There are few battles out there that cause as much discussion as the Mac versus PC debate. There are many arguments to be made in favour of both competitors and people will bring up points both ways, many of which are subjective and not all of which are true or logical. I have both a mid-level desktop PC and a Macbook Pro so I have had experience using both. What do I prefer? The honest answer is I love both of my systems. Which one is better for you really depends.

The first thing to mention is that Macs have become a sort of status symbol. Having a glowing apple on your laptop is a way that people will notice you and is something most of us will notice. This shouldn't be either a pro or con in regards to your choice of computer, but it is important to note as it can influence buying decisions. It also means that although PCs are still the vast majority of computers, Macs are increasing their market share and it only looks to increase as Apple products become more and more popular with the masses for a lot of reasons.

Hardware used to be a main separating point between Macs and PCs but today they have very similar innards. Apple controls exactly what pieces go into each and every Mac so you don't see a ton of different models. Macs are well built machines, using quality components and this is a good thing. PCs run the gamut in terms of the quality of each machine. You can get very inexpensive hardware and you can also get very cheap parts that will fail on you due to a huge number of manufacturers. There is no standard for PC  and there are so many options to take into account. A key difference is that Macs all use a unibody design. This means that even when you get an iMac (a desktop Mac), you are using the same type of components as you would get in a Macbook Pro. Typically, the parts in an iMac are more powerful but things like the video card still use the same type of card you would get in a laptop. This doesn't mean the iMacs aren't powerful but mobile parts are generally more expensive than their larger counterparts. 

One problem with Macs is that you cannot upgrade or repair your Mac easily by yourself. Apple doesn't sell Mac parts and, once your warranty is up, the labour and parts cost can be pricey. Even if you could get the parts, working with the Mac hardware can be difficult if you do not know what you are doing even with instructions. With a PC, hardware repairs and upgrades are easier and can often be done quickly with many resources online to help with installation. There are also a lot of different options for parts for PCs. This can be a problem when trying to find the best part whereas with a Mac, there are approved parts so picking the right replacement part is simple.

The biggest difference between a Mac and a PC, aside from the aesthetics which Apple generally does a lot better, is the operating system. PCs run Windows, which most of us have used at one time or another, and Macs run OSX. OSX is a very simple operating system with a clean interface but that takes some time to learn fully, especially if you are used to using Windows. OSX is also the best feature of a Mac. It doesn't consume resources the same way Windows does and uses the resources of the computer hardware more efficiently. This means that when you're doing work that can be hardware intensive (things like photo work, videos and other creative design), the same programs often run better on the Mac platform. Load times, boot and shut down times as well as install times all tend to be significantly faster than on PC.

While PCs may not use resources as efficiently, they can still be built more to be more powerful (or upgraded more easily) and the user experience is becoming more friendly every time Microsoft takes another shot at it. A big advantage PC has is that they are more popular. Most businesses use PC as they have lower upfront costs (there is rampant debate about if Mac is actually any more expensive in the long run) and run most productivity software for business better (although Mac still has an edge with creative works like photo editing).  This means more people are comfortable with Windows and people tend to like what they're comfortable with. It also means PC file versions will be better distributed as more people will be able to open the files. For example, MS Office files on Mac cannot be opened on a PC but PC Office files can be opened on a Mac. 

The biggest problem with Mac is the lack of software. More and more titles are coming over all the time, but the selection can be limiting. At times you'll find Mac versions of software are lacking (although there are times where it is better than the PC version) and often released well after the PC version. The more people that switch to systems running OSX, the better the software development will be for them. This also means that if you are upgrading your systems and changing over to Mac from a PC, you may have to repurchase some, if not all, of the software you use on  daily basis. This can be a major cost but not insurmountable. Out of the box, Mac also comes with a variety of software not included on your PC and there are a number of cheap if not altogether free options that could lower this cost. You can also use Bootcamp to install and run Windows on your Mac which allows you the best of both worlds.

