Monday
Jul062009

Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 top 10 benefits - OneNote - Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft has published its top 10 reasons for using their OneNote Product. Take a look, I’m sure you will see one or more that fits your needs as well.

Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 top 10 benefits - OneNote - Microsoft Office Online

Saturday
Jul042009

Three Smart Technologies to Ease Work/Life Chaos - Smarter Strategies

image This is a very interesting article discussing the balances between work and life experience.  It mentions an article written by Forrester Research that suggests the argument that we may all be heading into a vortex of nonstop work.  This article suggests that IT may be a source that can save us from this fate.

I happen to be one of the lucky guys that has a job that also has many roots in the ways that I enjoy my life.  I love and embrace the technology that invades my life and use it for enjoyment as well as help me get my job done.  Technology is so ensconced in my life I really don't know what I would do if you were to strip it from me.  Everything that I do at work and in most of the things at home use electronics and/or software, that they cannot be separated from each other.  Only when I'm doing gardening, cleaning the pool or some other small chores around the house do I escape from technology.  The rest of the time I embrace it because I enjoy it so much.

So back to the article.  The gist of it is that with IT's help, there are several things that you can do to help provide less frustration and keep all your balls successfully in the air.  By implementing job related tools that are available wherever and whenever you need them, you allow people to become more efficient which also gets them back to their personal lives.  The need to access data and ability to communicate with people no matter where you are has become one of the “a must have” functions. As information workers, we need access to corporate data whenever and wherever we are.  Implementing remote access to central information sources is vital.  The access to these services needs to be available 24/7.  The good news is that these technologies are available for implementation and all you need are the finances and the help of a knowledgeable technology professional to get them implemented.

It is funny how in my home office I've been able to set up an environment that includes both office functionality and personal entertainment.  And as I watch myself on the weekends, I see how easy it is for me to switch back and forth between the things I enjoy doing for myself as well as those things that are necessary for the job.  It is also interesting to see those things that have a foot firmly planted in both areas and how they give me a sense of accomplishment as well as enjoyment with all things that I do at the keyboard.  If you focus on the technologies that can enhance your work experience, and you can have a better handle on creating less of a blur of loan line between your life and work.  Good luck, and be successful in both life and happiness.

Three Smart Technologies to Ease Work/Life Chaos - Smarter Strategies

Friday
Jul032009

Scott asked me how I get my images aligned in the blog pages.

image Well, it’s easy when you have the right tools. I have mentioned my using Live Writer in previous post before. You can find this free program and a few others at: http://download.live.com/. You can pick and choose which applications that you want to include in your download and have them available on your local system. These programs hybrid programs that give you local access to your data/documents and also have an interface to push them to the internet as well. There are ten programs/utilities/add-on’s in all.

 

 

The first group have to do with communication. They include the new Messenger and Mail client for instant messaging and email. There is also an Outlook Connector for linking your hotmail account back to Outlook. Next, is Writer witch is a great blogging tool. I have mine setup to publish to 6 different sites. It makes it real simple to do so once you have it set up. I have a deep interest with photography and the next two applications deal with that. Use Photo Gallery and Movie Maker to edit and organize your photos and movies, and then post them online or send them to friends. The next few add-on deal with accessing info with your web browser. With the Toolbar you can customize your browser and find what you need. Family Safety provides access control to protect your family from unseemly sites. Microsoft Silverlight provides Microsoft’s version of Flash and video presentation programming to your system from the Internet.

So Scott, here are some of my favorite programs that you may be able to take advantage of.

Thursday
Jul022009

New Port Replicator from Kensington

imageWe have been using Kensington Notebook Docking solutions for a number of years and they have  just released a new docking station with video at a very good price point, $139.95. The Kensington sd200v Notebook Docking Station has (1) video VGA port, 5 USB 2.0 ports ( (4) on the back and (1) easily accessible on the front of the unit), microphone in and stereo out ports.

 

 

With a single USB connection you can connect to all of your peripherals, including your monitor. The video output supports up to 1440 x 900 on widescreen monitors and 1280 x 1024 on standard 4:3 monitors. It is Windows Vista compatible and comes with a 2 year limited warranty. The only drawback that I see is that it doesn’t include a network adapter but you already have wireless in your notebook so that shouldn’t be a problem unless you don’t have a wireless router or access point  available at your location. But, if you are running around with the notebook in your home you probably have this in place already. 

imageWhat I do like abut the unit is its form factor. Being in a slim pedestal configuration really fits in when you have multiple devices lined up on your desk. In my area I have the cable modem, router, a NAS drive, and two USB drive units all sitting up in this upright configuration. It all seems to fit together rather nicely. Product Tour

