@scottalanmiller said:

@garak0410 only perfect for small business because it is all that there is for office automation on Ms Office. VBA is a horrible language for small businesses to be saddled with, though.

LibreOffice uses BASIC, JavaScript, Python or BeanShell. So you can choose.

If, God willing, I am in this job for years to come, I plan on sharpening my skills in other languages in hopes we can get off of VBA...but for now, its a way of life.

@JaredBusch said:

It has been SOO long since I worked with VBA (or whateve they call it now) that I cannot even follow this easily.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Pol said:

@JaredBusch Here in the Philippines, there are still lots of big company that uses VBA.

VBA continues to be used because it is the language of MS Office apps. If you need to automate your office suite, it is the only choice.

Yes...my office is FULL of Excel sheets and many with VBA and I don't ever see us going away from it. While kind of a messy language, it is perfect for small businesses. And another reason I am getting my MOS Master and hitting the VBA books. They want me to be a programmer and a "know it all" in Office in addition to my System Admin duties.

I deleted mine a few years ago. Never saw a purpose to it and it was in an effort to decrease my "social' network presence.

Trying to create an excel form with a Word document template and associate cells in a SQL database to go "paperless" with some of our handwritten receipts. And I am basically a neophyte in all of these areas but it is fun to try and learn on the job.

I've been on the Surface Bandwagon since day one and they have always been slow on promised accessories. I think they test the waters with initial sales first before putting out additional ones, like the dock. We still haven't seen the "blades" of attachable devices like the music mixer.

As far as the same SP1/SP2 dock working for the SP3...that is an interesting revelation, considering the size difference between them.

Jealous...you should see my speeds at home....I pay for 8MB and barely average 3MB...

@Minion-Queen said:

A bit of it in this house is the vendors giving me stuff. We end up cycling through so much stuff (mostly useless) because of it.

Yes...I am on a review program (review/keep) and sometimes I get stuff I don't really need...while I usually LOVE having storage, it got to the point where I had too much. Legally, I am not to sell or give it away...

@ajstringham said:

@Dashrender said:

ASUS Transformer Prime tablet (only used for movies and e-reading)

You have a Prime?! Dang dude, those were the $4!+ when they first came out. They managed to pass the Xoom, and at the time that was saying something. The Galaxy line was still young and still trying to do the tablet thing before Samsung realized the real money and success would be in the phone and/or phablet market. Nice! Honeycomb FTW!

The Prime was pretty good...it was my last Android tablet before moving to the Surface tablets...

@scottalanmiller said:

Tablets and phones definitely drive me crazy with the hundreds of logins per day. Press a button, swipe the screen, type a code. You have to use three distinct input methods for one action.

I'd go crazy if it were not for the fingerprint reader on my iPhone. I am praying that the Mini 3 will have that too. Best new iPhone feature.

I am looking forward to the Surface Pro 3 where I can press the end of the stylus and bypass logins and instantly begin taking notes.

@scottalanmiller said:

@garak0410 who is that and what series?

Babylon 5...Londo Mollari ...very intensely written character...you loved him but hated him too and eventually had pity on him...the most amazing character arc I've ever seen on TV. My wife, who isn't into Sci-Fi, watched Babylon 5 with me and by the time it was over, she had tears streaking down her cheek and said it was the best TV SHOW she has ever seen.

Was Londo Mollari one of best written characters ever in a television series?

@Minion-Queen said:

It's interesting to hear others opinions as I used one for a bit and didn't like it. However to be fair I am comparing it to an Ipad mini and the ipad just beat it in all areas that I need a tablet for hands down. Though to be fair I use these devices differently than you guys do.

I used to love to jump on the "tease Apple users" but working as a solo IT shop manager, I know there is a device for every person. I prefer the Microsoft Ecosystem but I appreciate what the iPad offers my users. I am not against Android but we only have iOS or Windows Phones/Windows tablets here.

As mentioned, I have the Surface Pro 2 and a Surface Pro 3 on preorder. But this device has been a joy to use. As some say, 8" may be the sweet spot. I am sure I'll use the heck out of the Surface Pro 3 but may find I travel more with the Venue Pro 8.

Listening to Crowder's NEON STEEPLE album on XBOX Music and trying to trouble shoot an IP Address issue with a VBA heavy spreadsheet.

I love technology and gadgets but there can come a time where I feel "over gadgeted." Sometimes less is actually more. I have a Windows Phone, Surface Pro 2 (Surface Pro 3 on the way) and a desktop PC. All have their functions and serve me well. So why would I need an 8" Windows tablet when I get those features in the Surface Pro 2 and to an extent, my Windows Phone? I can't answer that really but I've found the Venue 8 Pro to be surprisingly useful and productive.

The Venue Pro 8 is a full PC It has the latest Intel Atom processor and it has proven to be snappy and up to the task at whatever I have thrown at it. I've installed Visual Studio 2013 and it runs great and not as slow as expected. I've even tried Steam and loaded Skyrim and while needing low settings, it worked well enough in a pinch to play a full desktop game. Other older games, like from GOG.com worked great though you do need a keyboard and mouse for 95% of these games.

The device is an absolute joy to use in portrait mode. The latest Windows 8.1x updates have greatly improved portrait mode use and I find myself using it the majority of the time for reading, browsing and other consumption use. I've even used it via VPN/Remote desktop and it scales my servers to portrait mode in Remote Desktop and I can't say enough how useful it has been.

