Imagining the Ultimate Computer for Travellers

I have mentioned my interest in the Asus Eepc before. It seems it is almost the perfect machine for traveling, but not quite.

My current trip to the USA has made me think about the topic again. It seems all the needs are addressed in different devices, why isn’t there one machine that does it all?

What do I need for travel?

3G for decent internet away from wifi
wifi for high speed internet
at least 1024 pixels wide screen with legible text
Good application support including Firefox or as capable browser
Decent keyboard and mouse action
Enough storage for local document download and editing

Other requirements exist but could probably live without them.

Blackberries are all the rage, often have qwerty keyboards, but software support isn’t quite what you could get with a real desktop operating system.

The iPhone is almost there, but no 3g (yet) and I have doubts that you could do real work on the small screen, even with the funky interface. Apples lock down on apps is a problem too. It seems you still can’t edit documents locally.

Nokias little tablet seemed promising, with linux and a nice wide screen, but was restricted to Wifi and fiddly to operate.

Gadgetry

My old HTC based PDA was almost there but it also had a tiny screen, and crashed a lot due to running pocket pc operating system. The little keyboard was surprisingly good for typing with though once you got used to it, and it could run Skype for both voice chat and text.

Asus seems have the best solution. They have even announced a new model to their tiny notebook with 1024x wide screen. Paired with a bluetooth 3g phone (ok, cheating a little), is this the ultimate traveling machine? Seems to tick all the appropriate boxes.

7 Free Software Tools That Save You Time With SEO

Try as you might to avoid it, SEO is an important part of any online businesses marketing arsenal. Think of it this way, if you had a high street store you would want to place it where there was maximum passing trade, right? The same goes online, you want your website to be seen, and that means playing the Search Engine game.

How can we productively keep our SEO hand in, and monitor progress, without it taking over all our time? Enter our friends automation and software tools!

I have only recently started seriously getting back into the search area so let me know of your favorite tools in the comments, I am eager to hear what you recommend! I’m focusing here on online or cross-platform tools seeing as I am a mac user and most desktop tools seem PC based

On with the tools …

Google Webmaster Central - If you are looking at improving your search engine performance you might as well go to the source!

Get diagnostic information to see if you are causing spiders crawling problems, and see where you rank and for what.
Website Grader - Get your site analyzed and see where you are going wrong and what you are doing right.
WordTracker - Find the keywords people are using in your niche.
103Bees - Find the phrases people are finding you with. Great for those long tail searches.
SEO for Firefox - See detailed stats for any page, such as how many links it has pointed to it, all the way through to how old the site is. In fact, check out the rest of the tools at Aaron’s site while you are at it!
Sheer SEO tool - Funny name but very useful. See your ranking progress over time
Link Diagnosis - Find who is linking to your competitors.

Those were my 7 selected tools, which do you use and why? Please share in the comments …

PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents. What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely published. Numerous developers take advantage of this fact and create programs that offer effective alternatives to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools that are full of some of the best PDF features and functions.

Downloadable PDF Creators

These simply and emminently usable programs will allow you to quickly create your own PDFs.

CutePDF: Create a PDF file from almost any printable document. CutePDF has an open SDK and doesn’t bog down their software with popups or watermarks.
PDF reDirect: The freeware PDF reDirect offers loads of robust features, including PDF creation, previews, encryption, and more, that go a long way to replacing Adobe.
doPDF: Install doPDF as a virtual PDF printer driver, and you can create PDFs using your printer function.
CC (Free) PDF Converter: This printer driver can be used to create a PDF file from any printable Windows application.
PDFCreator: Use PDFCreator to create PDFs from any printable program, as well as encrypt and autosave files based on predefined terms.
Open Office: Open Office has a PDF export feature that allows you to define compression levels as well as handle thumbnails and hyperlinks.
Scribus: Use this desktop publishing program to create interactive PDF presentations and forms.
HylaFAX: HylaFAX is an open source fax server that can be configured to deliver in PDF.

Online and Desktop PDF Editors

PDF manipulation is easy and free with these tools.

PDFescape: This online PDF solution is a reader, editor, form filler, and form designer. All you need to use it is a JavaScript enabled web browser.
PDFedit: Use this editor to manipulate PDF documents, with an option to do your own scripting and plugins.
Multivalent browser: Although not a pure editor, this browser allows for minimal editing in the form of creating annotations. In addition, it includes several command-line PDF specific tools which allow for things like merging, compression, and extraction.

Viewers

If you need a simple way to open and read PDFs, look no further than these lightweight viewers.

Sumatra PDF: This Windows PDF viewer is light and minimalistic. It’s even designed for portable use, so you can run it from a USB drive.
FoxIt Reader: The Foxit PDF viewer is an all time favorite (especially of Digg users). And has a strong set of features (with a very competitive price )
PalmPDF: Use this PDF viewer for Palm OS devices.
Evince: Gnome users can take advantage of Evince, a document viewer that supports both PDF and PostScript documents.
Preview: Mac OS X comes with Preview, an application that displays images and PDFs.
ePDFView: This lightweight PDF viewer uses the GTK+ and Poppler libraries.
Okular: This document viewer for KDE 4 supports PDF, PostScript, and lots more.
Xpdf: Xpdf, available for nearly any Unix OS, is a PDF viewer that allows you to read encrypted PDFs, extract images, and more.

Compatability

Make the PDF format compatible with HTML, XML, non-proprietary formats, and more using these tools.

PythonPoint: Use this tool to create presentations that can be opened with any PDF viewer.
AxPoint: Create PDF slideshows from XML using AxPoint.
DocBook XSL Stylesheets: Create and store documents in a presentation-neutral form that can be published in HTML, PDF, and more.
Unipage: Unipage turns any page, online or local, into an HTML file that can function as a portable document. Although Unipage is currently only available on Windows, additional OS and browser support is coming soon.
EasyPDF SDK: The easyPDF development toolkit helps you create PDF functions with minimum effort and very little code.
KWord: KWord is a word processor for KOffice, and it offers a PDF import function.
PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
Ghostscript: The Ghostscript software can interpret PostScript language and PDFs interchangeably and convert them to faster formats.
Mozilla Archive Format: This extension can save pages in MHTML format, which creates a portable document of the page.
Pstoedit: This program converts PostScript or PDF files to other output formats such as WOMF/EMF, PDF, DXF, CGM, and HTML.

