mother's day spending on decline

For the first time in the five years that anyone has been keeping track, Mother's Day spending is expected to drop. Consumers last year spent an average of $139.14, while the average this year is expected to be $138.63. That's a 51 cent difference for those of you following along at home.

Those in the know cite rising gas prices and economic difficulties on the drop in spending. They do say, however, that moms in some areas may see larger gifts. While flowers, clothing, and spa certificates are popular, more moms this year will see electronic or jewelry purchases instead.

You know, I've got all the jewelry I need. Give me an extra hour or two to sleep in, then some pancakes made by a couple of sticky-fingered little girls and I'm good. Somehow, I doubt I'll notice that missing 51cents.

What about you? Do you celebrate with extravagant gifts or do you look forward to a little R&R instead?

walk/run methods

While jogging is my favorite workout, I've never covered long distances -- five painful miles on the last leg of a triathlon is the farthest I've ever gone. Currently, I run 5Ks on the treadmill and enjoy a 2.1-mile route in the neighborhood, but I'd really love to up my mileage.

This past year, a couple of my 'beginner runner' friends pulled off half-marathons and marathons. They trained and successfully ran their long-distance races by applying the run/walk method. Famous distance runner and author Jeff Galloway invented the Galloway RUN/WALK Method, which has made longer distances possible for most runners.

In a marathon, Galloway recommends incorporating a run/walk ratio within the first mile of your race, keeping up the pattern through mile 18. After that, you're free to run like a purist all the way to the finish line. The rationale behind walk breaks is to prevent muscle fatigue and speed recovery. Switching back and forth between walking and running muscles increases your overall performance capacity since a wider variety of muscles are sharing the load. Makes sense.

AHD sleeping is important for kids

Sleep is important for kids. Disturbed sleep can lead to poor school performance and behavior problems. My son is just about to turn 11. He's at his best when he gets about 10 hours of sleep though, more often than not, he wakes up after nine hours. When he gets less than that he is grumpy, unfocused, and defiant for the rest of the day. What makes matters worse is that my son has ADHD, which disrupts his sleep. It's a vicious circle, really. The ADHD makes it harder for him to sleep and a lack of sleep exacerbates his ADHD symptoms.

It turns out that my son is not alone. A recent survey found that more than 73% of kids with ADHD have sleep problems including difficult falling asleep, resistance to sleeping, and still feeling tired after waking up. There are many ways to help your child get proper sleep.

• First and foremost, speak to your doctor if your child has ADHD and his having trouble sleeping. If your child is on ADHD medication it may be worsening his/her ability to get to sleep. Your doctor may have advice for adjusting the medication or even simply modifying the time of day your child takes meds.

make your body more strengthen with the following

The Perfect Pushup

Claim: Hand grips help you attain that perfect form as you push up by allowing your wrists to naturally turn.Green alternative: Use hand weights, or place your hands on towels sitting on a slick surface, and gently turn your wrists as you go down and push back up.

Ab Wheel

Claim: On your hands and knees and a hand on each handle, roll forward and back to whittle your abdominals. Green alternative: place hands on a magazine or two folded towels on a slick surface, and slide away.

five ways to reuse the chopsticks

I have a sizable collection of nice chopsticks, however, I frequently forget to tell the person packing my Chinese or Japanese takeout to skip the splinter inducing disposable chopsticks that find a way into my bag. This could be averted if I remembered to speak up or if restaurants switched to reusable chopsticks and charged a fee for disposables. Alas, I am left searching for five ways to reuse these bad boys.

1. Pets. Your rat or hamster would be pleased to have their very own pair of chopsticks to munch on -- especially if your dinner was particularly salty.
2. Set sail. Treehugger has a great photo of a boat made out of 7,382 disposable chopsticks.
3. Gardening. Chopsticks and a sharpie are all you need to make some new plant stakes. You could even get fancy and use the wrapper as part of the label.
4. Jewelry. Make a necklace.
5. Hair. If your hair is long enough, twist it into a bun and hold in place

how to make your own rain barrel from daily life

Rain barrels are just what they sound like, barrels to collect rain water. Collected rain water is especially useful to water your garden, especially in time of water shortages.

Bill Volk on DIY Life tells us how to make our own rain barrel. Volk lives north of Atlanta, an area currently under outdoor watering restrictions. While there are commercial rain barrels available now, but they are usually not cheap, and isn't it more fun to make your own? (If you have the skills that is!).

So, take a look at Bob's article and see how what it takes to make your own rain barrel. His requirements for the barrel were simple enough: food grade, plastic, have a removable top, be reasonably attractive and not cost a "bazillion dollars."

how to guide to illustrates of upgrading your laptop

Conjuring up your own desktop is pretty far down on the list of "world's most difficult tasks," but actually building your own laptop is another thing entirely. As we've seen with Ben Heck's creations, assembling a lappie rather than buying a pre-fabricated model is a serious undertaking, and while Computer Shopper's guide to constructing your own is more of an "upgrade an existing" walk-through, it's still chock full of interesting tidbits. Ever had the urge to snap up a barebones lap warmer and have your way with it? Head on down to the read link, and don't be afraid of getting your hands covered in thermal adhesive, okay?

microsoft xbox group enjoys second quarter profit

It's taken a few years, but lightning's struck twice for Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division (the portion of the company responsible for Zune, Windows Mobile, and Xbox). The operating profit of $89 million that E&D drew is just a drop in MSFT's far, far larger fiscal bucket, but unless business turns sour, from here on out it looks like the group making all the fun stuff in Redmond is no longer in the business of losing cash hand over fist.

electric motion system electric bike in dollars

Believe it or not, Electric Motion Systems' E+ actually isn't the priciest electric bicycle we've ever seen, but at $3,495 sans chauffeur, it's a far cry from being a bargain. Aside from boasting a relatively traditional frame, the unit gets powered by an EMS 1000-watt hub-mounted, brushless permanent magnet motor, which should provide 20 to 40 miles of fun on a single charge. Proving its intelligence, the E+ also supports regenerative braking, which enables the battery to get charged each time the rider slams the stoppers. You'll also find a handlebar-mounted LCD display which shows speed, distance traversed, battery level and whether or not cruise control is enabled. Yeah. Cruise control, son. Suddenly, $3,495 seems quite reasonable, no?

windows vista updates disables anti-virus programs

Microsoft is preparing to release the first major update to Vista, Service Pack 1 (SP1), which is supposed to clear out some of the major issues users have had with Vista, including speed and compatibility problems. Unfortunately for those eagerly awating SP1, it seems that Microsoft is creating just as many problems as it's solving.

