iYogi Announces Launch of Monitoring and Performance Tool For SMBs

iYogi – a leading provider of technical support services with horizons in the US, UK, Canada and Australia – today announced the launch of its exclusive server monitoring tool for small businesses. The new product offers integrated technology solutions to surmount the users’ unique IT support requirements thereby enabling them to derive and share information, data, enable network performance analysis, and security trends critical to plan and manage their set of servers – 24x7.

Uday Challu, iYogi’s CEO commented, “Holding a significant niche for itself in the computer support industry, iYogi has always known to be on the forefront of adapting breakthrough technology to exceed customer service expectations. This time we have developed a tool offering value-add functionality which will help small business customers maximize the business outcomes of IT.”

iYogi’s monitoring tool provides real time observation and monitoring solutions to ensure more robust and reliable IT infrastructure for small buinesses. Small Business owners also get a comprehensive assesment of their IT environment to meet technology needs with the scalability for future growth and create preventative measures based on quick analysis of network device alerts, pre-failure indicators, performance benchmark and security issues.

The new Monitoring and performance tool will provide small businesses with the opportunity to test all technical and non-technical aspects of their servers and help them to strengthen overall IT infrastructure. The array of services will include: Patch Management, Security Auditing, Site Inventory, Real Time Alerting Script Based Management, and Remote Management for all critical server issues.

“Irrespective of the business being small or large, when the consumer chooses iYogi, he leverages the potential of an elite taskforce of Microsoft Certified System Engineers and Cisco Certified Network Associates, ready to service their critical assets, using the most advanced network asset tracking and Performance monitoring”, adds Challu.

Another factor where the Company aims to distinguish itself from its competitors is product pricing. Embracing the concept of service quality, iYogi offers competitively priced technical support services at no-haggle, low prices.

As for its small business support, the Company has integrated its exclusive Monitoring and Alerting Services under one price umbrella of just $480 annually. per server i.e. $49.99 per month. The price is certainly hard to find anywhere else.

For more information on iYogi Small Business Support, visit http://www.iyogibusiness.com/

Contact Details:
Company Name: iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd
Address: iYogi Inc.12 Desbrosses Street3rd FloorNew York, NY 10013Toll Free no:1-800-237-3901Work Number: 1-212-229-0901Fax Number: 1-888-867-2715
E-Mail: awadhesh.singh@iyogi.net

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iYogi Secures $9.5M in Series B Funding Led by SAP Ventures, With Follow-on Investment from Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners

New York, 24 July, 2008: Personal Offshoring, which is driving the next wave of India’s outsourcing success story, got a huge boost today when iYogi - a remote technical support provider from India - raised $ 9.5 million in Series B financing from SAP Ventures, a division of SAP AG, Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners, a venture fund affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank.
iYogi (www.iyogi.net) delivers technical support services directly to consumers and small businesses and is the first, global, technical support brand based out of India. The company offers its customers an unlimited, annual service subscription for $119.99 per desktop that includes support for a wide range of technologies, including PC hardware Microsoft Windows operating system, software applications, peripherals and multifunctional devices.

“Personal Offshoring has created new investment opportunities in India with incredible growth potential,” said Doug Higgins, partner at SAP Ventures. “It is very exciting to see companies like iYogi challenging the traditional enterprise-focused offshore-service delivery model by creating a consumer-focused, direct-to-customer personal offshore model. iYogi is one of the fastest-growing companies in this market segment, and we look forward to working with them to create India’s next success story.”

“Our focus on the customer experience has helped us achieve a 93 percent satisfaction rate across more than 50,000 customers,” said Uday Challu, CEO of iYogi. “We are delighted to have the support of three terrific investors as we increase our market share and continue to provide the best technical support experience possible for our customers.”
iYogi will use the funds to fuel its expansion into 12 new regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and to increase its delivery of new services including PC recovery, anti-virus/spyware, data back-up and PC optimization.

“As consumer technologies grow in sophistication, consumers will be seeking the kind of home IT support services – including remote services offered by companies such as iYogi – to help them solve their most complex problems,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst, Parks Associates. “In primary research, we found more than one-third of consumers are willing to pay for competent and professional remote support services, and 60% express a strong interest in software solutions – what we refer to as ‘PC Dashboards’ – that automate many basic PC performance enhancement and troubleshooting features, solving many PC-related problems before they even are noticed by end-users.”


iYogi had previously raised $3.1 million in Series A financing from Canaan Partners and SVB in April of last year. “iYogi is one of the most promising investments for Canaan Partners,” said Alok Mittal, managing director of India at Canaan Partners. “Third-party, vendor-independent technical support is an exciting new service category, witnessing explosive growth. Customers are looking beyond the traditional vendor-provided support to remote channels for better problem resolution, faster service, and greater overall satisfaction. iYogi has created an incredible value proposition and price offering for its customers that is hard to beat.”
”Several next generation outsourcing companies from India are delivering a range of personal offshoring services for individuals and small businesses in the U.S. including online tutoring, tax preparation, remote executive assistance and research services,” said Suresh Shanmugham, managing director of SVB India Capital Partners, a venture fund affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank. “iYogi has leveraged the technical skills available in India along with process expertise to scale as a global technical support provider for millions faced with increasingly complex technology”.


