SPEAKERS PLEASE BOTH EARS AND EYES

I don't understand people who use their personal computers without sound. I've lost count the times I've emailed someone an electronic audio greeting card or some other type of email with an attached audio file only to discover the recipient never heard what I intended. They tell me something like "Oh , I just keep my sound turned off most of the time." And when in my exasperation I ask them why they do that, they usually say something like "Well, I find the computer sounds to be annoying so I keep it off." To me, that's like someone saying they find color to be annoying so they keep their screens set to black and white.

Sound is one of your computer's key components in today's multimedia experience and by keeping the sound turned off, you are truly missing the total picture. Granted I can understand part of your aural resistance if all you have is the puny built-in monaural speaker or that nickel and dime speaker set that just happened to come with your basic system. What you need to get is a quality speaker system with the power to break your windows if need be but not your wallet.

I was sort of kidding about the breaking your windows part. That's because a speaker system needs amplification power to produce quality sound and not necessarily volume. The sound that's produced by today's computer speaker systems rival expensive stereo speakers yet cost far less. You may find out that your initial objection to computer sound was not the sound itself but rather the poor quality of the sound. Distortion can literally be a real turn off. I may be so bold as to suggest that if you purchase a good speaker system, you may actually find yourself enjoying the operating system's as well as application sounds coming from your computer.

One of the newest offerings comes from Harman Multimedia. The "Creature" self powered satellite speakers and subwoofer three speaker system produces an awesome sound and looks like it comes from the next century. The satellites and subwoofer are identically shaped somewhat like a rounded inverted cone on legs with a high gloss finish that comes in either white, blue or silver. The small left and right satellite speakers are accented underneath with bright blue LEDs that give them a very cool looking high-tech appearance. And for an added nice touch, the Creature is equipped with a capacitance touch sensitive volume control on the right satellite speaker.

But whatever quality speaker system you elect to get, make sure you turn it on and keep it on. I can assure you that you will have made a sound decision. $129.95.

Your computer sleeps with the fishes

It finally happened. Mathematics has replace reality. Well, almost. I'm looking at my sleeping computer's screen saver display and it looks like a fish tank. I mean it looks like a REAL saltwater fish tank with several brightly colored fishes swimming lazily around in an aerated coral environment. But this is not some mere video of a fish tank being played on my screen. The tank simulation is a mathematically rendered 3D model. But it has been done so well that you really have to look closely to determine its reality.

Earlier screen saver fish tank endeavors were easy to spot as cartoon animations. But the offerings from SereneScreen.com have to be seen to be believed. The initial download is free and lets you display 3 fish. Buying the $21.95 unlocking code lets you display 7 from a selection of 21 different fish, and a Starfish. My personal favorite is the Lion Fish. His ethereal fins move just like the real thing and is truly amazing to watch. Options let you manually or automatically adjust the amount of front and back lighting in the tank, select different fish randomly each time with no duplicates, turn on bubble sounds and lots more. It's so real that I found myself actually tapping on the screen's glass! My only caveat is that you may find yourself staring into the aptly named SereneScreen for hours as it has the same soothing effect as a real aquarium.

Versions are available for Windows and Macintosh OS X.