Why IP telephony is so attractive? Does it provides better sound quality? Not in my experience – echo, speed variations and other digital effects always remind me that I am talking over the Net. Is it cheaper? Not really. Many cell phone providers give you free weekends and nights. If you get right package you can talk almost for free. Finally, you cannot use any IP telephone during blackout – and this is the time when you really need telephone.

What is the best thing about IP telephone? No dialing! Skype, Jajah, COMfi and others allow you to create phone book and dial anyone with only one click. Not ten, not seven - one. Is not it pathetic? We are so lazy, that we are willing to pay higher price for less reliability and quality in exchange to simple convenience – fewer keystrokes.

When you hear name Logitech you immediately think “Mouse”. Couple years ago the pioneer “handy” added to its portfolio rather unique device: Logitech io™ Digital Writing System. Actually, it is a pen – probably the smartest gadget I ever owned.

It may look and feel a little thicker than your every day ordinary pen, but it memorizes everything you write or draw. The pen has embedded optical device and memory that allows you to store about 40 pages that can be downloaded to PC through USB connector. If you think it sounds too good to be true, then you probably right – you still have to use special paper to make it work, but special notepads cost no more than their high-quality plain paper brothers. Logitech provides software that helps you organize downloaded pages, recognize handwritten text and convert it to a document, e-mail or calendar entry. Using special notepads you can even compose e-mail messages that will be submitted automatically as soon as you download them to PC.

After watching IView at Microsoft I have decided to install trial version and see how it works. There is one word to describe the conclusion of my observations -slow. Any version of ACDSee will do the work much faster. According to the IView architect - the original purpose was to organize large amount of media files. From my personal experience, the IView is the slowest tool for the job today.

Do not let children play with Internet - children make Internet dumber!