Command Line Manipulation and Editing

These editors won’t be used on your desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you can use these offerings to build into your own apps so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process.

PJ: Etymon’s PJ, the parent of PJX, is one of the earliest open source attempts to make PDF’s more accessible. PJ is a class library in Java that allows parsing, manipulation, and generation of PDF files.
PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
mbtPdfAsm: The mbtPdfAsm application is an in line tool for assembling and merging PDF files, extracting information from them, and updating PDF metadata.
PDF::API2: PDF::API2 offers a “next generation” tool for creating and manipulating PDF files.
PDF Clown: The PDF Clown is an open source library which includes capabilities such as document splitting, merging, and more.
iText: iText is an ideal library for developers seeking to automate PDF creation and manipulation.
FreeDist: This freeware distiller can convert files into PDF as well as compose multiple files to one PDF in a specific order.
Pdftk: This toolkit offers command-line functionality for lots of features, like merging, form filling, and encryption.

PDF Creation Libraries, Scripts and Systems

If you’re a developer and you want to move beyond the capabilities of a desktop PDF creator, these libraries, scripts, and systems will help you incorporate PDF creation into your own applications.

CUPS: The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is primarily a system for enabling a computer to act as a print server, but which has a robust feature that allows PDF exporting.
Lout: This document formatting system, the implementation of which is referred to as Basser Lout, can be outputted in PDF, plain text, and more.
Indexed PDF Creator: This tool automatically generates a keyword index for PDF documents which allows readers to quickly locate specific words and phrases in a document.
Cairo: Cairo, a vector drawing library, allows creation of PDF documents.
LyX: This document processor which is particularly popular amongst the scientific community offers PDF exporting.
Fly2PDF: You can create PDF documents directly using this ActiveX library.
PDF Creator Pilot: Use this library to create PDF files from popular programming languages like Visual Basic and ASP.
XeTex: XeTex is a typesetting program that offers PDF creation.
FPDF: Use FPDF to create PDF files with PHP. You don’t need PDFlib to use it.
Inkscape: Inkscape is an open source vector drawing program that offers support for PDF exports.
PdfTeX: This typesetting program can output PDF files and allows a number of features like links and tables of contents.
ReportLab: This library offers a PDF generation solution specifically suited for web publishers, developers, and creative designers who are looking for a high-speed automated PDF generation.
Tiny RML2PDF: You can create a PDF document from RML with this tool, giving it the appearance of a printed document.
HTML_ToPDF: This PHP class allows users to convert HTML to PDF files quickly and easily.

Other Tools

Get even more function from your PDFs using these tools.

Skim: For OS X, Skim is a PDF reader with features that allow you to take notes and highlight on any PDF file.
Notepad Generator: This tool makes it easy to create a PDF notepad, and it’s fully customizable.
PDFmap: PDFmap offers automated generation of interactive PDF maps.

With these tools, you should be able to go way beyond Adobe. Even better, you can do it for free and have the option to customize your experience using their open source status.

The Excel Magician: 70+ Excel Tips and Shortcuts to help you make Excel Magic

Are you working with Excel and want take your Excel skills to the next level? Or do you want to learn Excel and don’t know where to start? Check out these 70+ tips and shortcuts that will help you make Excel Magic.

Online tutorials & videos

The following online tutorials are mostly free and will teach you quite a bit about Excel. In fact they are better than some of the expensive classroom training courses.

Online introduction to Excel: If you are just starting to use excel, this is the perfect resource for you. Here you will find dozens of audio courses that take a step by step approach to learning excel.
DataPig Technologies: The guys from Data Pig Technologies made a comprehensive collection of videos that explain almost every aspect of Excel. From basic Excel concepts to VBA programming. And most of the videos are free!
Online Charts Tutorial: Jon Peltier is an Excel-charting superstar. You can use his online tutorial to get you started on Excel charting and also as a reference.
Basic Formulas Guide: This excellent tutorial will help you master Excel formulas in no time.
Common uses for Formulas: This collection of samples will help you understand what can be achieved by using excel formulas.
An introduction to Pivot Tables: The Pivot Table is an amazing tool, but people often shy away from it because Pivot Tables seem complicated. The first page of this PDF contains a clear description of Pivot Tables and how they can be used.
Creating a Pivot table: A 7-minute video shows you how to create and work with Pivot Tables.
Pivot Tables in Excel 2007: Excel 2007 Pivot Tables are much easier to use. If you use excel 2007, check out this slightly promotional yet excellent introduction to Pivot Tables.
Practicing Pivot Tables: This step by step tutorial from Microsoft will help you sharpen your Pivot Table skills.
Microsoft Excel help / 2007: When all else fails, Microsoft Excel Help is a good source to try.

Books

In order to harness the full power of Excel, shell out a couple of book bucks. The following books are packed with information and real-world know-how.

General Excel Books

Excel Bible 2003 / 2007 version: The “Excel Bible” was written by the renowned Excel expert, John Walkenbach. It explains everything from basic formulas and functions to data validation, and Excel programming. If you have only $30 to spend on Excel training, buy this book.
Excel Charts: This book is a comprehensive, yet easy to understand, guide to Excel charting. It’s a useful resource for both beginner and experienced excel users.
Excel Formulas: Formulas are the lifeblood of spreadsheets and “Excel Formulas” from John Walkenbach will teach you everything about them. This book covers all things formula, from custom worksheet functions to financials formulas and more.
Pivot Tables and data analysis / 2007 version: One of the most useful yet most feared features in Excel – the Pivot Table, is tackled gracefully by Bill Jelen (aka Mr. Excel) and Michael Alexander. Well worth the read.
Excel Programming: By far, the best guide to Excel programming. The book also outlines a programming methodology for Excel. The only downside to this book is that it assumes a bit of programming knowledge.
Report programming with Excel: If you plan to build a reporting system based on excel, this is the book for you. It shows how to use Excel to build a reporting/data analysis environment and shows how to properly work with SQL databases.

