Hurrah! OpenOffice 3.0 has been released, but you'll have to wait a bit before testing this update of the open source answer to Microsoft Office.

That is because since the release, the OpenOffice.org site has been swamped with downloads. Now the site simply has a statement that its technical teams are trying to come up with a solution.

That downtime should serve as a warning to Microsoft, indicating that a lot of people are turning to OpenOffice. I use both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, and really for the price, the free version is almost as good.

However, some reviews by those lucky enough to get it first indicate that OpenOffice's contributors have solved document incompatibility problems with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 file format and Office 2007 import filters.

So there is no need to worry that those with Office 2007 cannot read OpenOffice files and vice versa.

The new features also include options that allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time, and additions to the suite's drawing and charting tools. The designers have also updated the Mac version, which now runs as a native OS X application, says a reviewer at TGdaily.com.

That so many people are using the suite, which includes software similar to Excel and PowerPoint, provides some much needed competition to Microsoft's dominance in the segment.

As an aside I note that Microsoft has announced it will switch back to the use of 'Windows' for the next version of its operating system. Windows 7 is due to be released next year. It will be as if Vista had never existed. I curse Vista whenever I turn on my laptop and waste up to seven minutes of my life waiting to access my desktop.

Perhaps Microsoft should provide Windows 7 as a free upgrade to Vista users. I guess I cannot imagine anything better than Windows XP, but then I value the beauty of practicality more than I do added makeup.

But since I am not a power business user, others might have more of an opinion on whether Vista really was a step up, or just more face powder for the sake of it.

I cannot understand music buffs who wear earphones emitting music so loud that they might as well be carrying around mini speakers.

Now a European study making the rounds confirms the obvious: lots of those listening to personal music players at a high volume could end up with permanent hearing damage.

The opinion of the EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks said this week that 5-10 percent of personal music player listeners risk permanent hearing loss, if they have it on for more than one hour per day each week at high volume settings.

While it takes at least five years for the hearing loss to kick in, I'm sure some people will have reduced hearing given the volumes I have heard on planes, trains and outdoor spaces. Perhaps this silliness is the same reason some car owners jack up the volume - the need to impress others with their music taste.

While you can't change the behaviour of the adults and peer-pressured teens, at least parents can try to do something, before their children become even harder of hearing.

Here is a good test on the Web. Can you correctly order 100 hues? It is a test of patience and eyesight, but with a serious side. X-Rite, which sells colour calibration tools, created the online test so you can tell how well you can distinguish between subtle differences in hue.

You get to drag and drop 100 coloured squares in four compartments into the right order.

At the end you get a score and an indication of where you are deficient. I scored a 13 out of 100, which is not bad given that zero is the top score. Test yourself, but it is difficult to find at www.xrite.com. Instead use a search engine and type in 'FM100 Hue Test' to get to the right page.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com.