I don't know...it is just a key that doesn't seem to do anything when pressed and it is just in the way. So many years staring at it and wondering what it was good for.

Well, it appears this little key is actually quite useful, as I have recently learned. By combining the Windows Key with other key, it allows you to perform frequently used task with hardly any effort. For example, to launch Windows Explorer, you may go to Start > Accessories, etc or maybe rightclick the Start button and select Explore or...... you could just hit Windows Key + E. That simple. Check out this list of shortcuts that I am sure you will start using, if you didn't know them already. 

[Windows Key] + L: Locks the workstation
[Windows Key] + E: Launch Windows Explorer

[Windows Key] + Tab: Cycle through the buttons in the Task Bar.

[Windows Key] + R: Launch the Run dialog box
[Windows Key] + Pause/Break: Launch System Properties dialog box

[Windows Key] + D: Minimize or restore all windows
[Windows Key] + M: Minimizes all open windows.
[Windows Key] + Shift + M: Undo minimize all windows

[Windows Key] + F: Launch Search for Files
[Windows Key] + Ctrl + F: Launch Search for Computers

[Windows Key] + U: Launch the Utility Manager

PS: In Office 2003 SP1 and 2007 the Windows Key has even more functionality. For example, by pressing Windows key + S in OneNote you can take an instant screen clipping - just drag the cursor over the area you want to "clip". Then paste the clipping wherever you need it.

Well. While on my vacation OpenText finalized the acquisition of Captaris, for which I have been working for four years and...let's just say my badge stopped working when I returned. 

I am on the lookout again, dusting off my resume and working on some more experiments to learn new technologies and proof my skills.

I have gained a tremendous amount of experience in solutions engineering, enterprise software development, integrations and business process automation and am not quite sure in which area I will focus my searches.

More to come...

For our 10 year wedding anniversary, I decided to take my wife to the places I grew up in and maybe try to explain some of my behaviors she has never quite understood.
We visited Holland, France, Italy and Spain seeing friends and family and covered quite a bit in two weeks.

We just got back today and here are a few thing I learned from this trip that you might find useful: 

• Don't rent a car unless you are very familiar with the driving style and the roads. Unlike in the US, the lanes are narrower, drivers are more aggressive, the streets are not organized by cardinal points (N,E,S,W) and are mostly named and not numbered. Prepare to use all your reflexes avoiding cars, scooters, bycicles and pedestrians in poorly marked and/or respected lanes. Also, gas is incredibly expensive and the likelihood that you'll spend much time of your vacation stressed, either finding your way around or simply finding a parking spot is high. Instead travel by public transportation. The rail system in most of Western Europe is highly evolved and you can get to pretty much everywhere, if you know how to connect.
  
• Don't eat at the main tourist attractions. The food and drinks might be appealing, but if you walk a few blocks away, into the backstreets, you will find food that is much more authentic in flavor and price. You will also find friendlier people, unless, of course, you walked into the wrong back alley….
  
• Don't measure the hotel star system by the same rule as in the US. It seems to me that a two star hotel in Europe is much more likely to be cleaner and adhere to a higher standard than a two star hotel in the US.
  
• Make an effort to communicate. Educated in Europe and at 15 years of age, I already spoke 4 languages, but a large percentage of people educated in the US, only speak English. The instinct is to speak in English anywhere, assuming everyone else does too. This may be perceived as arrogance by a local and you'll get a much friendlier reaction if you start out by making any, I mean any, attempt in the local language. After they realize you are destroying the grammar of their beloved language they'll usually switch themselves and be friendlier and more helpful to your requests. 
  
• For long flights, check seatguru for power ports. Most airlines now offer power ports in Economy class every other row. Make sure you reserve a seat in a row with a power socket, just in case.
  
• Last, try the local stuff. Don't order food or drinks that you can get in your home country. Experiment and ask the waiter to surprise you with his favourite dish or drink. You'll be amazed how many free drinks or samplers you can get with this approach...
  

