Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

The following is a slightly edited letter I sent to Senator Trood. I encourage you (if you are in Australia) to write to your liberal senator with something similar. To stop the clean feed filter nonsense we need to target the liberal senators.

Understand the real issues at stake here, write your senators, get involved. (twitter tags #nocleanfeed #sicbne)

Dear Senator Trood

I would like to ask that you consider carefully the position that the government is taking and intending to introduce legislation on in relation to internet filtering. I believe that they are using the concept of child pornography (an abhorrent thing) as a red herring to pull a much greater invasion of privacy off. Similar to the hidden intent of the thankfully failed Copenhagen accord, this is a way for the government to introduce the potential for censorship in an unprecedented manner for any western nation, and will in fact place Australia in line with countries like Saudi Arabia, China and Iran (see this article) in terms of what it can enable government beaurocrats to do. Most of the content targeted by this so called blacklist filter is not illegal, and would in any other medium require a judge to issue a ruling on restriction of the publication of the content.

Senator there are two issues I would like you to consider and if you agree, to take to the public as the hidden costs to this proposed legislation that Senator Conroy is planning to introduce.

Disclaimer. Although I was asked to review this product and received the Black and Decker VPX tools for doing so, I was not influenced by PowerPivot or Ignite Social Media in any way. The following review is entirely my own and not influenced or edited by Power Pivot in anyway.

What is Power Pivot?

First of all, PowerPivot is only available to work with Office 2010, and specifically Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010. I have the Beta Office 2010 suite running on a test machine and a test user account so as to not interfere with my production environment.

In their own words:

PowerPivot for Excel is a data analysis tool that delivers unmatched computational power directly within the application users already know and love—Microsoft Excel. It’s the user-friendly way to perform data analysis using familiar Excel features you already know, such as the Office Fluent user interface, PivotTable and, PivotChart views, and slicers. It’s the fast way to generate rich and interactive analysis tools, easily mistaken for IT solutions after weeks of effort. It’s the right way to achieve deeper business insight and shorter decision cycles.

Specific features:

• Take advantage of familiar Excel tools and features
• Process massive amounts of data in seconds
• Load even the largest data sets from virtually any source
• Use powerful new analytical capabilities, such as Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
• Make the most of multi-core processors and gigabytes of memory

The following set of screenshots takes you through the installation, data connection and using the tool.

Power point techniques and templates from Doug Klippert:

You are not limited to a flat PowerPoint slide. You can add a 3-D look to your shows. Rolling 3D images and PowerPoint Drawing for 3D objects

Download some free PowerPoint templates

Best practices for Outlook 2007 from the Outlook Team Blog.

• how to set up Outlook (layout, rules, folders, etc.),
• how to best process e-mail messages to “tame your Inbox”
• the importance of doing a daily review of your calendar and tasks
• how best to get work done in Outlook
• doing effective searches
• the do’s and don’ts of writing great messages
• how to best manage your calendar and set up meetings

Microsoft Pages

Special Offers on Training and Certifications from Microsoft - Microsoft helps you become a key contributor within your organization by providing some of the best training available. Take advantage of these great offers that can help you turn your job into a career.

Running Windows 7 in Mixed Environments – technet discussion on interoperability issues

Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 - Guidance for IT pros

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - To see if your PC is ready for Windows 7, download the free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It scans your PC for potential issues with your hardware, devices, and installed programs, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.

Syncing Recorded TV to your Media Device – great tutorial with screenshots.

Getting started with Office 2010 – use this page as a starting point for transitioning help in each of the Office 2010 products.

Office 2010 Tool: Office Environment Assessment Tool This is a comprehensive environment scanning tool for use in deploying Microsoft Office 2010.

Office 2010 Tool: Compatibility Inspector The Compatibility Inspector compares existing (legacy) code against the Microsoft Office 2010 object model to identify possible code issues.

Get more from Windows 7 – top things to do after you upgrade