Microsoft released an admittedly incomplete list of applications that will either not work properly or not work at all with SP1:

• BitDefender AV
• Fujitsu Shock Sensor
• Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10
• Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008
• Trend Micro Internet Security
• Zone Alarm Security Suite
• Iron Speed Designer
• Xheo Licensing
• Free Allegiance
• NYT Reader
• Rising Personal Firewall
• Novell ZCM Agent

Ironically, most of the applications that will lose functionality or not work at all with Vista SP1 are security applications -- namely firewalls and anti-virus programs. One of the major complaints against Microsoft Windows is its relative insecurity when compared to Mac OS X and the Linux operating systems, so losing access to security programs will be a major drawback for most users.

friendly computer viruses that r good for your pc

Everyone likes to race, whether it's cars or skateboards or just people on two feet. Researchers at Microsoft are looking to apply this notion of competition to the world of viruses, with the hope of creating friendly worms to compete against malicious ones.

Similar to the current research that use genetically-modified viruses to deliver medication or fight cancer, the "good" computer viruses that Microsoft is working on would take advantage of a given security loophole in computer systems. These viruses would spread themselves out like self-replicating worms by finding computers capable of being infected, then installing themselves onto those compuers and patching any flaws or security holes.

In theory, these angel viruses would make the computer safe from any virus that would attempt to exploit the same loophole -- assuming they get to the exposed computers faster than the real viruses do.

This is all theory for now, though, so in the mean time, keep that virus-scanner updated.

at & t says that internet will hit full capacity by 2010

Where, you ask, is the end of the Internet?

Well, in the time-space continuum that is virtual existence, the real question is when. And according to AT&T, without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will "reach the limits of its capacity by 2010."

The comments were made at a Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 this past week in London, where AT&T's vice president of legislative affairs Jim Cicconi warned that the systems currently in place will not be able to handle the increasing amounts of content (read: homemade movies of your cat break-dancing).

He said that at least $55 billion worth of investment was needed in new infrastructure in the next three years in the U.S. alone -- and that it would require $130 billion to improve the Internet worldwide.

Most outlandish quote:

"The surge in online content is at the center of the most dramatic changes affecting the Internet today," he said. "In three years' time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today."

would you like to marry in space.

If you were ponying up $100,000-per-seat for you and someone special to take a ride on Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo into the outer atmosphere, chances are it'd be a moment that you'd have a hard time forgetting. That said, some couples are taking things a bit further to make that journey a memorable one. One as-yet-identified couple has plans to get married while out there, and it looks like Branson might just be the man for the job.

Virgin Galactic C.E.O. Branson, who is ordained, has already conducted a wedding while in mid-flight on a Virgin airplane (which was appropriately en-route to Las Vegas). The set of intergalactic nuptials to be exchanged on the upcoming SpaceShipTwo flight will be the first extra-atmospheric wedding. In addition to the nuptial couple, Virgin Galactic advister George Whitesides and his new wife, Loretta Hidalgo will be getting the first honeymoon in space.

So, if you thought your bride-to-be would be impressed with that trip to Acapulco, better think again!

would like to marry in space

If you were ponying up $100,000-per-seat for you and someone special to take a ride on Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo into the outer atmosphere, chances are it'd be a moment that you'd have a hard time forgetting. That said, some couples are taking things a bit further to make that journey a memorable one. One as-yet-identified couple has plans to get married while out there, and it looks like Branson might just be the man for the job.

Virgin Galactic C.E.O. Branson, who is ordained, has already conducted a wedding while in mid-flight on a Virgin airplane (which was appropriately en-route to Las Vegas). The set of intergalactic nuptials to be exchanged on the upcoming SpaceShipTwo flight will be the first extra-atmospheric wedding. In addition to the nuptial couple, Virgin Galactic advister George Whitesides and his new wife, Loretta Hidalgo will be getting the first honeymoon in space.

So, if you thought your bride-to-be would be impressed with that trip to Acapulco, better think again!

darwin's complete work now available on free internet

Thanks to the U.K.'s Cambridge University, Charles Darwin's complete works are now available for free online at the Web site Darwin-Online.org.uk. The venerable institution has digitized more than 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images by Darwin, and made them all searchable. Only about 50% of the materials that will ultimately be available in 2009 -- the bicentennial of Darwins' birth -- are currently online.

Some of the materials on the site have never been published or transcribed before, such as Darwin's field notebook from his voyage to the Galapagos. The original notebook was stolen in the 1980s, and the version online has been transcribed from microfilm. Other works first published by the site include the 'Journal Of Researches' (1839), 'The Descent Of Man' (1871), 'The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle' (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the groundbreaking 'Origin Of Species.' In addition to Darwin's own writings, the online catalog will feature supplementary texts about Darwin, including contemporary views, references, obituaries and recollections of his life.

All of this is impressive and points toward the future of digital libraries and digitized resources. However, we hope that online resources of the future won't look like a public library homepage circa 1995. While we don't judge a book by its cover or anything, we think such a monumental undertaking deserves a bit more flash, and we mean that in every possible sense.

updated 'dilbert' site allows you to write your own punchlines

Many out there repeatedly lie to themselves and say "I could do that" when reading a comic strip. One of the most popular strips to inspire this me-too-ism is Scott Adams tales of cubicle drudgery and middle management absurdity, Dilbert.

Mr. Adams and United Media have re-launched the Dilbert Web site, and one of the most striking features is the new mash-ups section that allows you to write your own punchline to today's Dilbert strip. Eventually, United Media plan to let visitors re-write the entire strip -- not just the punch line -- and extend this feature to all past Dilberts.

In addition to the new mash-up section, the Dilbert archives have been greatly expanded. Until now, the archives only stored the last 30 days worth of Dilbert cartoons, but now the archives reach all the way back to 2001 and will eventually reach all the way back to the comic's launch in 1989.

songs purchased on msn music wont work on new computers

Ever wonder why we loathe DRM around here as much as we do even when companies come along offering free, all you can eat deals? Well, if the Sony ATRAC debacle didn't serve as a warning there's always this: Microsoft just announced that it will no longer supply authorization keys for songs purchased from the defunct MSN Music service. That means that the PlaysForSure music you purchased will only play on your registered computers (up to 5) for as long as they shall live.

