So your machine is getting a little old. Maybe it can’t handle Vista, maybe it’s just bothering you that it’s so ancient. Maybe you just got an upgrade and you don’t know what to do with the old one? PC Magazine has a number of ways to make your old PC new again and find a new use for it! At worst, if you can’t find a decent use for it, they have some suggestions on how to dispose of it properly.

A lot of people assume that you can just donate your old PC to a school or library, and leave it on their doorstep and they’ll give it a good home and put it to use. Not so much – even schools and libraries today need up-to-date technology for their classrooms, terminals, and computer labs. That old 286 sitting in your basement just won’t cut it, and they’re just as likely to try and get rid of it as you were. So what then, do you do?

Well, PC Mag has a number of suggestions to breathe new life into your old machine, ranging from the easy and simple to the remarkably challenging. I’m a fan of things like starting a Linux lab, so you can play around with alternative operating systems (especially if it’s Vista that’s got you wanting to find a new use for your machine – you’ll find that even up-to-date Linux distributions will scream on old hardware!), or turning your old machine into a media center where you can hook it up to your TV and play your music and movies, or to create your own home media server where you can store and share out your music across all computers in the house. If that doesn’t work for you, think about downloading an app like Folding@Home or SETI@Home and using your old PC’s processor cycles to help find cures for cancer or intelligent life beyond Earth!

If all else fails, you can always make it an appliance, like a super powered firewall, or if no uses work for you, recycle it or donate it. There are a few good links available too, so you know that when you recycle it that it’ll be disposed of properly, or when you donate it it’ll go to a good home and be used to its fullest. Either way, there’s a ton of suggestions that might breathe some life into your old machine (although it might kick up your power bill a bit) before you have to kick it to the curb.

[ PC Mag :: 15 Ways to Reinvent Your PC ]

Next time you take that secret mission from the shadowy voice on the tape that self-destructs five seconds after it stops, you want to make sure you’re properly equipped. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to collect the hottest new gadgets from your secret agent outfitter, PC Magazine has a few top choices that’ll get you by and help you get the job done.

Shown above is one of my favorites, the Tie Camera, which comes with a digital video recorder and monitor. Perfect for those hidden camera moments when you need to discreetly collect evidence to prove your case, or when you’re scanning over secret documents before anyone catches you!

Also among the list are the TeleSpy phone, a phone with a motion sensor that will call you when there’s an intruder anywhere within the phone’s 30-foot sensor, the SpyFinder Hidden Camera Detector (perfect for those pesky spies with Tie Cameras), the ultimate spy watch, and much more.

[ PC Mag :: Spy Tech: 10 Gadgets for the Secret Agent ]

“The Beat Goes On” indeed! Apple’s recent slew of announcements drew cheers and jeers, as they always do, but this time the cheers were actually based on the products and the jeers on a gaffe that Apple quickly tried to correct. Either way, it was a good day for Apple and a good day for the iPod.

Shown above is the new iPod Touch, the gadget that analysts had been hoping for since the iPhone was released: an iPhone without the phone. Since you can’t use the iPhone as a media player alone, Apple unveiled the iPod Touch, which uses the same touch-sensitive screen, looks and feels the same, and uses the same interface. The iPod Touch also sports wifi and runs Safari, the same as the iPhone does, so when you’re at a coffee shop or library listening to your iPod, you can open Safari and surf the web or check your email while you’re at it.

Zune fans will complain that their device has wifi and widescreen video already, but the iPod Touch takes both of those a step further. The accelerometer allows you to browse your media collection in coverflow view and switch between widescreen video and regular video just by turning the iPod Touch sideways, and here’s the killer that gave me a hate-on for the Zune: the iPod Touch can use Wifi to download tracks from iTunes.

The iPod touch currently comes in 8GB and 16GB versions. Not terribly much for a price point of $299 and $399 respectively, but let’s remember the iPod of old: Apple’s iPod mantra has always been to keep the overhead low (no sense in taking a hit on a device with massive storage when you can creep into the market without taking a huge financial hit) until the product takes off, and then take risks on things like more storage. If the current iPod Touch takes off, and I’m sure it will (hell, I want one), then you can expect to find new versions with more storage in the very near future.

So happened to the original iPod, you say? Well, it’s been renamed the iPod Classic, and it’s still there in all of it’s razor-thin glory. On the up side, the iPod Classic got a hefty storage boost to the tune of up to 160GB. That’s right, you can essentially carry a portable hard drive in your pocket now. Apple’s always been keen on letting you open up the iPod has a media player and a storage device, and now it’s set in stone – there’s no way Apple would give you a 160GB hard drive under the hood of such a tiny device if it weren’t meant for mobile storage as well as all of your tunes.

