I've been using Puppy Linux on and off for nearly three years now. It's a small distro which runs live in RAM from a CD, but saves all your data and configuration files. That's a huge benefit. Puppy has improved with version 3.0 by enabling users to easily install Slackware packages. Join discussion...

Flock has undergone a facelift since I last used it about four months ago. Flock is a "social browser" which integrates naturally with web tools such as Flickr, del.icio.us and blogs. Blogging and bookmark management are two of the recent improvements. You can blog with a right click of the mouse. Built on Mozilla, Flock renders beautifully in Linux for me. Join discussion...

The Nine Network and Foxtel have secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Next year's Beijing Olympics are being broadcast by the Seven Network. I'm not sure the Olympics are good television for free-to-air networks. They can be very disruptive to programming. Beijing's timezone is a benefit for next year's coverage, but London is 8-10 hours behind Australia, meaning many of the evening events won't be shown until early in the morning. Join discussion...

Chandler consists of a desktop application and Chandler Hub, a sharing service and web application. Chandler is open source and standards-based personal information manager (PIM) built around small group collaboration and a core set of information management workflows modelled on Inbox usage patterns. Confused? I am. Chandler installed for me in Linux without trouble and I obtained an online hub account. The question now is how to use it and what do I sue it for? It certainly isn't intuitive. Nice looking though. Join discussion...

Defensio is a blog spam filter which claims: "Defensio improves accuracy: fewer spammy comments will get through to your blog and fewer real comments will be incorrectly blocked. Defensio makes managing spam a breeze: sorting through your quarantine is made simple through a smart ranking system and a condensed, efficient viewing mode. Our initial tests suggest that Defensio might just be the best thing since sliced bread." I installed it on my WordPress blog, which previously had SpamKarma and Akismet before that. I found that both allowed spam comments to be held in the moderation queue, which required me to check them. It's early days, but with Defensio I haven't had a spam comment either get through or be held for moderation. Join discussion...

Enables the easy installation of open source web applications. Not really sure how it works yet, but the concept sounds intriguing. Join discussion...

Based on a feature available with the Opera browser, this extension allows fast access to your most visited websites with Firefox. It loads in a tab and shows thumbnail views. Those thumbnails are refreshed automatically in the background. Join discussion...

The French are on a roll, winning not only their quarter final against new Zealand at the Rugby World Cup, but also the West Australian Godl Panning Championships at Coolgardie. Claude la Terpot won the competition from a field of 88 people. Join discussion...

Sad news from Afghanistan, where an Australian soldier was tonight feared dead after a roadside bomb attack on an armoured vehicle convoy. Join discussion...