I am finding that many of the more popular web services have recognized that Twitter is becoming a communication hub of sorts. This leads to some great connection functionality built right into their apps that lets users get at their data from within Twitter. If you're spending quite a bit of time in a Twitter client anyway, having the ability to quickly access or add to your info without needing to load another app can be significant.

So here are some of my favorite, or otherwise notable, applications that let me tweak every last bit of productivity I can from my Twitter time.

Toodledo - My task manager of choice has outstanding Twitter integration. I can add and retrieve tasks via SMS or any Twitter client, as well as receive reminders the same way. This is particularly handy when people tweet something that requires me to follow up or is something that I may want to revisit later. With a quick copy / paste I can retweet an item right to my to do list.

Remember The Milk - Another favorite to-do list also offers considerable Twitter support among its many features. Their functionality appears to be as rich as Toodledo, if not even more so.

Joint Contact - Aliza shared her thoughts about Joint Contact and their Twitter integration back in July. It seems like such a logical feature for this type of application, I am really surprised that similar functionality hasn't made it's way into other Project Management and Collaboration tools like Basecamp.

I Want Sandy - It's not surprising that Sandy is so handy at using Twitter as the whole application is geared towards getting information to and fro quickly and easily. Twitter is just one of the many remote data integrations available.

Twittercal - It's a third party tool that allows you to easily create events on your Google Calendar via a Direct Message. I like that it uses Google Authorization methods and doesn't require my Google password. I wish it would allow me to add things to more than my default calendar though. As of now, I need to go in and manually edit most of them (which does sort of defeat the purpose...) Admittedly, this is apparently a limitation for Google's own SMS integration as well.

I found the majority of these integration solutions to be quite robust. The syntax required can sometimes be a bit cryptic but taking the time to learn and master it can really be a productivity booster.

Does your favorite app work with Twitter? What service do you think would benefit most from this type of functionality?

I was responding to an email from a friend about maybe getting coffee sometime this week. On the righthand side of the screen I see Gmail suggesting the following:

I had no idea Gmail could do that! I know some of the GTD calendar programs (Remember the Milk and I Want Sandy) can intelligently pick up events and dates from an email or text message, but I had no idea that Google implemented the same type of functionality.

That's awesome.

Another round of kudos to Google.

What's one of your favorite little-known features about an online app you use all the time?

Namun, saya baru mengetahui bahawa betapa ramainya penduduk Kuala Terengganu sendiri tidak mengetahui di mana sebenarnya lokasi bedil itu ditembak. Dari perbahasan dalam beberapa posting di blog Awang Goneng (http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com/) [penulis buku "Growing Up in Trengganu"] benar-benar menunjukkan sememangnya ramai penduduk Kuala Terengganu yang sekadar agak-agak sahaja lokasi tembakan dentuman yang menandakan waktu berbuka puasa, waktu imsyak dan tanda mulanya Ramadhan dan Syawwal.

Semenjak kecil lagi, saya sememangnya sentiasa melihat tembakan ini. Dari kawasan perumahan kuarters kerajaan Lorong Mok Pe, memang kita dapat lihat dengan jelas cahaya lonjakan bahan letupan dari rumah kecil berwarna putih di puncak Bukit Pak Apil. Dengan bunyi kecil "duup" apabila bahan tersebut melonjak tinggi ke udara hinggalah dentuman kuat apabila bahan tersebut meletup kurang tiga saat selepas itu. Memang mengasyikkan bagi kanak-kanak kecil apabila beberapa das tembakan dibuat bagi menandakan mulanya bulan puasa atau esoknya kita akan berhari Raya.

Semasa kecil, ketika dalam perjalanan berbasikal dengan ayahanda ke Masjid Putih untuk solat Subuh, dentuman menanda waktu imsyak selalunya berbunyi ketika kami sedang berkayuh di Jalan Paya Bunga yang sunyi dan lengang. Cahaya dari bahan letupan yang sedang melonjak tinggi ke udara dapat menerangi suasana yang gelap sebelum subuh itu.

Apabila pulang dari KL untuk berhari Raya semalam, saya terus menjejak tapak tembakan bedil tersebut dan mengambil gambar untuk dikongsi bersama dan agar tidak lagi timbul kesangsian di kalangan penduduk Kuala Terengganu. Sayangnya sekitar tapak tembakan bedil itu kini sedang berubah. Lereng bukitnya sudah digondol. Malah, kalau dulu sukar untuk melihat pondok tempat tembakan tersebut kini sudah dapat dilihat dengan jelas dari bandar - hampir mana-mana lokasi sebelah timur bukit tersebut.

