So... I have recently upgraded to Office 2010. I must say it s pretty cool. At least Outlook is... everything else feels much like Office 2007 with a cooler skin. If you are an Outlook user, I highly recommend the Social Connector Add-Ins. These do a great job of aggregating all of the social info out there on your contacts. I havent dove yet into the web integration, but I've run into two good bugs worth mentioning.

First, if you have Visual Studio 2008 installed, you may run into a situation where you can no longer cut and paste in the HTML designer, and the entire program essentially locks up. This problem appears to be related to a web authoring file that does not get properly updated by the Office 2010 installer. To fix this, you need to simply run a repair on the “Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component” that is part of Office 2007. You can find this file at C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe if you are running 32bit, or C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe if you are running 64bit. Here is a post from Rinat Abdullin that helped me to solve this problem. This was a lifesaver!

Second, I am a Google Calendar Sync user. I use this tool to sync my Outlook Calendars with my Google Calendar on my desktop and my phone. Needless to say, I'm lost without this functionality. Once I installed 2010, I noticed that the Sync tool from Google said that it did not support this version of Office. I went to the Google home for the sync tool and found 4 pages of people complaining about this very issue and trying to get Google to add some support. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be listening... but I found some relief! Basically, what you have to do is download a Hex Editor and change the version values of the Outlook 2010 executable from 14.0.0 to 12.0.0. Sounds creepy, but it works like a charm! Here is a post on addictivetips.com that has a cool hack to get this working.

If you find yourself having these same problems, hopefully this will help. Just trying to do my part and be a good netizen.

Wow! This makes you realize just how far we have come, and where we are going. Enjoy!

 If you are someone like me, and do not have the time each week to figure out what will be on your shopping list, then Grocery IQ is perfect for you. This app is available for both IPhone and Android phones.

This app allows you to create shopping lists based on the items you typically purchase in the store. This can be done in a number of ways: scanning your favorite items, typing in the bar code, or by simply using the microphone feature to say the item you are looking for. The app then searches for that specific item, and adds it to your list. After you have entered in all the items you typically purchase, you can go through and check only the items you need to purchase for each visit. You can also create lists based on the particular grocery stores you visit. Then you can email them to yourself to create a shopping list. Another great feature is the ability to share your list with others…say your husband. (All it took was a cool app like this to convince my husband to go to the grocery store).

Although there are more pros to this app, there are also some cons. Scanning items into your list can be extremely frustrating when it does not recognize an item.  Also, the coupon feature that allows you to search through coupons and send them via email, seemed to email okay, but when I attempted to print off the coupons, nothing.

All in all, I believe that this app will be useful to most, especially those who find themselves spending more money at the grocery store, because they did not take the time to make a list.

If not, this might make you want to get one. It's called Google Shopper. And its free.

Here is presentation from Scott Brinker. I started following his blog over a year ago for one primary reason - he referred to himself as the Chief Marketing Tehnologist. This is a role in the world of marketing that I have felt was needed for quite a while - in fact, I considered myself to be performing the duties of this role while at Northlich. This thinking is what prompted me to start 247Interactive.

I've noticed that in the agency world, the realization of the paradigm shift that tech is creating, and the need for a qualified person who understands it to build a strategy around embracing it - has been alot like giving birth. If this is the case, then Scott's presentation below is like an Epidural.

I know. Just read it and tell me what you think :-)