About SAP Ventures

SAP Ventures invests in innovative and disruptive software and services companies globally. We pursue opportunities across all stages for outstanding financial return. Our goal is to bring substantial benefit to all parties by facilitating interaction between portfolio companies and SAP and its ecosystem of customers and partners. SAP Ventures has a successful track record of building industry-leading companies by partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and top-tier venture capital firms since 1996. For more information, visit www.sapventures.com.
About Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners is a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage information technology and life sciences companies. Founded in 1987, Canaan Partners has $2.4 billion capital under management and has invested in more than 240 companies, completed 63 mergers and acquisitions, and brought over 50 companies public. The firm catalyzes the development of innovative mobile, Internet, CleanTech, networking, semiconductor, enterprise software and services, biotechnology and medical technologies to build next-generation market leaders. Canaan was an early investor in Acme Packet (APKT), Aperto Networks, BharatMatrimony.com, Blurb, DoubleClick (DCLK), ID Analytics, Match.com and SuccessFactors, along with dozens of other market-leading companies. Canaan is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and also has offices in Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit: www.canaan.com.
SVB India Capital Partners Fund and Silicon Valley Bank
SVB India Capital Partners Fund is a $54 million equity fund that is focused on Indian companies and co-invests across industries and stages with top-tier venture capital firms. Silicon Valley Bank is the premier commercial bank for emerging, growth and mature companies in the technology, life science, private equity and premium wine industries. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., the company serves clients around the world through 27 U.S. offices and five international operations. Silicon Valley Bank is a member of global financial services firm SVB Financial Group, with SVB Analytics, SVB Capital, SVB Global and SVB Private Client Services. More information on the company can be found at www.svb.com.
About iYogi

iYogi is the first direct-to-consumer and small business technical support service from India. Providing an annual unlimited subscription to technical support for $119.99 per year, iYogi now boasts more than 50,000 customers. The company employs 450 professionals servicing customers in the U.S., U.K., Canada fast expanding to 12 new geographies across the globe. iYogi’s resolution rate of 87 percent and customer satisfaction rate of 93 percent are amongst the highest published benchmarks in the industry. For further information, please visit www.iyogi.net.

# # #
SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.


The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. iYogi shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

Press Contact Information

Vishal Dhar
awadhesh.singh@iyogi.net
1-212-229-0901
Company Name: iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd Address: iYogi Inc. 12 Desbrosses Street 3rd Floor New York, NY 10013 Toll Free no: 1-800-237-3901 Work Number: 1-212-229-0901 F ax Number: 1-888-867-2715 Mail Id: awadhesh.singh@iyogi.net

Source URL: http://www.iyogi.net

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Microsoft May Ship Next Mac Office By 2010

Mac users won't have to wait another four years for the next version of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Office. A company official said Tuesday that the software maker plans on delivering the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac by January, 2011, at the latest, and possibly as early as January, 2010. Microsoft Office Help also plans to restore support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in the next version, which will likely be called Office 2010 for Mac, or Office 2011 for Mac -- depending on the exact ship date.

More Software InsightsWhite PapersHPC Management Software: Reducing the Complexity of HPC Cluster and Grid Resources Top 5 Myths of Screen Scraping WebcastsBreaking down the silos: from change process to release automation Manage Clients for Improved Security ReportsSaaS: Red Light, Green Light Guide To Cloud Computing "We're on a two to three year lifecycle," said Amanda Lefebvre, senior marketing manager at Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, in an interview. "We were a little beyond that for our last round," she conceded. Indeed, a series of delays meant that Mac users who purchased Mac Office 2004 had to wait four years for the next version -- Mac Office 2008, which shipped on January 15. It's the first version of the desktop suite to run natively on Intel (NSDQ: INTC)- and Power PC-based Macs, but its development was set back by quality control issues.

Microsoft's MacBU, which currently houses about 200 employees, is aggressively hiring developers, programmers and testers -- in part to ensure that the next Mac Office is developed on time and is cross-compatible with the Windows version, said Lefebvre.

"It's really about delivering full compatibility, at the file format level," she said.
Lefebvre added that some of the new hires will be tasked with restoring support for VBA in the Mac Office environment. "It will be a big piece of work," she said. Microsoft dropped VBA support in Mac Office 2008, but the move drew complaints from business customers who use the language to create macros for Excel and other applications.

MacBU workers are also developing tools that will ensure that Mac Office can be more tightly integrated into corporate Windows environments that run Microsoft's Exchange Server and Unified Communications Server, said Lefebvre. "It's about connecting in with the greater Microsoft environment and driving improved experiences," she said.

It's a sound strategy. Industry research reveals that Macs are showing up with increasing frequency in business offices, once the sole preserve of Windows desktops. Nearly 80% of businesses now have at least some Macintoshes in their offices, almost twice as many as two years ago, according to Yankee Group.

Increasing Mac sales are, naturally, helping to boost sales of Mac Office. Microsoft sold more than three times the number of licenses for Mac Office 2008 during its first four months on the market than it did for Mac Office 2004 during the comparable period.

Beyond developing applications for the Mac, Microsoft's MacBU isn't ruling out building programs for other popular Apple platforms, such as the iPhone and the iPod. "We're always investigating possibilities," said Lefebvre, who added, however, that "we have nothing to announce at this time."

source:informationweek.com

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Microsoft's Office Subscription Service Ready To Hit The Market

Microsoft has recently declared that Circuit City will soon be the first to offer an all new Microsoft Office Subscription Service.

Microsoft has joined hands with retailer Circuit City to provide a consumer software subscription service which features its Photo Gallery, Messenger, Windows Live One Care, MS Office and other services and applications.

The new software, dubbed Microsoft Equipt, is expected to be available at around 700 US based Circuit City stores till mid-July.

As per the reports, the cost of the newly launched Equipt licence has been fixed at $70 or £35 per year.

Microsoft makes it clear that the launch does not exactly indicate a complete move to sell its software through subscription models, but the initiative is a significant move for the company.
Reports suggest that Equipt features subscription versions of Office Home and Student 2007 that makes it a cheaper choice.

