Ebook recommendation: The Practice of the Presence Of God

Looking for a good and quick read over the New Year weekend? Well, one book that I have in paper and digital format is The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. It's a really good book and one that I read from time to time. I didn't know that it was in PDA format, but over at Memoware you can download it in doc and Palm reader formats. The paper version is under a 100 pages I believe, so the digital format wouldn't take you to long to read it. You can also browse a website devoted to this book. The website is called, "Practice Gods Presence."

Look in the sky its a bird, no its plane, no its...

a Superman projection alarm clock! That's right folks, now you or your kids can have the Superman S and the time projected onto the wall. That should keep everyone company at night. I know my boys would go crazy of this clock. I'll have to see if I can find one.

"This AM/FM Clock Radio features a Superman design and another high-flying feature: you can project the time on your ceiling for easy reading. The S-shield can also be projected for added fun. Wake up to the built-in Superman theme song or the built-in alarm.

The red LED display is clear and easy to read. A large snooze button helps you get a few more minutes of sleep when you need it. Use a 9V battery (not included) for backup and the clock will keep telling the time even if you lose power."

Source: Gizmondo

Activity for your youth or children's ministries.

OK, this looks very fun and I'm dying to try it. Somebody has come up with a way to make an 120 decibel air horn using only a film canister, balloon, straw, and scissors. You can watch a video of it here. I thought this might be an impressive sermon illustration or activity/craft for your kids. Considering many of us probably have a fun film canisters left over from those 35mm days, you should be able to do this will little trouble at all. The hardest part is cutting the holes in the film canister. Do check out the video as it will answer a lot of your questions. Have fun!

Source: digg

As the year comes to a close, a challenge for you...

As each year comes to a close, I begin to think back to the beginning of the year as many people do I'm sure. I try to see and point out the areas I have grown in or improved in and the areas I didn't do so well in. Things I tried, things I didn't. Overall, I've had a great year, but one question lingers for me and that is "Am I closer to God now then I was then."
As pastors, assistant pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, Christians, we constantly attacked by the Devil and he works against our ministries and our people to keep us as far away as from God as he can. That's why as this year comes to a close, take the time to look back and see if you have grown closer to God or have been stagnate. As servants of the Lord, we cannot allow ourselves to take the easy way or the path of least resistance. It is high time that we as Christians, take every avenue and use every tool we can to further our relationship with God and tell others about His Son, Jesus Christ. It is our reasonable service for our Lord and it would be an awful shame for us to be found wanting in this area.
As your family, church, and you pray in the New Year, please take the time to look at your spiritual life and make the adjustments that you need to to correct or maintain your service for Him! Don't be like these folks in Jeremiah 6:16...

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein."

No more ink stains on your suit or shirt!

This looks amazing and figuring many of you still use pens, I thought I'd give this a mention here. I found this via The Gadgeteer rss feed. This "inkless pen" is made of a metal that can write. From my understanding, it's like a pencil, but won't smear or cause lead stains on your hands. Here's an excerpt from the Inkless Pen's webpage.

"How does it work?

In the Medieval period, artists and scribes often used a metal stylus in order to draw on a specially prepared paper surface. Generally known as Metalpoint, or Silverpoint when the stylus was made of silver, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Rembrandt all used this technique. http://www.silverpointweb.com/index.html gives a lot of information about how it works.

The pens we sell are a modern version (and do not use silver). The solid metal 'nib' consists of a metal alloy, that leaves a mark on most types of paper. If you use the sort of paper typically used in printers and photocopiers, the pen leaves a mark that looks as if it was made by a pencil. However the line will not smudge, and cannot be rubbed out..."

This "pen" is made by Grand Illusions and sells for $29.38 which is good for a pen that will last you 25 years.

Merry Christmas!

My family would like to wish your family a very Merry Christmas! I hope you have all taken the time to read the Christmas Story. In case you haven't here it is!


"1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxeda. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxedb, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxedc with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watchd over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherdse said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them."

Luke 2:1-20

Free Christmas Music

If you haven't already visited the NORAD Santa site, where you can track Santa on Christmas Eve, they have several Christmas Songs performed by the United States Air Force Band and the Naden Band of Maritime Forces Pacific of the Canadian Navy. They are in the mp3 format and they are really good. I've already downloaded them and added them to iTunes. There are other activities as well for the kids that you might want to look at. Merry Christmas!

Mac OS X Lite on the "rumored" Apple phone?