There is no clear answer of which system is better. Both have their ups and their downs, strengths and weaknesses. In general, PCs tend to be better for productivity work, especially with finance work and general data processing. Macs tend to excel in creative mediums for things like video, music and photo work. You can also do photo work on a PC and keep your books up-to-date on a Mac. If you are working on a budget and have limited resources, a PC is going to get you going for less, especially if you already have software for it. There is no overall right or wrong choice, there is just a better choice for you and your organization based on a number of factors. We're here and can help.

We are always looking for the bigger, better thing and when it comes to computer files, bigger tends to be the key word. With many files now moving into or past the gigabyte size range, storage for these large items can be difficult to arrange, especially if you have multiple devices. Emailing documents to yourself can be time consuming and tedious, especially with more than one or two devices. Cloud servers have become more and more popular and this includes the ability to synchronize your files from a central location across multiple systems. We will take a look at some of the services that are available for sharing your  documents with yourself and others.

Cloud servers are storage units provided by a third party in a location other than on your system. This means that if something happens to your device, your data will still be safe and sound on the cloud server. Most of the larger providers also back-up their stored information, so even if something happens to one of their systems, there's another back-up at a different facility with your information. They run highly secure servers and advanced encryption which keeps your data as safe as possible. The type of cloud system we are looking at today is termed "storage as a service" which is exactly that: a service for storing your data. 

The first service we are going to look at is Dropbox. This is a very popular file sharing platform which means there is a lot of support and customer feedback out there. Their free plan is 2 GB with no limits on file sizes, daily bandwidth or the number of devices you can use. They also offer referral bonuses of 500 MB per qualifying referral to a maximum of 18 GB. They have paid services starting at $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) for 100 GB and increasing from there. One of the nice things that Dropbox offers is a feature called Packrat. Most services will back up your data, keeping prior versions of your files for up to 30 days as part of the basic service. Dropbox does this as well, but with Packrat, you can keep these prior versions as long as you keep Packrat active. This means you can revert a file to a version you last changed six months ago. A very convenient feature that, while it might not be for everyone, is definitely a nice option to have. It has an annual fee of $39.00. 

Dropbox, fittingly, has a single drop box that is synchronized across your platforms and you simply drag and drop the files you want into the box and they synch automatically onto your other systems with Dropbox installed. You can also edit files online and share your files with others. They offer cross platform support (meaning you can transfer files between Macs and PCs). It also offers mobile support so you can access your data from your mobile devices. When your files update, only the parts that have changed are sent, which means less bandwidth usage.

The next service is CX. CX boasts the largest base storage of any of the free options at 10 GB of space (plus 300 MB additional for each referral to a maximum of an additional 6 GB). It limits you to 2 groups with 2 users per group and a 200 MB group size. A group is simply the number of people that have access to a set of files which means  you can share with one other person two sets of files of up to 200 MB. Paid accounts start at $4.99 per month for 25 GB, 2 groups with two users per group and 1 GB group sizes. Their mobile apps are very highly rated and they have online sharing. The one feature that most of their competitors are missing is the ability for file owners and collaborators to actually comment on the file. This helps when working on a collaborative project as you can leave more information that simply what is in that document. 

SugarSync is a service that receives a lot of attention from reviewers and for good reason. Their free plan includes 5 GB with no limits and referral bonuses of 500 MB up to a maximum of 32 GB. They are the only one to boast streaming of audio files to your mobile devices which means you can save a lot of space on your smart phone by streaming your music. It has great mobile support and is a fully featured suite that is easy to use and is cross platform. It boasts all of the features of its competitors with improved mobile features. Their paid accounts start at $4.99 per month ($49.99 per year) for 30 GB and goes from there.

Syncplicity has a downside in that many of its accounts limit the number of devices and the number of users you can have. With more devices being able to share files, this can be an issue, especially since most of the competitors don't limit the number of devices used. Their free plan offers 2 GB storage, 1 user and 2 devices but no file size limits. They offer mobile support, auto backup and online sharing. Their paid plans start at $15.00 per month for 50 GB, 1 user and 5 devices with unlimited space and devices available at high price points.