In addition to this, Equipt also offers unlimited e-mail support and easy subscription removal with the main idea that has triggered the move is to convert more PC buyers into Office buyers.
Microsoft has yet to announce a similar product on this side on the Atlantic.

If you want Microsoft Help then contact us.

source:itproportal.com

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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates retirement to spell end of an era

BILL GATES, the Microsoft co-founder, will officially retire from his day-to-day operating duties at the software giant on Friday,June 27th. After retiring, he will still remain the non- executive chairman of the Microsoft board and its largest shareholder too. He is leaving to begin a new life as a full-time philanthropist heading his charity, the charitable foundation he had set up with his wife Melinda in 2000, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has donated billions of dollars to fund medical research in AIDS, malaria, tuberculoses - the silent mass-murderers of the 20th and 21st centuries and other such diseases. It has also set up scholarships for minority colleges and other literacy efforts .They do help in a few other additional causes as well. It is the largest transparently operated charitable organisation in the world and allows its benefactors access how the money is being spent, unlike other major organisations.

Three people will take over the reigns after Bill Gates retires from the company, which he and a friend, Paul Allen, co-founded in 1975. In fact the transition had started about a couple of years back itself. A former classmate of Gates at Harvard, Steve Ballmer will be the chief executive at the software colossus in Seattle, while his job as chief software architect has been handed over to Ray Ozzie and Gate’s chief research and strategy officer duties has been inherited by Craig Mundie. Even though he is admired and seen by many as an inspiration, a large number of industry insiders criticise his business tactics, which they consider as anti-competitive.

Bill Gates, a Harvard drop-out left college after two years to find the firm that would change the world - Microsoft. He later received honorary degrees from Harvard and other universities. Bill Gates was an exceptionally bright and geeky high school kid from Seattle, who spent all his spare time meddling with computers .He sold his first software program at the age of 17 and by the time he went to Harvard University, he had already sold timetabling software to his school and a traffic planning system for state governments.

His exit coincides with an escalating rivalry with and other competitors who are using the Internet to block Microsoft’s software dominance. Microsoft has built its empire by charging one-time license fees for software such as Windows and Office, which are run locally on a computer’s hard drive. Then, after a few years, it would promote customers to upgrade to a new version of the software . Meanwhile, Microsoft’s competitors like Google, are offering free online programmes with advertisements and softwares through web browsers that compete with Office and other packaged software sold by Microsoft.

Analysts say that there are signs that Microsoft has been struggling since Gates moved away from managing operations a few years back. Microsoft’s Windows and Office softwares, on which its fortune is built have faltered with Firefox and OpenOffice as its main competitors. Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system, which was released in January of 2007 has flopped with customers, many of whom are still clinging to its forerunner the Windows XP. Meanwhile, Apple’s Macintosh computers have been gaining popularity and even though Windows is still used on 90 per cent of the world’s computers, Macintosh.

Bill Gates, who paved the way for the home computer age and took the globe and put it on our computer screens and made the entire world a global village will truly and justly go down in history as a person who made a tremendous impact on the modern world . As Gates gets ready to ride off into the software sunset, we wish the nerdish, bespectacled Bill Gates, who has been the image of Microsoft, all the very best in his charitable endeavours and hope that he will change the world by his benevolent work as he did with the software.

source:merinews.com

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Microsoft snafu blocks enterprise patching

Microsoft Corp. confirmed late Friday that enterprise administrators using one of its patch-distribution tools have not been able to install last week's security updates.
The company offered a work-around and said it is working on a fix.

"We're aware of an issue that is affecting the deployment of the June 2008 security updates," acknowledged Christopher Budd, spokesman for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), in a post to the group's blog Friday night.

Only corporate administrators using System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2007, which itself was just updated to Service Pack 1 (SP1), are affected, and only those systems running System Management Server (SMS) 2003 client software refuse to update. "The impact of this issue is that customers in this configuration cannot deploy the June 2008 security updates to their SMS 2003 clients," said Budd.

Last Tuesday, Microsoft published its usual monthly batch of security updates, which for June patched 10 vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer.

The successor to SMS 2003, System Center Configuration Manager assesses, deploys and updates server and client systems.

The MSRC also posted a security advisory on Friday, even though Microsoft doesn't strictly consider the problem security-related. "This issue is not a security vulnerability in System Center Configuration Manager 2007," the advisory stated. "[But] in this case, we are communicating the availability of an update that affects your ability to perform subsequent updates, including security updates. Therefore, this advisory does not address a specific security vulnerability; rather, it addresses your overall security."

According to an entry added to another company blog last Thursday, the glitch stems from "an issue with updated content published for the Office 2003 Service Pack 1 update, " said J.C. Hornbeck, an engineer at Microsoft's manageability group. "The June 10, 2008, release of the WSUS Offline Scan Catalog (wsusscn2.cb) fails to synchronize on a ConfigMgr 2007 or ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 site server using the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU)."

No other information was provided about the source of the problem or why the Office 2003 SP1 update caused the trouble now. Office 2003 SP1 was first released in mid-2004.

And although Office 2007 SP1 was updated last Tuesday to fix a problem on Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) that caused some language-specific content to fail to download, Microsoft said there was no connection between that fix and the ConfigMrg problem caused by Office 2003 SP1.

Administrators can determine if the June 10 updates were deployed by examining the Wsyncmgr.log on the ConfigMgr 2007 site server, added Hornbeck.

Budd said that Microsoft is working on a patch. In the meantime, he recommended that administrators use the Software Distribution feature within ConfigMgr 2007 to roll out the June security updates.

