Kim Komando's radio talk show is a ripoff; bad advice. Internet, Nationwide

www.komando.com .....

Oscar Wilde once said 'All advice is bad advice and good advice can be fatal.' Perhaps he foresaw the advice given to me by the Kim Komando Show - a nationally syndicated radio show where Komando, a computer expert, gives out advice to the novice. Back in March, I called her show. I told her my computer system was an AMD K6-2, 450mhz, 96megs RAM running Win98SE. I said I wanted to convert my aging VHS tapes into VCDs (video CDs) and asked her to recommend software or hardware that would help me do it.

Without hesitation, she told me it was 'impossible' to do what I wanted to do ... that no such software or hardware existed ... and that I'd need to upgrade to a Pentium 4 system. However, visiting the website of VCDHELP.com, I found many others -- some with systems slower than mine with less memory -- successfully doing what I wanted to do. I used one of the many recommended methods, a hardware-software tool called Dazzle DVC, and it worked flawlessly. Point is, Kim Komando is a nationally syndicated self-described expert. Novices like me tend to trust what she says.

The immediacy of her 'impossible' response was probably accepted as gospel by the multitude of gullible novices listening in. And, her response proves one of two things. She's either not the expert she claims to be. Or, she's an industry toady -- parroting their incessant call to UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE and BUY BUY BUY. In my opinion, there is no other possibility -- and her show should be listened to with a very critical (if not disbelieving) ear.

J. Alec
Portland, Oregon