Microsoft just announced that they are extending the "free second shot" on certification exams through June 30, 2008. Click on the banner above to signup or to learn more about the program. Good luck on your exam!

Gary Hoke

Microsoft RoundTable

I had an opportunity to see the Microsoft RoundTable in action today. The device is really cool and looks to compete with some devices from Cisco. One cool feature was that it senses when someone at the table is talking and puts their image in the primary frame inside a video conference window. Additionally, a panoramic view of everyone at the table is available to those via the video conference. The software also had sensing to detect bandwidth limitations which adjusted the video refresh rate to optimize voice communication quality. To learn more about the Microsoft RoundTable click on the image to the left.

Gary Hoke

Introducing dimdim...

dimdim is the world´s first free web meeting service based on the open source platform.

I had a chance to experiment with dimdim today and discovered it to be very useful. It has many similar features like Live Meeting or Webex. The document sharing was nice, but you have to get the scaling right for the output to be good for everyone. Initially, the document was a little blurry so I had to zoom in to make it more readable.

If you are interesting in trying it out you can signup for an account at http://www.dimdim.com.

Enjoy!

Gary Hoke

I stumbled onto a cool new web service called Doc Chaser. It allows users to track when others read Word documents that they have distributed. It provides detailed information about who opened it, analytics, email alerts, an RSS feed and even a map of where your document has been opened from.

To give Doc Chaser a try go to http://www.docchaser.com.

Gary Hoke

SearchSecurity.com's Compliance School

In this free, multimedia Security School, guest instructor Richard Mackey shows you exactly what you need to do to meet regulations' ongoing demands and arms you with actionable items to ensure your business remains continuously compliant. This course includes lessons about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, one of which is highlighted by a SOX Scorecard to help you see where your organization stands on SOX basics. Compliance-related technologies and ways to improve on compliance processes are also discussed. All of these resources are available on-demand, so you can learn at your convenience.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid14_gci1164114,00.html

Enjoy!

Gary Hoke

Raleigh, N.C. best U.S. city for jobs: Forbes

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070216/us_nm/life_work_dc_1

CubeShield Reports 86% Revenue Growth in 2006

Thursday, January 25, 2007

RALEIGH, NC – CubeShield, Inc., manufacturer and retailer of the patented CubeShield product, today announced record results for 2006. The company achieved 86% revenue growth for the year. A strong holiday season contributed to these results with 42% of sales occurring in the 4th quarter.

Existing customers played a significant role in the company’s growth as well, representing 67% of product revenues in 2006. “Once companies start using our products many of them place follow on orders,” said Paul Rony. The CubeShield product, which blocks out excessive overhead lighting in office cubicles, is used in numerous large corporations and government agencies throughout the United States.

Gary Hoke and Paul Rony, the company cofounders, received U.S. Patent 7,117,802 for the product in October 2006. They predict sales growth to continue into 2007. The company plans to pursue new distribution channels and recruit additional product resellers.

About CubeShield

CubeShield, Inc. was established in June 2002 to develop and market a unique product that allows employees to enhance their cubicle environments. While the CubeShield product was invented to block excessive overhead light, it can also provide personalization and privacy to an office cubicle. To learn more about CubeShield please visit the company website at www.cubeshield.com.


Other Sources:

• http://www.prleap.com/pr/63155/
• http://www.pr.com/press-release/27945
• http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=23466&tf7sid=fa58715ec9b0d3e742ffd42ede0e0927
• http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=1news.db&command=viewone&id=2257&op=t
• http://triangle.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=104657&type_news=latest

CubeShield Reports 86% Revenue Growth in 2006

Thursday, January 25, 2007

RALEIGH, NC – CubeShield, Inc., manufacturer and retailer of the patented CubeShield product, today announced record results for 2006. The company achieved 86% revenue growth for the year. A strong holiday season contributed to these results with 42% of sales occurring in the 4th quarter.

Existing customers played a significant role in the company’s growth as well, representing 67% of product revenues in 2006. “Once companies start using our products many of them place follow on orders,” said Paul Rony. The CubeShield product, which blocks out excessive overhead lighting in office cubicles, is used in numerous large corporations and government agencies throughout the United States.

Gary Hoke and Paul Rony, the company cofounders, received U.S. Patent 7,117,802 for the product in October 2006. They predict sales growth to continue into 2007. The company plans to pursue new distribution channels and recruit additional product resellers.

About CubeShield

CubeShield, Inc. was established in June 2002 to develop and market a unique product that allows employees to enhance their cubicle environments. While the CubeShield product was invented to block excessive overhead light, it can also provide personalization and privacy to an office cubicle. To learn more about CubeShield please visit the company website at www.cubeshield.com.


Other ources:

• http://www.prleap.com/pr/63155/
• http://www.pr.com/press-release/27945
• http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=23466&tf7sid=fa58715ec9b0d3e742ffd42ede0e0927
• http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=1news.db&command=viewone&id=2257&op=t
• http://triangle.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=104657&type_news=latest

Morning everyone. I've been pulling my hair out for about 30 minutes trying to find out where I can find the authorization code to transfer a domain name from Registerfly to GoDaddy. I found it and thought that I would share it with others hopefully to save them the time and energy I've had to expend.

1) Login to your Registerfly account
2) Go to Manage Domains
3) Click on the domain name
4) Click the plus sign on Domain Contact Information
5) Scroll to the bottom and click configure
6) Scroll to the bottom and you will see the auth code

To give credit where credit is due, I found this information at the following URL:
http://registerflies.com/registerfly-get-your-transfer-authorization-code.html

Also, be sure to unlock your domain at Registerfly, otherwise the transfer will fail and you'll have to reinitiate it.

