You will find a huge repository of Flash-based games and all of them can be played online. Racing, poker, shooting, arcade, adventure, strategy… the list is endless. If there’s still time left, visit K2xl at www.k2xl.com. Their most addictive game is called Boomshine. Just try it.

Still not enough to do? Why don’t you try to figure out the kind of people you should make friends with? LikeBetter (www.likebetter.com) does just this. You will be presented with two pictures and asked to choose the one you like more. Next you will be given another set. Then the site’s tremendous brainpower gets into action and tells you what kind of a person you are and who you should befriend through this site.

Computer problems: You must have faced computer problems hundreds of times. Hunting for missing files, especially a .dll that has just disappeared, can be quite a daunting task. At afreeDLL you can search alphabetically and its tutorials will guide you if you are picking a wrong file. All downloads at www.afreedll.com are free.

Another site you must try is Infected or Not. The free tool at www.infectedornot.com will quickly find out whether there are malicious programs lurking inside your computer. Very useful indeed.

Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com. The solutions will appear soon