Normally I devote this column to all things business and finance, but since Halloween is, at least in my house, the most important dress-up-and-eat-your-body-weight-in-chocolate holiday of the year, I thought a Halloween-themed column was appropriate.

Given the state of the economy, a Halloween-themed column helping you stick to a budget seemed even more appropriate.

Since store-bought costumes can be pretty pricey – $20 on up for a flimsy, cheesy basic costume – doing it yourself makes a lot of sense, especially if you have more than one costume to throw together. You don’t need a sewing machine or the skills of those “Project Runway” fashion designers to pull it off. All you need is the Web.

First, never, and I repeat NEVER, underestimate the power of Google. When my 3-year-old daughter said she wanted to be Barbie Mariposa this year, I immediately hopped on Google. I got ideas on how to make her costume, including a cool tutu that required not one stitch of sewing – a bonus for the sewing challenged like myself. I love Google because I can enter the oddest, most random questions and almost always get a pertinent search result. It’s a good starting point.

If you’re struggling to figure out what costume to make, go to Disney’s FamilyFun.com for kids’ costume ideas as well as instructions on how to make them, including the time and materials needed.

Kaboose.com also has great ideas, and not just for Halloween. Click on the Halloween 2008/Homemade costumes section to see photos and how-tos. If you’d still rather buy your costume, this site also has links to plenty of store-bought costumes.

And speaking of Martha Stewart, her Web site (marthastewart.com) has really cool no-sew costume ideas. The difficulty level ranges from simple (Medusa, which involves weaving rubber snakes in your hair) to ridiculously hard (the Fairy Godmother costume, which involves gluing about 750 coffee filters together to resemble an Elizabethan-era gown).

If you’re looking for a costume that’s a little more grown-up, i.e., scary, go to Threadbanger.com. You’ll find a host of creative costume ideas along with how-to videos. An example of one such video: How to make a straight-jacket.

Happy Halloween!

Romi Carrell Wittman is a business writer and the communication services director for Trico Electric Cooperative. E-mail her at: romi.wittman@comcast.net.

It can be argued that the MacBook Air from Apple ushered in the ultra mobile, subcompact, netbook genre of little laptops.

Their fame is not restricted to the fact that the MacBook Air is one of the thinnest computers on the market. In fact, it can be said that MacBook Air is an overpriced piece of novelty technology that has limited practical and productive applications.

In my opinion, the lasting legacy of the MacBook Air will be that it was among the first to offer the option of a Solid State Disk, or SSD.

The practical benefit of using SSD drives in laptops and desktops versus the magnetic disk drives is that they have no moving parts and they allow computers to start up faster. Magnetic disk drives are still the hard drive most commonly found in the majority of computers sold, but their time is limited. This is due in no small part to their fragility and their propensity for mechanical malfunctions.

SSDs are not without their problems, but their issues are less than those of the hard drives used now. This has led nearly every major laptop or netbook maker to follow Apple’s lead and release a computer with SSD drives instead of magnetic disk drives.

This new wave of SSD-packing netbooks and laptops has even one-upped Apple. Not only have they made the SSD drives standard where Apple made them optional, they have managed to offer a superior product at greatly reduced price.

Aside from the obvious limitations of the MacBook Air, it wouldn’t be the worst gift if you optioned the SSD drive. The problem is that when you select the SSD drive over the normal hard drive, you end up paying $2,500 for the privilege of having no moving parts in your computer.

Now, for those of us who may not have $2,500 to blow on a computer, there are other netbooks available. At the top of the list is a computer from Asus (eeepc.asus.com). It was among the first challengers to the MacBook Air when it released its Asus Eee series. Asus is rumored to have a line of notebooks that are priced starting at $199 and include a 40GB SSD. The fact that a company can sell a computer with an SSD at that price may indicate that the prices of SSDs are falling, and this is good for computers in general.

