Microsoft Windows Media Center

If you've purchased a Windows computer (in the last few years) then you probably got Windows Media Center with it for free. It is included in most versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Gone are the days when you had to buy a special version of Windows XP to have it.

But what does it do? It:

• Lets you watch internet TV on your PC
• Plays DVDs
• Plays Music
• Shows Pictures
• Shows the TV listings in your area

And if you have a TV tuner card or external (USB) tuner then it lets you:

• Records, stores and plays broadcast/cable programs
• Watch and pause live TV

So, with an inexpensive TV tuner (mine is a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q) that can be had for $60-80, you can turn your (newer) computer into a high definition DVR (digital video recorder). It will even turn your computer on (if your computer's motherboard supports this) or wake it up from sleep mode to record a program you've scheduled. And, of course, when you play back the recordings you can quickly skip the commercials.

Watch Hulu without a Browser

Hulu.com has the most popular collection of current TV shows on the web. ABC, Fox and NBC have all contributed most of their content. Gone are the days when, if you missed a show when it first aired, you had to wait months and hope for a re-run. Now, just go to Hulu.com, find the show the next day and watch it. It kinda makes you mad that they didn't have this when you were growing up, huh?

But wait, there's more! While you can watch these shows inside your web browser, now there's a better way. Hulu's desktop application allows you to pull up a window and watch TV and movies in that window from Hulu.com. It is true that you don't need this application to watch this stuff, you can do it from a browser. But it is much nicer and cleaner this way. This is one of the top two or three coolest programs on my PC. After my web browser, that is. The desktop app lets you navigate more easily and allows you to instantly skip to any portion of the video. There is even a preview window that pops up to let you know what you're about to see while you continue to watch at your current position.

Free Movies and TV

I found out about this site, not from my computer but from my Blu-Ray player. This is one of the sites Sony gives you access to with my new Blu-Ray disk player. But you don't need any new gizmos to watch TV and movies there, you can use your computer.

Crackle.com has 105 TV series that you can watch including Seinfeld, Barney Miller (which was good for its time and seems better now) and Bewitched. In addition, there are 275 movies on Crackle. Now, you'll have to watch some commercials, usually about one every 10 minutes or so. And you're not going to see any recent stuff here. But, for that, you'd go to Hulu anyway. Crackle gives you more choices of vintage TV and movies.

See the Weather Graphically

We are wired visually. Things we see make so much more of an impression than things we hear. Weathersparck.com shows you the weather in the next week in a way no other site does, graphically. When I look at the graph of the future temperatures, cloud cover and rain (or snow), it makes a more lasting and meaningful impression. I instantly have more detail and yet it is presented in a way that is more memorable. This site also displays averages for the date, historical weather data and forecasts from four different sources.

http://weatherspark.com/

Cut Clutter from Sites You Browse

iReader is an add-on for the Firefox and Chrome browsers. If you use one of these browsers, you owe it to yourself to try this. I don't like add-ons for my browsers in general because they slow down loading and use memory. This one is a very worthy exception. It puts a little icon next to the web address in the address bar if it can work with a website (it doesn't work with all sites). Then if you click on the icon, a nicely formatted window overlays the site with the text of the site (and perhaps a picture or two). All the ads and clutter are removed. Download it here http://www.samabox.com/extensions/iReader/