Is that a word...? Probably not. Anyway – just to let you know that I'm (slowly) starting to add photos to this site! You can see them on the right-hand column – click on the Photos link to see more...

[Blogged using Microsoft Office Word 2007]

... That was precisely what I said to myself after watching the three short videos on Microsoft Surface:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Outside of sci-fi films (think Minority Report), I think this is the coolest tech I have ever seen...

If you're looking for some in-depth information on surface, there is a short 18 minute show-and-tell video on Channel 10:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/5/a9579d84-bb59-4fab-bf4c-53008a8a9b6e/MicrosoftSurfacing_on10.wmv

[Blogged using Microsoft Office Word 2007]

I'm just on a GNER train heading back to Aberdeen, having spent the weekend in Sheffield attending the JCI UK National Conference.

The event was, as with most National Conferences, a very enjoyable weekend. There were a large number of European delegates, which was highly encouraging. I also got the impression that there were a lot of people who are planning to head to Maastricht next month for European Conference...

Anyway – the main point of this particular blog posting... For those of you who don't know, I am very passionate about debating – it's something I enjoy doing immensely. I've won the local debating competition a few times now, have taken part in, and won, the National Debates twice, as well as winning Best Speaker at my first National Debate. Well – enough trumpet-blowing... My point was that, despite having not competed at all for a few years now, I haven't lost my passion for debating.

My debating mentor, Past Local President and Past National President, Margaret Sheehan, had tasked me to attempt to restart the Tripartite Debates between JCI Scotland, JCI UK and JCI Ireland in time for Ireland's National Conference in October. Having plied various people from JCI UK with alcohol over the weekend, and gently twisted some arms, I think that I have managed to plant the seeds for JCI UK to organise a team for the Tripartite Debates... The Irish delegation was also enthusiastic about this, having had a very informal debate against JCI Scotland last year...

Time will tell as to whether we will be able to re-launch this, but I remain optimistically hopeful. Hoorah!

 [Blogged using Microsoft Office Word 2007]

People often complain that Microsoft software isn't generally easy-to-use, and lacks the simplicity of something like, say, Mac OS X. "Pooh-pooh", say I!

So here I am, sitting on a First ScotRail train on the way to Sheffield. I'm sitting in First Class, having booked the ticket in the hope that I would have Wi-Fi access – I don't. (Having said that, I hope that my second train, from Edinburgh to Sheffield, will have Wi-Fi.)

"Meh – that's alright", I think. You see, my Tablet PC is armed with Microsoft Office 2007, which includes Office Groove 2007. Groove is a fantastic product that allows me to cache files from both our network share and our internal SharePoint site, enabling me to work on files offline, which then get automatically synchronised back to the server the next time I have connectivity to the corporate network.

So I'm working away at a proposal for a client, with various Word and Excel documents opened from Groove. Then... "Bollocks!" – I need to refer to another Word document that sits on our internal SharePoint site – a file I haven't cached into Groove, as I only ever refer to it occasionally.

Thanks to Orange's lack of support for Windows Vista, I still can't use my 3G datacard to connect to the Internet. "This is inconvenient", I mumbled, but at least it's not show-stopping, as I've got plenty of other sections I could continue to write within the proposal. After a couple of minutes, it twigged that I had a new Windows Mobile 6 phone – a device that comes with Internet Sharing. Despite not having used this bit of functionality before, all I had to do was plug the phone into the Tablet PC, run the Internet Sharing app, and – hurrah! – I was connected to the Internet via EDGE. A quick VPN back into the corporate network, and I could then add the missing file into my Groove cache.

I guess that was when it dawned on me that I'm really living the life of a Mobile Warrior (terrible marketing term, but you get the point). At the station, I was armed with a Pocket PC, allowing me to check the train times and to look in my e-mail to get the authorisation code to pick up my pre-booked tickets. Sitting in the train, I was able to get quite a bit of work done courtesy of the documents cached by Groove (with background music provided by Windows Media Player). As an irrelevance, I see that the weather in Edinburgh looks good thanks to a Gadget in my Sidebar. When I needed it, I could easily connect back to the office using VPN via my Smartphone. Whilst I'm at it, I notice that the two e-mails I sent using my Pocket PC at the train station have synced into my desktop Outlook when the EDGE connection was established.

This is the Microsoft Experience, and it is one of the reasons that I'm so enthusiastic about everything that Microsoft does. The combination of laptop, Pocket PC, Smartphone and all the Microsoft software loaded onto them, connecting to Exchange and SharePoint back at the corporate network – all this allows me to work as effectively as if I was in the office.

I doubt if Apple can offer such a seamless experience (even after the launch of their iPhone), and *nux simply doesn't offer anything like this.

I am pleased.

[Blogged using Microsoft Office Word 2007]

Oops! I suffered a small car mishap on Monday. As luck would have it, I managed to destroy two tyres on one side of the car – kinda cramps my ability to drive out and about.

However – all praise to Audi for getting things sorted. When I bought the car, Audi also bundled a three year Roadside Assistance service – which was very much appreciated when I was stranded at a client's car park in the middle of nowhere. After a quick "tut, tut", a trailer was called out (pointless fact – you can't tow any cars that have Quattro) and the car was dropped off at National Tyres. It just so happens that I have a full Fixed Maintenance package with Audi (so I pay them a monthly sum, which covers me for all servicing work and also wear/tear and accidental damage on certain components). A couple of phone calls to Audi, and three(!) replacement tyres were shipped to the depot to be installed in my frail-looking car (the third tyre, if you're wondering, had to be swapped out as the tyre tread depth was around 2.5mm – Audi automatically swap out anything lower than 3mm, even though the legal limit is 1.6mm). It so happens that the financial package I took out on the car means I have the option to hand the car back to Audi after three years as a deposit for a new car. Given this, Audi wanted to keep the car in absolutely top condition, as it helps them in the future. So it was very nice of them to replace the three tyres with ones identical to the original, destroyed ones. I got a copy of the final bill that was sent to Audi – not cheap at just slightly under £800...!

All this – in the space of a Monday afternoon... J

Moral of the day: If you allow companies to r*pe you up the arse (financially speaking, of course!), then you're guaranteed to get good customer service on the rare occasions you actually need it. (I think that's a valid moral...?)

Yep – this particular posting comes direct from Microsoft Office Word 2007. I hope it looks pretty. That is all...!