Excel Tips and case studies

Excel case studies: While not for the beginner, this book contains valuable, real-world advice on how to make Fxcel do what you want it to do. Make sure you check out the “Making things look good” chapter.
Excel Tips: A highly recommended Excel tip book from Mr. Spreadsheet himself.
Some more Excel Tips: A compendium of Excel tips. This is not the first book you should own, but I often find that I return to this book when I’m stuck.
This isn’t Excel it’s Magic: Bob Umlas is probably the foremost expert on formulas. The things this guy does with formulas will make your hair stand on end. If you are serious about Excel, than buy this book.

Specialized Excel books

Principals of finance with Excel: This highly recommended book will help you understand the applicability of Excel in financial environments. It is loaded with real world examples and can help both the financial expert and the techie.
Statistical Analysis with Excel: Using plain English and real-life examples, this book provides information that helps with statistical analysis. The book covers samples and normal distributions, probabilities and related distributions, trends and correlations, as well as statistical terms like median vs. mean, margin of error, standard deviation, permutations, and correlations.
Business Analysis with Excel: Running a business is complicated. Understanding issues like cost of goods, inventory, sales forecast, tax statements is crucial to success. Business analysis with Excel explains these issues and shows how to tackle them using Excel.
Sales Forecasting with Excel: This book shows you how to use Microsoft Excel, to predict trends and future sales based on—numbers. Use data about the past to forecast the future. Excel provides all sorts of tools to help you do that, and this book shows you how to use them.
Excel for Chemists: While most of this book is a general introduction to Excel, it is filled with Chemistry oriented examples. The book also contains a complete chapter that shows how Excel can assist chemists in research.

Forums, News Groups and Mailing Lists

No matter how tough or silly your question is, the experts in the following sites/mailing lists will answer it. They will do it for free and usually within a couple of hours. Don’t be shy. Join these communities and ask.

Note: The online Excel community is one of the nicest communities that I have ever had the pleasure of joining.

Mailing Lists: Wow. This is the jackpot. The Excel-G mailing list is monitored by the best Excel experts in the world. They answer every question. If you post an interesting enough problem these Excel gurus will compete among themselves to answer first and give the most elegant solution.
Mr. Excel Message Boards: A very friendly forum whose members will usually provide you with an answer within 3-5 hours. A bunch of Microsoft MVPs (including the Mr. Excel gang) monitor the forums. And, of course, it has a pure html interface which makes it easier to use.
Excel News Groups: If you prefer USENET groups to mailing lists or Message boards, than you’ll love the Microsoft Excel groups. Most questions asked will be answered within 12 hours.
ExcelForum.com: ExcelForum.com provides a web interface to the Excel News groups. If you do not want to be bothered with the USENET interface, this site will is a useful alternative.

Excel Experts

Some Excel projects are too big/difficult to tackle alone. Here is a (short) list of some of the best hired guns in the Excel Field (If you know other top-notch Excel experts, drop a link to their site in the comments).

Jon Peltier: If you have a charting project/problem, I would recommend working with Jon. Jon brings to the table over 20 years of Excel experience A PhD from MIT and is a Microsoft Excel MVP.
Chip Pearson: Mr. Pearson is a renowned Excel expert and while his fees are not low, he is one of the best. If you need an urgent solution or have a critical project, I would consider asking Chip for help.
Mr. Excel Consulting Services: The Mr. Excel team is probably the largest Excel consultancy in the world. Their ranks include numerous excel MVPs and they have an amazing amount of Excel Knowledge.
JMT Consulting: A consulting service from two respected Excel MVPs: Masaru Kaji and Andrew Engwirda.

Excel Blogs and Tip Sites

Tips sites and Excel blogs will usually send you a daily Excel tip. Many Excel professionals register to these sites and read the daily tips to keep their Excel skills sharp. They also serve as repositories for thousands of Excel case studies.

Daily Dose of Excel: A blog managed by Dick Kusleika and authored by many Excel Experts and MVPs. “Daily Dose” is updated several times a week and profiles tips, tricks and news from the excel Industry. Highly recommended!
ExcelTip.com: Over the years ExcelTip amassed hundreds of tips and solutions to real world problems. You can either use the categories or the search function to find the information you want. You can also register to a tips newsletter. The site is managed by Joseph Rubin.
Official Microsoft 2007 Blog: The Official Excel Blog. Written by the Excel product managers/programmers. It contains a lot of information and how-to articles about Excel. The level of articles on this blog varies from “useful to everyone” to “only for hardcore excel services programmers.”
Vital News Excel Tips: Very similar to ExcelTip, this site contains hundreds of tips sorted into categories and offers a weekly newsletter.
Chip Pearson Newsletter: A new service from Chip Pearson. Each issue of this newsletter contains a thorough examination of a technique or of an Excel function. For those of you that wish to gain deep knowledge of Excel, this is an excellent resource.
Excel User: Excel User contains a “Visitor Question” section and many high quality articles. This site was created and maintained by Charles Kyd.
Andrew’s Excel Tips: Andrew Engwirda writes one of the best Excel blogs. What separates Andrew from the flock is his vast amount of Excel and programming experience.
Codswallop: Although we are not a strictly an Excel-centered blog, we plan to bring a lot of Excel goodies in near future. Don’t hesitate – subscribe now!
Smurf On Spreadsheets: Simon Murphy is an Excel programming master. If you are into Excel Programming, this blog is perfect for you.
The Ken Puls Blog: Ken’s blog is neither Excel centered nor frequently updated. However, when Ken does blog about Excel, it’s pure gold. Definitely worth checking out.
XL Dennis: Dennis Wallentin writes about developing Excel centered solutions with the .Net framework.

Excel Templates

Templates can be a huge time saver and odds are that the spreadsheet you are trying to build already exists. We’ve divided Microsoft’s huge template repository into useful categories so you’ll be able to find the right template for you.

Business Related Templates

Budget Templates: Whether you are managing your personal budget, your Wedding budget or your gardening budget, you’ll find a template for it here.
Balance Sheets: You can find almost any kind of balance sheet here.
Expense Reports: Unexpected expenses can have a nasty effect on your bottom line. Use these templates to record and control expenses (including traveling expenses).
Business Forms: Here you can find all types of different forms, from a traveling advance request form to a car mileage log.
Inventory Templates: Manage and track you inventory with these templates.
Invoices, Work Orders, Packing Slips: This is a real time saver. Whether you work in retail or services, you will find the right invoice/work order template here.
Purchase Orders: Not only will these templates help you get the exact the items you need on time and delivered to the right place, they also come in a variety of colors.
Receipts: A variety of receipt templates.
Time Sheets: Use these templates to track employee work time. You can choose a template that will sum the employee and overall working hours on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.
All kinds of Reports: Different financial and management reports.