Saya telah sediakan peta lokasi untuk menjelaskan kedudukan sebenarnya serta panorama Bukit Pak Apil dengan memberi gambaran lokasi tapak tembakan bedil (bulatan merah sebelah kanan di bawah) berbanding dengan Stesen RTM (bulatan merah sebelah kiri) yang mempunyai laluan yang berbeza.

InshaAllah, saya akan berkongsi banyak lagi gambar yang diambil dari puncak Bukit Pak Apil ini dalam posting berikut.

Bagi penduduk Kuala Terengganu, dentuman tembakan bedil amat sinonim dengan bulan Ramadhan atau sebaliknya. Malah, sesetengah mereka merasakan “tidak sah” apabila untuk beberapa tahun di awal tahun 2000an dentuman bedil tidak kedengaran.

Namun, saya baru mengetahui bahawa betapa ramainya penduduk Kuala Terengganu sendiri tidak mengetahui di mana sebenarnya lokasi bedil itu ditembak. Dari perbahasan dalam beberapa posting di blog Awang Goneng (http://kecek-kecek.blogspot.com/) [penulis buku "Growing Up in Trengganu"] benar-benar menunjukkan sememangnya ramai penduduk Kuala Terengganu yang sekadar agak-agak sahaja lokasi tembakan dentuman yang menandakan waktu berbuka puasa, waktu imsyak dan tanda mulanya Ramadhan dan Syawwal.

Semenjak kecil lagi, saya sememangnya sentiasa melihat tembakan ini. Dari kawasan perumahan kuarters kerajaan Lorong Mok Pe, memang kita dapat lihat dengan jelas cahaya lonjakan bahan letupan dari rumah kecil berwarna putih di puncak Bukit Pak Apil. Dengan bunyi kecil “duup” apabila bahan tersebut melonjak tinggi ke udara hinggalah dentuman kuat apabila bahan tersebut meletup kurang tiga saat selepas itu. Memang mengasyikkan bagi kanak-kanak kecil apabila beberapa das tembakan dibuat bagi menandakan mulanya bulan puasa atau esoknya kita akan berhari Raya.

Semasa kecil, ketika dalam perjalanan berbasikal dengan ayahanda ke Masjid Putih untuk solat Subuh, dentuman menanda waktu imsyak selalunya berbunyi ketika kami sedang berkayuh di Jalan Paya Bunga yang sunyi dan lengang. Cahaya dari bahan letupan yang sedang melonjak tinggi ke udara dapat menerangi suasana yang gelap sebelum subuh itu.

Apabila pulang dari KL untuk berhari Raya semalam, saya terus menjejak tapak tembakan bedil tersebut dan mengambil gambar untuk dikongsi bersama dan agar tidak lagi timbul kesangsian di kalangan penduduk Kuala Terengganu. Sayangnya sekitar tapak tembakan bedil itu kini sedang berubah. Lereng bukitnya sudah digondol. Malah, kalau dulu sukar untuk melihat pondok tempat tembakan tersebut kini sudah dapat dilihat dengan jelas dari bandar - hampir mana-mana lokasi sebelah timur bukit tersebut.

Saya telah sediakan peta lokasi untuk menjelaskan kedudukan sebenarnya serta panorama Bukit Pak Apil dengan memberi gambaran lokasi tapak tembakan bedil (bulatan merah sebelah kanan di bawah) berbanding dengan Stesen RTM (bulatan merah sebelah kiri) yang mempunyai laluan yang berbeza.

Lokasi sebenar tembakan bedil berbuka puasa

InshaAllah, saya akan berkongsi banyak lagi gambar yang diambil dari puncak Bukit Pak Apil ini dalam posting berikut.

Presse-Citron nous parle d'un iphone à croquer, ou d'un service de bookmark original.

Jean et Mélanie ont le privilège d'un article sur leur librairie.

TechcrunchFR nous parle de Facebook Connect, un service proche de OpenId dans le concept mais propriétaire.

