Curious Voyager - Live like you mean it!

Life And The Way It Goes

This is not about technology this is about Life. A special Starbucks is closing and that is very sad. When I say special I visit many Starbuck’s coffee shops wherever I go, I am the Mayor of 3 (Foursquare) and I have always enjoyed all of them however this one is different.

All of the Starbucks I have been to from Ohio to California have always had Good to Great employees and it has always been a pleasure to go there – even at the cost.

What makes this one special is that it is bigger than most, has large tables and during the week you will find a great number of business transactions going on here. People have been hired here, contracted or contacted with here, deals have been made as well as birthday parties and general conversations between friends. It is a very open and pleasant place and I sure that if it was in Seattle it would not be closing.

I have been here in the morning when the line is out the door. The place can pack up and is just warm and friendly. This is one of those places with GREAT employees. This is where you can find me most mornings and then on the weekends. I am here right now writing this post.

I do not know why it is closing however I suspect that it missed the high standards set by the accounting department not customer service. I suspect that in order for the company to maintain stockholder support each store has to achieve a specific profit level, say 15% (just guessing)  and if your store only gets to 8% then we close you so that you do not drag down the rest (imagine only 8%).

It is a shame since this place has come to mean a great deal to the local businesses and to the people that stop here. I am all for profit but in today’s day and age when you become a publicly traded stock you must bow down to the shareholders and their needs which is $money$. Woe be onto you that is in it for the service you provide.

I know this small wonderful place is, in the eyes of the company and it’s shareholders, small potatoes (or small beans) but to us who meet here, write here, do business here and drink the Pike Place dry (or the latte) we will be sad to see it and the employees go.

One thing that Starbucks should consider is that those of us who do linger here appreciate the fact that the music is nice but it is in the background. In most of the other places I go the music is way to loud and therefore not a good place to meet, greet and try to do a little work, way to loud. I have always felt they didn’t want us hanging around and perhaps that is a thought here.

One thing that Starbucks should keep in mind. Coffee is a developed taste and we will have to develop another taste now, and then when we travel perhaps we will not search out a Starbucks as we used to.

Just a thought from the Curious Voyager!

Is Office 2010 Having Issues?

After giving rave reviews to my students, having friends download and install Office 2010, then presenting a seminar on the wonderful new features of Office 2010, I (and others) are being buried with the pop-up that you see here. I have opened Excel or Word many times however now I see that the time to access the software has been greatly expanded as Microsoft is “supposedly” downloading “..the required files”.

For them to say “..may appear unresponsive temporarily..” is an understatement. I have been in this file for the last two days and did not have an issue accessing it. I know it is Beta, and I was aware what I was getting into however I did use it before becoming a unsigned spokesperson. I will now keep quiet for awhile.

From all these pop-ups it appears that I did not fully download and install the software and that every time I open office 2010 I am actually calling it up from Microsoft.

What do they want to know? Just curious, but then that is me.

Screenshots And More

When I was posting from the Office 2010 seminar (yesterday) using Word 2010 as the blogging tool I was commenting on the fact that you could not get a “feel” for the layout of the publication appearance. If you added graphics you were not sure how the final presentation would appear until after you published whereas in Windows Live Writer (which I am using here) you get a good feel for how things will look when you hit the publish button.

That was a long way to get where I want to go.

In the last post on that day using Word I attempted to use the screenshot tool that has been added to all the Office 2010 desktop products. It is really nice, especially for someone who is always creating documents that will show someone visually how to accomplish a specific Office document task. Beautiful! Something that I will use.

One problem is that it does not covert the screen shot to an object that is capable of being used in a web post and Word does not alter the file type either when posting to the web.

The picture you see on the left is the same screenshot I was attempting to do with the Word screenshot tool however this time I used the Snipping Tool in Windows 7 and when you place the object in Windows Live Writer it is acceptable on the web. To my surprise the Windows 7 Snipping Tool captures the snip (if you will) as a Portable Network Graphics file (.png).

Now I know how to do it. By the way the graphic insertion tools in Windows Live Writer are very good and resizing, adding drop shadows, controlling margins and whatever else one might need.

First A Humble Apology

Over the last year or so I was thinking that I only write for the therapeutic value, to free the inner self. This conclusion was arrived at due to the fact that no one was commenting on my blog. After much self talk I was considering moving to another venue for this blog.

I use Windows Live Writer for my blogging tool (primarily) and the blog is hosted at Typepad. I very seldom (if ever) go directly to Typepad so I decided to visit Typepad and review what other options I might have there. I have been very pleased with Typepad in the years that I have been blogging so why not see what I could do to stay there.

