Benjamin couldn't resist giving a portion of his back history as a computer nerd.  There appear to be more things that he's not telling us, but we'll have to listen more to find out.  He had on Werner Weiss, of http://www.yesterland.com, who published an article from Benjamin over 10 years ago, about the very last Main Street Electrical Parade.

"Across the pond" in England, it seems that a guy has come up with a great way to monitor web speeds, by providing a custom Linksys WRT54G with the software needed to monitor packet loss, errors, and overall upload and download speeds.  To help those of us in the United States, Benjamin mentioned one great location to find out where to get a good high speed internet service provider, http://www.broadbandreports.com , as well as his favorite place to check your internet speed, http://www.speedtest.net .

Benjamin covered some of the latest trends in high priced "gucci gear" and how companies were working to sell diamond encrusted tech gear to the ultra-rich for a few extra bucks.  Keep your money... what good is a diamond encrusted phone that's 7 years old???  Of course, there are some fashion items that aren't so bad.  Television sets with colored panels to match your decor seemed to be a more logical move.

Benjamin also noted that law enforcement agencies are starting to look at new ways to protect you and your kids on-line.  One local agency is giving away ComputerCOP  software, but if your local police aren't giving it away, Benjamin prefers bsafeonline and strongly recommends it for people who have kids at home.

Also noted was another scam e-mail, pretending to come from the IRS about a mistake that the reader had made, and a small little refund would be on the way, just as soon as the confirmation was received.  Of course, the confirmation was a scam to gain more information about the person, to steal their identity.  Don't give this information away!!!

Tom called and noted that his Vista computer was quite slow, and Benjamin noted that Vista needed a decent memory upgrade for better speed.  Benjamin recommended http://www.crucial.com for their automatic scanner, but he also likes the manual configuration tool at http://www.kingston.com.  Maddie asked about automatic updates, and what settings to use for them.

Ralph asked about solid state drives (SSDs) and Benjamin played up the fact that these are the future, even if they are a bit pricey.  Ramon asked for details on the MacBook Air, and Chuck asked for some details as he's building his own personal computer.    Charles e-mailed in, and wanted to know how to make a snap shot of the information on his monitor, and save the results.  Benjamin will answer your questions, if you contact him right here...

Faster than one would believe... 2 hours of valuable information given for free!!!

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