BeardmoreWeb

I recently in the past month subscribed to hosted Exchange for my email.  I decided to go with Exchange 2007.  Previous to that I had used Exchange 2003 for about two years and did enjoy my Outlook Web Access experience.  There were a few bugs that were annoying such as the contacts area but that was manageable.  After switching to Exchange 2007 the first thing I notice that I am not able to live without is the month view on the calendar!   I cannot believe that Microsoft did not keep this feature in OWA.  I always view my calendar by month so being limited to viewing my calendar in week view is a HUGE pain!  Seriously, how hard would it be to keep the month view in OWA?  Hopefully when Microsoft sends out their big exchange update they will fix this problem because it is really annoying to me! 

Everything else in the new OWA is top notch with many new enhancements that make it more like Outlook than ever before, my only complaint so far is the calendar!

As of right now, these are the only options available! (Day, Work Week and Week)  Where is my Month View?

Google just released an online presentation app to go along with its Docs and Spreadsheets applications.  I just began to play with it, but so far I am quite impressed with the interface.  The app can import from PowerPoint documents that are uploaded to the system which is very cool.  It also comes with many different design templates and layouts which look very professional.  Working with text and other media objects on the slides seems very easy.  As with Docs and Spreadsheets, collaboration is allowed which makes it possible for multiple people to work on a presentation which is great and much easier to do in this environment rather than working with just one file and trying to merge the changes.

I see this app having great potential when used in conjunction with an app like SKYPE or Google Talk because it would allow meetings to take place online without the need for expensive specialized services.  The presenter can start a show and then give people the url of the presentation.  From there, users can login with their Google accounts and watch the presentation that is controlled by the presenter.  There is even a chat feature built into the presentation window so that people can give you feedback even if you choose.

The only con that I see to this system so far is that there currently is no way to save a presentation file out of the app yet, so once it is in the presentation app, you are pretty much stuck to staying with it this way.

I hope that in the future export options are made available and I also hope that this can somehow integrate with Google Talk to make this a really great online presentation system.

Check it out at www.docs.google.com

The system does require you to signup for a free Google Account which I recommend everyone do because Google has many great services that everyone should take a look at.

Windows Live Writer is an application that is not well known in the Microsoft Live offering. It is buried in the Beta’s section of the website.

Today I am reviewing Microsoft Live Writer, an application that helps you post to blogs of various technologies including Moveable Type, WordPress and Microsoft’s very own Spaces platform. This application is very simple to setup and use and that’s why I think it’s an excellent application to feature. In fact, Microsoft Live Writer is my writing tool to post to the BeardmoreWeb blog.

After a very simple installation the software opens with a setup screen that asks what type of service you will be using. In my case I choose “Another weblog service” because I run a WordPress blog.

After that, it brings me to a simple page that asks me the url of my website and my username and password for the system.

Once you have entered in your login credentials, Live Writer automatically detects and analyzes your blog to determine how it will post data.

Alright then, now you are good to edit your blog with this awesome interface which allows you to add files, pictures, hyperlinks and even pictures from Microsoft’s Virtual Earth system.

The program is great for making quick posts to your blog without having to worry about logging into the blogging interface. The thing that I like so much about this app is that it makes it easier for a writer to imbed items into their blog post. For instance, when I want to add a picture to a WordPress blog, first I have to upload the picture, then I have to try to remember how to insert it into my blog post, then after that it is still only a thumbnail. With this app, I can easily customize an image, make it just the right size and also do some neat effects from right within one application!

I look forward to the final release of this app and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a much better way to post to their blog.

You can find this app at www.live.com

I would like to welcome mississippiriverwild.com to BeardmoreWeb.  This site is for Mississippi River Wild which is an organization that is in support of keeping the Mississippi river an enjoyable habitat for all.

This is a volunteer project that I did to help the organization get started.  The group is just getting off the ground so check out the site in the near future to see what events they have planned to help the Mississippi River.

http://www.mississippiriverwild.com

I just wanted to give everyone a status update as to what I’ve been up to lately.

First off, I have transferred to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to finish my Bachelor degree in Management Information Systems from the Carlson School of Management.

My new address is 2515 University Ave. SE Apartment 109.  Minneapolis, MN  55414.

University Village

My new work phone number is 608.498.4950 (Courtesy of Grand Central)

Second, I am no longer with CESA #4.  I have turned to doing technology consulting for various organizations.  One such organization that I will be spending quite some time with is Redman & Associates LLC.  My official title is Technology Consultant.  I will be working mostly on the website and the day to day needs of the company.  Most of this work will be done remotely.

Have a great September everyone!

Hello everyone from the La Crosse PC Users Group, thank you for having me, I had a great time showing you Vista!

Here is the information that I promised:

• For starters, here is the break down of the different versions of vista (click here)
• Second, the TV tuner that I used in my brief demo of Media Center for Vista is a WinTV PVR 2 USB which is made by a company called Hauppage. NewEgg currently has it for $124.99 (click here to go to newegg’s listing)
  
• Third, The Build that I had on the Dell Inspiron 1520 that I did the demo with is here

Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop

• Fourth, I will see what I can do with the video, we ran a little long so a large part of the presentation did not make it on the tape. Check back in a week and hopefully I will have posted something by then.

Also from my presentation, I would like to remind you that for home use, The version to go with is Vista Home Premium, unless you want all the neat features of Vista Ultimate then spring for tha, but for general computing Vista Home Premium will be perfect.

For more Vista and microsoft information there is a great podcast Windows Weekly which has a ton of great information about what is going on at Microsoft.  This podcast is part of the TWIT (This Week in Tech) podcast network run by Leo Laporte (former The Screen Savers host from TechTV)

Please let me know if you have any questions about what you learned at the demo and I would be happy to answer them. E-Mail

I would like to formally welcome two new Hosted accounts:
www.twincreekshokah.com
www.wauzekalutheran.org

Well, I kept meaning to post this picture somewhere, but I could not figure out just the right place, so I just gave up and decided to post it here.  This is a picture of Terry at a rest stop on our way to the Bunker Ranch Observatory.  www.bunker-ranch.org

He didn’t know what hit him until he realized what sign he was resting his arm on!  muahahaha!

(Click on thumbnail for bigger image)

For those of you who haven’t seen this, I thought I’d post it on my page for easy access. This article talks about implementing biometric finger print scanners in the lunch point of sale system at La Crescent High School. This project was done in conjunction with a company out of Caledonia Minnesota called Educational Biometric Technology. They helped us greatly with giving us the necessary software and scanners to implement the system.

Here is the Article Enjoy!

After several hours of being down, beardmoreweb.com is back up.  Turns out that I had old name server entries for this domain name and the domain name for the old name server entries expired meaning that the pointer was no longer valid.  So…the long and the short of it is that I had to update my nameserver information to the new settings so that everything will work fine again, and so far everything appears to be up again!