Other Templates

All Kinds of Lists: Phone List, Grocery List, Reading List, Gift List and much more.
Planning Templates: Business and personal planning templates.
Schedules: Schedule templates for your employee shifts, business and personal events.

AdditionalTemplate Sites

Vertex42 Excel Templates: Dozens of Excel templates. Some even come with a user manual.
OZGrid Excel Templates Page: Another big and famous collection of templates.

Excel Tools

Excel is the ultimate killer app. But there are cases where even Excel needs a little help. Here are some Excel Add-ins that can double your effectivness.

Asap Utilities: Probably the best known Excel productivity add-in. Asap utilities contains advance selection options, advanced browsing capabilities, better formula handling and much more.
Send Mail: This cool little freebie from Ron de Bruin that allows you to send an email with the contents of a workbook, a single sheet or even a selection area.
Excel Sentry: Use the Excel Sentry to prevent your business data from falling into the competition’s hands. The Excel sentry allows you to encrypt your spreadsheet in such a way that only you or your employees/coworkers can use it.
XL Statistics: A free statistics package that expands the existing Excel functionality.
Palo: A free (open source) OLAP server for excel. On-line Analytical Processing servers usually cost hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars. Jedox (the company that made Palo) is giving it away. Definitely worth checking out.
PDF to Excel: One of the most stubborn sources of data for Excel is PDF files. Whether they are scanned or not, PDF2XL will extract the data for you.
FlorenceSoft: This cool little app allows you to easily find the differences between two different sheets.
Excel Password Remover: Do you have a terribly important sheet you encrypted and then forgot the password? The Excel Password remover is your locksmith.
Tree Plan: A set of data analysis tools from Mike Middleton.
DPlot: Create 2D and 3D graphs and plots with DPlot. Especially suited for Engineers and scientist that need expanded charting and plotting functionality. DPlot contains unique chart types such as, the Polar Chart, The triangle plot and more.
DigDB: Another well known Microsoft Excel productivity add-in.

Additional Excel Resources

Excel User Conference: The Excel user Conference, run by Daemon Longworth (MVP), is by far the best venue to advance you Excel skills. You will learn high-end Excel tips and tricks from the best Excel experts (all the instructors are Microsoft MVPs). Plus, everyone is extremely friendly and you’ll get a bunch of laughs and even a couple of beers.
Charts by Jorge Camoes: A site dedicated to Excel charts and charts add-ins. Also runs a chart centered blog.
Excel funny videos: Who said Excel wasn’t fun?
Excel games: And to top the list. I present Excel – the gaming platform.

Now it’s time to Excel.

Firefox Hacks: URL Keyword Commands

Most of us will have used the Google toolbar or search box to perform a search from the web browser, but did you know you could type commands right into your URL bar?

When you bookmark a site you can edit the bookmark to give it a keyword. Entering this keyword in the URL bar will take you straight to that website.

That’s pretty cool already for keyboard fans, but there is more! You can use this system to enable searches on your favorite online services right from the URL bar too.

Take Flickr as an example. Go to Flickr and right-click (or CTRL-click for Mac users) on the keyword text box. You will see the following context menu appear.

Click “Add a keyword for this Search” and you will be asked for a name for the bookmark (eg. “Flickr”) and a keyword, which will effectively be the command you type.

So if you chose Flickr for the keyword you can now enter “flickr banff” in your URL bar to search Flickr for Banff-related pictures.

Neat eh?

What it does is insert any words you put after the keyword as the phrases to search for, and this will work with most of the online searches you can think of.

Now what if rather than a straight search with a handy form, you want to hack URLs? For example, you might have a favorite online tool that uses tag-based navigation, or the service might not play nice with the quick search.

All you have to do is bookmark the site in the usual way, then go back and edit to enter your keyword. Firefox also supplies a way for you to insert any search phrases you like using “%s” where ever you need them. “%s” is swapped out in the URL with your phrases when the browser navigates to the target site.

As an example, when I discover a new blog I like to see what people are saying about them. Technorati offers a “reactions” view for this purpose but to get there is a little fiddly. To make it easy I can add a bookmark

… then edit the bookmark to apply the keyword and alter the URL to insert the “%s”.

So the URL goes from being “http://www.technorati.com/blogs/www.chrisg.com?reactions” to “http://www.technorati.com/blogs/%s?reactions”.

If we then enter “reactions www.chrisg.org” we will see the blog reactions for my personal blog.

Why don’t you try it on your favorite searches? It works on eBay, Amazon, Thesaurus sites … it could be very useful!

Do you use this feature? Which sites do you use it with? Share your favorite Firefox Hacks in the comments ….

Why I am Waiting for iPhone 2.0

iPhone The iPhone is coming to the UK this weekend and I am shocked myself to tell you this, but I will NOT be in the queue to grab one.

Don’t get me wrong, it looks like a really cool gadget and some aspects of it are worth overlooking any flaws. The problem I have is for the last couple of years my trusty but crusty Pocket PC device has worked ponderously but reliably to keep me productive while away from my desk.

I have gotten used to retrieving emails at the top of mountains, skype chat on frozen lakes, and remote managing servers from the beach. This gadget has allowed me to blog on planes and on motorways, and catch up with documents in several continents Starbucks.

This is by no means a class-leading PDA/smartphone. By most comparisons the iPhone should blow it out of the water. But, alas, it does not.

