Top 7 Reasons to Shift to Windows 7 Who hasn’t heard of Windows 7? If you are a Vista user you probably can’t wait for the final release of Windows 7 to replace your existing operating system. Vista introduced us to many changes in our existing computing experience, at the expense of our convenience. Windows 7 promises to change that with a much more simplified, secure and faster operating system. You have 4 versions to choose from, Starter which is targeted for netbooks, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. The higher your version, the more features you will have compared to the lower versions. Here are some of the reasons why you should shift to Windows 7 as soon as it comes out. Speed is Everything Ever since the first computer came out people have been constantly finding ways for it to perform faster. Hardware and software are working in unison to achieve a faster computing experience. Vista was the operating system that slowed things down. People would often complain of slow boot times and system slow down as time progressed. Windows 7 promises to be faster than Vista while having just the same hardware requirements as Vista. XP Gone in 2014 If you are still holding on to your Windows XP operating system and didn’t make the mistake of upgrading to vista then now is a good time to consider upgrading to Windows 7. XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft on 2014. This means that even today there will be less updates for this operating system as Microsoft concentrates its attention on Windows 7. Software makers would also shift their attention to Windows 7 leaving XP with lesser software choices. Convenient Organization of Files The days of constantly searching for that particular photo or video on your computer is over. With the Libraries feature in Windows 7, all files of the same properties are grouped into one folder. By default you would have a library for Music, Video and Photos. You can add additional Libraries quickly as needed. Multi-touch Support With touchscreen gaining widespread popularity due to the iPod Touch, computer makers are slowly adding touchscreen to their laptops. Sensing that touchscreen would soon become popular, Microsoft has added touchscreen support to Windows 7. If your laptop has a touchscreen then try to use Windows 7 on it. Aero Windows 7 has AeroSnap and AeroPeek. Both of these features make you more efficient in your work. AeroSnap enables you to easily compare 2 open windows by snapping them to the edge of your screen. AeroPeek enables you to view your desktop by just a simple gesture of your mouse even if lots of windows are currently open. Security Encryption A lot of us have probably experienced losing a portable flash drive. If you have data in your lost flash drive that is meant to be a secret then the consequences could be damaging if someone finds this. To protect your portable data Windows 7 has a feature called BitLocker To Go. Contents of your portable flash drive will be encrypted and you will be required to input a password to access the data. There is also a Biometric feature that comes with Windows 7. Now you can login to your computer using your fingerprint and you can even set program access control using your fingerprint. Simplified User Account Control People who used vista know all too well the problem of User Account Control. If a program wanted to do some changes you would be prompted with a window and given options. This is a security feature to protect your computer from malicious software but sometimes it tends to slow us down. Windows 7 has corrected this and you will no longer be constantly seeing these popups.

Thanks in part to the many who forwarded, blogged, tweeted, and linked to my May 2009 plea to Telligent to turn GraffitiCMS over to the community, it now appears that Telligent will be doing exactly that.

TimeFinder allows universities and schools to reduce and even avoid conflicts in the timetable! It is Open Source and based on Spring Rich Client. Check it out!

There are some great upcoming Certified ScrumMaster courses through Agile University that can jump start your resume and give your skill set a competitive edge. December 9-10 in Santa Clara use discount code = SC15 for 15% off December 15-16 in NYC, NY use discount code = DECNYC20 for 20% off Also be sure to check out Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn and 360 Degree Agile Workshop by David Bernstein.

There are some great upcoming Certified ScrumMaster courses through Agile University that can jump start your resume and give your skill set a competitive edge. December 9-10 in Santa Clara use discount code = SC15 for 15% off December 15-16 in NYC, NY use discount code = DECNYC20 for 20% off Also be sure to check out Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn and 360 Degree Agile Workshop by David Bernstein. Here are the course listings: Certified ScrumMaster Training Date: 12/9/09 – 12/10/09 Location: Santa Clara, CA Trainer: Hubert Smits – Rally Software Course Overview This two-day ScrumMaster certification course taught by Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainers provides everything you need to get started with Scrum. One of the largest and fastest-growing Agile project management frameworks, Scrum is a simple software management technique that has a small set of interrelated practices and rules, is not overly prescriptive and is able to produce productivity gains for software development teams almost immediately. This course shares time-tested practices for managing product backlogs, planning your releases and iterations (Sprints) and tracking and reporting progress. You'll learn how to plan and run Sprint Planning Meetings, daily Scrum Meetings, Sprint Reviews, Sprint Retrospectives and more! On completion, participants are registered as Certified ScrumMasters (CSMs), which includes a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance, (www.scrumalliance.org) where valuable ScrumMaster-material and information are available exclusively to CSMs. Agenda • Introduction to Agile Principles • Introduction to Scrum Principles o Scrum Core Elements & Practices o Product Visioning o Roles & Responsibilities o Product Backlog & Release Planning o Sprint Backlog & Sprint Planning o Sprint o Daily Standup Meeting o Burndown Charts & Project Reporting o Sprint Review & Retrospective o The 59 Minute Scrum Participants of this course will be eligible to apply for 16 PDU's toward their continuing education requirements with the PMI (Program Management Institute) New York City, NY: Certified ScrumMaster Training Date: 12/15/09 – 12/16/09 Location: New York City, NY Trainer: Tamara Sulaiman – Rally Software Course Overview This two-day ScrumMaster certification course taught by Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainers provides everything you need to get started with Scrum. One of the largest and fastest-growing Agile project management frameworks, Scrum is a simple software management technique that has a small set of interrelated practices and rules, is not overly prescriptive and is able to produce productivity gains for software development teams almost immediately. This course shares time-tested practices for managing product backlogs, planning your releases and iterations (Sprints) and tracking and reporting progress. You'll learn how to plan and run Sprint Planning Meetings, daily Scrum Meetings, Sprint Reviews, Sprint Retrospectives and more! On completion, participants are registered as Certified ScrumMasters (CSMs), which includes a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance, (www.scrumalliance.org) where valuable ScrumMaster-material and information are available exclusively to CSMs. Agenda • Introduction to Agile Principles • Introduction to Scrum Principles o Scrum Core Elements & Practices o Product Visioning o Roles & Responsibilities o Product Backlog & Release Planning o Sprint Backlog & Sprint Planning o Sprint o Daily Standup Meeting o Burndown Charts & Project Reporting o Sprint Review & Retrospective o The 59 Minute Scrum Participants of this course will be eligible to apply for 16 PDU's toward their continuing education requirements with the PMI (Program Management Institute) Cheers, Chase Doelling info@agileu.org Agile University

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Google continues to expand its third version of the maps API to include features already in the second version. Most recently, they’ve added driving directions, which gives programmatic access to the routing data between two points. As with the rest of Maps V3, which was released in May, the team took a fresh approach, so some interfaces have changed.