This last weekend, my friend and I headed into Central Washington State for a "Spring Break" roadtrip adventure. Our first stop was Seattle, and then we headed over the Snoqualmie Pass into Central Washington where we stopped by Grand Coulee Dam before heading down to the Tri-Cities area before heading home. I took with me my Dell XPS M1530 (PRODUCT) RED Laptop with me running of course Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED. I also took my Canon HV20 HD Camcorder, and a Canon Digital Rebel XTi - both of which are Certified for Windows Vista.

On the road, I focused mostly on photography. Many of the places we visited didn't really work well for video and I didn't feel me standing in front of the camera playing "tour guide" would be of any real value. I relied heavily of course on Windows Vista and Windows Live Photo Gallery to import and manage my photos. Because the Canon Digital Rebel XTi is Certified for Windows Vista - it was hassle free to import sometimes up to 400 pictures into Windows Live Photo Gallery. And the photos themselves averaged about 3MB each as I was shooting in the highest quality possible at 10.1 megapixels.

In using Windows Live Photo Gallery, I have the ability to create a panoramic stitch from the photos I took - probably my most favorite feature in Windows Live Photo Gallery. In shooting photos - I made sure I was shooting with the intent to create stitches. What does that mean really? I would take a picture from one angle, then the next, then the next - which would then allow for Windows Live Photo Gallery to create excellent stitches. I'll probably do a video on exactly how I shoot for stitching later on.

So now I have a few really cool panoramic stitches to share of the places we stopped on our roadtrip. I go through them in chronological order with some commentary to add context to each photo.

While in Seattle, we ended up walking down to the waterfront from the Space Needle. I took this shot on the roof of the Bell Harbor Conference Center:

Later on, we decided to head on up to the observation deck of the Space Needle. I was able to get several awesome panoramic shots of Seattle from the top of the Space Needle. Here is the first series of shots I took - looking northwest out toward Puget Sound:

Then I took some shots to create this shot overlooking Elliot Bay:

This is Seattle and probably my favorite panoramic stitch of the Seattle bunch:

And finally this is looking east towards the Cascade Mountain Range. You can see Lake Union on the lower left:

The next day - we headed over the Snoqualmie Pass toward Central Washington State and the Grand Coulee Dam. Up over the pass, it got quite snowy which was a nice (and interesting) change of scenery:

About 100 miles later we were here overlooking the Columbia River near Vantage, WA:

Back on the road heading to Grand Coulee Dam - we ended up stopping in the middle of nowhere for this shot:

In Central Washington, there is quite a bit of interesting geological features (part of why we headed out here). Here is a panoramic shot of Dry Falls. Dry Falls about 10,000-15,000 years ago was a huge water fall carved out by ice age flooding. You can read more about the history of Dry Falls here. But to be here and see it in person was absolutely amazing:

We finally reached Grand Coulee Dam. It's pretty big. They say it is the largest concrete structure in the United States. And you can see - there is quite a bit of concrete! We wanted to get a dam tour but it so happens that the very day we drove hundreds of miles to see the dam was the day they decided to do maintenance on the elevators for the tours. This is another one of my favorite shots from the trip:

Our trip ended the next day on Oregon Coast outside Tillamook, OR:

Hopefully you've enjoyed seeing these panoramic stitches of some of these amazing places. Creating your own stitches in Windows Live Photo Gallery is really easy too - all you need is a digital camera and to be able to import into Windows Live Photo Gallery. You can download Windows Live Photo Gallery, part of the Windows Live suite, here.

I'd like to give a shout out to Canon for loaning me the Canon Digital Rebel XTi for the trip. It is a pretty slick camera and as these shots show, it takes some pretty good photos. If you are looking for a DSLR - definitely take a look at this camera.

To help celebrate St. Patrick's Today - the Windows Live OneCare Team is kicking off a brand new campaign: Get Green Stay Green.

The Get Green Stay Green campaign is designed to make sure Windows Live OneCare users are staying "green" - meaning their PC Health Status. Here is Amy Barzdukas, Senior Direct here at Microsoft, to talk about Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC safe. Amy leads the Windows Live OneCare Team.

