Not sure if your broadband is performing up to par? Are there tweaks that may help you surf the web faster? This information and more can be found at Broadband Reports.com. Originally known as DSL Reports, the site updated its image in the past to indicate that it serves all broadband users, not just those of DSL.

Selecting Tools from the toolbar takes you to a number of options for information and test including Speed Tests and Line Quality tests. The Speed Tests page is probably the most helpful if you’ve noticed a slowdown in your broadband internet connection speeds or need to identify your public IP address. Speed tests are especially helpful to assist in determining whether the problem is local to your computer or not.

For the 14th year, PC Magazine has compiled a list of what they believe are the top utilities for the year in their latest Superguide. I'm happy to see several of my favorites on the list: X1, SnagIt 8.0 and PartionMagic among others. This is a list that is definelty worth reading and keeping.

For those of you looking for applications that you can load on a portable USB storage drive and take with you, Wikipedia has this list of applications for consideration. The list includes email clients, web browsers, word processors, PDF readers and more.

For programs written specifically for MS Windows to run from USB storage drives, check out the U3 specification and U3 Newbie Guide at Everything USB.

PCMAG.COM has an intersting tip on using Microsoft's Document Scanning Tool included in Office 2003 to simplify your scanning taks. In conjunction with the Document Imaging tool, you can use the Document Scanning tool to simplify complex scanning tasks. For more details see the article.