Distracted from what I was doing, I stumbled upon this excellent and inspiring clip. Truly one clip we should all watch every single day, first thing in the morning... I mean that. We go about our daily lives not realizing how we are wasting our youth; that precious substance of which we have less of, every day that goes by.... that and other magnificent advice.

From the Wikipedia article: "Wear Sunscreen or Sunscreen Speech are the common names of an essay actually called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997.

The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, credited to Baz Luhrmann." This version with subititles in Spanish.

Listen carefully and enjoy!

I was thinking about ways of cutting unnecesary spending last night and thought that I tend to waste a few dollars on so many things that doesn't seem so much at the time, but when it is all added up....well, it adds up.

A cup of coffee in the morning, a snack bar in between, sometimes a pastry at midmorning, then lunch and maybe another coffee in the afternoon.  A couple of dollars at the time X a few times a day X twenty workdays = a lot of $$$. Think about it, even if it is just lunch at $8 per day for a to go salad or sandwhich is ($8 x 20days) $160 per month!

A clever dude has some really good information on how to spend only $6.99 for an entire month on lunch; even if not followed exactly the same, his approach is very good and can be altered to fit your needs and definitively to keep your spending lower than it currently is.

Read more: An illustrated frugal lunch by A Clever Dude. 

I just posted about this yesterday but found a new site that has a concept I think is worth mentioning.

I have just registered and have yet to play with it some more but it seems it has quite a bit of content. There are hours of free courseware for several languages as well, but mainly it focuses on allowing you to social network with people who speak the native language that you are trying to learn and vice versa.

read more: http://www.livemocha.com

I think I have posted about learning a new language before and it not easy to find an application or software that is easy to use and free. Well, I came across this web based language application that, so far, is free and easy to use....really.

They have several languages and it starts out really easy, assuming you have absolutely no experience whatsoever.

read more:  http://www.trymango.com/

I know a few people very close and very dear to me who suffer from depression and it is so difficult to communicate and understand what exactly it is that they are going through.

From time to time, I can feel a little down myself, without a specific reason to explain my careless mood. However, for people who are depressed more than ocassionaly and often require medication, it has simply become part of their lifes...so much that it seems that mood simply takes control. I don't undertand how someone can not be in control of themself...and I have learned not to try to understand either...I don't think I would be able to understand anyways, even it were to happen to me.

Here is a very brief article that attempts to explain in a few paragraphs how people feel when they are depressed, why it happens and how you should react.

Read more:  http://psychcentral.com/

Update: site seems to be down...here is Google's cache version. 

A cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee, like anywhere else, right? I will have to disagree with that statement... I don't know whether  it is just the differences in culture, but the coffee selection in Europe is just not that extensive as it is here in the US.  I live in Seattle, where there is literally a Starbucks on every corner and one can simply not avoid the sometimes ridiculuous combinations that people come up with when ordering a cup of coffee.

If you were ever wondering what all these italian names for different types of coffee really mean when put tugether in a cup, here is a handy illustration that simplifies the mixtures and their exotic european names.

Read more: http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/... 

I read this brief post and was brought back in time when I actually would have thought certain things about the relevance of the class material in front of me with real life. How can this possibly be useful for any career or for life in general? This is just another hypothesis or algorithm exercise that has absolutely no purpose other than that it is needed to pass this course.

I wish I had received the following answer and hopefully I would have paid more attention to all the following "useless" exercises....

Read more: http://www.marcandangel.com/

So, you have  a few minutes left to just surf the web... maybe check reddit.com and you know you'll get stuck there for way longer than that.

Why not take the time and learn something the easy way by just watching a 5 minute video on the subject?

"5min is a place to find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge.

The idea behind 5min is very simple: any solution can be visually explained in no more than 5 minutes." 

Read more: http://www.5min.com/

Whether you acquire this valuable skill or it is natural in you, it is one that one simply must have to be able to interact, socialize and simply succeed in your relationships with anyone you know or encounter in the future.

Everyone is unique and so are their thaughts. The true art lies in being able to listen properly, communicate accordingly and whether you get your point across or not, whether you convince the other person or not, maintain the relationship intact or stronger than it was, even if no mutaul agreement was reached.

