Hundreds of real estate bloggers from around the country are gathering at the Sheraton Palace in downtown San Francisco this week, and I was lucky enough to join in on yesterday’s festivities as a guest of the Harper Team.

I only began blogging this past January and ever since then I’ve been trying to soak up all the information I could to become more successful with my posts. Even though the conference was geared toward real estate professionals, I still found the segments about ”Finding Your Voice” and “Monetizing Your Blog” to be very insightful. Spearheaded by Inman News, BloggersConnect lasted from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon.

I also had the opportunity to attend my first trade show that day. The amount of free stuff they were giving out was mind-blowing. I practically shoved compasses, hats, mousepads and a decade’s supply of ballpoint pens into a giveaway bag I received and simply walked away. One of the kiosks did grab my attention though. Microsoft seems to be showing off its answer to Google Earth with their own version: Virtual Earth.

I can't stop saying that it was quite a day for me. It not too often that I get to brush shoulders with founders and presidents who happen to be some of the biggest bloggers in the real estate industry. My encounters actually made me start to consider the idea of printing out my own business card.

- Joseph Natividad

It’s been a challenging year for my computers and thus, me. First my desktop decided to go to the computer graveyard. Fortunately I had enough time and warning to transfer all of my files onto my laptop.

Unfortunately, within two months, the laptop developed a short, so I decided to get a new laptop with max RAM, better video card and more multimedia capability.

The decision I am regretting everyday is buying a computer with VISTA, the new Microsoft (non)operating system. My opinion – Microsoft has done it again – created a system that is as jam-packed with bugs and aggravation as everything else it has put on the market.

I was giving serious consideration to switching over to an Apple MAC, but I have been using PC’s for over 20 years and all my software runs on a PC - we're talking thousands of dollars to switch. There is also the issue of familiarity. So, yes, I freely admit – what stopped me was fear and not wanting to add another learning curve to the mix of an already busy schedule.

Half of my software won’t work on VISTA. New products that say they are VISTA ready don’t work or need tweaking. The system won’t start properly 20% of the time. This is a new HP 6000 series VISTA machine off the shelf.

It would have been a better decision to buy the new PC with Windows XP. At least then my software would work. At this point, I am seeing that the better decision would probably have been to buy the MAC.

Since more and more of my work is going to involve multimedia and with Intel chips available in MAC’s, I am already planning on passing this latest Microsoft lesson in frustration along to my son, who is much more tech savvy and getting a MAC.

I thought that given all the bad press in the last few years, Microsoft might actually release a product that exceeded their past benchmarks of mediocrity, but I was wrong.

My advice – DO NOT BUY VISTA. If you must have a PC, wait a year or so until they get this system duct taped and chicken-wired together to meet their historic levels of acceptable aggravation.