Life & Tech

Benefits of LinkedIn:
1. Connect or re-connect with business colleagues or friends.
2. Staying informed: when your colleagues changed positions, you can see what they are doing.
3. Stay in touch: as your colleges changed jobs and/or their email addresses, you will always have an up-to-date contacts.

Three Quick Start Steps:
1. Get an account at http://www.linkedin.com & create a simple profile of where you have worked (and school).
2. Search for a few colleagues who are already in LinkedIn, when you find someone you would like to connect to, click “Add… to your network”
3. Once you have a few people to your network, check their connections to find other common colleagues.

Jott has been expanding it’s functionality with integration to other online services (via Jott’s Links). Three outstanding must have services:
1. Google Calendar: Call Jott and it will place your appointment into your Google Calendar
2. Xpenser.com tracks your expenses, again call Jott and it will add your expense to Xpenser
3. Jott to Twitter/Jaiku (and other blogging platforms: Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, TypePad)

reQall helps you remember stuff (to do, tasks). For example, when you are driving and need to jot down a note or task, use reQall to help taking down the note. All you have to do is call: 1-888-973-7255 and dictate your text (you have up to 60 seconds).
It uses transcription services to convert voice to text (similar to Jott.com), however, reQall and iPhone UI work together really well. (http://www.reqall.com/web/). Jott can do more in term of converting your voice into emails that can be sent to other, but I found that reQall.com on iPhone is a killer app for me. It’s a free service.

Here are some useful phone services for a start-up business: a free unified messaging, email to fax, and a personal/business toll-free number.

1. Free voicemail and fax mailbox: www.k7.net You get a voicemail box with 206 area code. When someone leaves a message or send you a fax, it will be forwarded to your email. It’s free, however, if there’s no activity for 30 days (no one calling), it will be deactivated. Great if you need a fax number to receive fax.

2. If you want ability to send a fax using your email, check out a low-cost service at www.faxaway.com ($1/month and 11¢/minute) to send fax in the U.S. No set up fee plus all incoming faxes are free.

3. For about $24 per year, you can get a personal toll-free number (888, 877, 866) offered by www.kall8.com. You can route the toll free number to your home or cell phone. The rate is $2/month and 6.9¢/minute.

This is what IBM Research thinks will emerge as major technology trends during the next 3-5 years. (See articles on CNET news article):

1. Silicon Manufacturing– Moore’s Law will prevail for at least 10 more years (chips performance doubles every 18 months)
2. Sensors — e.g. RFID, Wireless, GPS and others
3. Application Processors — Application-specific accelerator chips
4. Everyone is a programmer — Ad hoc applications via better tools
5. Services 2.0 — It’s about service

by Oren Harari

You cannot slay the dragon everyday. Some days the dragon wins. - Colin Powell

A Leadership Primer from Colin Powell

• Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
• You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
• Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Yahoo! Voice - Internet Phone Calls and Numbers:

• Phone Out: For pc-to-phone calling 2¢ or less per minute, call anywhere in the U.S.
• Phone In: For phone-to-pc, it’s about $29/year (a little cheaper than Skype)

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finance.google.com

A strong competitor to Yahoo Finance. The page is well-designed with relevant information. The daily stock chart has a notation indicating ‘event’ that was happening during the day (i.e. how it may impact the rise and fall of the stock price). You can drag on the chart to go forward/backward.

Instead of paying $0.75-$1 to phone company to use their 411, try the following toll-free. They are sponsored by a short ad, you have to listen to about 10-15 seconds. Over time can save you a bundle:

• 1-800-FREE-411 (1-800-373-3411
• 1-800-411-METRO (1-800-411-6387)

www.sidejobtrack.com

by Edward de Bono

Six metaphorical approaches to thinking. White (facts), Red (feelings), Black (cautions), Yellow (positive), Green (creative), Blue (critical).

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