Tech Notes Updated.

Since we cover multiple topics in this blog, and we've had a couple of days without wall-to-wall severe storms, let's slide back into the "tech" arena today. (But since I have/will talk about the definition for severe storms on the 10 PM news, for more information, pull up my July 31st and July 27th postings on those topics).

Tech update...I'm still REALLY glad that I chose the ipod Touch for my portable tech toy. Wifi lets me keep up on everything from my e-mail to satellite and radar images, current weather conditions, and the position of planets in the sky.

On the gaming side, the Touch version of "Doom" is outstanding, and uses the device's accelerometer.

Favorite apps so far include "Planets" (free, and shows you the positions of the planets in the sky...and more), "Google Earth" (also free...and stunning), and "Flight Control" (paid just a bit for this one), where you use the touch screen to land (hopefully safely) a collection of jets, propeller planes and helicopters. It's seriously addictive.

Allrighty then...here's my big discovery in the past year...Open Office, a free office suite that performs many of the functions of Microsoft Office (and even looks quite similar).

I've been using it exclusively on my laptops for the past year or so, and have only had isolated instances where I missed the Microsoft version.

It allows you to save your documents in a "Word" compatible format (and many others), reads files with the .docx extension, and the package has an "Excel" compatible spreadsheet, a much simplified "PowerPoint" module and more. I've been VERY impressed, and for the money (free), it's worth a try.

Just point your browser to www.openoffice.org, and you can download a copy for yourself.