As many of you may know, I am directly involved with the Microsoft Windows Mojave Experiment. For more information on this project, please read my posts titled:

• The Microsoft Windows “Mojave Experiment”
• The Microsoft Windows “Mojave Experiment” Part 2
• Microsoft Mojave Project and Me

On September 6th and 7th, The Microsoft Windows Mojave Experiment came to the Best Buy in Lynnwood, WA (about 20 minutes north of Seattle). The mission was simple, show average retail customers what Microsoft Windows Vista was all about. The mission was dangerous, after all Windows Vista doesn’t have the greatest reputation out there, but armed with our trusty Windows Vista laptops, we were ready to face the challenge!

The purpose of the event was to encourage consumers to “decide for yourself” about Windows Vista, and not base everything off of rumors, commercials, early horror stories, etc. The event was a tremendous success. As a matter of fact, plenty of people who had just finished purchasing their new Windows Vista computers came in to learn how to use their new computers. More than that though, the event took great strides in connecting customers with Microsoft and Microsoft with its customers.

Well I am happy to say that on September 27th, the “Decide for Yourself” event is coming to the great city of Hot Dogs, Deep Dish Pizza, and ‘Da Bears”, Chicago. The event will be held at the Evanston Best Buy, located at: 2301 Howard St, Evanston, IL 60202. So if you are in the Chicago area, stop by and say hello!

Rohit Rohila

Hello everyone,

Some of you may know about a Microsoft marketing campaign called “Windows Mojave”. In this campaign, Microsoft shows Windows Vista haters the “new” version of Windows, called “Windows Mojave”. What the participants are really shown is Windows Vista. They are amazed at how good Windows Vista really is.

Well This has been a secret project for some time now, but I can now say that the website has been updated, and I am one of the co-stars of the project. Take a look:
http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

So what were the customers actually shown that got such incredible reactions, here are a few features of Microsoft Windows Vista tha were shows:

• Windows Vista Instant Search
• Windows Vista Flip 3D
• Windows Vista Sidebar
• Windows Vista Photo Gallery
• Windows Vista Movie Maker
• Windows Vista DVD Maker
• Windows Vista Calendar
• Windows Vista Mail (email)

To see some of these videos, go to the Microsoft Windows “Mojave Experiment” website.

The famous commercials by Apple have had a huge impact in the number of converts from the Microsoft Windows world into the world of Apple’s Mac OS. Apple’s ads went from being funny, to slanderous and just plain mean. What started off as a marketing campaign has begun to have a crippeling effect for Apple and the opposite is starting to happen where long term Apple Fans have began to make the change back to Microsoft Windows because of a change in the fundamental philosophies that Apple was once proud of.

The entire time the world kept on asking why Microsoft wasn’t fighting back. Microsoft’s philosophy, “we are better than that.”

Well you can only push so far until the gloves come off. Introducing the beginning of a $300 Million dollar marketing campaign by Microsoft. Introducing the “new” version of Windows, Microsoft Windows Mojave.

Microsoft invited over 150 Mac, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Linus users into a market research facility in San Francisco. They then asked, “What do you think about Vista?” Needless to say, Windows Vista wasn’t as popular as Microsoft had hoped. The participants were then shown a new Windows product in the making, codenamed “Windows Mojave”. I can only imagine that some of the features shown were Flip 3D, Movie Maker, DVD Maker, Parental Controls, Security, Compatibility, Windows Media Center, Dream-Scene, and many other Vista Features.

Asked what they thought of “Windows Mojave”, and people couldn’t wait to go buy it for themselves. Some people even called it futuristic and a Mac killer. It’s plain to see that Mac’s days are numbered…

To see the incredible work, go to: http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

Before using Windows Live Writer, I would type all of my posts inside of Microsoft Word, so that I could use that I could take advantage of the powerful tools that Word has. I would then copy and paste the post inside of WordPress. From there, I would use WordPress’s limited picture capabilities to add a picture, and then post my entry.

Now within Live Writer, I can create my post, use the editing tools, and insert pictures, tables, maps, videos, and much more. Not only that, but Live Writer also downloads my CSS files for a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) experience. Once I am finished with my post, I can publish it, all from Live Writer. I believe that the true power of Live Writer is in it’s flexibility. The program offers a host of Plug-ins and at the time of this posting, there were 84 available. Lastly with Live Writer you can access any previous post, make changes, and then republish your post.

The only shortcoming of this program is that you can not, as far as I know, take advantage of your WordPress Plugins. Also SEO is very limited. Still I would recommend you give it a try by going to http://get.live.com!

