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Having invested in that giant TV, you’re going to need somewhere to put it. Check out Home Cinema UK, a retailer that specialises in stands for LCD and plasma TVs - and also offers free UK delivery.

It’s pretty important to think about this - you can’t just balance your telly on a handy coffee table and expect to get the most out of it, never mind the consequences of it toppling.

Luckily Home Cinema UK does a buyers’ guide that should help you get a feel for the subject. Here it is:

Guide to AV Furniture

Home cinema is an exciting world filled with plasma displays, DVD recorders and multi-channel sound systems. It’s easy to get carried away with the technological marvels that are transforming the way we watch television and view movies in the home.

In all the excitement it’s easy to neglect an area that is actually critical to getting the most out of any installation – the furniture those shiny boxes are going to sit on.

Many are tempted to make do with existing tables, shelves or bookcases, but this is a serious mistake. If you don’t allocate part of your budget for dedicated AV furniture you are short-changing your system and yourself.

The market for AV furniture is estimated at around £1 billion and there are some compelling reasons why so many people are spending so much money. Read on here…

Spectral is one of the manufacturers it is particularly recommending at the moment - for the range’s elegance, simplicity and functionality. So definitely well worth a look.

For another view of the topic of AV furniture, we also suggest having a look at this buyers’ guide on the AVReview website.

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Have you ever wondered about those applications that promise to let you use your very own computer desktop remotely, no matter what machine you’re actually on?

Sounds like a wonderful idea, doesn’t it? But surely it can’t be as simple as all that…

Well, Dustin M Wax, at the extremely useful Lifehack.org, has been taking a look at the various ‘web-top’ applications on offer.

His conclusions:

In theory, this means that wherever you went, you’d be able to access your work through a common interface and set of tools. All with a single login, too.

In practice, it’s not quite so simple. Even making allowances for the varying states of development web desktops are in at the moment, none of them offer a compelling experience for web-based workers. I have looked at and played with almost two dozen of these applications, and so far haven’t found any that I could integrate very well into my daily routine.

But there’s promise. Some of these apps are well worth watching, especially as they begin to interconnect with other services like Zoho Writer and Google Docs for document editing, Box.net’s OpenBox service for file storage, and other third-party services and plugins. I’ve highlighted three of the most promising webtop services below, followed by all the rest.

Read the full article, and see which ones he liked best, here >>

An article by Wendy M. Grossman in The Guardian today suggests this is a real possibility and offers some sound advice on choosing safer passwords:

Just as you hit the button to pay for your online purchase it happens: “First, create a username and password.”

The temptation is to pick something easy: your name, your spouse’s name, or a standard password you use everywhere. But if the site will store your credit card details, or is one you use for banking or trading shares, think more carefully.

Passwords are a perennial problem. They’re hard to think up, to remember and protect. Worse, they’re not in themselves secure - your data depends on the carefulness of many strangers. The security of the HMRC discs with the Child Benefit database lost some weeks ago - Zip-encrypted with a password - depends on the strength of that password.

Since Zip encryption uses the AES method, which the US deems good enough for officially secret documents, the HMRC files should be safe from a “brute force” attack. But other password encryption is threatened in quite a different way. Read full article here…