Do you have the need in your everyday life and business to store and send files? I believe we all do in some form or another, whether it is to show off a proof of something, or share ideas and collaboration.
I forward all of my POP email to Gmail accounts for easier web access and to serve as a backup in case my desktop email client eats my incoming messages. I have nearly 2 years of email saved this way. After reading Mom, Google Ate My Gmail on Gigaom, I may have to think about a backup strategy for my backup strategy.
Google now says that around 60 accounts were affected by the message-deleting glitch.
Does this sound familiar? You send an email out to 4 or 5 of your co-workers or client contacts trying to set up a meeting or get consensus on an idea. 15 “reply to all” emails later and you now know what everyone’s holidays plans are, what they’re having for lunch, and maybe what their favorite color schemes are…but you are no closer to a firm decision on whether or not you can have that conference call next Tuesday.
Grouptivity is a free web application that promises to take the hassle out of online planning and group email decision making. Aimed at the MySpace/Facebook crowd looking to leverage the social web, but with practical use for the web worker.
In this slow news week, a ripple is being felt in the blogosphere over Microsoft sending certain bloggers $2,000 Acer Ferrari laptops fully decked out with a copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007. Companies sending out review software/hardware in order to get some space in a popular column is nothing new. The bruhaha is over whether these power laptops are being lent out for review or as a free-and-clear gift. And if it’s a gift, is it ethical for the bloggers to accept them and how will it impact their Microsoft coverage in the future?
This isn’t only about bloggers and people who review and talk about technology. Is there something deeper at play that will force web workers to take a more critical look at their own ethics should they find themselves in a similar situation?
Just like everything with the Google name on it, Google Reader is getting a ton of attention these days. This week Steve Rubel picked up on an intriguing idea from Steve Mermelstein, that Google’s RSS aggregator could turn into a Digg-like social sharing and voting site.
You can already share posts you like in Reader with a click of a link. All Google needs to make it into a Digg competitor is a page showing the most-shared posts with their share counts.
A quick tour of the techmeme conversation around this idea brings up a few more ideas for improvements to Google Reader:
The 2007 predictions game has been underway for more than a month now, as bloggers turn prognosticators and read the coffee grounds at the bottom of their mugs. At Web Worker Daily, we’ve been imagining what might make 2007 really great for our work lives on and offline. Here are a few of our hopes for the new year, along with reality checks separating wishful thinking from pragmatic possibility.
Why wishes instead of straight predictions? Because by saying out loud what we want to happen, we make it more likely to occur. That isn’t some sort of fluffy new-age garbage. On the Web when you say something out loud it can spread and change and grow more powerful. If enough people start to believe in something and work towards it, we’re that much closer to making it happen. It’s like affirmations on a community and network scale.
You probably have your own ideas of how your web worker lifestyle could be improved… so after reading these wishes if you have some of your own, share them in the comments or on your own blog.
I have a love/hate relationship with my Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition cell phone/PDA. The image to the left is what my phone’s Today screen is looking like these days. I like my phone’s interface to be very clean and functional. Everything I need quickly is right there. With a 200 Mhz processor and only 64 MB of onboard RAM, I have to be very picky about the applications I install on my Cingular 8125. After nearly a year with this device and after trying a lot of software, I’ve made peace with it. On those days that I don’t have my laptop with me, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I can accomplish from my phone.
Here’s some of my picks for the software that can make the web worker most productive on the go.
I think this is the year that I’m finally going to get the paper in my office as organized as the files on my laptop. Let’s put it this way…I scan really important papers to save to PDF rather than take a chance of losing them in the clutter that seems to accumulate on the flat surfaces of my desk. Electronically, everything has its place. I can’t stand loose files on my OS desktop. So why can’t I get the same discipline with the real paper in my life? I have no idea, but maybe 2007 is the year I figure it out.
Lifehack.org has an interesting approach to the whole resolution thing, focusing attention on the futility of “deficit thinking.”
Deficit thinking is an ingrained habit of focusing on gaps and weaknesses (the deficit) instead of what’s working (and can be made to work still better). It’s focusing on what you can’t do, not what you can. Instead of your dreams and ambitions propelling you forward, you let the gap between your current state and your desires become a source of frustration and depression. It’s the old business of seeing the glass as half empty.
How about you? 2007 is the year you resolve to…
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