Kaufbeuren, Germany - The basic version of the free office software suite, OpenOffice, packs in a lot of functionality. Yet for some users it's just not enough. Fortunately it doesn't need to be. A variety of extensions, most available for free, can be used to add even more pep to the standard version. This type of modular software construction is familiar to users of web browsers like Firefox and Opera as an effective way to integrate expanded capabilities. As with OpenOffice itself, these are free software add-ons developed by enthusiastic developers from the OpenOffice community.

Bonn - Hackers have started trying to hit people where they live by distributing e-mails with fake news of local atrocities in the hope of getting people to open a link and expose their computer to danger. One trick is to send out an e-mail with a subject line reading, "At least 18 killed in your city," according to the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

The included link as though it leads to a Reuters news article, but secretly delivers a damaging program to the system, if the user clicks on a video player. The only safe option is to delete the e-mail without opening the link.

Washington - If you are looking at a web page with a list of useful links, you can have Internet Explorer give you a printout of just those links. Simply open the File menu, and click Print. From the Print dialogue box, select the Options tab, and then click the check box labelled "Print table of links." You'll get a handy printout of all the links on the page. --------

Washington, April 11 : A Japanese robotics company called Cyberdyne has designed an Iron Man-like exoskeleton to help people with weak muscles or disabilities move.

The company describes it as Hybrid Assistive Limb-5 (HAL-5).

"When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneuron (sic), moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence," Fox News quoted the English-language section of the Cyberdyne Web site as explaining.

"At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. ''HAL'' catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer," the site said.

The failure of merger talks with Sun Microsystems could not stop the Big Blue from inking new deals and agreements. The Armonk, New York based International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) on Thursday declared that it has signed a seven-year deal with Sun Life Financial and five-year outsourcing deal with Sainsbury's.