Last year, I did a write-up on some really fun holiday games from the team at NStorm. The kind of stress relief desktop games that provide some amusement to lighten our stressful days - like Elf Bowling.

It seems a lot of other folks are looking for Elf Bowling. According to my stats, it’s the most popular search item on my blog right now.

So, since it can be considered the holiday season - back by popular demand (drumroll, please) - here’s a link to that post → It’s December, must be time for Elf Bowling. Here you’ll find information about all of the Elf Bowling games available and developer’s links to download - and they’re free!

If you haven’t played any of these, do yourself a favor and go check them out. Guaranteed to entertain.

Elf, elf baby!

Update 11/14/2007: Jumpin’ jubilation! - great news! Seems there’s a whole bunch more of Santa and his elves, and ‘cousins’ to keep us entertained through the holidays!

I received a note from the guys over at Blockdot/kewlbox.com (the founders of the company were the creative geniuses behind the original Elf Bowling games):

Just wanted to let you know that we are still making fun games. You might want to check out some of our holiday games.

Adventure Elf
(http://www.kewlbox.com/games/gameDetail.aspx?gameID=96)

Santa Balls
(http://www.kewlbox.com/games/gameDetail.aspx?gameID=54)

Santa Balls 2
(http://www.kewlbox.com/Games/GameDetail.aspx?GameId=75)

Blackjack Elf
(http://www.kewlbox.com/games/gameDetail.aspx?gameID=97)

We have over 100 games now in our library. Hope you enjoy and tell your friends.

Cheers!

There was a lot of hype surrounding the recent release of Microsoft’s two new offerings: the Vista OS family and Office 2007 family.

As a beta tester for Vista, I didn’t feel it was ready to be released yet but, hey - what do I know. I’m merely an end user. Of course, the fact that it was released to the public along with a SP lessens my great expectations that all the bugs are truly resolved. I believe the amount of pressure coming from computing manufacturers had something to do with pushing Vista on out to the public.

As a beta tester for Office, I was anxiously awaiting its release, and am happy to say I am using the Office 2007 Professional version. There is going to be a learning curve associated with the new version, but it is packed with many enhancements and features enabling powerful document generation and work environments.

This blog entry is being created using Word 2007. In this post, I want to accentuate some of the cooler things you can do as it relates to blogging.

From within Word, you can create a blog entry with extensive formatting and imaging, and easily upload to your blog - whether hosted by a company such as Blogger, or hosted on your own website through installed software, such as Wordpress.

You set up your blogging account information, including URLs, usernames, and passcodes. It’s all really quite simple, and painless. You can set up multiple blogging accounts, and select the one you want to post to.

I was amazed how easy it was to use. The additional features within this version of Word make publishing any type of content for any purpose a breeze. You get live previews for text styles, images, paging, etc.

Along with text effects, are a wide variety of image effects, including:

• Shadows
• Orientation
• Borders
• Shapes

Dropping in tables with specific formatting is also a breeze. Additionally, there are a number of ready-made templates and stylings to jazz up information:

You can also create SmartArt diagrams and charts:

In summary, Word 2007 is simplifying blogging, so it’s not just straight and boring text anymore. Give it a Test Run and see what it can do for you.

Happy blogging!

For years now, I have been an advocate for educating the masses on how to use the internet safely, and have verbally and vehemently preached the rationale and necessity for safe internet practices. Up until now, it’s all been through minimal instructional excerpts. With the increased availability of computers in households, and inherent risks abounding, the time has come to take a more pro-active role - from a parental and communal responsibility - to ensure the safety of our kids.

With the newest security updates released by Microsoft (MS) last week, they have decreased functionality of the IE browser. Specifically, where it involves ActivX control components/code.

So what is the workaround?

Apparently there are a couple of options: FlashObject and IFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement). FlashObject seems to be the one that is the most preferred. I checked it out, but am not fully sold on loading yet more JS into my site.

What changes did I implement into the site?

The first step I took was to convert the flash-based site navigation over to straight HTML/CSS. A js script replaced the flash intro using the same nice fade effect. After spending the time to re-develop, determined that nice fade effect is not cross-browser friendly, and only works in IE. HAve to invest some more time into researching a cross-browser solution. That, however, will have to be put on hold while I address a more urgent scenario.

Not only is Microsoft’s decision to change the way they handle ActivX controls affecting IE. There are far-reaching consequences - and that involves MS Office applications that utilize ActivX - especially in relation to Access. The database suite previously developed now won’t function properly. Nor have I determined a viable workaround/solution. Meanwhile, I have 25 people now impatiently needing to use it. I have searched through Microsoft’s website - thinking they would offer some assistance since it’s something we’ve all commonly come to rely upon - but all my efforts have been for naught. I knew I was going to have to do a conversion in the near future, just didn’t realize how soon ‘near’ was going to be.

So, hey Microsoft. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate this. Not sure if you thought this ploy would better position you during the litigation, or if you’re backing down from a fight. Bottom line, you’re just adding fuel to an already intensely blazing fire.

Back to the problem at hand though. Anyone have any solutions to fix the Access ocx plugin?

Want to discuss this more? Head over to the forum thread.