Even the big companies are getting in on cloud offerings. Microsoft and Google both have online storage as does Apple. Apple is offering its iCloud service which integrates with your iPad, iPhone, iPod and Macs not to mention PCs. It works with iTunes and will backup your purchased music automatically and download it to all your iTunes enabled devices. This may seem like your 5 GB won't go very far with all your music purchases being backed up but your music doesn't count towards your capacity. You bought 4 GB worth of music? No problem, you still have your 5 GB of space on the iCloud. If you do end up needing more space, you can get an additional 10 GB for $20 per year or as much as 100 GB for $50 per year, which is a very competitive rate. It also will sync many of your devices and apps, especially those running Apple operating systems, automatically making this a very convenient feature. The sharing is limited but still a very strong, free offering. It also fully integrates with your @me email account.

Microsoft is actually offering more free space than either of the other big two at 7 GB on Skydrive. Previously, Skydrive was 25 GB but they have cut that back, which isn't a big loss as most people won't make use of 7 GB, never mind 25 GB. Again, Microsoft does allow you to buy more storage if you choose with 20 GB for $10 per year, 50 GB for $25 per year and 100 GB for $50 per year. Skydrive works with Hotmail so that you can link to larger files instead of having to send them as attachments, improving email handling. You can also send out one link to a photo gallery, for example, to multiple people at different times, without having to do more than insert a link into your email. You can open and use MS Office documents online and share those documents with other people.

Finally, Google offers Google Drive. They give you 5 GB and this is where all of your Google Documents are stored. The wonderful thing is that your Google documents do not count towards your storage limits, much like purchased content doesn't count against iCloud's limits either. All of your photos are stored in Google+ and can be integrated with Gmail but any photos on Google+ do count towards your 5 GB limit. Google offers expanded storage ranging from 25 GB for $2.49 per month to $799.99 per month for 16 TB of space and many, many options in between. One thing to note is that Gmail typically has a separate 10 GB limit but when you increase your Google drive storage, that limit is increased automatically to 25 GB.

With so many options out there, you really do have your choice of providers. Whether you want to go with a popular option like DropBox, a full featured offering like SugarSync or something that will integrate easily with your current devices like iCloud, you can find something to fit your needs without breaking the bank. The paid cloud storage services won't get you the same amount of space you would get if you spent the same amount on a new hard drive, but they're accessible essentially anywhere at any time on almost any device, giving them a definite leg up in that aspect. If you aren't sure what you want, give the free options a try. They may be all you need.

People have always wanted to stay updated on things they are interested in.  In the past, some of this was done was in newspapers (be it articles or advertising) or sending out newsletters by mail. Today this same practice is done by many methods, be it social networking, websites or email. Most methods can integrate an eNewsletter, which can allow you to communicate various aspects of your enterprise over any or all of these current communication tools. You want to send something that looks professional and appealing to your clients and you want to do it  quickly so that you're not spending a lot of your time creating and sending newsletters. There are a lot of services out there to help you effectively market yourself and keep your clients in touch with your enterprises' activities. We are going to take a look over a few of the options out there.

These services are in competition with one another which means they all have similar feature sets. All of the services we're looking at today have several common features. They all allow integration with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, meaning that anyone that follows you can receive links to your newsletter and also subscribe to your mailing list directly through Facebook. These services will also track various statistics like how many received the newsletter, the number of people who have looked at your emails, email addresses that aren't working and how many people clicked links in the email. They If an email can't be delivered or people unsubscribe, they are taken off your email list automatically which reduces wasted emails.

Getting caught in spam filters can be a major pain. Not only do your clients not see your newsletter, which means that send was wasted, but if a mail server flags your emails as spam, no one will end up getting them. All of the sites boast tools (not all are free but they are all included in certain pay plans) that will help to make your email the best it can be and avoid spam filters. Most of them will allow you to compare multiple versions of your newsletter to find the most effective version so you get the best results. 

