Offline Currency Exchange Questions
Zakopane, Poland

With the rate at which the dollar is losing strength these days in relation to so many other world currencies, it's hard for me to figure out exactly how much things are costing these days in the guidebooks printed years (or even months) ago. Normally I'd go onto XE.com or Google and query the current exchange rate, but both of those require Internet access—something that I've been lacking in recently.

Converber screenshot

I've sold my PDA now that I'm carrying a laptop, but one of the great features that it had was a program I installed that downloaded the recent trading rates for many international currencies. I've been on a bus for the border, having accidentally forgotten to check the exchange rate, and just hit a few buttons to figure out how much I should be getting for the money exchanged on the street during the crossing.

Before leaving Miami, I tracked down a replacement for this program (for use with my laptop). The name is Converber, and I've been enjoying its offline conversions—not just currencies, but hundreds of others (like temperature, torque, and fuel consumption).

If you're carrying a laptop abroad and will be transitioning between countries often, this free program will be right up your alley.