Stories about: One for All

As an IT professional, you know the basic rules of office politics, the simple do's and don'ts that govern life at work. Adhering to these standards -- the ones that tell you to be proactive and a team player -- will help you keep your job. If you really want to advance, though, you need to know which types of information your boss relies on you to provide.

In the information biz, more isn't necessarily better. Though full disclosure and transparency are buzzwords today, that doesn't mean your boss wants to hear about everything going on in the office. In fact, there are some things your CIO definitely doesn't want to hear, and if your career is going to thrive, you'd better know what they are.

Go to the Start menu, click on Run and type "convert C:\windows mac_OS" and wait for 10 minutes and restart. This hidden command will convert your regular Windows PC into a Macintosh with Leopard. You didn't really believe this, did you? For the record, that is just plain impossible. But then, there are several myths floating around about PCs and gadgets that actually seem plausible. Some are just bad practical jokes (like e-mails saying Microsoft or AOL would donate money for every forward sent) while some are distorted facts. Even for a techie, it sometimes becomes difficult to tell fact from fiction -- so here is a collection of some popular misconceptions and our explanations to help clear the air.

For many of us, our e-mail client (mail program) chose us rather than the other way around. Apple's Mail sits in the dock of every new OS X-based Macintosh. If you're a Microsoft Office fan or liked Outlook Express back in the OS 9 days, inertia may have you using Entourage, Office's e-mail component. Or if you're partial to Web-based e-mail, such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail, you're probably using a browser by default to create, read and respond to e-mail.

Opera Software's plans to beef up its browser so that Adobe Flash Player-like functionality will be intrinsic to the program are a move in the right direction.

Two NEC desktop computers in Japan have caught fire since late last year and NEC is now offering to replace faulty power units at the root of the problem.