Yes, I am an Apple-loving geek, and many of the iPhone features do have me lusting over the device, but after careful research I have found not one but ten deal-breakers:

Modem - In a way I can understand the telecoms partners not wanting the iPhone to work as a modem, and perhaps it is true that battery life would be impacted, but you know I really need to be able to connect up my laptop and use the internet properly.
3G - I upgraded to a 3G capable device for a reason. It’s not a nice-to-have. From what I have read they have done wonders with the EDGE but it rarely reaches its potential. Just put 3G in the next one, OK Mr Jobs?
GPS - My next smartphone is going to have GPS, especially one costing nearly £300 and requiring an 18 month contract. Having said that, it’s probably the least of my worries.
App Support - I need certain 3rd-party apps to do my job, proper apps and not cobbled-together web interfaces (Skype, Remote Desktop, VNC). This machine is a little but powerful computer, it ought to be able to do this.
Edit Word or PDF - Now if I can get a remote desktop connection this is not as much of an issue but I need one or the other. Either I need to be able to edit and create Word/PDF files or I need to be able to remote control a machine that can. You see while I am away I need to send reports or proposals with short notice. Remember this machine does not work as a modem. If it can’t edit documents either then I have lost work. OK, I could go into a cyber cafe … but that is not much of an upgrade when my current device has Word, works as a modem AND has remote desktop capability!
Removable Storage - 8gb sounds like a lot until you work out that is all you ever get. It’s supposed to replace your PDA, phone and iPod, right? 8gb is not going to cut it. I am sure in the next version they could put in a card slot.
Camera - The camera is lousy and you can not even MMS. When I am away I often send and receive pictures (did I mention that the camera is lousy?)
Downloads - Is it really true that you can not download files from browser? Really?
Bluetooth - Apparently Bluetooth is always on and always discoverable. But you can’t sync via Bluetooth. Have we gone back a few years? Most providers now have wised up to decent Bluetooth support. Please somebody tell me this isn’t true!
No Java or Flash - The browser might be really cool for catching up on the news but if you are going to do actual work, such as connect to a corporate extranet or web application, at some point you are going to need Java and/or Flash. From what I read, iPhone does neither. It’s got to come soon, I can’t believe they are not working on it, but until it does I can’t do what I need to.

These might seem like the moans of a disappointed nerd, and they are, but each one is truly important, so if you just took a handful then I would have sufficient reason not to upgrade from my aging pocket PC.

I do really want an iPhone though, so here’s hoping version 2 comes soon!

Am I wrong, or do you agree with any of my points? Let me know in the comments …

Freelancer’s Hyper-Drive: 131 Productivity Boosters for Email, Instant Messaging, Word, Excel, and More

Freelancers often have to wear many hats: accountant, boss, quality control, marketing department, and beyond, which can leave you feeling like there’s just not enough time in the day to do everything you’d like. Fortunately, there are a number of tools designed to help you speed up the process of working. Check out these productivity boosters for documents, communications, and more.

Email

Email itself is a productivity tool, but it often turns into a monster task that must be tackled. These tools will help you tame your inbox.

ClearContext: If you have a hard time getting through email you’d rather ignore to get to the good stuff, ClearContext is about to make your life a lot easier. This information management system prioritizes your email, organizing it and assigning color codes. You’ll be able to identify your most important senders and let newsletters or less important senders get pushed down below your VIPs.
Mail Templates: If you often reply to a number of emails on on the same few subjects, consider creating template responses for each one. You’ll save time and be consistent.
copy2calendar: Appointment setting doesn’t have to be a time consuming process. With copy2calendar, you can automatically convert text containing appointment information into calendar entries.
Actioneer: Use actioneer to speed up your Outlook actions like appointments, tasks, contacts, and mail messages.
TimeToMeet: Arrange meetings quickly in Google, iCal, or Outlook using this easy program.
Conversation Preview: Gmail users can view the first few lines of an email with Conversation Preview, even while they’re still in the message list view.
iGTD: Mac users can take advantage of iGTD, a tool that organizes tasks straight out of your inbox and saves a link to the original email.
CSV Exporter: Use CSV Exporter to import your address book contacts into Gmail.
FlipMail: For email on the go, sign up with Teleflip’s FlipMail, a service that forwards email as a text message to your phone.
Chilibase: Don’t spend 20 minutes trying to find that email Bob sent a month ago. Use Chilibase to see complete conversations from your contacts with a single click.
l8r: If you’re working at 2AM but prefer that your client thinks you keep normal hours, you can use l8r to delay sending messages until a specified time. You can also use it to schedule emails that you know you’ll send, like reminders.
SpamSieve: No one likes spam, especially when you have to wade through it to get to important emails. Combat this junk mail with SpamSieve, a program that zaps spam out of your inbox.
Copernic Summarizer: If you find yourself wishing that your email correspondents would just get to the point, Copernic can lend you a helping hand. This tool summarizes mail messages and other documents, highlighting key concepts and sentences.
Saved Searches: Check out this user script that allows you to save searches you’ll need to access frequently.
Gmail Loader: If you’ve switched to Gmail, but still need to access your archives without going back and forth to your old email provider, check out Gmail Loader. It imports existing emails to your Gmail inbox so you’ll have easy access.
Office Outlook Forum: Get quick answers to your pressing Outlook questions on this forum.
emailStripper: To quickly get rid of email clutter that accumulates in long back-and-forth conversations, use emailStripper. Just paste your email into the tool, and it will clean up all extraneous characters.
MailTags 2.0: This plugin for Mail.app allows you to add keywords and notes to your messages for quick retrieval.
GmailThis: Send web pages quickly to anyone using GmailThis. The tool makes it easy to instantly send a message with a URL attached through Gmail.
Getting Things Done Add-in: Productivity Leader David Allen has created an add-in that allows you to better accomplish his recommended workflow methodology.
Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog: Find out how to improve formatting, get rid of junk mail, organize, and more by reading the MSDN Outlook blog.
Gmail Manager Add-on: Firefox users can take advantage of this Gmail add-on that displays email data at the bottom of your browser. This tool can show information from multiple Gmail accounts and is easy to customize.
10 Minute Mail: Save your real email for clients and other important people with 10 Minute Mail. This service allows you to sign up for a temporary email address that’s great for forums and other sign up forms that you think might sell your address to spammers.
AmikaFreedom: Receiving email on your mobile device is convenient, but sometimes, you’re hit with an information overload. Use AmikaFreedom to trigger emails to forward to your wireless device when specified key words and phrases are used.
Destroy beacons: Beacons are small images embedded in spam emails that, when downloaded by your email client, let spammers know they’ve got a hit. Avoid advertising your email in this way by blocking images from anyone not in your address book.
Take Back Your Life Add-in: Get organized with templates, appointment prompts, and more functionality tools from Sally McGhee.
Fuser: Use Fuser to consolidate your email accounts into one central place.
ActiveWords: If you hate switching back and forth from Word to Outlook just to look up a contact, you’ll love ActiveWords. This tool makes Outlook “hot” in any Windows application, which allows you to look up contacts from a number of different programs.

