New Email Tool: PostBox

I am always searching for better email handling. Thunderbird, from Mozilla, the Firefox company has been working well for me since Netscape was shut down by its parent company.

But now I've learned at LifeHacker.com of this new program. All the benefits of Thunderbird, plus similarity to GMail. We can't go wrong using Postbox...

"Postbox - If you're not using your email's web interface, use this. It's basically Thunderbird, the open-source email client we'd previously included in our Lifehacker pack, but remixed with stronger, almost Gmail-like powers. It finds and indexes all the attachments in your email account, groups together conversations with similar subject chains with the "Gather" command (like Gmail's conversations), offers tabbed Inbox and message views, and lets you organize emails under your own chosen "Topics." It's also got built-in easy setup steps for Gmail and other webmail systems—in other words, everything we're waiting to see Thunderbird implement."

Source: Lifehacker.com
Download Postbox: http://postbox-inc.com/

BlogHer Conference in Chicago: July 23-25, 2009

Here are the details on the BlogHer Conference for Chicago this summer.

BlogHer '09 will be at the The Chicago Sheraton and Towers from July 23-25, 2009. We will kick off on Thursday July 23rd with out third annual BlogHer Business Conference, and will continue with the two-day 5th annual BlogHer Annual Conference on Friday and Saturday, July 24-25.

If you're a semi-pro1 blogger, and you are if you've paid attention to my workshops these last few years!) come and see what the online blogging life does to people once they show up in a group of thousands enjoying all Chicago has to offer. It's a chance to "celebrate blogging, whether personal, professional or political, has brought us real work, real friends, real satisfaction and is most definitely a significant part of our real life!" - Read more on their site.

Cross-posted at CClarity.blogspot.com

Uh Oh... AOL is on the block

If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of America Online (AOL). It handcuffs your internet use and limits your abilities in many ways.

So I'm not sorry to tell you that parent company Time-Warner seeks to unload AOL. Any potential AOL had was exhausted by about 1997, and its not going to catch up now. Even its free service isn't keeping users on board.

So, to provide a moment of clarity, for all you @aol.com users, its time to move on.

1. If you have DSL or Comcast, you already have a better free email account included in your service, so your email address would end in @comcast.com, @att.net, etc.

2. You only need to send an email to everyone in your AOL address book and ask them all the email you at the new address. Then, as you receive replies from them, you add them to your new address book.

It's 2009 - time to move on !!

Effective Email

While the world waits for a better email system, here are four succinct points to use in your email messages to ensure you commmunicate effectively.

On Harvard Business Publishing, David Silverman writes an excellent brief on effective emails. His take is that emails should:

Call to Action. Say what you want the reader to do.

Say it Up Front. Don’t bury the message.

Assume Nothing. Include your behind-the-scenes thinking.

Do the Thinking. Avoid the generic “What are your thoughts?” atop a chain of previous emails.

Link to Source: BNET.com

Helen Gallagher

Recover a crashed USB flash drive

If you can manage to backup your files to USB drive, and keep track of where it lives: on your key chain, in the bottom of a bag, between couch cushions... your data is safe. But occasionally a flash drive just fails or becomes corrupted. You may plug it in and find no response, no data. If so, there is a recovery tool to help you:

Flash drive data recovery software.

Although, if you accidentally plant your flash drive in the garden this spring, you might want to purchase a new one.

Understanding Social Networking: Twitter, and Facebook and Furl, oh my!

If you are curious about Web 2.0 social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, I've updated The Mysterious World of Web 2.0 to version 4, with loads of new helpful information.

You can download it now. This ebook also contains great graphics and statistics on who uses these sites, and the high percentage of teens that are more involved with micri-blogging and following friends all day.

Click to see a preview and download the ebook now - cost is only $6.95

Conficker worm removal tool

You've heard about the Conficker attack, which may spread through the Intenet on April Fool's Day. Here's an informative article by Elinor Mills on CNET.

The article assesses the possible damage, scope, and includes a link to the Microsoft patch to prevent vulnerability and a Conficker removal tool, if the worm does attack your computer.

Conficker.C, which surfaced earlier this month, shuts down security services, blocks computers from connecting to security Web sites, and downloads a Trojan. It also reaches out to other infected computers via peer-to-peer networking and includes a list of 50,000 different domains, of which 500 will be contacted by the infected computer on April 1 to receive updated copies or other malware or instructions.

The question is... If the worm is a result of a Microsoft vulnerability, and Conficker hasn't yet struck, how could Microsoft create a removal tool?

Just a thought...

We are not immune, nor is the Dalai Lama

The 3/28/09 New York Times has a report out of Toronto about a huge computer spy ring, that ... "in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York."

Yu can read the full article here. It's fascinating in itself, but you'll also identify with the need to have good spyware and malware (as in malicious) software on your computer, and to make sure it is actively protecting your system.

