I spend most of my time attempting to bring friends the latest news, hottest new hardware and software, and the very latest in technology advancements. While it’s true that I post a few humorous things at times, I know that I still need to take time to lighten up. I decided that, tonight, we’d end the week on a slightly more thought-provoking note.

Do you believe in aliens? I’m not talking about illegal immigrants, folks. I’m referring to “intelligent” life on other planets. Extraterrestrials!

How can you say (with certainty) that humans are the only sentient beings in the universe? Isn’t that rather presumptuous?

The question of the day is: do you believe that intelligent life exists in this universe (beyond planet Earth)? Have you ever had a close encounter of the first, second, or third kind? Are you an ET, yourself?

While I’ve never been a witness to any such event, I do believe that “aliens” exist (just as much as I believe that Jesus existed, even though I’ve never met the dude). I also believe we have some intelligent life floating around the Internet:

• If you haven’t tried 7Zip yet, you may want to take a look at it now.
• Are you a fan of the time machine clock?
• Older adults remember the good times.
• Are you scared of heights, yet love to fly?
• Is network television dead in the water?
• AOL is the new Microsoft.
• Do men cheat more often than women do?
• Are you more productive with a laptop or a desktop computer?
• Google Wave is up and running.
• Where will YOU be in ten years?
• Netflix is coming to the Wii.
• Why should businesses engage in social media?
• Is the cost of ownership for a Mac actually less than a Windows machine?
• What is ISO14001, and why should I care?

Is your computer feeling not-so-very-intelligent right now? Smarten ‘er up through the software center before too long.

Do You Believe in Aliens?

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I have been using TypeWith.me constantly since it became available. Having to collaborate with others on a document in real-time isn’t always easy to do. However, using TypeWith.Me is completely simple. The service can handle 16 people at a time, all editing and working together to create an amazing document.

If this looks like EtherPad… it’s not. It IS based on EtherPad’s open-source code, which has been released by Google. A lot of us liked the way EtherPad worked, even if we didn’t like the name. Since EtherPad may now disappear at any given time, Jake and I decided to work together to create TypeWith.Me. We believe we have come up with the perfect solution.

I KNOW many of you may complain and whine, and claim that Google Wave is better or easier. You are wrong, my friends. Google Wave requires you to register, and it’s not as simple for everyone to use. When you have people from all levels of computing needing to work together, TypeWith.Me provides the perfect solution.

If you take a look at a document, you’ll notice different colors in the text. Those represent the different authors who are working on the document at any given time. TypeWith.Me also gives you constant auto-saves, so that you can restore anytime you need to.

You can use lists, bolding, underlining, and more – just as you can with other popular document collaboration software. This one, though, is just easy to use. It’s a clean interface, and it’s not going to beg you to donate or register!

TypeWith.Me is perfect for office collaboration, or for classmates in a school or college setting!

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Better Than Google Docs – Etherpad Alternatives

Everywhere you look today, the Internet is abuzz with news of the iPad. I’ve been attempting to do some work for hours now, yet I keep being interrupted by well-meaning people who all are demanding to know if I’m going to get one for myself or not. Yes – I am! Kat, however, is not. She adamantly states she doesn’t want one, and is tired of hearing about them already. I say she isn’t American, but that’s an argument for another day.

The funny thing is that several people in our chat room are “dying” to have an iPad for their very own. When someone asks them “Well, WHY do you want it so much?”, many of them don’t even have an answer to that. Another example… Kat’s sister told her earlier that she “has to have” an iPad. When Kat asked her why, the answer was a simple “it’s new, it’s hot and it looks great!”. Her sister didn’t even know what things are included (and what is NOT included) on the device. She just knew she “had” to have one.

This happens every time an anticipated device is released. Everyone has to have one. Remember the lines for the iPhone? What I don’t understand is why so many people claim to need a device, simply because it is new. Is it really that necessary to have what everyone else has? Doesn’t it matter whether or not a particular gadget will serve your needs properly? Have we truly lost sight of what is important when it comes to buying electronics and computer equipment?

