An interesting quick read. Well thought and well presented.
The Manager’s Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules for Leaders
Category: Productivity
37signals, an internet SaaS company, provides very intuitive, aesthetic, easy to use and free online tools for personal and collaborative project management. The services are chargeable for higher online storage requirements. The site has video demos to show how these tools work; worth giving a look. List is as follows:
Basecamp – project management and colloboration
Highrise – Track deals, clients, vendors, simple CRM
Backpack – Information organizer and calandar
Campfire – Real-time group chat with file sharing
The best feature is that all the conversations, file sharing, to-do lists, etc are archived in a calendar format and can be seen as an overview or can be searched or browsed through later.
G.ho.st is a website that displays a virtual computer inside a browser. You can log into your account from anywhere to access your saved preferences, files, custom programs etc. Ghost is in early stages and there are other similar services out there. For more info and a list of web based operating systems, see here.
Related post: Computer Virtualization in Java!
Unlike conventional computers, there is no keyboard or mouse. More than one person may use the system, simultaneously, with the same input/output device! Microsoft’s new tabletop computers feel like a success! 🙂 See the photos. From a different perspective, it also marks the divergence of a software giant into newer cool things, akin to Apple and iPod/iPhone.
Yod’m 3D (Yet another desktop manager) is a tool that enables Windows XP have multiple desktops at one time, Vista style. The sessions can be switched from one to another using a rotating cube with each session on one side. It helps productivity by segmenting work and play.
“MIT Press has released its book Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software as a free PDF download. The book is a collection of research essays covering topics such as open source motivation, economics, business models, software development process and tools, law, and community. Sort of like ‘Open Sources’ from academics. David Parnas, Larry Lessig, Eric von Hippel, and Clay Shirky are among the contributors.” – /.
Encrypt your sensitive data with TrueCrypt, perhaps the best tool for the job. God forbid but even if your notebook gets stolen or misplaced, then your sensitive or confidential data is secure. For the paranoid, there is a hidden chamber option and algorithm cascading! See the manual if you’re paranoid 🙂 Cross-platform, free, open-source, comprehensive and easy-to-use.
Categories
Adobe Apollo
Taking client side internet browsing a step further, Adobe Apollo is a cross-OS/platform independent runtime that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, Ajax) to build and deploy desktop Rich Internet Applicatons (RIA’s). The applications can be run both online and offline. See potential applications in these demo videos.
Related Post: All you ever wanted to know about rich applications (and maybe more)
Categories
Getting Real
Why being small, simple and agile is important. It’s about “getting real”. By the Ruby-on-rails folks! Many thoughts in this mini-book resonate very well with me and I think they are applicable beyond software development, i.e. in real life too!
Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application (pdf)
I’m surprised that Flashpaper hasn’t been all over the blogosphere! It’s looks like an amazing thing. No additional viewer to load! Flashpaper file over the network outperforms loading the viewer on my system, scrolling page is faster & neater; the overall experience is very cool! It also seems to be very closely compatible with PDF. Also see, Scribd — very elegant UI and design.
Related Post: Scribd