Setting up your newsletters is easy on all of the sites. They all have preset templates or you can easily create your own and save them so you don't have to create a page every time. The template selection and ease of use will vary depending on the service you're using but they all have something that works. How well they work for you will mainly be based on your personal preferences. You are also able to preview what your newsletters will look like in various browsers in most of the paid versions of the services. This is important since some things will look different depending on what program is used to open them. Finally, they all have some sort of mobile application with a variety of uses so that you can use these programs from just about anywhere.

Let's start taking a look at some of the services that are available. The first one we'll look at is Constant Contact. This service has full features, including mobile apps and social software integration. It has a free 60 day trial period where you can get in and see what this service has to offer with the ability to add up to 100 addresses. Once the trial is up, you can continue with monthly packages starting as low as $10.50. 

The next one to mention is MailChimp. MailChimp is a very popular service that's used by a lot of companies. It has a full feature set for the paid versions which start at $10/month (with a 15% non-profit discount) but one of the best features of MailChimp for smaller enterprises is its free versions. MailChimp allows you to have up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. If you have, for example, 500 people that you want to receive your email and you only send three emails to each person per month this free program is exactly what you need. While you don't get all of the features you would with a paid account, you aren't missing anything you need to create beautiful, effective newsletters and if budget is your concern, you can't ask for better than a good service that's free.

Vertical Response is another service that has a free service but this service is only for non-profits. They give you 10,000 free emails every month under their pay as you go system. If you need to send more than 10,000 emails per month, they offer 15% discount on purchased credits. With a full suite of features, this is a great option, particularly for those  that would send less than the 10,000 emails each month. They also offer printed post-cards, coupon generation and other useful resources which they discount by the same 15% for non-profits.

And finally we took a look at Campaign Monitor. One item that we haven't discussed to this point is branding or badges that some of these services will enclose in the sent emails. These are small icons or text that end up on your newsletter showing the service you used to create it. Many of them, like MailChimp, will allow you to take this off with their paid version but force you to have the branding with free accounts. Campaign Monitor doesn't do any branding  so there isn't anything to turn off, which can be nice but is something that you can do as an option with most of the other services. Their basic plan starts as low as $9 per month for 2,500 emails to up to 500 people per month. 

Whether you go with a paid program or one of the free accounts available, these services can help you to take your newsletters that extra step to create a more attractive, better circulated package. The various user interfaces that are designed to help make your email pop vary and will depend on your preferences as to which one you prefer. Give the various services a shot and see how they handle your next eNewsletter. 

Have you ever been at home, too sick to come in to work, when someone emails you looking for a file sitting on your work computer that they need desperately? Or maybe you're on vacation and your boss needs a file immediately from your computer and you're out of town. When these files are needed, getting in to the office to get them can be challenging if not downright impossible. One of the easiest solutions to these types of issues are remote desktop applications. We will take a brief look at what these are, tell you about a few of the more popular options available and give you an idea of the cost involved in these programs.

What are remote desktop applications exactly? These are programs that allow you to use the desired computer to do all sorts of tasks, from emailing and creating Word documents to doing photo editing and installing and repairing device drivers. It allows you full access to everything on your system without actually being there. You simply use your mouse and keyboard as if you were sitting at your desk and work away. With a smart phone, the idea is the same except that you will often be using a touch screen device which can take some time to get used to.

One thing that tends to worry people about having remote access to their own desktops is the idea of someone else getting access to their computer. This is a very frightening idea but one that shouldn't be a reason to not use these applications. Modern remote desktops use highly advanced encryption techniques which can be very difficult to crack. With typically 128 or 256 bit encryption, while it is not impossible, with good practices concerning antivirus programs, your firewall and passwords it is unlikely that anyone can use the program to gain access to your system. 

