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Last night I was doing some work in Word 2007 and needed a template. When I went to choose one, I was greeted with the Windows Genuine Advantage verification tool. The dialog box indicated that for Office 2007, the WGA tool checks for authenticity every time you use the online template sites.

Bad news for would be copiers unless you have no use for templates. On a more positive note, the template libraries are amazing. Instead of two or three generic templates per document type, there are dozens and dozens that get into more granular document types.

I was able to find one that unique fit the document I was creating and easily update it to fit my needs.

Office 2007 is what I consider a milestone product. I still am not completely used to the ribbon menu system yet, but even when I need to find something, it’s not very difficult. Things are laid out in a very logical way. Particularly I needed the spell checker and not being a frequent Word jockey did not know they shortcut off hand.

I looked at the top menu, saw “Review” and sure enough, there it was. I did have one tiny snag. I created my document, saved it in the pre-07 Word format, when I went to open it again, it was corrupted. Even the Office 07 repair tool could not save it. Ironically, it opened perfectly in Wordpad and I was able to save it as an RTF file. Office 07 still would not open that file either. I opened it one last time in WordPad, resaved it with a different file name, and Office opened it just fine. Odd to say the least.

If you have any thoughts about Office 07 feel free to comment, just don’t use this as a pulpit to slam the Windows Genuine Advantage system….Microsoft is a business, the point is making money, you can’t expect them not to put measures in to keep the software from being stolen.

While listening to This Week in Tech today I heard a statement that astonished me. Then to make it worse, it was agreed upon by several of the pundits.

To make Vista perform well you need at least 3GB of Ram

I hate to be the voice of reason here, but I am running it incredibly well, Enterprise edition on a HP with 1GB of Ram. I have been using it for nearly 6 months and it’s performed just fine using Office 07, Photoshop, Live Writer, Dreamweaver, FTP apps, even Flight Simulator and World of Warcraft (once I updated video drivers)

The requirements of Vista have been severely exaggerated. Sure a monster system will run it quite well, but the bargain basement Vista systems right now run quite well too. If you can buy a computer under $500 that runs Vista fine, don’t believe you need $500 in Ram just to run it.

If you want to know for sure, go to your local CompUSA or BestBuy and play with one of the Demo systems, more than 3/4 of them will have 1GB of Ram and run just fine….just like mine.

March 24th. This day will live in infamy….. I will go 24 hours without using a computer. Only time will tell if my definition of a computer extends to game consoles, blackberries and cellular phones….we’ll see how bored I get. The goal here is to go 24 hours without using the computer itself. As of today they have 43,546 people who say they can and I am one of them.

I think the real chance here is to find some things you love to do that you have lost focus on. For me that means playing guitar, going out and shooting some photos (digital camera, another computer..eek) or just biking, hiking or laying in the sun at the park. This should be a day for all IT geeks to get out and get our nature on. It’s a beautiful world and as far as Boise goes it’s ushering in the most beautiful part of the year. I was outside for a nice 45 minute run on Saturday morning and it was incredible.

We all are wired to the gills, we communicate all the time, we are constantly plugged in. Let’s take a day off to recharge and get back in human communication. It doesn’t really matter what you do. Go see a movie. sit at a coffee shop and read the … gasp… newspaper. Go to Costco and partake in the free samples and people watch. Hop on your bike and ride to lunch. Take your dog for a real treat at a park or the woods. Take your kid to the zoo. Grab the family for a picnic. I could freestyle ideas for days. Leave me a comment. If you are up to the challenge, leave me a comment and tell me what you will be doing. Make March 24th, 2007 YOUR shutdown Day.

http://www.shutdownday.org/

Go sign up.

After months of keeping an eye peeled, we finally came across the white albatross of gaming consoles. While grocery shopping last week, I stopped to take a peek at the games and saw one lonely Wii sitting in the display case.

I had Dawngrrl stand post at the case while I quickly located an associate to open the gates and give us the sought after Nintendo Wii game console.

