The typical audio speakers might be a thing of the past.  Speakers for the computer could be tricky which small port to plug them into.  Then, you have to take another cable to plug into the outlet for power.  Now, Lacie has created a new firewire speaker unit which plugs into the firewire port of the computer.  That’s it!  No additional cables or wondering if you’re plugging into the right audio in or audio out of the back of your computer.

Also, the design is really sleek.  It has a glossy white finish.  The speakers are compatible with Windows and Mac.  At a $90 price tag, it is more expensive than other speakers, but this audio device has the best quality at the smallest size.  In fact, these speakers have been reviewed to have been sound quality as Harman-Kardon.  Definitely a good sound choice!

Ever wonder if you’re getting paid what you’re worth?

Payscale.com is the top site for checking out the industry average for your position, years of experience, and city.  It goes a step above Salary.com by providing anonymous samples of colleagues in the same position along with their certifications, degrees, and specialties.  Then, for a fee, the site will let you know what you need to do to increase your salary and position.

The site gets its research and data from Monster.com among other top job sites.  This information is attained by people who are seriously looking for jobs.  Salary.com, on the other hand, attains most of its data from people who just enter the info in to retrieve their average industry salary.  So, these numbers might be skewed by those who just enter anything in order to get quick numbers.

So, we recommend Payscale.com for getting accurate salaries as well as helpful job resources.

Internet Explorer 7 is the newest release of Microsoft’s Internet browser to view websites.  When first released, this new version had stability problems, sometimes crashing systems or preventing site surfing.  However, IE 7 has been refined to resolve any initial glitches so that it is now recommended.

Internet Explorer 7 introduces tabbed browsing.  Yes, this feature may be found in Mozilla and other browsers, but this is a breakthrough with IE.  Tabbed browsing is the ability to still stay within the same webpage and open up another page without having to minimize the first webpage.  How do you get IE 7 and work with tabbed browsing?

First, make sure you have IE 7.  You can see if you already have it by clicking on Help and About Internet Explorer.  Your version will be displayed.  If you have it, great!  If not, download Internet Explorer 7.  Once you have IE 7, you may use tabbed browsing by first going to any website.  Then, press CONTROL key & the T key.  You’ll then see a new tab or small square box appear at the top of your web page.  Click the tab and you’ll be able to enter a new website.

Tabbed browsing is a big deal with IE 7.  Why?  IE 7 is the most secure browser out there compared to Firefox and Netscape.  Internet Explorer guards against more spyware and malicious threats that the other browsers don’t protect against.  Security along with great features, such as tabbed browsing, make Internet Explorer a great Internet browser to have.

Apple TV sounds like it is more than it is.  You cannot watch TV channels from it.  You cannot record iTunes from a remote computer to it.

What is it?  It is a way to watch your videos and listen to your music through your TV.  Not a bad way to play your multi-media in front of family and friends.  You may also stream or wirelessly send your music, pics, and videos from a PC or Mac to the Apple TV box.  Then, you can play them through your TV. 

Really, the Apple TV is great for watching movies and shows via your TV.  For everything else, like music and videos, you can play them through your computer and monitor.   The downfall is that the Apple TV only holds 40GB of storage.  That should soon change in the future. 

Easter eggs, in technology terms, means there might be an extra or bonus secretly stored in your software.  Software developers will store secrets, or easter eggs, in their application for fun.

Here are some Easter Egg gems found in software:

1.  Solitaire:  Want to win quickly?  Simply hold down Alt + Shift + 2.

2.  Yahoo:  Click on the exclamation point within Internet Explorer 6 to find a hidden yodel.

3.  Microsoft Word:  Get tips of the day by chaging your Office Assistant to Links, and enable Tip of the Day.  Every time you open and close Word, you’ll get a tip.  There a few strange ones about scissors, fashion, and swimming.

A firewall may be in the form of software or hardware.  It protects the computer against vulnerabilities, or holes in the operating system’s security.  As the lowest form, but pretty effective measure, you may use a software firewall, such as Zone Alarm.  The software firewall filters out hackers and potential threats and allows good information to flow through. 

A hardware firewall is usually found in companies to protect servers from being attacked at the network level.  This, in turn, protects workstations in the network environment as well.

In general, it is wise to at least have a software firewall present on computers.  Windows now comes with its on internal firewall which is sufficient.  Macs do not come with firewall software so this should be installed although Macs are not prime targets for attacks like PCs.

A new security flaw has been found in Windows Vista.  The animated cursor!  Animated cursors are icons used, whether cartoons, rockets, oversized pencils, etc., to replace the traditional cursor.  Usually, these cursors are first downloaded from the Internet and then installed on the computer.  By using an animated cursor, a hacker may take over your computer when viewing a malicious Website or e-mail.  Windows has released a patch to resolve this. 

The bigger issue here is that previous Windows versions also had the same security flaw.  This leads to critics complaining that Vista has been created from a base of old operating system code rather than an entirely new code.  Thus, bugs and issues in the past might still arise in the new Vista.  Microsoft argues that this version has been touted as the best security ever, but not necessarily as one that is perfect.

What should you do to avoid this?  Avoid using animated cursors!  Since most of these animated cursors are attained by Websites, some of these spyware-infested sites could allow hackers to use a portal to take over your computer.  The easiest way to prevent this security flaw is to not get started with animated cursors.  If you already have an animated cursor, remove the program from your computer.