Recently, I’ve noticed ads on the Internet and on TV about getting your free credit report, but usually there’s an asterisk saying something about having to sign up with some service or purchase some product. That’s not exactly free, is it?*

Anyway, you might recall I’d posted about being able to check your credit report for free once a year. What I said was a little misleading. You can check your credit report at each of the three credit reporting agencies for free once a year. Since they are more or less going to be the same, you can actually choose to check your credit report from a different agency every four months. Or you might still want to get all three at once just to compare them to one another.

Don’t forget that if you’re ever turned down because of your credit history, you have the right to request your credit report for free. This happens every time I try to finance that Ferrari.

AnnualCreditReport.com

FTC: Fair Credit Reporting Act

*No, it isn’t.

One of the first things I did with the new notebook for my sister was to run Windows Update and Office Update and install a lot of security software (anti-spyware, anti-malware, and anti-virus).

Here’s the list of free/donationware must-haves:

Firefox – Better browser, safer to use. Extensions rock.

SpywareBlaster – Prevents Spyware from being installed.

AdAware SE – Spyware removal tool.

Spybot Search and Destroy – Spyware prevention and removal tool.

AVG Anti-Virus – Free anti-virus tool. Use can use Symantec if you have the money and system resources.

Crap Cleaner – One-click deletion of your Recycle Bin, temp directories, browser cache, etc.

As always, it’s better not to get spyware on your machine, but if you do, these guys can help:

The PC Guide Discussion Forums

Once you’ve installed all this stuff, don’t forget to update the definition files! I use Yahoo! Calendar to send me email reminders of this and other tedious tasks.

Amazon’s search engine now has maps: A9 Maps

Might as well put them all out there:

Trulia gathers data from all sorts of sources and plots it out on a big Google Map for you. It also includes some stats on average prices, market indicators, and other real estate geekery. Armed with this and some of the other data that’s available, we can make some rational decisions on whether to rent or own, rent out or sell, or just get the hell out of Dodge.

As you well know, I’m a big fan of cool web apps, especially meta-apps like HousingMaps. Here’s a new one called RentSlicer for all you So-Cal kiddies still paying the man on the first of the month. It takes feeds from Craigslist classifieds and calculates average rents for different housing types and neighborhoods.

Turns out I’m getting a deal on my apartment, both in terms of the entire city, as well as the specific location I’m in.

It also turns out that if certain bloggers who work for a certain online poker site would only move out to Panorama City, we could probably save a bit more on rake.

Of course, the real way to use RentSlicer is in conjunction with HousingMaps. Use HousingMaps to find a place, use RentSlicer to comparison shop or negotiate a better deal.

I <3 Internet. Thanks to Curbed.LA for blogging about it in the first place.