I find Time magazine's recent naming of YOU as the person of the year to be quite apropos. Consider the fact that YOU can create a funny home video with your digital camera and post it on YouTube the same day to be seen by friends and family around the world. You can create a podcast commentary on any subject, post it on a Web site, and have it copied by folks to their iPods within hours.

If you find the idea of creating your own Web site intimidating, you can have space on MySpace or Friendster immediately and for free, where you can post photos, videos, stories, and blogs. As an example, check out my page at www.myspace.com/donedrington.

The following are among the most popular Social Networking sites (in terms of membership size):

As a musician, you can create a music video and have it seen and heard by millions without an agent or a professional producer. Sites that let you upload items for free are popping up everywhere. The following are just three of the many "upload your own video" sites now available: (The sites listed above also let you upload your own videos and pictures.)

A very popular site for storing and displaying photos is:
www.flickr.com

www.metacafe.com

You can also post your picture and profile on all the Social Networking sites, in hopes of meeting new friends or a Mr. or Ms. Right. Sadly, you can also be conned by online scammers and predators of all kinds. However, scams have been around since long before computers, and using common sense has always been the best means of protection.

Using Your PC with Two Monitors

Speaking of PCs, they say laptop sales now exceed those of desktop models, as many users prefer the convenience and portability of the notebook variety. A really cool feature of most laptops is a port to a second monitor, which can be placed alongside the unit's main monitor and used as an extension of it. Your mouse will move seamlessly from one to the other, which means a wide spreadsheet can be manipulated without constant sideways scrolling. I use two monitors when working on a Web page. I edit the code on one screen and view the results on the other. Writing a book is also easier when you can have multiple pages fully open and in view at the same time.

After connecting the second monitor, right-click your Desktop and choose Properties. Two monitor icons will appear under Settings, which can be indicated Primary and Secondary when clicking the Identify button. Here screen resolution for each can be set. Pressing F1 will bring up detailed instructions.

Desktop PC owners can have a second monitor port installed in their computers by hardware technician.

Using USB-Connected Headphones, Microphones, and Speakers

The tiny built-in speakers that come with most laptops can be pretty anemic, but good external speakers or a headset can produce very impressive sound. All computers come with a traditional 1/8-inch stereo port for headphones and speakers, but USB-connected headphones and speakers can be even more impressive, since USB ports don't pick up all the RF signals inside a computer which can adversely affect traditional audio output ports. I use a combination headset and microphone made by Plantronics, and couldn't be more pleased with the way they work.

Furthermore, using a headset/microphone combo is the ideal way to take advantage of all the free PC-to-PC telephone options nowadays.

Internet Explorer 7 has been out for a while now, but many users find it confusing and have asked how to return to Version 6. Well, Microsoft used to make returning to an earlier version of IE nearly impossible, but has now made returning to IE6 quite simple. Go to Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and click on Internet Explorer 7. After following the prompts to uninstall the program, Internet Explorer 6 will automatically be restored.

Before you do this, however, you might want to consider a very cool feature of IE7. In the lower right corner of the browser window you will see a mini magnifying glass bearing a plus sign, followed by "100%" and a tiny down-arrow. Clicking the magnifier symbol will increase the size of text and images on the page to 125 percent of normal. Another click will enlarge everything to 150 percent.

If you click the tiny down arrow, a chart will appear which lets you choose text and image enlargements up to 400 percent, as well as reductions to 50 percent. Yes, IE6 was always able to enlarge and reduce text sizes, but image sizes always stayed at 100 percent. Admittedly, enlarged digital images are less than razor-sharp, but can still be useful to folks with visual limitations.

Another helpful feature of IE7 is "tabbed browsing," which means multiple web pages will be opened in a separate window - each with its own tab. (This has long been a feature of Firefox, and I'm glad to see that Microsoft finally realized the importance of this function.)

Among various complaints about IE7, the "Home" icon and the "Tools" options seem to have vanished. Well, they are now shown on an additional toolbar row along with "Page" options, which include "Send Page by Email." The "Favorites" folder is now indicated by a Gold Star on the additional row, along with a Gold Star and Plus Sign, which means "Add to Favorites."

Also on the additional row you will find the "Help" question-mark symbol and the "Full-Screen" symbol. If you click "Full-Screen" you can return to normal view (or exit the page) by pointing to the screen's top edge, whereupon the "overlapping squares" and "X"symbols can be seen.

Regarding text sizes, Bob Fulton called to say he had trouble reading Outlook Express email because of a tiny font that could not be changed with any of OE's font options. Bob fixed this, however, by going to View>Font Size in Internet Explorer 6 and changing the size.

A number of folks have called to say they've heard that their free AVG anti-virus service is being discontinued. Well, Grisoft.com will no longer offer Version 7.1, but has replaced it with Version 7.5, which is free for home use. I've used Grisoft AVG for years, and find the service to be excellent.

