HP Rebate available

This offer may not be combined with any discount offers or special pricing such as government/education pricing, big deal pricing or volume discounts. Offer not valid with other HP offers unless otherwise specified by those offers. Resellers cannot claim this rebate on behalf of customers. Please include rebate offer code: OB10 in all correspondence.

Click Here to download Rebate Form

Claim document must be postmarked within 30 days of the invoice date. Purchase limit of 5 rebates per end user individual or company, business address, location and/or household:

HP Office 2007 $70 Mail-in Rebate

Offer valid on purchases made between

July 20, 2009 – October 31, 2009

Purchase:

1. Any HP Commercial Office Ready desktop, notebook or workstation
2. Also purchase Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition OR Office 2007 Professional
3. And order the Windows 7 upgrade coupon found at www.hp.com/go/windows7upgrade

Windows 7 Upgrade Options from HP

HP has a site to guide you through the eligibility and upgrade process for you to upgrade your HP computer that you purchased (June 26,2009 – Jan 31, 2009). Check your model eligibility, and if you qualify you can order the Win7 Upgrade Kit. If you don’t meet HP’s eligibility requirements, you may be able to upgrade to Windows 7 upon public availability. Click on the more info link to see what will be involved.

Read Before you Order

HP has contracted with a third party company to fulfill the Windows® 7 Upgrade Option Program from HP. Orders will be accepted June 26, 2009 until February 15, 2010. Proof of purchase must be submitted and postmarked no later than March 1, 2010. You will receive your Windows ® 7 Upgrade Kit after Windows ® 7 becomes publicly available October 22, 2009. For additional information, please read Know Before You Upgrade

If eligibility requirements are not met, you may be able to upgrade to Windows ® 7 upon public availability.

Windows 7 Search Features

When asked for some compelling reasons for moving to Window 7 one of the newer features that has vastly expanded in Windows 7 over Vista is the search capabilities. In Vista I loved how the search indexed all your documents, files and Outlook items to make it easy to search for information on your system. I am a hoarder when it comes to programs and data so it is important for me to be able to easily find and access data everyday. I use a lot of these features constantly and once you watch the video below you will see why you want to spend a little extra time updating the metadata on your pictures, videos and music files as well.

http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/ch9/4/0/3/5/3/4/Windows7FindSearchOrganize_ch9.mp4

A new feature in WIndows 7 called Federated Search gives you the ability to search external sources as well. This can be within your organization with data found on different servers or different SharePoint searches. But there are scripts that you can install for accessing much more. These are put together using search connectors that you can download.

There are already few search connectors available for download:

• Neowin Connector (Created by -Hiroshi-, more information)
• Flickr Search Connector
• YouTube Search Connector
• Google News Search Connector
• Google Blogs Search Connector
• Twitter Search Connector
• MSN Search
• Deviant Art Search

In Part 2 of Search and Find this video shows and talks about how this works.

http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/ch9/1/8/4/5/3/4/FindOrganizePart2_ch9.mp4

Expanding your horizons on using you USB flash drive

If you have multiple computers that you need to share data between quickly and easily then I am sure you have probably already used a flash drive for this purpose. While I lean more towards on cloud storage to move data between machines especially in different locations, I still find this one use of a flash drive to be extremely valuable. Bill Detwiler, Head Technology Editor at Tech Republic, has put together a little video that talks about some other uses for a USB flash drive that you may not have thought about.

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Revisiting EverNote

One of the things that I think about most every day is how I can make the information that need at hand really available when and where I need it. How I can make those things that I need to share, shareable, and what is the best medium for me to create the content I am working on so that it can be shared and distributed when and how I want it to be.

There are a lot of nice features in EverNote that make me consider it as a product of choice over some of the other applications that I work with. The first is that is in the cloud. Some of the biggest worries about sticking information into the cloud include:

1. Is the company strong enough to be around for awhile? You don’t want to place you information somewhere that might not be around tomorrow.
2. How secure is the site? If you are placing info that is personal or company sensitive you don’t want to risk that it might be seen or used by unauthorized users.
3. How much is it going to cost? If you need to pay more than what the product is worth to you personally or for your company than it isn’t cost effective to use it.
4. How easy is it to use? If it is cumbersome to use then you probably won’t. Don’t waste time or money on something that is not worth the effort for you.
5. How available is the information? If you can only access your application from one machine or device then it has real limited function for you.

