3 biggest mistakes business travelers make

3 biggest mistakes business travelers make

1. Believing your corporate travel manager is on your side

At a large company, business travel is overseen by a corporate travel manager, who in turn supervises a dedicated on-site travel department. Employees are made to feel as if their travel manager works for them — ensuring they’ll have a safe and productive trip. But that’s not entirely true. Corporate travel managers are primarily there to control costs, and the most experienced road warriors know that. They’re aware of the fact that these mid-level managers are charged with enforcing strict travel policies designed to send a company’s entire business to several preferred airlines or hotels. A survey by the National Business Travel Association leaves no doubt about that. It found that one-third of travel managers reported to the finance department in their companies, “illustrating how strategically important travel management is to a corporation’s overall financial strategy.” Often, the only time company bean counters care about their employees is when they break the rules and book outside of their corporate travel policy.

2. Thinking frequent flier miles are a reward for your loyalty
Puh-lease! These highly-profitable “reward” programs aren’t set up for the benefit of customers. They’re there to enrich the airline, car rental company or hotel. Business travelers are issued miles that technically don’t even belong to them, are difficult to redeem and expire quickly. A few years ago, frequent fliers admitted to their increasing frustrations with mileage programs, with half the respondents to a survey complaining that cashing their miles for a ticket was more difficult than ever. Travel companies benefit far more from the arrangement. In exchange, they get the irrational loyalty of travelers. Road warriors go out of their way to fly on an airline, even when it costs more, takes longer and is less convenient. Elites may feel special and they may behave like royalty but in the end, they are victims.

3. Complaining too much
Most business travelers are get-along kind of folks like Brandon Weber, a managing partner for a technology firm in Brooklyn, Mich., whose philosophy is “grin and bear it.” But some aren’t. Some whine and complain like there’s no tomorrow, even though they have access to special Platinum-only phone lines where they can deal with English-speaking agents and get almost every rule bent for the asking. They complain because they’re miserable and they don’t care if they’re ruining travel for the rest of us. These frequent criers are poisoning the experience, whether you travel by plane, train or automobile. Many of these shrill road warriors are partially responsible for the low morale of the employees who are supposed to be serving them. How can you possibly help someone who is inconsiderate, grumpy and abusive?

Excel: Capturing a Screen

Capturing a Screen 

Graphics can be easily added to Excel worksheets. This tip describes how you can easily grab screen shots and add them to a worksheet. (And you don’t even need to use a separate graphics program unless you want to modify the screen shot in some way.) Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Excel: Adding Text to an AutoShape

Adding Text to an AutoShape 

Excel allows you to add a wide variety of AutoShapes to your document using the Drawing toolbar. You can also add text inside each of those AutoShapes; here’s how. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Excel: Adding Text Boxes to Charts

Adding Text Boxes to Charts 

Text boxes can be used to place free-floating text on a chart. Excel provides two quick ways that you can add text boxes to your chart: using the Drawing toolbarand the Formula bar. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Excel: Adding Drop Shadows

Adding Drop Shadows 

A drop shadow is a graphic effect that adds a “shadow” to two sides of an object, thereby making it look like it is floating above the underlying paper. Drop shadows can easily be added to graphic objects in your workbook, as described in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 |2000 | 2002 | 2003

Excel: Adding Data Labels to Your Chart

Adding Data Labels to Your Chart 

When creating a chart, you can use data labels to indicate what different parts of the chart represent. Excel allows you to selectively display or hide different types of data labels, as covered in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Excel: Adding AutoShapes

Adding AutoShapes 

The graphics features of Excel allow you to add a number of predefined AutoShapes to a workbook. If you want to add shapes to the AutoShapes feature, however, you are out of luck. The shapes are apparently hard-coded into Excel, and cannot be modified. There are workarounds, however, and they are covered here. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 |2003

Excel: Adding a Drop Shadow to a Text Box

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Adding a Drop Shadow to a Text Box 

Text boxes on a printed page can appear “flat,” almost without definition. You can make them stand out more by applying shadows to the text box. In this way they almost appear to “pop” off the page. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 |2007

