Links
These are links to various web sites that may be of interest or assistance to OIG retirees. These sites are independent and their listing here does not constitute an endorsement of the organizations.
If you find any of the links are broken, or have suggestions for additional links, please pass this information along by using the below button:
- OPM - Federal Retirees Page with links to all their available services. Click here for information on the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program
- TSP - Thrift $avings Plan Home Page - the good, the bad and the ugly.
- Department of Homeland Security - Information regarding current threat levels and terrorist activity.
- Transportation Security Administration - Information for travelers concerning airport security and other security procedures.
- IRS Tax Forms and publications can be downloaded from here.
- Urban Legends Reference Pages at Snopes.com. Track down the straight skinny on all those things you see on the internet. Good for debunking those "facts" that you keep getting in your email inbox. Did Coca Cola really contain cocaine?
- Currency Converters by OANDA.com, The Currency Site or the XE currency converter
- OIG-USDA - OIG's official web page at the USDA web site
- NARFE - National Active and Retired Federal Employees Asscoiation website
- AARP - American Association of Retired Persons website
- THOMAS - Search for legislative information regarding action in the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. This is a service of the Library of Congress
- FIRSTGOV - the only official U.S. Government portal to 47 million pages of government information, services, and online transactions.
- National Do Not Call List - Operated by the Federal Trade Commission. The place to list (free) your telephone number(s) to try to eliminate those annoying telephone sales calls. Your registration is only good for 5 years, so you have to renew it occasionally.
- You have been Approved !!! - Are you tired of being inundated with "pre-approved" credit card offers and insurance solicitations? Companies send these out after running a credit check on you through one or more of the 4 major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis and Trans Union). You can opt-out of these (free) by calling 1 888 5OPTOUT (1 888 567 8688) or through the website optoutprescreen.com. This will prevent your name from being furnished by the major credit bureaus to creditors wanting to send you unsolicited, firm offers of credit. The opt-out is good for 5 years and you can opt back in at any time through the same number or website. To learn more, click here for information from the Experian website or read the FTC newsletter here (a pdf file).
- Computer Stuff
- Anti-Virus program? Gotta have it nowadays! There is a very good, free antivirus program put out by AVG AntiVirus. They also have a paid version and a firewall program. Of course, there are always Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and McAfee's VirusScan on which you can usually get a pretty good deal through rebates.
- Ad-Aware (free and paid versions), AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly Ewido -- free and paid versions) and SpyBot (free) are good for removing spyware which is surreptitiously slipped into our computers to track and monitor our internet use (and worse).
- Firefox and Opera are excellent alternatives to the Internet Explorer browser. Both are free.
- Thunderbird (free) is an very good option for an email program to avoid Microsoft's Outlook or Outlook Express. Dawn is a free utility to convert your email address book from one program to another (Outlook to Thunderbird, for example) so you don't have to retype all those addresses when you change email programs.
- Google's free Gmail is probably the best of the web-based email programs which include Yahoo and Hotmail. Gmail also has a POP3 interface so you can use your regular email program to send and receive in addition to using the website. You need an invitation to get Gmail, so if you are interested, contact me through the email button on the first page.
- Latest Computer Virus Information