As Microsoft puts it, "If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play." It's worth noting that the move also locks the registered PC into whatever OS it's running -- any major update or switch to Ubuntu for example, would kill all your music, dead. Now imagine what would happen if iTunes shuttered its store -- Steve won't be around forever you know.

keyboard pants is just like anything greekier

We're pretty sure you're supposed to wear things like your geekiness on your sleeve, not your crotch, but apparently no one told designer Erik De Nijs, the mind behind these pair of pants-cum-laptop-accessory.

The oddly saggy-in-the-middle-jeans, with bright orange stitching, have speakers built into the knees and a keyboard in the crotch for Googling from where ever you want. The convenience of always having a full-sized keyboard with you seems nice, but we're pretty sure we shouldn't be encouraging people to put their hands in their groin where other people might see.

new bionic hand good enough for typing

Unfortunately, there's a shocking number of Iraqi war veterans returning home every day as amputees, due to shrapnel from improvised explosive devices and other battlefront dangers. Those veterans are becoming a tragic statistic, but they're also driving advances in prosthetic technology.

Covered briefly by Engadget last summer, latest innovation is a new prosthetic hand from a company called Touch Bionics. It not only has five independently movable fingers, but also has controls so precise that wearers can use a keyboard or pick up fragile things.

The hand, called the i-LIMB, relies on muscle movements on the wearer's forearm to control the individual fingers. It also applies pressure back to the user's skin to let them know how much force is being applied to whatever object is being picked up. So, while wearers can't exactly "feel" what they're grasping or interacting with, they at least can control their prosthetic hands as if they could.

The hands are not prototypes and can be purchased now -- assuming you can afford the $17,500 price tag. Between this new hand, a competing bionic hand created by German researchers, and the bionic eye implant from earlier this week, it's clear to see that technology is giving those with disabilities, either due to genetics or war, new reasons for hope.

girls showing their antics pictures in face book-reuters

Acting like a fool when drunk used to be something that you either kept from everyone you know, or your friends brought up to embarrass you, especially for young women. But something has changed in the past few years. Now drunken tom-foolery has become a point of pride, and if you need any proof, just look to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Groups like '30 Reasons Girls Should Call it a Night' on Facebook have sprung up dedicated to drunken women making fools of themselves. Public urination, passing out in the street, and even vomiting on one's self are no longer antics you hide like a second girlfriend, but are events to be documented and proudly posted on your social networking profile of choice. The group has close to 150,000 members.

For illustation, here are the top five "reasons" the girls give to join their ranks:

1. You have absolutely no idea where your friends are.
2. You have absolutely no idea where your car is... wait did you bring your car??
3. You've become convinced that dancing with your arms overhead, shaking your ass, and yelling WOO HOO is truly the sexiest dance move EVER.
4. You've suddenly decided you want to kick someone's ass and honestly believe you can do it (bitch...i ain't playin...).
5. You start singing 80's songs at the top of your lungs and showing off your dance skills to the car next to you.

This new-found pride in inebriated debauchery goes along with an increase in the amount and frequency of alcohol consumed by young women and teenage girls. A study performed by the British government recently found that the average 15 year old drinks the equivalent of a bottle of wine every week.

We're sure there are some who might be concerned by this statistic or the proliferation of drunken pride, but we just can't help but laugh at the girl who drunkenly fell into the bush. We'll let some of the pictures we found speak for themselves. Warning: some of these are not pretty, so be careful at work.

your face book or my space profile would cost you your job

FaceBook is fun -- there's no doubt about that. However, did you know that your social networking profile is open to Google and Yahoo searches? If you think your boss and prospective employers aren't Googling you, think again. Just consider what will happen when the girls of '30 Reasons You Know It's Time to Go Home' go out and try to get jobs now that their drunken FaceBook endeavors have been made national news.

Switched's own Joshua Fruhlinger appeared on Fox Television in Washington, D.C. to discuss the in's and out's of keeping your professional and private lives intact all while having some fun with social networking apps like FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

audio ping pong let your ears,nooging do all the work.

Just when you think Pong can't be played any other way, yet another creative soul emerges to prove the notion wrong. Mike McCracken has managed to remove all visual aspects of the game yet still maintain the core goal by enabling one's head to make the motions typically assigned to the hands. Essentially, a sound is emitted from the headphones on one side or the other, and the gamer has to tilt his / her head just so until the noise is centered. This back-and-forth sequence speeds up to intensify the challenge, and if you can't manage to keep the ringing front and center, an unpalatable buzzer sounds and a light turns on to alert you of your defeat. Really, it's way more clear how all this works in the video below, so have at it.

how to keep the kids from playing

Is the new "Grand Theft Auto" game packed with more murder and mayhem than you can imagine? Sure—and we like it that way. Is it appropriate for the little ones? Ah, no—and that's why your gaming console comes with parental controls. Here's how to use them.

As it should be, "Grand Theft Auto IV" is rated "M" for "mature" (which, according to the ESRB, "may" be suitable for ages 17 and up), meaning that gamers should brace themselves for "intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language." Sounds good to me, but this clearly isn't a game for 10-year-olds, no matter how many episodes of "CSI" they've seen.

Now, you parents out there probably aren't planning on buying GTA:IV—or any other "M"-rated game—for your little ones (right?), but if you're worried that your clever little gamers might get their hands on a copy anyway, here's how to keep them clear of Liberty City (well, at your house, at least).

PlayStation 3: From the main PS3 menu, scroll to Settings, then select Security Settings. If you haven't set a password yet, select the aptly named Change Password option. You'll be prompted for the current password—don't worry, unless you've changed it already, it's "0000". Pick a new password—not "1234," please—then press "X" to confirm.

Now, back in the Security Settings menu, select Parental Control. You'll see a list of "levels" ranging from one to 11. (Why didn't Sony just use the ESRB game ratings? Good question.) To restrict "M"-rated games like "Grand Theft Auto," select level 8. So now, if anyone tries to play GTA:IV or any other "M"-rated game on your PS3, they'll have to enter the password first.

Xbox 360: From the Dashboard, browse to the System blade, then select Family Settings, Console Controls, and finally Game Ratings. Now select the highest rating you're comfortable with letting your kids play. For example, if you have 14-year-olds at home, you might want to select "T" for "teen"; if your kids are 10 or under, "E" for everyone might be the ticket.

