Microsoft Corp. finally got its chance to reboot its reputation Thursday, launching a new edition of Windows that it hopes will encourage more PC buyers to get back into stores.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer celebrated the arrival of Windows 7 in New York with a few hundred people who had helped test early versions of the software that runs PCs. One of them, technology consultant, Jonathan Kay, flew from Toronto to attend.

"Windows 7 will redeem Windows," said Kay, 27.

Some retailers had opened at midnight to give customers an early shot at buying a new PC or a disc that they could use to put Windows 7 on their existing computers. Such upgrade discs start at $120.

Among the stores was a Fry's Electronics in Renton, Wash., several miles south of Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond. Mike Naramor, 55, who runs a consulting business called My Computer Guy, was one of about 50 people who were waiting outside when Fry's opened.

"We're geeks, that's what geeks do," he said. "This is our excitement."

Read more: Microsoft hopes for a fresh start with Windows 7

Netbook sales will continue to be strong for the foreseeable future - the only question is how strong.

Between 25 and 30 million of the little fellows will be sold this year, but according to a report Monday by the Taiwanese tech-news site DigiTimes, "some netbook players" are forecasting that 2010 will remain flat, with a like number being sold next year.

However, DigiTimes also notes that the president of Compal Electronics, Ray Chen, is more bullish about netbooks, predicting that their sales may hit 35 million in 2010.

Seeing as how Compal makes netbooks for such heavyweights as HP and Acer, we believe he may have some inside information about his customers' projections.

Today's prognostications come a few days after last Thursday's report by the researchers and analysts at Canalys, which might be best summarized by one quote: "The impact of netbooks has been profound."

Read more: Netbook sales set to soar - or not

Not even the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression could slow the ongoing explosion of traffic over international Internet connections, and service providers are still building to accommodate it.

The world economy slid into crisis about a year ago, crippled by key events such as the bankruptcy filing by investment bank Lehman Brothers, which occurred one year ago Tuesday. But between mid-2008 and mid-2009, the volume of Internet traffic between countries has actually grown faster than the prior year, according to research company Telegeography.

International Internet traffic has grown at 79 percent since last year, up from 61% in 2008, a study released Monday found, according to a Telegeography press release. The study focused on links between, rather than within, countries.

Read more: Recession hasn't slowed global Internet traffic

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is out for! Lots of new features and fixes for old ones, the biggest upgrade I've noticed is a major speed-up on startup/load times from Firefox 3.0.x.

Download from here.