Turtles

This has nothing to do with anything computer related but I have saved 2 turtles from clients houses in the last week. I also have a 50% success rate of not being peed on, that's hall of fame numbers there! haha.

Windows 7 Continued

So far so good with Windows 7. QB 2009 Pro installed fine. Quicken 2009 fine. Everything is working fine so far. It's a fixed up Vista so the core is built off of that so it's basically the same. I'm impressed so far. Like I said in an earlier blog, it just seems not a "fat". I'm guessing they made Vista exercise. It is faster in a couple areas. The UAC thingy pops up almost instantly instead of the loooooooooong pause with Vista. Remember my install is the same exact hardware as my Vista install. So far, "clap, clap" to Microsoft.

Keep you posted...

Windows 7

I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I have a Microsoft Action Pack subscription that gives me access to all of their software so I can use it and then try to pitch the clients into upgrading.

Anyway, Windows 7 seems pretty good for the few hours of use. No problems with installing stuff so far. Drivers use Vista's so should be fine there. Just seems "better" than Vista. Doesn't seem as bloated from initial use. I'll report back on it all.

Google Apps Full Exchange sync

Google Apps now has full exchange sync for any exchange capable devices. This is awesome! Set it up on my iPhone (already had the calendar and contacts sync'ing). Since I had exchange setup already, all I had to do was to hit the on/off switch and the mailbox was set! Deleted my Fortify IT, Inc IMAP out and now it is fully push email.

You rule Google. Thanks.

Google Chrome

I've been using Google Chrome (web browser) since it came out last year sometime. It was cool but Firefox still had it beat.  But now I've really been playing with it more this year and it's become my main browser. Why?  Glad you asked.

1) Speed. It is SOOOO Freaking fast.  It launches fast, it renders fast, everything is just cool.

2) Version 3's Omnibox. v3's Omnibox is much better than previous versions because it differentiates between a website and just regular searches.  really nice touch.

3) Using my Google Apps for my personal stuff and Fortify IT stuff.  It's awesome. it's just fast, it works.  

4) Since Chrome is basically what Chrome OS is going to turn out to be when they later release that for Netbooks and full scale pc's so I'm really excited!  I am getting to a point of I just want Internet access.  Google Chrome and Chrome OS will deliver that for me.   I've dumped Outlook for Gmail webclient, I've basically dropped Word and Excel for Google Apps (except for my school stuff, where I need certain formatting criteria). 

Try Google Chrome, you'll soon love it.  It'll be really great when they turn on the extensions so then it'll be just like Firefox with all of their extensions!  it's going to rule!

Now if they can finish Chrome for Linux, I'll be a happy camper!

Microsoft Online Exchange

So I've been moving a couple companies over to Micrsosoft's new Online Exchange product. It's a nice setup and everything and it's cheap, $10 month per mailbox. But this last client I just moved wanted a Public folder option so Google Apps was out of it (my preferred email option for all the extras you get that you have to pay for from Microsoft).  So I read all over the place when I was looking for it and it never mentioned that Public folders wasn't supported yet.  So I called tech support and said "how do I add a public folder?"   Tech Support, "ummm that's currently not supported. It's a future add but not right now."  I told them that is why I moved these people here and I didn't see anything in the literature mentioning that!?!?!

So I'm not happy with that but my thing is that it's an Exchange product. Anyone who has installed an Exchange product, YOU GET PUBLIC FOLDERS! Why isn't that turned on?  Oh I know why, the Tech Support dude told me this,  There is a work around for this but you need a Sharepoint license.  Sooooo Microsoft wants me to PAY for something extra that COMES with Exchange.  Nice. Thanks Guys. Um No Thanks, We'll create a work around ourselves.

New To Blogging

Hey All,

This is Michael Pisto, I own my own IT Consulting company for small businesses in the Northeast Atlanta area. I've supported a couple hundred clients over the last 10 years in all different industries. Usually the sizes range from 1 user to about 20 users. I enjoy the small clients because it's a lot of fun to interact with them and I like to help the small businesses since they have limited budgets and I feel that working around those limited budgets is one of my specialties.

New to all this so I will update whenever I can!
Thanks
Michael Pisto