Evernote provides encryption on the fly. You can pick what pieces of data that you want to hide away and encrypt. Not only do you have you initial login and password protection to the site, but you can encrypt sensitive information within it as well.

You can choose between a Standard or Premium Subscription to their service. If security is your big concern you will want to upgrade to the Premium version to operate within an SSL connection. You will also lose the advertising on the pages and you will get a much larger Monthly upload allowance. If you are posting a lot of PDF’s to your site you will be able to do full text search with the Premium version as well. The Premium Subscription is only $45/year. You will also have better synchronization capabilities between you and your associates if you all move to the Premium Subscription.

What I like best is how easy it is to use the program. You can easily capture information while browsing on the internet, or copy files into the program. It is then available on your computer desktop, web access site or on your smart phone.  Information is at your fingertips when you need, where you need it. This program definitely gets my thumbs up. If you need you data at your fingertips no matter where you are, this will help you get there.

Is there water on the Moon?

NASA has made an attempt to answer this question once again by sending an empty rocket part that weighed as much as a small SUV crashing into the moon. The target was a crater that they thought might contain some deposits of water that they hoped they could analyze the results to determine if there really is water located there.

While the picture to the right is not a image of where they dropped the rocket part, it could have looked like any one of these hundreds of craters that you see in the picture.

I am always interested in what NASA is doing because I grew up with Space as being our last primary frontier for Man to conquer. It has always captured my imagination. If this particular experiment shows that there really are water deposits that we could take advantage of. This will help make our going back to the moon even more viable.

It is going to take several weeks for them to analyze the images they captured. Hopefully we will get some good news.

I was printing in Photoshop and I got a Scratch Disk Full error.

Question: What is the Photoshop Scratch Disk? How Do You Fix "Scratch Disk Full" Errors?

Answer: The Photoshop Scratch Disk is referencing the virtual memory or memory swap space on your hard drive when your system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation. You can change drives that are being used for your scratch drive and if you use a second drive other than the one your operating system is on for your scratch drive it should run more efficiently.

If you have a problem and Photoshop crashes in the middle of an editing session this can leave some pretty large temporary file behind on your scratch disk. Photoshop’s temp files are typically named ~PST####.tmp on Windows, where #### is a series of numbers. These are safe to delete.

Other notes from http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/f/scratchdisk.htm gives these hints:

Clear Disk Space

If you're getting an error message that the scratch disk is full, it usually means you need to clear some space on whatever drive is defined as the scratch disk in Photoshop Preferences, or add additional drives for Photoshop to use as scratch space.

Defragment Your Hard Disk

It is also possible to get the "scratch disk is full" error, even if the scratch disk drive has free space. This is because Photoshop requires contiguous, unfragmented free space on the scratch disk drive. If you are getting the "scratch disk is full" error message and your scratch disk drive does show a good amount of free space, you may need to run a disk defragmentation utility.

Scratch Disk Errors When Cropping

If you are getting a "scratch disk full" error when attempting to crop an image, it's likely that you inadvertently have size and resolution values entered in the options bar for the crop tool, or you entered values in the wrong units. For instance, entering dimensions of 1200 x 1600 when your units are set to inches instead of pixels is going to create a huge file that could trigger the scratch disk full message. The solution is to press clear in the options bar after selecting the crop tool but before dragging a crop selection.

Windows 7 Taskbar Features

ZDNET is a great source for tech news and How To functions that help me learn how to use different features of applications that I use everyday. Ed Bott has been running a short series of Windows 7 functions that when you take them as a whole will give you some good reasons for wanting to move into and start using this new operating system. I know that I have fallen in love with it and I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to go back to any of the earlier versions of Windows now. Watch the video above to get a feel for what the new taskbar features provide you in this new interface.

Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week

The magic number this time around is 13 patches. The first patch for Windows 7 is included in the group. What is being covered? All the Windows operating systems, Internet Explorer, Office, SQL Server and some developer tools and Forefront Security client software. Eight are listed as critical. For more details click on the link below.

Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week

Add a popup window to a PowerPoint slide | Microsoft Office | TechRepublic.com

Susan Harkins has an interesting blog entry in TechRepublic that you  might be able to use. Susan shows you how to embed a graphic that triggers a popup window when pressed. If you need this kind of function you will want to read this article you will want to jump to the link listed below and read how she does it.

