Keep a computer journal - every time you have a problem, write it and the solution down. When the same problem comes up again (which it often does), you know what to do. With a memory like mine, this has saved me a lot of time and money.

If something doesn't work, check the obvious first. For example, my printer stopped working, so I checked the program, re-installed the software, re-booted the computer, but nothing worked. Then I realized that the printer cable had come just a little bit loose. Not enough to notice, but enough to stop the power.

My hard drive at work got slower and slower, then totally died. I didn't realize that hard drives were capable of that and it reminded me again of the importance of saving my data to a disk or cd.

I received an official looking email at work, claiming to come from administration. It was a zipped file, so I downloaded it. Later I found out it was a virus. Lesson- just because the name on an email looks official doesn't mean it is, so be careful about opening files or giving out personal information, especially charge card details.

I was painting the kitchen and wasn't sure if the previous paint was latex or oil based. So I went onto the Internet, asked Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com) and found out how. Answer: apply a cloth dampened in denatured alcohol and latex will bubble or wipe off.

Found out that URL is pronounced earl. I would never have known that and it sounds really funny.

Every day lately, I've been getting emails about seminars and new products that I would love to buy and attend, but I'd have to be a millionaire first. How do people decide what to focus on? I read that you should find one or two people on the net that you admire and concentrate on learning from them.

I read an article about training your brain. Every day you should learn one new thing and then think about what you learned right before you go to bed. Then when you get up the next morning, think about what you learned again. This is supposed to re-inforce whatever it is that was learned. I'll have to try it with my learning Spanish. I'm having a hard time remembering more than two phrases and saying "I'm going to the washroom" and "goodbye" don't get a conversation going very far.

My newest gadget and birthday present is a little label printer and it's so cute. I wasn't sure if I would use it that much, but it came in very handy. I'm having a baby shower for my daughter and rather than wreck my wrist writing (say that quickly), I printed off the address on labels and pasted them on the invitations. They look nice and saved a lot of time and effort. Next I'll do the envelope labels and I'll be all set. I didn't like doing labels with my regular printer because it was so fiddly getting the data nicely centered. But this little printer does them perfectly every time and I can add little pictures, print all different sizes, and like I said before, it's so cute.

Carol Bremner (otherwise known as Granny Geek) is a computer loving member of the gray generation. Her websites promote computer literacy in the home for the over 50 crowd. Her goal is information without overload.