Unless you’ve been living in a hole for the last few months, then you know that Microsoft has released its next generation operating system - Windows Vista. While I haven’t personally used it yet, I’ve hear a lot of mixed reviews. What I want to know is this:

1.) Have you used it yourself yet? If so, tell me your first impressions. Easy to use? Hard to use? How about your existing programs, are they compatible?

2.) Has your company started using it? I would be surprised if any major companies had switched to Vista yet, but I’m sure they are in the process of testing it’s compatibility with their current systems.

3.) If you haven’t used it, are you planning on it? Personally and professionally, are you going to be using Vista anytime in the near future and are you for or against this change.

I’m really interested in getting some first hand thoughts, just add a comment to this post if you’d like to share.

It used to be that if you said you were going to attend a meeting, that meant you were physically going to go somewhere and meet with another party. However, with all of the new technology out there, the traditional way of holding a meeting has drastically changed. One technology that is gaining more popularity in the meeting world is video conferencing, as the advances in secure networking have made this a more feasible solution. It has a lot of advantages, but people are still hesitant to use it because they’d still prefer to meet in person. This brings up the question: Is video conferencing as effective as meeting in person? The answer to this depends on a number of factors, including the following two major ones which I’m going to discuss: The type of meeting you’re planning and your target audience.

Read the rest of this entry »