Join Us and Say Thanks to Mom

Join Us and Say Thanks to Mom

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Do you live in Washington DC or Minneapolis? Are you a blogger, a mom or a simply interested in how to make a great gift for the Mom or inspiring lady in your life? If so, then join us this coming week for a series of Mother’s Day workshops being held at the Microsoft Store. Windows Champions Michelle McGraw of Scraps of My Geek Life and Melissa Mitchell of Sippy Cup Mom will be in Washington DC and Minneapolis respectively. The events will be a great chance to learn how to make Mother’s Day cards, or family movies while also socializing with area bloggers. Plus, there will be the chance to get a bit of free goodies, and be eligible to win an ASUS ZENBOOK UX21 in Rose Gold – perfect for yourself or the mom in your life!

Minneapolis

• Where: Microsoft Store in the Mall of America
• When: 10:30am

Washington DC

• Where: Microsoft Store in Tyson’s Corner
• When: 10:30am

Hope to see you there and if you have questions, please drop me a tweet @kristinalibby and use #saythankstomom to follow the discussion from wherever you are!

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Pamela Nguyen is an upcoming graduate of New York University and founder of Surviving College, a blog dedicated to helping students navigate the ins and outs of college. She is constantly on the lookout for nifty tools that will make a busy (and poor) college student's life much easier. A self-proclaimed interior design junkie, Pamela also runs the interior design blog, Redesign Revolution.

I can hear a collective groan throughout campus when a professor utters the phrase "group projects." You might recall the graphics and memes depicting the expectations versus reality when faced with a group project that is worth 50 percent of your grade.

Image 1: Snapshot of one of my marketing classes at NYU.

As a business student at New York University, I have had more than my fair share of group projects. Last semester alone, I had three back-to-back group presentations that followed up with group papers all in the span of two weeks. No fun. What I've learned is that doing collaborative projects where formatting is incredibly important - the combined power of Google Docs and Dropbox just wasn't cutting it. Attempting to create Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, budgeting reports, or 50-page-long papers via these avenues always ends up failing for me.

What are the problems I have with Google Docs?

• Formatting is compromised whenever you switch between Google Docs and to the desktop version of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Google Docs is essentially a bare bones version of any Microsoft Office app, with little capability to deal with flashy things (sometimes you need flashy things in your PowerPoint presentation!).
• You never knew what was edited when you opened up a collaborative document.

Image 2: One of my PowerPoint slides on the desktop application vs. Google Docs conversion.

What are the problems I have with Dropbox?

• It is so easy to use up the 2GB limit, though I have a 4GB limit from referring my friends.
• The problematic number of conflicting files your group can generate from working on the same document simultaneously.
• You can't collaborate on a project live.

Typically the way my group project collaborations have gone in the past has been like this:

1. Create a barebones PowerPoint presentation on Google Docs.
2. Fill out the basic information on Google Docs.
3. Download the file.
4. Format the file on the desktop version of Microsoft PowerPoint.
5. Share file on Dropbox.
6. Get multiple conflicting files when everyone decides to edit and save at once.
7. Sigh collectively.
8. Resort to editing and emailing back and forth for the subsequent hours right before the PowerPoint presentation is due.

And when you have to resort to emailing back in forth in groups of 4-8, you can't help but wonder if there's another option out there that can override these issues. Lo and behold: this is where Microsoft SkyDrive comes in.

Why I couldn’t resist signing up for SkyDrive:

• With 25GB of free storage space in the SkyDrive, I wouldn't have to be careful about moving around other files to make room for my multiple group projects.
• SkyDrive has Microsoft Office fully integrated online through the Office Web Apps (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote), so I wouldn't have to worry about formatting issues when switching between the cloud and my desktop.
• People can work on papers simultaneously, no conflicting files involved.
• On the Microsoft PowerPoint Office Web App, there aren’t those annoying formatting errors that you get with Google Docs.
• When someone makes an edit, you are notified of that edit the next time you save/update your document.
• You don’t have to make a new account when signing up for SkyDrive – just register your Gmail or Yahoo account, no problem!
• You don’t have to have the latest version of Microsoft Office, and you won’t have to save your files in other formats for others who have older versions of Microsoft Office - now they can use the Office Web Apps in SkyDrive!

Image 3: My same presentation on Skydrive’s PowerPoint Web App.

Frustrations, be gone! I can only rejoice about the hours saved with my latest PowerPoint presentation, now that I no longer have to format and re-format between Google Docs and Microsoft Office. Now, if only I can get my group project peers to make the switch…

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Crafting with Jamielyn–How to Make Really Cool Laptop Covers At Home

Jamielyn is the founder and managing editor of iheartnaptime.net. She is married to he  best friend and together they have two beautiful children just under two years apart. Her days are filled with lots of snuggles, crafts, e-mails, avoiding the ever-growing pile of laundry, play dough, sneaking bites of chocolate and wondering, “Is it nap time yet?!” I Heart Nap Time is a creative site sharing DIY home projects on a budget, crafts, sewing tutorials, easy recipes, tips and techniques. Connect with Jamielyn on Facebook or Twitter.