Evidemment il y a des dizaines d'articles intéressants tous les jours, sur différents sujets, je vous en proposerai d'autres demain :-)

Мультизагрузочный DVD диск с последними обновлениями и с большим набором софта. Данная сборка построена на оригинальном образе Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 русская версия! Проходит проверку на валидность, т.е. можете скачивать обновления с сайта Майкрософт!
http://boomsoft.ru/programs/1666-windows-xp-professional-sp3-vlk-rtm-rus-v.09.2008.html

Here I am back again,  happy with a solution for a problem. This problem bugged me since last few weeks.  The RTM task pane just would not appear in Gmail.

Here's what I use:

• Firefox 3.0.1
• Remember The Milk for Gmail 1.0.3
• Better Gmail 2 0.6.1
• Stylish 0.5.7
• Greasemonkey 0.8.20080609.0

So today I seek help from the awesome RTM support page and figure out that the source of this problem is Gmail Labs.  If I disabled the Google Labs temporarily, the problem did get solved.  You too can try that by clicking here.  Don't worry, this won't mess with any of your Gmail settings, it will just disable Labs temporarily.  But I could not give up on Labs totally, and started testing which Lab features messed up RTM for Gmail...  Here are my test results, the following Labs features if enabled, won't allow the RTM task pane to appear:

• Fixed width font
• Signature tweaks
• Go to label

Comment below if any other Labs feature is disabling the RTM task pane.

Currently I am using only the following Labs features:

• Superstars
• Forgotten Attachment Detector

The only feature I miss after disabling it is Signature tweaks... but yeah, making RTM Gmail work again is worth that. :)

Update:
Try doing Ctrl+F5 (shortcut in Firefox for refresh+cache flush) once you save the Labs settings... or if occasionally the task pane does not appear again.

Update 2:
That wasn't the sure-shot solution to the problem :(  I have emailed RTM for help to solve this.  If you happen to have a solution, please post it.

Yang menjadi masalahnya sekarang adalah parti pemerintah a.k.a UMNO yang nampaknya tidak berduit untuk menerbitkan akhbar sendiri sebagai lidah rasmi parti. Mereka hanya bergantung (menumpang) akhbar2 yang ada seperti Utusan Melayu dan Berita Harian dengan tekanan demi tekanan diberikan untuk menaikkan nama mereka di mata rakyat. Hanya berita pujian dan sokongan kepada parti pemerintah sahaja yang boleh dimuatkan di dalamnya. Segala keburukan dan celaan harus hanya disimpan di dalam hati. Kalau berani tulis dan publish berita2 yang pro pembangkang atau mengutuk kerajaan, sila bersedia untuk menghadapi penggantungan lesen. 

Begitu juga dengan syarikat televisyen seperti RTM dan TV3. Mereka dipijak seperti anak anjing ketakutan akan digantung lesen penyiaran atau menghadapi masalah kewangan serius jika tidak mengikut percaturan politik pemerinah a.k.a UMNO BN. Tidak menjadi sesuatu yang pelik jika rakyat yang sudah muak dengan percaturan sedemikian bangun memberontak dengan tidakmembuang undi untuk parti pemerintah. Hasilnya, UMNO BN hilang majoriti dan banyak kerusi yang dirampas parti pembangkang. Tidak cukup dengan itu, negeri2 penting yang menjadi jajahan takluk selama ini seperti Selangor dan Perak terlepas begitu saja. Nak merampas kembali tidak mungkin sesenang makan kacang. Momokan parti pemerintah untuk menawan dan merawat negeri Kelantan pada PRU ke 12 itu hari juga berakhir dengan backfire kepada diri sendiri. Lalu, mereka terpaksa balik dengan luka2 yang penuh di badan, patah tangan serta kaki juga sampai gila diri kerana hasrat menjadi MB tidak kesampaian (Awang Adek) untuk dirawat.  

Ketidaktelusan media2 arus perdana ini menjadikan ianya dicemuh hebat. Maka lahirlah nama2 baru yang diberi khas sebagai 'penghargaan' kepada mereka. 

Utusan Melayu ditulis/ dipanggil Utusan Meloya

TV3 ditulis/ digelar TV3 Suku, dan

Berita Harian dicop sebagai Berita Hairan

Bangga kah mereka? Kami jamin mereka sudah kering air mata menangisi nama yang cantik ditukar menjadi hodoh seperti babi. Jadi, bacalah UTUSAN BERMAMAI. Daripada anda ditipu secara senyap, baik anda ditipu hidup2 oleh kami - di samping menghiburkan diri anda di sini. Sekian.

