A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft ran a test panel where they had some hardcore computer users test drive a “new” OS they were “working” on called Mojave. The testers absolutely loved the things MS had built in to the new OS and were raving about it, only to find out that it was nothing more than a rebranded Windows Vista. Vista has been on the market for over a year, receiving a less than warm welcome.

Some of it is not with out reason. Vista is an OS that requires newer equipment. You cannot expect to load vista and Aero on an older machine and have it run the way XP ran. It won’t work. Even on my Turion64 laptop, its a little slower starting up than XP. That being said, it also is a more stable OS than its predecessor. I’ve been able to minimize the number of blue screens and error messages received and MS is fairly quick to roll out patches and fixes for the operating system.

One of the other nice aspects of the OS is that there is a large support base online with a good staff behind it, that can resolve most issues in a matter of time. The MS Knowldge Base is often a good place to turn to (much like man pages on *nix) when trying to find a solution to a common problem.

Another good feature of the maturing OS is that more developers are coming out with updated drivers on a routine basis for the OS. For a small business that has a number of desktops to support, Vista’s tools and reliable support resources make it a good option for the office on a budget.

Wow. Where has this summer gone? So far it feels like I’ve done nothing but work. If I’m not at my regular job, I’m doing fireworks, or yard work, or kid work. Luckily the two munchkins are heading to Grandma’s for a week next weekend, so amy and I will have relative quite (except for the dogs) around the house for a short bit of time.

They’ve gone before and usually, by the second day I miss grace yelling at emma, or emma constantly asking for more juice or a clean diaper… i wonder how well I’ll take it this time. Its tough…..

If you’re going to have any kind of life online one of the biggest and most important decisions you’re going to make, besides choosing a super cool domain name (will the owner of its.me contact me?!?!?) is where to host your files. For obvious reasons, hosting choices can either make or break a website. I’ve seen a ton of sites get hit hard with traffic only to be turned off by their hosts, I’ve also seen sites that simply had too much host behind them for the amount of traffic.

Thats where Webhostinggeeks comes in. They aim to take the pain out of choosing a webhost and for the most part they do a pretty good job with clean, clear reviews that let you know what you’re getting right up front.

If you’re in the market for a new place to start hosting, check them out.

Recently, we’ve seen a myriad of “improvements” made at EntreCard. The addition of SezWho to the credit earning lineup, better reporting a more AJAXY interface and some other improvements. Now, they’re looking to take over your Browser.

Granted, it only seems to work for FireFox 3 (as the post has many urgings for the user to upgrade to FF3) but it does seems to be a complete bar with such things as one click advertising, dropping, a current “credit” display and some other cool features, this might be a good tool for the hardcore card dropper.

I’ve tried bars in the past for services like PPP and others and they fell far short of expectations. besides, I like to have as much realestate for my page as possible, and the tab bar and the links bar take up a good bit of space. However, if you’re a serious EC Dropper, head over to EntreCard and try out the bar. It might make things better for you.

My grandparents both suffered from Alzheimer’s. It wasn’t a fun thing to watch. We’d take turns as a family staying at their house every night to make sure that Grandma was ok, and some times we’d wake to her standing in the hallway having conversations with people who weren’t there (or hadn’t been in decades). Other times, she’d remember who we were. It was like playing roulette every day as to who we would get to talk to.

Alzheimer’s is not a fun disease, and very likely, you know someone who has been affected by it directly. Chances are that 7 out of 10 of us will be affected by it some time in our life. Whether its ourselves or a loved one and while there is little you can do once someone you know is affected by it (outside of make sure they have the best possible care) there is something you can do today!

The Alzheimer’s Memory Walk is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. Over 600 communities will participate in the walk this year, and you can help by being a team captain or walker for someone you know.

The walk is a 2 to 3 mile event that takes place once the cooler weather of Fall has settled in and is a good way to help spread awareness and raise funding for the the Alzheimer’s Association. It only takes a little time one weekend a year to help bring us closer to a cure.

Who would you walk for??

A legend passed away this weekend. Skip Caray the ever present voice of the Atlanta Braves, and son of the famous Harry Caray, passed away in his sleep on Sunday, he was 68. Caray began his Braves Career in 1976 with Pete Van Wieren broadcasting to the country, “America’s Team” every game during the summer.

I can remember growing up listening to Caray and Van Wieren calling the games, and their elation in 91 as the Braves won what would be the first of 13 division titles and while this year, he was only calling the home games due to his health, it was still reassuring to hear his voice over the airwaves (despite a loosing record) most nights.

Skip will most certainly be missed, but never forgotten as his son Chip has been calling the games for a while now (I remember when Chip started, that it sounded like the two of them had so much fun working together). An interesting thing is that Caray got started in Atlanta calling Hawks games when the Hawks moved from St. Louis to the A-town.

He would have been 69 on August 12th. Skip, we’ll miss you!