The new platform developed for edX provides more than mere videos of lectures. Class handouts, quizzes, immediate feedback, student-ranked questions and answers, online laboratories and student-paced learning round out the multi-media, interactive learning platform.

MIT courses are planned for fall, although rumors say Harvard might start offering courses as soon as this summer. Visitors to www.edxonline.org can sign up to receive class announcments and edX news.

And if MIT and Harvard aren’t enough for you, a new online education start-up, Coursera, offers free online courses from Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and University of Pennsylvania.

Forget about trying to remember run-of-the-mill passwords. Those wireless network security keys are looooong. There’s no way you are going to remember yours. You’re lucky if you can remember where you wrote it down. Even if you can find it, try typing it correctly on the first try!

Well, here’s a nice bonus for those who have already made the upgrade to Windows 7: you can easily export your wireless settings from one machine to another. You just save the settings on a USB stick and import them right into any computer running Windows.

Check out this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

Microsoft, with quite a bit of data on such things, has found that average deployment of a new operating system across an entire enterprise can take 18 to 32 months. This average is probably more applicable to much larger companies than are most of our small business audience. But, making the leap from 10-year-old Windows XP and Office 2003 to the very latest Windows operating system and Office suite will be more time-consuming than you anticipate. That’s why we urge you to begin planning now!

Why even bother, you might ask. You and your employees are comfortable and efficient using familiar old XP and Office 2003. But, after April 8, 2014, there will be no new security updates, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.

Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 after that date can expose your business to risks, including:

• Security & Compliance Risks — Unsupported operating systems are vulnerable to security risks. If your company is subject to any sort of audit or certification body, this could also lead to suspension of certifications, even public notification of your inability to maintain systems and customer information.
• Lack of Independent Software Vendor & Hardware Manufacturers support — A recent industry report from Gartner Research suggests “many independent software vendors are unlikely to support new versions of applications on Windows XP…” Gartner Research also noted that most hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of new PC models. The end of software and hardware support for Windows XP is already beginning, two years before the end-of-support date. You may not be able to get the latest update for a mission-critical software program your business depends on!

We recommend that you take steps now to get current with Windows 7 and Office 2010. Remember, there are actually some benefits to making the leap. Windows 7 and Office 2012 offer features that will allow your business to take advantage of the latest technology and become even more efficient.

What’s the first step? Small to medium businesses should work with a Microsoft Certified Partner, like Invision, to understand the best options that will fit their needs. If your company’s current PCs meet the system requirements for Windows 7, we can help you purchase and install it. If your PC does not meet system requirements, we will help you first configure the systems that best fit your needs and budget.

Dropbox, Box, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Apple’s iCloud. And announced just this week, Google’s Drive.

Typically, such services offer more than just storage. They also include file management, sharing and even syncing.

Most offer a basic free plan with limited storage space, most typically 5G of space, and most also offer desktop and mobile apps to facilitate moving files to and from the cloud.

There are many facets on which to compare the services when determining the one that will work best for you: price, features, operating systems supported. But don’t forget about the TOS. That’s the “Terms of Service,” where things like privacy measures and a bunch of other legal mumbo jumbo is presented for you to accept before you can start using the service.

If you are thinking right now, “but I never read that stuff,”  then you are definitely in the majority. One blogger, however, did read the TOS, and he shares a frightening excerpt from the new Google Drive service. He also compares it to the analogous sections of the Dropbox and SkyDrive TOS. Read his post, Sticking with Dropbox.