Don’t just run out and get any UPS. You want to get an intelligent one. The ‘intelligent’ UPS will regulate power without having to hit battery every time voltage takes a dip which greatly improves battery longevity. They also include options to hook power supply up to your computer via a serial or USB port so you can monitor what power is doing. This also gives option to allow for a soft shut-down if power goes out and you are away from your desk.

You can get an Uninterruptible Power Supply at most computer stores. Best Buy carries a fairly wide selection of them.

As for brands, I’ve personally used APC with much success. Opti-UPS is another excellent brand. In fact, I have an Opti that is 6 years old and still works fine, although batteries now have no life to them. (That’s to be expected. Rechargeable batteries only last so long)

Now that you know of importance of a UPS I would strongly encourage you to invest in one. It is far better to spend $100 now on some preventative maintenance than having to spend much more later on data recovery.

Was Bill’s decision to release IE7 before Longhorn a good idea? - Most definitely. We have been waiting for over 8 years for PNG24 Transparency in IE4.

My list of things Microsoft has fixed since Windows XP SP2

• Automatic ActiveX Download blocking • Security

My list of things Microsoft is going fix in Internet Explorer 7 • PNG24 Alpha Transparency • 95% better Standards Support

How can I predict IE7 has better standards support? Well currently all I use for Web Design/Development is Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 and code it generates works wonders in both Firefox and Internet Explorer so I can see Microsoft is trying to improve on standards support by a great deal.

Boy I am so waiting for this IE7. When is it going to be released? This summer we will see Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 7. Keep up to date with release over at IE Team’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/