So here we are one year on. Thanks to all those Earthlings who have shared their thoughts, those that have e-mailed me, stopped me in the street, in the Doctor?s surgery and even on the Cavello Bay Ferry!!

For this one-year anniversary edition, I?m going to share with you where we?re going to head for next, in our continuing mission to boldly go where only geeks have gone before.

To do so, let?s spend a moment looking back on where we?ve been covering: We started out looking at the basic hardware elements and components of a PC, working out from the motherboard and processor, briefly covering the ports on the rear and we finally looked at the monitor keyboard and mouse. Once we had covered the basic hardware we have moved to the basic operating system and software applications, including a close look at the boot process, some basic navigation techniques and a glance at Microsoft Office.

We are Earthlings who have come a long way in 12 short months.

Now we can move on to some good stuff: Over the next few months I?m going to take a look at what we use our computers for, going in-depth with some useful and interesting websites you can go to that will help us Earthlings navigate our way to Planet Geek. We?re also going to take a look at what is called ?gaming? ? the playing of games on PCs ? some of the pitfalls, a minimum specification that we can use for gaming and some of the vendors out there. We?ll delve into that horrible topic: Internet Security and I?ll break open what we mean by ?Spyware , adware and viruses? ? we?ll look at the various bits of software designed to assist us in preventing and fixing these attacks etc. I want to spend some time looking at digital music and digital imaging ? including some do?s and don?ts, a quick look at digital cameras and connection technologies, a look at some MP3 players and the legal technicalities involved in downloading music using certain peer-to-peer software applications.

Later, we?ll look at some more sophisticated uses of computers ? basic money management and accounting applications, design and drawing packages and desktop publishing.

Of course, judging by the overwhelming interest in my Q&A approach several weeks ago, I?ll give you the chance to write in and I?ll answer your questions right here, in the column. You?ll even get a chance to have a go yourself at doing some research ? if you are an Earthling, have a topic that will interest other Earthlings, can write 700 words in plain understandable English, I want to hear from you.

So, a full year on, and the journey is just beginning: I couldn?t have dreamed of the interest generated by this column when I first approached The Royal Gazette with the idea, and it?s through your own enthusiasm for the column that I continue to write. Thanks again and I look forward to another year of Computers for Earthlings!!!

@EDITRULE:

Next time: Some Earthling-centric websites will be revealed and reviewed!