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ie8 fix

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Auto battery maker Ener1 eyes grid storage

NEW YORK--Ener1, which manufactures lithium ion batteries for electric cars, is testing energy storage systems for the power grid, the company's CEO said on Tuesday.

Ener1's roots are in the automotive industry and its Indianapolis-based EnerDel division already has agreements to supply battery packs to a handful of auto companies, including Think and another automaker in Europe.

The company is also expanding into different markets, including the military and utility-grade storage, said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at the Jefferies Global Clean Technology Conference here.

Ener1 is working with a few utilities that work in its Midwestern region on … Read more

Lacks originality

TinyStopWatch is another addition to the already saturated desktop clock market, but there's nothing about this particular clock that stands out above the rest.

The program launches as soon as you extract it, and a tiny interface appears on your desktop that resembles a digital clock. On the interface are three buttons: Start, Stop, and Reset. The program's settings menu can be accessed from a Taskbar icon. When we first right-clicked on the icon, the menu appeared in Japanese, but we were able to change it to English. The settings are very basic, and include letting you set … Read more

Pay before viewing

Top Criminal Check allows you to look up a person's criminal history; however, we didn't get very far with the program because a trial limitation required payment to view any of its findings.

The user interface features search capabilities that require a person's first and last name, but to fine-tune your search, you can add the person's date of birth, gender, and state information. The program also lets you search by phone number, address, ZIP code, and even e-mail address. You can also select the categories you want to include in the search, such as government … Read more

Informative tool

Casual users might not see the allure of this simple freeware, which not only detects hardware and other system information but also lets you benchmark your system's performance. Users with an interest in what goes on under the hood, however, will appreciate this easy-to-use and informative tool.

PC Wizard 2008 goes to work as soon as it's installed, quickly gathering general system information. The interface has a familiar feel with its easily recognizable icons on the toolbar to save, print, and refresh the data. While it looks like little effort was made to dress up the interface, it … Read more

Program is a farce

As far as we're concerned, this program is a farce. The publisher claims that it is free, but before you can view anything in detail, you're asked to select, and pay, for a plan.

Instant People Search has a generic user interface, with basic navigational buttons. To perform a search, you're required to enter a person's first name, last name, approximate age, and state where he or she resides. The program claims that you can also search by phone and cell numbers, e-mail, and current or past addresses, but there isn't a place to enter … Read more

E-mail to nowhere

Email To Background is another in a long line of this publisher's programs that offers the ability to look up information on people. This one lets users look up a person's background information using his or her e-mail address; however, we didn't get very far with the program because a trial limitation required payment to view its findings.

The user interface features a search capability that has only a field for an e-mail address, and that's it. Unlike similar programs by the same publisher, you can't fine tune your search by including a person's … Read more

Fails to impress

This very basic alarm clock claims to offer users a little extra jolt to wake them up in the morning. After putting it to the test, we were left still snoozing at its performance.

Get Up offers an extremely plain and, thanks to a few spelling errors, unprofessionally designed user interface. You have to input the day, month, and year to set the alarm, along with the specific time, which is in military style. There aren't any options to set the alarm for multiple days; you can only set it for one day at a time. You also won'… Read more

Hands-free shutdown utility

This simple little utility lets users schedule various shutdown tasks on their PCs. Though we would have liked to have seen more schedule options, it performed as promised.

Hyper Shutdown features a very simple user interface. The small window displays a list of actions, such as shutdown, restart, log off, hibernate, and set alarm. From there, all you have to do is simply enter the specific time or time frame that you want the program to perform the chosen action, and enter the number of seconds for the countdown warning. You can also select a file to execute before the … Read more