If you want to upgrade to a SSD but like your current computer, you also have alternatives. Technology companies like SanDisk have begun creating SSD drives that can replace or accompany the hard disk in your system. This includes desktops as well as laptops, notebooks and netbooks. I wouldn’t be surprised if, within two years, the magnetic hard disks prevalent today go the way of the floppy disk and the dinosaur.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

I was hoping that you could help me. I had a dial-up connection, but I switched to a high-speed connection a few weeks ago. My wireless laptop is working fine. My trouble is with my desktop. I ran my anti-spyware program on it and found cookies and a Trojan horse. I was able to quarantine and remove the cookies, but not the Trojan horse. I am still running Windows ME on the desktop, and I use it mainly for offline work. The type of Trojan horse program that I have could possibly let some hacker have remote access to my computer. I tried a system restore, but the message that I get tells me to restart my computer and try again. How can I remove the Trojan horse?

L. Cooper

First of all, welcome to life in the fast lane. The jump from a dial-up connection to a broadband connection will change your online experience.

Enough of that; let’s focus on the matter at hand. For the most part, cookies are harmless. They are commonly used as a way to track your personal shopping preferences online.

They may fall into one of two categories. The first are called session cookies that expire once your session on a Web site or server is complete. The second type of cookies are known as persistent cookies which can be stored in your computer’s temporary memory until the next time that you return to the Web site that created the cookie.

Trojans are a horse of a different color. Pun intended. There are about seven categories, but the top three are ones that most people are familiar with.

One type of Trojan horse can provide someone else with remote access to your computer. This means that they can launch the next great spam campaign from your desktop.

Another type of Trojan is called data sending, and it does just that. Your passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information can be sent to the sender of the Trojan.

The third form of Trojan horse program is called security software disabler, and it disables your security software without you knowing. This is normally done in conjunction with some other nefarious act.

Most people get Trojans from downloaded things online that look cool and are free.

This can range from music, to games, and especially pornography. If you are downloading adult movies online, just go ahead and assume that you have also just infected your computer with a Trojan, virus, hijack program or spyware.

The easy way to get rid of a Trojan is by not getting it in the first place.

However, the average Joe or Jane can also unintentionally download a Trojan.

In this case, I would suggest starting your computer in safe mode and then performing your anti-virus or anti-spyware program again.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

If you have read my articles for any length of time, you know I go through periods of extolling the virtues of regular backups.

This time has reached us again.

The difference is instead of trying to persuade you to perform backups on your desktop or laptop, I am going after the computer we hold most dear: the cell phone.

Many people don’t consider backing up the information on their cell phones, even though the average life of a cell phone is about 18 months. After a year and a half we tend to get new handsets, but we don’t get new friends and family. If only we could, but that is another article for another day. The ability to save and transfer all of the contacts, ringtones and applications on our phones can save us time and money.

There is no shortage of options to save and transfer the data on your phone. A key variable in determining which options are available to you is the type of cell phone you own. Most cellulars on the market either have a Subscriber Identity Module card – also known as a SIM Card – or the information on the phone is programmed into the phone’s memory. If you have a SIM Card, you should be able to remove it from your old phone and place it into your new phone, assuming the two are compatible.

Another quick data-transfer option is to use a micro SD memory card. Then you should be able to save the information that you want to transfer onto the micro SD card and place the card in your new phone.

Essentially, you are primarily limited by the capabilities of both the old and new cell phone. If both phones have the ability to beam information via infrared sensor, this could be another choice to move information. Similar to infrared beaming, Bluetooth is another transfer avenue for devices with this function.

Many phones allow you to sync their information with a file on your computer. If you don’t like the syncing program on your computer, third party programs such as SnapSync and BitPim seek to provide an answer. Yahoo Mobile allows you to save your phone’s info online and access it from any Internet-enabled computer.

For those who couldn’t find a good fit with any of the previous suggestions, there is always the hardware alternative. Some devices that come to mind are the Cellstik and the Backup. Your phone’s data is saved either to the device itself or onto a computer via the device. At $40 or less, they aren’t a bad investment.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

The past week or so has been an exceptionally distressing one. The daily drama that is our national economy seems surreal.

So if you’re like me, you may need a diversion from the conversations of stock markets and bailout deals. This week we are going to look at some near therapeutic online diversions.

Our first diversion is www.surfthechannel.com. I have featured this Web site before, but it just continues to improve. STC is the “it” Web site when it comes to watching streaming video online.

