Friday Diversions: Videos and Other Time Killers

It's Friday and you know I spend the week finding things to amuse you -- and keep you away from important projects. So here's this week's roundup of time killers.

Extreme Base Jumping in Squirrel Suits...adrenalin junkies only, please.

And if that's too scary, how about rigging up a camcorder to a model airplane. It's almost like flying. Watch the video.

Troubled by pesky alien abductions? Only 32 thousandths of an inch of Velostat will set you free. [Thanks, Tom C.]

Is it a Virus? Microsoft explains why your PC plays "It's a Small, Small World" seemingly at random.

Time For Christmas Spoofs: From now until after the first of the year, you're going to see lots of videos, games, and other time wasters. Here's the first video -- a young lad learns who Santa really is...

Pogo's Free Games is a site where you'll find a twelve year old playing bridge (or crossword or word/challenge games) with others. It's got a little of everything with over 4 million members (almost 200,000 were on while I looked around).

Buy American: I'm doing my best to avoid products produced in China. This isn't an inclusive list, but it's sure a good place to start if you want to search for made-in-America items. (Thanks, David S.)

I see ads for Zappos shoes in the New Yorker, but honestly, I never paid much attention to them. I ran across a feel-good story about them today and it makes me want to buy a pair of shoes. I mean, this is a company with a heart (I wish every company would take this attitude).

Hard Drive Heaven

If your drive's small or you think it's on its last legs (what's that clicking sound, you ask...), I've got spots for you to comparison shop. BTW, it's fairly safe to say that you can depend on the price of hard drives to drop. (Don't believe me? Read Hard Drive Prices Drop as PC Demand Rises.) Then look at some of these prices: A Seagate Barracuda 750GB drive for under $200 or a Western Digital Caviar 500GB drive for about $125.

For more pricing, check out this comparison chart for other fast SATA drives that are over 500GBs, with at least an 8MB cache, and aren't more than $150. The check our hard drive expert's Top 10 Internal Hard Drives listing.

But wait, you might not know what to look for in a hard drive. So how about taking a gander at How to Buy a Hard Drive and then watch the How to Install an Additional Hard Drive video.

Better Back It Up

In my ongoing series of blogs about PC annoyances, I just have to spend some time with backups. That's because too many people don't do it. And in the reader e-mails I receive, too many people face the grief of a crashed drive -- and a loss of precious data, including photos and financial information.

Backup The Whole Thing
Readers keep asking me why should they should bother backing up the whole drive. They argue that it's only the data that's important, like images and docs, and that's all they bother backing up.

Okay, sure, data's definitely important, but so are your Favorites, the look of your desktop, the customized feel of your beloved programs, and Windows patches. Reinstalling everything from scratch is a nightmare. The best, most staunchly conservative method, is to back up the entire drive, with daily incremental -- just the files that are changed. Mine's set to backup at 7:00 daily.

I've touted the tool I use, Acronis TrueImage Home before, and their new version 11 adds nifty features. For instance, I can now restore an image, yet choose to preserve current files and folders so they won't be overwritten. I can also search through backup images without the hassle of mapping the drive.

The tool's new Try&Decide give me a way to play around with new programs in a temporary, risk free, protected area; the downside is Acronis has to reboot the system if you decide not to stick with the changes. It's also easier to exclude files you don't want to back up, say, specific video files you might want to view one and delete, or files ending in *.BAK.

Acronis Try&Decide

If you have more than a few networked machines, you might consider Acronis's Workstation ($80). It gives you a way to back up all of your systems from a single, convenient management console. The Workstation version gives you the ability to use Acronis's Universal Restore feature ($30), an optional add-on module that lets you restore a system to different hardware.

PayPal 20-Percent Discount Promo

I like deals, and if you're in a shopping mode, here's one you might like.

