Data Storage

The days of floppies and burning CDs for transferring data are long gone. Floppy disks don't hold more than 1.5 MBs (less than half a song) and CDs can hold up to 700 MBs, but are impractical for burning once (or in the case of rewritables, a handful of times).

Enter the flash drive. Just plug it into your USB port, and you've instantly got gigabytes of rewritable storage at your fingertips.

The range varies in price, capacity and other features. Here's what to keep an eye out for:

Keychain
This tiny little flash drive fits easily in your pocket or on your keychain, and carries a smaller capacity. You can easily find versions for under $40, if not less. But be sure to get at least 2 GBs worth of storage. Anything less would be uncivilized.

Portable Hard Drive
For extra big storage, check out a portable hard drive. 80 GBs should be a good size, and you can find them for under $100 (on sale, of course).

External Hard Drive
If you need enough storage to park an ark, something north of 200 GBs should do. Typically, bigger hard drives need their own power source, so consider that as well. As far as price goes, don't settle for less than 1 GB per dollar.

It certainly beats the alternative.

Internet Browsers

You don't need to just stick to Internet Explorer or Safari just because they come with Windows and Mac OS X. You've got options!

Firefox
Firefox is a hot browser right now, hotter than Hansel.

The Good:	Tabbed browsing keeps all your web pages in one window, add-ons like Adblock keep advertisements and pop-ups from appearing on pages, very secure against programs hijacking your browser, it's skinnable and it's free
The Bad:	It's not much more stable than Internet Explorer and it's not much faster either
For:	Windows, Mac, Linux

Avant
Avant is a new browser, based on Internet Explorer

The Good:	Bookmarks are available anywhere online, tabbed browsing, plug-in options and its free
The Bad:	Because it's built on Internet Explorer, it's just as slow and it's not all that easy to use
For:	Windows

Opera
Opera is a bit more obscure, but its goal is to become the leanest and meanest browser out there, with every feature of its competitors

The Good:	Opera is as quick and easy as it gets for browsers, it also has support for torrents, tabbed browsing, it's likely the safest browser there is and its free
The Bad:	Not skinnable
For:	Windows, Mac, Linux

My Verdict: Firefox is dominant, and makes an easier transition from whatever stock browser you're running now. But if you're already running that and want a new option, go for Opera.

iPod Options

Previously I'd given you MP3 player options other than Apple. But iPods are the dominant players, so let's take a look at what options you have within Apple.

Most important are the capacities and the price (which are closely linked). Be sure to compare your options below, but check out the specifications between them.

iPod

Capacities:	30GB (7,500 songs)
	80GB (20,000 songs)
Size:	30 GB: 4.1" H x 2.4" W x 0.43" D (4.8 oz)
	80 GB: 4.1" H x 2.4" W x 0.55" D (5.5 oz)
Comes with:	Headphones, USB cable, dock adapter, case
Screen:	2.5" wide, 640x480 resolution
Sound quality:	20Hz to 20,000Hz
Battery life:	30GB: 14 hours (music), 4 hours (pictures), 3.5 hours (video)
	80GB: 20 hours (music), 6 hours (pictures), 6.5 hours (video)
Extra features:	Plays video, connectable to iPod Dock
Price:	30GB: $249
	80GB: $349

iPod Nano

Capacities:	2GB (500 songs)
	4GB (1,000 songs)
	8GB (2,000 songs)
Size:	3.5" W x 1.6" H x 0.26" D (1.41 oz)
Comes with:	Headphones, USB cable, dock adapter
Screen:	1.5" wide, 176x132 resolution
Sound quality:	20Hz to 20,000Hz
Battery life:	24 hours (music), 5 hours
Extra features:	Connectable to iPod Dock
Price:	2GB: $149
	4GB: $199
	8GB: $249

iPod Shuffle

Capacities:	1GB (240 songs)
Size:	1.62" W x 1.07" H x 0.41" D (0.55 oz)
Comes with:	Headphones, dock
Screen:	N/A
Sound quality:	20Hz to 20,000Hz
Battery life:	12 hours
Extra features:	N/A
Price:	$79

Be sure to decide how much space you need on your iPod. The price is usually based on this factor. Beyond that, it's all bells and whistles; whichever extra feature you like will help determine which form of iPod works best for you.