Once you've selected a rating, you'll return to the Console Controls menu. Scroll down, select Set Pass Code, and then create a four-button combination with the 360 controller (try to be creative). Finally, answer the pass code reset question (in case you forget the code), click Done, and you're all set.

my space has finally taken steps to protect kids

MySpace takes a lot of heat for not doing enough to protect the younger members of its site. The site has repeatedly worked with governments to ban sexual offenders, but those efforts have always been reactive to external pressure and bad PR. Now the site is being a little more proactive, announcing a number of measures to help ensure the safety of under-age members.

This includes a number of enhancements to the site, including the ability for parents to list the e-mail addresses of their children and prevent them from creating profiles, automatically marking under-age profiles as "private," and responding within 72-hours to any reports of inappropriate content on the site. The company hopes these measures will help to keep kids safe and, of course, keep angry parents off of their backs. But, we can't help but think these measures will be easy to subvert or abuse.

It would be a funny joke to list all your friends' e-mail addresses as your children and prevent them from using them to sign up on the site (assuming you have any friends who aren't already on there), but the bigger problem is that there's no way to prevent your kids from going to Hotmail or Gmail and getting another disposable e-mail account to sign up with. And there's still nothing preventing them from lying about their age to make a public profile.

Ultimately these changes are positive steps that should help to protect some of the untold thousands of underage MySpace users, but we believe that those who really want to will keep on finding ways around them.

bill gates joins linkedln

Bill Gates joins the likes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as a highly public figure utilizing the career-oriented social networking site LinkedIn to allow others to connect with him and ask questions.

Following Microsoft's investment in Facebook, Gates also set up a profile on the more casual site, but has admitted that he doesn't use the profile any more because he grew tired of fending off literally thousands of friend requests from complete strangers. LinkedIn, on the other hand, offers filtering options, limiting how people outside your immediate network are able to connect to you.

Gates says he plans to use the profile to help draw attention to LinkedIn's new cleaner and more customizable design and answer questions, such as how to best encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology.

will old software run on vista

After my most recent blog post about XP and Vista, many users who are finally considering upgrading to the new OS have emailed me with the same question: Will my old software run on Vista, or will I have to upgrade all of that, too?

I've covered this issue a few times in the past, but the situation changes from month to month as new applications become compatible and other ones break. The bottom line is, yes, most software that ran on XP will run fine on Vista, with a few exceptions.

What won't run? Older security software designed for XP or earlier will almost universally not run; you shouldn't even try to install an antivirus or anti-spyware application on a Vista machine unless you know for sure that it is compatible with Vista. (It will say so on the box or when you download it.)

As for other older software, there's no way of knowing whether your program will run on Vista or not without simply trying to install it. Chances are it will work, but Microsoft never published a broad compatibility list for Vista, which has left millions of users guessing whether their software would work or not. However, when you first attempt to install an old app, Vista may pop up an ominous warning that the program you're installing is not compatible with the OS. Try to install it anyway: More often than not, I've had zero problems with the software after it was installed, despite Microsoft's warning to the contrary.

But even if the app won't run after installation, you still have another option for making it work: That's because Vista includes a system called Compatibility Mode, which lets Vista emulate an older Windows OS, all the way back to Windows 95. (XP actually has this feature, too, but very few people have ever had to use it.) If you install an app and it won't run, just right-click it, select Properties, and click the Compatibility tab. Check the box for "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select another OS (typically Windows XP SP2) from the drop-down box. (See screenshot for example.) It ought to work most of the time, but again, be warned, do not use this trick for old security software.

If Compatibility Mode doesn't work and you can't find a Vista patch for the softwar online, well, you should probably upgrade.

face book to add instant messaging.

It was bound to happen eventually (if for no other reason than MySpace did it first) -- Facebook is finally offering up an instant-messaging service. Ironically, Facebook's new IM service may have the effect of killing off a couple of chat applications already available on the social-networking site.

Initial rumors claimed that the new Facebook IM service, which is to be embedded into people's profiles, would be based on Jabber, the same standard underlying Google Talk. This would have meant that other IM programs, such as Pidgin, Meebo, or even Google Talk, could connect to the Facebook service easily and bring it to the desktop. These rumors, of course, turned out to be false, and Facebook IM, at least initially, will only be available on Facebook pages.

With MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, AIM, Skype, Gizmo, and Google Talk already clogging the Internet, we're pretty confident we don't need any more new IM services. Especially not ones that can only be accessed on the Web by logging into a separate place from all your other IM services. But if Facebook ever manages to get all the other IM programs to work with its IM service, then it might become an

how to dual boot your vista pc with win-xp

Another big question from readers as a follow-up to last week's XP end-of-life post: How do I set up my Vista PC for dual booting with Windows XP?

For starters, it's true that some new computers will not be able to run Windows XP. The issue is one of drivers and mainly affects laptops: Some vendors have jumped so wholly to Vista that they're no longer making XP hardware drivers for their equipment. There's no real way around this, so check to make sure you can get all the drivers you need for your computer before you embark on the road to try setting up two operating systems on your machine. (You'll need them anyway.)

Also, be aware that configuring your machine to run Vista and XP side by side isn't the easiest thing in the world. It is certainly not overwhelmingly difficult, but if you aren't completely comfortable installing Windows on a bare machine, you should avoid this process. Find a friend to help you if you need it.

OK, so you're determined to dual boot. Here's how to do it.

1. Repartition - You need to make two partitions on your hard drive. One for Vista, one for XP. The Vista install DVD includes an app called DiskPart that lets you do this, or try GParted, which is a little friendlier but requires a little more effort on your part. Split your hard drive into two chunks, and make sure each is big enough for each OS (at least 20GB). Format the partition as NTFS. You can also use a second hard drive if you're on a desktop.

2. Check Your BIOS - If you're using a SATA hard drive (the standard for a couple of years now), you'll need to tweak your BIOS so XP, which came out well before SATA did, can see it. Just go into your computer's setup app and hunt around for the options for your hard drive, often under "AHCI." You want "compatibility," "AHCI off," or "IDE emulation" mode... something along those lines. Don't worry, this won't impact Vista at all.

3. Boot from an XP Disc - Now you can just follow the usual installation procedure. Just make sure you're installing on the correct drive: Vista will be on the C drive. Your new partition will be E, F, or another drive letter.

4. Repair the MBR - Installing XP after Vista prevents Vista from loading properly because it overwrites a critical file. Repair the Master Boot Record by booting from a Vista DVD and selecting "Repair your computer," then "Startup Repair."