I also used the free ZoneAlarm Firewall for years, but have found the firewall in WinXP Security Pack 2 to be adequate. ZoneAlarm has a number of fairly complex options, which can be useful if you read all the instructions and learn how to use them. If you don't, the program can block certain activities that you might not want blocked. Most of us are better off relying on the firewall in SP2 or by using a "mechanical firewall," such as a network router.

Speaking of safety, I used Norton's "Anti-Virus" for years, but always avoided its "Internet Security" package because many of the features are either unnecessary or easily replaced by various free programs.

A Tale of Two Businesses

This column has never been intended as a review of particular companies, but my recent experience with two of them needs to be shared with other computer users. After weeks of research on the latest high-end computers, I decided that an Alienware had everything I wanted in a new PC.

However, its console is about twice as big and heavy as the average computer tower. So I asked for a two-year on-site extended warranty.

The computer performed beautifully for five weeks and suddenly died. No problem, I thought - my warranty will have a technician here in a day or two to replace what appeared to be a dead power supply. However, when I called for service, I was told that "on-site" didn't necessarily mean someone would come to the house, and that a technician would talk me through some steps that might lead to fixing the problem myself.

This tech then told me to open the case and follow his instructions. I mentioned having always been told that opening a computer's case would nullify its warranty. Not a problem, he assured me, and spent more than two hours telling me to disconnect and reconnect several of the machine's internal components. He finally said that the computer would have to be sent to Florida, where they would fix the problem and return it to me in two weeks.

I said this was totally unacceptable and that if they didn't send someone to the house within two days, I would return the computer and buy one locally. They said the 30-day return period” had expired and I had no choice but to do as they said.

Alienware Reneging on its Warranty

I said this was reneging on their warranty and that I would expect a full refund. However, before returning the computer, I had the problem of getting my personal files off of a hard drive that couldn't be booted.

So I called MakeItWork.com and explained the situation. They had a technician at my house the next morning who cleared the hard drive and then asked if I wanted the dead power supply replaced - she had one in her company car. If Alienware had done this, the issue would have then been resolved and over with. But they didn't, and I had already bought another computer.

As for MakeItWork.com, the company has technicians covering the coastal communities of Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Stephanie Concepcion was mine, and I've never had more professional service in my three decades of owning computers. I couldn't have been more pleased, and I recommend the company to anyone who needs a computer technician to make a house call.

Also, do NOT depend on your anti-virus software to catch all incoming threats. There is usually a 3 or 4-day lag between a new virus being distributed and the time it takes anti-virus companies to detect it and send clients updated protection.

I recently referred to Outlook Express DBX files and their ability to be moved from one computer to another. However, a number of readers have asked for specific details.

Unlike Web-based email, such as Microsoft's Hotmail and Google's Gmail, whose messages are maintained somewhere in cyberspace, Outlook Express messages are stored on a user's own hard drive. In addition to being listed inside the various OE folders, such as Inbox, Outbox, and Sent Items, all messages in a given folder are compressed into a single file bearing the folder's name, along with an extension of .dbx.

Thus, there is an encrypted file somewhere on your computer named Inbox.dbx that is comprised of the contents of your Outlook Express Inbox.

So where does one find Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx, and the others? They are in a regular yellow Windows folder named "Outlook Express." However, this folder is nested deep within several other folders, most of which have cryptic names. I have no idea why Microsoft made this folder so hard to find and its DBX contents so difficult to understand.

Nonetheless, they can be copied from their location on one computer into the Outlook Express program on another, by following these steps:

On the older computer go to Start>Search>All Files & Folders (or Start>Find>Files & Folders on Win98 computers) and type outlook express into the Name field. Your PC may contain more than one folder with this name, so double-click each that appears to see what's in it. When you've found the right folder, it can be copied onto another disk or onto a flash drive. The easiest method is to drag the yellow folder onto a USB flash drive that would show up in your My Computer folder with a designation such as Drive E or, perhaps, Drive F.

Next insert the flash drive into a USB port on your new computer and drag the Outlook Express folder onto its Desktop. Double-click the folder so that all its DBX files are displayed.

Now repeat the Search steps used on the old computer to find the corresponding Outlook Express folder on the new one. When it appears in the Found area, right-click it and choose Send To>Desktop (Create Shortcut).

When the Shortcut appears on your Desktop you can move all the DBX files from the moved Outlook Express folder into the new one, by dragging them into this Shortcut. You will be warned that Inbox.dbx already exists in the folder and be asked if you want to overwrite it.

If you have not yet begun to use OE on the new computer, click Yes. If you have, however, you will want to rename the old DBX files to something like, say, Inbox-Old.dbx and Outbox-Old.dbx before dragging them into the new folder.

When you have completed all these steps, you will have two Inboxes displayed in Outlook Express on the new computer: Inbox and Inbox-old.

If anything goes wrong, you can go back to the old PC and start over. None of the above steps will delete anything you want saved.

The actual path to the DBX folders on either computer can be found from within Outlook Express by clicking Tools>Options>Maintenance>Store Folder.

More answers to email questions can be found HERE.