If you want an introductory guide you can sit through the MVA training courses. They are not good reference material and very time consuming but they do provide a decent overview of the technical configuration and get you familiar with the terminology used by Microsoft. Once you understand the Microsoft terminology you can then use google and Technet to do more in-depth research.

One of our users who is dealing with severe visual impairment relies on a combination of zoomtext on her PC and an IPAD (the pinch to zoom function, large icons, and easy navigation make the ipad a good option). The ZoomText application is pricey but does help a lot, http://www.aisquared.com/produ...

A $900 tablet is faster than a $500 tablet. Who would have guessed that you can pay almost twice as much for something that is 30% faster on certain benchmark tests. I actually like the Surface Pro 3, but this article is more of a fanboy blog post than a real review of a product.

You may not have to reinvent the wheel. They probably have a system used to calculate depreciation that you can add on to. Any basic system could meet your asset tracking needs. I work in an organization that uses M$ system center config manager to control deployments, and ServicePro cloud 9 for helpdest call tracking. Both do a good job keeping up to date on who has what hardware; but realistically a single spreadsheet with document versioning enabled would work just as well and cost a hell of a lot less. Asset tracking is just a matter of sitting down with all the people managing assets and coming up with a process that is acceptable to all. There is no software that can fix human behavior!

If I was writing a lot, I would invest in another Kinesis Advantage keyboard. For writing text, I found it to far outperform any other available "Ergo" keyboard. If you are doing data entry or casual gaming I like the Microsoft Natural keyboard (I use this for my work computer). For my personal gaming machine, I have found that going cheep is the way to go. I use the logitech K120. It is reliable enough, just keep a spare or two on hand for when the keys die(they last me maybe 6-12 months). This way I am not crying when my $100+ gaming keyboard bites the dust.

Can Microsoft provide more appropriate search results than Google? I still use the Google search engine solely because it can find what I need. In my personal experience searching for technical computer documentation; Bing displays Technet articles and advertising, where as google results include more third party content sources(applicable blogs...etc) in the first two pages of results. As long as this is the case, I will not convert no matter how friendly the "Digital Assistant" is.

The decision to home school should take the entire environment into account along with the other educational options available. To rebut the flame bait in the original post I would purpose that what some people consider coddling is just good teaching practice (one on one instruction). I was home schooled up through grade 8(U.S). My little sister decided that she wanted to go to public school in 7th grade. Her experience in middle school made me glad that I waited. As a very artistic and fanciful child, she was basically tortured by both her peers and her teachers. She came home in tears one time because her 8th grade art teacher told her that she was wasting her time drawing!(She went on to graduate from Maryland Institute College of Art with a degree in painting). She would have been better off if she had skipped grade school and gone straight into High School. In High School she was encouraged to actually improve herself. Note: I would be the first to admit that being home schooled has an adverse impact on social skills development. But in the long run given the large class sizes, I am not sure that the social skills kids are learning in grade school are really that beneficial.

Given the number of problematic updates lately, I would be willing to bet they are getting into trouble because they have publicly committed to releasing a patch before it has completed QC testing. My two cents say that this is an effort to reduce the pressure on the testing teams in an effort to improve overall patch quality.

He is stating that the concept of a right to privacy puts children at risk. So obviously there is no need for privacy in the united states. I bet he would like to do away with the 4th amendment altogether. I voted for Obama(who appointed this POS) because in my mind he represented the best option for protecting civil liberties. I must say I am seriously disappointed. Can we please get a "none of the above" option added to the ballot and if more people vote for "none of the above" we start the process all over again?

You forget windows 2000. When compared to the alternatives at the time it was a kick a$$ operating system.

My brother was just rear ended by someone who was talking on the phone. People do not need more distractions while driving. A HUD should be limited to presenting information that helps people drive. Talking on the phone even hands free is still a distraction, visual navigation systems are also an unnecessary distraction. Honestly people put the phone down and pay attention to the road, your life and the lives of others depends on it.

Someone must have explained to him what really happened to JFK (remember to wear your tinfoil hats).

Start with the basics; document operational procedures, implement a change management system (can be as simple as an issue tracking spreadsheet) and hand them over to the new person for comment. Start handing over the responsibilities that impact your time the most (As you are going to be training a new person, demands upon your time are going to go up for at least the first 2 months). This process will dictate the level of access you give them (but use common sense). Micromanage until you get a good feel for their abilities and work ethic, but be upfront with them about this. If they cannot handle a little micromanagement or are unable to explain why their purposed change is better when they identify something you did wrong, you do not want them as an employee. Other common sense measures include; Do not ever let your sysadmin lock you out of a system, Setup regular supervision(do not rely on informal meetings or drop in sessions), Don't worry about certifications or unnecessary documentation, Pay attention to what matters(actual system performance and DR planning).

1. A bright enough display on the phone eats a lot of juice. If you are going to have your phone display on all the time so that you can change music or have a nav display you really need to have it plugged into external power. 2. If you are going to have to plug it in why not run everything over the physical plug. It removes problems introduced by Bluetooth (RF interference, degraded sound quality, extra power drain..etc). 3. It allows people to update their displays as new technology becomes available. Updating an App to support the new 8" 4K oled tablet that comes out in a year or two is a hell of a lot easier than replacing a bunch of built in entertainment clusters. 4. If you were a car manufacturer you could sell a premium entertainment system that is basically a $100 amp with a $200 tablet on the front end(all you have to do is develop the app). Considering they wanted $2100 for a bluetooth entertainment/nav system when I bought my last car you could charge $1000+ and make a killing. 5. By developing an app in house you could incorporate music controls and performance/error monitoring in a single system(this could be seen as a drawback by manufacturers that are tied into a dealership network as dealerships make a lot of money because of the lack of adequate error reporting being built into vehicles today). Need I go on..

What I really want is someone to design a micro USB car dock and app so that I can plug my android phone in and have it replace the Stereo and GPS, charge, and allow me to display performance data (a la Torque) at the same time. All I really need mounted in the dash is an AMP and speakers. P.S. make it compatible with tablets as well..