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.

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.

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

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

I created a quick video showing the taskbar 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.

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.

While 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 have 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.

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.

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

I was perusing all the incoming emails this morning and I ended up on CNet’s site looking at their 2009 Gift Guide and this product jumped out at me as a perfect gift for someone that is a gadget freak, I guess like me...

The CHARGEPOD by Callpod provides an innovative charging pod that allows you to purchase adapters to plug your power hungry devices into. See a video commercial about this device by clicking on the picture to the right.

“The Chargepod is a 6-way charging device that allows you to charge multiple cell phones, PDAs, headsets, and most other mobile electronics with a single power cord. Just pick out the manufacturer-specific adapters for your devices and throw away the dozens of power cords and wall warts that are cluttering your office and home. Chargepod uses voltage regulator technology and interchangeable power adapters to safely charge all of your mobile devices regardless of manufacturer or model.”

This is the perfect gift for anyone trying to consolidated their power charging needs or for someone that is on the move. When we are on vacation I have to pack 5-6 adapters, and then search for enough outlets to plug them all in to. I am constantly worried when we pack up to leave that I have gathered up all of the various adapters. This is a great solution for that problem. The Charging base is priced on their site for $39.95 and each cable you purchase is $9.95. Buy just the adapter cables that you need and put away all of the charging units for your devices.

ZDNet was full of good articles today. Here are some views on how cloud computing may change business computing.

Eight ways that cloud computing will change business | 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

A new ZDNet article just came in giving a comparison of features and pricing between the new iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Android G1. So if you are in the market for a new phone this article may help make your decision easier.

I always wondered about this. ZDNet is reporting that an Arizona Video Editor is attributing the way he uses Facebook and Twitter may have given burglars the high-sign to come into his home and steal his video editing equipment. While there is no way to be sure that his posting information to his Twitter and Facebook accounts, his posting detailing his trip to his friends may have been a heads up to the burglars. An article by Anne Wallace Allen for the Associated Press details this particular situation.

A lot of things would have to come together for a burglar to use your online postings to gauge when to take advantage your not being home. First they would have to know who you are, where you live and need to be monitoring you to see when the best time to sneak into your home. But, it probably wouldn’t hurt to be careful though.

As Sam Diaz of ZDNet said: “Still, it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Next time I head out on a vacation, I pledge to not tell my Facebook friends and Twitter followers that I’m leaving.  The last thing I need is to come hone to a ransacked house.”

Take a quick look at this article describing how to reserve vanity pages at FaceBook by “letting them customize the Web addresses that lead to their profiles.” If you are into this then you may want to read this CNet article by Caroline McCarthy.

I put together a short demo video to show how you can scan to a file. In the demo we have setup the printers internal settings to FTP to file locations on our server. We have setup a function for all of the key personnel in the office where each individual has their own dedicated landing point folder on the server. This is a short video and won’t take long to demonstrate this function.

We have had this unit in our shop now for over a month and I can honestly tell you that I don’t know how I lived without it until now. We haven’t had a decent copier for awhile, we print everything original, but the scanner is what I have come to love. We have setup FTP functions on the printer to allow it to scan to individual directories on our server that you can access and manipulate the scanned documents to your heart’s content. We have taken several functions that created more paper copies and now have fully digitized the functions. We are getting closer to that dream of a paperless office. I have taken to scanning all of my day notes into the system and now I able to quickly use these to working with the information.

This is a color printer so you have full capability of B/W and Color Printing, Scanning and Copying as well as Fax capabilities. I haven’t told you the best thing yet.

It costs only $999.

What a deal. Here’s a pointer to the product brochure, be sure to take a look. Let me know if this is something that you are interested in and we can setup a demo for you.

Interesting article from ZDNet’s Andrew Nusca: “Top 10 affordable gadgets for Father’s Day [gift guide]”

Found some neat stuff here that I think I would want as well…

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=5028&alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE 

Have fun!

