SBSC is the acronym for Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community –  a recognition of one’s expertise in marketing, planning, and building solutions for small businesses. This program was first put into place back ion July, 2005.

It appears that Microsoft is planning to retire the SBSC program over the next 12 months, and replace it with a more costly competency process, and one that does not highlight the needs and requirements of small businesses.

Yes, this info may be a bit dated, but as it may be helpful to someone who reads my blogs, it doesn’t hurt to post it.

One thing I really liked about Vista was its Notes gadget app. The Sticky notes in Windows 7 is nice, but I don’t care to have a bunch of sticky notes literally all over my desktop. I recently stumbled over someone who was able to repackage the Vista Notes gadget for installation and use with Windows 7.

But first — there’s a little trick to getting it installed on your Windows 7 system. And before we can install it, we need to tell Windows to display file extensions (like .doc, .zip, etc.). And here’s how you do that:

Click on Windows Start icon –> Computer –> Organize –> Folder & Search Options. Click on the View tab, and then UNcheck the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ options. Then close those windows.

Now, click on the link below to download the zip file, and click to ‘Save As’ and save the file to your favorite folder – but don’t open the save file yet!

Download Notes Gadget for Windows 7

Now, here come’s the trick!

After saving the zip file, you should have options to either ‘Open’ or ‘Open Folder’. Click on the ‘Open Folder’ option.

This will open up a Windows Explorer window, with the Notes.zip file highlighted. Right click on the file, click on the Rename option, and rename the file from Notes.zip to Notes.gadget. You will get a warning about changing file extensions, but click Yes to proceed.

Once you’ve renamed it, double-click on the Notes.gadget file, and then click on the Install button. You will now have the Vista version of Sticky Notes on your desktop.

Finally here’s a nice one page Dummies Guide to Using Vista Notes!

I will keep it simple, without a lot of detail. On July 9, 2012 there is the possibility of a widespread Internet blackout due to a malicious piece of software that is lying dormant on many computers. You can read more about it at the FBI website: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911.

The good news is that you can do an immediate test to see if your computer is infected with this rogue software! Click on this website link: (http://www.dns-ok.us/) to quickly check your computer. No software is installed and no changes to your computer is made. You will get either an immediate Green (good) or Red (infected) message. If you are infected, the website will explain how to fix it, or you can contact me for assistance.

The cloud, the cloud, the cloud. That’s what everyone is (supposedly) talking about. It seems as if every hardware or software company is jumping on the “the cloud or bust” bandwagon.

It was only a few years ago when the key word in every technical presentation was “paradigm” or “paradigm shift”. Now it’s “the cloud”!

Get 50 people in the same room and you will probably get 50 different interpretations of what the cloud is, whether you need it or can afford it.

My fellow MVP, Tim Barrett, has written a great article with his take on some of the statistics being used to convince everyone that “it’s all about the cloud”.

http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/2012/04/16/i-am-the-42/