I was also quite surprised at how productive I could be without using a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse. Microsoft Office 2013 (included, in Home/Student edition) handles the differences between touch and keyboard/mouse quite well. I did some light editing of Word documents with ease and copying and pasting from PDF files (using READER) and it all was quite easy to do. The aforementioned Remote Desktop works great and I find that I don't have a lot of problems with the desktop, though sometimes hitting minimize or the X is not terribly easy.

I also have the optional stylus and if you are thinking of getting it, do know you need to use your My Dell program and download the firmware updates for both the tablet and the screen before you use it. It is not a good experience without the updates. Coming from the Surface Pro 2, I can say the stylus experience on the Venue Pro 8 is OK. But if this is your only tablet and option, then I can recommend the additional expense.

The screen is quite clear and vibrant though sometimes small text is hard to read, at least with my eyes. Sound is VERY impressive and better than other tablets I've seen costing hundreds more.

You will want to get the 64GB model for sure. The 32 GB model, even if you backup and remove the recovery drive, doesn't leave you with much space. You can install desktop apps on a MicroSD card (directly or via mount point) but the C drive is essential for a lot of operations of the tablet. I've moved over SkyDrive to the MicroSD but it doesn't seem to run as well. Also, Windows Store seems to have a lot of "cache space" when you download and install apps. You recover it after some time or a reboot. But I can't stress enough, go for the 64GB model .

I've connected other Micro USB devices to this (including as Micro USB to USB adapter) and all have performed quite well.

I've had no real problems with it. I've heard of issues with the micro USB port and charging problems. I've had none of that. I have had "modern" apps not respond quite a bit. You get their splash screen and then nothing happens. A reboot (sometimes several) seems to take care of that. I also got the blue screen of death (friendlier in Windows 8 with at least a frown face) when starting the camera app but rotating to landscape mode before it finished loading. But no real show killers with the device.

I may be convinced that even with nifty devices like the Surface Pro 3, there may be a place for 8 inch tablets in your life. I can highly recommend the Dell Venue 8 Pro 64GB.

@Minion-Queen said:

I had all sorts of issues when I first got it (again Vendors are awesome) but it did get better with time with updates etc. But it was just till clunky compared to my ipad mini.

I can agree with that. The iPad series always seems consistent in speed and use. Being all in with the Microsoft Ecosystem (phone, PC, tablet, XBOX, video and music), it really met my needs. Just wondering how heavy the SP3 will be for long term "tablet" use...

@david.wiese said:

@garak0410 said:

@david.wiese said:

@Minion-Queen said:

I tested out the Dell Venue and found it slow and clunky. I ended up falling back to my Ipad mini for everything.

My director of HR has the Venue Pro and it is riddled with issues. So many bugs that Dell has yet to figure out so we are going to switch her to the surface 3 when it comes out.

I can honestly say that I've had issues with "Modern" apps not wanting to go beyond the splash screen. A reboot (sometimes 2-3) takes care of that. I had it blue screen on me when going into the camera app and rotating it before the splash screen was done. So, I can say I've encountered issues as well. I sent my demo copy back and still am considering getting the 64GB model but with my Surface Pro 3 here next week, I can wait. Sure, the 8" size is good for reading but I'd rather have less devices.

I haven't had issues with the apps not working, mine is with the tablet not recognizing wifi, the dock not recognizing any external monitors, the keyboard attachment won't show the cursor half of the time. Not sure what is happening but this thing is going back

Wow...can't say I've had those issues. So sorry to hear that.

@david.wiese said:

@Minion-Queen said:

I tested out the Dell Venue and found it slow and clunky. I ended up falling back to my Ipad mini for everything.

My director of HR has the Venue Pro and it is riddled with issues. So many bugs that Dell has yet to figure out so we are going to switch her to the surface 3 when it comes out.

I can honestly say that I've had issues with "Modern" apps not wanting to go beyond the splash screen. A reboot (sometimes 2-3) takes care of that. I had it blue screen on me when going into the camera app and rotating it before the splash screen was done. So, I can say I've encountered issues as well. I sent my demo copy back and still am considering getting the 64GB model but with my Surface Pro 3 here next week, I can wait. Sure, the 8" size is good for reading but I'd rather have less devices.

As I mentioned, I was quite surprised how much I used the 8" Dell Venue Pro 8 even having a super nice Surface Pro 2. It was a lot more productive that I thought it would be.

Just wondering how many devices you use on a regular basis. I've got a smartphone, Surface Pro 2 and a desktop (home). My desktop is mainly my file server with storage glaore via internal, external and a few NAS units. Got to protect my digital media.

My work allowed me to pre order a Surface Pro 3 and I am pretty excited about that. Will be passing down the SP2 to another employee. I always thought the SP2 was a great device but the SP3 looks pretty amazing and perhaps my full time machine.

I've been making an effort to simplify my digital life and degadget some. I got to play with a Dell Venue 8 Pro for about a week and I must say, there is a place for an 8" tablet. But with the SP3 coming and happy with my smartphone for quick and easy productivity issues, just can't see getting myself a Venue 8 Pro (even if the 64GB is on sale now for $100 off.)

Just curious about what everyone uses and if anyone has felt a need to downsize some with all their gadgets.