You’ve seen it. You’ve probably puzzled over it. My hat’s off to you if you actually use it. What is it? It’s RSS. You see its icon below, as well as on the right column on the Wambooli home page.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Or it could stand for RDF Site Summary, which is far more difficult to remember (so it’s probably the official term).

What RSS does is to let you quickly check for updates to your favorite web pages. Most blogs and news sites feature RSS feeds. Wambooli has one as well, which you can access from the main page (or the above graphic).

In Internet Explorer, you can view your RSS subscriptions by clicking the star icon (IE version 7.0). Then click the Feeds button. There you’ll see the sites you’re subscribing to. Click one and you can view a custom screen where you can check in on updates.

Sadly, RSS is taking a while to catch on. I even forget that I have the feature, so I got on opening my favorite links to check for updates. But if I remember, I’ll be sure to check the RSS feeds for new stuff. You should, too!

Shocking Laptop Dept. It was true once that the price of a laptop alone would shock you. Apparently that’s not all that’s shocking about some Dell laptops.

Darwin Dept. The 2007 Darwin Awards have been announced. Read about some true morons who have successfully lifted themselves from the human gene pool.

This is MacWorld week in San Francisco. I consider it to be the only remaining, great computer expo on the planet.

MacWorld today rivals some of the fun and thrill of the early days, back when San Francisco was host to the West Coast Computer Fair. It was at the Fair that Jobs and Woziniak introduced the original Apple computer back in the 1970s.

I attended one of the last West Coast Compuer Fairs, probably in 1990 or so. I met quite a few enthusiasts, several programmers I had deep respect for, and one of my personal heros, Jerry Pournelle. But even then the general interest for computers was fading; well before the dawn of the Internet, the computer was rapidly becoming an office commodity about as interesting as a typewriter.

I’m glad to see the enthusiasm and support for Apple at MacWorld. But MacWorld is more than just a computer show. Steve Jobs, in his much-anticipated “One More Thing” event, introduced a new way to rent movies, new features for the iPhone, plus the new ultra-thin MacBook Air. Computers are now merely a spoke on the wheel of consumer electroncis. Apple knows that. Good for them!

Relevant MacWorld Links Dept. Here we go: Information Week. MacBook Air. General MacWorld chaos and delight from C|Net.

More Keybords Dept. Last week I wrote about the 10 Worst Keyboards article. Now here comes the 10 Strangest Computer Keyboards article. This includes some real oddballs as well as the keyboard that everyone is lusting for: the Optimus Maximus.

Welcome to the digital desert. The information ice age. The great throwback. For all our advances and conveniences, we’re losing a bit of what makes us human. More so, we’re losing touch with an era we still reference, but which most of those under 30 have no clue about.

For example, consider the term clockwise. What is that? A digital clock spins in no partiular direction. Last time I checked, they still had analog clocks in the schools. Perhaps that’s a good think; let’s resist any trend the Schools might have converting to digital.

How about dialing a phone? I collect dial phones. I have one plugged in just for kicks. It works, but it’s a pain. Still, think of the irony of “dialing” a cell phone. Worse, how does one “hang up” a cell phone? Yet the terms persist.

Another one: rolling a car window up or down. Yeah, junior’s first car may not have automatic windows. There will be a little crank there, which he has to twist to make the window go up or down. Even so, today when I’m out driving and I tell the kids to “roll up” their windows, they do know what to do. They just aren’t aware of how the term came about.

Still, maybe things aren’t so bad, after all. Everyone uses oddball terms from centuries past: crossing the threashold comes to mind as does a carbon copy in e-mail. The spot above a car’s tire is called a fender, though it’s really not a fender any more. And the keys on your computer keyboard are staggered in the same pattern that allowed for a typewriter’s leavers not to jam.

Oh Noes Dept. The British school system is being told by its owners not to upgrade to Windows Vista or Office 2007 or both! No way! Don’t do it! What a great advertisement that is. For me, any time the government says not to do something then, by golly, I want to do it! And the decision is silly, too: it means the schools will, once again, lag behind the technology curve. Oh no!

