Step One: Open up long feature document I've been working on for a couple of days.

Step Two: Wince, as Office has magically managed to lose almost half of it.

Step Three: Close machine, head home to overdose on Lemsip.

In Conclusion: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh.

Yup, you probably know already.

According to sources at Microsoft, some people are having trouble downloading it from Windows Update, thanks to installation of previous betas and driver incompatibilites.

Download standalone from here

Most trade shows are comprised of about 5% interesting technology that is genuinely newsworthy, 5% will be whacky ideas that are clearly dreamt up by engineers lacking sleep and running on caffeine and the rest are boring and uninteresting products.

So lets start with the latter. Motherboards, P45 and X48. 790i and R780. Another big theme from the show was definitely the UMPC and MID, form factors still yet to prove their worth. The best devices have been hardly awe inspiring. Perhaps then, the shift towards Intel Menlow chips from VIA could give UMPCs the performance they need to be worthy of a purchase.

Gigabyte was one company to be offering a Menlow based UMPC. And its a huge improvement over their last offering. A better looking screen and much better portability solve two of our previous gripes. Gigabyte also had a smartphone on display, and were able to confirm that they were removing the backing plates from their motherboard designs, to finally allow giant coolers to be fitted.

UMPCs weren't the only small form factor PCs on display. Mini-ITX is on the rise. Plenty of companies were showing cases no bigger than an A5 book, containing a complete PC. Many of these are based around VIA's C7, and were capable of playing back DivX and Mpeg2.

Gaming is becoming a bigger and bigger theme at any technology fair. And rightfully so, since the demand for gaming systems drives the industry forward now more than ever. No suprise that an entire hall was being used for WCG matches sponsored by Samsung. Gamers were playing on a very large LAN, with giant TV screens, live commentary and a lot of people very interested in the proceedings. Good to see, but don't get too carried away guys, computer gaming is never going to take the place of the Olympics or Football.

As expected, plenty of big cases, video cards and PCs with neon lights were on show to woo gamers. As well as an early look at the Nvidia 9800GX2, we got a quick look at a few triple SLI systems and watercooled monsters, such as one from BFG.

Some interesting ideas, to the point of verging on whacky, were on display too. OCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator takes the crown, quite literally. A small headband that reads your brain signals and translates them to keyboard inputs. The idea is that you can control a game with your thoughts alone. And it works too! Admittedly when we first used the device it was like a 90 year old trying to use a mouse for the first time, but we got used to it in time. With a raise of the eyebrows, you move forward, and raising them further you fire, although we were assured that you do not have to move your eyebrows once you become used to it. It doesn't take long until you become accurate. It reminds us a little of the Wii controller. A new concept that drastically changes how we interact with computers, but ultimately, it could be a gimmick. We would like to see a LAN party with 30+ gamers all taking each other on with nothing but an NIA each. Those that master the device would be able to run rings around those who are stuck running the wrong way into a wall.

This isn't as much of a gimmick as MSI's de-ionising laptop. The chap from MSI was very clear in stating "There is no scientific evidence", that de-ionising the air around your workspace makes you happier. We aren't convinced either. We'd rather put our heads out of the window if we need fresh air.

MSI was also showing off the first devices with EFI (a replacement for the PC's ancient BIOS) which will put a much friendlier face on the low level interface that your OS depends on.

The winning technology we saw was definitely OLED screens. It is hard to fully describe what OLED is like, except that it is much more vibrant and has far better contrast ratios and colour reproduction. Most photos of an LCD screen taken on a compact camera come out looking messy, but look at the beautiful images below (of the screen, not the lady). In reality they are much better than this. OLED will be a bigger leap from current LCDs than HD was over standard definition. Just dont expect it too soon, as yields are very low.

The busiest stand was that of Asus. We couldn't even get a glimpse of the new EEE PC, since the crowd around the stand blocked our view of it. In stepped an Asus PR, who cast the onlookers aside with a single blow (actually he got another PC to show us). Asus were also promoting their 'Lamborghini' laptops, with a real sports car on show, complete with buxom model and fixed smile.

Coolermaster was on hand with plenty of products. PSUs, one of which boasts 88% efficiency, design variations on the Stacker 830 case, such as the London bus design (see below), and new SFF cases designed to be entirely passively cooled. Taking a leaf from Zalman's book, all the heat is drawn to radiators on the outside of the case, which gets hot, but it is in fact a much greener way to deal with heat than spinning extra fans to keep it cool.

Speaking of Zalman, they were showing off 3D displays. 3D as in an image that you need glasses to view properly. Not the one red eye, one green eye type of glasses, but not far off. The real problem is that to anyone viewing without a pair of glasses, the display looks like a blurred mess.

