It's the Office app that nobody knows about: Microsoft OneNote. I've been using it for a few months now, and it has totally changed the way I work.

OneNote is the equivalent of the spiral notebook that I used to scribble random information in to help me remember it. The thing about note-taking is that it's non-linear. For any particular project, you get a few bits and pieces of information from verbal conversations, from e-mail, and from the Web. These might come at completely different times. So, it's tough to organize all of this information. OneNote is perfect for this, because it works without enforcing any structure. You can paste stuff in from a Web page (it automatically tracks the reference), or paste stuff in from e-mail, or type a note to yourself. If you have a Tablet PC, you can also add handwritten notes and drawings.

Even though it doesn't require organization, it provides for very flexible organization. You have categories, and tabs, and pages within each tab. For example, I have separate categories for Personal notes (like if I'm comparing cell phones) and Articles (notes about papers I'm writing). Sometimes, on the articles, I need to create separate pages to keep track of different types of info. No problem with OneNote. Here's a screenshots on my current notes--storage shopping.

Well anyway, maybe you have a better memory than I do and don't need to write everything down. But it can't hurt to check it out if you ever have trouble keeping track of the little details for a project, whether something for your job or your personal life. There's a free trial available.

If you have a cable modem, you need Vonage. Vonage is a phone service that works by using your cable modem's Internet connection. It's a tiny box that you plug into your cable modem or router, and then you plug your phone into it.

Once you plug it in, Vonage works just like any other phone service, except it's much, much cheaper. Most of the cost savings come from the fact that you don't have to pay as many taxes as you do for conventional phone lines. Vonage also has some other advantages:

• You can take your phone with you. If you travel, just plug your Vonage box into the Internet connection at your hotel, and when people call you, your phone there will ring.
• You can check your voicemail online or have it sent to you in an e-mail.
• You can use your computer as a phone, known as a "soft phone". You don't even need your Vonage box, just an application that runs on your computer. I think the soft phone costs an extra $10 a month, but it might be great if you travel.
• You can have incoming calls ring on a second phone line or your mobile phone. I do this so that when I'm away from home, my cell phone automatically rings when someone calls me.

Yes, you can keep your current phone number. You can ever request phone numbers in different area code. You can get a second line (I have both voice and fax lines).

If you use your Internet connection for large file transfers or a busy Web server (I do both), you might notice some delay when talking on the phone, sort of like you're talking to someone on the other side of the Earth. The Vonage box has QoS built-in, but conventional QoS can't fix it entirely. The D-Link Gaming Router (DGL-4100) does fix the problem, though, because it has more advanced QoS capabilities that break large packets into smaller bits that won't slow down your phone calls. I have a busy Web server and had terrible lag with regular QoS, and the DGL-4100 fixed it completely.

Firefox is just good enough to be really frustrating. It's almost perfect. It's fast, free, easy-to-use, and best of all, supports tabbed browsing and lots of free plugins. If you've used Firefox for more than a few weeks, you already know its flaws:

• It doesn't work with all Web pages. The guys at Firefox will tell you this is the Web pages' fault. Well, it doesn't matter to me whose fault it is, I just want the Web page to work. If a page has ActiveX, it won't work with Firefox. Some other pages don't work quite right, either.
• Updating it is a pain. Just like any popular software, Firefox needs regular updates, including security updates. But the updates don't always work, and often have complex steps that you need to follow. For example, a recent update asked users to completely uninstall Firefox and then re-install it, but you only knew this if you didn't read the readme file. I didn't read it, and I just installed it on top of my existing installation, and Firefox stopped working. My fault, I guess, but should I really have to read a manual to install a patch?

BUT, after using Firefox for a few weeks, I couldn't live without tabbed browsing, so I couldn't just go back to Internet Explorer (IE). That's when I discovered Maxthon. Maxthon is a free browser that uses the IE Web page rendering engine, so it works with all pages that support IE--which is basically all pages. I really only care about tabbed browsing and an IE-based engine, but it does have lots of other features:

• Integrated RSS reader
• Automated form fills
• Compatible with IE favorites
• Pop-up blocker
• Ad blocker
• Customizable search box

Unfortunately, it's not perfect. It does have some cool plug-ins, but not nearly as many as Firefox. It also doesn't support most IE plug-ins. They've got the fundamentals right, however.