Add a popup window to a PowerPoint slide | Microsoft Office | TechRepublic.com

Can you find me Hard Drive Encryption software that will protect the hard drives if my notebook is lost or stolen?

Here is a great free product that will allow you to encrypt a partition, drive or a storage device like a flash drive. If you want to protect your data from prying eyes this is a great product. Take a look at it at: http://www.truecrypt.org/

Windows 7 Now in Distribution

We finally are seeing product hitting our distribution points. SO… if you are interested let me know. Here are the different version with a cross reference of their features. Upgrades and Retail boxes only. OEM isn’t out yet, darn, so we aren’t building yet.

Windows 7 in action: A smarter way to manage windows | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Here is a video segment put together by Ed Bott and ZDNet.com. This will give you some easy control techniques for working with window in Windows 7.

Windows 7 in action: A smarter way to manage windows | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Here’s a scary Trojan Virus that steals your money and displays a fake bank balance

Dubbed URLZone, this Trojan horse targets your Bank Account, steals your log-in credentials, grabs your money and displays a fake balance when you are in the account. Reported by a chief tech officer at Finjan and is programmed to calculate on the fly how much money to steal from an account based on how much is available. It exploits a hole in Firefox, IE 6, 7 and 8, and Opera. It is only found on Windows based systems and can be delivered to your machine either through JavaScript or from and Adobe PDF file.

This Trojan is primarily targeting German Banks currently and was linked back to a server in the Ukraine. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan went on to state: “This is part of a new trend of more sophisticated Trojans designed to evade antifraud systems."

About 90,000 computers visited the sites housing the malware and 6,400 of them were infected, a 7.5 percent success rate, he said. Of those whose computers installed the Trojan, a few hundred had money stolen from their bank accounts, he said.

During the span of 22 days in mid-August, the criminals behind the Trojan stole the euro equivalent of nearly $438,000. (reported on CNET)

Digsby-You may have seen several messages come through saying that I am using this now

I have put the Digsby App onto both my main desktop at home and work to see if it gives me any new and hopefully faster access to all of my communication sources at the desktop. I even went so far as to put a Digsby Gadget on the website to allow IM communication directly from my blog to me if I am online. In a way this gives the ability to online support commenting a run as well. We’ll see how it works.

The Digsby desktop program reminds me a lot of Messenger and other Instant Messaging Apps that provide a buddy list display. You will notice that it lets you set several different types of accounts to track as well as your standard instant messaging. It only support eight different types of IM accounts as you see in the image to the right. Noticeably missing are instant messaging to Skype, which is an app I have up and running on most of my computers all of the time. It does allow reading your messages in Facebook and any email account that you would like to program in. If you have multiple accounts in any of these Social Networks you can put them all in as you have seen me do with Twitter.  Standard support for the three primary Social Networks is in place plus LinkedIn. That one surprised me.

Besides the standard online big name free email account providers, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and AOL/AIM Mail, there is support for any POP or IMAP email service as well. So you can easily keep up with all your different accounts with one application.

For a complete list of features take a look at their features page.

If you want to download the application, click on the image to the left and it will take you to the download page.

Dropbox Comes to the iPhone and iPod touch via Ziibii

Dropbox upgrade gives you hot key functions.

http://lifehacker.com/5370537/dropbox-comes-to-the-iphone-and-ipod-touch

Sent from my iPhoneBob ApplebyComputer Connections Incbappleby@paconnect.com

Groove 3.1 End of Life

We received the formal notification from Microsoft of the End of Life for Groove 3.1 software products.

Within the next year, Microsoft will release the next version of the Microsoft Office Suite and at that time support for Groove 3.1 Software products will end.

Our goal in this initial communication is to provide you with information that will help you understand the details regarding End of Life for Groove 3.1 software products and to outline the available options for upgrading to current supported products prior to Groove 3.1 End of Life.

The following information on Groove 3.1 End of Life has been posted under KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974478

If you have any questions on this information, please post them to the Groove Discussion Group: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.groove

Support information for Groove Virtual Office 3.1 and related products and services.

The upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2010 will include the second successor product to Groove Virtual Office 3.1 and the 3.1 Groove servers, which were acquired by Microsoft in 2005. In keeping with the support policy of the acquired company, Groove Networks, support for these products will be discontinued at that time.  Groove 3.1 products will not have the two years of Extended Support offered for Microsoft products after the second successor product release. Additionally, at the end of Mainstream Support, some services related to these products will no longer be available.

