Some interesting new bytes gathered from around the world :

6. Shutting down PC's on LAN remotely. Thursday, February 10, 2005. WIN XP Home & Professional Only.

shutdown -i 

  Typing this command into a command prompt window will enable a GUI which will allow you to remotely shutdown any PC on your LAN which allows remote connection.

To find out more options, type

 shutdown /? 

 and this will list all the available options.

5. P&G to Buy Gillette for $57 Billion - Friday, January 28, 2005 - The maker of Tide is paying an 18 percent premium for Gillette, best known for its razors.

Procter & Gamble Co. said on Friday it would buy Gillette Co. for about $57 billion in stock, uniting two iconic U.S. producers of household goods ranging from Pampers diapers to Duracell batteries. The combined company would boast more than $60 billion in annual revenues, giving it increased leverage at stores ranging from discounters to grocers.

This is what I call a one-stop shop.

4. Google Hires Firefox's Lead Programmer - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - Ben Goodger said in a note on his Web site -- http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/ that as of immediate effect, he will be working with Google, sending speculations that Google might one day come out with its browser, which the logically the next step in progression, especially after registrering the Gbrowser.com domain.

3. Apple wooing Windows - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - Apple is trying woo Microsoft's Windows users to switch over to its iMac operating system by launching its chepeast ever iMac machine, Mini Mac. priced at USD499, this is a wonderful opportunity for people to have a taste of the iMac without the heavy price tag......

2. Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Technology - Friday, January 21, 2005 - Microsoft finally launced its own anti-spyware technology to fight against all those pesky softwares that takes over your computer -- however, its not as great as its supposed to be. You'd think that Microsoft will be able to engineer a product that can clean up its operating system - think again.
However, I believe they will improve. Use the links below to search and clean your system, if the tool is not available under Windows Update.

Microsoft AntiSpyware:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Malicious Software Removal Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

1. Best Browser and Email Client - January 23, 2005 - In my humble opinion, and of PC World, the best browser is Mozilla's Firefox while Thunderbird is the best email client. According to the PC World article, both softwares (free) are slowly and steadily catching up on Microsoft's Internet Explorer while there was no mention on how much Thunderbird was catching up on Outlook Express as it is not the most dominant email client.

I have been using Mozilla and Thunderbord for about 2 years now and I love their multi-tab features, ease of use, fast browsing, spam filters and many more. Give them a try, you'll never regret it.