Friday, October 16, 2009 at 6:10PM I’m sure we are going to see a lot of these “10 of” articles coming out. Here a couple of keyboard shortcuts that can help you speed through screens and programs in Windows 7.
The 10 most useful Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 6:08PM Microsoft is working on a new barcode implementation that is designed to be used with your cell phone’s camera. Called Microsoft Tag it is pegged as a system designed for the way you live your life, this new system puts a new twist on the way you view barcode designs.
To the right you see a square that if you take a picture of this will send you to my blog site.
What do you need to get started? First you need a phone that has a camera and that the software has been written for. If available download it to your phone. I have an iPhone and to acquire the free program and install it all I did was go to the page that allows you to send a text message to your phone, type in the phone number for your phone, and press the send button. It will analyze what phone you have and if there is an app available for it take you to the appropriate link to download and install. You can also go to http://gettag.mobi to see a list of phones that are supported and download the software from that site.
The next thing that you will want to do is make a tag. Press the Make a Tag button and you will go to your personalized tag management screen. Make a tag and save it to multiple image formats. Now place it in a document, on your website or anywhere that you want someone to be able to click a picture and access the information that you programmed into your tag.
The possibilities are limitless. Using this process you can make it easy for people reading your advertising, billboards, product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising or video images to launch into more detail on their phones. Link to videos, websites, promotional information that will give users more in depth information or practical information. Your imagination is the limit.
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 3:03PM If you have been reading any of my earlier articles on upgrading to Windows 7, I had created a checklist to follow before starting the upgrade process. Microsoft will launching a new site that will be listing those applications and hardware products that are compatible with Windows 7.
You will want to bookmark this site if you are planning on moving to Windows 7. It will come live on October 22nd which coincides with the official launch date of the Windows 7 product.
You will be able to enter your own feedback on your experiences with Windows 7 and its compatibility issues or non-issues…
There is a little something for everyone on this site. There are sections for Application Developers, Hardware Developers, “IT PROS” and for Consumers. Pick you category and go for it. If you want to see if your hardware can handle Windows 7 download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your system is compatible.
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 11:51AM Electronic Signatures With the Tablet PC
The vocabulary of digital signatures is a bit confusing. The term "digital signature" refers to a certificate administered by a trusted third party, certificate authority, similar technology. The term "e-signature" refers to a digitized signature created with a stylus and digital ink.
Digital signatures are not supported by TheraWriter.PT, however using a Tablet PC or a graphic file of a signature, e-signatures can be hand written onto the document. The below example shows how to sign a document using the Tablet PC. To use the electronic ink, Microsoft Word 2003 or above is required. Also, TheraWriter.PT's editor must be setup to use the external editor. To change from the internal to external editor, please refer to the following article.
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8:08AM HP is finally joining the ranks of manufacturer’s that will be providing a laptop with a keyboard drain. This is something that other manufacturers, notably Lenovo, have been building into their notebooks for years. How simple is is to provide drain holes designed to allow the flow of liquid back out of you keyboard if you accidentally spill liquid into it.
One thing that has been mentioned on the Lenovo design is to not tilt the laptop until it has completed the draining process. If you tilt the notebook, you will run the chance of shorting out the machine. Just turn it off and wait. You will want to put some absorbing material underneath especially if you are resting on service that could be damaged by liquid, or you could just move it to the sink!
While this design is great, the long term result of the spill can still be stickiness and reduced function because of that. At least you haven’t burned out the system…
The new HP unit’s launch will be coinciding with the release of Windows 7, so expect to see them become available after October 22nd. Prices will start around $799. The models to look for are the 5445b and 6545b.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 8:33AM ZDNET is a great source of information and Mary-Jo Foley comes up with some great news and insights. In this article she discusses Gartner’s opinion and the support of that opinion that we need to begin working towards the “inevitable” new desktop operating system, Windows 7.
Gartner: Windows 7 is 'all but inevitable'
Gartner Group analysts are telling business users that they should look at Windows 7 as an "all but inevitable" Windows release. Here's what else Gartner is advising corporate users, regarding when, how and if to move to Microsoft's latest Windows release. Read more
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 7:45AM 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.
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:
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 7:34AM
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.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:37AM 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:
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
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7:52AM
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.
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 7:50AM 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:
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.
