Today�s lesson is a short one, about the magic of disappearing sound devices.

In Vista, under Control Panel, then Sounds, the first tab is Playback.� Mine shows two devices: Speakers and Realtek�Digital Output.� Whilst�playing around with some settings the other day, I right-clicked on Speakers and selected Disable � and disable they did!� Having been used to network icons that remain with a red X on them when disable, I was most surprised to see my Speakers device completely gone.��A-hunting I went,�not able to find the�darn things anywhere for me to re-enable them�🙁

Asking any IT person to recommend a printer (or a laptop or PC for that matter), is like saying �which car should I buy?� or �which house should I build?�.� It strongly depends on what your needs are, as a printer on a network for 10 people in an office printing mainly documents is far different�from a home printer that you want to handle photos.

Here are my top�five�printing tips :

Once upon a time, internet chat rooms were pages of text that you had to �refresh� to see a new message, and anyone could intrude on.� Fast forward to today, and instant messaging gives us our own private chat rooms (or are they private?) with only the people we want to communicate with (if we select the right settings).� There are many pros and cons of instant messaging, and I for one am a believer that it can benefit businesses, if done properly (i.e. securely).

Did I mention how well my laptop has been running since the Vista reinstallation?� Oh yeah, except I still haven�t tackled iTunes again�🙂

Here�s one that�s caught me out before .. and, as I didn�t reinstall the applications (hubby did) .. it snuck back in again.� Small business owners in Australia & New Zealand may be familiar with the MYOB suite of accounting/bookkeeping software.� It literally stands for Mind Your Own Business.� Well, Accounting Plus v17.0.0 (and some earlier versions) don�t play well with Microsoft Office 2007.� In particular, when you try to display a payroll advice, MYOB crashes with a �stopped working� error.� Very frustrating when you are trying to process the salary payments.� Even more frustrating when it�s your own salary you are trying to pay.

How long do you put up with a problem before you fix it? Especially if it�s one of those �slightly annoying but I can work around it� type computer problems?� Do you wait for a quiet moment at work (yeah, right), or for a time when you are feeling particularly unproductive or are avoiding another task that would be more unpleasant?� Or do you wait until another one .. or two .. or many other little problems join in the party and gang up on you?

Save � of the critial �protect your data� type, not the �look how much money I saved in this sale today type� (though arguably they are just as important as each other).

Normally my favourite rant is regarding backups (and, more importantly, testing your data restorations), especially where small business is concerned. And I�m talking real small business (1 � 20 users). But I�ll save that for another day.

No, today�s rant is about saving your progress as you go. Though the concept was made famous when Microsoft Word crashed during that business report/university paper you had nearly finished .. and hadn�t saved .. and couldn�t be recovered � saving as you go is important for other applications too .. and not just software applications.

I�m afraid I�m starting this blog with a technology drama, involving my shiny new iPod Shuffle (2nd generation) and Windows Vista.� �Ah yes, Vista� you say knowingly.� But at Microsoft�s defence leaps the voice of my dear friend who pointed out that the vendors had the Vista code for�2 years prior to the release, so surely they could have sorted out their device drivers by now and what more does Microsoft have to do?