What could be finer than playing a game that involves cute, rotund guys who assist with giving presents? No, it's not the accounting department's holiday gift drive but another whizzy Elf game. Brought to you by StarDock, makers of some very interesting Windows tweaking software, this Windows-only game is as addictive as last week's Elf Balls. Perhaps the most interesting feature is that you can compete against other players. It's a wonderful waste of time and precious corporate Internet bandwidth.

Farewell, Windows 95

www.Microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle.asp

At the end of November, Microsoft officially dropped support for Windows 95. And if you're one of those unfortunate souls still running Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS, you've got until the end of this month to get on the phone for official help. Of course, if you bought a PC from Dell, Gateway or the like, you will probably still be able to get help from them.

Tech speak

www.TheRegister.co.uk/content/4/23245.html

Linux, the little operating system that could, continues to get friendlier as time goes on. You can bolt on what are known as Window Managers to the underlying, very geeky operating system and suddenly it becomes easier to use. But to listen to the hard-core Linux folk, you'd be hard-pressed to know this was the case. Here's a good article to show your local neighborhood nerd the next time he or she starts to talk over your head about technology. Everybody has to start somewhere and lots of computer professionals forget this.

It absolutely glows

www.PjChmiel.com/photo/neon.html

Oh, happy day! What could be more enjoyable than a visual feast of tacky kitsch that made the 1950s enjoyable for the nostalgia crowd? I'm talking, of course, about the ubiquitous neon sign. Photographer PJ Chmiel has taken a scanner into his hands and uploaded many original photo compositions of all manner of neon, plastic and other strange signs. Once you've enjoyed the neon variety, though, everything else pales in comparison.

Art on a chip

micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/

I'm not sure if this falls into the "too much time on one's hands" category or not. Some bright sparks at Florida State University have put together a collection of doodles etched on microchips. Engineers, being a tidy minded lot, have taken to scrawling on unused bits of microprocessors rather than taking to the streets and having a go at public buildings. It's quite civic minded, I'd say. You'll need a Java-enabled browser for about half of what's on show and the rest of the interesting content is plain old graphics. Fun for all.

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