I don’t mean the YouTube or dailymotion videos, although it has those. I am referring to the latest cable and broadcast network television shows. STC has other channels besides TV, including movies, cartoons, anime, music, documentaries and sports. But TV is the only channel I can endorse because it largely pulls its shows from reputable sources.

Sidereel.com is an alternative to STC.

The next diversion takes us to the nation’s capital and back in time.

Loc.gov is the Web site for the Library of Congress and the beginning of a truly undervalued experience. I particularly enjoy selecting the Digital Collections header and thumbing through some our nation’s most iconic pictures and video. There is nothing that says you can’t learn during a diversion.

There is also nothing that says you can’t earn during a diversion. The third site is for the sports fan, but for our purposes it straddles the line as a diversion.

Our intent is to momentarily forget about stock markets, banks, and financial issues, but oneseason.com is a stock market for sports fans. One Season allows you to use real money to buy stock in an athlete. The available athletes are the usual suspects from basketball, baseball, football and hockey fantasy leagues. Remember to buy low and sell high.

The final diversion is slightly mischievous. One way I find to get my mind off of something is by playing a prank. The prank for today involves wakerupper.com, a telephone reminder tool that can be used free of charge. Used as it was designed, you set the date, time, and phone number to be called, and you type a short message that is read in a computer voice when you receive the call.

My prank is to send a message to a friend without them knowing who sent it.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

What would you lose if your e-mail were hacked? Your personal messages and contacts would be compromised. And your messages could include personal photos or financial details.

Recently, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s e-mail account was hacked. The contents were posted on the Internet for the world to see.

Apparently, a complete stranger did the hacking. That’s how easy it is to hack an e-mail account.

The problem with Web mail

With Web mail, your user ID is generally a part of your e-mail address. Anyone who receives e-mail from you knows your user ID. An investigation into Palin’s e-mail usage made her e-mail address public knowledge. So, the hacker only needed her password.

Did the hacker guess her password? No. The hacker created a new one using Yahoo’s password reset feature. It’s actually pretty easy to do.

To reset the password, the hacker answered a security question. That, too, was gleaned from public information.

Dealing with password reset

Your personal information may not be on the Web, but you could still be hacked. Odds are, you specified a security question and answer when you created your account. Friends and family probably know the answer to the question. Or, it could be found with a Google search.

The password reset is critical. If you answer it truthfully when setting up your account, you’re at risk. So don’t. Use a nonsensical answer that only you know.

For example, select “What is your father’s middle name?” Answer it “my@name@is@kim.” Or, use “my+dog’s+name+is+Boo-Boo.”

It is unlikely that a hacker could supply the correct response. The system doesn’t care that your response makes no sense.

Protecting existing accounts

You probably want to keep your existing e-mail account. You probably also supplied correct information when you created it.

Depending on your provider, you can change the answers to your security questions. Yahoo users are out of luck. But Hotmail and Gmail users aren’t.

In Hotmail, click your account name and select “View your account.” Under Password reset information, click “Change” beside “Question.” Change your security question and answer.

Gmail is more difficult to hack. Your account must be inactive for five days before you can reset the password. You can also select your own security question.

Click Settings and open the Accounts tab. Select “Google Account settings.” Click “Change security question.” Alter your security question and response.

Use a strong password

You still need a strong password. Your password may be easier to guess than you think. Your dog’s name or phone number are easily guessed.

Maybe you thought about this and picked a random word instead. If so, be aware that hackers can crack it easily with a dictionary attack, which uses software that tries every word in the dictionary as the password.

You need to use a complex password containing both letters and numbers. If your provider allows it, add a symbol. Use at least eight characters.

I recommend creating a sentence that is easy to remember. For example, “My daughter was born in 2005″ is relatively simple. Then take the first letter from each word and keep the year. In this example, you get “mdwbi2005.” Such a password is easily remembered, but difficult to guess.

Remembering your passwords

You’ll have trouble if you forget your password, but don’t write it on a slip of paper. This defeats the purpose of securing your account. Co-workers or family members could find the paper.

Instead, use a password-management program like KeePass or LastPass. These programs encrypt your passwords; a master password opens the database.

Or, try Pageonce. It is a Web-based password-management tool. You’ll find links to these tools at www.komando.com/news.

