The choice of software for professional graphics designers is without a doubt Adobe Photoshop but its cost and wide-ranging features are more than we mere mortals (well, at least for web•Wiz) could ever use.

For those starting out in graphics design on the computer or for occasional jobs to create a graphic or two for your web site, it's best to look for some of the free offerings. Paint Shop Pro V4.15SE, available on a CD cover disk a month or two ago, gives an introduction to computer graphics and design.

You might want to just apply some special effects to clip art, and Ultimate Effects (UFX) is a free download to accomplish that sort of task; load your graphics and browse through the many different effects with just a click. If you want to do some design work, download the free version of Ultimate Paint to get a feel for this type of application.

Perhaps realising that about 7.5 million new pages are added to the Web each day might ease your frustration at finding (or not finding) the information you want when using a search engine. More importantly, though, is the fact that not all search engines are the same and you probably need to do some research on how they work to find the best for your needs. For that particular task, start at Search Engine Watch to review all the available search engines and read through the tips section.

In some instances, you may need to find some sites that possibly contain the information you want. So check if the site has its own site search facility, and, if so, use that resource rather than a search engine that searches the whole Web. For example, web•Wiz Online has its own site search which is based on every word being indexed.

Here are three search engines you may want to try next time you're looking: Google, HotBot and Metacrawler, that latter searching for you by using a number of search engines simultaneously.

Tinkering with older, discarded computers can be a great learning adventure. But what can you do when orginal manuals are no longer available to help you get them going again? Perhaps start at Trish's Escape from Hardware Hell to find links to all most of the resources you'll need - information about hard disks, video adaptors, monitors, keyboards, memory and motherboards.

Pete's PC Refurbishing is another good resource, particularly in regard to information on changing settings in the BIOS of a computer, a procedure that needs great care.

Motherboards.org will be another site you'll have to visit. It contains full schematics of thousands of motherboards so you'll get information about memory type, BIOS type and jumper settings.

MSN Explorer acts as a convenient point from where you can access your favourite sites on the Web, look after your email, carry out searches, and join in chats, all from the one single program. As well, up to nine people can have their own settings when they go online.

The system requirements for MSN Explorer are fairly basic and it runs on Windows 95, 98 and Me. The only other requirement is that Internet Explorer 5 is installed on your computer. If you'd like to simplify your Web experience or enable everybody in the family to have their own preferences for Web access, MSN Explorer is worth looking at, especially considering it's free!

Our National Library's Gateway to Australian libraries is a handy resource, not only for links to online libraries, but also for all sorts of government and non-government information, news and Australian search engines.

For those wanting more Australian resources to help out with those difficult homework assignments might like to visit the Tea Tree Gully library. Otherwise, browse through the Wollongong Library's list of homework sites.

There will be some bleary-eyed sports fans around at the moment, in fact for the next few weeks. Wimbledon is about to host its finals and the Ashes begins tonight. To keep up with all the tennis and cricket previews and news, you can visit the official Wimbledon site and the ABC's Ashes 2001 site.

When all the sport that's on presently is too much, download the free arcade game named Frozen Fruits where you have to control a bouncing ball to destroy all the frozen food.