Features Include:  image

  • DualView lets you expand your work area across your notebook screen and an external monitor in copy or extend mode
  • DualView Switch and Smart Connect/Disconnect technology manages the dual display settings for you
  • Gain instant access to your keyboard, monitor, mouse and all peripherals with one USB plug
  • Stereo out & Microphone In port lets you connect 2.1 stereo speakers or Internet chat headsets
  • Mini tower design reduces desktop footprint
  • Plug-n-play and hot pluggable, so you can connect to the dock and swap devices without shutting down 
  • Front USB port makes connections quick and easy
  • Works with any Windows XP or Vista notebook. Now works with MacBook computers via the beta version of the Mac driver!
Thursday
Jul022009

Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

imageEd Bott is reporting that there is some mention in the EULA agreement for Windows 7 Home Premium that suggests that there might be a Family pack available in the near future. I haven’t seen anything else in our manufacturer releases yet that would confirm this so I sitting back and waiting patiently to see how it pans out.  It would be nice to have that as a choice for families that want to upgrade their equipment.

Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Thursday
Jul022009

Windows 7 Delivery for Netbooks

There is a lot of worry about how Microsoft is going to deliver Windows 7 to Netbooks that don’t have built-in optical drives. I personally question why this is such a problem. If the operating system is delivered on an optical drive, just take the DVD to  a machine that has a DVD player on it and copy the contents of the disk to a USB Flash Drive. I have made complete article available on how to make a USB drive bootable and to install Windows 7 from a Flash Drive. My experience so far with our customers is that the NetBook is usually not their only computer and that they have another computer available to them. If not try going to your local library. They have computers and they will probably let you do the transfer from the optical disk to a USB Drive if you explain what you need to do.

I know this is an extra step that you probably wish you didn’t have to take, but let’s be reasonable. If you own a NetBook you are either computer savvy already, or, who ever set it up for you is, and will be able to accomplish this for you. This is not the end of the world as some people would have you believe or a very big deal at that… Come on people get real…

Thursday
Jul022009

About new things and other thoughts…

I am sitting here going through my emails this evening, and it occurred to me that we have really gotten lazy or I have extremely high expectations of my fellow human beings. When I see comments come caveman.jpgacross the internet asking why companies are upgrading products and making them better, faster and more usable (my definition), I wonder just how lazy and complacent we have become. Don’t you want to progress, learn and become better at what you do? Don’t you want your tools that you use day in and day out to help you to make your job easier and more productive? I can’t understand the attitude of people that look at every possible step forward as something to disdain and fight with all their might. All that energy wasted on trying to stop normal progression when just a small amount of effort will get them to the next level. Hey! Don’t become the Neanderthal in your work group. Embrace, learn and become the better person.  Such a simple thing and so hard for some of us to do. Sorry about the Rant. but if it hits home it sure is worth it!

I look at the skill sets that we all need to have in our jobs and wonder when it was in my youth that I learned that I was going to be a student for the rest of my life. This is something that we all need to realize. In all honesty I can’t wait until the day that I retire and can begin the next part of my life. Because, you see, work sometimes gets in the way of the learning. It is funny how this can happen. There can be so much fun, amazement and improvisation with all these tools that so many magnificent minds provide us. When you begin to allow learning to become fun, then you have finally allowed all of life’s amazing wonders to fill your soul. Let it. You will be amazed at the outcome.

Thursday
Jul022009

In Office Support Tools

image Are you  in charge of creating your organization’s employee manuals and other support tools? You may want to consider adding Video support to your portfolio. There are so many tools out there that will allow you to accomplish this, it is very hard to make the choice of the right ones to use. Let me make a few suggestions for you to look at.

TechSmith is a company that has been producing software to help educators and support personnel to provide simple, professional looking video for quite a few years. I use several of their products to help me produce my   How To  Videos as well as short videos I use to respond to my clients at the office.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but what is a video worth? I said I used several of TechSmith’s tools and this first one I am going to talk about is free. The Jing Project is a program that is offered by TechSmith that will integrate back into  their other imageproducts. Jing has two components that will help you with your presentations. The first is a static screen capture. In Windows 7 you have that component as part of the operating system but you if you are not running Windows 7 you are missing it. There are many times when I am working with an article or proposal that I need to be able to capture part of screen display like I did with all of the images on this page. It is so much easier to be able to call on Jing to capture a little bit of the screen real-estate that I want to include without having to come back and work with my cropping tools to get it just right.

