Taking video that has been downloaded from the Internet and playing it on the television can involve buying expensive, cumbersome gadgets. SanDisk Corp. has come up with a relatively cheap, low-tech alternative.

The Milpitas, Calif., company -- a maker of flash memory cartridges and MP3 music players -- today will begin selling Sansa TakeTV, a small device that stores digital video so it can be physically moved between a personal computer and television set. The idea is to avoid the need to use a home network or a specialized device, which typically receives video signals and displays them on a TV.

SanDisk also is introducing a test version of an Internet video service, called Fanfare, that will compete with Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store. SanDisk plans to eventually stock Fanfare with free, advertising-supported TV shows.

SanDisk is the latest company to attempt to connect televisions to the array of video available on the Internet. So far, none of the offerings, including Apple's $299 Apple TV, has gained much of an audience, largely because the products are either expensive or technically challenging to set up.

"Today, people are downloading content to the PC and when it comes to transferring it to the TV, they're cursing," said Daniel Schreiber, senior vice president at SanDisk.

With TakeTV, users plug the device into a USB port on their PCs, load it with video files and physically shuttle the device to the TV, where they plug it into a cradle connected to the standard video ports on their television sets. TakeTV has a remote control for navigating among the videos stored on the device. The product sells for $100 for a model with four gigabytes of storage, capable of holding about five hours of video, and a $150 eight-gigabyte model with room for about 10 hours of video.

The device is essentially a souped-up version of USB drives, which use data-storage chips known as flash memory and are used to store and transport all types of computer documents and files. SanDisk executives said users commonly use those storage devices to move data between PCs in the home over "sneakernets" -- meaning they physically walk the devices between machines -- because many can't figure out how to transfer data between PCs and home networks. The company believes the same phenomenon may prevail when it comes to moving video from the PC to the TV.

"It's about as straightforward a product as there is on the market," said Danielle Levitas, an analyst at market-research firm IDC.

TakeTV will play videos in a variety of different formats that are common on the Internet, including DivX and Xvid. Many pirated movies and television shows available through Internet file-sharing technologies like BitTorrent use those formats, and SanDisk, while it said it doesn't approve of TakeTV being used with such content, hasn't taken any technical measures to prevent it.

SanDisk devised Fanfare as a legitimate source of television programming that works with TakeTV. The service is initially short on content, with only CBS Corp. and Showtime, a unit of CBS, among the major providers. Kate Purmal, senior vice president and general manager of SanDisk's digital content group, said the company is negotiating with all the major television networks for shows.

The company eventually plans to offer most of its content free, supported by advertising. For now, Fanfare has a mix of free and paid shows that typically cost $1.99 an episode. "We're in the business of selling memory, and nothing sells memory better than video and nothing sells memory better than free video," said Ms. Purmal.

The service, from a company called Dial Directions Inc., is free -- except for the cost of receiving text messages on your phone. After the first 30 days of use, a one-line advertisement will start appearing at the bottom of the last text message sent per set of directions (some take multiple text messages to include all of the steps).

The service was launched in July, but this week marks its expansion to metropolitan areas as the company attempts to take the service nationwide.

To receive these directions, you must first tell the service what you're looking for. The female voice representing Dial Directions is friendly and doesn't sound stiff and robotic. She offers to give instructions on how to use the service if you don't know how. After telling her what you're looking for, she asks what city you're in and where you're trying to go.

The IBM package, called Symphony, can be downloaded free of charge at http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa

Symphony is based on software available from Open Office, a development project that also provides the basis of Sun Microsystems Corp.'s Star Office and a Google Inc. desktop-software suite.

By introducing Symphony in an internationally recognized information-display standard called the Open Document Format, IBM also hopes to boost acceptance of that standard, which doesn't work well with Microsoft products. The stated aim of the international standard is to allow documents to be read by multiple software applications, rather than requiring any one system.

The Symphony introduction comes on the heels of Microsoft's failure last week at the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization to have its own document coding approved as an international standard.

Microsoft says it has sold 71 million licenses of its latest version of Office in the fiscal year ended June 30. But IBM hopes the move could open buyers' eyes to alternatives. Users of Symphony software will be able to view and edit most documents created in Microsoft's Word, IBM says.

IBM says it will provide support for Symphony, but it hasn't determined at what price.

Earlier versions of MS Office can't open these files due to the new formats. Microsoft has made available a free auto-conversion patch for the older Windows Office versions, but most people don't have this patch. (It can be found at "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.")