5. Install a Boot Manager - After all this, you'll boot into Vista. You now need a boot manager to deal with the two OSes. Install EasyBCD (download at that link), run it, and click "Add/Remove Entries." Change the drive to whatever you used in step 3, and change its type to "Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3." Click Add Entry then Save. Any other boot manager will work, but EasyBCD is free.

When you reboot you'll now get to choose which OS to go into.

Good luck! (If you need more help, just search the web for "dual boot Vista XP" and you'll find even more tutorials. Everyone's instructions are a little different, so keep that in mind.)

2010:d-day for the internet hits as its full capacity

Doom-filled warnings arrive from AT&T this week. The company says that without substantial investment in network infrastructure, the Internet will essentially run out of bandwidth in just two short years.
Blame broadband, says AT&T. Decades of dealing with the trickle of bandwidth consumed by voice and dialup modems left AT&T twiddling its thumbs. The massive rise of DSL and cable modem service in the 2000s has had AT&T facing a monstrous increase in the volume of data transmissions. And that's set to increase another 50 times between now and 2015. That's enough, says AT&T, to all but crash the system.
In response, AT&T says it's investing $19 billion to upgrade the backbone of the Internet, the routers, servers, and connections where the bulk of traffic is processed.
Of course, AT&T is using this breathlessness in part to point fingers beyond simple broadband use. Web video (especially high-definition video) is the most commonly mentioned bandwidth hog. AT&T says video alone will eat up 80 percent of traffic in two years vs. just 30 percent now. One wonders how YouTube doesn't collapse under the pressure. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, many are wondering whether this is prelude to AT&T announcing (or not announcing, but doing anyway) a traffic prioritization/shaping system like Comcast has been tinkering with... and which has earned it nothing but scorn. Net neutrality (which would forbid premium pricing for certain Internet applications and destinations) is a topic that continues to be hotly debated on Capitol Hill, and telcos are anxious to kill the idea since they'd love to be able to charge additional money for different kinds of web traffic. If the whole Internet is

flash videos makes easy about flv videos

Flash Video (flv) has become the default video format on the web and almost every video sharing site uses FLV to stream videos online. And its not just the YouTube clones, even media properties like CNN have switched to Adobe Flash Video.
Other than viewing Flash videos in your browser, some of download FLV files locally to enjoy web videos offline.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Editing FLV Flash Videos
Watching videos in an FLV player is half the fun - you can do so many other things like split FLV videos into multiple clips, trim the introductory part, convert flv videos to MP3 songs, extract image frames from the video, etc. Lets get started:
Q: How to Edit FLV Videos with expensive video editors ?
There are no standalone FLV editors around but if you have Adobe AIR, I highly recommend RichFLV - a lightweight flv editor that lets you do almost everything with FLV video clips.

With RichFLV, you can split flv files by adding cue-points, join two or more FLV video clips by stitching or add new MP3 sound tracks over your existing FLV video. Perfect if you want to edit YouTube videos on the computer.
Mac users have another good option - download Perian that turns Quick Time Pro into a FLV editor.
Q. How to convert FLV videos into MP3 audio files ?
To extract audio from flv files, get the free FLV Extract utility from moitah.net - the video is saved as an MP3 file and the quality of sound in the original video is maintained as there’s no encoding done to save the audio.
Alternatively, you can extract MP3 from FLV files only using Vixy.net - an online service.
Q. Which media players can play Flash Videos on the desktop ?
To play FLV video files on the desktop, you can use Adobe Media Player, VLC Media Player or this standalone player which I think is the best flv player around for XP or Vista.
If you are on a Mac, you can play FLV videos downloaded from YouTube in your QuickTime player using the free Perian component discussed above.
Q. How to extract image frames from FLV Videos ?
You can export any image frame out of the FLV video using either the RichFLV editor or through VLC Media Player.
Open the .flv file in VLC, navigate to the frame that you want to save as an image and press Ctrl+Alt+S (or Video -> Snapshot). Note that the regular Print Screen key will not work for capturing screenshot from FLV file.
Q. Where can you upload FLV Video files on the web ?
Blip.TV - none of the other video sharing sites accept FLV format files.
Related - Why Choose Blip.TV over YouTube
Q. How to Embed FLV video clips in web pages ?
Read this guide on how to embed flv files in web pages. Alternatively, you could upload the file to Blip.TV and use the embed code provided by Blip.TV.
Q. How to Convert FLV videos to other video formats like WMV, AVI, etc ?
Use SUPER - the program may look complex at first glance but don’t worry, it’s very easy. I think it even lets you convert SWF movies into FLV videos.
Q. How to create new FLV movies files from scratch ?
VideoSpin is the only free video editing software I know of that can export movies into Flash Video format. An alternate trick is export your video into Windows Media or AVI and convert it into FLV using a converter program like SUPER .
For more tips and tricks regarding YouTube and Google Videos, check our previous guide on Interesting Things to Do with YouTube Videos.

unicycle gets new body still terrifying

Last we saw the Uno electric unicycle it was looking very much like the prototype it was, but as you can see above, it seems that the teenage engineers behind it have been doing anything but slacking in the ensuing months. As Motorcycle Mojo reports, the third incarnation of the vehicle recently made its debut at the 2008 National Motorcycle Show in Toronto, with it sporting some custom-made wheels, a stylin' new body, and a few changes under the hood as well. That latter bit apparently even included a trip to a robotics and gyro expert in California, who helped to fine tune the two gyros the Uno uses for turning and forward and backward motion (something you probably want to get right). There's still no word as to when or if the vehicle might actually enter production, however, but you can at least now get a great look at it courtesy of the generous batch of pics

Avira revamps Antivirus

One of the fastest rising security stars is Avira's AntiVir antivirus and antimalware. Since earning high marks from AV-Comparitives in 2006, it's stayed at the top of the pack and consistently earned scores near or at the top of the charts for both on-demand comparisons and retrospective/proactive tests. The latest update includes an overhauled detection engine that runs faster, a zippier definition file updater, and a retooled interface.

AntiVir's clean layout belies the powerful features within.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I've been impressed with AntiVir since I found it last October, and the new version works even better. It completed a full system scan on my Windows Vista computer in about 20 minutes less than under Version 7, and definition file updates took about half the time they used to. Obviously, that's just an empirical eyeballing of the speed changes, but a third of an hour faster is certainly not insignificant and addresses my main problem with the previous version: that updates were painfully slow.

