Microsoft is aware of a problem printing spreadsheets and databases in Microsoft Works 8 on a computer running Windows Vista. Until the problem is fixed, here is a workaround:

Never before in the history of the world have we seen such a seamless melding of media: radio, TV, film, Internet, personal music players, phones, etc. Any format can be instantly converted and distributed into almost any other format. Case in point, the recent incriminating remarks of Alec Baldwin to his 11 year old daughter, or John McCain hepped up on cold medicine making jokes about bombing Iran to the tune of the Beach Boy’s “Barbara Ann.” And of course the infamous remark from Don Imus.

Not all plug n' play devices are created equally. When choosing cards and components for your PC, make sure the drivers are easily installed or better yet, native to your Windows OS. Case in point: I had to install a network card for one of my customers at their site. They had this off-brand card, brand new in box. I followed the instructions telling me to install the driver first, then turn off the PC, install the card and boot back up. Of course that didn't work. I tried reinstalling the driver while the board was in; that almost worked but the card would not enable. It just stayed disabled. I am now thinking, this is bull honky - it was supposed to be a 5 minute stop-in.

I arrived at Moscone West in San Francisco early on Monday so that I could get an amazing seat for my first session of the Web 2.0 Expo 2007. As soon as I got there, I headed to the check-in desk to pick up my badge. There, I was given my first indicator of how this experience was going to be. All the badges were color-coded - mine was yellow, meaning that I only paid $100 for access to a few sessions, the keynote speaker - Jeff Bezos! - and the Expo hall at large. Translation: All people in possession of yellow badges are the lowest form of life at the Web 2.0 Expo. One of the many rude staff members handed me my scarlet letter, I mean badge, with a grunt as I watched all of the blue and gray badge people get bags of free goodies and information while I am excluded. Dejected, I traveled upstairs to get to that coveted "good seat" (or shall I say seat period, since those who did not get seats were forced to sprawl on the floor). I reached my destination - "Jump Start Your Startup," which should have been named "Listen to Dan Roberts from Sun Microsystems drone on and on about Sun products that are too costly to deploy and have nothing to do with my startup." It only took me about 3.5 minutes to realize I was going to get zero out of this session. I got up and headed over to “The Wonderful World of Wikis: Case Studies, Benefits, Dos and Don'ts” presented by Ken Lui (InfoGation, Holographix, HNC Software, Virage, and IPivot.) This session was really informative. Ken talked about the benefits of Wiki compared to Forums and Blogs and laid out some cost effective solutions for companies that wanted to use Wiki as part of their websites or for their intranet systems.

Many articles tell you how to prevent viruses by adding this software or that piece of gear, etc., but still, people get viruses and other silly junk that renders your machine almost useless.

Well, I'm not taking that approach. I'm going to tell you exactly HOW TO get viruses and otherwise debilitate your machine. These are sure fire ways and practices to ensure your machine is functionally worthless. And when you recognize any of these practices in your situation, hopefully you will take steps to stop doing that.

Remember back in 2002 when you purchased that hot new server for your customer? Remember when he called you back and you both decided to replace it? Well, now what do you do with it? I ran into this exact scenario. I had this very nice rack-mounted PC with a 500 mhz P3 processor and about 500MG of RAM with hardware raid. At the time, very nice. Now... a bit dated. So what do you do with it?

Ok, so I have pinpointed the cause of an issue I was having at my job with 12 computers. Some were restores, some were new hard drives which were then restored... but they all ended up having an identical problem. After doing the last batch of updates on Windows Update, they ALL BSOD'ed. Two HPs. 3 Dells, a Gateway and three E-Machines. The only commonality was the repartition/reinstalls, so I did some research.

Editor's note: Liz is a tech support person and all-around electro-guru. She's got all kinds of random fix-it tips running around in her brain, some of which occasionally make it to paper (or pixels in this case). Below is the first installment of Liz's Random Tech Tips. Windows Vista and the 1950 Pro Installing 7.3 drivers for the Radeon 1950 Pro can sometimes cause a BSOD ("blue screen of death" for the uninitiated), or corrupt the original drivers. To fix this, install the "drivers only" version of 7.3 to get it to stop, and don't install the CCCC (Catalyst Control Center Crap). Network Problems (Windows XP) The god of networking fixes is here: WinSockXPFix. Run the tool. It modifies some registry keys, resets some settings, and generally makes sure it all works fine. Unless your settings are different, make sure the connection settings are set to automatically configure settings under Tools > Internet Options > Connections > Lan Settings. Check "Automatically Detect Settings," and make sure there is no proxy server set.

I’m not a clueless computer user; actually, I’m a technology trainer, mostly with Microsoft Office software. But I’m also not a tech geek. My husband would laugh till he cried if I tried to claim I was. So you can guess that I haven’t yet explored all the ins and outs of Windows Vista, which is installed on my work-provided Dell Latitude D620 notebook computer. But lately I have been using it just enough to be finding reasons I dislike it. This article isn't written from a OS geek or tech support person's point of view – I’m sure there are lots of great reasons they have for liking or disliking Vista. These are reasons from a reasonably savvy but typical end-user’s viewpoint.

I never thought something so simple could be so entertaining. Enter: Radica’s Cube World “Stick People Sticking Together.” Cube World is made up of little (1.5 inch) plastic cubes that encase little animated stick people. Each simple stick person has a personality. For example Dusty, in the green cube, likes to clean. He is equipped with little vacuums and dusters. In fact, the characters have entire lives going on inside of each cube. They have bowel movements on little toilets while reading the newspaper, they fart, they cross into each other’s cube and punch each other repeatedly, they scratch themselves. Don’t get me wrong, their behaviors are not just “gross and violent” (yet completely amusing). They also do yoga, dance, hang out together, take showers, sleep and according to their “hobbies,” clean, listen to music, fix things and work out.