Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Here’s to you, Marc - wherever you are

I just read the sad news about the passing of one of my favorite friends and personalities in tech, GTD, and just being an all around neat guy - Marc Orchant. I never met Marc in the flesh, but he touched my life in a lot of ways. He was funny, smart, kind, and supportive.

We talked a lot on email, and followed each others blogs regularly. He helped me get mirrored on OfficeZealot a long time ago. I took Marc's Microsoft Outlook online course. But most of all, I just liked Marc and loved his energy and perspective.

I miss you, Marc. My thoughts and prayers to Marc's family.

You can read a wonderful tribute to Marc on bub.blicio.us, which is where this picture came from (photographer: Brian Solis).

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Backup a-plenty

I was chatting with a friend of mine about data backup this week and he mentioned he'd seen my previous write-up about Mozy, which I use (and love) for data backup at home. What he didn't realize was that Mozy is only $4.95 per month for UNLIMITED data backup (he thought you had to pay based on the data volume). It's a good deal and very reliable.

By the way - I got a notification from Mozy the other day with two pieces of good news:

  • they are now part of megacorp EMC so they will not be going anywhere soon; and
  • they have some coupon codes that will get you a discount in December (I just signed up my wife's new computer using the discount).

To get the 10% discount, click this link, then use the codes for December on the signup page: DECEMBER gets you 10% off of an annual subscription to Mozy, and DECEMBERY gets you 10% off of a 2-year Mozy subscription (which is already cheaper on a per-year cost basis).

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Plusmo == way cool mobile feeds

If you're looking for a new way to track RSS feeds on your mobile phone, take a look at Plusmo. What's a "Plusmo" you ask? Plusmo is a free service that lets you run cool mobile widgets on your phone. Mobile widgets are tiny apps that offer a much better mobile experience for a specific purpose. There are over 20,000 widgets on Plusmo, most of them created by users.

I discovered it because someone is using it to read my RSS feed, and it showed up in Feedburner's report this month as an "Uncommon use" for my feed. Naturally, I was curious so I tried it out and I really like it. You can use Plusmo to "widgetize" any RSS feed (blogs, news feeds, etc.), as well as use existing widgets. One thing I like: it syncs the content to your device so you can read it when you aren't online (like on an airplane) - that helps me use my time more effectively.

What can I monitor?

To give you an idea of what you can monitor with Plusmo, you can subscribe to local weather & traffic, news headlines, comic strips, sports, and loads of other widgets. Plusmo installs an app on your phone that manages displaying and synchronization of content, and it allows you to easily add, remove, and tweak widgets.

Plusmo supports all J2ME MIDP 2.0 and MIDP 1.0 enabled mobile phones, RIM/Blackberry devices, Windows Mobile Smart phones and Pocket PC enables PDAs. Currently, it only supports AT&T / Cingular and Sprint as carriers, but they are adding new carriers and supported devices all the time - you can see the current list of Plusmo's supported devices on their site (the list of carriers is on their FAQ page).

To install, the easiest way is to point your phone's browser at http://plusmo.com and follow the instructions. You can also sign up via their site, which will use your choice of SMS or email to send an install link to your phone.

If you're traveling overseas and need to rent an international mobile phone, our cell phone rental services have you covered. With a world phone, you can make and receive phone calls from anywhere!

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Blackberry: 1-800-Whatever

I've been using a Blackberry with a full keyboard for quite a while, and have always been frustrated about dialing letters or words since the Blackberry doesn't have any kind of indicator what letters go with which numbers. For example, when I want to dial by name on a company phone system, I have resorted to doing the mapping in my head: something like "Let's see...ABC is 2, DEF is 3... dangit!"

Well, I just found out there is a much easier way: When you have to dial by name, wait for the prompt and simply press and hold down the "Alt" key on the Blackberry and use the keyboard to type the name you are trying to dial. The Blackberry will automagically send the right tone to match what you've typed. Awesome time saver.

When dialing 1-800-Whatever, the same technique applies - just punch that into the dialing field in the Blackberry's phone screen, and it will do the math for you.

Bonus feature:

If you work for a company that uses a main number with an automated menu where you can dial individual extensions, try this. Type an extension into the phone screen (such as "x123") and the Blackberry will prompt you to set up your phone for automatic enterprise dialing.

After this is set up, you can simply type the extension number for anyone in your company into your Blackberry. The Blackberry will then dial your main number, pause for the specified number of seconds, then punch in the extension number.

Related items:

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Yapta gets foxy

I've written about Yapta a couple of times in the past (see "Related items" following this post) and how it's useful for today's airfare climate. As a refresher, you use Yapta's browser add-on to track airfares by "tagging" (or "bookmarking") the exact flight itineraries that you want while searching on airline websites. Once a trip is tagged, all key flight information - including price, airline and travel dates - is automatically stored on the traveler's "My Trips" page at Yapta.com and users are subsequently notified via email when prices drop.

If prices drop after you've purchased the ticket, you are notified when you're eligible for a travel voucher or refund from their airline.

What's new?

In the past, Yapta only worked with Internet Explorer. Well, good news to you Firefox (Windows and Mac) users: Yapta released their Firefox plug-in today. It's free if you want to give it a shot. You can get more info or download the Yapta plug-in for Firefox.

Yapta can be used to tag flights on the following sites:

http://www.Alaskaair.com
http://www.aa.com
http://www.Continental.com
http://www.Delta.com
http://www.JetBlue.com
http://www.united.com
http://www.usairways.com

Related items

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