Business: Whatcom County is a good place for a Startup Business

In Dave Gallagher's weekly column in The Bellingham Herald, he reviews a study done by the Corporation for Enterprise Development that grades each state based on the success of startup businesses. Unfortunately, Washington had the highest percentage of business closures in the country. The good news is that Whatcom County fares better than the state as a whole, and 67% of businesses that have opened have stayed open.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/118/story/46948.html

One of the co-authors of the study points out that this number could be increase if there was more business training.

Computer: Take Windows Vista for a Test Drive!

Windows Vista is now available for purchase. In previous posts, we have discussed waiting to purchase this new operating system until you get a new computer. Community Education isn't planning new classes for it until fall or even winter quarter.

That doesn't mean your not curious about what's new or how it works. Luckily, Microsoft has a website that allows you to test out features of Vista without actually installing the software. Windows Vista Testdrive allows you to use the software via your high speed Internet connection and your browser. This isn't the fastest way to try software, but, it sure beats installing new software.... or paying a couple hundred bucks just to play with it!

www.windowsvistatestdrive.com

Community: Spring Schedule Available Soon

Our Spring Schedule is available soon! We are on track to have our spring workshop schedule on the website on February 23 by the end of the day. This will give all of our web readers plenty of time to get into our most popular classes. The printed schedule will be delivered in homes March 2nd.

Community: Daylight Savings Madness

Most of us know that daylight savings time causes issues. Lack of sleep, missed meetings and a general day of weirdness. It seems this year it is even worse. Normally, daylight savings time is the same here as it is in Europe. For the first time, the US is changing on a different day than in Europe! This is leading to some problems for computer systems.

Makes the hour of sleep I lose look a whole lot less important.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/06/gartner_daylight_savings/

Business: Want to sleep at work? Move to France!

It's a known fact that Americans work much longer hours than their European counterparts. As we slave away at our desks 40 hours a week (minimum) and watch our unused vacation time pile up, Europeans check out in August and sun on the beaches. Now, the French minister of health is encouraging naps on the job. Vive le France!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_he_me/france_naps_at_work