You should also change your password and clean out your browser’s saved data regularly. This includes the cache, saved forms, cookies and passwords.

Finally, don’t check “Remember Me” on the sign-in page. That’s an open invitation to snoop. Sign out from your account once you’ve read your e-mail.

Kim Komando hosts the nation’s largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim’s free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.

At 15 percent of the U.S. population and with ever-growing political clout, Hispanic Americans have had their “coming of age” of sorts in this new millennium.

The power of the Hispanic vote can now tilt a presidential election. Our $860 billion buying power has refocused marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies and our influence on the arts grows each day.

Hispanic Americans have become mainstream, gleefully embracing America as this beacon of freedom embraces us.

This is what makes so odd some possible policy decisions in the waning hours of the Bush administration that could foreclose opportunities – for Hispanics and millions of other Americans – in the newest and most exciting economic sector: Internet commerce.

Internet advertising revenue is expected to reach $50 billion in the next couple of years – quickly outstripping broadcast television.

The Internet is not just our source of news and entertainment. It’s become the meeting ground for commerce. For any demographic group, succeeding in the Internet economy is becoming a matter of economic survival.

Yet there is a new boss in town. Strangely, it’s a company long professed to be the bulwark of the Internet’s egalitarian ethic.

Google controls nearly 70 percent of the online search market. It now wants to acquire much of Yahoo!, which owns 20 percent of the advertising market.

Google today controls not just the Fifth Avenue prime real estate of search advertising, but has leveraged that power to control the largest video and other applications.

So what would this joint venture mean for Hispanic Americans and others struggling to establish themselves in the fast-paced world of Internet commerce?

Not anything good. To understand why, it’s important to understand how the market works.

Google, Yahoo and others sell ad space by keyword. “Automobile,” for instance, might cost more than “bicycle” or “garden rake” according to supply and demand along with a top secret “quality score” assigned to each bidder that tries to predict how profitable a bidder will be.

These same companies also buy and sell space for advertising on many Web sites. These ads are a significant source of revenue for newspapers in a time of declining print ad sales; news Web sites generated $3 billion in revenues last year from online publishing.

Despite its market dominance, Google today still must compete with a number of rivals – Yahoo! chief among them – for the rights to broker these ad deals.

Flush with cash, Google generally has the capacity to outbid its rivals, but the competition keeps the market honest and generates higher revenue for online publishers. That’s the competition that Google now wants to kill with its joint venture, effectively giving the company 90 percent control of the market.

This virtual noncompete pact will allow Google to charge excess premiums from advertisers and then pay a pittance to Web sites.

Both sides of this two-sided market – those who produce and market items in commerce and those on whose sites they are marketed – could get the screws, choking off Hispanic-owned publishers and burgeoning businesses.

Some observers predict that funneling virtually all search ads through Google’s platform will give the company unbridled power to discriminate in the larger search market.

Google already has been accused of inhibiting access to Web sites promoting political candidates or public policy viewpoints with which it likely disagrees. It is not difficult to imagine this practice extending to commerce, where Google could tweak its search formulas to favor companies with which it has a financial relationship.

Hispanics can ill afford to be shut out of yet another medium. Among mainstream media outlets Hispanics own just 2.9 percent of radio stations and 1.5 percent of TV stations – figures that have been on a steady decline despite the concurrent rise in Hispanic population, buying power, median income and other measures of economic success.

At a time of new publishing opportunities not just for Hispanics but millions of other heretofore shutout Americans, the loss of advertising competition becomes the beginning of the end of a viable marketplace.

None of this is to suggest that Google is inherently evil, but the threat of monopoly abuse is anything but abstract. From the railroads to big oil to the world’s phone networks, monopolists find ways to punish not just rivals but their customers, too – that is, until the balancing hand of government steps in to prevent abuse and protect marketplace competition.

The Justice Department, Congress, and state attorneys general should continue to investigate this proposed alliance and prevent diversity-crushing consolidation online.

Clara Padilla Andrews is president of the National Association of Hispanic Publications and publisher of El Hispanic News and Más in Portland, Ore.

