Please join in the fun!

We will give a 2% up front commision on any new account referrals that are closed.  Please read through the website to see if it is a good fit for your company or someone else you know.

If there are any qualified salespeople out there this can be a great opportunity for you as well.  Depending on experience we may be able to offer a base salary.

Thanks,
Chris Adams
chris@ccacomputers.com

The most intriguing piece of data I found was on a company called eco font.  It seems they have some corporate packages to allow customization but their is an open source version of their font as well.

I did download and give the font a try, it is actually quite interesting.  The font has holes in it that will be much more visible in word than they will on the printed sheet.  From normal reading distances you can certainly tell there is a difference but I don’t think it is earth shattering.

I really think this will only be valuable to corporations blowing through mass amounts of paper.  Our paperless environment here will certainly not see any benefit to implementing this font.  But we go through a ream of paper a year and definitely not the ideal candidate.

Some of our clients I know for a fact use lots and lots of paper and this font would be something I would take a serious look at.  I can see people thinking this is a less than professional looking font though and may be it’s only downfall.  Can’t hurt to try though.

Here is a link to the open source font with some more info as well.
http://bit.ly/9Q1qgm

Please follow us on all of these sites and let’s spread the good word.

I want to send a thank you out there to all my current customers who have gotten us where we are.  I am constantly trying to be the best of the best and I hope that shows.  If not please let us know!

This review is based off of my experience with Win7 installed on a Dell Vostro 1320.  Which by the way is a nice little laptop for the price.

Computer Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.2GHz
3 GB Ram
32 bit OS
Windows 7 Professional Edition

Load Times

On initial boot up the computer seems to get you going much much faster than Vista and even a little quicker than XP.  To be fair I would have to do a side by side comparison with the same hardware configurations but it is safe to say the boot up time is rapid.  Win7 lacks the, “Preparing network connections” type things upon bootup.  It of course still has to do all of that but seems to knock it out a little faster in the background.

Interface & Features

Windows 7 does have a nicer GUI than Xp & Vista but for the business customer I don’t know if that will be a deal breaker or not.  Some things for the XP user will seem to take more effort and work to find or use.  For me the networking is a major downfall in my opinion.  Microsoft has employed this graphical, “here is what your network looks like”, model and I don’t like it.  Personally I want to get the info when fixing an issue and not a pretty little interface that just tells me it aint working.  For the non-techy this may be an upgrade… 

Win7 does have some useable features like the snap feature to get two windows side by side.  With the small laptop screen I don’t find it that useful, but if it were my desktop on a 24″ screen I think I’d love it.  Also the task bar shows the programs you use a lot like you can see in the photo above.  The outlook window actually loads and stays the same as the quicklaunch item that’s already there.  A feature I think is also more useful with larger screen sizes but useful nonetheless.

There are a large number of new themes and desktop enhancements for the users that are looking for a Mac type desktop experience.  I personally turn a lot of the flash off so I can get down to business without all the fancy, but I’m just a commoner.

Windows Explorer

In general explorer has stayed much the same.  The few minor differences take a bit of getting used to but will be things the consumer will appreciate.

First thing is it will rarely show you c:\documents & settings\user…. etc.  They have gone with a visual view that will look more like >Chris C Adams>My Documents.  These types of things I think make troubleshooting a little more tedious but for the consumer is a more sensical view to locating documents and files.  There is also the new “Libraries” feature which will coalate your files into categories.  Another great feature for users that have a difficult time managing file locations etc.

Security

Win7 has a lot of the same security settings the Microsoft raved about in Vista.  I’m still glad you can turn them off if you want to, I did.  But they are great for people less savvy as they browse the internet.  Features like UAC (User account control) whichs really warns users before things get installed or access the computer.  These security settings can help to prevent viruses and other malicious items to enter the computer.  It is imperative that users really pay attention to these warnings because you can click things in anger to get them to go away and allow nasty things into the PC at the same time.  Win7 also has security profiles on the networks you connect to.  These profiles will automatically ramp up things like firewall and AV protection depending on where you are.  At work you can have things wide open becaue corporate firewalls and rules will keep out the nasties.  When having a latte at your favorite coffee shop your security is much more in danger.  These policies will often be defined by the network server in your enterprise so you may never see an alert about it.  For others do make sure and choose wisely.

Compatibility

We get lots of calls about users wanting their old printers and software etc to work with their new computers.   Please, please, please check all your hardware and software before upgrading to make sure it will work.  Many times there is a work around but you will often lose features and options you may have had initially.  So far I have seen Win7 to work well with all the components and printers in our office but our equipment is all pretty new.

Overall

So far I have been really pleased with Win7 and have actually been willing to recommend it to clients, something I couldn’t do with Vista.  It’s been very stable and fast in all the environments I’ve seen.  It does have a little learning curve for users who didn’t snag Vista when it was out but something I wouldn’t be too worried about.  For businesses I might still hold tight till service pack 1 but I haven’t any significant upgrades that will come with the service pack.

I’ve opened the comments on this blog now so please do leave me some comment or questions.  There is obviously a lot of details left out here and I can explain more to those interested.

Chris

People always ask me things like; what is the best anti-virus program and my computer is slow what can I do???

I will try to answer these types of questions as well when they arise.

Technology can be very rapidly changing and I will do what I can to keep people up to date and in the know on whats to come.  Social media is a big thing as well and will try to create reviews there as well.

Thanks for checking out this new page and hope you’ll come back soon.

I’ll have the first blog up hopefully by this afternoon.

Thanks,
Chris Adams