The start of a new year gives you an easy way to let your visitors know that your website is up to date.

Just changing the copyright date will let you reassure people browsing by that your information is current. Let "© 2007" brag about your timeliness on every page.

Allowing online website updates sounds like such a nice idea. Slap on a little security, and you can rush forward with the illusion of user participation, webmaster control, and site security.

A friend sent us this story about a website whose content was automagicaly deleted by Google's spider!

True secure and controlled updating is possible, but it requires planning and common sense. When you're ready, talk to Ozdachs to design online updating correctly.

We've had discussions with clients who back away from podcasts because, they say, their business is too traditional for such modern communication methods. Their clients don't use podcasts to receive information.

Their argument seemed plausible. But, then we ran across a podcast from a centuries-old institution: the British Monarchy.

If you think that you're in a too conservative and proper line of work, you might think again about starting a podcast.

The Wall Street Journal's resident techy nerd, Walt Mossberg, has worked with the newest version of Microsoft's Office suite that's being released at the end of the month.

He calls it a "radical" change from prior versions.

If you buy a new computer with pre-loaded software, you may find yourself a participant in this revolution. Or, you can decide to be bold and upgrade to Office 2007 when it comes out.

The long-running complaint against Microsoft has been that they release software too soon. Cynics say you need to wait until version 3 until Microsoft makes their software powerful enough and bug-free enough for efficient use.

Now that the long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, called "Vista", is about to be released, the cautionary tales about the product are already hitting the ether.

Our four-year-old notebook computer is showing its age. Should its replacement come before or after Vista is available?

Ozdachs is on vacation and away from the Internet until January 26.

Please send in your updates and questions, and we will respond when we are back in the office.

In the meantime, you can track our vacation progress. The picture on the left is from the bridge of the Dawn Princess. There's a new view posted every minute, so refresh the view in your email and see where we are right now.