For any help related to Microsoft you can go for Microsoft Help

source:computerworld.com

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Web services with Open and Microsoft Office

While much of the talk around SOA revolves around the reuse of services bound to enterprise applications, the same ubiquity of these services in the "cloud" gives end users the potential of reusing data from Office productivity suites. In this tip, we will discuss how you can put all those services available in the "cloud" to good using two such suites: Microsoft Office and Open Office, the latter being a royalty free license suite compatible with the former platform.

Given that most services in the "cloud" are data intensive, our focus will be on the spreadsheet application's offered by both suites: Excel for Microsoft Office and Calc for Open Office. Before we discuss the actual process of accessing services though, you should be aware that both suites also support the process of Web scraping, that, while apparently similar to accessing services, is a different process all together.

Web scraping simply consists of obtaining raw information off a Web page and laying it out on a document for further manipulation, a process that is both inefficient and cumbersome when compared to that of using services. In the case of Web scraping, both suites rely on end users to provide additional formatting instructions in order to reliably extract data, generally from HTML pages. Add to this that scraping tends to be on addresses that don't or can't receive input values, and the approach to using services inside Office productivity suites becomes a lot more compelling.

If you're interested in further exploring the process of scraping, in Open Office you can do so through the Insert->Link to External Data option, introducing a Web address and following the presented Wizard's instructions. In Microsoft Excel, you can make use of the option New Web Query, located under the Data->Get External Data menu option.

As far as accessing services is concerned, the first thing you need to realize is that both suites rely on the presence of Macros, a term used to describe a small program that performs a more elaborate operation than those included natively. Both Office suites support Macros written in a wide variety of programming languages, not to mention Macros can be pre-packaged and simply accessed by anyone without any programming background.

For Open Office we will rely on the older stalwart programming language: Basic. Assuming you have a Calc spreadsheet containing business addresses, and you wanted to obtain the nearest hospitals to each address for emergency purposes, listing 1.1 contains what an Open Office Macro written in Basic would look like for accessing a Yahoo Local Web service providing such information.

source:searchsoa.techtarget.com

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Gather feedback by routing your Word documents

You’ve just completed the documentation for your upcoming training course. Before presenting it, however, you would like to send it out to your colleagues for review. You can use Microsoft Word 2002/2003’s Routing Slip feature to send the document as an e-mail attachment to each reviewer in the order designated by you. Microsoft Word will then return the document to you with everyone’s proposed changes. Follow these steps:

1. Go to File Send To Routing Recipient.

2. Click Allow.

3. Select the default text in the Subject box and enter Routing: Training document approval. (You can also enter your own Message text; if not, Word will add text for you.)

4. Click the Address button.

5. Click Allow.

6. Click the name of the first reviewer in your list of addresses.

7. Click the To button.

8. Click the name of next reviewer in your list of addresses.

9. Click the To button.

10. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for each person on your list.

11. Click the Add Slip button.

Word saves the routing slip with your document. After adding the routing slip, you can work with the document as you would any other document. When you are ready to send it to everyone on the routing slip, go to File Send To Next Routing Recipient. In this example, the recipient will receive the message below, with the default message text.

Note that you will need a MAPI-compliant e-mail program, such as Outlook or Outlook Express, or a VIM-compatible program, such as Lotus cc:Mail, to add a routing slip to your Word 2002/2003 documents.

If you are facing any problem with your comupter then go for Computer Repair

source:techrepublic.com

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Microsoft, Yahoo! Resume Talks

Microsoft said Sunday that it is considering doing an unspecified deal with Yahoo!, but it's not seeking another acquisition of the Internet portal--at least for now.

The Redmond software giant has "raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!," Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft declined to provide details of its proposed deal with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web portal, but the transaction likely involves Yahoo!'s search advertising business. The deal could be structured two ways: as an acquisition of that business or a partnership in which Yahoo! outsources its search ads to Microsoft. Yahoo! has also been in discussions with Google about such an outsourcing partnership.

Yahoo! said in a statement that it had responded to Microsoft's latest overture by telling the software giant that it's not interested in being acquired at this time, but it's "open to pursuing any transaction which is in the best interest of our stockholders."

When it launched its $40 billion-plus bid for Yahoo! on Jan. 31, Microsoft said it needed to combine forces with the Web portal to become a more significant player in online advertising. Google leads the sector and Yahoo! and Microsoft are distant No. 2 and 3 players, respectively.
Even though Microsoft said Sunday it isn't trying to acquire all of Yahoo!, it noted that it "reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with third parties."

On May 15, two weeks after Microsoft dropped its bid for Yahoo!, corporate raider Carl Icahn took steps to unseat Yahoo!'s board members in an effort to get Yahoo! and Microsoft back to the negotiating table. Icahn proposed a 10-member proxy board slate that includes himself, billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Frank Biondi, former chief executive of Viacom.

Microsoft's Sunday announcement comes two days before an advertising conference it's hosting in Redmond.

If you face any problem with your computer then go for Computer Repair

source:forbes.com

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Is Microsoft stalking Powerset's search technology?

While Powerset is preparing for the public rollout of its unique, semantic search engine, Microsoft may be interested in acquiring the start-up, according to sources.

I asked Barney Pell, Powerset co-founder and CTO, whether there was any truth to a Microsoft Powerset deal rumors. He said, "No comment," and noted his policy of not commenting on rumors. Microsoft also declined to comment on rumors.

Bringing Powerset, which has no revenue and a tiny user base at this point, into the fold would be spare change for Microsoft compared with spending $45 billion to $50 billion on Yahoo. But, it could bring something useful to Microsoft--and Yahoo, if their union were consummated--in the battle for search users with arch rival Google.

