Should you upgrade to Windows 7?

A lot of clients and friends have been asking me whether or not they should upgrade to Windows 7. The information that I am posting here is just my personal opinion but I will give you a few things to consider as well.

The quick answer is this...I never recommend upgrading a computer's operating system. There are many reasons for this including hardware and software issues but the most important reason is that upgrading a computer's operating system almost always results in some problems, mostly because of registry files. The only way to really get a trouble-free version of Windows 7 on your computer is to reformat your harddrive and do a clean install of the full operating system, not the upgrade. If you choose to do this, make sure that your system can physically handle the operating system. You can do a quick check here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx. That being said, if you are going to go through the trouble of wiping out everything on your system, installing a new operating system and re-installing all of your programs, you might as well purchase a new system and benefit from the hardware upgrades you will get with a new system, in my opinion.

The biggest issue that you need to be concerned about with both options is whether or not your existing software programs are compatable with Windows 7. You can check to see what programs will work with the new operating system here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx

If your favorite program will not work on Windows 7 you might want to reconsider switching or be prepared to purchase new software.

The best advise that I can give you is this. If your system is older, slow, and you have been thinking about getting a new one then this would be a good time to do that providing that you are prepared to re-load all of your software, purchase new software and learn a new operating system. If you are happy with your current system and operating system (XP, Vista, etc...) then you should probably wait until all the bugs are worked out of Windows 7 and make the switch later. The major benefit that I have heard of so far of switching to Windows 7 is that it does make systems run faster and safer.

I didn't want to provide a ton of information here but you can always visit the Windows 7 website to get all of your questions answered. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Happy 19th Birthday Kristen!

It's hard to believe but 19 years ago today I gave birth to an amazing person. I am so proud of my daughter, Kristen. She is a beautiful, intelligent and fun loving woman. She is a freshman at St. Thomas University studying Public Relations and Marketing. She is also the first freshman ever to have an internship with the University in Social Media Marketing. She is in charge of the St. Thomas Facebook page as well as being an ambassodor for the school. You can see all of her great work on their page at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=2&aid=-3&id=532595715#/stthomasmn?ref=ts

I hope she has a terrific day full of fun and celebration. Love, Mom

My Tips for fixing your Facebook Page - MUST READ

In the last few weeks Facebook has really frustrated me. Just when I thought I had my page the way I wanted it, they go and change things up on me. Facebook now has what they call "live feeds" and "news feeds." Live feeds has constant updates and News feeds highlights some of your friends activities. The problem is that if you have a lot of "friends" you aren't necessarily getting the updates on the friends that you really want to know about because Facebook choses what to feed you.

One thing that you can do to sort of switch back to the old Facebook is to change the default on your Homepage from live feed to status updates. To do this go to your homepage, in the very left hand margin there is a column listing the various feeds and applications that are available in the order they are available to you. Below the top 5 there is a little word called "more. " Click on MORE and then you are able to select and drag whatever feeds or applications you want to appear first on your homepage to the top. For example if you want to go back to the way the old Facebook was, you can drag STATUS UPDATES up to the top replacing live feed. Problem solved.

Next... I love all the different Facebook applications that are out there but I am sooooo tired of getting a feed everything someone obtains a Farmville, Mafia Wars, Bejeweled accomplishment, etc... The fix is this. Choose someone's post from one of these applications that you don't want to see anymore. Next to the post is a label called HIDE. Choose HIDE and voila, you won't see that application posts from anyone-anymore. YIPEEE! If you change your mind and you do want to see the posts again just go to the very bottom of your homepage. At the bottom right there is a label called EDIT OPTIONS. Click on that and you will be able to unhide any applications that you have blocked from your news feed.

As far as not getting all the feeds you want from your most important friends and getting feeds from people you barely know - here is the solution for that. Click on your News Feed option, then go to Live Feeds. At the very bottom of that page there is a label EDIT OPTIONS. Click on EDIT OPTIONS and you will be able to manually add friends that you really want to keep up with and you can hide feeds from friends that you don't want to know about anymore.

I really hope that this will help make your Facebook life more bearable with all the changes they have made. I know that I feel better :) Have a great day!

LinkedIn & Twitter Partner!

LinkedIn and Twitter announced a partnership on Monday allowing you to push your LinkedIn status updates out to your Twitter account or pull your tweets into your professional profile.