Q: I have lost approximately three months of e-mails on one or two separate occasions. When it appears, Outlook Express is in some kind of file compression mode. I have Outlook Express 6 version 6.00.2900.2180(2005 install date) running in Windows XP. In your article on this subject in the Tucson Citizen on Sept. 22 you gave some ideas for fixing this type of problem. One was to run SCANPST.EXE found in the MSMAPI folder. I couldn’t find either of those in my “C” drive and am out of ideas. What would you recommend? Maybe reinstalling Outlook Express?

B. Spackman

A: Three months of e-mails are a lot of e-mails to lose. Even if it was spread out over separate occasions. After reading about your situation I think it is important to mention that the devil may sometimes be in the details when performing a search of the C: drive for the SCANPST.EXE file and the MSMAPI folder. I found that it helped to perform the search using capital letters, just as it is typed.

You also mentioned that Outlook appeared to be in some kind of compression mode before your e-mail disappeared. The first thing that came to mind was the Auto Archive function in Outlook.

What this function does is move your older files to another folder where they will be held for a period then deleted. Since it is an automated task, this could explain the multiple occasions of older e-mails disappearing after completing what looks to be the compression of files.

In order to rule the Auto Archive function out as the source of your missing e-mails, you will need to do a little detective work. Auto Archive can be found under the Tools header. It is here that you can see what the settings are for the function and the location of the Archived e-mails.

Mr. Spackman, there are generally two types of e-mail accounts. The first are the Web-based accounts like Yahoo mail, Hotmail and Gmail. These accounts allow you to access them from any device that has an Internet connection.

The second type of e-mail accounts are known as local e-mail accounts or POP mail, which is what Outlook is. Although there are Webmail versions of Outlook, generally speaking, each Outlook e-mail account is unique to the particular computer the account was created on and stores your e-mails to your computer’s hard drive.

Because of this, you should be able to locate them with a little searching. The file extension for Outlook is .pst, so a search of the C: drive for files with .pst should yield your Outlook e-mails. Reinstalling Outlook would be the next option.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

How’d you like to increase your office productivity by as much as 50 percent? Add a second monitor to your computer setup. Once you do, you’ll never go back to using only one monitor again.

For example, you can open a document or presentation on one monitor and use the other to conduct research on the Web. Or, see your e-mail arrive as you work. Photo editors really benefit from having an image open on one monitor and the tool bars in full view on the second monitor. Video editing suddenly becomes almost as easy as the TV commercials promise.

What you need

Adding a second monitor to your system is easy. First, you have to check to be sure your computer has a dual-output video card. If it has a single-output card, you’ll need to add a second video card.

A dual-output video card runs about $100, depending on the specifications. A single-output card costs slightly less. Your computer may already support dual monitors, though, because many newer computers do.

Installing a video card isn’t difficult, but you may not want to mess with it. An electronics store can install a card for a fee.

You could also buy an external monitor adapter, but internal cards perform better. If you use two video cards, the cards should have the same specifications. That way, there will be no lag between the monitors.

Choosing a monitor

You can use an old monitor if you have one. The experience is better if the monitors are the same size. Even better are identical monitors.

These days, you can find bargains on flat-panel monitors. Go for a 19-inch monitor if possible. Otherwise, a 17-inch screen is good. Anything larger than 19 inches may strain your eyes if you sit close.

The monitors and computer should have matching ports. Many monitors have both VGA (analog) and DVI (digital) connections. This makes things easier.

Before buying a monitor, judge the picture quality in the store. Pay attention to the contrast ratio. This is the difference between the whitest whites and the darkest blacks. Aim for 500:1 or higher. Higher ratios yield more shadow detail.

Response time is equally important. This is the time it takes for a pixel to change color. Lower numbers are better. Accept no higher than 12 milliseconds. Slow response time can result in smeared movement in videos.

Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels on the display. The higher the resolution, the smaller things like text appear on the screen.

Monitors can be adjusted to different resolutions. However, flat panels usually work best at their native resolution, which is expressed by figures such as 1,600 by 1,200 pixels. The two monitors should have the same native resolution. But you may need a resolution other than the native resolution of a particular monitor, so check the monitors in the store to be sure they work for you.

You don’t need a brand-name monitor. Many companies buy panels from the same manufacturers. But pay attention to build quality. It should have a sturdy feel and solid buttons. A good warranty is also important.

