I have bought Dell computers over the years and have been very satisfied with the systems’ performance and Dell’s customer service.  However, earlier this year a sale at Costco enticed me to purchase an HP computer system.  In less than a week, the motherboard failed.  I called HP support and was told that I would have to ship the computer to them and that it would take about 10 days to replace the motherboard and return the system to me.  Instead of shipping the system to HP, I returned it to Costco and ordered a Dell system through Costco.com, something I should have done in the first place.

After a couple of months, the fan in the Dell system became a little noisy.  The noise was not loud enough to bother me, but I thought it might be an indication that the fan was failing, and I called Dell Support.  Dell shipped me a new power supply overnight and had a technician come to my home and install the replacement power supply.

Dell’s superior customer service is just one of the many reasons why I will continue to purchase computer systems from Dell.

Many of us use multiple browsers, and it’s nice to have a bookmark program that will work with all the browsers we use.  My personal preference is a program called Bookmark Buddy.  You can try it free for 30 days.  After that, a license is $29.95.

A similar program is Linkman.  Linkman Pro can be tested for 30 days with all features enabled. After that, you must purchase a license and obtain a serial number (registration fee starts at $39 for a single computer). You can also try Linkman Free , a special edition of Linkman with slightly less features, but completely free for private non-commercial use as well as for use in charity organizations and educational use.

Meta tags to prevent caching are usually placed in the header section of an HTML page.  However, because of the way that IE caches a page, meta tags at the beginning of a page won’t prevent a page from being cached.  Microsoft’s solution is to place a second header section at the end of the page.  However, if you place a second header section at the end of a page, the page will no longer validate.  Any suggestions?

I used Google’s new Chrome Web browser to test some of my sites. Although the browser is currently undergoing public Beta testing, I found it to be very stable and very fast. You can download a copy here.

If you use Firefox and have one or more blogs, you should take a look at ScribeFire, a Firefox add-on that allows you to post to your blog without ever leaving Firefox. You can easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into your blog(s), post entries, and take notes, directly through the Firefox browser.

If you use Flash on your sites, be aware that there is no 64-bit Flash player.  Many computers are being sold with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, and the distribution includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Internet Explorer 7.  If the 64-bit version of IE7 is used, any Flash used on sites will not be displayed.  According to Adobe: “The Adobe Flash Player team is working on support for 64-bit platforms as part of our ongoing commitment to the cross-platform compatibility of Adobe Flash Player. We have not yet announced timing or release dates.”

An urgent, high-level security threat has been identified in Joomla 1.5. This exploit allows someone to gain full access to your Joomla web site with little or no knowledge. It is imperative that you upgrade your Joomla installation(s) immediately.

To upgrade from an existing 1.5.x installation, go to this page, find the appropriate Joomla 1.5.6 update (for example, Joomla_1.5.5_to_1.5.6-Stable-Patch_Package.zip), download the file, unpack the file, and use an FTP client to upload the files to your Joomla site.

Many people are running Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) without any problems, but it has been a nightmare for others.  For me, SP3 with Windows XP Pro was a nightmare.  Fortunately, I was able to restore my system to the point prior to the installation of SP3 (I felt a System Restore would be safer than trying to uninstall SP3).  To prevent future problems, I downloaded and installed Microsoft’s Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit.

This month I’m getting a new system with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista (I’m a glutton for punishment).  To go with it, I ordered Adobe® Creative Suite® 3.3 Web Premium.  The suite includes Adobe Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Fireworks® CS3, Adobe Version Cue® CS3, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Stock Photos, Adobe Device Central CS3, and Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.  Of course, Adobe has already posted a public beta of the upcoming Dreamweaver CS4, as well as a beta for the next version of Fireworks, and WebAssist is offering Dreamweaver CS4 Sneak Peak Tours.  It’s the story of my life — I make a purchase, and a new and better version is released shortly thereafter.  On the other hand, I’ve learned to avoid software until it has seasoned (read my April 26, 2007 post”A Sad Experience With Adobe CS3“).

WebAssist is offering no cost step-by-step training for Dreamweaver CS3.  Whether you’re just starting with Dreamweaver CS3 or trying to get up to speed on the latest technologies like Spry, the Dreamweaver CS3 Bible Simulations are just what you need. Each of the 50 interactive simulations takes you through a specific Dreamweaver task, from setting up your site to adding data to an XSL Page. All of this hands-on training is now available to you at no cost from WebAssist,  You can start the simulations here.