Tired of being stuck with 140 character limits? Net Shouts (http://www.netshouts.com/) is a new microblog that allows you to communicate via 350 character messages or "shouts". Start up a conversation about music, beer, wine, food, grilling, sports, gadgets, offbeat stories, humor or any other topic. You have the option of posting directly to other social networking sites. Net Shouts also allows you to post photographs and embed some videos.

How it works? You decide which "shouts", or messages, you want to receive by subscribing to users. You have full control on the amount of information you get. If somebody disturbs or overloads you with "shouts" you can always quietly unsubscribe.

People can register in a few seconds and Net Shouts is free to use.

http://www.netshouts.com/
mail(at)netshouts.com

Tweetalk.me is a simple-to-use Twitter app that lets Twitter users start and follow conversations, even as they spread virally across Twitter. Each Tweektalk.me retweet is appended with a short link that shows all the comments to everyone with just one click. Use Tweetalk.me to find interesting people and conversations on Twitter.

Some of the best software programs can be the hardest to learn. A few immediate examples that come to mind are Photoshop, Illlustrator, Acrobat, and Flash. To help gain an in depth understanding of these programs, I would recommend logging on to Lynda.com. For $25 per month, or $250 per year, you can access over 33,000 video tutorials that make it very easy to learn how to use these complicated software programs. This website uses the Quicktime format for their video tutorials so you will need to have this free program downloaded.

To get you started you Lynda.com offers over 4,000 videos that can be viewed for free. In my experience these tend to the most basic tutorials. At least it enables you to get a feel for what this website has to offer.

If you are serious about purchasing an expensive and complicated software program, such as Adobe Photoshop, it would be well worth your while to use Lynda.com to shorten your learning curve.

You would be surprised at how many programs run in the background when you are using your pc, most likely slowing it down. Your may also be surprised at the number of programs that start every time when you turn your computer on. How do you clean up this mess?

There is a program that I have used for a few years now that can help. This program is called Winpatrol from BillP Studios. To really get the full benefit of this program, I would suggest opting for the Winpatrol Plus version as this will give you access to a lot of detailed information about the programs that are running on your pc and whether or not you can disable them, delete them or leave them running. There is a one time fee of $29.95.

Here is how it works. Download the program. Upgrade to Winpatrol Plus. Start Winpatrol and you will see a list of the programs that are running in the background, the programs that start up every time your pc is turned on, a list of your browser helpers (e.g. Google Toolbar) and so on.

Click on the programs that you are interested in. Click on the Info button. A pop up window will give some basic information. Click on the Plus Info button and it will take you to a web page that gives you a detailed description about the software program and whether or not it is OK to disable or delete it.

This may sound kind of complicated but it really is not and it is fast. I have found Winpatrol to be an inexpensive way to clean up your pc and keep it running faster and free of clutter.

It is the season for eating and feasting and if you are interested in fun food facts, try logging on to Foodimentary- Facts and Fun. This blog is a collection of fun food facts. Examples are:

Colonel Sanders traveled over 250,000 miles a year visiting various parts of his Kentucky Fried Chicken Empire. 

Iceberg lettuce got it's name from the fact that California growers started shipped it covered with heaps of crushed ice in the 1920s. It had previously been called Crisphead lettuce.

Scientists have discovered that banana peels contain as much as 11% alcohol.

This blog is probably not going to change your life all that much but I found it to be fun and interesting.