Ryminate

Lookout for Outlook

Terry Gold blogs on using Lookout:

I've tried Google Desktop, MSN Search and a couple of other products, but the one I use daily to find stuff in my email, on my computer and on my network is a strange little Outlook add-in called Lookout.  I say it is strange, because while the company was acquired some time ago by Microsoft, it also seems to remain available as a stand-alone tool.

If you are still using the built-in search capabilities of Outlook, you've got to try this.  It is lightning fast, reliable and will save you hours of hunting for that old email or file.  If you want a simple search tool, that doesn't bring along a lot of other capabilities, give Lookout a try.

Great tool.  The search function built-in to Outlook is SO slow.

Wireless web access for every tenant

MOST people who use their laptop computers to access the Internet are at least vaguely familiar with  Wi-Fi hot spots — invisible wireless connections to the Internet that are increasingly available in airports, malls, hotels, train stations and even public parks.

So if a hotel can offer customers wireless Internet access, why can't co-ops and condominiums and owners of rental buildings who are so inclined offer a similar amenity for residents who are lounging at the pool or waiting for the spin cycle to finish in the laundry room?

Great question posed by the NY Times.  Why isn't this happening!?  My building of condos alone probably spends well over $1000 per month for internet -- and that's one building among twelve! 

FolderShare.com

Foldershare, where have you been all this time!!??

When a file is added, changed, or deleted from one computer, it automatically makes identical changes to another designated computer.  Wow.

FolderShare also allows you access your files remotely through a web interface.  Wow.

Finally, FolderShare is fully encrypted.  Wow.

This will make my life so much easier as far as keeping certain files on my home desktop synched with my work laptop (e.g. documents, music, pictures, etc.)

BEST OF ALL IT'S FREE (for now).  If this is indicative of the free services to be provided with Windows Live, Microsoft might actually be on to something here. 

RSS

If you're like me you have between 10-20 websites that you check everyday.  Sometimes you check them multiple times a day.  Then are a few that you may check a few times a week or month.  Often there is nothing new to see, or at least nothing of interest, but you still spend the time visiting the website.

Enter RSS.  RSS is a technology that checks a set of pre-designated websites for you letting you know when something new has been posted.  As you can imagine this saves a heap of time.  Instead of checking your regular 10-20 websites over and over again for anything new, (which may take 30 minutes), RSS does that for you in seconds. 

Bloglines is a great application out there known as a "RSS reader" that will do this for you.  You simply setup an account, type in the web addresses you regularly visit, hit subscribe, and it sets it all up for you.  Then, instead of going to your regular websites you go to your Bloglines account and it will let you know what's new.  My explanation is very basic, but once you get to Bloglines and actually try it out you will see that it is quite intuitive.

This is a great tool that really has the potential to save you time.  If your interested in reading a more technical explanation check out this link.

This blog now available in Chinese, French, Spanish, etc.

I've added a feature to my blog that will allow for translation into Chinese, as well as a few other languages.  If you look at the bottom of the right sidebar you will see a box containing several national flags representing the available languages.  Unfortunately, a few of the languages were not working last time I checked.  If you speak one of the available languages let me know how you would rate the accuracy of the translation.  I know it's probably pretty bad in some instances, but is it functional?

I'm LinkedIn

I finally got around to trying LinkedIn and I am impressed.  Time will tell whether this is merely a novelty, or a bonafide business networking tool.  LinkedIn is essentially an online social networking web site for professionals.  You check your rolodex against the every other LinkedIn user, and all matches are linked.  For example, let's say I have a contact named Napoleon and Napoleon is also on LinkedIn, we then would be shown as a link.  The cool thing is, I can also see Napoleon's links and can contact them with his permission.  The chain goes on and on, however, there are very strict controls on what info you can see and how far down the chain you can contact people.  The privacy controls were designed so that even a Fortune 500 CEO would feel at ease using the application.  When I signed up I was pleasantly surprised to find several folks from my rolodex already LinkedIn.

How is this useful you might ask--well, it in essence makes all your immediate contact's rolodexes transparent.  For example, I could be looking for a someone who works in the plastics industry. Unbeknownst to me, my friend Bill who I golf with every week, has a good friend who works in plastics.  That connection could be right there under my nose for years, and unless I asked I would never know about it.  LinkedIn theoretically provides a solution.  If Bill and his friend were also LinkedIn, I could easily check if anyone I know knows anyone who works in plastics, and find Bill's friend.  Did that make sense? 

The previous example brings up an important point.  Unless LinkedIn gets a substantial critical mass of users, the solution is ineffective.  Currently, the number of users is increasing almost exponentially.  Provided that LinkedIn continues to provide a good service with  the best privacy protection possible, this could be huge.  In fact, it could change business "networking" forever.  For now, I recommend the application.  Get LinkedIn.

BillingOrchard - Great resource for entrepreneurs engaged in subscription model startups

Carson over at WorkHappy pointed me to a great billing company called BillingOrchard.  Everything is web-based and the application is built to be used by those who bill by the hour (e.g. attorneys, consultants), or those who do recurring billing. The best part about BillingOrchard is probably the price: the cost of service starts at $14.99 per month (for up to 500 customers).  This by far the cheapest solution I've found.

Yahoo! Maps ups the ante

Wow!  The new Yahoo Maps beta is very impressive.  It essentially has taken everything good from Google Maps, and then upped the ante by adding 4 or 5 additional features.  Such features include live traffic data and the ability to instantly send directions to your phone.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes Google (and MSN) to respond. 

I have to say that this is the first thing I've seen from Yahoo in quite some time that leaves me saying wow.

Trillian

I finally got around to trying Trillian, a chat program that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. I use Messenger with friends, but Yahoo at work, so Trillian was a great solution.  So far it has been great.  It's very easy to setup with existing chat program accounts, and equally easy to use.  Finally, no more annoying popups from Yahoo or MSN urging me to upgrade to the newest version (which seems to occur almost monthly).  Highly recommended.

"Computer-in-the-wall"

Chip PC has recently announced their new Jack PC, a thin client computer, which can be fully integrated into any existing wall LAN jack.  Wow, talk about conserving desk space!  Also, because this thing is actually powered by standard "Power over Ethernet" you are also conserving electricity.  Now if they could only build in wireless support for your mouse, keyboard, and display, you could have untethered workstations that could move throughout your office.