7 TIPS 4 Donating A Computer

1.	7 TIPS 4 Donating A Computer Determine if your old computer can be reused. If you have a computer that is less than five years old, chances are that it can be put to good use by someone else. It works best for everyone involved if you can donate your equipment to a nonprofit or school-based refurbisher rather than directly to a charity or school, especially if you need to wipe your hard drive or are not sure of the condition of your equipment. Refurbishers will ensure that equipment passed on to nonprofits and schools is working well and runs legal copies of software. They also know how to properly dispose of non-usable parts, so-called "e-waste." Refurbishers work with newer equipment, usually Pentium-level computers or newer that can run current Internet programs. If your computer is more than five years old, it will be best to send it to a commercial recycler.  For listings of refurbishers, please visit the TechSoup computer recycling listing for donors:
2.	Recycle old and broken PC equipment. Any equipment that is not working or that is below Pentium- or Mac Power PC-level should be tagged for recycling. Recyclers are businesses or organizations that remove useful parts and then break down the rest of the materials, as we do with bottles and cans. They also safely remove hazardous materials. Note: Some of these organizations may charge a fee to accept old PC's and equipment for recycling—especially computer monitors.  For listings of recyclers, please visit:
3.	Contact the refurbisher or recycler before donating. Call the organization or check for details on its Web site to ensure that it accepts the type of computer you plan to give away. Some refurbishing organizations, for example, do not accept anything older than a Pentium or Pentium II. While you may be inclined to donate equipment directly to a favorite local school or charity, refurbishers are generally better equipped to repair and upgrade computers. They then pass on ready-to-use equipment to nonprofits, schools and the low-income population at a low cost or for free.
4.	Remember the accessories. If you can, include the keyboard, mouse, printer, modem, packaged software, or any other accessories. Schools and charitable organizations can almost always put them to good use. Most organizations only accept complete systems.
5.	If possible, keep the operating system intact. If you are donating hardware with a pre-installed Microsoft operating system, keep in mind that the license is only valid when used on the original OEM machine on which it was first installed. Since charitable organizations usually cannot afford to purchase and license new operating systems, a legal transfer (keeping the machine and operating system together) can be very helpful. Linux and Mac operating systems have different requirements, but we urge that whenever possible, please pass on the operating system software with all donated computers.
6.	Provide the original media and documentation. It's helpful to have the original disks, media, and documentation that came with the PC when it was purchased. Include the proof of license, which will help facilitate the legal transfer of the operating system.
7.	If you clean your computer of personal information yourself, it's best to use some disk cleaning software to delete your Internet browser's cache, cookies, history, your e-mail contacts and messages, your documents, your recycle or trash folder, and non-transferable software. The best thing to do is to use a disk cleaning utility that overwrites data so that is unrecoverable.

How to Donate Your Old PC ???

How to Donate Your Old PC

As more companies, organizations, and individuals find reasons to upgrade their computer equipment, the problem of disposing of old equipment grows.

There are three reasons why finding the appropriate way to discard old computer equipment is important:

•	According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years. In 2001, only 11 percent of personal computers retired in the U.S. were recycled.
•	Each computer dumped in a landfill is a missed opportunity to provide Information Age tools to people across the digital divide.
•	Out-of-date computer systems can be more of a burden than a blessing to schools and nonprofits, as it can cost them up to $400 to bring a pre-Pentium computer up to today's standards. Donate computers to a recycler or refurbisher, rather than directly to these other groups.

Today, CompuMentor, a provider of technology assistance to other nonprofits and the home of TechSoup, is working with Microsoft Corporation to help consumers properly donate or recycle computer equipment to benefit both society and the environment.

Could It Possibly Be More Irritating?

Could It Possibly Be More Irritating?

For those readers who have never experienced Microsoft Bob, here are some of the 'highlights':

• The Bob Magazine, a paper supplement to the program, making inroads to being even more patronising than the personal guides.

• The guides telling you to click on a program to start it even when you've proved a thousand times that you're capable of doing so.

• Rover adding 'Bow-wow', 'Rrruff' or 'Woof woof' to his sentences for no reason.

• Hopper, the stuffed blue bunny, looking like he's going to murder you in your sleep.

• The Speaker, yet another guide, listing his favourite food as AC/DC.

• The chequebook personal assistant telling you to 'stick with it' when you try to leave his 'interview'.

• The 'Cancel' button randomly cycling through 'Never Mind', 'Forget It' and 'Nuh'.

• The personal guides using your name before every single thing they say to you.

• The personal guides patronising you with comments such as 'Here we go!', 'Good job so far!' and 'It's a room just for you!'.

Personal Guides

Personal Guides

Unfortunately, Bob came with a series of personal guides, one of which would always be sitting in the corner of your screen reminding you how to breathe and commenting on the dangers of swallowing your tongue. The default assistant was Rover, a Golden Retriever who claimed to hail from Redmond, WA, but now lives in the Windows XP search facility. Users could exchange Rover for any one of the 'scrumptious gang', which included a guitar-playing rat, a French cat, a dragon addicted to caffeine, a stuffed blue rabbit, and a parrot who looked terminally constipated.

While each guide came with a different 'personality'1, t

heir main job was to tell you how to do almost everything and it would seem that there was a general assumption that someone else had been there to help you switch on the computer in the first place. Even better, the guides all had verbal diarrhoea to the point that they would keep talking even if you weren't trying to do anything, and would happily ramble on about the most boring aspects of their lives and the lives of the other guides

giant ants from outer space.

 giant ants from outer space.