Internet Explorer ver. 8.0 released

Microsoft is launching Internet Explorer's v. 8 shortly. You may recall many IE users were upgraded from v. 6 to v. 7 overnight, without consent. And, many woke up to find their browser didn't work.

So, if you're an IE user, contemplating the switch to Firefox - now's the time. Avoid the aggravation of IE 8. Firefox downloads fast and imports all your favorites/bookmarks, offers tabbed browsing, and a "Morning Coffee" plug-in to load your preferred pages for each dat of the week! (Ask me how.) Overall, its safer than IE and has superior features. Download Firefox here.

If you have a web site, you'll have to test it in IE 8.0 to be sure it still looks good. As you may know, many web sites look better in Firefox and other browsers than they do in IE, but at least make sure your site's functionality isn't harmed.

Get more info in IE 8 here.

Tech book review: Thinking on the Web

Is the web as good as it can be? Have we created a monstrous database that is beyond organization? Will search efforts continue to deliver irrelevant results?

I thought so until I read Thinking On The Web, by H. Peter Alesso and Craig F. Smith. Combining a history of web development to the present, and an insightful glimpse into what developers are currently working on to make the web better, Thinking on the Web brings together the technological contributions of Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing and Tim Berners-Lee.

These three men, born in 1906, 1912, and 1955, respectively, shaped the primary technology we use today. Few would argue the heart of the technological revolution is the internet. The development of what we today take for granted, we owe largely to Tim Berners-Lee, and the works of Godel and Turing, 40 years earlier.

Read my full review at BlogCritics Magazine

Tech book review: iBrain

Visit BlogCritics Magazine for my review of iBrain by Dr. Gary Small.
Book Review - iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind by Gary Small

Print What You Like

Even if I invented this clever technology, I doubt it would make me a millionaire, since it's free. Instead of trying to print a web page and getting boxes of ads and empty pages, this tool lets you define what to print from any web page.

Visit printwhatyoulike.com for the free download. It's been a while since we've had a new, clever tool. Enjoy!

Getting Things Done: The David Allen way

I'm a fan, but not a practitioner, of David Allen's (GTD) "Getting Things Done." I often feel technology should be doing more to help us get more done in less time, but as Dave points out in this web excerpt, the obstacles are generally bigger than technology. Yet, he does acknowledge using tech to keep organized can help us feel we are mastering the multitude of obligations tearing at us each week:


Critical Behaviors in the Crunch

It's a perfect time to capture, clarify, organize, and reflect; and to decide what's really important, what you now want to have true, and what you need to maintain. What you really need to do, in other words - now, and next.

Here are a few GTDisms that might be particularly useful in a crunch:

Capture. Get the data. Acknowledge what's true. (We have ____ in the bank. Our expenses are ______ . I feel insecure and apprehensive. There are no debtors' prisons.) And clean up. This is when it's super-important to identify and get a handle on all the open loops pulling on your attention.

Clarify. Identify the outcomes and projects you now need to focus toward, and of course, what actions you need to take. (Re-do personal budget; talk to partner re: asset inventory.) Get all your attention-grabbers processed. And leverage the heck out of the two-minute rule. Being an instant executive is the best cure for transcending a funk.

Organize. Get your lists and systems current and complete. Your psyche needs the freedom that affords to concentrate and direct your thinking.

Reflect. You may need to do Weekly Reviews daily. You must keep situational awareness vital and present to be able to trust your intuitive responses, which you will be calling on frequently. Regularly engage in forest management (instead of tree-hugging), so you can see smoke from a distance.

Engage. Keep moving. Pick an action and do it. Don't get hung up on priorities. It's much easier to control a boat that's got way (momentum through the water) than one simply at the effect of the currents. It's easier to know your priorities by taking an action that's not so important than by stressing about them.

Allen says: "This is where getting control morphs into gaining perspective, and the Horizons of Focus come into play. Obviously goals and plans and job descriptions may need a recalibration. But, in addition, give yourself permission to acknowledge and take advantage of the deeper conversations with yourself and other key people in your life that will undoubtedly come closer to the surface in rough seas. For at least a year after 9/11, everyone I know and every organization I dealt with operated with an increased infusion of 40-50,000-level content in their consciousness. (Why are we really here? What's really important to me/us? What are we really trying to do, and is it worth it?)."