PayPal is offering a 20-percent cash back promotion, to a max of $50, when you use PayPal to pay for your purchase. The only catch: You have to purchase items from a selection of about 14 companies, including Barnes & Noble, Dell, HP, Newegg.com, Overstock.com, and Ritz Camera. Me, I'm going to grab a pair of shorts from Sierra Trading Post. Details here.

First Aid for Your Hard Drive

You thought you were doing okay, right? Your computing life has settled down, your machine is stable, and you haven't even considered upgrading to Windows Vista.

Then--oops! You spill coffee on your notebook. (Oh, you don't think it's possible? Read Amber Bouman's Laptops and Liquids Don't Mix Or maybe there's a storm and your PC's hard drive is fried by a power surge.

So in my ongoing series of blogs about PC annoyances, I just have to spend some time with backups. And to start, a few articles that might save your bacon if your hard drive fails and you don't have a backup.

One of our Windows experts, Scott Dunn, has a marvelous piece on moving the folders that hold your data files off your Windows XP or Vista drive to make backups and recoveries a breeze. You can read about that in Keep Your Data Safe by Reorganizing Windows' Folders.

I also have advice from PC World's experts about what to do if you have a hard drive crash -- and don't have a backup.

Lincoln Spector, our jack-of-all-trades computing expert, tells you what to do when your Windows XP or Windows Vista system refuses to boot. Get the details in Diagnose and Repair an Unbootable XP or Vista PC.

It could be possible to bring a stalled hard drive back to life -- at least until you can grab the data from it. Our How to Resurrect a Crashed Hard Drive video tells you how, including the freezer and Frisbee techniques. (Hey, it's worth a try, right?)

If you want to fill your toolbox with just-in-case utilities, browse this page full of Recovering From Disaster programs.

But honestly, do you really want to go through all that?

So tomorrow: How I back up my PC.

Talkback
Have something to say? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Fix Long URL Annoyances

I get e-mail with URLs -- links to pages -- that are broken into multiple lines (links to Google Maps or MapQuest, for instance). I wish everyone would use a service like SnipURL (I've been using it since 2002).

SnipURL is a free Web service turns long URLs into easy-to-use links. For instance, snipurl.com/mktst (no, you don't need the "http://" prefix), a 17-character link, will get you to a Google map with a 186-character URL.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hl=en&q=10+market+st,+san+francisco
&f=q&sll=34.181616,-118.104507&sspn=0.006295
,0.006295&ll=37.79461,22.394884&spn=0.00858,
0.018926&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

Add a SnipURL icon to your browser's toolbar so when you're at a site with a long URL, all it takes is one click to snip the link down to size. SnipURL also lets you password-protect the link and create a nickname.

Between the Lines
If SnipURL doesn't sound appealing, you might try Chris Sells's UrlRun, a small, handy utility that cleans up spaces and line breaks in links, removes extraneous characters, and then launches the link in your browser.

Download and unzip the utility to your desktop (there's no installation). After you copy the long link to your clipboard, just click the UrlRun icon. If you think you'll use the utility often, do what I did -- drag and drop it onto the Quick Launch toolbar for quick access.

Click the curved green arrow
to launch the link in your browser

Friday Diversion: Mac vs. Vista Ads

If you didn't watch the Green Bay vs. Detroit game on Thanksgiving, you missed the funny Mac vs. Vista ads. Here are a slug of them...

Vista vs. Mac -- Security

PR Lady

Choose a Vista

Don't Give Up on Vista

There are six more here.

Things to Do on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Puzzles

If it's halftime, or you're waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven, you might as well try a couple:

** Thanksgiving Jigsaw Puzzle

** Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle

** Thanksgiving Word Search

A Handy Copy and Paste Tip

I often grab text from a Web page and copy it into a Word document. If I do an ordinary Paste (Control-V), I get not only get the text, but also the fonts and the formatting junk from the Web page.

I was chatting with George Campbell, a Word expert, and he handed me an easy workaround. In Word, click Edit, Paste Special, and click "Unformatted text." You'll paste text with no formatting at all. This trick is very cool and without it, doing these blogs would be a horror for me.

