The new ultra-portable laptop was recently introduced at Macworld. Kudos for Apple having the boldness to do something really different. As usual, if I could buy whatever Jobs pitches at a keynote within an hour of the speech, I would. On the other hand, after the effects of the speech wear off, I begin to look at things with a more critical eye.
Continue reading "Macbook Air – Just Right Or Too Thin? (Tech Thursday)" »
Bitwine is a great service connecting consultants with customers. If you missed my post last week about it, click here.
I had some questions and one of their people was gracious enough to spend some time with me last Saturday.
Here was my big issue: I couldn't imagine that the average person would be willing to get everything in place before contacting me or other Bitwine advisors. To use Bitwine to its fullest capacity a customer needs a PayPal account, to have Skype installed, and to have the Bitwine toolbar installed. For most people, I just think that's too many clicks.
You will amaze yourself. I've been reading about memorization techniques for over 20 years. The "Roman Room" is the best I've ever found.
1. Visualize 10 places in a room. Pick a room you are familiar with. Use the four corners, the four walls, the floor, and the ceiling as your 10 points. Now associate an object with each one starting with the first corner and moving clockwise around the room.
Continue reading "The Ancient Secret Of Instant Memorization (Tech Thursday)" »
What do you get when you combine the power of Skype, convenient and secure payments from PayPal, with a slick Web 2.0 web portal? BitWine!
BitWine is in Public Beta at this time but it's poised to make a major impact.
Here's how it works.
Continue reading "Bitwine: Connecting Consultants With Clients (Tech Thursday)" »
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device
EVDO. This is what separates the Kindle from the competition. Imagine riding on a commuter train and thinking "I'd like to read the latest Grisham novel" and it shows up in seconds on your Kindle. Another cool thing about the Kindle is that you wake up in the morning and your newspaper is already there!
Amazon. Amazon has the clout in the world of business to make this product sell. In addition, they offer authors the ability to easily put their work on the Kindle. They also seem to be pricing the books right. Most books are about half the price of their physical editions.
How successful will it be? In this generation of the product, I believe that it will sell enough among early adopters to encourage Amazon to come out with the next generation. In the next generation, I predict the product will be established as a solid niche player. It appeals especially to those people who spend time traveling either by plane or by train. By the third generation of the product, it has the potential to go main stream. Maybe one day we'll all be reading things like they do on Star Trek, on a hand held device like the Kindle.
What about me? I won't be buying one anytime soon. It's cool but a little too pricey for me. On the other hand, I did put my book, Escape From Email Hell - 10 Email Edicts You Need To Know
For a great review of the product from someone who has one, check out my friend Lisa Haneberg's post My New Kindle .
Many moons ago, before laptops were practical; there was a company that made a computer called "The Brick". I was reminded of this when I was listening to TWiT a couple of weeks ago. The Brick was a small system unit that you carried with you. At work and at home you would have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor you would plug into it. The idea was to have one computer you carried with you that would have the power of a desktop.
My dream computer is like The Brick but better. Maybe it could be called the iPC.
The iPC would be about the size of an iPhone. The mobile phones of today have much more power than the computers of yesterday. It is likely that in a few years, mobile phones could be as powerful as today's laptops.
The iPC would wirelessly dock. Toshiba already has wireless docking available for its high end laptops. The iPC would wirelessly dock at home or at work or wherever else I had access to a full size keyboard and monitor.
The iPC would have universal connectivity. It would be able to connect by Wi-Fi, EVDO, and Ethernet.
The iPC would be my phone too.
Oh yeah, and I'd like to have two of them that automatically synced so if one failed I could just pick up the other one and keep going.
Imagine how cool it would be to carry around your only computer that you used on the go, at work, and at home. Would you like to own a device like that?
What's your dream computer look like?
Thursday, November 15th, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Birmingham Chapter of the Society For Technical Communication. I had a great time getting to know them and sharing my Escape From Email Hell speech. If you are in the Birmingham area and are involved in producing or delivering technical content, consider attending an upcoming meeting. Outside the Birmingham area, take a look at their website for a chapter near you.
A funny thing happened on the way to the meeting: I went to the wrong place! I was scheduled to speak at 11:30 AM. At 11:20 I had everything set up but no one was there. Then I realized I was at the wrong place (this won't surprise those of you who know me well). Luckily the real location wasn't too far away. Thank God I have a GPS now!
Thanks again to Karrie for inviting me to speak.
See also
Need a recommendation for what to get the geek in your life? Check out the list below. Believe me, as a long time geek, you can't go wrong with any of these choices.
Under 50 (USD)
Escape From Email Hell - This book (available as paperback or ebook) is guaranteed to help take the stress out of managing email. Buy this and the geek in your life will thank you.
Jack Black Shave in a Bag
pzizz – I use this every week to get more rest. It's a high tech way to take naps and get to sleep faster. Before using this I couldn't sleep on planes but now I can. See my review: The Secret Of More Energy.