Setting up the monitor

After you have both monitors connected to your PC, plug in both and turn them on. In Windows Vista, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Click Display Settings. In Windows XP, click Start, then Control Panel. Double-click Display. Open the Settings tab.

In both Vista and XP, you’ll see numbered boxes representing the monitors. Click Identify Monitors. A “1″ appears on your primary monitor. The other monitor displays a “2.” Click and drag the boxes to change the designations.

Select monitor 2 and check “Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor.” Click Apply. You can then open programs and drag them between monitors.

Third-party programs improve the dual-monitor experience. UltraMon ($40) places a taskbar on each monitor. Buttons help you arrange program windows on the monitors and you can apply different wallpapers to each monitor.

Multimon does much the same for free. Add Multishow if you want different wallpapers. You’ll find links to these programs at www.komando.com/news.

Kim Komando hosts the nation’s largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim’s free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.

Q: I receive e-mail from Outlook Express, and usually have about 30 letters that I don’t delete. A few days ago, when I turned on Outlook Express they were all gone. On the screen it said “There are no items to view. Some items may be hidden because a view is applied.” Now when I read a letter, and sign off, the e-mail disappears even though I don’t delete it.

– Marvin P.

A: Marvin, you are leaving out some key information that would really be helpful.

For example, what version of Outlook Express are you using? What operating system are you using? Nevertheless, there are normally only a handful of causes of the problem you describe.

You wrote that your messages in Outlook Express are disappearing. You may have both Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express installed on your computer. Their inboxes look very similar and sometimes people open one expecting to see the contents of the other.

This may not be the case, but it doesn’t hurt to rule it out from the beginning.

The next possibility is that somehow your e-mails have become corrupt.

If this is the case, then the solution is only a few clicks away. You can run a Windows utility program called SCANPST.EXE. This program is the Microsoft Personal Folders Scan/Repair Utility and it may repair the e-mails if they have indeed become corrupted.

This utility can be found by double clicking the C: drive and opening the Program Files. Next, open then Common Files Folder, and then the System folder. You should see a folder named MSMAPI. Look inside to open the folder called 1033. It is here where the SCANPST.EXE program resides.

These instructions are good for XP.

If you are using an older version of Windows, the difference is that instead of looking in the MSMAPI folder you will look in the MAPI folder.

You could also take the extremely easy route and perform a search for SCANPST. Once you begin the repair program, you will be asked for the name of the program to repair.

Choose the Outlook email files. These will be all files that end with .pst.

The next option should probably be taken before running the SCANPST.

This option deals with the view settings that you spoke of. Another simple error that many people do not catch on to is setting the unread e-mails folder as the default view. This means that you may not be looking at the inbox, but instead you are looking only at the e-mail that you have not read.

A quick peek into the View header should let you know if your current view is unfiltered or not.

Another consideration should be the rules settings for your e-mails. Look under the Tools header to ensure that there are not any settings that automatically move your e-mails.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

In these uncertain economic times, people are scaling back their spending and praying for a little bit of job security.

It would seem to be an odd time to try to strike out on one’s own, to hang a shingle and become one of the many self-employed. But some experts say there is no time like the present.

With corporate layoffs and cutbacks becoming the norm, these experts say, in some cases it may be better to jump ship and become the master of your own destiny, to mangle cliches.

There are many obvious benefits to being self-employed.

For starters, you’re your own boss. You call the shots and have total control over your business. You set your hours, you decide what projects to take on. Whatever successes your business realizes are your successes.

On the downside, the buck stops with you.

If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Sick days? Forget it. 401k contributions? Not likely. Health insurance? Maybe.

And starting a business takes a lot of work, as in 16-hour days, seven days a week. Most entrepreneurs put in much more time getting their businesses off the ground than they would at the typical “9-to-5.”

Then there is the financial risk.

It’s not uncommon to hear of people who have plunked down their life savings in their business, only to have the business fold a year or two later.

None of this is said to discourage you. Rather, I’m stating it in the interest of full disclosure.

If you’re considering making the leap to the self-employed, you need to first arm yourself with knowledge.

Start by checking out www.business.gov/guides/self-employed/.

