Surprise is an essential element on makeover TV: On "Knock First," it's the parents who see only the finished project. On "Trading Spaces," it's all the participants.

Do-it-yourself home designers used to have only graph paper and a ruler for tools, but you can find better tools these days on the Internet. The bad sites aren't that bad, and the best ones are getting better. jordansfurniture.com

A new software package by Hookumu Inc., a Salem, N.H., developer, could turn out to be one of the very best. It is due to debut by the end of this month on the Jordan's Furniture website. I got to test the package last week at home, and found it to be pretty snazzy: easy, efficient, and eminently customizable.

MARBLEHEAD - No matter how far world-class cyclist Tyler Hamilton's trips have taken him, every one has been round, finishing up in the quirky, narrow streets of this seaside village.

Eventually.

For even though he and his wife, Haven, 33, consider their seven-room, two-bath house to be their home, they spend only about three months a year in it because the Tour de France, and all the other elite racing, occurs in Europe. "We kind of vacation at our home," says Hamilton, 31.

In wine circles, the yachtsman and industrialist Bill Koch represents the extreme collector: Before auctioning 3,400 bottles at Christie's a few years back, he had about 28,000 bottles in his two cellars in Osterville.

Between what Koch does and what those who keep a couple of bottles of Robert Mondavi above the fridge do, however, there's plenty of room, and it's there that Sanford and Katariina Anstey have found their comfort zone. They keep about 2,500 bottles in a cellar they built in the basement of their 100-year-old carriage house in a North Shore suburb.

One of the problems of the information age is information, flowing from endless electronic orifices. It can be so complicated: finding the right ones for you, getting hooked up to them, and then staying connected. This collection of electronic wonders may help you stay in touch.

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