Dari meja editor,

Tukang Fitnah

Penganjuran Zoom Ramadhan bukanlah satu pembaziran kerana ia merupakan satu program yang baik dan dijangka mampu menarik lebih ramai lagi pelancong datang ke negara ini, tegas Menteri Pelancongan, Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman Said dalam ucapanya ketika melancarkan program Zoom Ramadhan Pengerang 2008, 14 Septemberbaru-baru ini.

Menurut Azalina, program anjuran Kementerian Pelancongan Malaysia dan Tourism Malaysia ini diadakan dengan tujuan untuk mempromosikan sambutan bulan ramadhan dan perayaan Aidilfitri sebagai produk pelancongan ibadah.Tambah beliau, Zoom Ramadhan Pengerang 2008 juga merupakan kesinambungan kepada kempen promosi pelancongan domestik iaitu Zoom Malaysia.

Menurut Azalina, program anjuran Kementerian Pelancongan Malaysia dan Tourism Malaysia ini diadakan dengan tujuan untuk mempromosikan sambutan bulan ramadhan dan perayaan Aidilfitri sebagai produk pelancongan ibadah.Tambah beliau, Zoom Ramadhan Pengerang 2008 juga merupakan kesinambungan kepada kempen promosi pelancongan domestik iaitu Zoom Malaysia.

Memandangkan kawasan Pengerang amat kaya dengan pelbagai tarikan pelancongan dan pernah terkenal sebagai lokasi pelacongan paling digemari satu ketika dahulu, adalah antara alasan mengapa Program Zoom Ramadhan pada kali pertama ini diadakan di kawasan Bandar Penawar.

“Saya berharap menerusi program ini mampu dijadikan platform untuk menarik lebih ramai lagi pelancong luar terutamanya dari negara-negara jiran untuk menjadikan negara kita sebagai destinasi kegemaran mereka.

“Saya juga percaya, menerusi program ini juga mampu menjadikan pelancongan ibadah sebagai satu jambatan yang baik untuk memperkenalkan destinasi di Malaysia kepada pelancong-pelancong luar dan juga dalam negari. Disamping itu, ia dapat memperkenalkan kraftangan dan juga aneka makanan Malaysia menerusi bazaar ramadhannya.

“Jadi saya saran kepada pihak-pihak terbabit terutamanya kepada penggiat industri pelacongan negara agar turut mengadakan program seumpamanya ini di negari masing-masing pada tahun-tahun akan datang,” ujar Azalina.

Program Zoom Ramadhan yang berlangsung selama tiga hari iaitu bermula dari 13 hingga 15 September 2008 itu turut diserikan dengan kehadiran Tengku Mahkota Johor, Tengku Ibrahim Ismail Ibni Sultan Iskandar Al-haj.

Sebagai acara kemuncak, program yang mendapat kerjasama daripada JAKIM dan RTM turut mengadakan rakaman program Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam yang telah dilangsungkan pada 14 September 2008 bertempat di Masjid Al-Syifa’ Bandar Penawar.

]]> http://workitsafe.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/windows-essential-business-server-2008-rtm/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:27:02 +0000 workitsafe http://workitsafe.pl.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/windows-essential-business-server-2008-rtm/ News Source The Essential Business Server Team Blog

Excerpt from the post on the EBS blog by general manager Eric Kidd:

I’d like to do two things right off the bat in this, my first, blog post here…

1) Announce that Windows Essential Business Server 2008 has reached RTM! (English now, more languages to come soon)

2) Extend my sincere gratitude to the many customers, MVPs, users, partners and enthusiasts that helped us build what we hope proves to be an exceptional product. Thank you.

The team (at Microsoft and extended by the community mentioned above) has been hard at work on this for a long time - Beta 1 shipped in December 2006 – and we’re now very close to general availability (GA) when we’ll have the privilege of hearing from customers what they like and what we can make better. The final step in release comes with our November 12 product launch (previously announced), which kicks-off GA. See Eric Watson’s earlier blog entry describing the difference between the RTM and GA milestones.