The iPod Classic still comes in silver and black, to the tune of $249 for 80GB and $349 for 160GB. See a trend? Different devices for different audiences. Some folks want an iPod but don’t necessarily find themselves turned on by the whole touch-screen iPod Touch/iPhone thing, so the good old iPod is still there for them.

Finally, the iPod Nano got a redesign; it’s shorter and fatter now, with a wider, 320×240 resolution display and the ability to play video. The Nano is tiny, and still comes in all of its beautiful colors, but I’m most concerned about this one. It’s good and cheap still, coming in at $149 for 4GB and $199 for 8GB. The trouble is the tiny tiny screen. I’m worried not a lot of people will want to watch video on something so small, but then again, people said the same thing about the original iPod with Video. Even so, I wonder if the new Nano will appeal to more people looking for a cheap player to watch video on, or whether it’ll continue raking in the folks who would have gotten a Nano anyway. Either way, it’ll still be a success.

Even the iPod Shuffle got a refresh, with some tweaked colors. No size or price changes there, but the colors are different and a bit more metallic. Personally? I dig it.

In the same event, Steve Jobs announced an update to iTunes that allows you to make ringtones from songs you’ve purchased, even editing them down so you only get your favorite part or the chorus when you transfer it to your phone. Apple also cut the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399, much to the delight of people who were holding out for one, and much to the riotous anger of the early adopters. Frankly, Apple’s always done things like this – price drops, new versions, updated devices – it’s the price you pay for going Apple, and expecting them to change is kind of silly. Even so, the hatemail started flowing, and Steve relented, offering a $100 credit to anyone who bought an iPhone at the original price. That’s a lot of free iPod Shuffles, Steve.

Additionally, Apple killed the 4GB iPhone, either because of lackluster sales or the fact that a phone with only 4GB of storage probably doesn’t make much sense. I’m expecting a new iPhone to match the iPod Touch’s storage capacity in the near future- expect a 16GB iPhone any day now, perhaps in time for the holidays. Even if it’s not in time, Apple’s announced enough new revisions to its product lineup and new products that this upcoming holiday season should be a good one for them.

In the meantime, I’m all about the new iPod Touch. I wanted an iPhone, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to switch carriers just to get it, and now I don’t have to.

[ Apple :: iPod ]

A fascinating web project that’s led up to the release of the book by Alan Weisman, The World Without Us, the World Without Us site is an interactive tour through the next 5 billion years if the human race vanished tomorrow. Of course, some of the conclusions are the same; that at the end of that time period the sun would start to die and swell up to scorch the Earth, but there are more than a few unexpected things that would happen if the human race vanished from the face of the planet in an instant.

For example, without constant pumping, New York City’s subways system would likely flood within a matter of days. Millions of birds killed by high-tension lines and other human interaction would survive, exploding the bird population, but on the flip side the common house cat would likely go feral and decimate the squirrel, groundhog, rabbit, and bird populations in areas where cats are kept as pets today. In a couple of hundred years, cities on river deltas and built below sea level would simply wash away, and bridges and other permanent fixtures would collapse. Even so, it would still take hundreds of thousands of years for microbes that could biodegrade plastic to evolve, and over 10 million years in the future, bronze sculptures and monuments would still be recognizable should anyone ever see them.

The events that would take place as time progresses are incredibly interesting, and definite eye-openers when it comes to what imprints people leave on the planet really last and how long they’ll stick around. Some of the things that you think would stick around for a long time don’t, and others that you don’t imagine having a significant impact will live on for millions of years.

[ The World Without Us: Did You Know ]

Whenever you wonder what it’s like to work for one of those new fangled Web 2.0 companies, you can head over to Office Snapshots to see what it’d be like. From companies we all know and love like Woot! to companies we may now know but should like NowPublic, to other organiztions making the scene in the new dot-com bubble, Office Snapshots takes you inside to see how large and lavish or how small and cramped their offices really are. In some cases they’re beautifully decorated and spacious, each employee having the best furniture and state-of-the-art technology to work with, and in other cases a few employees are herded into cube farms to do their daily tasks and escape.

Personally, I like the site because it gives me a little eye into the rest of the technology world. It also doesn’t hurt when it comes to ways to reorganize my own cube at the office to be a bit more appealing and comfortable to spend time in.

[ Office Snapshots ]