Appleinsider is reporting that Apple "has been developing an operating system based on the core technologies of Mac OS X for use with embedded devices." Interesting as many tech folks believe full operating systems like Vista would be on mobile devices around 2010. Seems like Apple might beat everyone else to the punch. And if they could incorporate their software into the deal- wow! I'm really interested in the Apple phone now. Still we will have to see.

Blackberries everywhere even in paintings.

I just caught this over at the Drudge Report. Apparently Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, included a Blackberry in his portrait painting. The article entiled "Gov. Jeb Bush's Official Portrait Includes BlackBerry" covers this unique feature to a portrait painting.

"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush's official portrait unveiled at the governor's mansion shows him in his office standing next to a picture of his family with his trustworthy BlackBerry."

READ MORE

My favorite launcher for my PDA- Launcher X

I could go on and on about Launcher X. The fact that I could organize my many applications on my Lifedrive via tabs, the ability to run programs from my SD card, simple drag and drop organization. Yes, Launcher X is my favorite launcher for my Palm Lifedrive. It's definitely not the fanciest or the most featured pack, but it works and that's a huge reason why I like it. There will also be an upgrade to it soon to version 2.0 and I cannot wait to see it. If you are looking for a new launcher, I'd highly recommend this one as it really does a great job and won't lose you in a myriad of features. BTW, don't let the picture fool you. LX has plenty of skins available for you to customize LX.

Palm OS Central has Launcher X for $19.95 - %20 discount coupon = $15.96. Use coupon code DECEMBER at checkout.

Another freebie... Media Portal - Organize your media like Windows Media Center

Caught this over at Lifehacker, it's their download of the day. Media Portal does require Windows XP SP2. I'll definitely be given this a try once I get home tonight. This could be handy when you are wanting to show pictures to your congregation via your laptop. Sounds like an easy setup, but I'll have to get it a go to see how useful this would be.

"Windows only: Turn your PC into a full-fledged media center with MediaPortal, an open-source alternative to Microsoft's own Media Center Edition OS.
MediaPortal can play, record and timeshift TV; play videos and DVDs; run photo slideshows; play your music library and FM radio; show local weather; and much more. In short, it offers everything a good media-center application should, all wrapped in a friendly, attractive interface. It even comes with open-source MPEG-2 decoders, a nice extra for systems that don't already have one."

Looking for free or discounted software, computer accessories, etc.?

I have a list of sites that I check to find the best deals on items I am wanting to purchase or other fantastic deals that I would want to purchase. So here are the sites:

Game Giveaway of the Day - they offer one licensed game for free everyday. I just learned about this site yesterday and thus far have downloaded a couple games from them. Some games might not be along your lines, but your kids might certainly appreciate them!

Giveaway of the Day - the kin of Game Giveaway of the Day offers one licensed computer program for free everyday. All you need to do is download the application, install it, and activate it on the day that it is free. Yesterday, I picked up a really nice CD and Audio Ripper program that allows me to also convert audio files to different formats.

Sales Circular - They cover all the electronic and office stores sale ads like Staples, Circuit City, Microcenter, Best Buy, Office Max, etc. You can select your state and they break down the sale items in groups. So one could find the lowest price on a DVD player or computer monitor in your local area.

Slickdeals - These folks post the most amazing deals available on the web. One day they had a Victrinox Swiss Army knife for only $3 with free shipping. If it's an amazing deal you'll find it here, but you've got to be quick to pick up it up because they go fast!

Bits du Jour - They offer one software application for a discounted price. Most apps are discounted by 50% or more. I've picked up an app from them for about $10 that sold normally for $30. Very nice. They also offer Palm Software from time to time.

Freeafterrebate - Well, we all like free and this website focuses on the stuff you can get free after rebate or close to free after rebate. Most stuff here I pass on, but I have found some good deals that I did jump on.

You might be wondering how I can keep up with some many shopping sites? Well, I use Google Reader and Google Homepage and watch these sites' RSS feeds. Makes my life a whole lot easier and consumes less of my time.

SyncToy - easily copy files to another drive, card, USB flashdrive, etc.

I've been using SyncToy for awhile and it is a handy little app. I use it to keep files synced between my desktop documents folder and my USB flash Drive. This helps me keep my latest messages, Sunday School lessons, etc. up-to-date whether at the church or at home. Handy app and it is free!

"SyncToy v1.4 is available as a free download on the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to get copies of files from one place; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping a mental card catalog in their heads. Others use one or more applications to provide this functionality for them.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy is a free PowerToy that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without added complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder."