Here is an excellent article that highlights some of these points that one should keep in mind in any discussion.

Read more: http://johnplaceonline.com/...

Of course everyone has some advice on how to remove a stain from the carpet or how to avoid smelly shoes, but some of these 62 little known uses of vinegar just seem incredible.

Most are certainly worth trying and probably very efficient. However, until I try them out myself or see some solid proof I think I am going to remain somewhat skeptical about some of these solutions offered, especially ones like #54...

I just have the impression that the room won't smell as fresh as it says it will...

Read more: http://odyb.net/...

I don't exercise every day but I do wish I was more consistent about exercising regularly. It seems that every morning I decide that, this time, for real, I am going to start exercising every day.  I find myself waking up early and exercising for a few days and then suddenly, one morning I decide to skip a session and it goes downhill from there....until next Monday; then we start all over again.

So, what can we do about it? Here  is a  good article on how to make your exercise session an actual habit, like showering or brushing your teeth. We don't stop and think about either those activities, we just do them....if we could only do that with an exercise routine...

Read more: http://ririanproject.com/...

"Staying motivated is a struggle; our drive is constantly assaulted by negative thoughts and anxiety about the future. Everyone faces doubt and depression.

What separates the highly successful is the ability to keep moving forward."

There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.

1. Lack of confidence - If you don’t believe you can succeed, what’s the point in trying?
2. Lack of focus - If you don’t know what you want, do you really want anything?
3. Lack of direction - If you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do it?

Read more:  http://www.pickthebrain.com/...

You just created your online access account for your brokerage account, just like many other online services you have created accounts for...

Which password did you pick? The same as usual...the same you use for all your other accounts? A different one? You have a different password for each site? Then, how do you remember all of them? Maybe you have some software application that remembers them for you.

Whichever our case, more likely than not, we don't spend much time thinking about the strength of our passwords, even though we are constantly reminded about the threats of not doing so...

Well, here is an article by John P. who shares how he would hack your password. Read it and it may make you want to change your passwords to something stronger...

Read more: http://onemansblog.com/...

"It is incredible, how many things never get their chance to be done simply because we're afraid to be the first ones to even try. We fear rejection and lack of acceptance, we fear a possible failure, and we generally would rather scrap a great idea than be courageous and adventurous enough to be the first. Well, it doesn't have to be this way." 

Excellent article highlighting many things that we all know are true; things that we know we should be doing, but simply don't out of fear of the unknown. 

I remember me as a kid staring up at the Space Mountain rollercoaster in Disney World and finally deciding I was not riding it, because [fill in any reason]. If only that kid knew how much fun he'd have if he had decided to ride... (that kid got to know 20 years later ho wmuch fun he had misse dout on).

Whether it is to do something that hasn't been done before by anyone, or it is something that we as individuals have never experienced, fear is factor that many of us let take control too easily and too frequently. 

Read more:  http://www.personaldevelopment.ie/...

I haven't really given it much though... generally I don't dislike my voice, unless it is recorded.

However, this is an interesting question. that is rarely taken into account. A person's voice tone is just like a facial characteristic. It is an attribute that is subconsciously recorded in the mind and tied to that person. the sound of the voice tells you about the person and the person's state...softspoken, confident, shy, nervous, obnoxious, etc.

Obviously, your voice is also very important when making a first impression. So, in order to enhance the way we come across to others, first time or not, here are some detailed explanations and exercises that anyone can do.

Read more:  Voice and Speech development

Sushi is one of my favourite foods and if it weren't so expensive, I think I could eat it everyday. I had my first sushi about 8 years ago and have since then mastered the art of eating with chop sticks and everything there is to know about the many variety of sushi and sushi rolls.

Only to realize, that I have been completely ignorant about the true etiquette of eating sushi. Sushi is eaten with your hands and not chopsticks! That and much, much more about sushi that you didn't know can be found below.

Read more:  http://www.trevorcorson.com/...

However, if you really want to know the truth about sushi, you will have to watch this undercover video...