Ron Mahabir Recommends

I was looking for a home surveillance solution when I stumbled on HomeCamera.com - a DIY monitoring solution that works with webcams. All you do is download the webcam software and configure the settings.

All captured images and videos are uploaded to HomeCamera's servers - a plus so that you don't lose the evidence if the thiefs cart away your PC. The surveillance images and videos can be accessed using any PC, PDA or cellphone via Internet, and you can also share them securely.

While not as complete as a CCTV system, HomeCamera has it's own special advantages, e.g. motion detection and anywhere accessibility, and it's FREE. Unfortunately, only one network camera is currently supported - Dlink's DCS-2120 wireless IP camera.

If you've tried downloading videos from Youtube before, you'd know how frustrating it is - Youtube doesn't have a download feature!

That's how I found Downloader9.com. Not only does it allow you to download Youtube videos, but there's also a separate video downloader that let's you grab videos from iFilm, Myspace, Break.com, Blip.tv and other popular sites.

Downloader9.com also has a nice, clean design without the usual excessive ads (and sometimes pop-ups) you see on other video download sites.

With Christmas just round the corner, I thought I'd share some of my favourite Christian websites with you:

1) Bible9.com
- an online Bible (King James and Old Testament) that I use for my Sunday Bible study. You can browse by chapter or search by keyword so it's really convenient.

2) MyGospelLyrics.com
- has hundreds of popular gospel lyrics - without the usual pop-up ads you see on most lyrics sites. But what I like most is the printer-friendly function, which lets you print just the gospel lyrics without the rest of the webpage elements.

3) Ecard9.com
- a free ecard website that contains over 600 greeting cards. They have some nice Christmas cards that you can attach music to. Best of all, it's free - yup, no premium ecards to pay.

Since upgrading to Windows Vista, I've been getting a lot of help from the kind folks at The Vista Forums. You'll understand what I'm talking about if you're using Windows Vista too. Because apart from the lack of optimized drivers, you'll need to implement some Vista tweaks to make it easier to live with.

I'd also recommend heading over to The Vista Wallpapers, where there are loads of nice-looking Windows Vista-themed wallpapers. XP users will get to download the official wallpapers that came with Vista, if you want to make your XP Vista-ish.

I just installed the latest Microsoft Office 2007 suite last night and I must admit that it's a huge improvement over Office 2003.

The sleek, new interface is intuitive and makes working with documents faster. It's worth noting though that the new Office 2007 file format is not compatible with previous versions.

If you plan to upgrade too, I'd definitely recommend buying online at Buy Office 2007. If you're a student or home user, the Home And Student edition is great value at only $109.99 for the full DVD - 27% discount off Microsoft's list price.

Conversely, the Office 2007 Upgrade editions are just as attractively-priced at up to 18% off retail.

Hello world, this is my maiden post!

I'm Ron Mahabir and I'll be blogging about my favourite websites and anything else interesting that I come across on the Internet.

I'm a programmer by training and currently working in a security software company. My interest include Windows Mobile PDAs and notebook computers. I also like read books and I've read all the Harry Potter books, the latest being Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

That's all for my maiden blog post. Stay tuned for more.