Avira states that the performance difference is because of modularization of the engine, which allows it to search faster and receive critical updates more quickly. A new failsafe system ensures that even during program code updates, the virus and malware detection engines are never offline. Whether this affects how it deals with viruses and malware remains to be seen, but since it sits at the top of the pack, everything should be fine as long as it doesn't get worse.

Check boxes give users the power to quickly narrow down their in-program searches.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The big change in the interface is the addition of a left-side navigation that makes it much easier to drill down to the features that you want to focus on. The spreadsheet-style layout hasn't changed, but it's organized better. The Events log defaults to show all, but check boxes make searching for and focusing on updates, for example, or detections, convenient and uncomplicated to manage. A row of icons above the spreadsheet helps users manage reports and get to more specific details.

Other new support includes built-in outgoing e-mail checking courtesy of a new SMTP function for the MailGuard, although this might be hamstrung in corporate environments, and support for Vista Service Pack 1. Changes to the Pro version includes the addition of a Web site scanner, while the Premium Security Suite includes the WebGuard and integrated file backup services.

Hands-down, Avira AntiVir has been not just the best freeware security program I've used, it stands up better than favorably to the big-box software competitors

google earth gets snail's eye view

The new Google Earth incorporates the Street View feature of Google Maps, including a full-screen option.

(Credit: Google)

Part of the fun of Google Earth is flying over the virtual planet like Superman. But let's face it: we're ground-dwelling creatures, and the street-level view is useful, too. Even Superman has to land sometimes.

Enter Google Earth 4.3, due for release at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. It the Street View feature from Google Maps for a ground-level view of some areas, and a new navigation method makes the software more like a first-person video game, Google said in a statement.

The new version also lets users watch time-lapse views of sunsets and sunrises, either locally or when viewing the entire earth. It's also got faster, more realistic 3D graphics, Google said.

Google racing for 3D map supremacy against Microsoft, which has been pouring energy into its Virtual Earth and Live Maps technology, including a major upgrade last week. That technology also features 3D views of the planet and various cities, including updated version-2 graphics of four

killer downloads: share your photos with the web

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I take a lot of pictures with my digital camera at birthdays, family gatherings, and other events, so I'm always on the lookout for new ways to share the photos. As new programs hit the scene and older programs evolve over time, my favorites change because of various factors like ease of use, number of features, and of course, the king of all reasons: price.

One of the best ways I've found to share pictures with friends and family is to make them as accessible as possible by creating Web albums. With the right software, you can lay out your pictures any way you want, create a template to fit the theme, and write in your own captions. When you're done, simply send a link to your personalized Web album.

There are plenty of paid offerings to choose from in this category of software, but I've found several free programs that do the job nicely. The best Web album software provides ways to host your work on the Web so all you'll need is some creativity and your already honed photo-snapping skills.

The step-by-step process makes it easy to create simple albums.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Photozig Albums Express offers a step-by-step process so you can design your project from start to finish. Big button icons with descriptions make it easy to start your project and select the preferred output for your images including sending in e-mail, burning to a CD, or uploading to a Web site. The finished product is a basic layout of thumbnails that you can click to enlarge, but you'll have no skins to choose from with this one. The Photozig Web site requires you register with an e-mail address, but you'll be able to display your albums on the Web for free once you're signed up. For basic albums, this is the one to choose.

A clean-looking interface and several themes make album creation easy.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Web Photo Album is another simple free album creator offering several nice (if sometimes cheesy) templates. A nice interface layout makes it easy to find the pictures you want and quickly create a simple album. It offers basic editing functions like red-eye removal and picture rotation, and you can add captions to each picture. The finished product comes out as a page of thumbnails and once you click on a picture, you're given a close up with the ability to navigate to other shots across the top of the page. Though there are a staggering number of themes to choose from to match your pictures, your overall layout is unchangeable. Web Photo Album lets you sign up for the free Photo hosting service, or you can save to a folder to burn to CD or post to your own site.

With numerous skin and layout choices, JAlbum is tough to beat.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

JAlbum for both PC and Mac users is one of my long-time favorite free Web album programs. It doesn't direct you through the process like Photozig, but a quick look through the menus will be enough for you to get started creating great Web albums. There are several great-looking templates and skins to choose from, with more skins available at the JAlbum Web site. An integrated FTP program makes it easy to post albums to your Web site or blog. The JAlbum site also lets you post your projects to their Web hosting service for free, but as with the others, you'll need to register with a name and e-mail address.

With spring weather returning here in the Northern hemisphere, you're going to have a lot of chances to snap some great pictures. Use one of these free Web album programs to turn your pictures into a nice project that's easy to share with anyone.

the new google earth has landed

This glowing orb is your home.

Greetings, Earthlings. There's big, round news in the world of software, and its name is Google Earth. Hot on the heels of major improvements to Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Earth has had a few big announcements of its own. On Monday, KML, the markup language behind Google Earth, was approved as the international standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium. The Google Earth Blog also announced a research project to simplify placing images into precise locations within Google Earth. Anyone who's tried this knows it requires some advanced photo-matching techniques, so we can all look forward to a more streamlined process.

But today comes the biggest news--a brave new Google Earth 4.3 for Windows and Mac that received a passel of new features, including some ported over from other Google products.

New features

One of the more exciting additions to Google Earth 4.3 is the capability to switch on day and night views. I'm thinking this is a good way to see the Eiffel Tower at sunrise and peek in on the countries that sleep when I'm awake. Also noteworthy is the news that Street View, which you may remember from Google Maps, will be woven into the version update, complete with the familiar photo viewer.

Speed is another theme with this new release. 3D buildings will render faster, and Google Earth accelerates the switch between Earth and Sky modes (this is a really neat feature; if you haven't checked it out, do.)

Where possible, images will be getting time stamps for easily seeing when they were created. Since so many photo sources populate Google Earth, not every image will bear a born-on date, but those that do will add another layer of information to this simulated world. Finally, Google is updating the look of the app's navigational controls to complement mouse and keyboard-scrolling. I don't know, maybe a Google-branded joystick and shooter games are the next evolution, though I highly doubt it.

What kinds of mash-ups and integrations would you like to see in the next iteration of Google Earth? Share your creativity in the comments.

In the meantime, making models with Google SketchUp is a good way to populate Google Earth, or your own personal version of it. If you prefer to create your own 3D landscapes, Bryce is the freeware application to beat. DAZ Studio, Bryce's sister software, offers the same extensive range of modeling freedom with human subjects in mind.

you tube filttering issues still not moot

A copy of Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech is available at YouTube

(Credit: YouTube)

LAS VEGAS--A year ago Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt delighted an audience of TV and radio broadcasters when he promised to roll out a system that would mean the end of piracy at YouTube.