This article outlines the options that are available to you to transition to a supported product or to continue with your current product. As always, Microsoft recommends that you keep your software updated to the latest version. This ensures that you will have access to fixes and updates while you and your company benefit from the latest technologies.

You have 3 Options:

(from the KB 974478 article)

My Groove Account pages

You will be unable to use a My Groove Account page to access your previously purchased Groove 3.1 licenses or to manage users.

Hosted Management Services 3.1

Hosted Management Services subscriptions will not be renewed. Management Server Hosted Services will be migrated to a virtual server. However, these services will not be monitored, and software fixes to resolve any customer issues will not be considered or implemented.

Transition options

Groove Virtual Office 3.1

If you have a Groove Virtual Office installation that was never part of a managed Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Purchase Microsoft Office Groove 2007 or Microsoft Office Groove Enterprise 2007 now, and then upgrade to the successor product, Microsoft Office SharePoint Workspace 2010, when it becomes available.
• Purchase SharePoint Workspace 2010 when it becomes available, uninstall Groove Virtual Office 3.1, and then install SharePoint Workspace 2010. You will be unable to upgrade from Groove Virtual Office 3.1 to the Microsoft Office 2010 successor product. You can save your account from Groove Virtual Office 3.1, and then restore it to SharePoint Workspace 2010. However, you will lose all other Groove data. SharePoint Workspace 2010 does not support Groove 3.1 workspaces. For better preservation of data, consider upgrading to Groove 2007.
• Continue to use your installation of Groove Virtual Office 3.1. The product will continue to function, except as previously noted. You should be aware that this option will leave you without the ability to update the product. This includes security updates and updates to run on Windows 7. This option will also leave you without assisted support.

Hosted Management Services 3.1

If you use Hosted Management Services 3.1 to manage a Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Migrate from Hosted Management Services to Groove Server 2007 now, and then migrate to the successor product, Microsoft Office Groove Server 2010, when it becomes available. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Microsoft Office Groove Manager and Microsoft Office Groove Relay.
• Transition from Hosted Management Services to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. Then, re-create your Groove domain. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Continue to use Hosted Management Services 3.1 as an unsupported service. For more information, see the "

Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1

If you use Groove Management Server 3.1 to manage a Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Transition from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1 to Groove Server 2007 now, and then migrate to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Transition from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1 to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. Then, re-create your Groove domain. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Continue to use Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1. If you use this option, you will maintain access to all domain accounts, and you will continue to be able manage those accounts. You should be aware that this option will leave you without the ability to update the products. This includes security updates. This option will also leave you without assisted support.

Note You will be unable to migrate from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 directly to Groove Server 2010. To migrate your Groove domain data, you must first install Groove Server 2007. If you uninstall Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and then install Groove Server 2010 to replace it, you have to re-create your Groove domain.

Starbucks Ushering in High Tech Payment

Two new apps to help you buy your favorite brew from Starbucks using iPhone Apps. The first provides an app to find the closest Starbucks location, store your favorite coffee concoction or design one that meets your taste.

The Second app allows you to use a barcode that appears on your iPhone screen to pay for your coffee purchase. Both Apps are free and no you can’t use it to preorder.

Here's the list of stores testing the "Starbucks Card Mobile" payment trial. In Seattle, they are at Key Tower, Columbia Center, 1st Interstate / Wells Fargo, 40th Floor Columbia Tower; Seventh & Stewart; Seventh & Pike; University Village II; and Madison Park.

So while we don’t have the chance currently to try this out locally, if you have a chance to travel to any of the above areas you could stop by and try it out and let us know how well it works out.

Gizmodo Presentation on new Microsoft Tablet

Not “Real” product yet, here is another prototype product showing a new design type that is using a hinged dual screen system. I would be interested in looking at one to see how it works, but I am slightly skeptical about the usability, and ruggedness of such a product. Microsoft’s product has even been given a name “Courier” and when you think of it could be used for many different purposes beyond the obvious eBook reading function. It will be interesting to see if it ever reaches the light of day.

Water Found on the Moon

On a lighter note, Scientists have announced that there is water on the Moon. The problem is that it is in such minute amounts that we currently don’t have the technology to extract it. The greatest concentrations can be found at the Moon’s poles. The amount of water is about a quart per ton of soil and is like a film on the soil clumps .During last year’s Phoenix mission to Mars’ polar region, ice was discovered beneath the lander’s struts