Powerset raises the bar on search based on a preview that I had of the service last month. Powerset differs from the Google in that it extracts and indexes concepts, relationships, and meaning, rather than keywords. It's able to create connections and pivot in some cases in ways that elude Google's proficient engine, which favors more of a statistical approach.

Powerset uses a sophisticated natural language parser (licensed from Xerox PARC) to find subjects, verbs, objects, synonyms, and other elements for indexing.

Initially, Powerset is performing its magic on the 3 million pages of Wikipedia content, enabling a new kind of search and navigation experience on the popular information resource.
A next step would be to index the Web, which would be of great interest to Google rivals. Powerset has garnered $12.5 million in Series A funding from Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, and angel investors. Given the cost to scale up a semantically rich index of 20 billion Web pages, Microsoft would be a good match for Powerset. Then again, so would Google.

If you are facing any kind of problem with your computer then go for Computer Repair

source:news.com

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Tips for Creating a Letterhead Template in Microsoft Word

If you're running a business, there's no substitute for professionally created stationery with your company's logo and other information in the letterhead. You need to communicate to your clients and customers that your organization is legitimate, and a knockoff letterhead with a generic graphic is a dead giveaway of a low-budget operation.

At the same time, you may have occasion to create a one-off letterhead for a special event or side project that doesn't require anything fancy, and that you don't want to spend a lot of time or money to generate. Microsoft Word lets you fashion such a letterhead in just a few minutes. Keep in mind that this is a quick-and-dirty way to give your documents a unique appearance, and no substitute for a stationer's wares.

The no-muss, no-fuss letterhead template

Start by opening a new blank document in Word and saving it as a template, using the .dot extension for Word 2003, or the .dotx extension for Word 2007. Give the new template a unique name, such as "quickletterhead1.dotx", and save it in your templates folder so it will be available when you create another document from a template.

In Word 2007, click Insert > Header > Blank, and in Word 2003, click View > Header and Footer. In both versions, enter your preferred letterhead text (organization name, address, phone, e-mail, etc.), and then click Insert > Picture (> From File in Word 2003). Navigate to and select the image you want to embed in the letterhead. (If you're using a large image, open and resize the picture in Paint or another image editor before you add it to your letterhead, or choose one of the appropriately sized clip-art images built into Windows.) Right-click the image and choose Format Picture.

Use the options in the Format Picture dialog box to add a drop shadow to the image, resize it, or make other changes. When the image looks the way you like it, click the Layout tab in Word 2003 and choose a wrapping style other than the default "In line with text." Click OK in Word 2003, or Close in Word 2007.


Now use your mouse to drag the image to the position you prefer in the header. You can use the controls along the image's edge to resize it manually, or drag the little green circle at the top to rotate the picture. When you're happy with the image's size and position, click Close on the Header and Footer toolbar in Word 2003, or click anywhere outside the header in Word 2007 to see how your letterhead will look.

When you want to create a document using your custom letterhead, click File > New in Word 2003, or choose the Office button and click New in Word 2007. Choose "On my computer" under Templates in the New Documents pane of Word 2003, select it from the list that appears under the General tab of the Templates dialog box, and click OK. In Word 2007, select your letterhead template under Recently Used Templates, or if it's not listed there, click "New from existing" in the top-left pane, navigate to the template you just created, and click Open.

source: www.cnet.com/8301-13880_1-9917783-68

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Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000

Ergonomic keyboards seem to be all the rage these days. For us it is probably too late, our claw like fingers already gnarled and twisted by years of gruelling late nights in the test centre. However, for many of you there is probably still hope and Microsoft believes that hope may come in the form of its latest ergonomic keyboard and mouse combo, the Natural Desktop 7000.
Sporting a curved keyboard split straight down the middle and a mouse that bears more than a passing resemblance to an egg, this package takes some getting used to, but if you find your fingers regularly feeling strained after a long day at the office then this may be the package for you.

One of the most difficult things to adjust to is having half the keys on one side and half on the other. Many self taught typists won't always use the correct finger for each key, and as a result you may find yourself automatically tapping in no-man's-land between the two sections and wondering why you keep getting the word 'rilliant'. We actually found this keyboard corrected our typing a little as we went along, which will appeal to some users.

As with most ergonomic models the keys are slightly slanted. This is to capitalise on the fact that different fingers are different lengths and fall naturally in different places, meaning a standard flat key layout isn't the most comfortable or efficient setup. While the strange, curved design takes some getting used to, it definitely puts less strain on your fingers and the impact can be felt at the end of a long day in front of the monitor. Some keys have been resized to fit the new layout and while we appreciate the larger Alt, Ctrl and space keys, some very commonly used ones such as Enter have been shrunk which we found a little troublesome. We should also point out that while the layout is great for desktop publishing, gamers will want to look elsewhere as this keyboard really isn't conducive to a standard WASD control scheme.

The keyboard comes with a soft, padded wrist rest which is comfortable. By default it is raised quite high off the desk, but the base can be removed if you'd prefer a lower angle. There is a reasonable smattering of function keys including mail, search and Web links as well as favourites, back/forward keys and some media controls (volume, mute and play/pause). We would have liked to see track skip options, but aside from that the shortcuts are fairly robust.

While we were impressed with the keyboard's design, the mouse could use a little work. It has a dome like shape that is built to be held in the centre of the hand, rather than by the fingertips or palm. Perhaps it is just a lifetime of gripping the mouse using our fingers, but we struggled to maintain perfect accuracy with this unit. We also found the acceleration of the cursor a little hard to handle when using this mouse, but that can be adjusted in settings.