We also added in the “Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” game and were on our way. We had also hoped to get an extra controller but it appears they are also in very short supply.

The console itself is quite diminutive. It’s about the size of a PC DVD drive when not mounted in the computer. It has a USB connection, WiFi, SD slot and two GameCube memory slots along with four GameCube controller slots. Hooking it up was a no brainer. You connect the power and video obviously, and the sensor bar for the Wiimote. The graphics were pretty rough looking at first on our 65″ HDTV. A $20 Component Cable brought it to 480p giving it a much clearer but still quite jaggy look. But let’s be clear folks, this game system’s talent is not graphics. The Xbox 360 and PS3 clearly blow it out of the water, but that is to be expected from systems with drastically more power…and a price tag to match.

My first impression with Wii Sports was golf. I can’t even explain how much I was impressed. This game is the definition of fun. Your involved and active and the controls are phenomenal. I wasn’t overly excited with Baseball or Tennis, Golf is amazing and Bowling is fun as well. I felt boxing suffered from some control problems making it difficult to play without getting a bit frustrated.

I know this is an add in game, a freebie, but the games also suffer from some depth. While I love the golf, you have one course, and can play either 3 or 9 holes. That makes it quickly tiring and wanting more. We will be picking up the Tiger Woods 07 on the quick.

Zelda so far is a good bit of fun. It makes quite a variety of uses for the unique control system. I think as I go I will feel this a welcome addition to the Zelda family.

Overall I am in no way disappointed with the Wii purchase. While we only have two games, it is getting it’s fair share of the household gaming already. We have played a 9 hole round of golf pretty much every day since we got it.

Time will tell how the games fare, I have only been looking for the Tiger Woods game so far, none of the rest have caught my fancy, but that is the same story with the shiny Playstation 3 that is collecting dust. (until James Bond: Casino Royale comes out on Blu-Ray this week!)

To end, I thought I would offer my thoughts if you are looking but can only buy one. I know it’s a bit more expensive, but Dawngrrl and I both agree, buy the Xbox 360 premium. Currently our game catalog for 360 is getting close to 30 and we both play it all the time.

No, not that stupid data bit that keeps you from having to come in at midnight to restore that flaky Oracle database. Parity or equality, as in amount, status or character..as defined by www.dictionary.com. The reason I bring up this topic is to spread a bit of good will to otherwise overworked IT folks who have it hard enough already.

If you work in a big pond like I do, everyone is on an island. Of course you are not on an island, but you probably think you are. So in that context, lets discuss good will and the topic of parity in Corporate America and those overgrown IT shops like the one I work in.

If there is one thing that is truly wonderful to the IT guy, it’s a well segregated technology infrastructure that keeps Apache Administrators from answering questions like, “Why won’t Word print?”

When I was in a support role, I liked that I didn’t have to deal with anything but a small slice of the support as it related to a particular expertise of mine. It’s a wonderful concept in theory. The problem is when everyone who owns a slice forgets that everyone else owns a slice and more often than not my slice is dependant on yours and so on.

My first recommendation is to always wear the other hat. If you know the guy or gal is overworked, overextended or even just not quite up to speed yet…put your horns back in your pocket and try to give them a lift. You may find that perhaps that little bump frees them up just enough to be able to visit your problem with a better attention to detail. I am sure you want that.

This week I encountered an issue like that in my office. Two groups, both well sure that each other was the cause of it’s current pain, were at a divide. It took a few well placed words, some kindness, some understanding and simply standing up and going, “What do you need? I’ll take care of it.” Suddenly the clouds lifted, the engineers met in a little room, everyone asked questions, the knowledgeable answered, and the light fell again on the world. It was good.

All kidding aside. If you are dealing with a problem, you can usually bet the group that’s holding you up is facing similar issues. Walk in with a sense of urgency, but also a touch of compassion and a helpful attitude and see what you can do to speed them along instead of just saying hurry up.