Video: Microsoft Windows Live OneCare

I use Windows Live OneCare on my 3 personal home PCs - which are connected together in an OneCare Circle (you can have up to 3 PCs in an OneCare Circle). This lets me manage the PC Health for all my personal PCs. If any of my PCs in my OneCare Circle have their PC Health Status change to yellow or red, I can quickly see which PC it is and why. I can then do what is needed to bring that PC back to green. Keeping all my PCs green is very important to me. If any of my PCs slip into yellow or red - I fix it immediately.

I have a few tips to share from personal experience in keeping my PCs green in my OneCare Circle that you can use to help keep your own PCs green:

• Make sure you have your PCs backed up. Windows Live OneCare can backup your PCs automatically to a centralized point on your home network. In my case, I have all my home PCs backed up to my Windows Home Server which Windows Live OneCare detects.
• Have your firewall turned on. Windows Live OneCare can maintain and monitor your firewall - protecting your PC from attacks. Even though I'm behind a pretty secure router - I have the firewall turned on for all PCs in my OneCare Circle to add an extra level of protection.
• Make sure Protection Plus (malware definitions) are up to date. This ensures your PC is protected from the latest internet garbage.
• Do a PC Tune-up! Windows Live OneCare can do regular Tune-ups that can ensure your PC is running at its best.
• Make sure your PC has the latest updates from Windows Update. Important updates are key to ensuring your PC stays green.

Again, keeping my home PCs green is very important to me and the above tips help me to do so.

Do you have any tips for Windows Live OneCare and keeping your PC green? I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment below. I would be particularly interested in hearing about how you use Windows Live OneCare to ensure your PCs are backed up.

Users can also visit http://www.getgreenstaygreen.com/ and find out what it takes to keep their PC "green".

I use about 2-3 different PCs throughout the week for work - including my laptop when I travel away from the office. In doing this - I have files scattered on multiple PCs. I'll go to one PC and find I need a file from another PC. So to make sure all my PCs are in-sync with all the important files I need and use - I use Windows Live FolderShare. Windows Live FolderShare is a service that lets users sign-in to set up Libraries that consist of folders on multiple PCs. These Libraries are synced using the Windows Live FolderShare client that sits on each PC. Users can have multiple Libraries setup as well as Shared Libraries with friends.

Today, the FolderShare Team is shipping a Beta Refresh of both the Windows Live FolderShare website and client that offers some great improvements to the Windows Live FolderShare service at http://www.foldershare.com/. Those improvements include:

• Improved usability with the Windows Live FolderShare website - UI aligns with other Windows Live services.
• Updated Windows Live FolderShare Client.
• Back-end improvements.
• Full Windows Vista support with updated Windows Live FolderShare Client.

Today's Beta Refresh supports Windows Live FolderShare's already supported countries and regions: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

If you are already a Windows Live FolderShare Beta user - it is recommended you upgrade to today's new beta client. Your account information, folders, device, and settings should migrate over just fine. Users who don't upgrade to the new Windows Live FolderShare client Beta should expect to be asked to upgrade in the near future.

I thought I'd do a quick over view of my experience with the new Windows Live FolderShare website.

To login to the new Windows Live FolderShare site - I logged in with the same credentials I did with the previous Windows Live FolderShare site. You account remains exactly the same despite the awesome new site.

After logging in, I was able to view all my Libraries and PCs configured with the Windows Live FolderShare client. Here I can create and manage Libraries (both shared and private). I'll get to the remote access stuff here in a second but essentially this is where I can see which of my PCs (running the Windows Live FolderShare client) are online. I can also use remote access to access files on the PCs that are online.

I was able to click on one of my Libraries I have set up and see the sync status. You'll see here my "Microsoft_Work_Docs" Library. I have 37 of 37 files synced between two PCs with another PC offline (this is my laptop).This is a Library I have set up that syncs up all my blog posts I write. I write my posts in Word or Windows Live Writer and save them to a specific folder on my PC which is then synced with Windows Live FolderShare and my other PCs. I sometimes write posts on my laptop when I'm out traveling but want to come back to them later on one of my desktop PCs at home. The Library makes sure all my drafts for blog posts are all synced on all my PCs.

As mentioned above, PCs that are shown as online under "Remote access" allow me (via the Windows Live FolderShare website) to access files and folders remotely. This is an absolutely wonderful feature. Here I am accessing my Dell XPS 420 desktop PC.

I can access the specific storage devices I have on my XPS 420 (darddrives and removable media like external harddrives and USB sticks) or pre-determined folders.

NOTE: The pre-determined folders are folders under which ever user account Windows Live FolderShare is running under.

