By Diana Ezell

If you're like me and find yourself at home this holiday season with nothing much to do, you'll probably end up diving into the depths of your ever-friendly computer screen. It's a good time to play around or actually get some work done on your home system. This is a great time of year to buy and try out some new software. Maybe you'll finally get around to setting up your home office. Of course, you may also find yourself setting up systems for your friends and relatives.

If you are somehow lured in to setting up a system for someone else, try to set it up to be as trouble-free as possible. It is hard sometimes to remember that maybe installing MacsBug on your grandmother's first Performa would confuse her a little. By now, I'm sure that all of the Information Alley readers are aware of the dangers of too many inits (control panels and extensions) and we will all be careful of overloading our unsuspecting friends' computers with them. This is important to keep in mind, especially if they have purchased a new computer with a small amount of RAM installed.

I am always tempted in the other direction. I have a tendency to unload a lot of "useless" software from my friends' computers. While this "less is more" theory has its virtues, it is not always the best approach. Be selective in what you "clean up" for someone. If you aren't you can expect to be called in the middle of the night from your panicky relative asking why something isn't working.

I like to say that I'm going to accomplish a lot in the way of cleaning up my computer, but I always try out new games and usually end up, staying up to the wee hours of the morning getting no work done at all. When you find a moment for yourself and you're trying out some new game software, try to remember that sometimes inexpensive games aren't always as stable as they should be. You may want to startup with only the extensions required by the game (QuickTime, for example) so that it will performs to your expectations.

Some folks aren't into gaming too much. I can understand that since I usually like puzzle games over shoot-em-up games, of which there aren't that many. There are other useful ways you can use your computer during your holiday hours. Depending on how creative you are, you could "play" with your computer and use it to make your own holiday greeting cards. The great thing about this is that you will probably learn a lot more about an application by using it than by reading the manual. If there is a good tutorial, this may be the perfect time to run through it. Even if you think you already know a lot about an application, you can sometimes discover shortcuts and tips in tutorials that you might otherwise have missed.

I don't want you to think that I'm encouraging you to spend every waking hour learning PageMaker and Photoshop or playing your new game into the middle of the night and ignoring your family completely. While your computer "needs" you during this time at home, your family may need some quality time too.

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