Stories by: Christopher Null

We know: You mean to do all kinds of things to keep your IT infrastructure in peak condition, but when the office gets busy, things fall through the cracks. The problems won't go away on their own, though. If you need help compiling a list of what you have to accomplish, here are our top ten New Year's resolutions that you can implement to get your business in tip-top shape.

Besides revolutionizing communication for the masses, the Internet has inspired the imaginations of filmmakers worldwide--with wildly divergent results. Here's one film buff's list of the five best and five worst Net-related films.

Today's economy isn't doing anyone any favors, and if you're one of the unfortunate folks to have been served a layoff notice, you might be facing a long haul when it comes to searching for another job.

Memristor circuits lead to ultrasmall PCs. Intel and AMD unleash massively multicore CPUs. Samsung TVs respond to your every gesture. These and other developing technologies will fundamentally change the way you think about -- and use -- technology.

Anyone who says their business "runs itself" probably owes a great debt of gratitude to a small army of software applications and Web services that tirelessly feeds the machine from behind the scenes. From creating and storing documents and staying on top of e-mail to keeping the books and getting teams working together, it takes a lot of code to run a business, or at least to run it well. But setting up your company isn't as easy as just fishing apps out of a barrel. You want the best you can get, and at a price that isn't through the roof.

Here are 10 cool ways to add useful new features and functionality to your laptop.

Who doesn't want better graphics quality from their notebook PC? You can get there by doing it yourself. But be warned: If the upgrade is possible at all for your laptop, it can be a time-consuming operation that involves disassembling virtually your entire notebook, so don't enter into this process unless you are willing to accept the risk of doing serious harm to your machine. That said, if done properly, this project can give you noticeably higher frame rates in the end. The process should take about 45 minutes all up, and it's not a procedure for novices. Here's how we did it...
Photograph: Charlie Nucci

Want better performance from your laptop? The conventional wisdom has long held that you should simply buy a new one. You can put such conventional wisdom aside: Upgrading a laptop may not be for the timid or the impatient, but if you're handy with a screwdriver, and the sight of a circuit board doesn't scare you, an upgrade can be a far more affordable solution.

I won't waste time rehashing the argument over whether Windows Vista is any good. The fact remains that lots of people prefer Windows XP, and they'll go to great lengths to get it.

It's easy to look at a laptop, an iPod, or a laser printer as nothing more than a tool to get work done with or to while away your free time on, but these and many other high-tech devices didn't fall off a tree. They emerged following years of hard work--and in some cases, an entire career devoted to a single technology--by inspired researchers, designers, and developers.