If you have the skills, create a macro for the steps and assign it to a keystroke. Get George's ancient step-by-step details in Isn't That Special? Paste Without Formatting.

Another option is to use PureText to strip unwanted code and formatting from text you're cutting-and-pasting. It's a freebie available in Downloads.

Shopping on Black Friday (If You Must)

You have plans for the day after Thanksgiving? My sense is that if you don't go out and spend a bunch of bucks, you're going to make retailers mighty unhappy. No, really, they're expecting you to line up, leftover turkey sandwich in hand.

I know this because of the number of press releases and breathless media alerts I received last week (and they're still rolling in).

Of all the pitches, the one that struck me was TigerDirect's Pink Friday. From November 23 through the end of the year, the company has committed to donate a minimum of $100,000 from total sales and collected donations to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for the fight against breast cancer; they anticipate the total to reach a quarter million dollars. The promotion will take place on the TigerDirect Web site and retail stores.

By the way, this isn't the first time that TigerDirect's supported charitable organizations. For over a decade, I've participated in its Build Your Own PC Race. It's a fun event held at the high-tech Consumer Electronics show. Journalists attempt to assemble a TigerDirect PC -- and do it before their colleagues. The computers, along with lots of peripherals, are donated to the journalist's favorite school or charity. And yes, each PC is checked after the race to make sure they only donate working computers.

Black Friday Previews
My Buddy Tom Lenzo, from Pasadena, told me that while we're all waiting for those sales circulars to land on the doorstep, there are several web sites where you can get a preview of what is going to be on sale this Friday. Thanks, Tom.

Black Friday Dial Updates

Black Friday Ads

GottaDeal Black Friday

Deals Plus Black Friday

Fix, Upgrade, and Troubleshoot Your Electronics with Retrevo

At first, I thought Retrevo was a typical shopping site (think PC World Shopping or Froogle).

Retrevo does supply information about retailers and online stores--but it's light years ahead of mere shopping sites. That's because it finds details about electronics, the minutiae that are essential when I'm looking for the ins and outs about a product before I buy it, or if I'm having a problem with a device.

With every search, Retrevo grabs information from blogs, forums, reviewers, and manufacturers, and gives me a quick overview in one easy-to-read panel. At a single glance I can get price examples and a few product specs, learn if other users like the product, and see what Retrevo thinks about the product's selling price. Scroll down from the overview and you'll find links in categories that include expert and user reviews, company information, and shopping sites.

Retrevo is also a good resource if you're having a problem with a device.

Think about the last time you needed troubleshooting advice for a printer, or maybe a manual for your MP3 player. Typically, you start with a Google search on the product's name and model number. Then you spend time scrolling through a heck of a lot of links.

Retrevo makes the process easier, not necessarily because it does a better job or it's more accurate, but because having things in categories really helps. For instance, I searched on "add POI to Garmin" and Retrevo's first entry under Manufacturer's Info was Garmin's POI loader software. When I needed info on my Brother HL-1450 printer, Retrevo got me a link right to the printer's manual.

Talkback
Have something to say about Retrevo? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Friday Diversions: Videos and Other Time Killers

Here are the week's roundup of time killers, things to help you avoid deadlines and keep from finishing important projects.

* What if 24 Happened in 1994?
If you think 24 took a turn for the boring last season, just be
thankful that Jack Bauer isn't fighting terror in the age of dial-up
connections, pagers, and dot matrix printers. Watch the video. (Thanks, Jim G.) [Turn down your system's volume.]

* Beguiling Commercial for Citigroup in Turkey
This commercial is neat. One YouTube comment: "I was in that commercial. Was shot in Cape Town, South Africa. True, no special effects were used except for the fact that we actually stood on a huge blue screen, which was then chroma-keyed out and changed to red. Was so much fun!"