Instant Messaging

IMs are a convenient communication tool, and there are a number of ways to improve their functionality. Read on to find out how you can share documents, schedule meetings, and send SMS messages using IMs.

Acronyms: Use texting and chatroom acronyms to get your point across in fewer keystrokes. Of course, remember your audience: if you’re speaking to a client, you’ll need to tone down on the netspeak.
Meebo: Share files with your contacts using Meebo’s IM.
IMified: Access lots of web apps from one place using IMified.
TodoBot: By setting up your own TodoBot, you can IM to do list items to yourself.
Gaim: Use Gaim to chat on a number of instant messaging platforms at the same time.
MyCyberTwin: Let a chatbot answer your IMs while you’re away.
gTalk Sidebar: Firefox users can add on Google Talk as a sidebar, so you can chat while surfing web pages.
AOL Mobile: With AOL Mobile, you can send a text message to SMS-enabled phones using the AOL Instant Messenger.
Merge IM Contacts: Check out Lifehacker’s lowdown on how to get your AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and other contacts on Google Talk.

Word

For most users, Word is a fairly simple tool to use, but when you’re drowning in lots of documents, revisions, and lots of editing, it can be a mess. Clean it up with these Word boosters.

Word Hyperlink Checker: Use this tool to make sure that all of the links in your Word document are active.
Word Hotkeys: Check out this guide to find hotkey codes for common tasks.
Boiler: Avoid excessive copying and pasting when combining Word files. Mesh multiple Word Files into one central file using Boiler.
Save as PDF: With this tool, you can save any Word document as a PDF for easy reading.
RapidoWrite: RapidoWrite makes it easy to cut down on repetitive text. Check it out for a good text replacement utility.
Microsoft Office Word Team Blog: Check out the MSDN Word blog for tips, news, and more from Microsoft.
Recover Lost Files: This guide offers tips for recovering Word files that would otherwise be lost forever.
Fore Words Pro: Analyze your words for word echoes, differences, and more.
Turn Off Word Features: For tips on how to turn off annoying and unnecessary Word features, be sure to take a look at this guide.
Compare File Versions: If you’ve had someone edit your document, but they left you with no way to track their changes, you can find yourself spending a lot of time trying to find them. Use this tutorial to make comparing file versions a lot easier.
Word Kit: Use Word Kit to produce frequently generated documents with ease and consistency.
WordFast: Quickly translate text in Word using this handy tool.
MS Works Converter: So your word processing file turned into more tabular data than you expected it to be? Not to worry, you can convert everything into an Excel file with this tool.
Speed up Word: Word often loads lots of templates and add-ins that you may not need, which slows down the program. Read this tutorial from Lifehacker to find out how to stop them.
Wordware: Wordware’s productivity pack has 45 tools designed to help you save time when using Word.
AutoSummarize: If you need to summarize a large amount of text, don’t go through the tedium of reading it yourself. Check out this tutorial on how to use AutoSummarize to highlight key points.
SumsBox-W: Improve Word’s number and tables functions with this handy tool.
Docx Converter: So your client has Word 2007 and has started sending you .docx files that are incompatible with your Word version. Make them readable by using the Docx Converter.

Excel

Excel is a great tool for wrangling lots of data into one convenient place, but it can get out of hand. Find out how to streamline your spreadsheets, create easier graphs, and find time-saving templates with these tools.

Daily Dose of Excel: Check out Dick Kusleika’s Daily Dose of Excel for help with formulas, functions, and lots more.
Mr. Excel: Bill Jelen, Mr. Excel, has over 18 years of spreadsheet experience, and he’s more than willing to help you figure out how to better use Excel.
Marketing Charts: Download Excel spreadsheet templates and marketing charts with this resource.
Copy Text to Multiple Worksheets: Find out how to copy text from one worksheet to many others in this answer thread.
Conditional Formatting: Formatting in Excel is a great way to make data easier on the eyes and highlight important information, but it’s a lot of work. Find out how to set up conditional formatting to make the entire process automated.
ASAP Utilities: Use ASAP Utilities to automate frequently used tasks in Excel.
Excel Forum: If you need help using Excel, check out these forums for information on worksheet functions, programming, and more.
Excel Keystrokes: Save yourself some time and the perils of carpal tunnel syndrome by checking out these easy Excel keystrokes.
Nuts About Microsoft Excel: On this blog, you’ll find loads of tips and solutions for MS Excel.
Excel AutoFilter: Use AutoFilter to sort by selected criteria without changing any data.
Dual Excel Worksheets: Find out how to view two Excel worksheets at once at Digital Streets.
Excel Templates: Save yourself loads of time by using these Excel templates instead of starting from scratch.
Excel In-cell Graphs: Check out this link for a tutorial on how to easily create a bar graph inside Excel cells.

Excel Split Views: Read this tutorial to find out how to split your Excel screen so that you can view and edit two different areas at once.

Excel Gantt Charting: Turn Excel into project management software using this tempate from David Seah.

ExcelUser: On ExcelUser, find Excel news and tips, create Excel Dashboards, and learn how to better use Excel in your business.

Excel Experts: If you’re in need of an Excel Expert, check out this directory.

Microsoft Excel: Check out the Microsoft Excel blog for beta news, improvements, and more.

PDF

PDF is a versatile, functional document format that offers more than meets the eye. Find out how to save time and stretch your PDFs to the limit with these resources.

