Here are some great web-based alternatives to PowerPoint.

1. Google Docs Presentations: You knew that Google would have its own answer to PowerPoint, and it does with Google Docs Presentations. This program works much like its better known competitor, allowing users to add text, graphics, videos, and links to presentations.

Google Docs Presentations is free, a nice feature, and it’s easy to share presentations online with other users through Google Docs.

2. SlideRocket: Unlike Google’s offering, SlideRocket isn’t free. There’s a reason for this: This is a powerful Web-based presentation program that stands up to Microsoft PowerPoint. It’s far from a clone of PowerPoint and allows users to comment and answer polls in real time. The program also comes with an analytics feature that gives creators at least some idea of which slides are most effective.

This collaborative program also works well with sites such as Flickr or Google Docs. This makes it easy for creators to incorporate live data and content into their slide-show presentations.

3. Zoho Show: Like other alternatives to PowerPoint, Zoho Show comes with all the functions you need to create a solid visual presentation. However, it does offer a neat feature that its competitors don’t: live audio chat. This makes it easy for users to give presentations to clients who are sitting in meeting rooms across the country. It’s also easy for Zoho Show users to embed their presentations in their blogs or Web sites to share the information with a greater number of users.

Like Google Docs Presentation, Zoho Show is free for personal use.

But what about the future? How will we interact with our computers in the coming decades? Once we ditch the mouse, what comes next?

Gesture sensing

Consumers who own Wii or PlayStation video games already have an idea. Both of these game systems offer users the chance to play games and explore the Web through wireless remotes that synch with body movements. Wii players can smack a tennis ball by swinging their hands when they hold a wireless remote. They can jog in place, climb a virtual mountain, or shoot menacing robots in the same way. This is known as gesture sensing. The tech isn’t quite ready for standard computing yet. However, it’s not difficult to imagine a future in which gesture sensing becomes one of the primary modes of interacting with our computers.

Multi-touch technology

But this is just one interaction innovation. There’s also multi-touch technology. Again, iPad and other tablet users are already familiar with this. By tapping icons on their screen, they can open apps and programs. By swiping their fingers across the screen, they can flip to a new page on a website. By pinching pages, they can zoom on an image to make it larger.

Voice recognition

Another likely tech jump involves voice recognition. Rather than clicking a mouse button to open a program, users can simply tell their computers to open a particular word file or close iTunes. Some of this already exists, most notably Siri, the personal assistant built into the iPhone 4S.

No matter what happens, though, the odds are that we’ll still rely at least somewhat on the humble mouse. After all, it’s served us well for many years.

One-touch dialing

Are there certain numbers that you dial more frequently than others? With Android smartphones, you can set up one-touch dialing for those people whom you call the most. Simply press an open space on your screen and select the “Shortcuts” option. Then press Direct Dial and pick the right person from your list of contacts. Now you’ll be able to call that person simply by pressing a single button.

Home-screen shortcuts

You can customize your Android phone so that you spend less time searching for your favorite web pages, too, by moving your top websites directly to your phone’s home screen.

Do this by pressing and holding onto any site listed in your browser’s bookmarks. Soon, a list of options will pop up. Press the “Add Shortcut to Home” option, and the selected web page will now appear on your phone’s home page.

Organizing with folders

By creating folders on your Android phone, you can better organize everything from your contacts to your most important work documents by grouping these items into their own folders.

For instance, you can create a folder reserved specifically for your most frequently called contacts. If you’re working on an important project for work, you can create a new folder that’s reserved for documents, Web addresses, and contact numbers related to this particular project.

To create folders, press on a blank space on your phone’s screen. When your list of options pops up, press “Folders.” This will allow you to create your own folder and name it. You can then drag and drop important documents, images, and files into these folders.

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Cloud computing offers clear benefits to many businesses, but is still in its early stages and carries some risks and trade-offs. In this seminar, small business technology expert Dan Paquette of Key Methods will answer the following questions about cloud computing:

Seminar Topics Covered:

• What exactly is cloud computing?
• What are the major benefits of cloud computing for my business?
• What are the risks and trade-offs I need to be aware of?
• Which applications and services are best for use in the cloud?
• How does cloud computing save my business money?

So. Which is the better password? Keep in mind that hackers can design programs to run thousands of password guesses per second….

If you picked the second one — the string of common words — give yourself a gold star! It’s the stronger, more secure password. It’s also easier to remember than the first. And it goes against all of the password advice we’ve been given to date.

“Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess,” writes Randall Munroe, mathematician and creator of the brilliant XKCD.com, “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”

According to Munroe’s calculations, the jumbled password could be cracked in about three days by a program running 1000 guesses a second — child’s play, in other words. The same program would need 550 years to guess the second password, which has roughly 44 bits of entropy (compared to the other’s 28).

What does this mean to you? It means you can stop picking (and forgetting) gobbledygook passwords. Instead, choose a few generic words (avoid proper nouns like your dog’s name or your hometown) and commit them to memory. Time required? Less than a minute. Brain cells required? Very few. Now your passwords are stronger AND easier to remember.

See Munroe’s comic here.