Source:pcworld.idg.com.au

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Search and Recover Lost Microsoft Word Documents

If you type a lot and are using Microsoft Word as your text processor, you've made the right choice. Microsoft Word is arguably the most powerful, feature-rich and handy to use by complete beginners and advanced professionals altogether. It has unparalleled strengths in creating, formatting and modifying all types of documents, from simple memos to complex reports. When you save a document in one version of Microsoft Word, it can usually be opened in a different version without problems.

But what if the document you've spent so much time on just disappears? What can happen to it? First and most possible, you can simply delete it yourself by an accident. You might think that this would never happen to you because there is the Windows Recycle Bin, and even if it's accidentally emptied, you'll just go to the Internet and get a free undelete utility. Well, it does not work this way...

Here's what happened to my wife a couple of weeks ago. She was working on a chapter for her Ph.D. thesis, and sent it to a professor for review. Usually, she gets back a document with embedded comments by email. She saves an attachment from the email, overwriting the old one, and deletes it from her Hotmail account. But this time, things went the wrong way. She received her chapter by email and replaced the old document with the new one, only to find out that her supervisor got a copy of the old one! She opened the Recycle Bin and found out that the document was never deleted but instead, it was replaced, so it wasn't even in the Recycle Bin. She tried to find an email that she had sent earlier, but Hotmail does not store sent messages. She asked me to do something to recover the document, and I downloaded a couple of free undelete programs, only to find that there were several dozens of deleted documents with that same name. So, I failed to recover the most recent revisions.

This story did have a happy ending, as my wife's supervisor discovered the latest version of the document on her computer. But one thing that I learned from this story was never to rely on the Recycle Bin and free data recovery tools. To prevent this kind of things from happening, I decided to look for commercial alternatives.

I quickly discovered that there are many data recovery offers on the market. Most products mention recovering deleted or corrupted files and documents, and some tools promise recovery of files even from crashed or damaged hard drives. There are basically two types of data recovery products. They are different in how they find the lost files, and what they do to recover them. Simpler products, such as those free undelete utilities that I tried in my quest, deal with the file system. They simply scan the file system looking for records of files that are marked "deleted", and clear the mark. This is a fast and easy way to recover lost files, and it works sometimes, especially if you deleted a file just a minute ago.

These products, as I discovered from my own experience, fail to do their job if you have a complex case or if you are recovering a failed hard drive, or if the file system is damaged. If your document has been deleted some time ago or overwritten with another file, chances of successful recovery using these tools are slim.

The other type of products deals with your hard drive directly instead of scanning the file system, but such products are slow and expensive. I also found them extremely complex to use because they don't show the names of the deleted documents, let alone their content. These tools don't have access to the file system, and are unaware of the files' names, showing documents as "document_001.doc" at best, but more likely you'll see something like "~ocume1" instead of a proper name.

If you face any kind of problem with your computer then go for Computer Support.

source: article blotter

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How to Use Power Points in Programs

If you have the equipment for displaying power points in auditoriums or gymnasiums then the use of Power Point Programs during a program can be very effective. They can use them to emphasis a point or usually to bring about an emotional impact on those that are watching. One caution should be do not over do them. One power point per program is enough.

You can download many pictures right off of the internet and it is not time consuming. Go to Google, MSN, or Yahoo and hit images and then type in your desired picture. It will come up instantaneously. Load it to your Power Point and keep repeating until you have the desired effect. Be sure to move the picture around and put them in the best order for your presentation.

Most of the Power Points that I use go along with music. The only problem with this is that you need to make sure that your choir or anyone on the stage sees it before the program so that they are not moving around trying to see what is going on.

Here are a few ideas that I have found very successful.

1. Patriotic songs: use flag pictures or pictures of national monuments
2. Flag history: use pictures of flags that have flown over the United States
3. Red Ribbon Week: use pictures showing kids what fun things they can do instead of drugs
4. Western songs: use pictures of pioneers
5. Indian songs: use pictures of Indians
6. Christmas: find pictures of lights they are awesome
7. Veterans Day: show pictures of the armed services
8. Physical Fitness Programs: show pictures of all the different ways to stay physically fit
9. Show pictures of different students in the school doing different activities
10. Use students art to go with a song.

Do limit your pictures, do not over do it. Do choose colorful pictures. Do choose larger size pictures resizing pictures make them blurry. Do let the students that are performing see them first. Do not over do it because it can become boring, 3 minutes is plenty.

Source: Ezine Articles

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Unlock the Power of Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office is considered to be one of the leading application software in the world of computers. This is a widespread application among businesses. Microsoft Office consists of applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Major applications that are used are Word and Excel. Let us see the various features available in Excel and how to learn them. Read along!

If you think that Microsoft Excel is only for business purposes, you are wrong. Many use it for various personal needs at home too. Some of the features that you should understand about Microsoft Excel to unlock the potentiality of this application are working with spreadsheets, cell formatting, various menus and toolbars, entering of data and editing the same, navigating between various spreadsheets, formula calculation, inserting various functions like date/time, mathematical functions, using of various charts that are available, inserting, editing and deleting comments on cells, etc.

Read further to understand the various options available to you to master Microsoft Excel. You can learn the tricks of Microsoft Excel through CD, CBT or videos. Let us learn about each option one after the other.

Mastering Microsoft Excel through CD

With the help of CDs, you can learn Excel at your own pace and need not spend time in attending classes. Microsoft Excel CD would contain screenshots of various commands, how to create professional looking spreadsheets, how to insert charts, diagrams, formulas, create tables, etc. You would also get hands-on training as it would be more interactive. One of the main advantages of learning Microsoft Excel using CD is that you can read at your own convenience.