Our #1 goal with EBS has always been to increase the satisfaction of our customers in midsize businesses – giving them a better experience and helping them to leverage the full value of their IT investment. We believe we can do that by tailoring our software to their specific needs, practices and preferences. The challenge is to take complicated technologies designed for the enterprise and make them more easily consumed by companies without enterprise-size resources. To succeed in this we knew we’d have to stop talking and start listening. We have put what I believe is an unprecedented effort into learning about our midsize business customers/users; really getting to know what they need, like and don’t like. These activities weren’t just limited to a few program/product managers and UX researchers – the entire team got immersed and it went well beyond the typical betas, TAP programs and newsgroups we always run (although we had those too)… The team also assembled customer advisory boards that helped us make decisions about the product. We visited hundreds of customers around the world in their businesses and got to know them in their environment and we interacted with thousands more in various other ways to discover what we should be doing and then to test, refine and validate our designs. We also integrated Microsoft’s MVPs and leading SMB VAP/VARs into everything we did in product development. These two groups of professionals contributed a ton in making EBS a better product right out of the gate. In whole, we worked with an amazing collection of people and I know the product is much better than we could have made without their help. We are very proud of this collaboration and approach to designing and building software.

For midsize businesses, I’m confident that EBS is the best way to buy this software – Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, System Center Essentials (SCE), Forefront Security for Exchange and Forefront Threat Management Gateway. Whether it’s the integration and pre-configuration to best practices that’s baked-in; the vastly simplified and accelerated setup and migration, with a minimum of configuration needed; the defense-in-depth security included in the box; the EBS unified administration experience (with SCE) that gives the user one place to monitor system health and perform daily administration tasks across their entire environment; or the single/consolidated EBS license (including a new EBS license management system) and ~30% price discount our customers will find reason to be happier and we will achieve our goal. EBS will give them a confident, reliable and ready IT platform in service of their growing business needs and time back for the IT administrator to focus strategically, not just reactively.

As I said, we’ll soon know as we hear from customers and we can’t wait!

Eric Kidd – General Manager EBS

El blog oficial del equipo de Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008), ha anunciado que esta lista la versión definitiva de su producto. La versión lista es en idioma inglés, los otros idiomas vendrán pronto.

EBS 2008 es un paquete de servidores diseñado para empresas medianas. Empresas que tengan hasta 300 usuarios.

Para mas información:

Blog oficial equipo EBS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008 RTM

Pagina de EBS: www.microsoft.com/ebs

Meriah majlis sanding perkahwinan Lufty RTM dengan Diana di Johor Bahru. Selamat Pengantin Baru!!

Bawah ni gambar Lufty sedang beraksi (kerja laaa)

Arini aku n stori pasal insaf la..nak tgk sejauh mana kita insaf dgn sesuatu perkara yang kita dah buat..

1. Kita slalu bawak keta laju2 kan..pheewiiiit(bunyi enjin keta laju)..laju ya amat..pastu kan,kalu ternampak eksiden tepi jalan ka,tgh jalan ka,mesti kita slow nak tgk apa yg happen kan..pastu kita insaf..ish2,insaf takmau bawak laju2 lagi..tapi lps tu kita bwk laju balik..takda maknanya..ha lu pikirlah sendiri(style nabil-kebelakangan ni suka tgk rancangan nabil)

2. yang ke-2 ni mmg susah ar nak insaf..aku pon tak paham kenapa..dan mungkin kwn2 di luar sana pon tak paham kenapa..yg aku maksudkan ini ialah RTM-Teman Setia Anda..haha..senang crita aku ckp m*l**c*p ar..serius mmg susah nak insaf..time nak buat tu mmg semangat berkobar2 kalah sambut merdeka tuh..pastu bila dah "meletup gunung berapi" tu,kita pon mula la mengeluh.."aduh,menyesai btoi"..tapi selang beberapa ari,kita buat lagi..kan?kan?tapi aku bukan mcm tu..hehe..aku dah insaf..lalalala(style ayam)

3. yg ke-3 ni aku ambik perkara2 yang umum la..contohnya macam aku kena gastrik smlm la kan..lps ni dah insaf ar takmau makan byk2 sampai tahap gaban,pastu takmau mkn pedas2..tapi lps ni,komfem aku pekena lauk pedas2..hehe..susah ar nak insaf kan..

ok la dah tak larat dok dpn komputer ni..kebas pungkok..bye

I was in KL for 24 hours to shoot a Raya video for RTM with Dayang Nurfaizah and Farawahida also involved. The pictures courtesy of Nadya Baharein are of my turn to emo-drama infront of the camera to my own song 'Tidak Lama Lagi'. Will find out telecast date! Thanks to Kak Nik & the RTM crew.

