Many people hate Microsoft, I don't. While I love free software I also love the quality of much of what Microsoft has designed. Yes, there are many applications that have holes or lack features, and sometimes its just too expensive. But Microsoft, helmed by Bill Gates, has led the way on many fronts of computing. So I'm going to recommend Microsoft's website. Here are a few of Microsoft's noticeable accomplishments:

• Windows Operating System - The vast majority of computers available on the market today and those in our homes and businesses run some version of the Windows Operating System. The most recent release for the desktop is Windows Vista, while the most widely deployed is Windows XP. For server's the latest release is Windows Server 2003 R2, with the much anticipated Windows Longhorn Server coming out sometime later this year.
• Visual Studio - A suite of tools that allows for the visual design of applications. In the past (and to this day) much coding of applications took place by writing lines of code by hand. With Visual Studio it became possible to write large portions of the required code by simply dragging and dropping controls. While code still has to be written, it has significantly sped up the process to have tools like Visual Studio and its free little sibling such as Visual Web Designer Express.
• .NET Framework - Allows for the rapid development of applications through a large number of shared libraries that greatly reduces the amount of code a developer has to write to create a finished application.
• Microsoft Office - While I personally don't use Microsoft Office anymore (I use OpenOffice instead) that doesn't negate that Microsoft Office is the most widely used and one of the best office suites available and that any suite that even wants to compare has to be compatible with Microsoft Office - the de facto standard.
• Age of Empires - Known for bringing the much loved (not by me) real-time strategy game series Age of Empires.
• XBOX - Only a few years ago Microsoft went from a nobody in the console gaming industry to being one of the main contenders. They had a revolutionary success on their hands with the release of the game Halo, which has since had a sequel and I believe is being made into a movie.

    One cannot even begin to ennumerate all of Microsoft's accomplishment. But beyond the vast scope of applications they have developed is several facets of their organization:

• Exhaustive documentation. Their are hundreds of thousands of pages on Microsoft's websites chronicling every detail of how to use their software applications.
• Exhaustive support. Microsoft has written thousands of pages detailing how to utilize specific programs, but also generic guidelines for accomplishing important tasks (e.g. securing your network).
• Excellent service. For $250 an incident you can get great corporate support for issues relating to Microsoft equipment. No matter how long it takes them to resolve the issue - its $250. 

 

    Google may be the king of search, but Yahoo! is the queen of start pages. I utilize both and while Google is taking steps in the right direction, they are still primarily a search engine - with many excellent services aimed more at geeks than at general audiences.

    Yahoo! on the other hand is copiously aimed at the general consumer, with a few services tacked on for the geek (e.g. My Web and Yahoo! Pipes).  I find Yahoo! to be an excellent starting place for a number of reasons.

    First, they have a great web-based, free email client. While GMail has some nifty features, Yahoo!'s interface make one feel as if one is using a software program rather than a website.

    Secondly, Yahoo! has great reliable sections on a variety of topics. They've either created or partnered with a number of great companies to ensure the best and comprehensive content is available. I particularly enjoy reading their news headlines (though Digg has taken first place in this regards) and looking at their Movies section, which includes quick access to movie synopsis, box office numbers, reviews, previews, trailers, and more.

    Yahoo! has decent sections on automotives, finance, and real estate. Not to mention that they have really stepped up their A-game versus Google Maps with their new beta maps product.

    Yahoo's entire interface is aesthetically pleasing, and while their is loads of content one never feels overwhelmed, everything is always well laid out. The Yahoo search engine is decently good, though I still prefer Google's. As a place to start your web journey each day though, it is great. 

    The main productivity suite used by individuals and businesses in the U.S. is Microsoft Office. This suite includes Word (writing documents), Excel (spreadsheets), Access (databases), and PowerPoint (presentations). They also have their lite version - Microsoft Works that comes pre-installed on many computers. Several competitors exist - for example Corel WordPerfect. But nobody nears the market share or dominance of Microsoft Office. And no one can deny that Microsoft Office is a good piece of software.