Much to my chagrin I discovered in the search of my account that somewhere over the last year(s?) I may have disabled commenting or set it up for my approval however without notification. I “think” I have corrected that and will remain at Typepad.

Have a WONDERFUL day!

More Office Word 2010

The first of the two prior posts was written prior to the seminar while the last one was written during the seminar. In using Word as a tool to blog I do not see away to be able to verify the layout prior to posting. In Windows Writer you can see pretty much the correct layout so when adding pictures you know where they will be located in the actual post. I have added a piece of clipart to this document however about only choices I have is what you would have in Microsoft Word (obviously as that is what we are using).

I have added a Screenshot of the Microsoft Office Logo to see how that plays out in the blog. It would be better if one could see the exact layout of the document prior to publishing.

Office 2010 Seminar

We are presenting the seminar now LIVE!!    

Office 2010 Seminar

Preparing to present a "Sneak Peek" at Office 2010 here at New Horizons Ohio Valley this morning and I am testing the use of Word 2010 to create a blog. More later.

Google Buzz – And The Buzzards!

I guess I have finally come to the end of my rope with all the negative journalism (if you can call it journalism) regarding Google, Microsoft and Apple.  I use products from all three and all three have made mistakes and some of those from trusting people.

How about; “Google is now right up there with Microsoft and Apple.” I can tell right away what kind of negative mentality we are dealing with. We can throw around that we knew sooner or later they would succumb to the evil sprit. They were no good but we knew they were only hiding it well.

Get off it!

Google may have made a mistake (I’m sure that you haven’t) and will correct it and do it openly. They may not even think evil and were not aware that the journalism community would fine all the evil things the journalist’s could do – and then point the finger at Google.

Good people will use Buzz and so my friends will bad people. Which one are you?  Where do you fit in? Smart people will use Buzz as will dumb people. Maybe we should re-visit the license to use the Internet however that will be shouted down because of the people writing may not be able to pass the exam.

I use Google Buzz and still trying to see where it fits in as I am still trying to figure out Google Wave. I am an independent and do not have many to collaborate with.

The Internet should be free and we will all make mistakes in both using it and providing for it. Your observations and support can make it better. As for you that constantly complain and criticize and no better I’ll tell you the same as I tell most sports writers who complain about coaching– go build a company (or team) better, bigger and more benevolent. If you are that good!

Perhaps the biggest problem I have is the language and terms used to deride companies. Read the articles and one writer after another wants to create flames in your eyes and mind. Words that lead one to believe something worse is happening. Is it possible that in reality Google is working with China? The innuendo is incredible but I guess that is the way of Yellow Journalism.

Not many of these writers have positive suggestions other than “scrap this one”. If we had listened to you in the early 80’s or middle 90’s we would not  have the personal computing platform or the Internet (it was just a fad right?)

Monday rant #2.

Computer jargon baffles users, hinders security - Reuters

This is a link to a story that tends to also supports my reasoning to dump Anti-Virus and Internet Security programs that want to ‘rule’ your computer. Computer jargon baffles users, hinders security | Deals | Regulatory News | Reuters. They cannot be understood without a degree in security and on the verge of being impossible to configure.

Norton for example makes it extremely difficult for someone to set up home network with all their Firewall nonsense. NORTON IS IN CONTROL YOU DO NOT NEED TO WORRY! That is the same as saying “I am from the government and I am here to help!” In my personal (but not humble) opinion the setup is so difficult that it becomes obscene.

I am a user and a good one at that. I am not into IT – it tends to slow me down. I just want what I need and be able to do the things I need to do, like set up a home or small business network without a BS in Security.

Monday’s rant.

Blogging Today

I am reading Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck and I have found many great thoughts on creating a Life and/or a business as well as your personal brand.

In the chapter on Building Your Personal Brand I could not help but read and re-read a few lines that I think are extremely important in today's world of blogging. Too many company bloggers only relate to the product and it is thought of as advertisement rather than the communication dialog that a blog was meant to be.

Quote from the book:

If you’re a sales manager at Crest, every post you make online could have an agenda, whether it’s to reveal your thoughts on your industry - “We’ve got to come up with a fresh approach to packaging” – or to reveal your thought in general - “I think I want to take up ice hockey.” You cannot afford to be one-dimensional; everything you say that you think is irrelevant is now relevant. Think of all that online commentary you post as your half of one long, friendly lunch interview. (emphasis mine)

I know in the course of this he was talking about resumes however your exposure as the representative of your company has to have the same personal “friendly lunch interview” presentation. Without it you lose and you may be wasting the company’s time. Is the reader going to like YOU? If they do they may call or write you. They may comment on your blog. That’s how a friendship begins and we do buy from our friends.