What have you read today that is NOT related to the iPad? There have actually been a lot of things posted in our community, dealing with all sorts of subjects that aren’t even remotely related to Apple or their announcement. Hopefully you’ve taken the time to check some of it out!

• Fortron is bringing out a bronze-certified PSU lineup.
• Protect your computers from common websites and even more common threats.
• Are you interested in helping shape the future of Lockergnome?
• Facebook will be using McAfee to clean up their site.
• What are your thoughts on Google Wave?
• Has Apple lost over a million dollars to iPhone App pirates?
• Perhaps we should write more, and link less.
• Windows 7 was your idea, so what do you love about it?
• Are you going to be buying an iPad?
• Students now have their very own Ubuntu Linux distro!
• Mass Effect 2 has been released to Intergalactic acclaim!
• Just for fun: What are your favorite pizza toppings?
• Republicans are replying to comments about the State of the Union Address on Facebook!
• An ex-Air Force officer says the U.S. should be using Dirigibles.

Don’t forget to take time to browse through our software center to see what great new deals we have for you today!

Why Do You Want an iPad?

A few moments ago, I read a tweet by my friend Chris Brogan. It said simply: Know what kills you in life? Not living.. Holy wow…

Chris is right. Sure you’ll continue to breathe if you don’t go out and embrace every moment of life. But is that really living? I don’t think it is, no. Standing in place and letting time slip by isn’t living. Staying stagnant in your career, relationships and personal growth aren’t living. Convincing yourself that your life, mind and soul are okay as they already are isn’t living.

Living is about embracing life. It’s about always pushing yourself to do more… to be more. It’s about challenging your mind, opening it to new experiences and learning opportunities. Living is about changing directions sometimes so that you never become stuck in a rut. Living life means that you are constantly growing and changing in every aspect you possibly can.

Those few words from Chris are very powerful, and provide much food for thought. What do you think? How do you define living life? It will be very interesting to see what everyone has to say on this subject, and to learn how varied our opinions can be at times.

This wasn’t the only thought-provoking thing I’ve read so far today! As always, our community members are busy producing some excellent content. Are you one of them? If not, you can join us in our community today!

• Microsoft has posted a fix for the RMS bug.
• Facebook is the newest portal for social media Identity Theft.
• Could the environment be a contributing factor as to why many women aren’t interested in computer science?
• Is it time to Google Wave goodbye?
• What is the easiest way to share pictures, videos and audio files on Twitter?
• Can an Octopus make tools from things found in their environment?
• Norway and Sweden will be the first to use 4G services.
• Could social network searching cause security problems to rise in 2010?
• Another month – another Adobe exploit.
• Does stand-alone defragmentation software really make a difference?
• How do we implement energy-efficient data centers?
• Skinit! – your device, your design, your style.
• Are you waiting for the famed White Sales?
• Where should you put what matters most in a message?

Today in our downloads center, you’ll find a handful of excellent deals on programs for your Mac OS X system! Be sure to check back daily to see what’s new.

Living Life to the Fullest

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I ran into Ben from Mashable recently, and asked him for his thoughts on Google Wave. Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year.

Ben says that Google Wave is a “very, very interesting project”, and that it could be the next big form of communication. His favorite feature is Windows – style editing. Say you have a group of friends and want to plan a party. Instead of sending a bajillion emails back and forth, you can just edit the original email in the bottom “pane”. You can edit messages at any point, and see everyone’s conversation at once. It’s a completely new way to communicate, and more effective.

With Gmail and Exchange… it’s just different. For attachments, you would have to click, add the attachment, download the attachment… blah! With Google Wave, you simply drag and drop whatever you need to share among the group. You can embed your own Wave into things like YouTube, your blog, and more. It can replace a normal commenting system! There’s even an iPhone App being released along with Wave.

Google Wave is open-source, so you can build anything you want with it. Create desktop apps, web apps, an Adobe Air app… or make it work for your Exchange account (like I rely on!). This is definitely going to be something to watch unfold, and sounds like it’s going to be an absolutely amazing service.

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What is Google Wave?