Ask Anita

By Anita Hamilton

What's the difference between Intel's pentium, CELERON AND XEON microprocessors?

Pentiums are the workhorse chips found in most PCs in the $1,000-to-$2,500 range. The fastest are Pentium IIIs that run at 500 MHz, perfect for 3-D games like the upcoming Quake III. Celerons are discount chips found in many sub-$1,000 PCs. They are cheaper and slower because they have less short-term cache memory. Xeons are Intel's fastest chips (with up to four times the cache of Pentiums) and are used only for corporate servers.

Your column on ONLINE GREETINGS (March 22) left out my favorite site! It is...

The 250 readers who wrote in suggested some terrific sites. ohmygoodness.com is funny and raunchy--a refreshing alternative to bluemountain.com the cloying market leader; wordwiseweb.com lets you mix and match words to customize such, er, unique greetings as "Amazing Friend" and "Feel Great." My new personal favorite (thanks, Roz!) is bowcreek.com Its sweet and elegant cards can be sent in batches of up to 25 people at once.

Which ONLINE DATING sites are best for the over-50 set?

Start with thirdage.com or seniornet.com At ThirdAge (for those 45-64), click on romance. On Seniornet (for those 65 and older), go to the e-mail Pen Pals area of the discussion boards. Most dating sites, including the biggest, personals.yahoo.com are open to adults of any age. Better still, skip the dating websites and spend your time at special-interest sites that have active chat areas. mplayer.com lets gamers schmooze as they play, while salonmagazine.com caters to a more literary crowd.

--By Anita Hamilton

E-mail Anita at hamilton@time.com and she will print answers to selected questions here