Addendum-2/01/09: Wonderful writer James Fallows, in Atlantic Monthly, summarizes the reason GTD is such a success:

"In earlier times, Allen says, work was more physically exhausting than it is today. But it produced less anxiety, because people could easily tell what they had to do and whether it had been completed. Either the wood was chopped or it was not. The typical modern day, he says, is a fog of constantly accumulating open-ended obligations, with little barrier between the personal and the professional and few clear signals that you are actually "done." E-mail pours in. Hallway conversations end with "I'll get back to you." The cell phone rings. The newspaper tells you about movies you'd like to see, recipes you'd like to try, places you'd like to go. There are countless things that everyone really "should" do more of—exercise, read, spend time with the family, have lunch with a contact, be "better" at work. The modern condition is to be overwhelmed—and, according to Allen, to feel not just tired but chronically anxious, because so many things you have at some level committed to do never get done."

Read Fallow's full 2004 article "Organize Your Life" here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200407/fallows2

Windows 7 - replacement for Vista - is a free download

We are all looking forward to the release of Windows 7, banishing those six Vista computers off to the recycling center. Microsoft has given up on Vista, and David Pogue, of the New York Times, even refers to Windows 7 as "Vista, fixed."

Join in the anticipation by reading Pogue's informative post here,

The Rebooting of America

As America's first tech-savvy President prepares for the big Inauguration Tuesday, we're witnessing a seismic shift in the marriage between technology and politics. There will be books and media studies discussing how Obama's revolutionary campaign brought millions of people to politics, and brought politics to millions in a way the 6 p.m. news and a daily newspaper just can't do.

Obama has his own channel on YouTube, reminiscent of the old days of Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. Obama's FaceBook page has over 3.7 million supporters linked to him.

"The rebooting of our democracy has begun," said Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum and the techPresident blog. "[Obama] has the potential to transform the relationship between the American public and their democracy."

I suspect he'll soon tap into all those 'friends' for the grassroots effort to revive the American spirit, in this age of Obama 2.0.

(image: CNN Video snap)

Happy New Year ~ 2009

Greetings. With over 6,000 visitors to this blog, I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and a quick recovery from a difficult 2008. If, like me, you have a desire to hunker down with a good book this winter, or spend a little more time with friends & family, and less time on the computer, well, that's alright by me. The time we sink into technology is irretrievable, so if the quality isn't there, take a break and enjoy other pursuits.

As T.S. Eliot said:

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

So, here's to good times in 2009 with friends, family, great books and movies to enrich our spirit.

Wherever you are, please remember to support your local economy. The merchants and stores support you with tax dollars, employ your neighbors, and invest in your community. Show your appreciation by supporting their business.

Online privacy? Nah...

When browsing the web, especially if you use Google, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Yahoo, you're leaving more than cookie crumbs behind.

In a Wired.com blog on 12/18/08, writer David Kravets explored Yahoo's recent announcement that they would keep user date for only 3 months, instead of 13 months. Google keeps users search data for 9 months and Microsoft for 18 months.

As a computer consultant, I've always explained that the data collected when we use the web and search engines was aggregated, so maybe they can dig through the data and know how many people in your zip code shop online for a Chevy. But now, with advanced technology and plenty of money, these firms are mining for data to a degree beyond what we ever imagined. They now put everything together in a profile for, in the case of this graphic, a 37-year-old male web user.



Because all of our web usage can be traced back to an internet protocol (IP) address, I don't doubt that its possible to trace such a specific profile back to a unique user. If the data is out there, I don't believe privacy rights are enough to keep our usage patterns private.

Kravets' report provides a link to a Yahoo paper entitled "Squeeze Every Drop of Meaning from Data," http://research.yahoo.com/node/89, and a presentation made by Yahoo about the ability to gather massive amounts of data, all for the purpose of helping gain ad revenue from advertisers delighted to have such precise profiles of their target audience.


Source article http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/data-mining-una.html

Favorite Free Software

I rarely convince anyone that my favorite tech tools are right for them, but here are three tools I most appreciate. Spice up your computer with one or two.

1. Clusty.com - the search engine that gives better results because it clusters results and sorts by category, so you don't have to.

2. IrfanView - a free utility to re-size and edit photos. Here's the download.com page where you can get it.

3. Dictionary.com - I woke up this morning determined to finally figure out how to pronounce the spice called "turmeric." After hearing Rachael Ray say "tumor-ick," I decided to visit my favorite dictionary where I could hear the word pronounced aloud.


http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=turmeric

Early winter warning: Fight procrastination

Here are my five best procrastination busters.... as originally appeared in Work Home You magazine. I hope these suggestions help keep you on track this winter.

Lost? Get free directions & information

Google now offers free 411 information service on the web and on cell phones.

On your phone, dial 1-800-goog411. You don't need a computer, an Internet connection, or even the keypad on your phone or mobile device. GOOG-411 is voice-activated, so you can access it from any phone (mobile or land line), in any location, at any time. For free. (*)

Dial (1-800) GOOG-411. Say where. Say what you're looking for. GOOG-411 will connect you with the business you choose. For now, there's no charge to connect your call.

See the quick video demo here: http://www.google.com/goog411/