I have found this interesting article that lists simple steps that one could follow to maximize Notebook battery life. These tips will allow you to remain unwired longer and enjoy the portability of your Notebook. 1. Make sure your notebook is set to Balanced or Power Saver mode 2. Disable wireless devices, blue tooth devices if they are not in use. 3. Use the lowest backscreen light setting that you find bearable 4. Stay away from using DVD's or CD's in your laptop while using battery power

I was wondering why my PC took so long to boot up. When it was new, the boot up times were short but now it seems it takes forever. I searched around on the web and found this interesting article addressing this issue. Most of the reasons for slow boot times such as highly fragmented disk, adware/spyware and network drives are well known. I did not know about this "prefetch cache" issue. Apparently Windows uses this feature that loads commonly used programs - at boot time. Over time your PC prefetch cache can get really clogged.

Best Buy said Wednesday it will offer US$50 gift cards to U.S. consumers who bought HD DVD players and accessories, a month after the retailer abandoned HD DVD to push the rival format, Blu-ray Disc. The gift card will be available starting March 21 to consumers who bought HD DVD players or accessories before Feb. 23, Best Buy said. The gift card can be used to make in-store or online purchases from the retailer. Read the whole story here

Microsoft suggests by following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. 1. By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. 2. Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system, so periodically run the disc fragmenter utillity 3. Check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility. 4. Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission, protect your PC from spyware