Another Way to Find WIFI Hotspots
Situation: You're in an Unfamiliar Place and Need a WIFI Connection. WEFI is an interesting new service that delivers maps of available WIFI hotspots to those of us who currenlty rely on Starbucks connections or walking around strange places carrying a laptop with one hand and refreshing our network list with the other.Here's what they do (in their words) "WeFi is a community linked together by wireless access and content. WeFi helps you find the best available wireless connection with an emphasis on free WiFi. You can find Wifi access spots on the map, add your own spots, and see where your friends are, close to you or worldwide. " I just like it as a time-saving reference. |
Posted on: June 19, 2007 12:08 PM
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Write Really Effective Email Messages...
Situation: You Need To Hone Your Email Skills a Bit. I just finished SEND, the Essential Guide to Email for the Office and Home. It's a great little book that reveiws email fundamentals and delivers a few interesting facts that not everyone knows.In terms of fundamentals, the authors turn the word SEND into an acronym describing what you should consider before hitting that "send" button. S stands for Simple E stands for Effective N stands for Necessary D stands for Done. This makes for a nice, easy to remember checklist to follow anytime you send a message out. Here's a couple other interesting tips that not everyone is aware of. - If you are switching email addresses, change your "return address" in your email client to your new address for while before you actually cut over. That way replies all go to your new address and the transition will happen more smoothly. - Replies from handheld devices, like blackberrys usually carry a small "e" in the "Re:", versus the capital "E" in "RE:" that you see in replies made from Outlook or other desktop clients. This is just one more clue that the reply is from a mobile device and perhaps you should be a little more tolerant of its contents. There's quite a bit more advice in the book - which makes it a great gift for the email-challenged co-worker in your life. Since that covers most of the people on the planet, I think I smell a best-seller! |
Posted on: June 16, 2007 12:34 AM
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Keeping Track of Disappearing Team Members
Categories:
Time Killers
Categories: Time Killers
Situation: You Haven't Exposed Yourself to Any Good Law Suits Lately... I mostly just thought this was a cool device. The Trackstick lets you track to location of anything you stick it to via the web. Perhaps its more useful for your kid's backpack, but I guess it depends on your management style. |
Posted on: June 16, 2007 12:16 AM
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3 Steps to Getting More Out Of GEN Y Staff...
Situation: You Need a Better Approach to Managing the 20-somethings on your Team. The front page story in the May 28th issue of Fortune makes GEN Y-ers seem like the most difficult people in the world - but the article itself also declares them to be the most (potentially) productive. Their high expectations of you as an employer and just what they expect out of life in general can absolutely work in your favor. It's just a matter of knowing how to deal with them. So how do you attract, retain, and develop GEN Y employees? The folks at Fortune suggest you: Attract them by making recruiting efforts more social and less stodgy, while showing them that working at your company fits well with their socially responsible lifestyle. So more cocktail parties, less powerpoint - maybe give the $ you would have spent on logo swag to charity. Retain them by making the job a more pervasive part of their life through the use of technology, while still giving them flexibility and time for personal achievements outside of work. It's more about helping them get the results you want, versus seeing them put in the hours. Develop them by mapping out a clear career path that they can follow. Make it something they can see working with their personal goals long term. |
Posted on: June 13, 2007 01:42 PM
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Save a Meeting - Record Your Skype Calls...
Situation: You Want to Record a Conference Call, Rather Than Take Notes. You can argue about legal implications of recording calls all day long, but everyone on the call knows you're recording a call, its ok. Often as Project Managers, our conference calls contain an awful lot of detail about commitments and progress that get lost in the shuffle. A recording of official status meetings and the discussions that form the basis for key decisions can be really useful. I think that many of us know people who have done this "reporter style" with mini recorders at face to face meetings.Callburner allows you to make recordings of Skype calls that you can keep as MP3s. So picture this: - you can focus on the meeting, not the notes - you can literally have a record of commitments, etc. - you can easily add or attach these recordings to a variety of project documents. Also think about how useful this would be for: - interviewing stakeholders - understanding the specifics of interactions between team members during important meetings where you could not be present. (and perhaps eliminating schedule conflicts where one person might be "optional", but you're not really sure) - posting podcast statements from high-level sponsors about "what is really important" about the project. |
Posted on: June 09, 2007 02:39 PM
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