Personal Productivity Archives - Page 24 of 27

ajaxWrite and ajaxSketch are Not True WebOffice Applications

Posted on March 30, 2006 ·

(Updated)
I was one of the first bloggers to welcome ajaxSketch, released only a week after ajaxWrite, as part of my growing collection of FireFox bookmarks in the WebOffice folder. Well, I just deleted them. What’s the point of using Web-based applications if I can only save my work on the local harddrive? If I have access to my own PC, I also have the desktop applications, and if the purpose is work/create anywhere I am, I need not only Web-based applications, but web-based storage too.

Well, at least I don’t have to worry about my WebOffice folder filling up too fast …

Update (3/30): Apparently I’m not the only one disappointed: “Whats the point in a Web application storing its files on your pc? None!”

Update (4/10): Now we have the answer, thanks to the Seattle PI via Paul Thurrott. “Currently, ajaxWrite saves documents on the computer hard drive, but

Robertson says the plan is to offer online file storage and other

advanced features for a subscription fee. That’s how the company will

seek to make money.” OK, I just wonder if the initially disappointed users will bother to check back later.

Tags: WebOffice, Web 2.0, AJAX, AJAX Office, ajaxWrite, ajaxLaunch, AjaxSketch, box.net

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software ·

Prelude to the New Gmail Business Model?

Posted on March 29, 2006 ·

This story (via Digg) suggests Gmail has a limit of 500 emails a day. Perhaps it’s just spam control – perhaps it’s the prelude to Google’s pay-for-use services, especially considering that they will introduce private label Gmail accounts.

ajaxSketch Launched

Posted on March 29, 2006 ·

ajaxSketch, a Web-base tool for diagramming, flow charts, free hand drawing was launched today. This came just a week after it’s creator, Michael Robertson released ajaxWrite, which became both instantly popular and controversial. Popular, since within a week it was used to creat over half a million documents. Controversial, since it sparked a debate that it’s actually not AJAX but XUL, so perhaps it should be named xulWrite…

I’m a dumb user, not technical enough to follow those debates … and I don’t care anyway. What I do know is that I now have a folder named WebOffice in my FireFox with bookmarks for Writely, Thumbstacks (cool online Presentation tool – light Powerpoint-replacement, although I will be chastised for this), Vyew, Box.net, Zoho, Calcoolate … and a bunch of others. Today ajaxSketch joined the crowd. I think I’m gonna lose this race: before realize, I’ll have way too many WebOffice apps there, when I really should “standardize” on a handful. Michael Robertson is a guilty party here: he promised to release a new app on ajaxLaunch.com every Wednesday, and so far he’s delivered.

Update (3/29): Since the announcement this afternoon, the US server had scarce availability, the European server was up, but slow. Now that they got TechCrunched, it won’t help… Oh, well, when Zillow was unavailable almost all of their launch day, nobody seemed to care except me – apparently it did not hurt them a single bit.

Tags: WebOffice, Web 2.0, AJAX, AJAX Office, ajaxWrite, ajaxLaunch, AjaxSketch, Writely, Thumbstacks, box.net

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software ·

TeleFlip – Cool Email to SMS Service

Posted on March 25, 2006 ·

If you’re like me, struggling to switch from the QWERTY keyboard of your old Treo … etc, and hate trying to SMS using the T9 input of the smaller cell-phones, you’ll appreciate this service: TeleFlip allows you to send a SMS to any North-American cell-phone by entering the address as phoneno@teleflip.com.

Try it, you’ll love it (well, as long as you’re close to a QWERTY keayboard).

Update (3/25): Google also has a text-to-SMS service but you have to know the carrier, which today, in the age of number portability makes it quite useless.

Tags: teleflip, sms, qwerty, t9, cellular, cellphones, mobile, google

Filed Under: Personal Productivity ·

The Solution to your GDS Problem is CDS

Posted on March 6, 2006 ·

I can’t believe it: Google Desktop Search cannot track changes when you move files from a directory to another. That means the more you use your computer, the more your index will be out of sync. Perhaps that’s why they did not name it Desktop Find, because it only searches, does not find!