The first application we will take a look at is CrossLoop. CrossLoop is available for free for the basic version. This allows you to access your computer remotely with full access. You can also share your screen so that someone else can see what you are doing on your system. Perhaps you want to instruct someone on how to use your company's new software but they are working at a remote office in St John's and you are in Regina or you want to show a new design to people without sending a number of large files. With a screen share, they can what you see without worrying about them having access to your computer. 

CrossLoop sports 128 bit encryption so you can rest assured it is a secure connection. There are no options for online meeting. There is no mobile access for smart phones in the free version but it is available in the paid version for Android devices only. This means those of you using iPhones or iPads won't be able to use them to access your computer even with a paid version of CrossLoop. The paid version is reasonably priced at $69.50 per year for the pro account and there are various priced options for just the remote access application depending on the number of computers you are using.

The next application we will take a look at is Logmein. Logmein is a browser based application that works on both Mac and Windows based systems. It does have a basic free version but it is missing several options that are available with the various paid versions. You can use the mobile version, which works on Android and iOs devices with the free version. However, you cannot transfer files between the remote computer and the computer you are working on with the free version which can limit your options. The free version also does not include screen sharing, local printing or cloud service integration and none of the packages have the ability to hold online meetings. The premium has a nice assortment of features and they have a variety of applications available through the site for various costs. The Pro version, which includes a lot of the features you would want for a remote desktop application, costs $69.95 per year.

Finally, we looked at TeamViewer. This remote desktop application boasts a very robust set of features in the free version. Not only can you control your desktop remotely, you can also transfer files and screen share with ease. Fast and easy installation has it up and running in minutes. It boasts 256 bit encryption like Logmein and works with very limited lag. It has mobile support for iOS and Android devices and runs very well on mobile devices. You have the ability to create and attend meetings with the software for up to 25 people, giving you the ability to put together presentations and communicate with others in your organization and beyond

As far as premium upgrades are concerned, as a private user you can download and use the full program for free. Unlike the others, the TeamViewer free version is not just a trial or a limited version that lacks some of the features of the paid version but the full program with no time or usage limits aside from being for personal/private use. They do have corporate licenses available for a onetime fee of various sizes but these really only give you options to use more computers and access more than one computer at a time. 

All three of these applications are great for allowing you remote access to your computer. They all install relatively quickly and easily. They're easy to use and gives you a number of different tools. Overall, TeamViewer has the most features in the free version and performs as well or better than the others. All of them boast top notch security and good support, they all have premium corporate features and they all work. Give them a try and see how easy remote computing can be.

Customer feedback is incredibly important. Whether you are looking to help with a community initiative or are selling a product, it helps to know what people are thinking. A great tool to get customer feedback is customer surveys. There are a ton of options out there that will help you to get feedback from your customers so that you can improve the way you serve them. The cost for doing the surveys can be fairly minimal or it can be expensive, depending on how you want to proceed with them and how effective you want them to be. We are going to take a brief look at some of the options out there to help you get your surveys done. 

The first survey tool we are going to look at is Adobe FormsCentral. This is an online tool from Adobe and it allows you to quickly and easily put together surveys and then analyze the results. With multiple question types, a user friendly interface and a nice assortment of templates, this suite is a great tool. Not only can you create great looking surveys, but FormsCentral allows you to create other documents as well. This helps to add some great value to this package. It also allows for both online and offline surveys using .pdf files and collects data automatically. This is of particular benefit when you have a longer survey that not everyone will finish in a single sitting or when a person has limited internet access.

The first survey tool we are going to look at is Adobe FormsCentral. This is an online tool from Adobe and it allows you to quickly and easily put together surveys and then analyze the results. With multiple question types, a user friendly interface and a nice assortment of templates, this suite is a great tool. Not only can you create great looking surveys, but FormsCentral allows you to create other documents as well. This helps to add some great value to this package. It also allows for both online and offline surveys using .pdf files and collects data automatically. This is of particular benefit when you have a longer survey that not everyone will finish in a single sitting or when a person has limited internet access. 