You have three options for integrating LinkedIn with Twitter: you can rebroadcast your LinkedIn status updates to Twitter, turn your tweets into your LinkedIn status or both. To start integrating your tweets, you need to edit your LinkedIn settings by adding Twitter from your profile page or by clicking the Twitter icon next to your status on the homepage. Twitter integration will be rolled out to all LinkedIn users over the next few days, so you may not see the new feature right away.

Just for fun

I don't know why I thought of this song this morning but it really made me laugh!

Keep in touch!

Last night I attended a very informative Professional Womens' Network Meeting. The featured speaker was Brenda J. Carlson. Her firm provides coaching to businesses and work teams to maximize strengths for success and discover what to do about challenges. Her topic was maximizing your social media. She reminded me how important it is to utilize all the great social media marketing tools that are free and available in order to promote your business and YOURSELF! It was really helpful for me to reflect on my own social media use and I realized that I have been neglecting my LinkedIn profile. Facebook, Twitter and Blogger are such a big part of my day but it is also important to make professional connections through LinkedIn. So I invite you to create a profile and add me in your network. http://www.linkedin.com/in/angiebendt You can get linked in and find out more about Brenda here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendajcarlson

The spotlight speaker was Darla Donley. She is a representative for a company called SendOutCards. SendOutCards is an online greeting card system. You choose your card from over 15,000 cards or you can upload your own. You enter the recipient's address and SendOutCards prints the card, stuffs it in the envelope, puts a stamp on it and mails it out for you. AWESOME! I can't wait to try this. She emphasized how important it is to use email, personal contact and greeting cards to maintain contact with friends, relatives and business partners. Again, I was reminded how important it is to use all types of communication that we have available to us. You can check out this service at www.sendoutcards.com/havemorefun

Well, thanks again for reading my ramblings. I hope that you take away this.... Don't get so wrapped up in your day to day routines that you forget to use all the tools that are available to you.

Fun and safe games to play on the Internet

Just for fun I thought I would share with you some of the Internet games that we enjoy playing here at the Bendt house. I love to play Farmville and Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account you can access these games under the Applications tab or just add me as a friend and you will see my updates. My daughter, Keri, plays Farmville and also visits http://www.bored.com formore games. Johnnie is an avid Roblox player (http://www.roblox.com) This game is a game for creating robots and places. It uses an advanced scripting language so is a great way for young programmers to get a start. For younger players, http://www.millsberry.com/ is a fun way to play learning games and earn millsbucks to decorate avitars and houses.

As always, monitor your child's activities on the Internet and limit their game playing time but these games are all safe and free to use.

To Blog or not to Blog

I have been getting a lot of great compliments about my blog lately and I want to thank everyone for reading and giving me the feedback. I hope that my posts have been interesting and helpful to you. A lot of my friends and clients have become more interested in blogging have been asking me if they should start blogging and how to get started. Here are some good reasons to start blogging...

1. You can organize your thoughts in one place.
2. You can develop your writing skills.

3. You can get your voice heard. You can blog about anything from and interest you have to your family to your business.
4. You can meet new people. It's amazing how many people can find your blog online and start following what you post.
5. You can get feedback on your ideas. It's always nice to get comments about something you cared enough to blog about.
6. You can teach others. We can't all be good at everything, but we all have our strengths. So, why not share some of your knowledge so others can learn from you?
7. You can open doorways. Blogging isn't only a hobby. Blogging can help you promote your business or yourself and might even land you a job! Imagine adding your blog address to your resume! What a great way for a potential employer to get to know you.
8. You can make better use of your free time. Ever feel like you're not using your free time very productively? Blogging can be a great use of your time. It doesn't have to take over your life - but it can be a good option if you have some time to spare.
9. You can get into a routine. Set aside a few minutes each day at the same time to blog. It can be a great break from your daily grind.
10. You can find it to be very therapeutic. Angry? Sad? Overjoyed? Lonely? Ambivalent? Therapists have recommeded journaling for years. Guess what? Blogging is JOURNALING!

So the next question is how do you get started? There are many blogging websites out there. My personal favorite (obviously since I use it) is Blogger. Found at http://www.blogger.com/, blogger is subset of Google. Visiting that address gets you right to the homepage where it couldn't be easier to set up your blog. Just click on CREATE BLOG!!!! You will be walked through a step by step process and away you go! Best part is.... It is completely free of charge and ad free.

So future bloggers get going and be sure to send me your new blog link! Oh yeah, and watch this music video about blogging if you get a chance.