Ashmar Advantage

I wrote a post about the new Zune and why I think it will do ok, check it out. 

Link to Ashmar Advantage: Zune - will it sell? Society is the Key

http://ashmaradvantage.blogspot.com/2006/11/carry-voip-phone-in-your-pocket.html

 Check out this link to a neat way to carry a VoIP phone with you everywhere.

OK, this product is in Beta still and you can't run to the store and buy it but when it is available I would buy it.  Microsoft has finally come out with a Vector Graphics design tool.  I have been using this program for months now and  am very excited about it.

The biggest reason I like the product is for creating web graphics in which the text can be read properly.  Ok, Adobe (Illustrator and Photoshop) people are probably laughing right now and that's ok.  I just like seeing some competition.

It's about time I confessed that I have a bias toward Microsoft products.  I know it is popular to bash Microsoft and call them the evil empire and all of that the problem for me is that I don't remember Microsoft in the same way that other people do.  I will get into that at some later point--maybe.  For now I will say that Microsoft just makes software that excites me and usually they do it for a lower price than I would have to pay elsewhere (historically). 

I am not a graphics gurhu and I am moderately creative as I have always been a network geek and accounting department type.  This program has helped me to unleash the grain of creativity that is in me.  Because I run a small business and don't have big bucks to spend I have had to create my own website (Ashmar Website).  This program has helped me to bump up the quality of my site and say more with graphics.  (Note: my next move is to actually make my website more effective.)

This program isn't as easy to use as some other programs in the Office Suite for example but if you are familiar with using a graphics program there will be much familiar ground.  Many people today are moving to editing photos as digital cameras become more popular.  This program may not be for the masses but if somebody wants to really do some nice work with their photos and wishes to add text or other creative elements look no further.

Even though the program is not actually released officially and is still in Beta or Release Candidate or whatever they define it as I have not had any problems running the program.  This is one I recommend.

Ok, enough with the Beta software.  As I have started blogging now I became interested in this product.  I can't yet recommend it for the production environment as I haven't finished testing it.  Actually I just started testing it and this is my second entry using the tool.  But so far it is pretty cool and I haven't even played with adding the rich text stuff.  Looking forward to more playing and in a couple of weeks maybe it is something to look at.  For now just make yourself aware of it.

Things I like so far are:  being able to set up multiple blogs as I am trying to maintain more than one, and not having to login to them in order to write a post.  I also like being able to view the result as if I was looking at my blog without yet posting.  The spell check works more like my Word program (duh) which is nice since I previously lost a post trying to make my spell check work in Blogger.  I probably did something wrong but still frustrating.  I'll see how other things go, looking forward to easily inserting Tags such as technorati tags with the easy tool.  I played with doing that by hand and it's not the most fun I've ever had.  I'll see if this is better. 

I also added the Blog this add-in for it and used that to create this particular entry...Coool!

I just wrote this for my Blogger Blog Ashmar Advantage Business Blog and thought I would put this here as well so that my messenger contacts could read all about product ideas if they wanted to.

Link to Windows Live Writer Beta