"We are in the process of developing tools which are called 'Claim Your Content,'" Schmidt said at the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 conference. "If people tell us this is a licensed copy, our computers will automatically detect that an illegal copy has been uploaded and then automatically delete it."

Schmidt went on to say YouTube was "close to turning this (system) on" and once that happened, copyright violation at the site "becomes a moot issue." But following through on that promise has proven a challenge.

"Key into YouTube's search field the names of the last five Academy Award winners in the best picture category and scenes from each will appear. Want to watch the first 10 minutes of the gangster flick, The Departed? They're there."

Executives with two entertainment companies that provide YouTube with feedback on its Video Identification system said the company's filtering technology has fared well at times but is nowhere near perfect and overall test results are "inconclusive." The sources, who requested anonymity because of the ongoing relationship with YouTube, added that managers at the video-sharing site continue to try and refine the system.

YouTube defended its efforts to protect copyright.

"Since launching in October, our Video Identification system has shown terrific results in its comprehensiveness, accuracy, and scalability," a YouTube spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "Over 100 partners from independent content creators to large media companies are currently using Video ID to easily manage their content. Many have found it to be a helpful tool in generating revenue and exposure for their content in the world's largest online video community."

For a long time, numerous copyright owners accused YouTube and Google of profiting from piracy and deliberately dragging their feet in developing a way to cleanse the site. They argued that the availability of professionally created content--uploaded by users--is what draws people to YouTube and without that the site would lose much of its luster. YouTube has always denied the accusations.

Nonetheless, the controversy has damaged some of Google's relationships in Hollywood.

Viacom, parent company of MTV and Paramount Pictures, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google last year. That case is expected to last years before being resolved and it could help decide what, if anything, a Web site's responsibilities are when it comes to policing for copyright violations.

Copyright clips abound
Certainly at this point, it's hard to see much change at YouTube since launching Video ID.

Available on the site are literally countless clips from feature films and TV shows produced by small production companies as well as the largest entertainment conglomerates--including Viacom.

Key into YouTube's search field the names of the last five Academy Award winners in the best picture category and scenes from each will appear. Want to watch the first 10 minutes of the gangster flick, The Departed? They're there. Someone else posted a series of 12 separate scenes from the film, presumably to get around YouTube's 10-minute clip limit.

Fans of Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby can watch the "Mo cuishle" episode on YouTube as well as the coin toss scene from last year's best picture winner No Country For Old Men.

Identifying video is not easy, YouTube execs have long said. About 10 hours of video is uploaded to the site every minute. In addition to policing an enormous volume of video, YouTube must first obtain high-quality copies so it can create a digital fingerprint of the film or show. Ideally, the automated system will recognize when someone uploads an unauthorized copy.

While copyright videos are still plentiful on YouTube, there are seemingly fewer complaints from Hollywood. The sources who are part of YouTube's testing say the entertainment industry has shown a willingness to give YouTube time to improve filtering.

Some content owners may have also concluded that some degree of piracy is inevitable.

"We still see our content pop up on YouTube," CNN.com Executive Producer Sandy Malcolm told the Associated Press this week. "You deal with it. You try to work with them on rights and things, but I don't think you can completely stop it. You just try to beat the tide and try to get your content out as fast as you can."

Google execs continue to say they respect copyright and are working to protect it. Schmidt said protecting copyright was in Google's best interest.

"We are critically dependent upon the production of copyright content," Schmidt told the NAB audience a year ago. "Literally, people come to Google to get to somewhere where there is something of value. It's very important that we not violate copyright

take a part with the robot guitar

Taking apart the robot guitar

The strings of the guitar are like normal guitar strings--in fact, much of the Robot Guitar is a standard Les Paul guitar from Gibson. The "robot" part of the name refers to the guitar being a self-tuning instrument. "It's not a robot," Carey noted. "Electro-mechanics join with embedded processing to achieve an automatically tuning electric guitar. It's one of the best examples of an embedded system I've seen in a long time."

FEATURED FREEWARE : abi word

This free, open-source word-processor strikes us as a worthy alternative to pricey, big-name products. AbiWord has a quick learning curve, since the interface is very similar to other word processors. You'll find just about all the features you need, including the ability to cut and paste, to highlight, as well a bevy of common formatting tools.

Although we did miss a grammar-checking utility, AbiWord can check your spelling in many languages--you'll need to choose the appropriate foreign language dictionaries during installation. A huge plus is the ability to open and save Microsoft Word documents, though the program also has its own proprietary file format. You can download plug-ins at the publisher's site to import and export a wide variety of other formats, including OpenDocument. AbiWord should appeal to a wide range of users who seek a functional word-processing app but lack a large bank account.

INCREASE YOUR BOOT SPEED WITH NEW FEATURES

BoostSpeed rounds up all the Auslogics utilities under one roof.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Disk Defrag is a massively popular piece of freeware, and with good reason. It runs faster and provides more information both during the defrag process and afterwards than the native Windows defragger, and it's free. Effective and providing an essential function, there's no question that your computer runs better for it.

BoostSpeed, while effective, isn't necessarily what every user needs. It bundles Disk Defrag with all the other Auslogics utilities. These include a Registry cleaner, an uninstall manager, a startup manager for boot cycle customizations, RAM and browser optimizers, file shredder, DirectX diagnostic, Windows tweak manager, and several mini apps to manage Windows settings. It also comes with a rescue center that can back up any settings before you change them. No doubt, BoostSpeed gives you your money's worth, at least in terms of services provided. Upgrading also only costs $10, for those who own older versions.

Are they all worth paying for? That depends on what kind of user you are. Most if not all of these features are available as freeware from one vendor or another, and generally one in each category is top-notch or nearly so. Some of the lesser tools, like the tweaks manager ...

patches for FIREFOX AND FLOCK

The past 24 hours have seen Mozilla Firefox (download from CNET Download.com for Windows and Mac) getting another security hole plugged, while its social-networking derivative Flock (also at CNET Download.com for Windows and Mac) earns a minor behavioral bug fix.

Firefox's most recent safety snafu is another JavaScript engine security problem that was causing the browser to crash during JavaScript garbage collection. Although there was no indication that this error was exploitable, says Mozilla, other similar errors in the past were. Not to mention the benefit of not having your browser randomly going kablooey.