The second component of Jing is it’s video capture. While this may sound like the same thing, it most assuredly is not. With Jing I can capture all of my screen changes and narrate the subject matter at the same time and produce a quick, up to 5 minute presentation on the fly. The only negative, you have to do it in one take or begin again from scratch.

imageCamtasia Studio is the paid version of Jing on steroids. This product lets you take the next step  forward and create content with much better focus and give you the ability to tie multiple videos and stills together and to overlap them all with a narrative that you can add after the video collection is complete. The big difference here is that ability to edit your video.  Camtasia Studio will allow you to take video that you capture with Jing, Camtasia Studio or from some other static image or video sources and work with the content to achieve your creative result.

imageThis leads me to the last component of the TechSmith Family that I use called Screen Cast. If you sign up with Screen Cast you will be able to easily store and serve up you video creations to the inhabitants of the Wild and Wooly Web (WWW). 

So if you are interested in seeing these programs in action, don’t hesitate making an appointment with me to see them. I will be more than happy to show them off and help you decide if they are the right fit for your business.

Wednesday
Jul012009

$59,000 Coffee Table?

I get to see a lot of new technology on a daily basis and this is one that causes us gadget hounds to salivate. Touchtable makes a product that allows a user to network different sites together using a large screen table top designed touch screen system. Touchtable, Inc. CEO Rocky Roccanova showed Wired Science TV’s Ziya Tong different uses for this interesting device. Mr. Roccanova stated that this device was originally designed for children to learn geography, but it really shines with applications for the oil and gas industry, military and public service areas. Take a look at the video above and I am sure you will be wowed.

Sunday
Jun282009

Bobs Tech Talk has moved!

image I have officially moved Bobs Tech Talk from Microsoft’s site over to SquareSpace. The first benefit that you will see is that the Posts are now indexed and are searchable. So if you are looking for information that you had a hard time finding before, you can enter a key word or phrase and the will bring it right up for you. I will be able to put more information on this site as time goes by as well. This is a full website not just a controlled blog feed and I will be able to put richer content on the site as I move forward. It is still accessible by typing in http://bobstechtalk.com. Let me know what you think of the new site and send me any requests or questions that you have that I can address for you in future postings.

Sunday
Jun282009

So you miss Office 2003 Menu Bars

We had a recent request for how to make Word 2007 look like Word 2003…

Though I truly believe that the new interface in Office is so much better than what we had in Office 2003, some people have had a hard time with learning the new versions Office products.

From Steve Bass’s Tips and Tweaks:

Make The Change To Office 2003
If you're stuck with Office 2007, yet yearning for the familiar menu of Office 2003, you now have an option. It's an add-in from Addintools: Classic Menu for Office 2007. It changes the menus for Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, and PowerPoint. The downside is that at $30, it's fairly expensive. However, you can pick up individual add-ins, say, just for Word, for $16.

Sunday
Jun282009

Aruba Networks - Looking at Large Controlled Wireless Networking Infrastructure?

The overview on Aruba Networks'site says: " in today's world, realizing a vision for tomorrow requires mobility.  More specifically, the more secure, more manageable, more scalable, more powerful true mobility networks of Aruba.  Our business user centric networking architecture securely and reliably brings enterprise applications to users where ever they work-in the office, in a hotel, on the road.

This product provides a centralized secure system for control of your wireless technology.  Using mesh technology this company's products enable converged data, voice, and video network to be deployed and expanded without installing any network wiring. As an extension of Aruba's WLAN and Security Solutions, Secure Enterprise Mesh technology is ideal for outdoor enterprise environments and indoor locations that are tough to wire.  Both indoor and outdoor deployments are are supported through the same infrastructure, without required disparate solutions that are separately managed and secured for each area.  That makes it easy to design, deploy, and manage a secure enterprise network that contains mesh.

Photo of Aruba AP 2EPhoto of Aruba Access Point 124 & 125Aruba's Secure Enterprise Mesh solution has several key distinguishing characteristics related to security, reliability, performance, management and ease of installation. Some of these benefits include:

 

  • Full integration with all existing Aruba services. No need for dedicated Mesh hardware - works on all Aruba APs and Controllers
  • Securely extends Aruba services to areas difficult to cable
  • Central policy definition and management, campus-wide roaming
  • Mesh cluster technology for immediate recovery for both wired or mesh related failures
  • Cooperative Control for mesh link path optimization
  • Client-to-core security over mesh as well as mesh link security
  • Easy to deploy - best in class visualization for management and troubleshooting
  • Indoor and outdoor deployments for data, voice and video applications 

Aruba Networks has been a perfect fit for many of our local school districts and other large facility environments. Be sure to speak to one of your Computer Connections System Design Specialist to help provide you with a system design specific to your needs.

Sunday
Jun282009

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Microsoft has released information on the pricing for Windows 7 this past Wednesday.  As reported by CNET, the pricing is comparably to Windows Vista pricing.  If you preorder your copy between now and July 11 you will get a substantial discount for the operating system off your choice.  These upgrades will be available at many of the major retailers like OfficeMax Costco and Staples. Be sure to read the full story at the link listed below.

