FINDING THINGS ON YOUR COMPUTER can be the single most frustrating thing you can do. I'm going to show you ways that help me find things. It's best to let go of some old ways. Never easy, I know. Few people like change but I hope to show you a better way ("I have a dream this afternoon...").

The "in a nutsshell, the problem is" bit:

If you've been using computers already then you'll have learnt the heirachical approach to storing files. It's the old office metaphor really. Folders contain files but they also contain other folders. Drill down the family tree layout or open that folder, no not that one, oh THAT one, then inside that one, & again & VOILA, lots of open windows.

Not fun really.

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BETTER....ONLY DIFFERENT.

In the "real world", you know the one you live in whenever you're not on the computer, I find it's easier to ASK for what I want than it is to find it. "Scissors, scissors", I mutter to myself whilst making the international sign of the scissor-seaker by mimicking a pair of scissors & the cutting action with my fingers. Would that calling for a lost item, complete with a lame mime of the article would bring it running like an eager dog. Maybe one day this surreal vision will become a reality or maybe I've just ingested way too much vapour from a particularly strong smelling marker pen.
BUT HANG ON A MINUTE!!! This glorious mirage IS A REALITY in our computer world.
Sooooo.

• Stop wasting valuable time searching for things in folders
• Just ask for what you want & it WILL come running (honest guv, I ain't been drinking or nuffink!)

And before you start haranguing me & telling me that you can already search for thing is Windows just hear me out a minute. That annoying dog in the simple built in search facility is not the best person to ask for help. Why? Because each time you send him off to look for files, he already needs to know where to look & the name of the file you're looking for. if you don't know either of these things then it becomes a bit of a brick wall.
In addition the search will commence from scratch each time. I mean you've used the search facility before quite often. Imagine looking for something you've lost in your home. You've been all over the house, repeatedly opening draws, turning them over, going back to where you were SURE you last saw the item & usually you either find the item when it's too late to use it OR you might uncover something else that you thought was lost forever in the process but draw a blank on the missing item you originally set out to find.
Then your partner or kids come home & they've lost something else "Have you seen my relativity cadenza?", they might say (because we're always loosing those, aren't we?). "Oh, you exclaim "I saw that earlier today when I was turning the house upside down looking for my frontal lobotomy kit...now where did I see it...?".
And so it goes on.... (Insert scream of recognition at this point).
It would be great to have a sort of moving photographic memory that records all our movements & where we put things. A personal helper that films & records where we put things & writes them down into a big book (I should write kids books shouldn't I?) complete with pictures & a comprehensive index that we can use to find the location of the many "things" that we accumulate. "Where's my Leonard Cohen reads the shipping forecast CD?"(I can never find that one) or "Which draw is my favourite spatula in?" (Oh come on, we all have a favourite though we may try to treat them equally). I times of crisis such as these we could turn to our ever happy little helping troll who would skip to our side (all trolls skip you know) with their trusty ledger in their hand & turn to the index followed by a lightening fast cross reference to the appropriate ledger page & pronounce "Oh wise & good looking one" (flattery is a good quality in a troll I find)"you most favoured spatula is in this draw, at the back, under the realivity cadenza".
Fanciful notion eh!
well there IS comparable help on your PC but a short download away. Each of these progs keeps track of & indexes your system all the time. Instead of "turning all those drawers & folders upsidedown" these little helper will already know what's in what draw, folder, letter, email etc. All you have to do is write down what you are looking for. So eager are they to help that before you've even finished writing down what you are looking for then they will try to guess the word you are writing down.
Here's how you can ty some free PC help

• Intall either of these two suggested free programs:
• Google Desktop or Launchy
  
• Launchy plugin for Firefox & Mozilla Web browsers
  
• Download from the internet & install
• Let the prog index your pc (time for a cup of tea or coffee)
• When needed use the handy search window to write what you're looking for
• It will appear in a window & you can open it directly from the search window

I use this method a lot rather than using a mouse & ending up with lots of folders open.
Do yourself (& your blood pressure) a favour. Give these a go & ease the ongoing process of finding things on your computer.
I thank you.

TUTORIALS:
Google desktop
Launchy

Speaking of radio, I thought it might be pertinent to mention widgets (in polite conversation too!). These are functional floating buttons that can sit on your desktop collecting information or linking to various applications or functions. An example of this is Yahoo widgets (formerly Konfabulator) which is available for PC & Mac. There are widgets for all sorts of things & radio is well represented enabling a quick link to your favourite radio station via the internet.Shown here is a sample of widgets for BBC radio stations. You'll need to install the initial Yahoo widget software & afterwards you can browse their website for various useful widgets that sit on your desktop.

Podcasts! Another new buzzword. Apple computers' Steve Jobs called it "Waynes world for radio" but acknowledged it's importance by including the ability to find & download them from within Apples i-Tunes software.
Let's clear up what podcasts are. They are audio files, out there on the internet, ready to download & listen at a time of your choosing either on your computer, on your mp3 player or burnt to CD & listened to on your portable CD player. originally podcasts were just ordinary people talking about things that interested them & indeed that still exists. It didn't take long for radio & record companies to catch on to the promotional aspect of this new medium & so we now find that the majority of content probably comes from radio around the world.
If you don't have i-Tunes (Mac or PC) then one place you might start looking for podcasts that might appeal is at podcastalley.com.
So, the world of timeshifted radio is here. Like having a video recorder for radio.

Here in the UK digital TV & radio has had a reasonably succesful take-up. DAB is the standard for digital radio. It's good, though, much like the early claims with CD's, not quite as good as the hype would have you believe ('crystal clear, no interference..") with some stations subject to burbling & fragmented output or worse a somewhat muddied sound when compared against the FM equivalent) but nevertheless a welcome addition to the world of radio. Prices have fallen over the past two years, however the more desirable radios feature the ability to time-shift radio & record onto digital memory but at a premium price. Now, I'm a big listener to radio but largely via the internet as the range is obviously way broader than our DAB radio allows. I'm currently listening to Radio Paradise, a California based online radio station available to anyone with an internet connection. It even goes out of it's way to support an optimised stream for people on dialup, rather than broadband (using 24k AAC+ format for you audio techies out there).
Like all things technology, there are many different formats all basically trying to offer the same thing.
MP3 - The internet music format, widely playable via I-Tunes, Windows media player, Quicktime, real player etc.It's fairly safe to say that if something is broadcast in mp3, you'll have something that can play it.
Real - Requiring real player in order to listen.
WMA (Windows media audio) - Microsofts audio player format for Windows only (mac users need Flip4mac).
Quicktime - Apple's media player available for PC & Mac,
And in rare cases, as is the case for Radio Paradise - AAC+ - a version of AAC, the format used by Apple's I-Tunes store that allows optimum quality at small file sizes.You'll need either winamp or the excellent VLC , both of which are free.
A very rare format is the oddly named ogg, plugins available for many players including quicktime, winamp & support built into vlc. Ogg is very rare but great quality. Sadly it seems to be almost like the betamax of sound formats & I doubt you'll run into it very often.

A great place to look for internet radio stations is:
Live365
Shoutcast
or the Radio section of i-Tunes.
A subscription service XM also gives you access to satelitte radio, popular in the US.
Those of you on dialup only should look for 24k AAC+ stations at Tuner2.com
Have a listen. Enjoy.