Some games are startlingly clever. Others are elegant, refined and beautiful. Some ask us to solve cryptic conspiracies, while others still demand cunning, intelligence and finesse if they are to be mastered. The Xbox 360's Earth Defence Force 2017 boasts none of these things. It is simply absurd. It’s a game of ludicrous cartoon violence, where your rocket launchers have infinite ammunition, where your tank drives like a dune-buggy, and where you are expected to fight off alien invasion with nothing more than some shouting soldiers, a bazooka and a machine-gun. 

The Earth is under attack by UFOs, giant ants, towering robots, Godzilla-clones and monstrous jumping spiders. Your job is simply to destroy them all, one by one, without stopping to breathe. The kneejerk response of “they don't make them like this any more” soon fades into “they never made them like this”. And how could they? EDF2017 is a torrent of explosions and laser beams that diminishes any other game you can imagine. Giant ants swarm over buildings, blasted apart by your missiles. The ants are replaced by robots, the robots are replaced by spaceships, and then these in turn fade into even more colossal robots. By the fiftieth level of carnage your tiny soldier has killed thousands and finds himself toe-to-toe with a 200ft tall cybernetic dinosaur which rakes the cityscape with kilometre-long energy blasts. 

EDF2017 is so hyperbolic, so packed with collapsing buildings and flailing, exploding viscera that you can't help laughing. The swathes of reviews that dismissed EDF as just an over-the-top shooter with UFOs, giant ants and a cybernetic Godzilla were missing the point: this is what games do best. It's wild, ludicrous, brilliant, mad and, most of all, it's funny. And cheap too, at less than £20. Well, it kept me off the streets anyway. 

Microsoft's game plan.

This week, Microsoft's game plan.

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, brings with it some interesting changes for gaming. The “games for windows” idea intends to make PC gaming easier and more approachable, with ratings for both games and PCs. These ratings are intended to give computer users a clearer idea of how a game will run on their home PC setup. Test your setup to get a rating, then compare it against the game you want to play... or at least that's how it works in theory. 

Vista also promises new software standards that should eventually deliver a generation of visually lavish, computationally efficient games. For now, though, the flagship of Vista-only games is Halo 2, which arrives next month. PC users are likely to be disappointed – it's a conversion of an old Xbox game, and unlikely to show off the capabilities of next-generation PCs. We'll have to wait for quite some time before Vista-specific visuals make it into our games. (I'm waging that the game you'll want to buy Vista for will probably be Crysis, the follow-up to fabulous tropical-island action game, Far Cry.)

Crysis

Some gamers have raised concerns that Vista will just cause problems, threatening to make old games obsolete, and diminishing performance on existing systems. There certainly have been a few problems, although all the games I tested worked without major problems. Usually these problems result not from the operating system itself (which has numerous compatibility-mode tools to help with getting older games working) but with the software support from manufacturers, which often isn't good enough to keep older hardware functioning smoothly. Another problem is Vista's own performance – it demands much more of PCs than older versions of Windows, and that impinges on how well our games will run. A hot tip for Vista users is to run all games “as administrator” to circumvent any security-related mishaps.

However, what’s most interesting about Microsoft's next generation of Windows gaming is that it will soon begin to integrate with the Xbox 360's online service, Xbox Live. PC games are going to be using the service and accessing many of the same games. Online gamers could soon find themselves using a mouse or a keyboard to play in the same online game as someone sat at their TV with a gamepad. The gaming format wars just began a whole new phase. 

Questions for Microsoft on open formats

After Microsoft announced it would work with the UK National Archives to help open old digital document formats, Georg Greve and Joachim Jakobs, of the Free Software Foundation Europe, question the US giant's motives.

Today's customers drive the technological development of tomorrow. This insight is common sense.

But when the same customers pay one and the same company for first creating a problem and then pay them again for solving that problem, most people would expect the customer to be dissatisfied. Although, at least some people seem to be pleased.

The problem: Microsoft dominates the desktop and office market with a share of more than 90%. Any document stored in their proprietary binary formats and especially every document shared between multiple people strengthens the monopoly and harms competition, economy and society as a whole.

The more widely these formats are being used, the higher the network effect forcing others into the same dependency - just as it happened to the UK National Archives.

What happened: Microsoft asked the UK National Archives to invest in a solution that would grant access to their legacy data.

Only last week BBC News reported on Mr. Gordon Frazer, managing director of Microsoft UK, who voiced concern that customers could lose their own data: "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."

Microsoft's standards bid stalled

Four countries have appealed against a decision to fast-track the global standardisation of a Microsoft document format, called OpenXML.

Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela have complained that there was not enough time given to discuss improvements to the format.

The format is used for spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents.

Critics claim it is not fully compatible with other document formats.

The ratification of OpenXML would be an important seal of approval for Microsoft, which has long been taken to task for its failure to embrace open standards.

Government bodies would be more likely to adopt the standard if it had an "open" rubber stamp as many are concerned that storing documents in a proprietary format could cause problems for future archiving.

The Office OpenXML format was initially approved by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in April but will now remain on hold while the appeals are investigated.

This could take several months.