Here you’ll find many resources for the small businessperson, including a detailed start-up business guide. Here you’ll learn how to set your business up and how to handle taxes. There is also a link to financial resources for the small business.

The IRS at www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html also has resources for the small business.

Finally, check out www.smallbusinessresources. com for tips on starting a small business, as well as marketing and financing it. It also has great info on the pros and cons of franchising.

Romi Carrell Wittman is a business writer and the communication services director for Trico Electric Cooperative. E-mail her at romi.wittman@comcast.net.

Believe it or not, this is the prime time of year to edit video.

Many families are sitting on a small stockpile of footage from their summer exploits that need to be edited. The summer travel season has passed along with the capstone Labor Day holiday weekend and the kids are back in school.

Now the level of comfort varies when it comes to editing video, but there is no excuse to subject your friends and family to the raw footage of your vacation, even if you do call it the director’s cut.

Whether you just want to place the video on a DVD for yourself or upload it online to share with family, friends and strangers alike, you have options.

If you are a total novice, I hope that you recorded your video with a device such as the Flip. The video quality is decent, but more importantly it is video recording and uploading with training wheels. You can literally go from box to recording to uploading online within five minutes.

The recording device has a USB attachment that makes transferring video a breeze. At about $100, it isn’t a bad purchase.

If you used a different camera, don’t fret. The part that many people find challenging is transferring the video from their camera to their computer.

If you have a newish video camera or camcorder then you should be able to transfer the video via USB cable or SD card.

Older cameras may require a gaggle of AV cables to finally get the footage on your system.

Once it is on your computer, you can focus on editing. Most cameras include a basic video editing software program, and they aren’t bad to use.

However, if you want the bells and whistles you may find it worth your while to look elsewhere. A good place to start is Jumpcut.com.

It combines online video editing capabilities with the four favorite letters in the English language: free. After you register, you can upload and edit your viewings.

Online video editing may not be for everyone. Some people prefer to keep the processes separated, and thus like to use video editing software.

When it comes to video editing on a Mac, Final Cut is the undisputed king. On the PC, Adobe offers a cadre of video editing titles to suit all levels of experience and needs.

The heavyweight in the Adobe arsenal is Adobe Premiere Pro. This software will allow you produce a high quality video with features that allow you to edit for fun or profit.

For those of you who haven’t edited video before, you will find out the dirty little secret: It is very time-consuming.

But reliving your adventures and preserving their future presentation will prove to be time well spent.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

Andy Warhol famously said that everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame.

Dear Andy was far more prescient than anyone could have guessed. With the advent of reality shows, blogs and now podcasts, virtually everyone has the power to have their voice heard.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a podcast is a downloadable broadcast, either video or audio, hosted on a Web site. It’s delivered in a portable format (think iPods and cell phones). People subscribe to these podcasts and receive regular updates on their computers, iPods or phones, and then listen to them at their convenience.

A lot of people are jumping on the podcast bandwagon, from college kids itching to let the world in on their offbeat musical tastes to corporate executives wishing to deliver news updates to shareholders. The podcast is truly a unique medium, one that is at once highly personalized, yet very public.

It’s easy to develop a podcast once you know the basics, and there are many Web sites to guide you through the process.

To get started, go to the grandpappy of podcasts Apple Inc. at www.apple.com. Podcasts got their name from Apple’s breakthrough invention, the iPod, so it makes sense to start your education with them. If you’re Mac inclined, be sure to check out GarageBand, which is a really cool software program that lets you record sounds.

If you need more information on the how-tos of podcasting, go to www.podcast411.com, voices.com/podcasting/how-to-create-a-podcast.htm or radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm. Each of these sites offers great podcasting overviews as well as tips for free Web hosting services.

Next you’ll need to get your hands on a program that allows you to record your musings. Audacity at audacity.sourceforge.net is a free, open source software program for recording and editing sounds. It’s available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Unix/Linux.

Finally, you’ll need to find a Web site to host your podcast. Podbean.com, Mypodcast.com and Podango.com all offer free podcast hosting.

Romi Carrell Wittman is a business writer and the communication services director for Trico Electric Cooperative. E-mail her at romi.wittman@comcast.net.

