BUILD IT OR BUY IT

When it comes time for you to buy a new computer, what are you going to do? Are you going to buy one of those prebuilt monstrosities that contains unknown hardware components? You'd be much better off doing the research, picking out all the individual components, and building your new computer from scratch. Not only will you have the personal satisfaction of building your own computer, but you'll be able to pick out each component best suited for your needs. If you should ever have a problem, you'll have a better idea where to look for the solution.

Top vendors Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba say sales of their tablet PCs--tiny portable computers fitted with pens, touch screens and handwriting-recognition technology--are exceeding predictions made before the devices' November launch. The machines are based on Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition software.

Toshiba several times has increased production of its Portege 3500 tablet, after having trouble meeting initial demand, said Mark Simons, vice president of Toshiba's transactional business group.