Be Smart

In June NBC announced that it would be making the Olympics competitions available on the Web only to users of Vista, shutting out Macs, Linux, and even Microsoft's own Windows users.

They appear to have relented, I'm happy to report, at least admitting those of us still using Windows XP. I can't testify about the other OSes from personal experience, but if you do Mac or Linux, give it a try and drop us a line to let your fellow users know if it works.

Lots of this is available in real time. But if you miss the competition in a favorite sport because you have a life, here's a chance to catch up in those moments when your life has quieted down. I have just watched part of the U.S. sweep of women's fencing, and as soon as I finish writing this I'm going to watch the hour-long video of the opening ceremonies, which I missed on Friday but keep hearing is truly the greatest show on earth ever.

You will need Adobe's Flash to see much of anything on the site, www.nbcolympics.com. For some features, such as widgets that let you keep up with events without leaving your favorite site, you will need the latest version of Flash. In an apparent move to compete with Adobe, there's also a browser plug-in for a beta 2.0 version of Microsoft's new Silverlight, which does quite cool things with video as well, such as PIP. Get all the plug-ins here and the widgets here.

If you're craving the Olympics but you're mobile, NBC provides several cell phone possibilities: the website, TV, and video, plus alerts on results. I haven't had a chance to try any of them, but find instructions for all of them here.