PDF Converter Professional: Streamline your data input from clients by creating fillable PDF forms with this tool.
Combine PDFs: You can use Adobe’s Insert Page tool to combine PDF files, but if you’ve got a few to do, that can prove to be time consuming. Instead, use this tool to merge multiple PDF files into one with a few easy clicks.
Sumatra PDF Viewer: For a lighter, faster PDF viewer than Adobe Reader, check out Sumatra.
PDF Download: If your clients send you a lot of PDF documents, you probably have to figure out how to deal with them on a regular basis. Using PDF Download, you can specify how Firefox downloads these files.
Adobe Reader 8 Optimization: Get Adobe Reader 8 to boot up faster by following this tutorial.
Skim: Take notes on your PDF file as you read it using Skim. Some features include highlighting, circling, and more. You’ll also be able to see your notations and jump to them more easily.
PDFill PDF Editor: This utility corrals lots of common PDF manipulation actions into one easy interface.
ScanR: Snap photos and turn them into emailable PDFs using ScanR.
Adobe Reader SpeedUp: Adobe Reader is known for its slow load times due to unnecessary plugins. Use Adobe Reader SpeedUp to selectively remove plugins that you don’t need.
Notepad Generator: Create personalized PDF notepaper that you can print out and take to meetings using this generator.
PDF to Image Converter: If your client can’t quite grasp the concept of downloading Adobe Reader, save yourself the time you’ll need to explain it, and just use this tool to send them an image file instead.
Shoka: Corral all of your PDFs in this library manager. This tool makes it quick and easy to search, share, and tag your PDF documents.
PDFCreator: Don’t spend time finding ink and paper when you can just print to PDF. Use the PDFCreator to print PDF files from just about any Windows application.
RSS 2 PDF: Take your RSS newsfeeds offline by converting them to PDF that you can read at your convenience.

Phone & Text

The phone may seem like a tool that operates more slowly than its digital counterparts, but it has a number of time-saving tricks to offer, too. Use phone and text messaging to budget, take notes, navigate traffic, and more, all on the fly.

Reminders

Expense Tracker: Read this guide to find out how to use K7.net’s free voicemail to send yourself messages for expense tracking.
Yahoo! Mobile: Don’t go searching around for your phone to send a text message–just send one using Yahoo! Mobile.
YouTube Mobile: Share videos on YouTube on the go by using YouTube Mobile to upload via your cell phone.
Pinger: Forgot to send an email? Don’t worry, you can send an audio email message to your recipient instead using Pinger.
MoneyManager: Track transactions on your phone with MoneyManager. Reports can be generated and sent to your email.

Yahoo! Local: Don’t worry about taking the time to print or write out directions from Yahoo!–just send them as a text message to your phone.

Popularity Dialer: If you know your client meeting is going to run long but you have things to do, you can use Popularity Dialer to schedule a call to your cell phone that will allow you to excuse yourself.

The Traffic Line: Call the Traffic Line to find out what traffic is like in your area so you’ll never be late again.

CallBurner: If you need to keep audio records of your Skype conversations, it’s easy to do it with CallBurner. Using this tool, you’ll be able to go back and review what you’ve said without having to do a lot of work.

Disable Skype Notifications: Check out this guide to find out how to keep Skype messages and notifications from popping up constantly.

CallWave: With CallWave, your voicemails are transcribed, highlighting only the key information.

Jott: Send yourself a note by recording a message with Jott. The service will transcribe your voice into text and email it to you.

SmartCam: If you need to use video chat, but don’t have a webcam, you can turn your Smartphone into one.

Dodgeball: Assure your clients that you’re on the way to your meeting by broadcasting your location via Dodgeball.

Dial DIR-ECT-IONS: Dial this number, and you can get a text message on our phone with driving directions.

Blog From Your Cell Phone: Send a text or photo SMS to go@blogger.com, and you’ll be able to make posts to your blog.

Google info: Send Google a text message to find listings, dictionary definitions, and more.

Skylook: With this Outlook extension, you can record calls, get text alerts, voicemail in your inbox, reminders to your phone, and much more.

Pickle: Share videos and photos with clients using your phone and Pickle’s service. You’ll just send your files to a special email address and it will publish them to sites like MySpace, Blogger, or your own site.

Other

Check out these tools to find even more boosters for documents, travel, collaboration, and more.

AutoHotKey: Using AutoHotKey, you can turn any block of text or keystroke sequence into a hotkey that will perform repetitive tasks.
Google Presentation: Google’s answer to PowerPoint makes it easy to do simple manipulations of PowerPoint files without actually firing up the program.
Delivery Intercept: Control what happens to your package once it leaves your hands with this feature from UPS.
Ditto: Corral your copy-and-paste function with this handy clipboard manager.
TripIt: For entrepreneurs on the go, check out TripIt, a tool that automativally organizes your travel itinerary using email.
Guide to Hotkeys: Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that allow you to execute an action without using your mouse. This guide has hotkeys for email, messaging, file management, and more.
Audio Documents: Learn how to record written documents to audio for “reading” on the go with this tutorial.
Mango: If you need to learn a foreign language, but don’t have time to hit the books, check out Mango for courses in conversational language.
DocuFarm: This Firefox add-on makes it quick and easy to preview documents in your browser without having to take the time to open up a new program.
QuickLogger: Keep track of your workday by logging tasks into QuickLogger.
Scriblink: Collaborate with others on a digital whiteboard with Scriblink.
Mini Map Sidebar: If you’re reading an email invite to a meeting, but have no idea how to get there, you can fire up the Mini Map Sidebar to map addresses and get directions without ever leaving your browser’s email client.
Google Alerts: Keep track of your online reputation, favorite news items, and anything else you regularly check online by setting a Google Alert. You’ll be notified of any new pages that include your key words.
Backpack: This productivity tool has lots of great features, including the ability to send scheduled or unscheduled reminders to email, SMS, or both.
Snapter: With Snapter, you can scan photos of business cards and documents using your digital camera.
Airport Parking Reservations: If you’re always getting to the airport at the very last moment possible, check out this service so you’ll save time parking.
Virtual Folders: If you’re using Vista and find yourself often searching your machine for the same thing, you can save your search results as a virtual folder. Find out how here.
FileTaxes: Who needs an accountant? File taxes for your employees on this site, and the service will generate forms, submit them to the IRS, and mail them to recipients for you.
Office Jargon: Check out this handy guide to office jargon from Lifehacker and Brazen Careerist to spend less time trying to figure out what in the world your corporate clients are talking about.
Digital Filing System: Read this tutorial to find out how to take your filing system online, creating a time saving, easily searchable database.
Online Sign Off: Streamline your document approval process by taking it online with this service.
Mailbox Map: Don’t spend time searching for a mailbox–just check out Mailbox Maps, a tool that finds nearby mailboxes and provides pickup information on each one.
Windows Keyboard Shortcut of the Day: For time-saving keyboard shortcuts, check out this ongoing blog.
Monkey On Your Back: Remind coworkers and clients of deadlines using Monkey On Your Back, a tool that sends scheduled email reminders to others.