Unlocking the potential of Microsoft Excel through CBT

Computer Based Training (CBT) is yet another way where you take your own time to master the application. With the help of CBT, you get realistic, interactive and complete training. You get to learn right from what a beginner should learn to advanced level. Once the training is over, you would have mastered Microsoft Excel. You get to see simulations of Microsoft Excel application software. Some CBT also offer review quiz questions to gauge your understanding. CBT generally offer interactive, complete and comprehensive training. As it offers practice questions, you will be able to understand better and gain confidence in using the application. According to me, this is one of the best ways to learn Microsoft Excel.

Using tutorials to learn Microsoft Excel application

Microsoft Excel tutorials are another best way to master the application. You get to learn the application in detail as there are various simulations available that are realistic and interactive. Like CDs, videos and CBT, you can learn the application at your convenience.

Why are you waiting? Grab either a CD, video, CBT or a tutorial and start mastering Microsoft Excel and unlock the power this application has got.

If you face any kind of Problem with Microsoft Excel then go for Microsoft Operating System Help

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Microsoft Word - The Fast and Smart way to Small Business

One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment when starting out; Overtime, if your systems are built correctly they will in fact save you very large sums of money, in particular in the area of staff wages.

When I first started my business, One-on-One Personal Computer Training, I started out with a $3,000 Credit Card, which when you talk to any business adviser or business-coach is absolutely the worst thing you could do. One of the issues I have been most conscious of is the cost of having a large number of staff. The way I achieved a high level of efficiency in such a competitive market was to automate as many of the day-to-day tasks as I could. The best tasks for business automation are those that are repetitive.

As soon as I mention the word Business Automation, most technophobes will put up a barrier and go into a minor or major fit. Business automation can be as simple as creating just a few Microsoft Word templates. Business automation does not necessarily mean hiring a huge plethora of software developers and toiling day and night to build some monsterous and complex system. It can and should be simple so that you as a business owner can in fact do it yourself. Let me explain!

Microsoft for all its good and bad issues, has provided business one of the most awesome tools - Microsoft Word allows you to build templates that you can reuse as many times as you wish.
What Is A Microsoft Word Template?

Essentially, a Microsoft Word Template is like any traditional word document, the difference is that it is designed to be reused as many times as you require. Why not create a normal word document then. Well, the difference is that when you use a Microsoft Word Template, you can store the template under the New dialogue box, so that each time you want to use the document you go to that one point and it will be available.

Did you know that you can even create your own folders in the New dialog box? If you didn't know this, all you have to do is to simply create a new folder where all your templates are stored. On each of our company's computers we have a special folder called one-on-one where we store each of our templates for use by our staff.

What Sort Of Templates Might You Need?

This is one of the key questions I get asked the most. The most common templates I see small businesses require are items like Sick Leave Forms, Leave Applications, Order Forms, Sales Letters, Purchase Order Forms and so forth.

One of the reasons why I chose to build Microsoft Word Templates in my business was to ensure a level of continuity of contact with our customers. By building a series of Templates such as:

- A Company Letter Head
- A Company Fax Sheet
- A Company Leave Application
- A Company Thank You Letter
- A Company Weekly Timesheet
- A Company Sales Letter
- A Company Visitor Sign-in Sheet
- A Company Purchase Order Form
- A Company Order Form

By having these forms in a central place I have ensured that my staff does not need to be recreating these styles of documents each time they have to send a letter or fax. Further to this, I know that certain sales letters used by my staff will achieve the sales outcomes that I am looking for. By using a Microsoft Word Template, they know that when they get and enquiry that they can simply fill-in the customer details and the letter is done.

In our sales letter templates we use Microsoft Word Fill-in field to prompt our staff for key information like the Customers Name, Address and Company Name ensuring that the information does get put into the letter. Once they have completed that they simply press the Print button and its ready to go to the customer. As a business owner, knowing that all my staff have to do to achieve the sales makes me feel far more comfortable than them having to write their own customised letters each time a customer enquires about our training.

Microsoft Word templates are an incredibly useful tool in automating common documents that your staff maybe creating and I believe that this is the first process that all business owners should be using in automating their business.

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Powerfull Powerpoint Background Slides

There are various tools available in the computers, for your web designing and writing. One of them is the tool, Microsoft Powerpoint. This powerful tool is used to create professional looking presentations and slide shows from scratch or by using its easy wizard. By using the PowerPoint software, you can make any form of background you may need for your program. Using different values in the program, you can get animated backgrounds, music backgrounds and even Christmas and religious backgrounds.

The world of internet has made advertising so easy, that you can shop, buy and download perfect PowerPoint templates and PowerPoint background videos in a matter of minutes. Not only this, there are terrific, ready-made PowerPoint background slides be available where you can change your dull PowerPoint presentation into an aggressive, attention grabbing and energetic presentation in not time at all.

With the free PowerPoint templates available in the internet, you can try out your skills at the PowerPoint presentation background, without actually first buying it. You can download these Microsoft PowerPoint templates for free for your education and use. Remember, all the PowerPoint background slides have been pre-set by expert graphic designers. The design background, typeface and colors have all been expertly designed; all you have to do is insert the text, and you have it!

You can experiment in making animated backgrounds in the PowerPoint by setting different values in the program. The background animates when an absolute value has been specified for either the horizontal or the vertical directions. If at all both the directions are specified, the background is animated diagonally. By making changes in the PowerPoint values, you can form blue blocks, closed circuit, award night and many more other PowerPoint background presentations. These changes bring about moving characters on the computer screen.

