Archive for the ‘Telecommuting’ Category
eriksr on February 16th, 2007
I’ve been using Meebo for a long time now. It’s a Website that brings together all the major instant message programs out there (Yahoo IM, AOL IM, ICQ, GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger, etc.) and combines them into a single interface for you. It works well, I’m able to access my IM buddies from anywhere and on any computer, and I don’t have to keep hundreds of programs built by uncaring multinational corporations running on my computer to do so.
But those nice people at Meebo (hey guys, I love your blog!) took things a few steps farther a while back and created one of the most awesome tools you can use to interact directly with reporters, your client’s customers, or just about anyone. It’s called MeeboMe. You can see it over there on the left.
MeeboMe’s widgets allow you to embed an IM chat window in a Web-page or blog or what-have-you. Imagine the possibilities: Have your clients place a MeeboMe widget on their press page so reporters looking for information can speak with you, the PR professional, directly. Using those new-fangled social-media press releases? MeeboMe practically begs to be added. Add MeeboMe to your firm’s blog or homepage so current and potential clients can get quick answers to questions. Your imagination is the limit, I suppose.
For my part, I’ve been hoping to embed MeeboMe on Tech for PR for a while now but my sidebars are chock full as it is. Still, you can talk to me while this widget is alive on this page. Drop me a line — have any tech questions you need answers to? Let me know.
eriksr on February 12th, 2007
In the past I told you about a way you can send large files to someone without resorting to Email. Now I’m going to tell you a surefire method of accessing a computer remotely. This is ideal for PC users, although it will work for Mac OSX machines as well — with a limitation…see, OSX machines cannot act as hosts (see below), only as guests.
The Remote Access Boogie
Does your firm provide you with webmail? It works sufficiently well, I suppose. But what happens when you’re on vacation and get a desperate phone call for some file or other that is sitting in your computer? How about when you’re at home for a few days while recovering from pneumonia and (silly you) you insist on getting work done while unable to breathe?
Fire up your web browsers and visit LogMeIn.com. This free service allows you to connect to a remote computer using your web browser! Best of all, it seems able to bypass even the most stringent corporate firewall since it uses the HTTP protocol (port 80 to you geeks out there) to work its magic. You’ll be able to open and edit spreadsheets, documents, manage Email — you can even watch videos if your connection is fast enough!
What You Do
As usual, you might want to talk with your IT department before doing this. Odds are they’ll turn you down because they are fearful of change and hate the thought of employees actually using technology productively…’course, I never let a “No” stop me before. Proceed with caution, duh.
Step 1: While on the computer you intend to access remotely (the host), visit LogMeIn.com. See the green button “Get LogMeIn Free”? Click it. You’ll be asked for some details. Fill in whatever is required (make note of the username and password!) and continue. On this next screen, click the “Add Computer” link.
Step 2: Download and install the LogMeIn software. Depending on your web browser, you may have to end up shutting down and restarting it. And don’t freak out when your screen flickers or goes black — it’s all part of the process.
Step 3: You’re pretty much done by this point. Now you want to head over to the computer you’ll be using remotely – the guest. Go back to LogMeIn.com and log-in (username, password boxes are at the top-right). You should see your remote computer in the list. Click it, enter your username and password, and away you go.
Now you’ve got access to everything — it’s as though you are sitting at your desk, except that your desktop is now in your web browser. If things are too small, click the full-screen button at the top to expand your view.
Remember, in order to be accessible remotely, the host computer must be turned on!
One more thing — don’t try to connect to the guest computer WHILE ON the guest computer. It sets off this crazy infinite loop that is impossible to break out of without restarting your computer…though it is cool to see. 
eriksr on January 29th, 2007
Life in a PR firm ain’t easy — as far as technology goes. How often has a reporter asked you to send them a high-res .JPG, but you only have those un-openable .EPS files? How about when you need to send a specific type of video file? Or you’re dealing with someone who, god forbid, doesn’t use Microsoft Office and cannot read your .DOC’s and .XLS files! You’re up the creek, folks, you’re up the creek.
But it’s okay — I’m here to help. The solution doesn’t cost a thing, either.
Head on over to Media-Convert. Media-Convert let’s you upload files up to 100MB in size to convert. Once it is complete, you just download it and poof – You’re done! No need to install weird crappy software (thus getting IT all worried) because the service is web-based. 
Now, you want to talk about privacy issues? They certainly exist. But hopefully, for the most part, you’ll just be converting stock footage or photos or innocuous recordings. Regardless, caveat emptor.