Every few years, I find myself wanting a new laptop. There is always something new and better that comes out on the market. With technology, it’s amazing how fast things are changing.

Well, a new PC isn’t always in the budget, so what do I do? I decided to bring some life back into my PC with a little makeover. I love how it turned it. Today I’m going to show you how to turn your PC from drab to fab!

With kids who love to play games on my laptop, the front of my PC gets finger prints and scratches all over it. So, the first step to bring some life back into my computer was to clean it. I cleaned it with a little rubbing alcohol and Q-Tips. You can drag the Q-Tip between the keys and in between the cracks. Once you are done with that, your computer will be sparkling clean.

Then I decided to add some fun patterned tape to the front of my computer. You can find patterned tape (also known as washi tape) at cutetape.com, Target, Michaels, and other craft stores. It comes in all sorts of colors, patterns, and sizes. It costs about $2 a roll.

All I did was roll the tape across the top of my lap top, pushing it down as I went and then cut it off at the edge. I continued my way down with different colors and patterns to give my computer a fun and unique look. This tape will not leave a sticky residue on your computer, which is great for someone like me who changes her mind quite often.

I also added a little piece of tape on my space bar to brighten up the inside. I thought about adding it to every key, but that might have been a little time consuming. I love how it turned out. For less than 10 bucks, I now have a completely customized laptop that gets me lots of compliments at Star bucks.

Here are some other ideas I thought would be fun to dress a lap top:

Add a zebra computer skin from Etsy.

Customize your computer with a picture of your family. Find these at Dino Direct.

I {heart} My PC decal from Dezign.

Jamielyn is a participant in the Windows blogging program, and receives Microsoft software, hardware, and financial compensation as part of her participation in the program.

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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Spring Cleaning

Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Spring Cleaning

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This past weekend, we had spring weather in Seattle. It was 70, the sun was shining and I played tennis every day. I also thought about the dreaded task of spring cleaning. For those of us with small little condos, spring cleaning isn’t that big of a deal but I still think of it with a mix of emotions. On the one hand, I love getting rid of all the things I haven’t used/will never use/wonder why I ever bought and on the other, I’m sentimental of things I haven’t used/will never use/wonder why I ever bought like my grandma’s equestrian dress or the pot holders I bought because they reminded me of a Lilly Allen song. In an effort to make sure you have cleaned up tech this spring, we are devoting our Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat to spring cleaning tips and we may even have a celebrity appearance by a certain frequent Oprah quest who knows a lot about a clean home.

Tips on cleaning:

• Technology can get you out of trouble almost as quickly as it gets you into it. So as easy as it is for us accumulate digital clutter, that same technology can get it under control. Windows Live Photo Gallery can help you manage your photos while Hotmail has tools that will automatically sort and file mail you want to keep while filtering out junk mail and spam.
• And Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 also have a nifty organizing tool that lets you pin your favorite website or apps to the Windows Taskbar, putting everything just one click away and making you much more efficient.
• If you’ve got an old PC sitting around the house, consider recycling or refurbishing it. Find out about Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers here http://bit.ly/J5Vq70 plus get loads of other content on recycling.

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

1. Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
2. Follow the hashtag #winchat
3. Follow @windows, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.

Also, don’t forget to participate in our Mother’s Day Pinterest contest for a chance to win an Acer Aspire S3!

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: How do I get clean for spring? What do I do with all of these cables?

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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Gaming PCs #winchat

Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Gaming PCs #winchat

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Kristina is off on vacation likely scrounging her toes in the sand and watching the sun set over the Pacific. So this week I’m covering our Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat! And this week we’ll be talking about gaming PCs! That’s right; the conversation will be on awesome games for your PC, the best PCs for gamers and on cool technology and accessories that improve the gaming experience.

When choosing a gaming PC, it like any PC choice, is a lot about personal preference but there are some awesome options to choose from on the market.

• ASUS G74SX-3DE has a 750 GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM meaning it has a huge amount of money and sick graphics.
• Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 has 6 GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce graphics and 4.98 hours of battery life weighing only 6.6 lbs.
• Samsung Series 7 Gamer 700G is an immersive gaming experience with actual portability and the ability to run every game on the market with monster performance. Has 8 GB of RAM, discrete AMD Radeon HD 5970M GPU and 7.7 lbs. of pure gaming beauty.

We’ll also talk about Microsoft Flight, which was released (for free!) on Feb. 29^th and the PC Games Marketplace on Xbox.com!

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

1. Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
2. Follow the hashtag #win7tech or #winchat
3. Follow @windows, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: What makes a gaming PC different than a regular PC? Why does one PC have 750 GM of RAM and another just 8? How much do I need?

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