Twitter for Friends and Business
Here is a quick and simple video on twitter, by Lee LeFever.
Twitter is used to stay connected with friends but can also be used to keep your business connected with those using Twitter.
Twitter was not intended for businesses, and there are plenty of tools for getting work done that are more sophisticated. In this marketing environment it’s important to meet with your customers where they are.
Even if your customers need to come in your front door, when you build that new widget or web page, what an easy way to get that information out to customers.
The most important part about Twitter is your customers and friends get to know you from a different point of view. And in this world of fast food and coffee to go it’s nice to talk to and do business with someone you know.
Must have iGoogle Widgets
Google apps are simply addons or widgets that work on google’s home page.
There are countless choices including random images from Ansel Adams or even daily moon phases.
But there are even some very good business apps that I will update on this page.
BeTwittered
From 32hours.com. Get a looking at your Twitter client from your iGoogle homepage.
Post twits and see your current followings.
Betwittered refreshes every 3 minutes, and you can post updates without ever leaving your iGoogle homepage.
MyListy
Just found is widget, it provides a simple way to manage your to do list. You can create multiple lists on MyListy with your own tabs and prioritize each to do item.
You can print to-do list or access them through an 800 number (888).
Stock Portfolio Monitor
The Portfolio Monitor works on both US and international stocks, mutual funds and indexes. Symbols are based on the Yahoo-Finance format.
You can displays multiple positions, has ability to group a few positions of the same security in one record, doesn’t have stock symbol qty limit, displays stock chart and other details (yesterday close,min/max today/52wk/volume), calculates stock options. The monitor has customizable layout.
Based on Yahoo-Finance data (delayed on 15-20 min).
I’ll update this page when I find something useful, please feel free share your favorite wiget.
Hurricane News on your front page
Hurricane season is upon us, and noaa (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) believes it’s going to be another busy season.
The hurricane season is between June 1st and end of November. And the location is the Caribbean, the coast between Panama to even as far north as Maine.
Here is a great way to impress your co-workers and clients: Be up-to-date with the hurricane news. We all listen to the weather going into work and the news does like to report disasters, but here is a way to stay ahead of the news.
All the tv or radio weather departments get their reports from noaa and noaa has a great rss news-feed system that reports the hurricanes. You can always go the their site by why not add their news-feed to your News-reader or home page?
I personal use my.Yahoo as my home page and Google has made their personal home page pretty easy to set up and move stuff around.
There are also some desktop News-readers, but I like to be able to see my news from any computer, so I like to use an online service.
If you don’t have a news-reader or a my.yahoo account, try a Google front page, its pretty easy to start and will grow with your interest.
Now go to noaa’s hurricane feed page and find the right update for you. I like the Atlantic Basin Wide feed, but you maybe in another area of the country or may want to follow more than one area. Click on the area you’re interested in and follow the directions. Now everytime you go to your home page. you will see the latest weather reports.
If you use ie7 click on the area and in the address bar you will see an orange rss square next to the address bar, just click on that and follow the directions.
Google Gears
Google Gears coming to a browser near you, soon.
Weight Loss Chart
The google 15 is a widget that works inside of iGoogle or Google home page.
This is a great little widget that encourages you to get on the scale daily and will calculate a moving average from your daily weight. The average gives you a better idea of your weight trend by smoothing most of the day to day swings.
Then there are those days when the scales don’t tip in your direction. The average gives you a better idea the direction your going, so you know when you are losing weight or trying to lose weight.
The Google 15 was created by Brian W. Fitzpatrick, a Google software engineer. Brian calls the Google 15, after the weight usually gain after starting Google jobs and being all the free food you can eat. I guess it’s something like the first year of college.
Here is my example of the Google 15 in action. You can easily add this widget to your iGoogle home page by clicking on add more stuff and searching for Google 15.
Thunderbird email
Managing you email
After a long weekend we all like to brag with our coworkers about how
many emails end up in our inbox. Yes spam is part of our online society.
After receiving 400+ emails after one weekend I decided it was time to
change things.
I started use Mozilla’s Suite and sometimes I would test Thunderbird
as my email program, and it’s not that much different than Mozilla Suite,
and both are great for:
- Organizing folders and files
- Managing (spam) junk email
Managing junk email
Mozilla Suites & Thunderbird offer easy to use junk email controls
with advanced security features.
From the main menu bar click on tools and click on Junk
Mail controls.