Flock's fix involves repairing the People sidebar. For many users, Facebook friends weren't populating in the sidebar and now they should be. Of course, if you're like me and you lack not only Facebook friends but a Facebook account, too, then this was never an issue.

at & t launches its own browser ,pogo: don't suck for surprise

The obvious first question one asks the AT&T execs when beginning a discussion of Pogo, the company's new Web browser, is "What is AT&T doing getting into the browser market?" The answer you get is, at first, amusing. It's a chance to build "another relationship with the customer," they say. They also tell you it could be a great conduit for AT&T messages (e.g., brand or product advertising). Sounds like the makings for a truly awful product, does it not?

Video demo is embedded at the end of this post.

But here's the weird thing: Pogo is not awful. Putting aside what might happen to the product should the AT&T brand Nazis get hold of it, it is, even in the early beta I got access to, a solid, usable Web browser.

Pogo is a combination of the Mozilla browser code base with technology from Vizible, which AT&T has invested in. As a basic Web browser, it works as expected. Type a URL and it loads. No drama.

Things only get weird when you dive into the browser bookmarks or history, or use the multi-home-page feature called Springboard.

The best use of Pogo's graphical chops is in the history viewer, which lets you smoothly scroll backward and forward through snapshots of your visited Web pages.

For these three functions, Pogo puts snapshot images, which it calls "cells," into a slick 3D rendering engine. In the bookmark feature, for example, you can thumb through categories like flipping through index cards. When you zoom into a category, you see all your site bookmarks as snapshots of your pages, not just page titles.

The history function also uses visual snapshots. I found this very useful. Seeing your previously visited sites in graphic format added a lot of context that's missing if all you're looking at is a stream of titles.

You can set the browser's home page to be your "springboard," which is a grid of cells for sites you visit a lot. It's a little better than having your browser start with several home pages in separate tabs, although it's not a big enough feature that anyone should switch browsers for it.

You can fly through your bookmarks and the "collections" they are categorized in.

Pogo is a tabbed browser, but instead of using text tabs it uses little page snapshots. This may appeal to some people; I didn't find it much of an advantage.

All cells, be they on the Springboard, the history, or bookmarks, can be tagged and moved around (you can drag history items to the Springboard, for example). The browser also has a search feature that scans for pages living in the the three sections just mentioned. For Web search, Pogo remembers the pages you visit from its integrated search engine (Google, currently), and saves them as cells, too.

Unrelated to its 3D features, the browser also supports mouse gestures for navigation, a fun feature that could become very useful if Pogo is ported to touch-screen mobile phones. (See also: Opera.)

Pogo does not support add-ons or plug-ins yet. Vizible built the browser with the older Firefox 2 code from Mozilla. It is waiting for the Firefox 3 code, which it will re-configure its product in. Vizible will support plug-ins shortly after that.

While I've derided 3D interfaces in the past, the truth is that using the graphics power of a local computer can make for more engaging and easier-to-understand interfaces. See PicLens, a recently released plug-in photo browser, and also Flip3D in Vista, and Time Machine and CoverFlow on the Mac. Finally, Picasa has a timeline view that's very similar to the Collections view in Pogo.

Pogo's 3D interface works because it doesn't get in your face most of the time, and when it does, it's in functions where using visual devices to jog your memory can make a positive difference in your productivity in the app.

That said, I do not expect Pogo to take the world by storm. It is a nice, slick, graphical browser. It's probably an easier product to teach than the other browsers. I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in the mail in AT&T DSL bills, or maybe even on some new computers. And that will be just fine. But it's still weird that AT&T is in the browser business, and I don't think this product will win the hearts and minds of people already accustomed to Firefox or Internet Explorer. Pogo is quite good, but it's not so good that current heavy browser users are going to feel that they need to switch.

The pre-public version of Pogo that I tried was too slow to live with, but AT&T is planning on opening up a private beta in May with a newer build. We'll have some invites to the beta to give out when that happens. Open availability is still three or four months out.

featured freeware- comodo firewall

Don't let the name fool you, Comodo Firewall Pro is one of the best freeware programs around that can also hold its own against other pay firewalls. Previous user complaints about resource hogging and a confusing interface have been addressed and this application has never been easier to use.

It still provides a smorgasbord of information and options for advanced users, but it's simple enough for beginners, and runs smoothly and silently in the background. When you first install it, the Comodo pop-ups come often as the program "learns" your online behavior, but those soon stop. Summary, Firewall, Defense +, and Miscellaneous tabs provide links to relevant security issues so users can drill down to learn more about how the firewall is performing and what exactly it's doing. The Host Intrusion Prevention System supposedly protects against unknown threats--obviously, it's hard to tell if it works unless an unknown threat gets in, but it didn't seem to affect system performance negatively.

power downloader caffeinates his html woth coffe cup

With the advent of blogs and blog-tool plug-ins, the burning need for Web design at home has dulled somewhat.


Power Downloader knows that good custom design is still appreciated, though, and this week he brings you a program that excels at helping home users achieve their Web design desires. CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2008 is suitable for design newbies, HTML hotshots, and everyone in between. The latest version introduces a new CSS and HTML autocompletion tool to join CoffeeCup's well-known WYSIWYG and standard HTML editors.

CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2008 features tabbed navigation and control panels, previews panes for images and a WYSIWYG editor.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It continues to offer powerful features melded to a straightforward and compact interface that is organized by tabs--perfect for keeping track of multiple projects. Advanced features include HTML and CSS scripting, Flash animations, and drag-and-drop Java scripts. Beginners, meanwhile, get an excellent tutorial and a WYSIWYG editor that supports simple drag-and-drop. Power really likes that those just starting off can easily jump back and forth between the WYSIWYG and the HTML to see what the preprogrammed code looks like. Heavily trafficked support forums are also available, and Power Downloader knows the value of such a community can be invaluable. An extensive array of samples and templates includes site designs and JavaScript-based widgets such as calendars and calculators.

Power appreciates the included list of tags, too. Inserting an image, a table, a list, or a DHTML menu is a snap, with tags self-completing--although that feature can be turned off. Tabbed editing lets you simultaneously change multiple pages, and a built-in FTP client facilitates one-click uploading. The status bar displays valid usage suggestions, and you even get a built-in thesaurus. Full-featured and easy to use, users who are worried about the $50 price tag should be comforted by the fact that it includes an unfettered 30-day trial and lifetime free upgrades.