Kindle Tips: A good Beethoven Big Box mp3 album, 99c for awhile. Adobe Creative Suite 2, free to download still.

A special price on a Beethoven box that probably will be raised soon.

I should have posted this one earlier, but about a week ago, I noticed that this box of 99 tracks of Beethoven, complete pieces, all movements (meant to be) intact and in the proper order (unlike what you see in some of these large compilations), was priced at $0.99 although any individual track is listed as $0.99.  I did get it.

They're good to excellent performances, and since these albums usually are priced eventually at $4.99 to $9.99, it's a good deal, if you're wanting this kind of music.
  Note that the same label's Big Tchaikovsky Box is currently $9.99, so if you're interested in the material, I'd get the Beethoven while it's at this price.

There are currently quite a few boxes at $0.99 to $2.99 but they really vary in quality.  The ones that don't give you full movements of a work, tracked together, are like book offerings that give you only a chapter or two.

  Amazon's classical-music compilations are obviously put together by people who don't even think a composer's name is of any interest.  We tend to find out who composed a piece when a customer lists that normally-basic information on each track within a review.  Having said that, this album's music is by only one composer so that's not as important here.

  Customers have identified problems with a few tracks that don't hold the correct movement and belong to other works.  In cases like that, you'll see replies by Greg Barbero for The Bach Guild/Vanguard (a label with a good rep for some time)  in this vein:

' Greg Barbero says:
Thank you - you are correct.  On behalf of the Bach Guild, thank you for pointing this out.  We will provide a replacement track to Amazon - and if they do not supply you with a track, we will send you a replacement immediately. '

As the same customers tend to say, the album is an 'amazing bargain.'

As Corneliu Dascălu reminded me, mp3's are generally not available to those outside the U.S., which has to be maddening to non-US customers. I hope this changes somehow.


Adobe Creative Suite 2 now available for free download, free
Adobe is now on Creative Suite 6, and it's been 8 years since Adobe Suite 2 reigned. There are newer inexpensive tools that can do a bit more in some ways, but the entire suite includes:
Acrobat 3D 1.0
Acrobat Standard 7.0
Acrobat Pro 8.0
Audition 3.0
GoLive CS2
Illustrator CS2
InCopy CS2
InDesign CS2
Photoshop CS2
Photoshop Elements 4.0/5.0
Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0

Adobe meant the downloads to be free for existing owners who cannot re-install their Adobe 2 programs because Adobe retired, on Dec. 13, the activation servers that supported Creative Suite 2 legitimate re-installs.

  Imaging Resources found that Adobe did not intend this for others and then IR updated their own "Free" advisory (as did Forbes), but now the various sites have found that Adobe left up the links and serial numbers, after explaining the original intent, so of course people are still downloading it and there is no language on Adobe's download page telling people not to download it.
   One still had to register with Adobe (that's free) to get the download but even that seems to have changed.  

  An update was made by most sites announcing the free download, explaining it had not been meant to be free to all -- but then later updates were posted saying that Adobe has nevertheless left the links up anyway and has left no explanations or warnings at the download page.  Adobe's disinterest in advising that the downloads were not intended for everyone has led to sites like slickdeals.net still spreading the news, explaining the system requirements and advising that it does work for some who are on Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit) despite the age of this software.

Mobilemag has noted the following:

'...the doors to the free downloads and serial keys are still open, and in fact, Adobe have even opened it up wider by turning off the requirement to log into adobe before accessing the page. '

That's fascinating.

  Here is Adobe's own CS2 downloads page which offers these by individual programs for Mac and for Win.

  DownloadCrew recommends the entire-suite download at the top of Adobe's download page and then explains how to handle the little glitches or questions that can come up with the installation of the set.
  I recommend printing out that page if you do decide to download the set.

 Really, it's not surprising that they left the download and serial number up on their site, open to all, after learning the world is downloading it, because what can Adobe lose from people being able to install a version 8 years old?  This set was programmed for Windows XP2000 and XP and it does take some work to install them on a modern PC -- and there is no Adobe support for problems you might encounter.

  It can make new customers out of some who had always found it either too expensive or too difficult to learn and can now learn it slowly at no cost and decide whether they want to go to something like a newer version of the more inexpensive stand-alone Photoshop Elements, which is one part of the set in version 2.

  Although I've since acquired a later version of Adobe's set, I am still using Adobe 3, one step beyond Adobe 2 until I can find time to set up a very new way of working with photos, when jumping to Adobe 6.

  Adobe's new idea for software revenue is to offer a subscribership to the current version of the Adobe set, which costs $50 per month, something that won't be chosen by most who try Adobe.  I don't doubt that this latter is behind their decision to leave the software up without any language whatsoever against downloading it, as it can't hurt Adobe and can only help bring them a few new customers

  Here are search results on free tutorials for Photoshop 2.

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Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
NOTES on newer Kindles.

US: Updated Kindle Fire Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $299/$369 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $499/$599 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free but slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £89 Refurb'd Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199 Canada - Amazon Canada Kindle Basic, NoTouch - $89

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle Brazil - Amazon Brazil China - Amazon China Japan - Amazon Japan

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Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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