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Stop Drinking from the Fire Hose

Years ago people talked about information overload, information anxiety, etc. At the time I thought “Pfft, can’t get enough of that information!”. Now, I think they had a point. Darn I hate it when I am wrong.

Watch this video from the productivity guru Tim Ferris …

(found via Remarkablogger)

I have spoken about pulling back from time leaching activities, but my recent enforced absence from the internetstubes made me truly realize how much time wasting I actually do in a day.

My facebook is full of non-friends, I browse flickr ostensibly looking for CC licensed images but really just wiling away the hours. Twitter is 90% friendly banter, self-promotion and banality.
Knowing there was a charge associated with this displacement activity brought how wasteful it was into sharp focus. It was like the bad old days of dialup where each minute was slow and pricey!

Withdrawing from suckling at the web-teat has given me a new perspective of what I do and do not need to access on a daily basis. I recommend it to anyone.

Here is a challenge for you, try going one day only accessing the internet when you absolutely have to. For every minute online you spend, put a dollar in a tin and give the total to charity at the end of the day.

My guess is like me you will spend more time working and less time on less productive tasks

Top 10 Tools I Can’t Live Without

We all have our own unique ways of working. A large part of any persons individual productivity is the tools they use. Here is my top 10 Must Have Tools (and why), please add yours in the comments!

Firefox - I started out with Mosaic, then Netscape. For years I was an Internet Explorer user but then Microsoft dropped the ball and the Mozilla team ran with it. Firefox is stable, extensible and fast enough. One of the killer features that made me defect was the tabbed browsing. Of course most web browsers now have that feature. Firefox plus Greasemonkey takes an already rockin’ browser into a world of its own.
ScribeFire - One of my main jobs is writing on blogs. This means lots of linking, bookmarking, making notes and of course the actual writing. I would say using Scribefire I can do it all in half the time. Scribefire is a Firefox plugin that provides blogging tools including a centralized word-like text editing interface.
Skype - Many of my calls are long distance as it is rare for me to have a client in the same country as I live. Skype makes these calls free or much cheaper and allows me to roam around and not be tied to a land-line. With my trusty headset I might look like a geek but I can hear and be heard right across the globe.
Fastmail - While many people swear by the free Google GMail my web email service of choice is the paid service at Fastmail. The main advantage is as well as having a web client you can also access your email using imap, allowing me to sync my desktop client and see in a web browser exactly the same email store.
WebDav - Talking of web based storage, a fantastic way to get your files on the go is WebDav. Drag and drop your files and folders just like you were working locally. Check out your web host to see if this is an option.
SSH - This is an extremely nerdy choice but it has been a life saver in the past. SSH allows you a secure command line login to your remote server. On Windows of course you can use Remote Desktop, and other platforms will have VNC, but when the proverbial hits the fan you can rely on SSH and old school commands to get the job done.
WordPress - I love WordPress, I wouldn’t recommend any other blogging platform for the individual or small team. But WordPress can be so much more than a blog! Use it for publishing your corporate website, internal project documentation, team collaboration, making notes, bookmarking, even as a discussion platform.
Photoshop - There are cheaper options. I will probably never use even half the features. Photoshop still rules. There is little it can’t do, and if you wander into any design studio you can be sure there will be at least one machine running it. Productivity means being able to do what you need to do well and fast. Once you have learned it, Photoshop makes that happen for working with images.
BlogBridge - I need my RSS feeds and I need them with me. While many people can argue in favor of their fave web clients I keep returning to BlogBridge happily time after time. It is a Java based desktop application so works wherever Java works and stores your feeds offline so you can read on the train, in the air or bus home.
Flickr - Flickr for me is more than just an online photo gallery, it is a photography archive, a community and a source of royalty-free images (Creative Commons Licensed pics). It’s useful, fun and a constant source of education.

OK, I have shown you my must-have tools, what do you use on a daily basis and why? Let me know in the comments …

Lessons From an Internet Blackout

Over the last week I have been in a state of internet-withdrawal. My telecoms provider botched our installation leaving me with only cellular access or “borrowed” wifi. While there have been the obvious set-backs to my productivity, I have also been given an important lesson in how I can get more done when the line is finally back up.

Schedule, batch and organize - While I have my PDA and 3G connection that is only useful for priority emails. My plan is ludicrously expensive and charges by the megabyte. In order to do any sizable downloads right now I need to drive to my parents house. This has meant I have had to be careful to do all my downloads in one session. Planning my activity this way has taught me to be more organized with my work and also highlighted how much flitting about between tasks I ordinarily do. I might not go to the extremes Tim Ferris recommends but I will definitely be scheduling email time rather than being “always on” from now on.
Quit Yak Shaving - This is a phrase I picked up a while ago from Seth’s Blog and it certainly rings true for me.

Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do.
“I want to wax the car today.”
“Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I’ll need to buy a new one at Home Depot.”
“But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls.”
“But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor’s EZPass…”
“Bob won’t lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though.”
“And we haven’t returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it.”
… And the next thing you know, you’re at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car.

Even though everyone has been understanding about my predicament I have gone to stupid lengths to maintain my normal schedule, getting more and more mired in the process. Rather than descending into such a spiral of events we need to be aware of the phenomenon and allow ourselves to be less than perfect occasionally in order to not get trapped.
Arrange resources before they are needed - My cell connection has been a life-saver but the fees are stacking up massively and the sudden lack of internet connectivity should really not have thrown me a curve ball like it has. I need to sort out a backup line with sufficient bandwidth and without the Don Corleone style payment plan. What resources do you depend on day to day and what can you put in place as a backup? Better to sort them out now before you need them!
This is why we have offline tools - I recently wrote about how Web2.0 was breaking into the market of desktop applications. Wow has this experience taught me that we still need offline tools!
Laptops are wonderful, but make sure you have all your data - I have fully transitioned to using my MacBook for everything. This was already a trend before this most recent connectivity debacle but now I am sure I don’t want to go back to the desktop machine. This does mean though that I need to start carrying more data around so I will be investing in external storage and rigging my older machine up for remote access. Much as I am trying to be more organized it is inevitable I will hook up to the Starbucks wifi only to find I have left something behind.

How do you cope when your line goes down? Do you have contingency plans? I would appreciate any advice you have in the comments!