* Strap in, Shut up And Hold on. We're Going Back.
Back to the seventies. You won't believe what you missed.

* Ruben's Tube: Fire and Music
Oh, sure, and you thought Mr. Science was cool...

* Ever Wonder What the Cockpit Looks Like?
Of course you do! Click on the plane and it will show you the cockpit. [Thanks, Bob.]

* Incredibly Useful: Tying Shoelaces
Alan W., of Denton, TX, writes: "I'm 50 years old and thought I knew how to tie my shoelaces. Yet I've always wondered why the bow knots on my shoes kept coming untied. Ian's Shoelace site showed me that I was tying a granny knot and recommended a simple tip for making it better. My shoes never come untied now." [Thanks, Alan.]

The perfect shoelace

Two More Fixes for Your Computing Woes

I have hundreds of these tips lying around, all from reader queries. Here are two more.

Forwarding YouTube Videos
A reader complained that she watched a YouTube video in one of my blogs and wanted to send the YouTube link to a friend -- but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Easy enough (especially since she wasn't happy just wasting her own time, but want to waste her buddy's too). Just click on the YouTube logo on the lower right corner of any video and it'll bring you to the site. Then grab the link from your browser's address field.

Irritating Logos
This is an annoyance I've heard about from more than one reader. Most PCs boot with the manufacturer's logo. Unfortunately, you miss out on a screen full of troubleshooting and diagnostic information when your system boots.

So the next time you boot, you'll need to modify the BIOS. Pay attention during the boot-up: The system usually tells you the right key to click. On my PC, it's the F2 key; yours may be Delete or F1. Browse through the various BIOS options until you find something similar to "disable the logo screen," and change the setting to not show the logo.

But wait, there's more. In Make Random Reboots Tell You What's Up, PC World contributing editor Scott Dunn tells us how to diagnose the cause of PC restarts that come out of the blue.

And if that's not enough (it never is, I know), take a look at The 20 (Mostly Free) Downloads You Can't Do Without. Preston Gralla tells how to cure a sluggish PC, improve your defenses, and have more computing fun with these great programs. Most are freebies, and you can try those that aren't before you put down any cash.

Talkback
Have something to say? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Computing Annoyances? Fixes for Your Computing Headaches

There's no doubt, PC World readers have computing annoyances. That's probably why our most popular features involve solving problems.

I hear tales of woe from readers every day (oh, do I hear tales). This week I've got a slew of questions that many readers face, along with fixes.

Today, two problems with files.

AVG's Humongous Files
One reader said he uses AVG's free antivirus program (your recommendation, thanks). He noticed two huge files AVG7DB_F.DAT and AVG7QT.DAT -- 24MB and 13MB -- and wondered if they're necessary.

Actually, both of the files are needed for AVG's Integrity Check and Quick Test functions. I haven't a clue why they grow in size. It's okay to delete them -- there's no harm and AVG will re-create them the next time it uses these features. BTW, you can pick up AVG here:

Log File Collection
Talking about files, another reader discovered tons of files with the .log extension. His question, and it's a good one, is whether he needs to keep them all. If not, he wanted to know, which ones are the most important to keep?

Some files accumulate and that's what happens with log files. They're generally text files that collect information about a specific program. Except for those in the Windows folder, they can be safely deleted. (Read about the Windows log files in Troubleshooting the Windows XP Professional Setup. Thanks John M.] And if you ever have a question about a file name extension, plug it into the FileExt site for an explanation of the file's function.

While you're here, scroll over to November's Hassle Free PC column for more fixed annoyances (see Got XP Annoyances? Try These Four Smart Fixes for Windows Woes).

Talkback
Have something to say? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Cheap, Decent Digital Camera for Teens

My 16-year old niece has a trip planned and needs a digital camera. She's working on an angle -- I have a high-end, Nikon SLR and she wants to know if she can borrow it. Sure, and do you want to take the Mercedes, too? (That's a metaphorical Mercedes; I have a Subaru. Either way, she's not getting either.)