    Sun Microsystems, a giant in the computing world that has played a large role in the development of computers and software but is much less known than similar companies like Microsoft or IBM created StarOffice, a competitive office suite to go against Microsoft Office and take away some of its dominance. They failed, so they decided to take any approach. They open sourced StarOffice and dedicated some programmers to its continued development. Other companies also interested in helping remove some of Microsoft's dominance began joining the effort, as well as individual programmers and the search behemoth - Google. Together they first released OpenOffice 1.0 - a half-way decent office suite that lacked a good database application. Within the past year or so they released 2.0. Now here was a real office suite.

    I've been using OpenOffice for four or five years now as my primary word processor, at a mainly Microsoft Office college and then now in a mainly Microsoft world. With 2.0 OpenOffice really stepped up there game. No, it isn't Microsoft Office. The help documentation isn't as comprehensive. The functions aren't always as intuitive. And while it is able to read Microsoft documents decently well, some complex documents or formulas fail.

    Still, if you are opening to trying new software or can't afford to shell out the $300-$400 that is Microsoft Office, then I recommend giving OpenOffice a try. It is being adopted by governments, businesses, and individuals around the world. Both Novell and Sun Microsystems utilize OpenOffice as their main office suite.

    In case you are wondering. OpenOffice has Writer for creating documents (similar to Word), Impress for presentations (similar to PowerPoint), Base for creating databases (similar to Access), and Calc for spreadsheets (similar to Excel). It also includes a mathematical formulas and drawing program - though I have not utilized either of these programs besides opening them up and fooling around. 

    The question about computers is not whether they will fail, but when they will fail. Over time every computer dies. Over the many years I have been utilizing computers I have had several hard drives fail. When this occurs one can lose hundreds of hours of work - letters, documents, emails. Until recently the only way to prevent this from happening was a time consuming process using CD's. Some people would setup an external hard drive. Still, this left a significant gap in protection. Usually both devices where kept in the same location (house, apartment, business) and if this location caught fire, flooded, or was robbed there was still a significant danger that the data would be permanently lost.

    Now backups are no longer a issue with Mozy. Mozy is a small program that runs on your computer and sends encrypted copies of your files up to a centralized server at an offsite location. There are many programs attempting to fill this need, but Mozy is the best I have found. Not to mention that Mozy is free for personal use up to 2 gigabytes (which is thousands of documents). One can also get unlimited personal backup for $4.95/mo. A very reasonable price for individuals with large collections of important files on their computer.

    Mozy also offers a Pro line which is reasonably priced for home and small businesses. Its $3.95/mo. for a baseline fee and than $0.50 a gigabyte (GB).

    Mozy's free and reasonably priced nature isn't all that differentiates it. One is able to select exactly which files one wants backed up and have these backed up continuously. Mozy watches for changes to the files and automatically backs up the changes. Mozy is also popular because of its use of incremental and versioned backups. An incremental means that only the parts of the document that have changed are uploaded, rather than uploading the entire file every time. Versioning is where it keeps multiple copies of the file. That way if you accidently overwrite an important file you can look back at previous versions through the Mozy interface.

   There is no excuse not to have this software. It takes fifteen minutes to download, install, and configure. But it will save you hundreds of hours in the long-term - and for individual users, you can't argue with the price (free)!
 

    I always hated looking at maps. My dad always unfolded those big greasy (he was a mechanic) maps and spent long periods of time planning out the best route to our location. Now, one can still find faster ways to get to places by performing this long, manual process - but for me, convenience is more important than a few extra minutes in the car. So I use Google Maps. Google Maps is useful for three purposes: (a) finding a location, (b) finding your way from one location to another, and (c) finding a business in your area that accomplishes a specific purpose.

    It accomplishes each of these well and I have used each feature successfully. Yes, occasionally, the directions can be less than excellent and I have gotten lost once in a while, but overall I love the site. Google Maps over convenient and clean views of the maps, with a drag and drop interface that is a joy to work with. It allows you to quickly and easily print maps and directions, as well as to create a multi-stop road trip. One can also overlay the map with satellite photos, helping one to get a feel for the area into which one will be driving. 