The last seven days have been chock-full of interesting and potentially profound news from the Net.

Comcast’s corporate office announced that it will begin setting a limit on the bandwidth of its users. Granted, the cap is set at roughly 250 gigabytes, but this is setting a dangerous precedent for all Internet users.

By setting a limit to the amount of bandwidth that a subscriber may use, Comcast is essentially reintroducing metered Internet service to consumers. It will argue that most Internet users don’t come close to using the entire 250 gigabytes of bandwidth, but the few that do really tax its network.

If you can, remember back to the dark ages of home Internet service, when you had a dial-up connection and a set amount of bandwidth per month to upload and download. Well, that is metered Internet connection and it is a significant step backward. Think of it like your cell phone, only without the free nights and weekends: If you exceed the limit, you will either be charged more or cut off until the next month.

In my mind, everything should balance out. If the majority of users don’t come close to consuming the same degree of bandwidth as a few exceptional users, then the unused bandwidth of the majority should cover the overuse of the minority. Simple math.

Another reason the policy change may be important is because in the same way that we use more disk space now than we did five or 10 years ago, it is not unimaginable that new technology will force the average Internet user to require more bandwidth than what Comcast currently has set as the maximum.

If you don’t have Comcast, don’t feel smug. Rest assured that other Internet service providers will be watching to see if they can revert to the model without users making too much of a fuss.

While Comcast wants to cap the amount that you upload and download, Google wants to mold the way you experience the Internet. It released its new Web browser last week in hopes that Internet users would prefer it and learn to use the Internet the Google way.

That in and of itself is not bad, just very presumptive. Google’s new Web browser, called Chrome, isn’t half bad. It borrowed liberally from Mozilla, Internet Explorer and Safari. This isn’t such a big deal because it is offering the source code to developers, free of charge.

The downloaded version of Chrome seems slightly familiar and intuitive. Features like the most visited sites and incognito page are interesting, but the young browser lacks the bevy of plug-ins like Mozilla, and the true familiarity of Internet Explorer and Safari. Would it have killed them to include a home page icon?

In time, it should get better, but it will be a while before it is a serious threat to the established Web browsers.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.

Q: I am looking for a way to get Internet access from my laptop while traveling in my motor home.

I am planning a long trip next month but may not use the service again before next summer (something like George’s needs). Slingshot’s broader coverage seems like a better choice than Cricket, as I would use it mostly on the road between campgrounds (most RV parks have free Wi-Fi for guests).

I visited the Slingshot Web site but cannot understand how much Internet usage I would be getting for my money, as they have specs like “5 GB/mo in total OR 300 MB/mo while off-network roaming.”

I guess I am having trouble translating this into how much use I would be getting per month. Is there someplace where this is translated? Also, do you know anything about how reliable the company is? I get the impression they are fairly new. I have a Verizon cell phone and they offer a broadband service, but of course they require a one-year contract.

Jack C.

A: Jack, it turns out that Slingshot Communications is a local company – relatively speaking. It is located in Tempe. If you select the contact link on their page, it should provide you with enough information to reach someone who can answer your questions about the intricacies of their service.

Its Web site does give the impression of a new startup company, but new doesn’t always equate to untrustworthy. One of the selling points of pay-as-you-go monthly services is that you should have the option to walk away from the situation fairly quickly if everything doesn’t appear to be on the up and up.

As far as getting you connected while on your trip, you have a few options. The first and most obvious option is to wait until you stop at an RV park to connect to the Internet. This seems like a sound alternative, but everyone knows that the Internet can make time fly, especially while traversing the interstate system.

Another option is to stop by one of the many truck stops and travel centers that decorate the highways across this country. Most of the major truck stops/travel centers have Internet access and space to park your RV.

Another option is to use Verizon. You can go in two directions with the Verizon option. The first is to purchase the Verizon mobile broadband card. The downside is that you will be committed to it far beyond your excursion next month.

Tethering is another possibility. Depending on the type of phone and service that you have, you may be able to tether your phone to your laptop. Tethering is essentially a method of using your cell phone as a modem for your laptop. You should probably check with Verizon before tethering. Some providers frown on this practice; it causes them to sell fewer broadband mobile cards for laptops.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds@yahoo.com.