If you need graphics for specific web pages, they too are available in abundance in the internet. You just have to download these special backgrounds, like Christmas, New Year and other festivities?backgrounds from the internet for free. You then use these graphics in your web page as you desire. There is another free software available for download in the internet, the Movie Wizard, where you can spice up your slideshows with the addition of graphics and background music and animating photos with the help of their tutorials.

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Computer Support – Simplest Way to troubleshoot Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Help has become a general term used by online computer repair vendors nowadays. The term includes everything related to troubleshoot any of the operating system and office suites offered by Microsoft.

Whether you are bothered by the irksome errors in your Windows 2000, Windows Millennium, or need Online Vista Support, you can contact these onsite computer repair providers for help. They are 24x7 available and much cheaper than expensive computer repair showrooms and calling technicians at premises.

Some companies have specified their services by using the terms such as Microsoft Help, Online Computer Support, Windows Help, etc. These terms deal only with the services as signified by their titles. Although Microsoft help is a newly added service in the array of computer repair services, it is gaining wide popularity among tech savvy consumers. Other known services are Network Setup and Troubleshooting, PC Optimization (increasing the speed of a computer), Virus and Spyware Removal, Data Backup Services.

Computer repair services help you improve overall system performance and get rid infected programs that tend to spoil your PC’s efficiency. Whether you are a professional or a starter, have home or small business, computer repair available online is all you require to solve all your PC woes.

Using remote support technology, the technicians access your system with your permission, diagnose it, and fix the problems right away while you watch. You can also ask them to offer you the support over phone. Either way, we will be there for you until the problem is completely solved. These Online Computer Repair services are known for excellent customer response time, tech proficiency, and affordable services. A few computer users avoid calling online tech support for their computer problems thinking that these technicians may not hold the required expertise. Well! This is completely a myth. Companies dealing in on-site computer support have highly trained technicians (most Microsoft Certified Experts or Computer Engineers) who get to the root of the consumer’s technical issues and resolve them fast. What are you waiting for then. Contact any good online computer repair shop and get your problems solved within no time.

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How to Insert Flash Into PowerPoint 2007

Ensure the Flash Player is installed on your computer, and then please follow the steps below:

1. Click Microsoft Office Button on the top left corner > click "PowerPoint Options" at the bottom of the panel > go to the "PowerPoint Options" window > click "Popular" on the left column > select "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" on the right column > click "OK" at the bottom.

2. On the "Developer" tab > go to "Controls" group > Click the icon of hammer and nail for "More Controls"> go to the "More Controls" window.

3. On the "More Controls" window > select "Shockwave Flash Object" in the list > click "OK" at the bottom > use your pointer to drag on the slide to draw and resize the control.

4. Right click the control you draw > click "Properties" in the right-click menu > go to the "Properties" window.

5. On the alphabetic tab > click the "Movie" property > type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C:a.swf)

6. To make the Flash paly automatically when the slide is displayed, set the "Playing" property to "True"; To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set "EmbedMovie" property to "True"

7. Finally close the "Properties" window and save your presentation.

On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.

An alternative solution to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2007

Actually it's sort of troublesome to someone who needs to insert Flash into multiple sildes within PowerPoint 2007 directly. You may want to know: is there a shortcut to insert Flash like inserting other media files in PowerPoint? Probably no.

An alternative solution is using some third-party tools to achieve this, such as Wondershare PPT2Flash, which has a feature of "Insert Flash" to add Flash files instantly. Through PPT2Flash, you can directly select Flash files and manage to insert them into any slides in PowerPoint 2007 and any earlier versions.

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Top 5 Used Features in Microsoft Excel

We all have been impressed at some point by some magnificent graph created and presented by a colleague during a meeting. Those great charts were probably created in Microsoft Excel in fact, this program is a must in any office environment. We all use Excel to do all kinds of things like handling sales figures, number calculation, data tracking and even to create those cool looking graphs. To give you a high overview of the capabilities of Microsoft Excel, here are its top five used features:

Data logging and tracking ? - You can't do this in Word because when you have a lot of information to track you'll find that using Excel can really save you time - and your sanity. You can enter number figures, names, addresses, months, dates, and any information and track it in a workbook.

Number calculation ? - You can add, multiply, and sales information. You can combine totals from different locations and create new totals. You can select from a large range of mathematical calculations options.

Create lists and group information ? - You can easily and quickly list series of number or words. You can group lists of information by filtering out pieces that you don't need.

Accounts Payable ? Many Small Businesses use Microsoft Excel to track their expenses and gains instead of using fancy accounts payable programs. Even internal departments within major corporations use excel spreadsheets and workbooks to track their expenses.

Graphs and charts ? - You can create fantastic looking graphs using all this information that you track, log, group and list. You can see the relationships between different sets of data by portraying the data in a graph or chart.

source: enzine articles

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A Small Definition of Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is Microsoft's flagship word processing software. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows (1989). It is a component of the Microsoft Office system; however, it is also sold as a standalone product and included in Microsoft Works Suite. Beginning with the 2003 version, the branding was revised to emphasize Word's identity as a component within the Office suite: Microsoft began calling it Microsoft Office Word instead of merely Microsoft Word. The latest release is Word 2007.

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Microsoft Office - Unleashed

Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. Along with core office applications, it includes associated servers and web-based services. Recent versions of Office are referred as "Office system".

Office was introduced in 1989 on the Mac, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, a "Pro" version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with sharied features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write Component Object Model add-ins, which are supplemental programs that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software.

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows, launched on January 30, 2007, and Office 2004 for Mac, released May 19, 2004. Office 2007, announced on February 15, 2006, was released on November 30, 2006 for businesses via volume License and MSDN channels. It features a distinct user interface and a new XML-based primary file format. The new Mac version, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, is expected to be released in January 2008.

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