IG Web Media Blogspot

I've used Hotmail and Gmail for my personal email accounts for many years now and it's fun to see the two giants battling it out for the latest bells and whistles. I have just upgraded to the Window Live Mail (Beta) by clicking on the appropriate link and am impressed by the ease at which everything hass transferred over to the new look plus I've got 2GB of storage! It's layout is much improved and now with the viewing panes looks and operates just like Outlook, which makes it an easy transition between the two. Everything appears to work fine although a slight glitch in the spellchecker needs sorting.

Well they've done it again! Another stunning new release of Google Earth is now available for download at http://earth.google.com There are some excellent new features including enhanced terrain data for various mountainous regions plus support for textured 3D buildings. You can also create your own 3D models with some artistic flair and a copy of http://sketchup.google.com . There is great information to be obtained by adding layers as required. One thing is that I found it painfully slow on my old laptop but it flies on the Core Duo desktop, no worries. Also a view of my house shows that the image is over 3 years old as I can see my old car in the drive! Happy Mapping!!!

Creating presentations for businesses and schools is a highly popular pastime, using products such as MS Powerpoint. You can now share your slideshow online using SlideShare which allows presentations in a variety of formats including PDF, Powerpoint(PPT & PPS) and OpenOffice(ODP) upto 20Mb in size. Check out the Featured slideshows or search for a particular subject and login to add comments about existing slideshows. Uploading your own presentation is a doddle so get sharing those presentations today!

How many of us have switched to the new HD TV's yet? I'm sitting on the fence and waiting for the prices to keep tumbling but I know that it's going to be an exciting and painful revolution as millions of us will have to chuck out our existing gear and replace it with HD capable receivers and tv's. So let's see if it's going to be worth it! Here are just a few sites I've found that let you showcase High Definition content. They aren't all true HD ie. no 5.1 Surround sound and a lower bit rate to reduce size, but here goes:

• Sky HD TV
• Quicktime HD
• Vacant Planet

These should give you a good taster and I hope you enjoy the HD experience and join the revolution when you're ready!

Powerline networking is a really cool alternative to a wireless home network and is incredibly easy to set up. Powerline networking makes use of the cabling that is already present in every house, the mains electrical circuit and it's technology takes advantage of the unused bandwidth of the electrical wiring to make a network.
What you need:

• A PC linked to a broadband router or modem with a spare network port
• A spare mains outlet socket close by
• 2 powerline adapters
• Another spare mains outlet socket in the room where you want a network device

Setting up is really simple:

• Plug the powerline adapter in to a power socket and connect to your router or modem using a network cable
• Repeat this in another room and connect to a Desktop PC, Laptop, PS2, X-box or other device
• Status lights on the adapters confirm that the network connection is active

Job done! In my experience it's far more reliable than the WiFi option which is not good at maintaining a signal through the structure of the house. Check out sites like Netgear, Devolo and Solwise and get yourself a powerline network in your home!

Here's a chance to tell No. 10 what you think about this unfair tax!
Not only do the government tax you every day of your working life, they then turn round and tax you when you die and leave your main asset to your loved ones. House prices have soared and are continuing to rise and the threshold they have in place is just not high enough. Let's follow other European countries, abolish it and if need be pay an extra 1p on income tax!
Fill in the e-petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ihtcrusade/ and let's get rid of this abhorant tax at the next budget. Have your say!

What's the first page you see when you fire up your web browser? Is it a search engine or popular news site? If so, how about personalising your look with the best features, news, photos, feeds etc. by using Netvibes. Just sign up with an email address and password and then a whole world of fun stuff, widgets, tools are at your disposal. With over 600 modules, 8,500 feeds, 680 podcasts, 140 events to choose from there is certainly enough to keep you entertained in the Netvibes Community. Slight downside is the lack of themes and the dubious quality of one or two of the modules but on the whole it is the leader of the pack for customisable start pages! Check it out today!

I've just come across Zuula, a new tabbed search site that searches the major search engines with just one click. It covers regular searches, image searches and news searches, plus it's quick too. A great tool for checking your rankings across the major sites! It also shows your recent search which when you return is a handy feature. Check it out and let me know what you think!