Jungle secrets: 52 new species found in Borneo's 'Lost World'

I love reading articles like this one. God has created amazing creatures and even today we still are finding new species. The jungles of the world hold many secrets to be sure. It always amazes me how people still believe in evolution over creation. When you find new creations like these that have amazing characteristics, why do people believe that they evolved? Why can't they see that God had a unique plan for that creature and that is way they would created that way. Here's a portion of the article that I read about the new species found.

"More than 50 new species of animals and plants that have never been seen before have been discovered in a 'Lost World' on the island of Borneo in just 18 months, say scientists.
Among them are two tree frogs, a whole range of plants and trees and 30 brand new types of fish including a tiny one less than a centimetre long and a catfish with an adhesive belly that allows it to stick to rocks. "

READ MORE

Better not forget to use that Gift card this Christmas

It's no wonder that retailers prefer to give gift cards for returns. It seems they usually keep the money. According to the Associated Press, retailers have been profiting from unused gift cards, Best Buy alone profited $43 million from unused gift cards. If you have a gift card or get one this Christmas make sure you read the back of them as many have an expiration to them and some even charge you after a certain time period of non-use. Here is an excerpt from the article:

"LOS ANGELES - Shoppers across America have millions of gift cards tucked away in envelopes, drawers and wallets. And some of the nation's largest retailers are profiting as a result.
ADVERTISEMENT

"It can be fun to get them, but then I forget about them," said Deborah Cabaret, 46, who has hundreds of dollars worth of unused cards. "Or I walk into the store, I look around, I don't know what I want, and I leave."

Last winter, Best Buy Co. reported a $43 million gain in fiscal 2006 from cards that hadn't been used in two or more years. Limited Brands Inc. recorded $30 million in 2005 revenue because of unredeemed cards."

READ MORE

Google Toolbar Beta for FireFox

Saw this over at the Google Blog that you can now get a Beta version of the Google Toolbar for FireFox that has many of the same features as the Internet Explorer version. Definitely worth a look.

Free software from Google

Google has several excellent freeware titles available for your downloading pleasure. My favorites are Google Toolbar and Picasa. I cannot tell you how many times a day that I use Google Toolbar at work or here at home. It's my favorite toolbar for Firefox. Picasa is also an excellent tool, but one that I don't use as often. I still like it and think its great, it just doesn't see as much use as Google Toolbar. If you haven't checked out these titles or other Google software, like Google Earth, you can do so here. If you would like a free gmail address invite, please email me at joshua "at" thegadgetpastor "dot" com (please replace the quoted words as symbols.) I'll be glad to send one out to you!

From Fox News: Russian Teen Sues School Over Teaching of Evolution

How interesting is this? I think its important that we remember to pray for other Christians through out the world that are taking a stand for God and His Word.

"Maria Shreiber sued the St. Petersburg city education committee, claiming the 10th-grade biology textbook used at the Cervantes Gymnasium was offensive to believers and that teachers should offer an alternative to Darwin's famous theory.

"The biology textbook generally refers to religion and the existence of God in a negative way. It infringes on believers' rights," she said in comments carried by Russian television stations."

READ MORE

Miracle on Bethlehem Street

Our church's Christian school held their annual Christmas program, called Miracle on Bethlehem Street, tonight. The program went well and many of the kids surprised us with their acting abilities. While not to take away at all from their praise, I was able to use my iPod nano as background music while everybody arrived. It worked out quite well and added to the already great play. Congrats guys!

The best of Lifehacker from Gizmodo

I caught this in my Google RSS reader and thought I'd share it here. Lifehacker is a sharp computer help guide. They offer recommendations in software and other computer related topics. It's a definite must read for the IT manager at your church. Gizmodo has posted the "best of Lifehacker" and here are those topics:

• How to run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels
  "You can intermingle all your Mac and Windows apps on the same desktop. I know what you're thinking: Disgusting! Unnatural!"
• Video Editing 101
  "'Tis the season for sharing home movies--but don't try your friends' and relatives' patience waiting for something good to happen in the hours of tape you shot on vacation."
• Visualize your hard drive usage
  "With video, music, photos and web clippings hogging up hard drives more and more each day, that "Low Disk Space" message may come a lot sooner than you ever expected. Where did all those gigabytes go?"
• Download of the Day: New York Times Reader (Windows)
  "The New York Times Reader lets you download full editions of the NYT to your desktop where you can browse the contents offline in a very familiar newsprint format."

READ MORE

Old Computer equipment.