The beginning of college is always hard to grasp at first, so who really can answer, "will I ever be 100% ready to go?" [confessions of a college freshman]

To that end, some "school year resolutions" (part 1) -- frankly more useful now than January 1. [Not Just Surviving]

To paraphrase Perry Como, it's beginning to look a lot like senior year... Four (or five) solid signs that it's the beginning of the end. [$0.02]

It's the fall again, and so here are the "top 15 college football games to watch in 2008." [Relatively Journalizing]

Tip links:

• "Be an organized student with Remember The Milk." [Hack College]
• Since no one likes getting screwed in May, here's "what to look for during an apartment walkthrough." [School is Hard]

A few posts back, I wrote about how I am using Evernote to stay on top of things and try to keep my "Inbox Zero" dream a reality. Before I discovered Evernote, I was and am continuing to use Remember the Milk (RTM) to keep track of all of my to-do's. There are a lot of to-do list helpers, programs, and now, iPhone native apps. I've tried quite a few, but RTM is one that I've stuck with for awhile now. Although there is no native app yet, they are working on one, and until then, you'll have two options: the webapp (free but slow) and Appigo's ToDo ($9.99).

As you can see in the picture, I have several lists that I use to keep track of my to-dos. For my lists, I most often use these:

- "Calls" (people I need to get a hold of)
- "Gifts" (whenever I get an idea of a nice gift for someone, I'll log it in here.)
- "Grocery List" (whenever we run out of something, I pop it on the list.)
- "Home" (chores, cleaning, things to-do around the house)
- "Personal" (anything non-work related)
- "Wedding" (this one has been useful as we've gotten closer to the big day and will be replaced by any special projects that are in the works)
- "Work" (tasks related to teaching or my online instruction courses)

With the iPhone webapp (requires a RTM PRO account, $25/year), I pretty much have access to the same interface as the web version. Since it's a webapp, its performance is linked to your connection speed, so WiFi and 3G are generally quite responsive, while EDGE is headache prone. As mentioned above, I'm holding out for a native app, but Appigo's ToDo has gotten solid reviews, and seems to sync well with RTM.

1. Get Organized

I admit that in many areas of my life, I just sort of wing it. I'm great at making lists, and not so good at following through on them. One of my resolutions this year was to actually implement a useful task tracking system for myself, and I spent the first half of the year trying them on for size. I've settled on a slightly modified version of Getting Things Done, which you've probably at least heard of unless you've been living under an Internet rock somewhere. The most important aspect for me is that my to-do list is reliable. Every time I think of something that needs to be done, no matter how small, I write it down and add it to my Inbox on Remember the Milk. At this point I no longer have to spend time worrying about the task; if your brain runs a mile a minute, this is no small advantage. I know that my ideas and tasks are recorded, and after getting used to the system and learning to trust it, this means I'm not wasting brain cycles worrying about whether I'll remember to pick up cat food. I won't say stray thoughts never intrude anymore, but it has made a huge and noticeable difference for me.

Since I have this system in place, I can also use it to track freelance jobs. I start a new list on RTM for each assignment, since it's really a project with lots of small tasks. So far each job has been different enough that it takes a little while to tease out the steps I need to take, but once it's done, it's done. If I get tripped up, I can always refer to the project to-do list and sometimes that's all I need to get going again. At the very least I'm not buried in Post-Its that aren't even color coded or really at all useful for anything but making modular origami, which is definitely fun but maybe not so productive as a system for staying on track.

2. Get business cards.

If you had told me several years ago that not only would I want business cards, but that I'd be willing to spend my own money to get them, I would have laughed. A lot. I've never been much for anything I perceived as "too corporate," which included business cards. Yeah. Then I grew up. Useful for more than just entering contests for free lunch, business cards can be a great way to market yourself and get folks to remember you. I think it's helpful to add "freelance writer" as a job title, since otherwise the person is likely to forget and will someday clean out their card file and go "Jennifer Durren, who's that? Round file!"