VIP Security Card – This credit card size device is very cool. It works with PayPal and other sites to increase security. The card shows a 6 digit pass code that changes every thirty seconds. Your geek enters the number along with his password to make for ultra hard to crack security. See my post Make PayPal More Secure for a review of an earlier version.
50 - 100 (USD)
Scott Evest Ultimate Hoodie - What makes this comfortable hoodie special is 11 hidden pockets to stow all your gear. What a great gift.
Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote - Your geek will think he (or she) has died and gone to heaven with this remote. One remote that works all your stuff without any loss of function. Press one button to watch TV and it turns on the TV, the receiver, the DVR, and makes the right selections! For more info see Need More Harmony? .
Supertooth II Hands-Free Bluetooth Sun Visor Speakerphone - What a cool idea. Clip this to your sun visor and it connects via Bluetooth to your phone. Great quality, hands free speaker phone.
Over 100 (USD)
Apple 16 GB iPod touch - THE best iPod ever. Guaranteed to put a smile on your geek's face.
HP EX470 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live/ 64 Bit Sempron Processor, 500 GB Hard Drive)
Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD 3CCD Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. My experience with Birmingham Startup over this past weekend (11/2 – 11/4) was awesome and awful all at the same time.
The startup concept is to create a web based business in a really short time. In the case of Birmingham Startup that's over two weekends. The first weekend is to refine several business ideas and pick the best one. The second weekend is to build that idea and have a beta version ready before the close of the weekend.
I arrived on Friday already a bit sleep deprived because I was too excited to sleep well the night before. They had said in the blog that no more than 10 ideas would be selected. That night I found out that 9 teams had been selected but only 6 had made it. So I figured my odds were pretty good. I made my "elevator" pitch and felt it went well. It was really cool to be around so many skilled and motivated people.
Friday night I got the group average amount of sleep (4 hours) as I worked on refining my idea. One of the participants only got 1 hour. With coaching from the organizers, I refined my idea throughout the day and presented it twice. About that time, my energy was getting really low. Looking at the schedule, I decided I would go home after supper and get some sleep. What I didn't know is that we were supposed to present one more time: I laid an egg. It was really bad. I was so tired that I forgot the name of my company and had to look down at my notes to remember.
But something magical happened that night. I went home, had a "come apart" but then went to bed. I woke up about 3 AM and things just seemed crystal clear. I began to work the numbers of my business plan and I even started to believe them. I was on such a roll that when I discovered some new direct competitor, it didn't ever bother me. By the time I left the house at 11:15 AM, I was feeling pretty good again.
We heard an excellent speaker and then had leftovers for lunch. Then the waiting began. I practiced my pitch as much as I could stand and then listened to a podcast while I waited. It was over an hour until my turn came. Then I made my pitch and felt really good about it (even though I left out a major point). Then more waiting.
After about 20 minutes, I see one of the organizers coming up to my second floor conference room. By this time, only 5 teams remained and the top 3 were to be picked to move on to the next round. When I saw him coming up the stairs, I thought it was odd but I figured he was coming to tell me I had made it to the next round. Well . . . he says "I hate to tell you this, but I've got to ask you to leave". My heart sunk. I thought he meant I hadn't made it to the next round. When he saw the look on my face he said, "Oh no, that's not what I meant, we just need this conference room".
About a half hour later, I was picked as one of the three teams to move on. I was elated!
As soon as I could, I rushed over to the Wachovia building. Out hosts from Burr & Forman were just great and had put on quite a spread for the event. The 34th floor conference room was beautiful. I worked with their technician to make sure my laptop would work. In the test, it worked without a problem.
The first group did their presentation and they were so passionate and had such a great pitch I wanted to vote for their idea. Then I got up to present. I hooked my laptop up and it wouldn't work. The projector screen and my laptop screen were reversed. I nor the tech could get it to work. Thankfully, I had my presentation on a jump drive and we just used another laptop. After what seemed like an hour but was probably only about 5 minutes, I was ready. I did my presentation and it was the best I had done. I thought it went really well. The judges asked some hard questions but I thought I handled them okay.
The third presenter did his pitch but I was too exhausted to pay too much attention. The vote was taken and the first group one. I was disappointed but I knew they deserved the win and I was excited that they were going to see their dream fulfilled.
Thanks to all the people who made Birmingham Startup a reality. You did a wonderful job.
Would I do it again? Absolutely . . . just not next weekend. I need to get some rest.
See also
How many bookmarks do you have? Ever have trouble finding one?
Here is a better way.
Put your top 20 sites in one folder. If you take a look at your browsing, I'll bet that over 80% of the time, you visit your top 20 sites. Rather than put these in multiple folders, why not put them all in one folder so you don't have to hunt for them. Also, I like to shorten the title so that it takes up less screen space when it's opened.
Put ALL your other sites in one big folder. I can't count the number of times I've look in folder after folder trying to find a site. It's much easier to search one big list instead of several smaller ones.
