talkingDigital

I have had to fight back tears of joy as I put the newsletter together. At times I could barely read what was on my screen. The anticipation for changes in my life has probably lead to many misspellings and errors, but you may not notice as those errors probably still fall within our guaranteed 78 percent accuracy range.

I have looked forward to this day for almost a year – and it finally has come.

Early this year, Microsoft released Windows Vista. I knew that it wouldn’t be great, but as a computer guy, I felt compelled to use it so that I would understand how too work on it.

I didn’t want to commit my desktop to it just in case there were problems. So, I put it on my Averatec laptop with 1 gig of RAM, a dual core AMD Turion X64 and 100 gig hard drive. It seemed powerful enough.

Many Averatecs didn’t come with recovery CDs, but I didn’t see a problem with erasing Windows XP to make room for Vista.

It only took a few moments of using Windows Vista to realize how much slower my computer had become. The bootup time had more than doubled and I would get all shake y as I waited for it to shut down.

Programs opened slowly. I was sometimes able to connect to a wireless connection, yet I was not able to actually browse the web on networks that I knew were open because the XP systems right beside me were working fine.

Then two weeks ago Rick showed me something that would change my life. Averatec had posted Windows XP recovery disks for my laptop. I wasted no time and for $20, I ordered the disks.

Today, my disks arrived in the mail. I haven’t installed them yet because I can’t bring myself to stop hugging and kissing them. I should get to bed early tonight, but I feel like a kid on Christmas. I don’t know if I can wait any longer. I must install XP back on my laptop and make it feel loved again.

Thank you Averatec. Thank you for giving me back my Windows XP.

I will not be a bit surprised if no one is using Windows or Apple Operating Systems’ (OS) in five years. In fact, I thing the OS as we know it could be strictly used for business and enterprise in a lot less time than that.

Imagine powering up a computer in a matter of seconds then going straight to the Internet where all of your programs are found. Your computer would have a massive amount of storage, but you probably wouldn’t use much of it as most of your data would be kept in your online account.

Welcome to the future of Web 2.0.

Rather than simply using the Internet to read news and lookup recipes, the Internet is now an extension of your computer. Since it is online, that can mean that any computer can work just like your computer.

My wife does medical transcription. Every time she has to buy a new computer it means weeks of moving her customizations like dictionaries, spell check, and document settings from one computer to another as many of those can not easily be moved from an older system to a newer. Believe me we have tried – with mixed success over the years.

In the Web 2.0 world, she would use an online word processing program like Zoho or GoogleDocs. Where she could get online and type in a username and password – suddenly a word processing program would open along with all of her customized settings. She could work from any Internet connected computer in the world.

Today if you have a massive hard drive crash, fire of theft of your computer, all of your data will go with it – unless you backup. Tomorrow such a disaster will be hardly a disaster at all as online storage services like AmazonS3 and OmniDrive provide affordable – if not free – online storage of files.

Why use Quicken to manage your finances when you can manage your bank accounts and online portfolio at sites like Expensr.

These are just the online applications, Web 2.0 will bring you maps, shopping guides, classified ads, market tracking and more. There are two primary differences between a standard website and a Web 2.0 site.

1. The site is customized to your needs and

2. The information can come to you wherever you are.

If you are watching the classifieds for a new tandem bike – you can receive an alert on your cell phone or email when one is posted. If you are waiting for a house to hit the market in a given neighborhood, you can be notified. If you need the phone number for the nearest tailor, simply text the word “tailor” and your zip code to a special number.

The more the Internet evolves, the more we realize that it is only in its infancy and every age becomes the golden age.