In computer news this week:

Lead: roaring with your mouse ! Making your opinions heard via the internet .

Years ago I read a book about talking back to your tv, and ever since then I've been doing that. The premise being that when you see and hear something on tv that you don't agree with it - immediately verbally refute it. Otherwise the idea might sink into your subconscious and start changing your views. Now the internet provides me with another way to talk back to what I see on tv.

For the past 3 weeks I've been watching the war coverage, and there's been several commentators that I didn't agree with. One was a news anchor for CNN, whose early coverage to me seemed extremely biased. When a news channel wraps itself in the banner of being the most trusted news source in the world, I think you need to speak up when you feel you don't trust their coverage. So I sent off an email which provided me with a way to vent my feelings and provide me with a catharsis. I just walk from my tv to my computer - look up the website of the tv channel and find their email listings - and send my rebuttal.

Another reporter they dug up was a guy who wrote a computer book I reviewed on Raw Bytes several years ago. He was one of many wanna-be's who tried to become a dotcom millionaire, and wrote a book about how he didn't do it. I'm not sure how this background qualified him to be a war correspondent, and I let him know that his war coverage was as inept as his internet venture.

Then there were a couple ex-generals hawking their own books who irritated me too, but they weren't important enough to have their own email addresses, so I had to use the generic one for the show. I never heard back from any of these people - you can imagine the email traffic they all get, but it made me feel a lot better to vent my opinions back to them.

The internet lets you talk to virtually anyone in the world, and I find myself using this communication feature more and more for a variety of purposes.

A few years ago I saw a history channel show on tv dinners, which I recalled subsisting on as a teenager - my idea of gourmet cooking. It made me hungry for a tv dinner, so I went to a store and bought one, took it home and heated it up. It was terrible in both flavor and size. On the box was their website and email address, so I walked over to my computer and sent my opinion. They sent me a couple free coupons for a couple more terrible tv dinners.

When my daughters were little I used to tell them stories about living back on the East coast and how there were certain candy bars I loved as a kid that I thought were not made any longer. For a recent birthday my oldest daughter remembered this and found and sent me a box of Necco Sky Bars - my childhood favorite. I thanked her and the company via email.

My most recent battle has been over the American icon Crackerjack - another childhood favorite. I had some carmel corn at Christmas and I felt like something was missing - candied peanuts - and I remembered Crackerjack. So I bought a big bag of Crackerjack specifically for the peanuts and there were like 9 peanuts in the entire bag. I had to pour the bag into a big bowl to find any peanuts. I found Crackerjack on the internet -http://www.crackerjack.com and they show tantalizing pictures of crackerjack that have as high as a 2:1 popcorn to peanut ratio.

I sent them a funny email "whar's the peanuts" and they eventually sent me a brief letter and 2 free coupons, and both bags I got with the coupons were virtually peanutless. The letter said they had forwarded my comments to their manufacturing facility.

I think all the peanuts are on their website....

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

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