Free translation site: http://www.freetranslation.com/. No downloading; no waiting. Conversely: written text only. (A premium "human translation" service is offered as well - but for a quick memo or if you're in a rush to get a handle on an uncomplicated foreign-language doc - this site is worth the fingertaps.
Free telephone, address and reverse searches: http://www.argali.com/. You'll need to download the program but that's a good thing. It means it updates every time you sign on to it. And no complicated sign-ins or passwords... You simply d/l the program, a yellow ram (mountain goat?) icon lands on your desktop and you just click that when you are in search mode.
Free homeowners search: http://www.propertysharks.com/ These guys have a fairly extensive and updated archive. Lots of info aside from homeowner identification (date of sale, amount, pictures, land use...)
Free sound-editing: http://audacity.sourceforge.net// Removes background noise from an audio recording quickly and easily - it's that simple. And it's cross-platform - Mac/Windows supported.
Free BNI tip:Old Style: To obtain a forwarding address for a reluctant subject, simply write "Return Address Requested" on the lower left front of your envelope to the last known address for this person. The USPO will not forward your correspondence but rather return you new address information if available.New: To determine the identity of a domain owner, go to http://www.whois.com/. Scroll down to WhoIs LookUp and enter the domain name. If it is not privately registered, the owner's name, address and ownership/availability dates will pop.
Free all in one scanner, copier and fax, from your camera phone: http://www.scanr.com/. BNI Investigators: Street smart: Web savvy.
MacGyver-ing Your Camera Phone Into A Scanner, Copier and Fax
In June 2006, the verb "Google" was officially entered into the OED. Prior to that, and without the academic and historical fanfare, many of us learned what it meant to "MacGyver" a situation. Facing a near-impossible situation, with only the materials at hand (read: absolutely no tech gear or 24-like outside CSU-support) the eponymous TV character would jerry-rig everything from stray twigs to shards of shiny glass to pre-owned dental floss to work his way out of the situation, save the day and issue a pithy lesson-learned wrap-up, all in 60 minutes (minus commercials, in-law phone calls and finishing ).
Fast forward to tomorrow, a week from now, next year... You find yourself in a situation where you need to make a copy of a document and have only your cell phone, or just a digital camera. How would you MacGyver this situation?
scanR is a system of applications and services that enable you to copy and fax documents using just a camera phone or a digital camera. With scanR, you'll be capturing and sending the information you need. The above left picture is the original scanned photo; the right jpeg is the scanR processed document. That about says it all.
scanR is a Web-based service. You create a user account. When you want to scan a document, you simply take a picture of the document. You can take pictures of documents, white boards, and even business cards. You can easily scan and store business cards or save what you've written on whiteboards before they get erased.
You then send your image to scanR from a camera phone using the MMS protocol or send JPEG photo images. You'll then receive in your email digital copies of your image in PDF format for you to use and print. You can send up to 15 pictures in one batch.scanR supports sending faxes to most phone numbers in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. scanR is currently a free service. Learn more about scanR.
