I am mired in a corporate office during the World Cup this year. Is there any way that I can use the power of the Internet to see the games live?
A. There are plenty of places around the Web to keep up with the latest World Cup news until the international soccer tournament ends on Sunday.
ESPN360 is streaming many matches live at espn.go.com. While the service is ordinarily available only to subscribers to certain broadband providers, it is being offered without restriction through July 19. Corporate firewalls may be an issue.
The BBC (www.bbc.co.uk) is streaming all World Cup matches over its website. It says the service is available only to those living in Britain, though some blogging soccer fans have reported success with proxy servers that can evade this restriction.
If you can’t find a compatible source for streaming, there are other ways to keep up with the games. For example, Yahoo is host of the official World Cup site at fifaworldcup.yahoo.com, and Firefox users can download the Joga.com Companion extension (www.mozilla.com/ add-ons/jogacompanion), which pops up news of all the latest goals, yellow cards and match developments right in the browser window.
Q: How can I move my iTunes music from my old Mac to my new PC?
A: Music collections tend to far outlive – and outgrow – the computers they’re stored on. Built-in programs such as the Windows Files and Settings Transfer Wizard or the Mac OS X Setup Assistant can shift music files from the old machine to the new one on the same operating system over a cable connection, but it is slightly more complicated to make a move from a Mac to a PC or vice versa.
By default, Apple’s iTunes music jukebox program stores all the computer’s digital audio files in the iTunes folder on the hard drive. On a Mac, you can find this folder in the Music folder of your Home directory; on Windows 2000 or Windows XP, look inside the My Documents folder for the My Music folder to find the iTunes folder.
Before you make the move, however, make sure all your songs are in one place by going to the Advanced menu in iTunes and choosing the Consolidate Library option.
Once you get a copy of iTunes for Windows installed on the PC (free to download from www.apple.com/itunes), one fairly simple way to move all those songs from the Mac to the PC is to copy the entire iTunes folder onto an external hard drive or over a network from the old Mac to the new PC. Put this copy of the iTunes folder in the exact same place where iTunes for Windows stores it.
You may have to delete the existing iTunes folder on the PC – which will be empty anyway. Once you start up the iTunes program on the PC, your songs should be waiting for you.