Here’s a list of some of the document formats the site can deal with:
Raw text, HTML, XHTML, Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, PS, Open Office, Star Writer, Pocket Word, Word Perfect
CSV, dBase, Microsoft Excel, Pocket Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Star Calc, Open Office spreadsheet
MathML, Star Math, Open Office math
Microsoft Powerpoint, Star Impress, Open Office presentation
Image formats:
AVS BMP CIN DCX DIB DPX FITS GIF ICO JFIF JIF JPE JPEG JPG MIFF OTB P7 PALM PAM PBM
PCD PCDS PCL PCX PGM PICT PNG PNM PPM PSD RAS SGI SUN TGA TIF TIFF WMF XBM XPM YUV
CGM DXF EMF EPS MET MVG ODG OTG STD SVG SXD WMF
And tons more. The site can also resize and compress movies and pictures, too. I pray that this site survives the pending Dot Com Bubble Burst 2.0
eriksr on January 12th, 2007
Argh!
This is a fine, fine example of what I’m talking about when I say that IT must serve the needs of the business. Take a look at this article — look at what the spokesperson from DeKalb said. Here’s the gist: She noticed a lot of employees Emailing sensitive medical records to their private Email accounts. She laid the smack down and most of them stopped doing it. Makes sense, right? NO! Now employees will bring stuff home, they’ll just be more surreptitious about it!
What this person should have done is realize that DeKalb’s employees need a way to access their work Email remotely, and she should have provided a way to do that that allowed DeKalb to remain in control. DUH.
If this is happening at your firm, talk to your supervisor about it. There are affordable, secure ways to do this. Heck, I’ll cover some soon!
read more | digg story
eriksr on January 11th, 2007
PR firm can’t afford to give each person a conference number? Is someone already using yours because they can’t find their code? Have no fear, the web is here! Experts have been predicting that the cost of voice service will someday drop to zero. Well, what follows is living proof that it’s happening.
Thank you, Lifehacker
My favorite and most wonderful people ever — the staff at Lifehacker.com and especially Rick Broida — pointed out a service named “foonz“ for organizing conference calls at the spur of the moment. It’s free and you don’t have to listen to any commercials before the call starts.
All you have to do is create an account. foonz assigns you a phone number (not toll free — it’ll be a regular phone number, so you are responsible for any long distance charges that may occur) which you can share with others via Email, Txt, and IM messages. They dial in and everyone is happy. The quality when I tried it was great.
How can this stuff be free?
Here’s what the folks over at foonz have to say:
Foonz is free? Really? Yup! Foonz has agreements with the phone company to provide the Foonz service for a share of the money you are already paying the phone company. So, it literally doesn’t cost you anything more to use Foonz! Only your normal phone use minutes apply. No subscription cost, no surcharges, no gimmicks and no surprises. Just a great service from any phone!
Lifehacker also suggests two other services that are similar, FreeConference.com (which imposes a cap of 25 participants) and LiveOffice, a service particularly adored by The New York Times columnist David Pogue. These two services are special in that you can pay a small fee to get an 800 number assigned to you, so your participants don’t have to worry about long distance charges. You’re looking at $.10/minute for FreeConference.com and $.04/minute for LiveOffice — a better deal by far.
eriksr on January 1st, 2007
In part one of this series I covered using web-based desktops to access your files, read your email, and even bang out documents using word-processors and spreadsheets. Now I’d like to introduce you to the wonderful world of the USB thumbdrive
.
Is That a Computer in Your Pocket?
You’ve probably seen USB thumbdrives (also known as “pocketdrives” or “keychain drives”) before. You may even own one. And as far as anyone knows, all you can do with it is store and retrieve data. They do a darn good job at that, yes, but they can do so much more. You can actually install and run applications such as word processors, web browsers, spreadsheets and even virus scanners from a USB thumbdrive! And it’s tres easy to do thanks to the large fanbase on the Internets.
Head on over to PortableApps.com, a site that represents the efforts of a community of portable app fanatics. And before I continue — sorry Mac OSX users, this is for Windows only. I love love love OSX however and promise to keep an eye out for a similar product.
These nice people have been kind enough to gather an entire suite of software into an easy to use, free, package that sets itself up for you. It even includes a special “launch bar” program, similar to the Windows “Start” button, that lets you launch the applications easily. Here’s just a sample of what you can find in the “Standard” suite:
ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition (Web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird - Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird - Portable Edition (email client)
Head over to their download section and grab the suite that works for you. You should have a minimum of 256MB of free space if you want to get a good mix of applications, but please note that you can pick up a 512MB drive on the cheap just about anywhere. Once downloaded, run the installer and point it at your thumbdrive. Once complete, whenever you plug your thumbdrive into a Windows-based computer, the interface will launch to give you access to your apps.
Why IT Won’t Mind
All of these applications run from your thumbdrive. All of the emails you receive from the email client built into the drive stay on the drive. The detritus you collect from browsing the Web using Firefox portable stays on the drive, too.
Yes, you will be using company property to do this, so not everyone will be thrilled. But you know…technology is there to serve us. When the IT department’s rules get in the way of our doing the best job we can, it means IT is doing us a disservice and is not serving the needs of business. This all goes back to the “consumerization of IT” thing I mentioned a while back, where the technology users introduce into their office will determine how IT will function in the future.
Let me make this clear: The needs of the user should determine how technology is used. To do otherwise limits possibility and therefore stifles creativity and efficiency.