The next site we'll look at is askitonline.com. This site was started in Toronto in 2006 and has a few really good things going for it. First of all, it has a really simple drag and drop interface where what you see when you're designing it is what you get. This makes it very quick and easy to create the forms you want. The next is that it has the best free version of the applications we are looking at. It allows you to create two forms (which can be deleted and then new forms can be made) and gives you one-hundred responses per month. For most companies, their free responses are a onetime thing and once they're done, they're done. But askitonline.com gives you a new set every month. Granted, you still may need more responses and they do have paid options that include more responses and other options. One other thing of note is that they do not offer templates of any kind, so any project will have to be created from scratch or a previously created file. They range in price from $10 to $30 per month currently.

Another survey provider that began in 2006 was SurveyGizmo. SurveyGizmo is a very feature rich site, which is a good thing. It is competitive in just about every area regarding the features it offers. You can create offline and online surveys, export to multiple formats, developing mobile applications and allows for a variety of reports to be pulled. The biggest problem I have with the software is the interface and the usability of it. I found that the interface was not  as intuitive or as clean and simple as the other survey providers were despite a relatively simple sounding drag and drop interface. This is not to say the interface is bad, it is just not as well honed as those of its competitors. As far as the pricing goes, at $75/month, it is one of the more expensive offerings, even for the highest level packages. Again, the features offered are very comparable to the competitors, but with no lower tiered option that I could find, if budget is a major concern, then this may not be the solution for you however they offer excellent customer service from all reports.

This next provider might surprise you, but then again, seeing as they seem to be getting their fingers into as many pies as humanly possible, perhaps it shouldn't. It is the only totally free option (barring needing more cloud storage space than the 5 GB provided) and that is Google Docs. You can log in to your Google account and choose to create a new form. With templates available or the ability to start from scratch, you will be amazed at how quickly your surveys come together. It compiles the information for you and will provide reports in a Google Spreadsheet. This information can be a bit daunting if you have a large number of respondents but is there nevertheless. It can also be a bit finicky in getting information back. But overall, it is a great, free option.

Finally, we looked at one of the more popular applications, SurveyMonkey. This is the platform that has inspired a lot of imitators and is a major comparison point when comparing features and usability. It is feature rich, especially in the upper tiers of membership. With good mobile and offline survey support, it is a versatile platform. The interface, while I didn't like it as much as Adobe's, is clean and easy to use. You can create quickly and easily using a blank project or one of their many templates. It really does offer a great user experience and as the big guy, it should. 

Recently, SurveyMonkey acquired Zoomerang which was a competitor for a number of years and a very popular platform in and of itself. This merger should not only mean a larger network of people to survey as part of their paid survey audience finding program but the two companies seem to have very complimentary weak and strong points. Hopefully this means a better overall product for consumers. It does have a free trial which comes with one ten question long survey and one-hundred responses total. This gives you a great chance to try it out and see what you think. Paid accounts start at $19/month.

All of the products we are looking at have multiple question types, although a few like SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo do offer a few extra options. They all allow you to set up your survey the way you want it within a relatively short period of time. There really is no clear winner as to which one is the best. It really depends on what you are looking for. If you only need a few responses and have a tight budget, you may want to try one of the two free options. Maybe you need twenty-thousand plus responses every time and something that is really feature rich, perhaps SurveyGizmo or SurveyMonkey is the best for you. If you're undecided, I highly recommend setting up free accounts and trying them out for yourself.

When you have a website, you want people to be able to find you. In order for people to find you, you need to have a name for your site that people can remember and use with ease. When choosing your domain name, you want to keep everything simple so that you can be found easily. And usually, should your budget allow, you want to grab as many domain names as possible. For example, if you are registering greencharity.org, you may also want to try to get greencharity.ca and greencharity.com. This way, when someone types in "greencharity.com" they will be routed to your site. You still only have one website but it gives people a wider array of options to find you. 

