Having an identity crisis? Believe it or not Reporters without Borders has published a guide on how to hide your identity and post nasty messages online.

Actually the guide is meant for dissidents in repressive countries who use the Internet to leak information to the world press or want to express their dissatisfaction with their governments.

The 87-page document gives details most hacks should know. It explains how to hide your identity when posting messages along with e-mail encryption techniques.

The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents gives ?practical advice and technical tips to help bloggers stay anonymous and get round censorship?, the advocacy group explains.

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure, the group stated in its introduction.The handbook also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it by ensuring it gets picked up efficiently by search-engines and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.

By default it?s also a great guide for those of us living in freer countries who want to get on board with the technology.

A lot of the techniques were developed and adopted by Americans who do not want to reveal their identity when they blog or go online in the workplace,according to the group.

The document also contains a great set of links to blog resources and advice from blog owners in Germany,Bahrain, US, Hong Kong, Iran and Nepal.

?We?ve broken the government?s news monopoly,? exults Chan?ad Bahraini (not his real name) about his blogging service. Go to http://chanad.weblogs.us to get an idea of how the Internet has opened the door for some real grass-roots reporting.

If you know someone living under a repressive regime e-mail it to them ? encrypted of course. The handbook is available for download at http://www.rsf.org.

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Business users of Sun Microsystems? StarOffice software will be pleased with the release of an updated version last week.

StarOffice 8 features improved compatibility with Microsoft Office and includes a spreadsheet, word processor, database and presentation software.

The compatibility allows users to import and export Microsoft Office files. You?ll also be able to use inbuilt Office macros as well.

Sun has not made an upgrade to the software for about two years. StarOffice is selling for about $100.

You can download it off the Internet for $70. Companies must pay $35 per user.

StarOffice is described as the first commercial suite to support the Open Document format, an open-source approach to sharing files among computers. Get it at www.sun.com.

If you have not got the cash try OpenOffice.org, a multi-platform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. It?s supported by SunMicrosystems and other developers. It?s available for free. The community group involved in the project have just released a new stable version.

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The World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massive multiplayer online game that turns Marshall McLuhan?s famous statement ?The world is a global village? into ?The world is a global warplace?.

It has left many people stuck for hours before their computer screens, battling it out with each other, sight unseen, across continents. It?s a fantasy online strategy game(www.worldofwarcraft.com).

You join by paying a subscription of about $15 a month. Organisers say the money supports the costs of service, support and ongoing content creation.

But with about two million players from North America alone competing with each, you can bet they?ve made some bucks.

According to Tom?s Hardware Guide the game becomes addictive. It features eight races that make up two different factions. There are humans, dwarves, night elves, and gnomes; and a horde of rocs, trolls, the tauren, and the undead.