Corsair had some 2133MHz DDR3 on show, the fastest performing memory available. Hopefully not too expensive. The performance gap between DDR2 and DDR3 is growing, while the price difference is finally beginning to close.

Hauppauge demonstrated a PVR fully capable of playing back and recording in 1080p. This is exactly what we wanted to see from the Archos TV+ (see forthcoming review). Hauppauge also demonstrated a special USB TV tuner, with drivers specificaly coded for the EEE PC. 'TV on the EEE' has to be a winning slogan.

PC Plus and CA have teamed up to give away a complete home security suite to 50 winners of this issue’s competition.

CA is one of the world’s largest IT management software providers. Their software and expertise unify and simplify complex IT environments in a secure way across the enterprise to receive greater business results.

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 is a complete set of programs to protect your computer against viruses, identity theft, spyware, spam and phishing. The new 2008 edition of the software now includes website authentication to prove that the site you’re visiting is legitimate, data backup and PC-to-PC data transfer. The software also includes parental control features, with a filtering tool that helps to ensure protection from inappropriate content at all times.

The software company is also offering new virus protection coverage for users. The Virus Protection Plan, included at no additional charge with the purchase of CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008, provides coverage up to £2,500 in the event of hardware damage caused by a virus after proper installation of the CA products.

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 is protected by the CA Security Advisor Team, a global team of experts and engineers that works round-the-clock to detect and prevent online threats. The software includes free daily updates and free online technical support for the life of their subscription, all day, every day.

PC Plus Issue 267 Competition

This competition is now closed

I haven't tried SP1 yet on my (64-bit) home machine yet, since it is plain foolish to consider the thing finished until it hits Windows Update. RTM means nothing until MS has decided it's good enough to roll out to every Vista machine.

So a lot of what I know about SP1 is still speculation. But over at Anandtech's first look one interesting new aspect of the service pack is mentioned.

If you have 32-Bit Vista, and 4GB of memory (or more) Windows will only report a small portion of your total RAM. It is in effect the total amount of address space you have remaining, which is roughly 4GB minus the space used by your video hardware.

Now in SP1, the issue is supposedly 'fixed', it reports the correct amount of RAM. It does not use it however. In fact (once again according to certain tests) it does not change anything bar the reporting. So your memory beyond 4GB is still useless, unless you use 64-Bit. You just dont know about it.

It means less complaints of course. Why did they persist with 32-Bit in the first place?

No more uploads allowed to DivX's high-res video sharing site. Content only to be available until Thursday. Sob. Speaketh the announcement:

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

There's not much there about the storming amount of shamelessly pirated anime and sci-fi shows that everyone actually went there for, but still - a sad day for high quality streaming copyright infringement. At least they could have waited until the current series of Mythbusters was over and...

...I mean... grr. Piracy bad! Grr!

This week has been one of the most frustrating since I started using computers.

It all started badly on Monday, when some hardware in my home system decided to end its life. That being my CPU, motherboard and cooling fan. Never mind, I managed to build a replacement machine by mid-week. Then I had some more problems.

If you change your motherboard, Windows Vista asks you to reactivate. Unlike first activation, where you have a thirty day grace period, you are limited to three days before Vista completely stops working.

For me, this had to be done over the telephone since my Internet connection wasn't working. If you have never had to do this, count yourself lucky. The recorded message first needs you to enter blocks of four numbers via your phone's number keys, then it quotes back a different number, which you really should write down. I copied the number down incorrectly, didnt have the time to retry the process, and the three day period is now up. Time to reinstall again.

I've also had problems with eBay's site. I wanted to update my personal information. I use my webmail for everything nowadays, so it makes sense that all my eBay mail comes to that. But the security restrictions make this as difficult as possible. You have to have a different ID from the one you log in with, which is my webmail address. I had to simply go back to receiving emails on my POP account.

But I also wanted to change my password. Silly me. A bad habit I have is using the same set of passwords for all the websites I use (on the plus side my passwords contain multiple exclamation marks, symbols and numbers, making them pretty secure).

Using one of my memorable secure passwords wasn't possible. It wont allow you to use a password you have used before, and this is frustrating. I have to think up a new one, which I am likely to forget.

This reminds me of another rant I have. Online banking, once a fantasticly easy to use and (imho) secure system is now a pain. Thanks to the authentication device sent to me, whenever I want to access my bank online I have to put my debit card in the slot, it gives you a unique number, which you enter into the page.

What if I lose it? What if I want to access the details on another PC? Why make things so unnecessarily complex? I used to enjoy being able to track expenses online, but now I just dont bother. Again, it does improve security, but I never fell for those phishing emails in the first place.

I've now realised everything would have been fine if I had left it alone.