AskBob's Best of 2011 - Part Two

"I've heard some people say that I can get a free credit report online, but the websites I looked at want to charge me a fee. Is it true that I can get a free credit report once a year?"

"I've purchased a bunch of music from iTunes and have enjoyed listening to them on my computer. But my portable music player is not an Apple iPod, so I can't take my songs with me. Is there any way I can get around this unfair restriction and convert my Itunes tracks to good old MP3?"

"Are online colleges accredited? I really need to get my Master's degree, so I'm looking into various online college courses. Am I right to be concerned about the reputation of online schools, even if they're associated with a well-known university? I'd hate to do all that work, only to find out my diploma is worthless. How can I find out if an online college is accredited?"

"I've been using the free Norton antivirus package that came with my computer, but the subscription will expire in a few days. Are the free anti-virus programs any good? What do you recommend?"

Family relations are fascinating to many people. "Who am I related to?" is a question that virtually everyone can answer to a limited degree. You probably know your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and biological children. But beyond one or two degrees of separation lie thousands of members of your "extended family." To trace who you are related to now, you need to go back in time to some point in history. Here are some tools to help you dig into your ancestry...

For seasoned audio purists, nothing compares to good old-fashioned analog recordings on vinyl records. But those old records are fragile... here's an illustrated step-by-step guide to help you convert vinyl to CD so you can enjoy them for years to come.

Wouldn't it be great to pipe whatever is on your computer screen directly to your big-screen TV? Now you can wirelessly send YouTube videos, computer games and movies from your PC screen directly to your television screen. Even browse the web on your fancy HDTV. Here's how to make a wireless PC to TV connection...

There are many reasons you might want to locate a cell phone and track its movements. Perhaps you lost your phone and would like it back. You might be an anxious parent, a government agent, or you could be part of a group of friends who want to keep tabs during a night on the town. Whatever your reason for tracking a cell phone, there are several ways to go about doing it. Here's the scoop on cell phone tracking...

"How do I make Windows XP run faster? My Windows startup is taking longer than ever, and once it finally stops churning, everything runs slower than it used to, when my computer was new. Any maintenance tips or tweaks to speed up Windows would be appreciated!"

"I just got a new laptop, and I want to do two things. First is to remove all the non-essential programs that came preloaded. Next, I want to load the best freeware for everday computing. I'd love to know what free software you recommend and use on your own computer."