Banned for Life Dept. Beware the bloggers! Or so the saying went during last week’s Comsumer Electronics Show. Actually, the show’s vendors called them bloggies, but that didn’t help a so-called blogger from the website Gizmodo. Using an aptly-named device called TV-B-Gone, the bloggie had some fun turning off a wall of LCD televisions. Ha-ha. But the jokes on the bloggie as he’s been banned for life from future CES expositions.

Sometimes I enjoy a program’s feature. Sometimes it can be a true pain in the rump. Take Word’s AutoCorrect and AutoFormat features. Please!

AutoCorrect and AutoFormat can be very handy. The do sensible things like fix typos, capitalize the first word of sentences, and things like “I” or a superscript th for 4^th — that kind of stuff. But they can also be a royal pain.

For example, unless you tame it, AutoFormat will do things like automatic rules (lines across the page), headings, bullet lists, and other things you may not want. A key annoyance I have, for example, is that AutoFormat automatically converts a typed Web page address into a clickable URL. I don’t want that!

The key is to turn off the features that annoy you. From older versions of Word, choose Tools>AutoCorrect. In Word 2007, choose Word Options from the Office Button menu, then choose Proofing, and finally click the AutoCorrect Options button. For any version of Word, you’ll see the AutoCorrect dialog box displayed.

In the AutoCorrect dialog box, review the settings in the AutoCorrect and AutoFormat As You Type tabs. Those two locations are where the most potentially offensive options are found. For example, in the AutoFormat As You Type tab is where I find the “Internet and network paths with hyperlinks” options. Uncheck those options that offend you. Click OK. You’re free. Well, at least for that problem.

Terrible Keyboards Dept. I’m a keyboard aficionado. I enjoy using a good computer keyboard. I detest using a sucky one. So, obviously, I read with relish this PC World feature on the 10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time.

Twice this week I’ve gotten e-mail from Windows 98 users. They have this or that problem. Blah-blah-blah . . .

Well, of course you have problems! Windows 98 is now over ten years old! It’s an antique! The computers that run Windows 98 are at least 8 years old themselves. That’s an eon in computer terms.

First, congratulations are in order. If you have a PC that still runs Windows 98, then it’s one amazing piece of technology. I replace my PC once every 4 or 6 years. After that, computers not only start to die but:

Second, you won’t find any new software or hardware that runs on your old PC. Need a new hard drive? Good luck finding an old IDE drive. Perhaps on eBay, but not at any retail outlet or on-line computer store. And software? The stuff today requires Windows XP minimum. Sure, there are older Windows 98 compatible programs out there, but:

Third, no one supports Windows 98 any more. Microsoft dropped support a long time ago. You can still search the Microsoft Knowledgebase, but don’t expect any phone support. That means whatever ails your Windows 98 PC is what will probably kill it.

My advice is to buy a replacement PC. Buy one now, before you lose more than your data. Your sanity is at stake!

This Week’s Event Dept. This week is the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Lots of new gizmos being announced or just hitting the market. It reminds me of the early day sof COMDEX, the big computer expo that’s still there but no longer as relevant. Read about the latest gizmos from CES on my favorite gizmo web site, Gizmodo.

Video Moment Dept. You might have already seen this Bill Gates video. It’s making the rounds on the e-mail circuit. This is a ficticious video of Bill Gates’ upcoming “Last Day at Microsoft.” Just gander at the celebrities and politicians who made guest shots. Golly!

You gotta be careful what you write when you write about computers. It appears that the “tech guy” writing for the Orlando Sentinel mistakenly told his readers that you can “clean up” extra disk space on your PC’s hard drive by removing all the files that end with EXE.

No, I’m not kidding. Here’s his apology link.

Folks, files ending with EXE are program files. These includes the program commonly called “Windows” as well as programs such as “Word” or “Internet Explorer.” Yep, deleting those files will most certainly clean up disk space. But it’s a very bad idea!

In all my books, I admonish my readers never to delete any file that you did not create yourself. If you download an EXE, you did create it. You can delete it! But even then, in my books I recommend that you don’t. Why? So that you can re-install the file later should you need to. I recommend keeping those “install” or “setup” programs just as you keep the CD or DVD that came in a software box.

Bottom line: Don’t believe everything you read, especially stuff from the “tech guy” in the newspaper.