Here's a better idea: For under $100, I'm getting her a decent camera -- and won't worry if she beats it up.

The DXG-711 is a slim, inch-thick, seven megapixel digital camera with a 2.5-inch high rez LCD display and a 3x optical zoom (and 4x digital zoom that I told her not to use). Typical of a digital camera, it can record video -- at 30 frames per second at 640 by 480, a handy extra that I wish I had in my SLR. The DXG also substitutes as a sound recorder and has a slot for an SD memory card.

It has the usual point and shoot, no-brainer, good-for-a-teen settings, and others, including night view, sports, monochrome, and blur reduction. The DXG-711 discounts for under $100 and keeps my Nikon safely in my office.

The perfect under $100 camera for a teenager

Video Game Reviews For Parents

Your 12-year old's nagging you for "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," an Xbox game, or maybe "The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass."

Of course you don't have a clue about either and are definitely not sure if either game is suitable for your shoot-'em-up hungry son.

Instead of relying on your child's assurance that the game's cool, or reading a magazine review loaded with the game's specs, you might be better off looking at the reviews on WhatTheyPlay.

The site provides reviews focusing on the content of the game, including whether there's violence, inappropriate language, or sexual situations. You can search for a specific game or by console, genre, age, or rating category. The site's still fairly new, so there aren't lots of reviews; those that I've seen are comprehensive, non-technical write-ups, perfect for parents needing a clue.

BTW, here's their take on Call for Duty, Zelda, and Manhunt 2.

Botnet Underground Leader Pleads Guilty to 25,000 PC Break-Ins

The F.B.I got their man.

In the first prosecution of its kind in the nation, John Schiefer, 26, of Los Angeles, agreed today to plead guilty to using armies of compromised computers to steal the identities of PC users nationwide. FBI officials called Schiefer, a "well-known member of the botnet underground."

The criminal information and plea agreement filed this morning in United States District Court in Los Angeles included four felony counts of accessing protected computers to conduct fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud, and bank fraud.

Schiefer and several associates developed malicious computer code and distributed that code to vulnerable computers. Schiefer admitted to using the installed code to assemble armies of up to 250,000 infected computers, which they used to engage in a variety of identity theft schemes.

Schiefer acknowledged using the spybots to intercept electronic communications -- usernames and passwords -- being sent over the Internet from zombie computers to PayPal and other websites. With the data, Schiefer accessed bank accounts to make purchases without the consent of the true owners.

Schiefer agreed to make an initial appearance in Los Angeles on November 28 and will be arraigned on December 3. He'll face a statutory maximum sentence of 60 years in federal prison and a fine of $1.75 million.

I hope he doesn't try to pay using Paypal.

Friday Diversions: Videos and Other Time Killers

Here are the week's roundup of time killers, things to help you avoid deadlines and keep from finishing important projects.

* Things Made From Scotch Tape
No, really, these sculptures are made entirely from the same kind of tape sitting in your desk drawer. [Thanks, Brad.]

* Google Map's GeoGreeting
Spell it out with buildings -- one very cool way to send a greeting.

* Recover This (Good Ahead, Just Try).
You ever wonder how to effectively render the data on a hard disk safe from recover? Here's your answer: drive slagging.

* Computer Programmer or Serial Killer?
Can you tell the difference? Take the test.

* Cool, Smart, and Interesting Magic.

Thursday Afternoon Diversion: Catfish Catching Video

It's making the rounds, ladies and gents, the soon-to-be-famous video of two guys catching catfish with their bare hands. It's also known as Catfish Noodling. (Thanks, BB-BJD.)

It makes me kinda glad I have a Whole Foods around so I can just buy a catfish. Or not.