I know lots of folks recommend Vista Print as a cheap source of cards, but I really didn't want an advertisement on the back of mine, and I found a lot of their designs to be, hmm, the card equivalent of a web page from 1997. Also, I wanted to have some cards in hand for PAX, so once I decided to have them printed I also needed to have them done quickly. I ended up using Staples; they offer a design service online and send it to your local store to be printed the same day. The design I chose ended up being $35 for 200 cards, which is a little steep but I figured if I get even one useful contact, they'll pay for themselves. So I spent yesterday in happy anticipation of picking up my new cards, only to be really disappointed when I picked them up. Seems the employee in the copy area didn't know what she was doing, and didn't bother to call their technical support, so I have 200 cards that say "PROOF" across them in addition to being splotchy. Way to print the wrong PDF, copy area girl! So yeah, I've spent more time than I wanted trying to get this fixed, and the manager I spoke to last night essentially shrugged and said "call back tomorrow and talk to this other manager," but said other manager's attitude was that they needed to make this right and that it was, in fact, unacceptable. I still need to make a trip up there, but it sounds like it will actually be resolved, which is good. The fact that I've spent so much time on what should've been a simple order: Not so good. I'm certainly annoyed, and I hesitate to recommend Staples as a source, hence the lack of link. It might be better to actually visit your local store and see how much confidence they inspire before you trust them with your cards.

Once I have the cards, I plan to enter every free lunch contest I see, and also to hand them out to anybody willing to take one. Writing jobs turn up in the strangest places, and you never know.

3. Get Paid

One of the most intimidating aspects of working for yourself is the financial stuff, at least for me. Different clients use different payment methods, and when I realized I might have to actually send invoices I had a temporary moment of panic. But man, if Web 2.0 didn't come to the rescue again: Invoice Journal is a free! site that lets you track your clients, your contacts, agreed-upon rates, hours spent or price per project, etc. Then you can generate an invoice for your client, which they can view online as a PDF, or which you can print and mail the old-fashioned way with stamps. Pretty nifty, and while it's still a beta, it's worked fairly smoothly for me as well. I also keep the same information in an Open Office spreadsheet, which provides me with a backup as well as a way to generate different kinds of reports for myself; better safe than sorry.

I also have a PayPal account, but really, who doesn't? It's an easy way for clients to pay, especially small businesses and individuals who don't normally cut checks for freelancers. I'm setting up a separate business checking account with my bank, too, so I can keep a clearer picture of what I'm earning and what I'm spending. Untangling my business finances from my personal spending will be a huge step, and also will make it easier to file quarterly taxes. Good thing I like filling out forms.

I hope some of this has been useful for other folks who are just getting started, and welcome any comments or questions you might have.

Apa yang dikatakan Najib Tun Razak di Permatang Pauh sempena berkempen untuk pilihanraya kecil disana adalah satu gimik yang lucu dan bodoh. Memang kerajaan BN boleh turunkan minyak, tetapi kenapa perlu tunggu harga minyak global turun dahulu.

Berbeza dengan apa yang diperkatakan oleh Anwar Ibrahim bahawa beliau akan berusaha untuk menurunkan harga minyak walaupun harga minyak global naik tinggi dengan menimbal balik apa yang diperlukan negara dan rakyat.

Kalaupun nak berkempen janganlah bengong sangat nak memperbodohkan rakyat. Ayat Najib Tun Razak yang paling bengong untuk orang UMNO dan BN yang bengong pun bengong, "Dalam sehari dua lagi kerajaan akan menurunkan harga minyak kerana harga minyak dunia telah turun. Tak perlu menyokong PKR kalau kita sudah menurunkan harga minyak ini". Heh!

Satu kenyataan yang disorak sakai oleh orang BN dan UMNO. Hooooo!!!... Selepas hampir 51 tahun kemerdekaan dibawah pemerintahan UMNO dan BN, ini kali pertama mereka umum nak turun harga minyak demi survival politik UMNO dan BN, itupun harga minyak turun, kalau tak jangan harap la. Ini semua sebab dah jadi hamba abdi U.S. Bila U.S naik harga minyak, kita pun naikkan harga minyak. Bengong!.

p/s: Artikel ini agak beremosi kerana kenyataan Najib Tun Razak betul-betul bengong dan memperbodohkan rakyat!. Marah sungguh!. Arghhhh!.

Simple answer: NO

They tend to figure it out on their own and never read the entire manual since they don't have the time to search for the answer. "Manuals are too long or have too much information".

I agree, I find that some manuals are larger in size since companies are not printing them and tend to provide a PDF file on the CDROM. In some instances the purchaser has to download it on their own free time.

The digital format has allowed everyone to increase the information beyond what an average person can read or comprehend in one sitting.

The authors must realize that while they are writing this information can they imagine one person walking away from reading their work will absorb their ideas?

Can the entire concept be presented in ala, "PowerPoint" fashion, using only slides?

When people use the term, "RTM", read the manual, most people are scared to open up the manual since they know it's 1000 pages and they don't have time to search for the answer.

-Joel