Tiger Never Disappoints

As most of my friends know, I have a slight obsession with Tiger Woods.  I am constantly amazed at one thing...his ability to win when he wants to.  He is currently playing in the Buick Championship and going for his 7th victory in a row.  Only the great Byron Nelson has had a better streak of 11.  I have been waiting for TV coverage all day and after the Badgers beat the Hawkeyes...the coverage came on.

Jim Nantz of CBS started the coverage with a summary of the day and how Tiger was within one stroke, but had just bogeyed and was 3 back.  I wanted an exciting show but got dissappointed quickly.  However, they picked up live coverage with Tiger putting for birdie on 8, he of course made it.  I think he has the best 'bounce back' stats on the Tour.  I then got to see Tiger hit the 613yd 9th in 2 shots and can a 30 foot eagle putt to tie the lead and then start the back nine.

He is tied for the lead as we speak while teeing off on #10, and all I have to say is..."Bye bye other dudes."

Vista, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7

On January 6, 2007, Tim talked me into paving my new laptop with Windows Vista and Office 2007 on the knowledge that it was necessary for our company. It is very good for a company to have people like Tim AND people like me. My first reaction to Vista was complete awe. Us Windows die-hards are not used to the pretty interface like on a Mac, but we have it now...VISTA IS BEAUTIFUL!

I have waited to post about my Vista experience because my initial reaction changed after the first day of use. Vista is very pretty to look at, but when you actually try to use it, you realize it is very very different. Not that much different, but just enough to make it a tad difficult. I have now been playing with this new wonderful OS for about 3 weeks now...and all I can say is...Vista will eventually show you the way if you give it a chance. It is almost like they are telling us 'This is how we wanted computers to work for 25 years now'. After many growing pains, I have found Vista to be the most stable, helpful and intuitive creature I have ever used. However, working with files is much different and you can only play around with your own documents (which is an entire other post about the new UAC).

Regarding IE 7, it is growing on me. I have been an IE 6 + Maxthon user for quite sometime, but in my attempts to 'clean up' my user experience to only Microsoft products...I am finding IE 7 does actually meet my needs. I think Maxthon was the inventor of tabbed browsing, but IE 7 makes a nice attempt at that, but still the 'drag-link-new tab' feature of Maxthon is DEARLY missed. I have yet to find a way to absolutely prevent new browsers from popping up regardless of a CTRL+click or not, but it will happen I think. I miss many features of Maxthon, but I am overcoming it :).

Regarding Office 2007...it is wonderful as well. These new 'ribbons' are as cool as I previewed, but it takes a while to get used to them. Access 2007 sucks compared to 03 in my opinion, but maybe I will come around. It seems they added no real functionality at all, just made it harder to find the functions you need...and the new 'sidebar' database window SUCKS btw.

Anyway...more to come as I forcefully continue my transformation to the new world.

EnGraph Welcomes 2007

EnGraph has jumped into 2007 head first!

• We officially became a Microsoft Certified Partner
• Our new client Pennsylvnia Transit Company is rocking ParaPlan Pro using daily imported data from LogistiCare
• Tim has migrated our network to Active Directory and Microsoft Team Foundation Server, which will provide us with the best source control software on the market and allow us to use Microsoft Exchange and possibly CRM
• TFS allows us to easily assign development tasks and then track project status on SharePoint for each project
• Tim and I will be visiting the northeast in late January to upgrade existing clients
• Carl, David and Jon were in DC recently for a big meeting with the committee overseeing our new monster AutoCAD project that is truly incredible
• ParaPlan will soon integrate with the Medicaid Encounter program
• We continue pushing forward with Goldstar development

This is shaping up to be our best year ever!