The domain extension you use will also give information relative to who you are. Using popular domain names like .info or .com won't give any extra information about your organization. However, using a .ca or .org will let people know that you are Canadian or non-profit respectively. This can help to separate you from other entities. If people are looking specifically for the Canadian site, they may be more likely to try a .ca domain than they would be to try out a .com which could be anywhere. As well, the .ca domain names are registered by CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) who keep tight reigns on who can actually register for a .ca domain extension. 

Everybody wants to be on top, be it coming first in a race or becoming the boss of the office. This is also true of domain names, you want your name to be on top. You want your domain name to be a top level domain name. What's a top level domain name? It's the root name of any site. For example, a top level domain would be www.google.com. A site like mail.google.com is called a sub domain as it is an extension of the top level www.google.com. Being a top domain name is important as if someone forgets the rest of the address, they can be routed to where ever that top level domain is. If it isn't you, they may have a very hard time finding you. Sub domains are fine, but not for your main domain name. 

The next important thing to take in is the host. Your website will live on your host's servers so that they're accessible to the public. You choice of host matters for a lot of reasons. First, you want a host that provides good customer service. If you can't get a hold of them easily or it takes a week to get a response, if something goes wrong you will be in a really bad spot. Another important factor is the physical location of their servers. If their servers are located in Indonesia and most of your audience are in North America, the signal is going to take time to travel, resulting in a slower website. You want servers close to your audience or the internet backbone to ensure decent speed. 

The host's servers are a big factor. If their servers aren't maintained or they don't have backup systems in place, you can lose a lot of traffic from downed servers. Since your files are stored on these servers, if they go down it can take time to get them back up if the files are lost and they do not backup their servers (you should still back up all your own data regardless of your host). Your host can also limit how much space you have for storage, how many email addresses can be created, what types of coding can be used and what content management systems they have installed. Another big factor, especially for those of us in the non-profit sector, is the cost. The cost for service can vary wildly but since most service can be purchased online. You have a lot of options. You can find affordable, reliable web hosting and help registering your domain names with GreenIT. 

Content management systems (CMS) are systems that allow the average person to build more complicated, beautiful web sites easily. There are a number of different ones and they can vary drastically as to how effective they are. Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress are some of the more common systems. Typically, your host will have the systems on their server which you then install and within minutes you are ready to go. The CMS isn't installed on your computer, it lives with your site on the hosting server. So where ever you access your site, it will be there. Some, like Weebly, allow you to build your page simply by dragging and dropping content on to the page. Others you will need to do a bit more work to get the work you want but it is still a simple process.

Wordpress has been around for a while now. It has its roots as a blogging platform (it is the most popular blogging system today) but has expanded into a true content management system. According to Wikipedia.org, it is used for approximately 22% of new websites today. And there's good reason for this: It's a great program with a great support community. It is very powerful and easy to use, especially with the given plug ins and widgets. You can get your site up and running quickly using themes and plug ins, but you aren't locked to the exact theme you chose. You have full control over the HTML coding and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which enable you to get the look you want. Manipulating the HTML and CSS code can be difficult and complicated, but there are many different themes that should provide you with the look you want without having to touch the code. 

An important thing to note is that WordPress is open source. What open source means is that anyone can modify and work with the program (meaning you have a lot of people out there who can help improve the program and create new add-ons, like themes and plug ins, easily). Better yet, the fact that it is open source means that it is free. Using WordPress won't cost a cent in and of itself. With its ease of use and low cost, WordPress is a solution that should not be missed. More and more professional web developers are switching to one form of content management system or another and the numbers are increasing. With a better finished product, easier set up and easier updates, WordPress can help your site go to the next level. 

 You may have heard the whisperings that Microsoft is coming out with its latest installment of the Windows operating system, Windows 8 later this year. This release marks the biggest redesign to Windows since the 95 platform released. There have been numerous updates, tweaks and changes to the system and not all of these changes are going to be easy to deal with. But, with more and more new systems going to touch screen, these changes could prove useful and beneficial. If you are stuck on your mouse (as most of us are), these changes could prove aggravating at first.

