Newtown, Connecticut: One Year Later

December 20, 2013: I reflect on the first anniversary of that terrible day when the innocent lives of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, Conn. were taken, and can’t imagine how difficult it must be for those families to overcome such a tragic loss a year later, especially during the holiday season. I’ve heard that some families have found strength through forgiveness and have moved on, others have taken up new causes in the name of lost loved ones, while others remain as an open wound, unable to move forward. This tragedy struck me deeply, as a father, man, and human being. This is why I took it upon myself to raise more than $17,600 to help Sandy Hook Elementary School children recover and excel past this devastating event.

Using the popular fundraising site IndieGoGo®, my personal contribution along with the generous contributions from supporters quickly surpassed my original goal. Due to the viral nature of the campaign and its promotion on one of the top sites on the Internet, Inbox.com, this campaign proved to be an efficient means of fundraising for the children who were so wrongfully harmed.

Like the Sandy Hook Elementary PTA, I, too, believe it is important that we strive to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and their surrounding communities. We need to advocate for the safety, education, and love for all children around the world.

It is my hope that the fundraising efforts and its positive resulting effects have made us all more aware of our children, and that it prevents a future catastrophe like this from ever happening again.

Traditional Start Menu is Preferred by Windows® 8.1 Users and Classic Start 8 Delivers

Dwcember 20, 2013: Users of Windows® 8 favor a traditional style start menu and Classic Start 8 software has been responsive to their desires. Classic Start 8 has been providing a reliable no-cost start menu solution for Windows® 8 users since being released by Crawler, LLC last year. The recent Windows® 8.1 update addressed issues in direct response to users’ frustrations with using the Metro user interface. However, users still preferred the familiarity of a traditional style start menu than the deeply buried, hard to find feature that Windows® 8.1 provided. Since the lukewarm reception of Windows® 8.1 by its users, Classic Start 8 has seen strong growth in installations.

This is because Classic Start 8 preserves the familiar form and function of Windows® 7 for the Windows® 8.1 upgrade. By placing a traditional style start button back in its place, along with access to all programs, pinning options, search features and shut down choices, users can take full advantage of this latest version from Microsoft®.

Those hesitating to improve their Windows® experience with an upgrade to Windows® 8 because of its touch input or navigation features, no longer need to delay. Classic Start 8 maintains the way users operate Windows®, easing the transition to the Windows® 8 Metro interface.

Businesses and personal users moving to Windows® 8 can hit the ground running with Classic Start 8, by giving them a way to adapt to the power, speed and innovation of the new user interface with a minimal learning curve.

Available free for home and business use, Classic Start 8 can be downloaded from its website at Classic Start 8 and is offered on many free download websites.