At our school, we receive many donations of old computer equipment. Some of it I've been able to use while much of it has found its way to the dumpster. I do save things like CD drives, hard drives, memory, etc. parts I might use for another computer. Two things about giving away old computer items: 1) Securely erase your data on the disk, do not assume the next owner will do so for you; 2) Once you are done with it, pass it on. One church I interned at gave me an old computer my junior year in college. It proved to be a huge help for me as I needed it to type on papers and such. I believe my Palm Lifedrive has better specs then that old computer I used. Still it go the job done and after I graduated, I gave away to someone else to use.

I think when you can and if you can, donating your old computer items is a great way to help others. A simple search on Google can help you find places that you can donate your old computer equipment.

Baptist Billboard

I recently listed with the Baptist Billboard. Basically, it's very much like the 1 million pixel page where churches and other ministries can advertise on the site. It's quite reasonable at $.25 a pixel. I purchased a small section at the top right of the page. At the price, its a great way to direct other Believers to your church's website or blog.

Datebk 6 a very useful calendar manager for me.

Staying organize can be a difficult task especially when you are in the ministry. People ask if you could visit this person or help out here or preach there and all the while you agree to these things. What ends up happening is you forget to do them, because you relied on your brain when is already overwhelmed. Enter a Palm Lifedrive and Datebk 6 and I'm doing a lot better. Datebk 6 is IMO the premiere calendar application for you Palm PDA or Treo. Here is the list of some of the best features of Datebk 6:

Advantages over the built-in Datebook

• Colors, fonts, icons, custom alarms and repeats (on both events and ToDo's) make it easy highlight important events

• Full integration of ToDo's, split-screen display of all databases.

• Today screen with plug-ins (VersaMail, SnapperMail, WeatherForecast, battery status, quote-of-the-day, phases of moon - more to come!) and many ways to configure it. Note: some plug-ins written by other developers may only be trial versions which require a separate charge for a fully licensed version, although most are free.

• Floating Reminders (advances) for items give advance warning that avoid surprises.

• Saved Views make it possible to customize a view and then save it for future use or schedule it with a complex repeat schedule so it gets applied automatically when you want

• Alarm Manager shows all upcoming alarms, allows you to silence all alarms to a fixed date/time, or you can designate certain events (such as meetings) to automatically silence alarms.

• Quick Entry Templates available in all views insert standard boilerplate items with just a few taps

• Weekly View with text shows a week-at-a-glance with the ability to read the appointment text. Year, 4-month and list views are also featured in DateBk6 and even the graphical weekly and monthly views have options to display text.

• Use Palm OS categories to separate business from personal use or store calendars of other people, with the ability to beam an entire category to another user.

• Colorful icons along with an icon editor provides both useful functionality and a creative outlet.

• Sony Clie Support includes support for Small and Tiny fonts, jog dial, PCM Sound Library(OS/4/4.1 only), high density icons and collapsible graffiti on NR-70, NX-70/80, NZ-90 etc. (Half-VGA screen).

• TimeZone management allows multiple items in different timezones to be displayed with adjustments in your current timezone.

• Flexible purging, separate history database and undelete functions make it easy to manage past events.

• Enhanced Date Picker has popup list of all events/ToDo's

• Anniversary feature shows years for anniversaries or ages on birthdays - also handles birthday field in proprietary contacts database present on some newer Palm devices.

• Link items to other items, so an appointment can link to other related appointments or ToDo's - or to contacts associated with that appointment.

• More than 100 other features covering ease of use, and flexible configuration options make DateBk6 one of the best values in Palm OS add-on software.

• Support. When you need help, you are talking to highly experienced Palm OS users/developers with a genuine interest in helping you - not novice support technicians at a large company that have relatively little interest in your problems.

Having an evangelistic dinner...

In college, I helped with several evangelistic dinners. Our church family would invite unsaved friends and family to a dinner, which was provided for free to all. The men would usually have a steak dinner and the ladies would have a fancier meal, some chicken or whatever. At the dinners, there would be special music, a skit or two, and a short 15 minute message on salvation. I have personally seen many salvation decisions made from these dinners and several families join the church because of them.
These dinners provide an opportunity for folks to come for a dinner and a short message who might not come to church for specific reasons. I've personally enjoyed preparing these meals and the secret steak sauce I use is a big help as many of the men continually talk about it for months afterwards.
If you have never done an evangelistic dinner at your church, you ought to consider trying it and see what great things God can do.