Interesting Link. Courtesy of reader “The Duck” here is an interesting link. The Duck is responsible for this; not me. Still it’s cool.

Windows Vista Update. Windows Vista SP1 is due out soon. You can read here about what to expect. To summarize the boring information found on that page: Windows Vista SP1 will address a crapload of compatibility issues, it will not introduce any new features, and it will make your PC run about 10 percent slower. (I’m not too sure about that last point, but who would be surprised?)

Robotics Dept. This past weekend was the kickoff for the annual FIRST robotics competition. High School nerds from across the galaxy will be competing. O! How I wish I were young again and could build robots to impress all those girls who thought I was a nerd. (They were right, of course.)

Welcome to 2008. My prediction: This year will not suck. If you think it will suck, then you’re spending too much time watching TV news. Turn. Off. The. TV. Thank-you!

Thanks to reader Troy, I now know about Vetusware. I’m thrilled!

Vetus is the Latin word for old, and vetusware.com is a web site that contains abandoned software — so-called abandonware. That’s software that was once copyrighted and sold for real money, but because the software is old or supports an older operating system (think DOS) it’s been dropped by the developer.

Visiting the vetusware site you’ll find all sorts of programs that you may have once owned, or possibly even lusted after. All of them are sitting there waiting download. For example, the old WordPerfect 5 for DOS, or Sim City 2000, or even Norton Ghost 2003. Providing that you have the ancient PC to run such a thing (or an emulator), the world is your oyster at Vetusware. Definitely check it out.

Wambooli Updates Dept. My old blog, Wambooli Lunch, contained some interesting articles. One of them I pulled from the maws of that gravesite is my article about producing a vinculum in Word. It’s a cool trick, and you can read about it here.

New Years 404 Dept. The New Years Eve celebration in Seattle is marked by a festive fireworks display at the Space Needle. It almost didn’t go off this past week; at the last minute technicians noticed that the file which controls the fireworks display was corrupted. One, two reboots failed to fix the situation. Eventually the show was run manually. My question: was the computer running Windows?

Welcome to the horror that is upgrading your computer! No, I’m not talking about Windows Vista, I’m talking about the Macintosh OS X, Leopard incarnation. Yes, Apple is supposed to be the better operating system, but I don’t think you’ll find Justin Long’s “Mac guy” explaining the finer details of what a Leopard update entails.

First, the update process went well on my Mac. I updated onto a new, second hard drive. Then I booted that drive and “migrated” all my old applications and data to the hard drive. Things worked great at first! I enjoy using the new Time Machine, a feature that I wanted and one of the reasons for my updating. (Never update unless there are features you want or need.) But then the problems came wandering in like cats smelling an open tuna can.

I just spent $600 updating all my Adobe software. (This is similar to my spending $1,000 to update all my Adobe software when I updated from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95.)

I spent another $200 updating Final Cut Express.

I plan on spending another $250 to update Microsoft Office when version 2008 comes out later in January.

Am I done? I don’t know! I did re-buy the iLife suite as my original iLife suite was two versions old (dated 2004). And there are still bugs in the Terminal program, specifically with the History feature.

I don’t mind updating my software, but I shouldn’t have to. I was completely happy with the programs I had — until they stopped working properly! Again, the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs. Supposedly Apple is working on a massive update to Leopard. It may address some of my issues, but I still plan on buying more software. Caveat User!

Video Dept. If you haven’t already, check out my new Video page. I’ll be updating it with new videos from time to time.

News Dept. Apparently this year in high-tech is the Year of the Personal Networking Site, aka MySpace or Facebook. I do have a MySpace account, which I activated mostly so I could subscribe to my son’s MySpace diary (which turned out to be eye-opening!). I’ve never been to Facebook, but apparently some folks do waste, er, spend a lot of time there.

Predictions Dept. I’ve long predicted that spinning disks inside computers will be a thing of the past. Recently, Samsung introduced a solid state memory card that can hold up to 128GB of information. Eventually, high-capacity memory cards will replace hard drives, as well as your PC’s optical drive. Access time is still an issue, as is the issue about memory cards only having so many “writes” available to them. But my guess is that computer engineers will figure something out. Imagine the energy savings alone that a solid state drive would bring!

Happy New Year!