It’s been a while since my last post, I know. Things are starting to get even busier with Our Stock Works as more interest is generated and more people come on board. We’ve had contributors from all over the world - USA, Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Poland and of course the UK. There have been several changes and advancements with the site, and it’s a project I’m really proud of.

So, on to some of the new features. We’ve implemented a new product called Fast Track which expands on the standard upload method offered by most stock websites. You can now choose to send your images to us on CD (through a contributor package we provide free of charge), or upload via FTP. Both of these really speed up the time it takes to contribute and we have a fantastic tagging system in place to make it quick and easy to add keywords etc to your images. The website has also undergone several improvements, and we have a new updated holding page.

The number of photos we have continues to rise, but we’re still looking for more photographers. If you have a good set of images, or know someone else who does, please send them along to our holding page at www.ourstockworks.com. Simply enter your email address in the ‘photographers’ section and we will set you up an account to login and submit your work. It’s a great opportunity to get on board before the site launches in August and benefit from the publicity generated around that time.

Thanks to all those who have contributed so far, and the people who have written about the site (in particular Mark MS, Eight Media and Newsvine). Any news articles and commentary are much appreciated. We’re really excited about it, and hope that it will continue to be a real success.

There have recently been several different contests and attempts to run Windows on the new Intel Macs, with one being particularly successful. However, there were many problems with the lack of driver support on Windows for the various Mac hardware components, and there were certain machines that it didn’t work particularly well. Until today.

It’s called Boot Camp, and is a beta piece of software from Apple to allow you to dual boot Windows XP on any of the new Intel Macs. Because it finds a way to avoid the problems with different types of BIOS, it means that Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, will also run without a problem using the software.

It is designed to be integrated into the upcoming Leopard operating system from Apple, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what other changes and additions will be present in the next operating system iteration from them.

But what will this new piece of software mean, and how will it affect the reasons people purchase a Mac? Right now in it’s early stages and I imagine that it won’t have a huge impact on sales or switchers. The real effects will begin when it is implemented by default in Leapord. It will become a very stron marketing tool for Apple, eliminating one of the reasons for people refusing to switch to a Mac - ‘I won’t be able to run x, y or z’. Now you will be able to, you’ll be able to run them legally, and you’ll be running them on a very very fast Intel Core Duo machine.

It’s great to be working on a machine built by innovators. Microsoft have another reason to quake in their boots.