The biggest change by far is the new user interface (UI). Windows 8 still has a desktop that we're familiar with but it also introduces a Modern UI (commonly referred to as "Metro") using large buttons designed to make life easier. They can make navigation cumbersome but once you've adjusted, it also has the potential to make things easier for you. Having your favourite applications at your finger tips can be a great feature. However, many operations with the new interface mean dealing with apps. Microsoft is the latest getting in on apps. It really won't change a lot aside from now getting a lot of things through the new Microsoft store (some will be paid apps, others will be free, similar to the Apple App store which many of us are now used to) but prepare for a learning curve. If you have a late generation Apple mobile device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad), you will be more comfortable with this new way of navigating. 

Another big change is to the desktop. Gone is the staple Start Menu but you can use the file browser along with the strong search features to find what you're looking for quickly (this will be at least somewhat familiar to current Windows 7 users). You can still start programs by clicking on icons just like you can on your current desktop. One of the new features which adds some nice flare to your desktop is Windows 8 will match colour schemes on your desktop with your selected backgrounds. It also allows more customization of your desktop, particularly for those running multiple monitor set ups which are becoming more common place as more and more tasks continue to be computerized.

  When you are looking over files in the browser, there is a new menu interface known as the Ribbon. If you have used current generation MS Office products, you will be familiar with the Ribbon. If you haven't, the Ribbon is a horizontal menu bar instead of the usual vertical drop menu. It has buttons for your various options that you can select with a click. This can also be collapsed for more advanced users but will actually make life easier for the average user, once they adjust to the Ribbon.

Based on the Windows 7 architecture, there aren't a lot of performance improvements aside from start up and shut down times. Windows 8 typically loads and shuts down in half of the time of Windows 7 thanks to the way it stores system information on shut down and boot. Gone is the click x to close a window, replaced with a drag and drop to close an application. One of the biggest problems with Windows 8 aside from not being intuitive and having a complete overhaul of the interface we've grown accustom to over the years is that you can only have two applications open at once. You can still have more running but only two will be displayed. 

The new Internet Explorer 10 continues to improve the browsing experience for the user with better compliance to web standards resulting in a better browsing experience for the user. But again, they have changed the interface which means there will be an adjustment period (and it may be a substantial adjustment period). With the navigation bar now at the bottom of the screen and thumbnails of other sites at the top, this will take some getting used to. While the overall experience may be better in terms of the look and function of websites, the changes to the way you interact with Internet Explorer will mean a longer wait to appreciate them.  

With the new application panels, navigating through potentially pages of applications, the traditional mouse is going to mean slow browsing, especially compared to those with touch screens or who are used to using hotkeys (e.g. hitting the Windows button and D key to bring up your desktop). Once you are used to the hotkeys, they can be almost as fast as using a touch screen. But do not doubt for a moment that touch screens are the king of input methods. If you currently have a touch screen, Windows 8 will allow you to get more out of it. Having said that, it is by no means perfect and, especially using dual touch screen monitors, can require some setup time.

If you are planning a hardware upgrade or have done one recently (since June 2, 2012) you will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $14.99 on a Windows 7 system. If you are running Windows XP, Vista or 7, you can upgrade for $39.99. For a modern operating system, these prices are excellent (keep in mind, for non-profits, there may be even cheaper options through donation systems like TechSoup). For those still running Windows XP, consider going to 8 instead of 7 as you can keep your system files when you go to 8 which you can't do if you go to 7. 

Windows 8 may seem like overkill or may be difficult to appreciate why you would want to use it. With technology changing rapidly and more and more hardware going mobile, touch screen and prices dropping on hardware, Windows 8 is going to become the new standard. Even if you aren't planning a hardware upgrade for a few years, getting used to Windows 8 now at the entry level price will have you more comfortable with it by the time its use is prevalent. And that can keep you ahead of the game.