Weekday Devotionals from Center Road Baptist Church

My pastor posts a daily video devotional at our church's website. The devotionals are short about 2-3 minutes long and are a good way to jump start your day. If you have a mind to, this would be a good addition to your website. While I know it would take time and faithfulness, it does offer another means for you to communicate with your people throughout the week and to reach into the utter most parts of the earth. You can also download our bulletin as well if you would like to see what we have planned for Sunday and the following week.

From CNN: Poll: Teens, adults separated by 'IM gap'

OK, you may not be a huge CNN fan, but I thought this article was interesting none the less. As a youth pastor, I try to stay aware of the things my teenagers are interested in. I do my best to stay informed and help them make decisions that would be honoring to God. The article expresses that some adults just don't understand instant messaging. I myself don't IM many people at all. While I see my teenagers IM-ing their friends, I don't use this feature of technology. However, it's still important for us pastors and youth pastors to be aware of the technology around us. If we can't adapt, we may miss helping and teaching those around us.

"Teenager Michelle Rome can't imagine life without instant messaging. Baby boomer Steve Wilson doesn't care that it even exists.

They're part of an "instant messaging gap" between teens and adults. And the division is wide, says an AP-AOL survey on how Americans use or snub those Internet bursts of gossip, happy date-making and teen tragedies that young people exchange by the hour while supposedly doing homework."

READ MORE

Tweaking the site.

I've just moved over to Blogger Beta and as you may have noticed somethings have changed or look a bit funny. I'm working on completing the transition, but in the mean time if you could, please be patient with the errors and funny looking layouts. Thanks!

PIC reviews the Treo 680

Palminfocenter has compiled a great review of the Treo 680. PIC was one of the first Palm sites that I found after receiving my m100 for Christmas. Over the years PIC has proven to be a trust-worthy source for Palm related news.

"The Treo 680 is the fourth and final new Treo promised by Palm prior to the start of 2006. When it was announced it was billed by Palm as a lower cost, more affordable Treo. Palm has hopes that more customers migrate from the realms of feature phones and choose a Treo. To date price, complexity and the larger form factor of smartphones have held back most average users from choosing a smartphone. The Treo 680 addresses these points and debuts with the lowest introductory price of any new Treo smartphone."

Please remember the Kim family.

I know many folks and tech sites have been following this story. I've been praying for the safe return of the Kim family these last few days. Unfortunately, James Kim, CNET editor and the father missing in southern Oregon, was found deceased earlier today. Be sure to keep his wife and two children in your prayers as well. You can check a site setup for them by their personal friends. It is www.jamesandkati.com.

ebook Recommendation: Fox Book of Martyers

I noticed that Memoware has Fox's Book of Martyrs available for free. Its available for in the text, Palm Doc, and Tome Raider formats. I think this would be a great ebook to keep on your PDA as the stories about these Christians who gave it all is an inspiration to keep the faith no matter what.

Personal Stuff...

As you can well see, I'm back posting. I shared with you all last week that our school principal had taken a leave of absence to be with his father, who was dying of cancer. His father did pass away this past week and I know that he and the rest of his family would appreciate your prayers.

This has got me thinking about my dad and how much he means to me. I know Father's day is a long time away, but the Christmas season will be upon us soon and we all should take some time to visit with our families. Many times ministry and hobbies, like TGP, can take away from our family time. The scary part is we never know how much time we have before God calls us or a family member home to be with Him. So redeem that time know and don't put it off. I know that I'll be talking to my dad more this Christmas.


"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

James 4:13-15

Thoughts about Windows Live

I've been testing Windows Live for a couple weeks now and overall, I don't think it will sway me away from logging in to my Blogger Dashboard. The main reason why I won't use this as my replacement to posting is because I cannot upload a picture to TGP unless I have an FTP account. I do believe this may be specific to Blogger only, but you might want to check it out for yourself as it is a cool way to view your post prior to posting.
I also attempted to setup a Windows Live Blog, but really didn't like want they had to offer, plus I hate having to learn a whole new setup for a blog. It was challenging enough for me to set up TGP. Anyways, still I liked much of what Windows Live could do, but it just didn't work for me. I had been hoping this could have been a time saver for me and maybe it will be someday- if I ever get an FTP account setup.

Can you upgrade to Windows Vista?

If you are wondering whether or not that your computer can upgrade to Windows Vista, check out Microsoft's Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. From all that I have read, Vista does sound rather cool. It's still expensive to purchase as an upgrade and I'm not to eager to be a first-adopter of an OS. I found out my computer could handle Vista if I wanted to upgrade, but to upgrade to Vista Business the cost was around $200. Kinda expensive- ok its really expensive compared to other OSes.