Microsoft sets Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Sunday
Jun212009

PCMag Product Survey Request from DLink

 

If you have a DLink product and you are happy with the job it is doing for you, our DLink Rep is requesting that you take a moment and fill out a quick survey for them. Below is the request.

I request you pass the below link along to your customers, friends and family members who own D-Link routers.
This is the 22nd annual PC Mag customer satisfaction survey and home networking routers is a category.
Please use the below link to access the survey.
http://run.equationresearch.com/start/165/87/zcpZIEalfm?m=460731
http://run.equationresearch.com/pg/74645/Z0qOck6N47kDzjDYuI9h5K7ZfovDLTjgio88Me72Glov81U3

Sunday
Jun212009

Windows 7 Task Bar

 

I created a quick video showing the task bar and how it shows you what applications are open and how many instances where views are available to you to access.  In this case what I have is one Internet Explorer window in my Live writer open.  During this demonstration I will open up another tab window in Internet Explorer and you will see that the taskbar will show you a representation of both of those windows.

Sunday
Jun212009

Worm-bearing Twitter spam on the loose - Network World

Since I have been talking so much lately about different online blogging products, Twitter of course being one of them, I thought that I should post a pointer to this article as well. As always, don’t open an email or other form of communication that contains attachments if you don’t trust or know the sender. Be very careful and you will LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

Worm-bearing Twitter spam on the loose - Network World

Sunday
Jun212009

Windows 7 and Speech Recognition

image I thought I had a pretty decent headset and I'm using it with Windows Live Writer and it seems to work OK.  I'm using a Plantronics headset that that has a USB connection. I probably should train the windows speech recognition software several different times to make sure that it has a good sense of my voice to work with. I seem to be spending a lot of time correcting misrecognized words as I am speaking initially.  I'm wondering if there's too much hiss or if I don't have the microphone placed just exactly right.  Well, as in all projects they seem to be ongoing, and ongoing.  I was hoping that I would be able to speak at a normal speed it not have two very carefully enunciated each and every word but if I do slowed down what I am saying it has quite a bit more accuracy.  So, that is obviously the best way to work with it.  You need to speak up slow down your speech and concentrate on not slurring your words and pronouncing them clearly. As I've made some slight adjustments in the way I am speaking to the speech recognition software, the accuracy has increased considerably.  I'm having to make fewer and fewer changes and I am beginning to speed up slightly and still maintain the accuracy as long as I work on enunciating my words as clearly as I can.  So much for this test you can see the accuracy has turned up pretty well.  I still like the fact that windows still has included the speech recognition software right in the operating system so that it can be used in all windows based applications.

Sunday
Jun212009

CASHBACK! This may be a reason to use BING…

imageWhile the general feeling about the new Microsoft Search Engine BING is mixed, most tell us that they have found it easy to use, that its results are quite good and they have no real compelling reason to use it over Google or Yahoo. Everyone likes to save money when the are shopping and here is a way to get a few dollars back from many of the stores you may be using online already. I was surprised at the number of vendors that have signed up with Bing to provide these discounts and the percentages that some of them are offering.

 

 

 

How to get started: Like most of Microsoft’s online applications you will need to have a Microsoft Hotmail Account and to get faster rebates you should have a PayPal account. Once you have these setup go to Bing’s Welcome to Bing cashback screen.  The left button provides you with the prompts to get a Windows Live ID and will then have you set up your new cashback account. The right button gives you your login prompt and will launch you into your account screen. Once you imagehave an account setup you will be eligible for payments once your account has reached the minimum $5 limit to process.

Once you have finished setting up your account you are ready to take advantage of your cashback account while shopping. Just make sure you  are using the Bing search engine as your default search engine and that you use it to search for the products you want to buy. Find the best price and Bing will do the rest.

Saturday
Jun202009

Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

image We are constantly being asked by our customers if they need to upgrade to Office 2007 and the real answer to this is not cut and dried. Now that Office 2007 has been in circulation for quite awhile now so the problem that many people who have not upgraded is the inability to read or edit the new Office 2007 XML file format. One way to solve this problem is of course to purchase the upgrade but in many cases all you really need to do is install the Office Compatibility Pack so that you view and work with the newer Microsoft document file formats saved in XML.

Be sure to run all your updates to your system before installing this add in. Read the instructions and  Systems Requirements before you install. Even though it is pretty straight forward you do need to pay attention to the prep work that needs to be done.

Monday
Jun152009

Cloud computing and the return of the platform wars | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

Though a little bit heavy, if you want to get a birds eye view of the pros and cons and the definitions of cloud computer take a look at this article.

Cloud computing and the return of the platform wars | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com