Should I upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7?

I don't think so. As for why or why not? I think Robert X. Cringely may have said it better than me in his column below. Don't get me wrong, I have heard good things about Windows 7 but I don't think it is a necessary upgrade for me personally at this time. I am OK with Vista on a one year old laptop. Although he has often ventured into the conspiratorial at times, I think I agree with him regarding Win 7.

http://www.cringely.com/2009/10/why-windows-7-costs-so-much/

Happy reading!

Comscore: Russia has World’s Most Engaged Social Networking Audience

According to a July press release from comScore, Russia has the most "engaged" social networking audience. Globally, the average number of hours a visitor spends online is 3.7; the Russian internet audience spends 6.6 hours online per day! 

The leading social networking site within Russia is Vkontake.ru, a cousin to Facebook. In May 2009 59% of online visitors visited a social networking site; a very high percentage!

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/7/Russia_has_World_s_Most_Engaged_Social_Networking_Audience

Happy Reading!

(Corrected: 6.6 hours per month, not per day. Thanks TH!)

What's inside a cup of coffee? Chemically speaking...

What's inside a cup of coffee? More than just hot water, brown goodness, and a little sugar? Why, much more than that. So much more. Much more than you ever wanted to know, in fact....

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the chemical components of coffee, via Wired Magazine:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-10/st_coffee

Happy reading!

Using Skype for job interviews (Time.com article)

Skype and video camera technology has matured quickly such that more and more people are using it everyday. This Time.com article talks about some of the practical benefits for companies to save money while doing pre-interviews for job applicants. There are also some basic "tv tips" for setting up the right frame of mind as well as the physical setup of video conferencing. A good read for any small business or group which is trying to work as a virtual team, as well as save travel costs.

Happy reading!

Amazing sand animation from the TV show, Ukraine's Got Talent

This girl has an amazing talent. A great, storyteller as well! Meet, Kseniya Simonova, an animator in sand

Email: file it or label it?

Email overload. I struggle with both philosophies of email management.

First, my Outlook inbox for my work email account has over 2000 messages. I have replied to 99.99% of those messages; I just got lazy in my filing. (Outlook uses the old, familiar folder system for sorting and storing emails.) In other words, I do not succeed at "inbox zero." Therefore I should consider filing "email bankruptcy."

Second, my Gmail account has THOUSANDS of messages. One of the things I love about Gmail is forget about filing messages, just search for them. Using Gmail's Search and Labels seem to be a much better way for me to manage thousands of emails, especially emails from mailing lists. After learning some of the search tips, I can search for messages which are unread, read, labeled, etc. It makes for overall better management for me: less time filing, more time finding.

My colleague, Keith Seabourn, just pointed out two very good blogs on email management, written by the CEO of Thomas Nelson. Links below for your email managing pleasure:

Staying on top of all your emails:
http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/06/yes-you-can-stay-on-top-of-email.html

Filing "email bankruptcy:"
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/09/is-it-time-to-declare-email-bankruptcy.html

Happy reading!

Yandex vs. Google: the battle for the Russian search market

An excellent article on the success of Yandex in Russia. Yandex has been steadily gaining the lead on Google in the past year or so. Read more at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634912