Here’s a video of her singing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrEqIpi6sg

And the original lyrics: http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=83

Both Sides Now:

Rows and rows of promises
Telling us we should make a wish
With deserted hardware everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only think it’s fun
To share their data with everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Loads and loads of mobile apps
Telling the world just where you’re at
And ev’ry facebook post will say
That clouds may be the only way

But now it’s just another show
You give them hope and take their dough ($)
And if you care, don’t let them know
Don’t give yourself away

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From win and lose, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I don’t trust
I really can’t say clouds are bust

Tears and fears when compromised
Hackers now have got inside
All your schemes are push aside
They’re watching you each day

But now your friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say you’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In using clouds each day

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

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.

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!

Microsoft offers their own Sender Id/SPF Wizard tool that is very easy to use, as seen in these screenshots:

Step 1: Enter your domain

Step 2: Obtain current publicly published DNS records

Step 3: Configure your SPF options

Step 4: Generate your SPF record

Now go to your domain control panel or contact your vendor to add your SPF record. You may then test your SPF by sending test emails, as described on the OpenSpf organization’s website.

No, I am honored because I can call so many of these people my friends. I know that as hard as they work to make their business a success and work to make their customers successful, they work equally hard trying to make this world a better place.

14 Microsoft MVPs Recognized as Part of the 2012 SMB 150 List

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.

If you do not have a SkyDrive account, create one for free, and it’s possible that you too can upgrade your storage from 7GB to 25GB.

I cannot say for certain, but I believe this free upgrade will be available through the month of April.

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/

A three-part process determined this year’s list of SMB 150 influencers. The competition began with an open nominating process, followed by the SMB IT community voting on the nominees at www.smb150.com. In addition to the community vote, a panel of industry experts judged each nominee based on a variety of relevant areas. The community vote accounted for 40% of each nominee’s overall rating, with the expert panel’s decision contributing the remaining 60%.

Generally these emails are telling you that a payment you just made is being processed. Here’s an example of one I received today.

One way to tell if it’s a fake email is to hover your mouse over one of the links. The popup window should display the “real” location of where it will take you if you click on the link.

Two things in the example below:

(1) You would think that an email from Paypal would be taking you to a PayPal.com web site, but not in this case!  Take a close look – it’s taking me to a website “air-maxes-shop.com”.

(2) the URL displayed in the box is not even using an https protected address, but an unprotected http site.

So, please be vigilant! The best suggestion I can make is that if you cannot tell if the email is real or fake, then do NOT click on any links within the email. You can always call the company (IRS, FedEx, Bank, etc.) and speak to someone to clarify if this is a real or fake email.