BTW, the reason I post these things, taking time away from finishing an already late article (soon, Bud, soon...) is to make sure you're ahead of the curve. I mean, consider how embarrassing it would be if your buddy says, "hey, you see that crazy video of those two guys catching catfish with their bare hands?" -- and you didn't?

Catfish Noodling looks like grand fun (ha!)

Traveling Around Town? Take Public Transportation

I often see my friend Carl hoofing it up the hill. He's usually carrying shopping bags from Trader Joes and heading home. I honked once and offered him a ride. "Nope, thanks, I'm walking," he shouted into the open window, "and getting some exercise." That's some example, I thought, and lucky for me Judy wasn't in the car.

Carl's got the right idea -- he also takes public transportation to work, which is a challenge in southern California. (Me, I don't need a vehicle, or even a map, to get from the bedroom to my home office.)

PublicRoutes makes it a tad easier to take public transportation to work. The site gives you a step-by-step overview of the best pubic transit route in many states. Don't get too excited if you live in an out-of -the-way spot like Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho.)

Public Routes covers major metropolitan areas

There are other spots where you can dig up info about using mass transit. The American Public Transportation Association lists available public transit systems available throughout the United States -- just click on your state. And the Airport Public Transit Directory shows how to get to and from every airport in the country.

Talkback
Have something to say about public transportation? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Planning a Trip? Watch for Speed Traps

There are few things worse than driving over the speed limit, zooming around a corner, and coming face to face with a traffic officer's radar gun.

There's something you can do (besides, of course, staying within the speed limit): Before you make a trip, check Speed Trap Exchange. It's a free site that lists thousands of speed traps in the United States and a few in Canada. (Note to Canadian readers: Yes, indeed, you're finally recognized!) [Thanks, Walt, good lead.]

Pasadena's notorious Marengo Avenue trap

There are other speed trap sites to check.

• The Bear Trap Guide lists traps on major highways, including spots where pesky traffic officers hide on freeway onramps.
• Speed Trapped offers a Google Earth file that lists the usual suspects -- speed traps, laser radar, red light cameras, and police traffic stops.
• There's also a speed trap forum -- the info's good, but the forum's design is dreadful.

BTW, if you have a GPS, there's a good chance you can load it with Speed Traps USA and Red Light Cameras, two useful databases available from the GPS Data Team. See Add Free POIs to Your GPS for details.

Update: Sharp reader Tom Lenzo just alerted me to this spot on article: Accused speeder to cops: My GPS proves your radar gun is wrong (from AP)

If you don't have a GPS, never fear. Just download the free FoxyTag and load it onto your cell phone--it'll warn you when you're within 15 feet of a speed camera. (No I haven't tried it, read the FAQ for details.)

One last item: Some people are vehemently against red light cameras. The Highway Robbery site's amateurish, but the author's arguments are worth a look.

Talkback
Have something to say about speed traps? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Hot Girlfriends and CAPTCHA Traps

I'd be remiss if I didn't warn you about the latest scam -- the CAPTCHA strip tease.

Here's what happens: You receive an e-mail encouraging you to visit a site with a great strip tease game. Each image is accompanied by a CAPTCHA -- an annoying series of distorted letters, typical of what you'd see when registering on a site. Type in the correct letters and the woman removes more of her clothing.

It's a scam, a brilliant one, at that. That's because the game, produced by malware authors, actually uses you to type real CAPTCHAs they've collected from legitimate sites. That way they collect a database of legit CAPTCHAs.

I know you want the details, so browse to Virtual Stripper Helps Spammers Thwart Bot Traps for an explanation and the TrendLabs Malware Blog for more screen captures.

One caveat: The TrendMicro site has three screen captures of what you'd see if you encountered the strip tease game. They'd likely be rated R and who knows, some of you might be offended (more likely, you've already clicked the link). [Thanks for the lead, Tom.]

Screen capture of CAPTCHA strip tease (courtesy TrendLabs)

Remote Control Robotic Surgery

Okay, so surgery is a little gruesome, but I find robotics -- things like iRobot's Roomba and its new gutter cleaning gadget -- fascinating.