    StumbleUpon is one of those revolutionary programs that after a few weeks of utilizing you will wonder how you ever survived without. It is to the web what the first search engine or javascript was. StumbleUpon is an extension for browsers - currently supporting the two major web browsers - Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Once you have installed this extension you define your interests and then click stumble. StumbleUpon pulls from a humongous database of user recommendations and takes you to a random site it thinks you will like based upon your preferences. You give the site a thumbs up or a thumbs down and it refines it's ability to find sites you like.

   Good sites work their way up to the top, bad sites disappear. Its a great way to find new sites that interest you or to find something to do when you are bored.
 

    Many of us love sending on those forwards and many of us hate receiving them. But what many of us don't know - whether we forward or delete - is that a large number of these forwards are false and we injure our reputation as well as those we represent by forwarding these false messages. Before you forward a message on - find out if its really true. Snopes is the Urband Legends Reference Page offering hundreds of common forwards and research into whether they are true or false.

    How many times have we been told, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." A million times. Yet Freecycle demonstrates that there is in fact a free lunch and much more. Freecycle was started as a local effort to help reduce the amount of garbage we were placing in our landfills by providing a central place for individuals to offer items they no longer need for free as long as the person who wanted it would pick it up. It spread around the world like wildfire. There are now millions of users and every day thousands of items are being exchanged - and not just junk either.

    I created a separate site that isn't very utilized but I feel offers better features called BetterNeighbours, but unless it receives more activity, Freecycle is still the place to go.
 

    Back during the first dot com boom there was substantial money thrown at odd targets - like getting paid to surf, search, or play games. This all died out with the first dot com bust. But now there is a new dot com boom - sometimes referred to as the web 2.0 boom as compared to the web 1.0 boom (or bubble). These fads are coming back. I think that some of them will continue to fail but I think some - such as Moola's model may succeed. A much larger portion of the population now uses the internet and advertisers are more willing to spend money on the internet as compared to back in 2000-2001.

    In any case, Moola is pretty nifty. Right now it is invite only, but if you want an invite they are free. Just leave a comment and I'll give them away till I run out. Moola operates around a simple idea - make games that are like the games we are used to on television game shows available on the internet and offer the same sorts of monetary prizes. Its a working model for Jeoporady,  Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and many others - so why not on the internet?

     When you sign up with Moola you are given $0.01. You can then play one of several fun games. They aren't complex, but they are also based partially on luck - making it difficult to repeatedly win. You play these games against other human online opponents. The games take maybe five minutes. Before every game you watch a short commercial and answer one question about the content of the commercial (e.g. was it about motorcycles or baby clothes?). If you win the game you double your money ($0.02) and so on. After thirty consecutive wins you would have nearly $11,000,000. Of course, its very hard to do this. I've never made much money off of it (a few bucks, that I haven't cashed out). But if you already play online games, why not? Even better, if you have a gambling addiction this might be a good way to start the recovery - by stopping your monetary losses.

    If you lose a game they give you another $0.01. You never pay anything. Who can argue with free games that you can win money from? Especially since the games are high-quality. 

    Digg is part of the social networking revolution. Part of a new internet that focuses on empowering the masses rather than a select few. It is the masses who get to determine what is valuable and what's note. Part of this revolution includes an overhaul in the way news sites work. The largest competitor to traditional news sources is Digg. Digg gives every reader the right to determine whether a story is worthwhile or not - and to submit stories from a multitude of sources.

    No one reader has the power to make a story frontpage - but en masse, the users can determine what they want to read. Digg started as a strictly technology news site but has since expanded to include World and Business, Sports, and Entertainment. The technology news continues to include Technology, Science, and Gaming.

    If you want to follow what is happening in the world, Digg is a great place to go. Articles are organized by category and include brief summaries that allow you to read through dozens of overviews in minutes and only go into depth on the articles you really want to know about. 

    ING Direct is a purely online bank. There are no local banks, there are no ATMs. Its all online. This means that their costs are much lower than a traditional bank and when you open a savings account with them you can expect interest returns as high as some 12-month CDs from regular banks. They also just launched a checking account, which is purely electronic as well that pays 3% interest. If you are tired of putting hundreds of dollars in the bank only to get a dollar or two in interest - switch to ING Direct. Its quick, easy, and worthwhile.