This image on the left is how I set my controls.
The controls are fairly simple:
- If the sender is in my address book then they will not be listed as
junk. - If the email is considered to be junk then it goes to the junk email
folder and will be deleted after 14 days (Default). - Thunderbird will also sanitize any html from any scripting included
in the email. - To mark or un-mark an email as junk: In the email list there will be
an icon on the email row that can be turned on or off.
When you first start Mozilla or Thunderbird mail
expect about a 2 week learning curve. That’s right the junk mail controls
will learn what you consider junk by an algorithm that looks at the sender,
subject and the body of the message.
You may want to wait until you address book is a
certain size before you turn on the controls.
Managing folders
Mozilla & Thunderbird make it simple to add and direct incoming emails
to spicific folders. Why create folders? Simple: When dealing with groups
or subjects, it’s easier to follow and find information.
There is also a search feature that I use several times a week. This
saves lots of time.
Security features
Among the new security features in Thunderbird 1.5 are Kerberos
authentication and integration with server-side spam filtering. There
is also a built-in phishing detector to help protect you against e-mail
scams, providing an “extra line of defense” in preventing users from getting
caught up in e-mail identity-theft and information-theft scams.
Some of the new improvements in Thunderbird include automatic spelling
checking as the user types a message and auto saving as drafts. You can
also receive rss feeds as email messages.
June 11, 2006: Thunderbird is listed on PC World’s Best 100 Products
for 2006.
Know after a long (3 or 4 day) weekend there maybe 400+ emails coming
in, but there are only about 5 spam emails in my inbox.
Build your own PC
Why build my own computer?
Why not buy my next computer again? My next
computer will be a work-horse computer. I’m in the process of doing more work from home and need a computer that can handle some large programs that eat up the memory and processor time. I also want to be able to exchange parts as they become out dated or go bad with out replacing the whole computer.
With a brand name upgrading would be limited to buying a new computer and parts may be limited to the brand and I want more choices.
These are my main interests: price, warranties, support.Coming in January MicroCenter will have 2 workshops BYOPC Build your own PC January 5th, 12th and the 19th (Powers Ferry Atlanta).
This will be an all day event broken up into 2 sessions.
The first session will start at 11 am and will include the motherboard, CPU, memory and case.
The second session (afternoon) will cover the video card, hard drive and optical drive.
rsvp at your local MicroCenter
Hope to see you there
Geeks on a Cruise
Yes, even geeks need to take a break sometimes.
Browsers & add-ons
Everyone using the web for work or fun should have these programs running on their browser. Just follow the link to add these to your tool belt.
Adobe Reader 8
( Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Service Pack 4, Mac OS X 10.4.3,) allows more securely view, print, search, sign, verify, and collaborate on PDF documents, online and offline, from home or office. Reader 8 has new tools, and new options for viewing information more efficiently.
Reader 8 is now integrated with Adobe Connect software, which enables users to communicate and accelerate approvals with virtually anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Flash Player
Flash Player 9 is a lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices.
Java
This is the official Java Download from Sun Microsystems. Java technology allows you to work and play in a secure computing environment.
The Java Runtime Environment provides the libraries to run applets and applications written in the Java programming language.
QuickTime 7
(for Windows 2000/XP) By Apple. QuickTime 7 Player takes advantage of the latest video compression technology.
Browsers
Plugins for Foxfire
email Thunderbird
Plugins for Foxfire
html validator
If your a blogger of web site developer this is a must have plugin. You
Developers Toolbar
This is a must have tool for any level of web or blog developer.
IE view See
what your web page looks like in IE without leaving Foxfire.
del.icio.us Bookmarks
This is one of many bookmark add-ons. I mention this one because it is the oldest
and largest bookmarking tool.
CoolIris
This is a cool plugin that lets you view your next click without going to the
next page.
I am know using all of these plupins and add-ons.
Expect to see this page updated often.
Compact Flash and Flash Drive deals
MicroCenter Drops prices Again!
I’ve been using MicroCenter’s stick and CompactFlash Card for about 9 months+ with no problems.
I heard the prices dropped again and this is what I saw:
- 1 gig Flash Drive 9.99
- 2 gig Flash Drive 15.99
- 1 gig CompactFlash Card 13.99
- 2 gig CompactFlash Card 19.99
Theses look like such good deals I thought I’d pass them on. And yes I did pick up a 2gig card.