The recommended solution: uninstall GDS, then install it again…then wait a few hours for the complete reindex. WTF? The whole idea of an indexing program that I should not even know about it .. .it should do its thing in the background, as if it wasn’t there at all.

I have a better solution: get Copernic Desktop Search. It does not steal your data, does not come with a bunch of additional bloatware, it only does one thing, but does it really well: find and serve up your data. The screenshot below shows the powerful update options.

Tags: Google, Google Desktop Search, Copernic Desktop Search, GDS, CDS, Desktop Search

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·

Blogs To Replace Personal Websites

Posted on March 5, 2006 ·

(Updated)

I don’t think this is a radically new idea: personal websites are so 20th century – Blogs bring them to life, and they are easier to set up. As Don Dodge says, “Blogs are two way, in fact many way, communication where the readers create a conversation by leaving comments, trackbacks, and links. Web sites don’t lend themselves to leaving comments and starting a conversation.”

I think for most individuals a blog offers more power, flexibility, ability for self-expression and dialogue, than a static website. There are a few tricks, however, if you feel the need to have a permanent front-page. Several blog-platforms allow for “sticky posts”. Create only one sticky post, this will always stay at the top, i.e it can become your “static” home page. Smart use of titles, icons, graphics with URL’s in the sticky post, surrounded by categories, lists in the sidebars can turn the “sticky” into the point of entry for several parts of your blog – a’la traditional websites.

Some blog-platforms (e.g. Blogware by Blogharbor, the one I use) also cater for creating classic, static Web pages, allow you to FTP content up to your site, have photo albums ..etc. The static pages don’t automatically become part of your blog categories or your main page, giving you the freedom of freely mix and match with the blog. You could use the static page as your homepage (like the sticky described above) ,or you could call it from a link in a blog post – making sure that’s the only way to access it, someone cannot stumble upon the standalone page without reading the post.

The static page, the sticky post, or badges on your sidebar could also become the launching pad to a personal wiki (SocialText and JotSpot both offer free personal versions) , to your documents in Writely, or to any number of Web 2.0 app’s. It doesn’t matter that all these services are hosted on different servers by different companies, you can bring them all together on your launchpad page.

I recently wrote about using wiki’s to create an Instant Intranet for companies – if you have any projects that require collaboration with others, you can do the same, making it part of your static page.

With all these tools available, who needs a traditional web-page?

Update (3/22): Apparently not just personal sites: Steve Rubel reports Another Company Goes Blog Only

Tags: blogs, blogging, website, homepage, static website, blog as website, intranet, wiki, collaboration, web 2.0, jotspot, socialtext, writely, blogware, blogharbor

Filed Under: Blogging, Collaboration, Personal Productivity ·

Wikis are the Instant Intranet

Posted on March 4, 2006 ·

(Updated)

Since I received a few questions after my post: 43 Wiki Prank and the Whiteboard Test, I though I should add a bit of clarification. The underlying thought in that article was to pick the right tool for the right situation, and the whiteboard-test is just one trick to differentiate when Wiki’s are helpful vs. Forum, Blog ..etc software. It’s by far not the only situation when a wiki is invaluable.

Another example is setting up a living, breathing Intranet, one that people can actually use. Anybody who works in large corporations probably thinks of the IntraNet as a one-way communication channel for Management to talk (down) to employees. Getting your own content in? Forget it! Even when I was VP in a mid-sized organization and did not have wait for approval, I still had to talk to the IT Director, wait for him to fit it in his team’s schedule, then tell him what was wrong when my content finally showed up.

It does not have to be this way! Companies “own” (well, at least part of the day) the intellectual capacity of their employees, so why not put it to work? Even in the large corporate environment a wiki can be a lively collaborative addition to the Intranet (see the wiki effect by Ross), but for smaller, nimble, less hierarchical business a wiki is The Intranet.

At a much smaller organization I wanted to introduce a wiki for collaboration, for all the reasons explained in the video below. The company was a bit more old-fashioned, not exactly the early-adopter type. I expected some resistance against something with a geeky-funny name like wiki… so I simply announced we’ll be creating an editable Intranet. People started to use it from day 1, and few cared that the thingie behind is called a wiki.

David Terrar describes a somewhat similar story here.

Finally, the excellent video by JotSpot Founder Joe Kraus.