Microsoft Office Alternatives

Everyone needs Microsoft Word, right? If you're creating documents at work, writing term papers or just letters at home, you need to process words.

But Word, and especially Office, is so expensive. A quick look at Amazon.com shows a sticker price of a whopping $350. Ouch.

Thankfully you have options. OpenOffice is a free, open source suite of programs that lets you produce the same documents as Microsoft Office.

Writer (), Impress (), Math (), Draw (), Calc () and Base () are all included to produce text documents, presentations, mathematical functions, vectored drawings, spreadsheets and databases.

OpenOffice can run on Windows, Mac, Linux and a few other OSes, too. One thing to note though Mac users, OpenOffice requires an extra addon that can be a pain to install and run the suite. Luckily though, OpenOffice has a more useful cousin, NeoOffice, which is also free and contains the same programs, but is native to Mac OS X.

There are a other Microsoft Office alternatives, but none with as nice of a price as OpenOffice/NeoOffice.

HornTones

It's like someone's been reading my dream journal.

Thanks to the recently unveiled Horntones, you can now blast any song or sound out of your car's horn. The device is wired directly to your car's horn, and the interface connects via USB cable to your home computer. From there, you can preset several songs in the event of any driving situation.

• Did someone graciously let you cut in front of them? Play "Driving In My Car" from Tah Greggy.
  
• Someone riding your bumper? A little "Get Back" from Ludacris ought to send the right message.
  
• Get cut off? Well, I'll let you figure out which obscenity-laden song would be best.

The device prices at $150, plus installation fees, when it lands in April.

My verdict: Awesome. Ridiculous, but awesome.
Note: Wes does not actually own a dream journal.

The Google You're Not Using

Google is a great search engine. Maybe you even use GMail or Google Maps. But there are many other services that Google offers that you may not be using. Here's the top five other Google features (in my opinion):

	5. Video - Sure, Google bought YouTube. But its own video service provides plenty of TV shows and shorts, all with quality better than YouTube. And no fake 17-year-old girls.
	4. Book Search - One of the most ambitious projects in Internet history, Google is currently scanning and making searchable entire libraries of books. Feel free to read Great Expectations, Hamlet or a nutty 1869 book on Freemasonry.
	3. Calendar - If you've got a GMail account, get your use out of it by using this built-in feature. Keep your life straight anywhere you go with this easy to use dayplanner.
	2. Docs & Spreadsheets - These are two online applications that allow you to create documents, like in Word, and spreadsheets, like in Excel, on any computer without having to install software. The features are a little limited, but this is a very promising feature.
	1. Earth - Okay, this isn't that obscure. And it's not as much an online feature as a free download. But install this the first time, and try not to spend twenty minutes looking up your house, your friends' houses, your office and the Starbucks where that cute barista works.

For a list of all Google's fun extra features, check out the complete list.

All-in-One Instant Messengers

Do you like instant messaging? Well you've got options. AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and countless others. If you've got more than one account, you'll need to run one program for each account, slowing your computer way down.

Or do you?

Turns out there are several programs available for download that combine all these accounts into one program, handling most if not all of their cool features.

Windows
Trillian
Supports: AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! and IRC.
Good: Handles all the most popular services, provides encrypted chat sessions, customizable by cool skins, plug-in options for cool extra features
Bad: Only for Windows, doesn't handle the more obscure services natively, direct connect sessions are shaky
Cost: Trillium Basic is free, Trillium Pro is $25. Basic is limited by certain features offered.

Mac OS X
Adium
Supports: AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, LiveJournal, Lotus Sametime, .Mac, MSN, Novell GroupWise, QQ, Yahoo!, Zephyr
Good: Handles nearly every service you can imagine, provides encrypted chat sessions, colorful and intuitive, tabbed chatting in one window
Bad: Only for Mac OS X, direct connections are shaky
Cost: Totally free

Windows/Mac OS X/Linux
Gaim
Supports: AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Novell GroupWise, OpenNap, Silc, Yahoo!, Zephyr
Good: Works on every OS, supports plenty of services
Bad: Not entirely native to Windows, encryption only available through additional program (OTR), direct connections shakiest with this one

One service has yet to be supported, but deserves honorable mention, is Skype. This service allows you to video chat and make phone calls anywhere in the world for free. Its as great as it sounds, as easy as it gets and it's free. Plus Lech Wałęsa has an account. Don't let Lech show you up.