I purchased a Soldius1 solar charge last year to charge my granddaughter s iPod and cell phone while we where camping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It comes with seven plastic adapters for charging 250 different devices including power-hungry iPods, Zen Micro MP3 players, BlackBerrys, and mobile phones from Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Motorola. The solar charger worked just like the manufacturer said it would, and charged my granddaughter s iPod in less than 3 hours. Where we go camping there are more moose than cell phone towers, so keeping the phone charged wasn t a problem. This is a fantastic charger, but with a 1.1 watt 6 volt rating you re limited to the number of devices it can charge during the course of a day. This fact was born out when my wife and I recently took my granddaughter and two of her friends...

Computers have a jargon all their own it s a truly huge specialist vocabulary, and it can feel like an alien language if you re not used to it. If you re buying a computer, though, it helps to have a handle on at least the basics, so let s see if we can breeze through them for you quickly. OK, let s start with the fundamentals. What s inside your computer. There s the CPU central processing unit, often called the processor , which is the brain of the computer, performing its key functions. There s RAM random access memory, or just memory , which is where the computer stores what it s doing while it s switched on. And then there s the hard disk, which is a more permanent store of information and files that survives when the computer is turned off. Some computers have good CPUs, RAM and hard disks, and some don t, so it s important that you...

The root of the current crisis of undocumented immigration is a fundamental disconnect between today s economic and labor market realities and an outdated system of legal immigration. Undocumented immigration is driven in large part by a U.S. labor market that is creating a higher demand for less-skilled workers than is being met by the native-born labor force or by the current legal limits on immigration. As the past decade and a half of failed federal border-enforcement efforts make clear, immigration policies that ignore these larger economic forces merely drive migration underground rather than effectively regulate it. In short, there is an unsustainable contradiction between U.S. economic and immigration policy, with economics winning. The problem is a broken immigration system that sends the dual messages Keep Out and Help Wanted to...

For some time now I have been watching an Emmy-winning television personality and author who hosts at least four different programs on U.S. cable television s Food Network. Rachael Domenica Ray, has become one of my favorite culinary experts as her energetic personality and her smile have been enough to keep me in front of the TV screen to watch her teach simple recipes that she claims can be prepared in thirty minutes or less. Being an amateur cook myself, I was pleased to discover that she shared the same view that I have in relation to food measuring. As she emphasized, it takes away from the creative, hands-on process of cooking. Her eyeball it expression has stayed with me every time I am about to experiment with something new and taste my efforts. Even though she has been heavily criticized for her appearance, her voice, her gestures...