Even though we are not an Apple Fan House if you are a gadget geek you have got to love the Apple iPhone. Apple Announced the new iPhone 3GS ($199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB and will be available June 19th) and drops the price on the 3G to $99. The new 3GS is faster, launching Messaging 2x faster, almost 3x faster to launch a web page and includes OpenGL/ES with 7.2MBps HSDPA support built in.

Probably the best new feature that new owners will use is the 3.0 megapixel camera. There are some really neat features including:

• Tap-to-focus - tap an item in the photo to focus on it. Resets the light balance too.
  Improved low-light sensitivity.
• Automatic macro photographs (10cm).
• Video capture, 30fps VGA.
• Videos show up in photo library. You can trim them, share via email, MMS, YouTube, MobileMe.

Voice Control has also been added to the unit. Hold down the home button for a few seconds in any application. Commands that you can say float across the screen. Examples include: “Dial computer connections”, “play andy mckee”, “play more songs like this”, “what’s playing now”.

Other features: Built-in digital compass, New accessibility settings, Nike+ support, Hardware data encryption, Improved battery life. 9 hours on WiFi, 10 hours watching video, 30 hours audio, 12 hours 2G talk, 5 hours 3G talk.

I haven’t done this much before except to post when the new issue has been released. But I thought that I would start posting supplemental information to the blog to give my LMP Readers more information about what was written there. In this post you will find pointers to the sites mentioned in the article and more. Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Social Networking Websites:

MySpace – I consider it a place for the younger generation, but be my guest…

FaceBook – A little more sedate.

BeBo – seems a bit cluttered to me but lots of gadgets and stuff to play with

Cozi - Wish you had some help organizing your family life? Get Cozi. It's the new way busy families keep up with appointments and lists, coordinate home and work schedules, and share favorite memories and photos. All in one place.

Plaxo - Connect to your family, friends, and business network.

ecadamy - offers business networking and features aimed at corporate users looking to grow their contact network. Most of what I see are professional trainers trying to get gigs…

Spoke – provide company research and communications between individuals.

LinkedIn - is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

Messaging Websites:

Twitter – simple mini-blogging

FriendFeed – very much like Twitter but simpler with less clutter has some nice functions to pull in info from other sites

Jaiku - Jaiku's main goal is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their activity streams. An activity stream is a log of everyday things as they happen: your status messages, recommendations, events you're attending, photos you've taken - anything you post directly to Jaiku or add using Web feeds. It offers a way to connect with the people you care about by sharing your activities with them on the Web, IM, and SMS - as well as through a slew of cool third-party applications built by other developers using our API.

Blog Host Providers:

Go Daddy – full service for online anything. Setup personal or business domains, email, website design, blogs, video and photo galleries, etc…

SquareSpace – this is a new comer in the industry that is getting a lot of hype from many of the industry pundits. Its primary draw is ease of use to create a very professional looking web space. Primarily a geared towards blogging it can be used for general website creation as well.

Google’s Blogger -Express yourself with a blog on WordPress. Add WordPress to your profile and share your blog with the people you choose.

WordPress - Express yourself with a blog on WordPress. Add WordPress to your profile and share your blog with the people you choose. one of the oldest and best know blog hosting sites

blog.com - All blogs start free. Just sign up and your account will be registered as a free account. You will have access to most of blogging and photo album management features. Free blogs are ad-supported, so a small advertisement square banner will be placed on your blog to help pay for bandwidth and hosting of your blog. You won't be asked for any payment details.

LiveJournal - Express yourself, share your life, connect with friends online. You can use LiveJournal in many ways: a private journal, a blog, a discussion forum or a social network.

Office LIve – this is a service that I have been using for a number of years. Great to set up  you business with. Allows access to files from any computer. Promotes collaboration and sharing of data with everyone in your group. Setup Blogs, Email, Personalized Domains and more. Pieces of SharePoint services available as well.