Microsoft Surface, the hottest surface on the planet

Microsoft has recently unveiled their newest toy, and boy is it cool. It is called Microsoft Surface. When I first looked a this thing I started to drool. Then as I watched demo after demo I started to vibrate. Words cannot describe this well enough but I shall try. Imagine a table that is also a computer screen. But more, it is a touch screen. Not only that but they have reinvented how people compute. It uses natural hand gestures and is smart. So smart the demos I saw showed someone put a digital camera down on the table, and all the pictures in that camera, spilled out of it. And you can move them around with a single finger. Want to zoom in? No problem, just place to fingers on the picture and spread them apart. More than one person can use the table at once too. You can paint, draw, write, surf the net, all kinds of stuff. Check out this video to see what I mean. Your going to like this.
For more info check out the Surface website.

Google + Salesforce = ???

I personally think it would be a great idea. I poked around at salesforce.com looking for an easy to manage yet effective CRM (Customer Relations Manager). I settled with SugarCRM instead. But to be able to have all the Google Apps functionality, like Docs and Spreadsheet and not to mention Webmail, right inside of your CRM platform, that would be awesome. Imagine being able to track customer interactions spanning many years. Being able to categorize different Customer responses like, "Disgruntled", or "Satisfied", and then being able to track over a period of time which customers are more trouble than they are worth. Better yet, which employees are not handling the customers correctly? And say for instance your client sends you an Excel document but you’re on vacation and just checking up on things from a local Net Cafe. Here you could open, edit, or whatever, the spreadsheet and send it right back to them and never have to launch a third party application. Web related applications are the bomb.

I personally cannot wait until the day that Google starts partnering, (or developing on their own), with an Operating System. I can see it now, GFAT, Google File Allocation Tables using the same algorithm for indexing your data that the SE uses to provide you with top quality search results.

Mars Spirit Rover

Well it seems that the Mars Spirit Rover has uncovered more goodies. This tidbit concerns life on Mars. Well not really. But close. They have found soil that is rich in silica which suggests that water was once pooled in this location. And where there is water, there could be life. For the full story go here, Nasa.gov.

"You could hear people gasp in astonishment," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the Mars rovers' science instruments. "This is a remarkable discovery. And the fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable. It makes you wonder what else is still out there."

Google Hot Trends

Ok so this post will be about whats going on in the tech world today. Google launched a new services called Hot Trends. It is similar to Google Trends but it pulls all the data from different searches and shows you what is hot. The cool part about HotTrends that I noticed is that what is Hot changes often. I reviewed the site this morning and by this afternoon nearly all of the list has been replaced. Those involved in SEO know how valuable this tool is as it helps illustrate the changing landscape of popular searches.

Woot

Well as you can probably tell, Google as approved my application for Adsense. So make sure you check out the Google Pack link on the side. I do not even care if you click that link or not, be sure to check out the Google Pack. Google is the Shiznite. I remember back int he day when I was an avid Infoseek user and then along comes this new search engine, Google. At first I was too stubborn to switch and frankly, Infoseek had better results in it's searches. But Google has dominated the market in so many ways. I firmly believe this is due to their philosophy. It is my desire to one day end up at Google and I know I will. I think no other place on earth could fit me better and Google would benefit greatly from my experiences. What are those experiences you say? Well we shall save that for another blog but lets just say I have been around the world.

Google AdSense

Well I signed up for an account to Google AdSense to put on this site. Not that I am expecting much revenue from it but if my viewers are able to find more information related to what they were searching for, and if I happen to turn a profit for providing that, then right on. So lets hope this blog site will pass the test. Last time I submitted a request it was for my site mediawake.net, and was denied. It is a dead site now, though I still use it for email and development testing, PHP FTW.

Here is to Hope!

Microsoft Groove 2007

This blog is about one of the coolest applications to come out of Microsoft to date. It is called Groove and here is what it is.

Groove lets you setup secure work environments called Workspaces. Once you create a Workspace you can invite anyone into it. They will of course need to have Groove installed. Groove can generate the email with links to download a free trial version of Groove for you to send to others. Or if you have someone already in your contact list you just choose their name from a dropdown and they instantly get an Invite notification. Now for the fun part.

Let's talk more about these Workspaces and what they can do. A Standard Workspace is the coolest I have seen so far. It starts off with a Files tool which allows you to add files for sharing. The files sync to the other users and they are able to view them. The person creating the Workspace is set to Manager by default but you can make others the Manager if you like. There are 3 roles, Manager, Participant, and Guest. A Participant can add tools and make basic changes where as a Guest can only view. Below is a list of Tools that can be added and a couple of example of their uses.

• Calendar
  
  • Pretty self explanatory. This lets you setup appointments that others can see. Great for scheduling team or board meetings.
• Discussions
  
  • Kind of like a Forum. You can Add Topics and then Reponses.
• Files
  
  • For sharing multiple files and Folders across the workspace
• Forms
  
  • This one is really cool. You can create forms using a fairly intuitive editor and then publish them across the Workspace. Once that is done users can view and form and fill it out. All information gets stored and is viewable by a "View" which you also create. This is great for a team that needs to collect TPS reports…I mean progress reports or any type of data collection. You could even make Team Blog using the Forms tool.
• InfoPath Forms
  
  • Basically the same as the regular Forms Tool but allows you to import forms designed in InfoPath
• Issue Tracking
  
  • Self explanatory. Lets you setup different issues. It is fairly comprehensive as you can define status levels, categories, priority lists and even attach Files to topics.
• Meetings
  
  • This allows you to have some of the functionality of the different tools on a per meeting basis. You can assign action items, agendas, and a discussion forum and log meeting minutes
• Notepad
  
  • Just a place to jot down notes
• Pictures
  
  • Displays and shares images and digital photo's. This would come in handy for a development team that is reviewing concept sketches or maybe a real estate agency that can list different images for the project
• SharePoint Files
  
  • This synchronizes files with a SharePoint document library or folder.
• Sketchpad
  
  • Self explanatory. You can draw and share visual ideas using a basic graphic editor that used vector based graphics.
• Chess Game
  
  • Yes it even has a Chess game. Now there are no rule so it is not turn based but is a nice if you need to break from the brainstorm and clear the head for a moment.

  Now you can also create a strictly File sharing Workspace that is very much like Windows Explorer but the files are synchronized across the members of the Workspace.
  

  You can also save a Standard Workspace as a template so that you can create new Workspaces that are already populated with the necessary tools
  

  All in all Microsoft Groove is awesome and has a lot of potential for many different uses. Now only if there was a way to access the data stored by a 3rd Party application or web server, that would be the bomb!
  

  For more info and screenshot visit the Microsoft Groove 2007 website
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove
  

  BTW this blog was written in MS OneNote 2007, which rocks as well, and then posted using the Blog functionality of Word 2007 directly to my Blogger account. How cool is that?

Getting Started with QBos

Edit: For the latest on Qbos check out my latest post

Day One

This is my first post to this new blog. Google is the shiznit. anywho. This post should be posted to my site at theuglyflashsite.com so lets hope it works.