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A great tool for when you're mucking about with reinstalling an operating system or just want to have several fail safes going is DriverMax, which backs up your drivers one at a time, a few at a time, or all at once. From registration to implementation, DriverMax works fast, runs smooth, and even does more than mere safe-checking.

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A few years back I wrote a monthly letter on marketing and business strategy, but there was a section at the end called Tobak's Great Wine for Techies. I think that was the only part anyone read. It had tutorials on wine varietals, regions, aging and storage, plus monthly wine pics, on-line resources, all kinds of stuff to help folks enjoy great wine without breaking the bank or taking a class.

You can check out the archives here.

I'm only bringing this up because 26 days ago I decided to go sober for a month. I've gone a week or two before but never a month. I don't know what I was thinking, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

About two week in I recalled reading about dealcoholized wine. I got on-line and found a handful of wineries in the business of making wine without the buzz.

They all use roughly the same process. They make the wine using typical fermentation techniques, then employ a filtering process to remove virtually all the liquid, including the alcohol. This produces a kind of dealcoholized wine syrup. Then they add water back in and bottle it.

Ariel Vineyards, owned by J. Lohr, claims to have won a gold medal in a blind tasting against wines with alcohol. The website also listed about 20 awards. This got my attention.… Read more

Whether you're stocking your bomb shelter with postapocalyptic tech, or just feeling a little guilty about your USB power consumption, the Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player offers a wind-up solution for all your MP3 and portable video needs. We reported on this human-powered player back in August, but now we've finally got our hands on it and have a full review over on CNET.

The Eco Media Player has yet to be picked up by any U.S. stores, but you can always order direct.

Zude, a new Web site by Fifth Generation Systems (5g), lets you make a collage of all your favorite items from the Web and present them in one spot.

The site took down its password-only entrance and went into "soft launch" last week. In other words, it's testing the waters to see who in the public sphere will find and use it.

And I'm just not sure who that is.

Similar to Paggi.com, Zude allows you to create your own, personalized Web pages or profile page--called a "Zudescape"--with text, photos, videos, audio … Read more

Google has just announced the latest project to bubble up out of Google Earth--International Cleanup Weekend, a coordinated global effort taking place Saturday, October 13, and Sunday, October 14, 2007, at locations throughout the world.

Who's doing the organizing? You are, naturally, using Google Maps to plot cleanup sites.

What began as an internal corporate eco-venture for local involvement has now been embraced by communities in 15 countries. Google Earth's outreach team is asking groups of six to 10 people to pick a modest project close to home, do it, then share their accomplishments by posting photos and videos to the team's Google Map.

Individuals can coordinate their own events or try to contact Google's partner organizations, like Idealist.org, Sierra Club, and The Scout Association in the U.K., which are urging their members to form local projects.… Read more

What's better than Nero 7's suite of multimedia apps, which bursts with tools to record, edit, save, and distribute audio, video, and data CDs and DVDs in a dozen permutations?

The so-new-you-can't-buy-it release of Nero 8. Tune into the First Look video below, and watch this space on Monday for a full review.

You'd think it would've drawn crowds.

TechCrunch founder and controversial Valley 2.0 icon Michael Arrington was making a rare appearance in New York, moderating a panel at the DigitalLife trade show on Thursday night. And the panel in question, called "The Disruptors," included a few of the start-up world's hottest names: Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook veteran Sean Parker (currently of the Founders Fund); Oovoo CEO Philippe Schwartz; SpinVox co-founder Daniel Doulton; IGA Worldwide CEO Justin Townsend; and Ooma founder Andrew Frame. Considering the resurgence of tech culture and startup spirit in New York in … Read more

Despite financial woes, EarthLink is kicking butt in the broadband market, according to a J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey published Wednesday.

EarthLink, which said last month that it would lay off nearly half its staff, got the highest customer satisfaction ranking for delivering broadband services in the East and South regions of the United States. It also ranked second in the North Central region of the country.

Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power and Associates, said that what's impressive about EarthLink's performance in the survey is that it bucks conventional wisdom.

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According to a McKinsey & Company study of US economic activity, "Raising the productivity of employees whose jobs can't be automated is the next big performance challenge." The study argues that "as more companies come to specialize in core activities and outsource the rest, they have greater need for workers who can interact with co-workers, partners, and vendors," supported by highly personalized organizing and communication tools. 40 percent of labor activity, says McKinsey, comes not from making things or from traditional transactions but from what the consultancy calls the "Interaction Economy," which it … Read more