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My inner geekiness speaks:

First, OMG I want a Nexus 7. Let me be perfectly clear that I do not need one. But the combination of form factor, function, and price leaves me itching for the one device that does most of what I want, is both portable and essential. Thank you MicroCenter, for the chance to see and touch it. We really are getting close to the electronic notebook (anyone remember the DynaBook?) that actually works. I just might have to put this on my Christmas list. On the other hand, I suspect the right thing to do is wait until AFTER Christmas.

Second, in the process of poking around to define availability of essential programs, I stumbled across Kingsoft Office for Android. It's free for that platform, and, like LibreOffice, a reasonably solid replacement for Microsoft Office. Today was the first time I'd heard of it. If you have an Android device, grab it.

Third, after some disappointing downloads for office software for the iPad, I trashed two Openoffice.org based products I'd bought (I haven't given links because I don't recommend them) to pay for Polaris Office. $12.95. It's clean, fast, saves to both Google Docs and Dropbox, is much simpler and easier to use than any similar thing I've found on this platform, and looks good. There's some stuff that's missing, natch. But ... pretty good.

Fourth, here's a chance to grab software and do good at the same time. Try Softmaker for Windows or Linux here.

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