Unless you can persuade all of your collegues and coworkers to install these workarounds, I suggest you change a setting in Word 2007 so that, henceforth, all of your files will be saved in the traditional "doc" format.

To make the change, first click on the round "Office Button" at the top left of Word 2007. Then, at the lower right of the window that appears, click on "Word Options." In the next screen that comes up, click on "Save" in the column at the left. In the panel that appears at the right, you'll notice an option called "Save Files in this format," with a drop-down list of choices next to it. Display the list of choices by clicking on the arrow and select "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)". Then, click OK at the bottom of the window.

Microsoft warns that some new features in Word 2007 won't translate into the old format, but I believe this will have no effect in 99% of cases.

Colorblindness affects millions of people. It's estimated that about 8% of males and 0.5% of females in the U.S., Canada and Europe have some type of colorblindness.

There is software available, though, that can help colorblind people detect the differences among colors on their computer screens.

Tenebraex Corp., a Boston-based company that works primarily on defense technology, recently put on the market a $34 program called eyePilot, which offers several tools to help people navigate color graphics and Web sites.

One of the software's functions is a "gray" tool, which turns everything on the screen gray other than the chosen color, allowing for everything in the selected color to be seen more easily. For example, on a subway map, where lines of different colors could be difficult for a colorblind person to follow, clicking on any one of the lines will make it stand out against a gray background.

EyePilot also offers a "flash" tool, which makes all instances of a given color flash as white or black when the user clicks on an area of the screen with that color. This can be particularly useful for reading maps or charts that include a color key that tells the reader what data are represented by each color.

There are a couple of free options that also may be helpful to colorblind people. One is software called Visolve.

Visolve sharpens the contrasts on a screen by brightening or darkening the colors that colorblind people have trouble discerning -- it can make reds brighter and greens darker, or blues brighter and yellows darker. It can also make a given color stand out by darkening all other colors on the screen. And it can draw different hatch patterns on colors to make them easier to tell apart.

Visolve can be downloaded from www.Ryobi-sol.co.jp/visolve/en/.

Another tool is available at Vischeck.com, the Web site of Vischeck of Menlo Park, Calif.

Vischeck offers what it calls a "Daltonizing" program, named for the British scientist John Dalton, who was a pioneer of colorblindness studies. This program, which is a free Web-based service, alters images by taking colors that are hidden to colorblind people and moving them to a range of the color spectrum where they are visible again.

Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal

Kopiloff is accused of buying more than $73,000 worth of goods with the credit cards. The theft affected at least 83 people. The Justice Department says this is the first case of its kind.

Children often use Limewire to exchange music files. The songs are usually copyrighted, so sharing them is illegal. It can land the kids' parents in hot water.

This is actually a serious problem. According to legitimate studies, millions of computers have been hijacked. They are used to send spam. Or they are grouped with other zombies into armies, called botnets. They are used to attack and to bring down Web sites. And their owners probably don't have a clue.

The truth is, if your security is up to date, you're probably OK. Computers are typically hijacked through Trojans. These programs are generally distributed by spam. They pose as something desirable, but are actually malware.

Oops! You clicked on an attachment

If you're the kind of person who just has to open spam or you accidently clicked on an attachment, you could be infected. Otherwise, you probably aren't.

If the Trojan has been around awhile, your security programs should find it. Antivirus programs catch some of them, as do anti-spyware applications.

Firewalls are also important in this battle. The malware on your computer has to communicate with another machine. It does this through the Internet. So you need a firewall that blocks outbound transmissions.

The Windows firewall is not adequate. You have to buy more software to make it work well. Rather than do that, I use ZoneAlarm. It's free. And it will not let a program out without your permission.

If your firewall blocks something, check the file's name online. If you're still not sure, say no. You can always change your mind later.

Let's review. Hackers have turned millions of computers into zombies. Nobody wants to be a zombie. So how do we avoid that fate?

Trojans usually come to us via spam. Prevention is the key. Don't open spam. Don't open  attachments you weren't expecting. Don't go to some Web site on a stranger's word. You could get hit by a drive-by download.

In other words, practice common sense. You'll be OK.

However, we all make mistakes. If you get hit, your security software could save the day. Be sure it is up to date.

Also, use a firewall. Don't depend on the Windows firewall. It is inadequate. I like ZoneAlarm.

These Trojans are sophisticated programs. Paranoia pays these days.

Excerpts for this article appear in the Sept. 8, 2007 Kim Komando Newsletter