Label the site with something you will remember. If I hear about a great substitute for Norton's Ghost from Joe, I put something like "Ghost substitute that Joe Recommended" in the Title. That way when I forget the name of the site, I can find it based on my description of it.
Use Bookmark search to find what you are looking for. For Firefox users, click Bookmarks and choose Organize Bookmarks. Then just type what you are looking for in Search.
This is working well for me but I am always open to suggestions. What works for you?
See also
Do you have trouble balancing work and home? Me too. Also, I am a firm believer in using one tool for work and home if at all possible. I love Google Reader but have found it can be distracting checking "work" feeds at "home" or "home" feeds at "work". (If you are new to Google Reader check out Getting Started With Google Reader). On the other hand, I love to check my home feeds at lunch at work.
The solution. The simply solution I came up with is to create two folders called Work and Home. Then I tagged all my feeds with one or the other. There were a few feeds that I marked incorrectly but that was easily cleared up. It feels great now to know that I can use Google Reader but focus on Work at work and Home at home.
Where else can this work? I find that this works well for tasks and emails. If you use one task manager for all your tasks, just create folders for Home and Work. This can work for emails as well.
So what about you? What helps you maintain your focus?
Also, if you want to see what I have found particularly interesting, check out my shared items. There are in the widget located in the left sidebar under "My Shared Items".
See also
Google Alerts are something I have recently started using and I love them!
Here's what to do.
Then you will get an email with the contents of your search at the interval you specify.
Let's say for instance that you have heard rumors that your company is going to merge with another. You could set up a Google Alert that would notify you as soon as any news hits Google about the merge.
One way I use this is to find out what's being said about me. I just created an alert with my name in it. Yesterday, I connected with a blogger who mentioned my upcoming speech in a post. The only way I knew about this post was because of Google Alerts.
Yet another great tool from the geniuses at Google.
See also:
Do you have a bunch of passwords that you have to change on a regular basis? Do they have to meet certain requirements? Do you want them to be easy to remember but hard to crack? Then, the tricks shown below may help.
Special thanks to the guys at ESET for these tips. They make my favorite anti-virus solution: NOD32. They also produce regular podcasts about security. The tips shown below come from the recent IRS Failure episode.
Length is more important than complexity. According to ESET, a simple 20 character password composed of all lower case letters is harder to crack than an 8 character password with letters, numbers, and a symbol.
Use math to create your password. Something like 300+500=800 or better yet threehundredplusfivehundredequalseighthundred. If you really want to make it hard you can even make the answer incorrect like threehundredplusfivehundredequalssixhundred.
Use a phrase. Not only is it hard to crack but it can be easier to type. So you could use a phrase like ilovetechrest or braveswintheseries.
Add spaces. Many people write down their passwords. Bad idea but I understand why people do it. If you are one of those, you may want to add three spaces to the end of your password. If you do that, even if someone sees it, when they try to use it, it won't work.
What are your favorite password tricks?
See also
This is the best way to drive readers to your blog that I've found.
BlogRush is a new service that's free and can drive readers to your blog through a widget. You earn more exposure by those that click on your links AND on those who you refer to the service AND their referrals.
That's why now is the time to try it. It looks like BlogRush may go viral and those who get in "on the ground floor" will get the most benefit from it.
For the best explanation, view the introductory video at BlogRush.com.
Can you get a virus or other malware from just viewing a webpage? Absolutely. Not too long ago people got infected from viewing a MySpace page. A similar incident happened when people visited John's Hardware.
Was the problem the sites? Not exactly. You see the problem was with infected, 3rd-party ads that were on the pages.
This may be the beginning of a new type of attack. Want to prevent these kinds of problems? Try AdBlock Plus for Firefox.
This add-on for Firefox allows you to block all ads or some ads. For sites that I trust (the problem is I probably would have trusted John's hardware), I allow all ads unless I find one offensive. It's a bit of a dilemma because me and others like me support their sites with ads. On the other hand, I don't want my computer infected just because I viewed an ad. Using AdBlock Plus selectively is working well for me. I recommend you add it to your security tool kit.
Of course, there is no substitute for good backups (see Do you backup . . . at home? )
Do you love Gmail? Me too. Two apps that make it even better for me:
Put your files where you can get to them. Gspace is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to use your Gmail account as a virtual hard drive. Once you've got it set up you can send files to your Gmail and access them from wherever you have an Internet connection. Easy to set up and easy to use.
Get Gmail on your phone. Not quite as good as Blackberry email but it's close (and free). Google Mobile lets you get to your Gmail from you mobile phone. It works with most devices including Blackberrys. You just point your phone's browser to gmail.com/app and download the application. In a few minutes you can be sending and receiving emails right from your phone. I love it!
What are your favorite Gmail apps or hacks?
For your iGoogle.
Recently Google released Custom Skins for its personalized home page, iGoogle. Well . . . after trying out several, now I can rest. I have found the one I like: the digg skin. It is refreshingly clean and just works for me. It puts a smile on my face.
What's your favorite iGoogle skin?
