I’m often asked whether a reader or a friend (or someone who is both!) should buy a new computer with Windows Vista — or buy a new computer and get Windows XP on it. At first, I would have thought this a strange question since Vista is the new system.

But, then I remembered the basic “rule” of Microsoft products — never buy version 1.0.

I’ve been thinking about a new notebook computer to replace my Dell Inspiron 8600, which has a Pentium M 1.7GHz processor and 2GB memory. It could probably do Windows Vista, but not the Aero interface (and I haven’t found anything in Vista that I particularly want in Vista other than the eye candy — and I like fast more than I like cute).

My first thought was to get a small notebook with Windows XP that I could easily carry. That thought has its own problems though. There’s a long-standing rule about notebook computers:…

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What’s an RSS feed and why should I be interested?

The most frequently updated content sites on the Internet are blogs. In fact, blogs are so easy to update and to maintain that some regular web sites are converting to the blog format. RSS feeds are a way that you can get titles and introductions to the lastest articles — without having to go to the web site to see if there’s something new! The RSS reader that I use is GreatNews, from

Product: GreatNews
Class: RSS Reader
License: Freeware
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0.381 (Beta)
Publisher: Curio Studio, www.curiostudio.com

For some reason, they’re still calling GreatNews a Beta version. Beta is a pre-release status where the author(s) have resolved most of the bugs and they’re allowing others to test the program. I’ve been using GreatNews for about six months and have yet to find a bug!

Continue reading The GreatNews RSS Reader Review

In the Using Google Maps article, we saw how we could find a location on the maps. Then, we saw that we could see a satellite view and even a hybrid view with the map superimposed over the satellite view. We could zoom, too.

Google has another neat satellite-view program. This one is Google Earth, which is free and is part of the free Google Pack software package.

There’s not much I can say about Google Earth. That’s because I don’t know where to start…

Let’s try some bullet points:

• You start in space, looking at the Earth. You can turn the Earth with the pointers, or by dragging it, or by double-clicking on a spot.
• Continue reading Google Earth - A View from Space