• Price: Most antivirus software must be purchased for a price between $20-$60.
• Updates: The programs is only automatically updated for 1 year, unless you purchase another upgrade. Also, the updates are about once a week, meaning that you might be susceptible for a week after a new virus comes out.
• Hard Drive Space: A great number of AntiVirus programs are what is called “Bloatware”, meaning that there are so many features that they take up a huge amount of hard drive space.
• Memory: All those bells and whistles become very resource intensive, meaning that your computer now becomes slower than a turtle.
• Computer Performance: Because the program is so big and takes up so much memory, opening files and programs will take along time.

So as you can see, having a traditional antivirus program does keep you safe, but the trade-off might not be worth it.
The program I have been using for years now, and one that I have now installed on hundreds of computers for family, friends, and clients, is AVG AntiVirus. Why use this program? Here are the benefits:

• Price: Free, not bad huh?
• Updates: Updates a free and happen daily, meaning that your protection is always up to date.
• Hard Drive Space: Although there are many features in this program, when installed, it takes up very little hard drive space compared to it’s competitors
• Memory: AVG barely takes up any memory at all. You won’t even notice it’s running
• Computer Performance: This program is set to run a complete computer scan daily. Because it takes up very little memory, you won’t even realize that it’s running.

I would highly recommend this program. I’ve been using it for years and have never had any problems with it. For more information and to download it, go to their website at http://free.grisoft.com

You have been told a thousand times make backups of your computer files! Backup! Backup! Backup! But it takes too long and who has the time. Maybe you will do it once every few months, when you remember to. But we always wish we would have taken the time when we accidentally delete a file or our computer crashes. If only there was a way to backup your files automatically.

Introducing award winning Mozy. They have won several awards and recognition from PC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many others. I’ve been using their automatic online backup for years now and it’s saved my life more than once. It’s simple. You create your account, download their program, and that’s pretty much it. Your files are backed up to the internet and are only accessible from your computer, so you know your files are safe. Mozy can be used with a Microsoft Windows PC or for Apple Macintosh (Mac OS).

Mozy offers two different accounts for creating your online backups:

• · Mozy Free is a free account with up to 2GB of online backup storage.
• · Mozy Unlimited a $4.95 a month account that offers unlimited storage space.

Trust me, with all of your MP3’s, Pictures, Movies, Files, Emails and more, the Mozy Unlimited is worth it!

When you want to recover your files, simply open their program and download your files again automatically. Their online tools are great as well. You can browse all of your files or restore them from the internet.

I highly recommend using Mozy, and with their free account, you don’t have a reason not to. To get started, visit their website at: http://mozy.com and create you free account today.

Well that is where Plaxo.com comes in. So how does it work? They couldn’t have made it easier.

1. Create your account. Create your own Plaxo account with all of your updated information. From now on, anytime you update your information (like an email or cell phone change) you can have Plaxo send out an email to all of your contacts with the new information. If a contact already has a Plaxo account, then their address book is automatically updated!
2. Import your current address books. Plaxo will now import your address books from MSN, AOL, Gmail, Outlook, etc.
3. Update your address book. Plaxo sends an email to everyone in your address books and shows them all of the contact info you have on them and will ask them to update any information that has changed.
4. Choose where to sync. Now that your Plaxo address book has all of the most current information, you can choose which services Plaxo will work with. I use it to sync my Gmail, AOL Instant Messenger, and my Cell Phone. They currently sync your address book with the following services:

• Cell Phones
• Comcast
• Google
• Linkedln
• Mac OS X
• MSN
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Yahoo

Now here is an example. Say I send out a contact update email to everyone and my friend Nickie Silvia has changed her cell phone number. As soon as she updates her cell phone number, the changes are reflected in my cell phone, my Gmail, and so forth.

Plaxo also syncs your calendars and will even let you know about upcoming birthdays. I have been using this incredible service for many years and highly recommend it. To get started go to www.plaxo.com!

I also do all of my banking, credit cards, stocks, and purchasing on the internet. So I was very concerned with security and how to keep myself safe. Odds are if you are 87% of the world, you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

You are among the 87% of the population who deals with pop-ups, viruses, spyware, and other security headaches, or “features” as Microsoft calls them. What are the majority of the other 13% using? Mozilla FireFox.

You may have heard about it, but not known what it is or how to get to it, or even how to use it. They couldn’t have made it easier. They import all of your bookmarks, passwords, and other settings that were stored in Internet Explorer. What are some of the benifits to using Firefox?

• Built-in spell checker
• Pop-up blocker
• Tabs (A real cool feature once you use it)
• Session restore (Firefox remembers the website you were at)
• Automatic updates
• much more.

Download it right now by clicking on the button bellow and you will soon be on your way to a safer internet experience.