My wife (she's in health care) recently learned about the da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic device that lets the surgeon operate remotely. Nope, not across the country (though I imagine that's down the road), but in the same surgical suite as the patent. And while it's not really 100 percent robotic -- the equipment still needs human intervention -- the technology does lessen pain, scarring, blood loss, and makes for a faster recovery.

The surgeon at the control panel

Nurse? Hemostat
The surgeon controls three tiny, flexible robotic hands, which each enter the body through an incision smaller than a dime. One can be used as a retractor, moving and holding tissue aside while the other two robotic hands do the work. The robotic hands use heat instead of a scalpel, so small vessels are cauterized immediately and bleeding's minimized. The surgeon sees everything using a fiberoptic camera.


The da Vinci Surgical System at work

At the surgery site, a surgical assistant is available, just as with traditional surgery, providing suction and changing the robot's tips for different needs, such as handling the needle and sutures as the surgery is being completed.

Right now, robotic surgeries are limited to prostate, gynecologic, urologic, and a variety of chest procedures. For more info, browse here and if you have the courage, check the video clips of actual procedures.

Talkback
Have something to say about Robotics? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Friday Diversions: Videos and Other Time Killers

* FetchFido Instead of Working
It's easy...all you need to do is touch the black squares and avoid the red ones. Ha!

* The Day The Routers Died
A well done musical -- and geeky -- parody of "American Pie" as performed at a RIPE 55 meeting, a five-day gathering of networking geeks in Amsterdam. Here are the lyrics. (Turn your PC's volume way down.)

* Send a Bubblesnap to a Buddy
Upload a photo and add snappy captions, such as this one where my PC World colleagues help me along with my Friday Diversions blog.

* 404 -- You Have Encountered an Error

Some of the best -- surprising, funny, dopey, and cute. [Thanks, Gus.]

Slonky

iamww

darrenhoyt

nextwaveperformance

[Note from Copyeditor: Oh, that's hilarious. I just love the flowchart... maybe we could adapt it for use in our staff meetings. --ksk]

And lots more here.

* Cutting-Edge Magic
This is really a cool illusion.

* Throw me a Life Preserver
MasterCard's "Priceless" ads have been parodied for years. Here's a great one -- and according to Snopes, it's 100 percent true.

65 foot - Custom built motor yacht complete with staterooms, a state of the art galley, G.P.S. system and radar for navigation and twin supercharged diesel engines. $2.5 million

Champagne, chocolate covered strawberries with cream, and music for the excited "soon to be owners" and a small group of friends. $500.00

Two corporate representatives, crane and rigging complete with faulty turnbuckle. $2,500

Watching your dreamboat nose dive into the harbor, accompanied by two corporate representatives just prior to "inking" the final paperwork. (Note the guy in the Stern!)

PRICELESS! (I told them "Just forget the whole deal" -- I didn't like the color anyway!

The Fires: California Air Quality ... Plus Wildfire Photos

Last week I told you about the California Wildfires (see Get the Latest On The California Fires).

There are still things to worry about. Pete Guria, a representative from the from Homeland Security Programs, Environmental Protection Agency, reports that because of the wildfires, the air quality in southern California isn't so good.

Here are a few links with additional information:

* San Diego Air Pollution Control District

* Air Quality Improving in Most Areas But Remains Unhealthful Near Remaining Wildfires

* AirNow

California WildFire Photos
There are lots of them them being passed along through e-mail; unfortunately, without a source, I can't post them here. Instead, I have links to images posted on the Web.

Santa Clarita Fire Photo Essay

Fred Miranda Photo Forum

The Los Angeles Daily News put together slide shows of dramatic images, mostly of the Malibu blaze. View them here, here, and here.

The Associated Press has a photo gallery.

NBC TV in San Diego has some amazing images. Check the slide shows here, here, here, and many more here.