As a follow up to a previous column on the growing number of sites hosting movies that are now in the public domain - read black and white and mostly silent - here are two other sources I did not mention.

All public domain movies are legal to download and do whatever you want with them. EMOL.org, by Entertainment Magazine is the latest to join the lot.

The online free movie catalogue has about 200 classic films, most of which you would never watch, but some of which are great pieces of art, or have historical significance. I include Nosferatu, and its ilk in that category, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films.

Another place to go is YouTube, which has grown into a great repository of such films. However these are difficult to find unless you really know what you are looking for. Just click on YouTube's movie tab. You will get a lot of short clips, but once you find a full length feature click on it and YouTube begins to serve up the goods by suggesting other films in a similar style.

You can also search for 'Alfred Hitchcock' on the site if you want crime films for example.

A reader sent this in as a significant event in the move toward digitalisation. A press release from the US Government Printing Office (GPO) noted it had deployed digital signatures in Adobe PDF for the release of George Bush's last budget before stepping down as president. George Bush will go down in history for this last act! The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the use of digital signatures meant it is the first time the White House will not order hard copy versions of the budget, and has instead posted the budget online as fully searchable PDF documents. The move will save about 20 tonnes of paper, or roughly 480 trees, and about a million dollars over the next five years, the GPO said. The GPO has also implemented a new digital seal of authenticity for their PDF documents, including the release of the FY2009 budget.

"In the 21st century, the increasing use of electronic documents poses special challenges in verifying authenticity, because digital technology makes such documents easy to alter or copy, leading to multiple non-identical versions that can be used in unauthorised or illegitimate ways," the GPO stated.

Which department is perceived as being the least supportive of women in IT? Surprisingly it was the human resources department according to a recent survey by Microsoft and womenintechnology.co.uk

The survey of women IT workers found that when asked to rate the support they received as a female employee, respondents saw HR departments as the least supportive area with only 39 percent rating them as good or excellent, compared with other groups such as line management (47 percent); direct supervisor (57 percent); colleagues (60 percent) and juniors (51 percent).

It is nice to know that direct supervisors and colleagues were up there as being more supportive. I suppose I would give about the same relative ranking in most workplaces I have found myself in. HR departments are normally key to devising and implementing quality retention programmes but according to the survey, it seems that resources have not always been spread equally.

"Although my company supplied a basketball court, they didn't supply a crèche," said one of those surveyed.

"When the issue was raised at a company meeting, it was not well received."

As a reminder to those who missed a story that appeared in The Gazette last week, the Computer Society of Bermuda (CSB) has launched an education campaign, which includes the publishing of a guide on the Internet, and another on choosing a computer. The guides are intended for those just taking their first steps, or who need a ready checklist. The Computer Users Guide and the Internet Guide are available for download at www.csb.bm, or will soon be so.

In a recent letter the CSB also noted that it had received both good and bad feedback for publishing its Two Meg Effect Internet Report. The report tried to make sense and give guidance when choosing an internet provider in Bermuda. The CSB noted that an informal market research prior to doing the report it found that the average computer user relies on the companies selling the service to guide them on making appropriate choices and that they did not clearly understand the service they were being sold.

The CSB noted that sellers cannot always be objective to turn down a sale that is inappropriate, or highlight a better value for the computer user.

"Hence most customers were told that 256k is a better value, when the research showed that it was not," the CSB stated, noting that it had succeeded in providing Bermuda with an independent source of information. "Admittedly, one thing did surprise us," the CSB noted in a recent newsletter. " A group, who shall remain nameless, contacted the Charities Commission stating 'concern' regarding our activities as a charity." I wonder which group or groups that might be?

Send any comments or topic ideas to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com