    Apple used to be the hot thing back in the early '80's. Then it dropped off the face of the earth and generic PC's from multitudinous manufacturers running Microsoft Windows dominated the scene. Then Apple launched the iPod and the world flipped on its head. Apple is back on the scene, no longer are Macs just for artists and designer types - they are selling like hotcakes. And for good reason. The innovation at Apple has been great, and their ability to design sleek interfaces then market them has been fantastic. Apple has followed up its iPod product with a video iPod which plays movies, an iTV which streams content from the computer to the TV, and Intel-based Macs, opening up whole new world's of running Windows and Mac OS side by side. Next on the slate is the iPhone, which whether it is really great or note is sure to sell well.

    So take a look at Apple's site. Marvel at the technologies available and make sure if you are buying an Apple product used you know what generation you are getting. You don't want to pay top dollar for a bottom rung product - make sure that iPod you want has all the features you thing it does. 

    Bible.Org is one of those websites that only comes along once in a long, long while. For anyone who is interested in studying the Bible, this is a must visit site. The volume of content on this website is far too numerous to describe in this short little article. But I'll try to give a bit of a summary.

    Bible.Org, or the Biblical Studies Foundation is a ministry with an open source mindset. With such a mindset they have offered significant freedom (and free as in price as well) access to their resources and they have built up quite the community of authorities on Biblical topics who regularly write articles for the site.

    The accomplishment for which they are best known is the new translation of the Bible called the New English Translation (NET). This version is not a paraphrase or revamping of a currently existing translation, rather it is an entirely new translation directly from the best Hebrew and Greek texts available. What makes it unique is not any differences in interpretation or a different literary style but rather its footnotes. While many Bibles come with study notes this Bible comes with translators notes - 65,000+ of them. These notes help explain why the translator chose to make the decisions he did in a certain passage. Where there is question on the interpretation of the passage the translator has attempted to explain why he chose to make one decision rather than another. This makes the NET Bible an amazing starting point for further research as it includes meticulous references to scholarly materials (e.g. the BDAG and the TDNT) on the Bible relevant to a particular text.

    Amongst there other accomplishments is the wide variety of articles they have available on the website. Through a variety of authors they are able to offer commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible - and contemporary ones, not just the classics.

    They also offer significant additional resources on practical theology and ministry. From specific Men and Women's Spiritual Growth sections to articles on studying God's Word and current topics of controversy within the church. They are on a daily basis adding multiple new resources to their website and also have some major projects in the works. I cannot emphasize enough how central a resource this site should be to anyone interested in studying the Bible! Go there or be square. :-) 

    Wiki's are a rather new idea. They allow anyone to edit the content of a website. This gives the great advantage of many individuals contributing their knowledge to develop a website, but on the other hand the great disadvantage of allowing individuals who have limited knowledge or agendas to edit the website as well. The most successful example of a Wiki is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is available in a variety of languages and currently includes over 1,600,000 individual articles. The massive quantity of articles would not be impressive if it was not backed up by depth and quality of content. While there are some issues with individuals with a bias or incorrect knowledge adding information to Wikipedia, Wikipedia has definetly shown that one can create a collaborative encyclopedia and succeed. So, go ahead, give it a try and maybe you can even add content to a few articles of your own!

    TechCrunch, headed up by Michael Arrington is a must read blog. Arrington and other writers cover almost any Web 2.0 company and on a daily basis release several excellent articles. Every day I discover new excellent sites through Arrington's blog and stay updated on the latest trends in the Web 2.0.

    The site also has a positive effect on traffic, if you take the time to leave comments. Its not a humongous influx of visitors but I get perhaps 20-40 weekly from TechCrunch in exchange for my thoughts on the various posts.

    If you are a web 2.0 company then TechCrunch is an absolute must. TechCrunch is perhaps one of the most frequently listed websites in Digg and by itself has loads of visitors including people of means stopping by every day.