I hope that you find this helpful. Good luck!

Gary Hoke

Attention Project Management Institute (PMI) PMPs:

BEST PRACTICES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT - Velociteach's NEW E-Learning Class

Get 5 PDUs for only $9.97 at Velociteach!

Learn how to leverage the knowledge and experience of seasoned Project Managers with this unique and practical e-learning course from Velociteach. Delivered through InSite, our cutting-edge online classroom, Best Practices in Project Management reveals the secrets of the best PMs and the factors that make them successful.

Gary Hoke, PMP

Deal of the Day

Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro Webcam - USB
Only $8.83 After Rebate and Google Checkout
FREE BUDGET SHIPPING
$25.00 Mail-in Rebate
$28.83 After Rebate
Buy.com price: $53.83



I just ordered mine! For $9 this is too good to pass up.

Gary Hoke

Test-drive Microsoft Project 2007 now with a free 7-day Online Tour

The Online Tour allows you to immediately experience the benefits of Microsoft's EPM solution for your organization. Following scripted scenarios, you experience the benefits of Project Server 2007 and Portfolio Server 2006 by using them. Follow a project from proposal, to staffing, to progress and time reporting -- all in the web client! Learn how to prioritize your portfolio of projects to optimally align with your key business drivers.

You can even go off-road without a script to experiment more fully with the features that most interest you. You also have the ability to reset your EPM databases, so that you can experiment with scenarios or functions multiple times..

http://www.epmconnect.com/PB_Registration.asp?PartnerID=1318&LDT=Tour&RecordID=2387

Enjoy!

Gary Hoke

As if your PC did crash enough on it's own, Microsoft is offering a "Blue Screen of Death" screensaver.



http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx

(Put it on you coworkers PC to mess with them a little bit. It's not quite as good as the Commodore 64 screensaver, but it will do.)

Enjoy!

Gary

Just heard about this new restaurant concept called uWink.

It involves allowing customers to play table based video games while dining.

http://www.uwink.com/home.htm

Gary Hoke

Good Evening. I stumbled onto an interesting website that allows you to calculate your disease risk based on health related factors that you provide. Try it out at...

http://www.yourdiseaserisk.com

Happy Election Day everybody! I hope that everyone had a chance to get out and vote.

I've taken a few certification tests on Brainbench in the past year and noticed that they have updated their list of free tests. Here is the link:

http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/freetests.xml

Some of you may be interested in the ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#, .NET or Project Management tests. You can't beat the price. FREE!!!

Gary Hoke
http://brainbench.garyhoke.com

I happened upon a cool product that some of you may be interested in buying for your kids for Christmas. It's called the Hasbro Zoombox. It's a portable DVD projector-CD player combo for around $300. It appears to have RCA jacks that allow it to be attached to most video capable devices that support RCA (ie. cable boxes, DVD players, Playstation, Xbox, etc.) It will project up to a 60" image.

http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=ps_results&product_id=16983

Gary Hoke

Hey everyone! The CubeShield press release went out an hour ago. Here it is...

CubeShield Awarded U.S. Patent for Product that Reduces Workplace Vision Problems

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CubeShield, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company's cofounders, Paul Rony and Gary Hoke, U.S. Patent 7,117,802 titled "Cubicle Shield".

"Obtaining the patent is critical to our business strategy. It allows us the opportunity to license our invention to manufacturers and distributors who already have established sales and marketing channels nationwide," said Gary Hoke.

The patent covers the CubeShield product, which blocks out excessive overhead lighting while providing added personalization and privacy to office cubicles. The product improves employee comfort and satisfaction while preventing potential vision problems.

According to the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOHS), almost 80% of employees who use computers for more than two hours a day suffer from symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). “Most people don’t realize that CVS is the most common repetitive stress injury in the workplace, and CubeShield can help alleviate its’ symptoms,” said Paul Rony. By relieving these symptoms, CubeShield can improve employee performance and productivity.

The company began selling the CubeShield product in early 2004 and has experienced a steady growth in sales to consumers and facilities managers throughout the United States. By August 2006, the company had already matched its 2005 revenues from sales of the CubeShield product. The company expects sales growth to accelerate as the market gains awareness of the product and the benefits that it provides.

About CubeShield

CubeShield, Inc. was established in June 2002 to develop and market a unique product that allows employees to enhance their cubicle environments. While the CubeShield product was invented to block excessive overhead light, it can also provide personalization and privacy to an office cubicle. To learn more about CubeShield please visit the company website at www.cubeshield.com.


Here are some additional links to the press release:

• http://triangle.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=96701&type_news=latest
• http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=1news%2edb&command=viewone&id=1043&op=t
• http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061101/20061101005127.html?.v=1
• http://www.pr.com/press-release/21520
• http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061101005127&newsLang=en

Work in an office cubicle? Need your cubicle pimped or maybe some feng shui?

If so, you should checkout "The Cubicle Collection" at Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R27SJQ4I02BNEY/ref=cm_lm_srch_fvlm_col_1/102-1091932-6377712

There is something for everyone here. Surf on...

Gary Hoke

Nice deal! SimpleTech 1GB Bonzai Xpress USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $5.95 after rebate. You need to use Google checkout to get the additional $10 off.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202849432&adid=17662

Just ordered mine. ?8-)

Gary Hoke