If I click on the "Photos" folder, I can view all my photos.

I can pick and choose any file - in this case any photo - and download them to the PC I am using to access the Windows Live FolderShare site at that time. This works for music, videos, or any other files stored in specific folders.

Beyond the Windows Live FolderShare website - we have the updated beta client. The Windows Live FolderShare client sits on the taskbar in Windows Vista and runs in the background. By clicking on the Windows Live FolderShare client icon on the taskbar, I can view all the Libraries I am syncing on my PC.

I can also use the client to quick go to the Windows Live FolderShare website to set up new Libraries. It's very easy to set up new Libraries and they show up almost immediately. You can also view the Activity of the files being synced to your PC as well through the Windows Live FolderShare client.

Windows Live FolderShare is an amazing way to sync your files with multiple PCs and access your files remotely. It really saves a lot of time from bouncing between multiple PCs. Thanks to Windows Live FolderShare, all I have to do is sit at any of my PCs and I have all my important files I need.

To get started with today's Windows Live FolderShare Beta refresh - just head on over to http://www.foldershare.com/!

UPDATE: The kinks are still being worked out after migrating to the new Windows Live FolderShare. If you are having a problem downloading the client installer - you can download it directly here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111309

Back in September, Nick blogged about two new LifeCams from Microsoft Hardware: the VX-7000 and NX-3000. Recently, I've been looking for a new webcam. I already owned the VX-3000 - but I wanted something a little more powerful and higher quality.  And the VX-7000 is just that! I went ahead and picked one up last week and thought I'd share some notes on my experience with it so far.

First off, let me give you a brief introduction to the device. The VX-7000 is the top-of-the-line webcam in the VX series of LifeCams from Microsoft Hardware. The VX series LifeCams are designed for desktop PCs while the NX series LifeCams are designed for laptops. The VX-7000 is a Certified for Windows Vista device so it is designed to work great with Windows Vista. All LifeCams are optimized for Windows Live - specifically being used with Windows Live Messenger for video calls. The VX-7000 comes with a pretty slick set of specs (you can also read the specs here from the Microsoft Hardware site):

• 2.0 Megapixel Sensor for clear video
• Built-in Microphone designed to capture crystal clear audio
• Universal Attachment Base to fit on top and clamp on to most monitors
• Auto-Adjustment for Low Light Conditions
• 71 degree Wide-angle Lens
• High Definition 8 Megapixel still digital photographs

Both video and still photos are shot at 1600x1200 screen resolution which is really nice.

The VX-7000 (and all LifeCams) utilizes the Microsoft LifeCam client where you can take photos and videos using the camera. You can download the Microsoft LifeCam along with the drivers here.

But what the VX-7000 is perfect at, I found out, is doing video calls with contacts in Windows Live Messenger. I used Windows Live Messenger's Audio and Video wizard (under the Tools menu) to set the audio and video up with the VX-7000. I then initiated a video call with a friend of mine and within seconds my friend could hear and see me via my VX-7000 webcam. And the quality was pretty good!

As I mentioned above, you can use the Microsoft LifeCam client to record photos and videos using the VX-7000 (or any LifeCam). And with Windows Live Photo Gallery - you can upload those photos you take to your Windows Live Space (or Flickr). Did you also know that with Windows Live Photo Gallery you can upload videos to MSN Soapbox as well?

I was able to take several videos I shot with the VX-7000 and use Windows Live Photo Gallery to upload them to MSN Soapbox.

Overall though I've been really impressed with the quality of the VX-7000 in general and it should certainly be looked at if you're looking for a new webcam.

Are you like me and not in Las Vegas attending MIX08 starting today? Not to worry - they have some excellent resources available to us that let us keep up with MIX08 as it happens!

All things MIX08 will come via MIX Online. MIX Online is your ultimate source for MIX this year.

Starting at 9:30am Pacific Standard Time - MIX Online will stream the keynote live from MIX08. Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Dean Hachamovitch, and Scott Guthrie are all keynote speakers this year along with Guy Kawasaki. Click here to read the keynote speaker bios. Should be a fun keynote!

You will also be able to view all sessions that happen at MIX08 shortly after they occur.

And you can even add a little taste of MIX08 to your desktop with Adam Kinney's MIX08 wallpaper.

Now you have all you need to keep up with all the cool stuff coming out of MIX08 this year. Oh and pay attention to us here too ;-)