This blog has seen a slight increase in traffic over the past week or so and in looking at the visitor stats I’ve found out why:  TechSmith is linking to my SnagIt entry from their monthly e-newsletter.

My posting has slowed of late – but not from lack of material.  About two weeks ago the hard drive in my tablet started making the dreaded funny noises.  I’ve spent my spare time recently backing up data and, ultimately, installing and reloading a new drive.  Luckily I didn’t lose much, if anything in the process.

An update version of SnagIt has just been released with additional useful features.  I haven’t tried it yet – but the company’s video tutorials explain everything so well I feel like I have.  If you do any writing or design work at all – I highly recommend you try it.

JD Lasica of New Media Musings points to an article in Search Engine Watch about Google’s relatively new News Archive.

Those who try to find a newspaper article 30 days or more after publication are aware that many papers or magazines put them into their own archives and charge $$ for their retrieval.  The frustrating part is how bad most news organizations’ websites search process is to find the article in the first place.  Google now offers an alternative with their News Archive search feature.

I’ve been trying out Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 beta.  I like the tabbed browsing capabilities.  Just one problem.  The Wells Fargo Bank website doesn’t recognize IE7 and after signing in WF tells me it no longer supports WebTV and I should upgrade my browser.

Luckily there’s another computer in the house when I just have to know my current bank balance.

A couple of days ago Palm released the Treo 650 Updater 1.15 for Cingular ("including formerly AT&T customers").

As a formerly AT&T customer and user of their "office online" email system I was unhappy when I completed the Updater process and found my Wrls Email icon missing and the email button on the phone linked to Cingular Xpress Mail.

It turns out I updated with the wrong Updater.  Going back and using the file ending  in .cnb – which I now know stands for Cingular Blue (former AT&T) rather than the file ending in .cng which is for Cingular Orange – did the trick.  My Wrls Email icon has returned.  My email button links to my office email.  My faith in Palm is restored and the Updater has improved my Treo too.

If you use a Treo 650 and have questions – you should visit TreoCentral and explore their discussion forums.

Link: The Mac guys start calling Vista names already.

Robert Scoble – Microsoft’s "evangelist" – responds to the recent name-calling coming from the Mac crowd.

What timing.

Over the past several months I’ve read as some of my favorite blog authors, first Michael Hyatt of Working Smart and then Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasion decided to move to Apple’s products.  As a Microsoft customer, early adopter and tablet user I did begin to wonder…

[Full disclosure – the kids do have mini Ipods.]

Thanks for the refresher course, Robert.