Easy-to-use organizer for serious music collectors

Next week, I’ll fulfil a long-running ambition when I attend the Office 2.0 conference for the first time — I’m moderating a panel on Platform as a Service, with speakers from LongJump, Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors and Zoho.

The event is now in its third year and is one of those events that brings together everyone of significance in its field — in this case, the fast-growing category of business applications served from the cloud. Naturally, that makes it a key event in the SaaS calendar, although many of the participants are a little wary the SaaS label, which they feel is too closely associated with old-school vendors and other players who don’t fully ‘get’ the new cloud paradigm. This is definitely an event where you have to be unambiguously multitenant and cloud-centric — there’s no room for hybrids here. Like many of us, be there or be square.

One point on which I personally differ from Office 2.0 orthodoxy, however, is on the matter of client software. Organizer Ismael Ghalimi has walked the talk, having begun using (and documenting his use of) browser-based Office 2.0 applications more than two and a half years ago. His Rules for Office 2.0 are adamant: “No client application other than a web browser … No files on personal computer … No browser extension or plugin …” not even Java or Flash, if they can avoided.

My own take is that many applications work better when they can take advantage of the compute resources of powerful clients, and that cloud-serviced client platforms such as Adobe’s AIR, Microsoft Silverlight and Google Gears are the way of the future (albeit with some caveats, which I’ll come back to later). I say ‘cloud-serviced’ because it’s important that the software for these client platforms should be managed from the cloud. I’m not advocating a return to the bad old days of leaving users struggling with shrinkwrapped software installs.

But I do think that there are many occasions when users want to be delighted and supported by a client experience that the browser alone simply can’t deliver (and sometimes they want or need to work offline, too). I’ve written about several vendors that exemplify this approach: SlideRocket, Entellium (see disclosure), DreamFactory (see disclosure) and RightNow.

This week, CRM vendor RightNow has brought out a new release of its software and several of the new features impinge on this question of whether smart clients have a role in the Office 2.0 landscape. Mashups are also an important part of this release, and the way RightNow has implemented mashups cast some additional light on the smart client issue.

In several senses, this latest edition of its software is RightNow’s Web 2.0 release. The vendor has added a customer portal capability that its customers can use to host conversations with and among their own customers. It includes a design studio and a library of widgets, many of which are there to kickstart mashups with third party resources. Here the emphasis is on openness and of course the ability to reach the widest cross-section of visitors is paramount, so every element of the portal is browser-based. Similarly, the mashups are easy to set up, making the capability as accessible as possible to non-technical marketing and customer service staff who might need to set up or modify these features.

When David Vap, VP of products, was briefing me on this, he used a phrase that I found illuminating. “We’re really trying to leverage what this on-demand, in-the-cloud model delivers,” he said, “— both formal and informal mashups.” An IT professional versed in the ways of SOA might use the alternative phrase ‘both governed and ungoverned.’ It made me realize that the point of a lot of Web 2.0 mashups is that they’re easy to set up and don’t need to be managed so they can be largely ungoverned. But there’s another type of mashup that’s more formal (ie needing to governed to ensure that it complies with certain requirements), and this is the type of mashup that we see a lot in the enterprise and business applications space.

A case in point of these more formal mashups is another new feature in RightNow’s latest release: a co-browsing option that allows customer service agents to offer to co-browse a caller’s screen so that they can more quickly resolve a problem. This capability is operated by a third-party service that RightNow has white-labelled and embedded within its application. Naturally, there are SLAs and other agreements that govern that integration so it’s a clear example of a formal mashup — another example of the type of ‘enterprise mashup’ that I highlighted last week.

Now of course co-browsing requires a download to the caller’s machine (which the caller must grant permission for, either as read-only or as read/write, depending on the extent of help required). On the customer service agent’s machine, it’s even more embedded, running inside RightNow’s smart client. And here’s the point that I found especially interesting about the way it’s architected: the smart client interacts directly with the third party provider’s infrastructure to perform the co-browsing rather than going via RightNow’s servers. Why would you need that extra hop, after all? Here I feel is a useful illustration of why it’s sometimes valuable to run some code on the client, making it act in effect as an extension of your cloud infrastructure.

Taking this further, RightNow is using some Microsoft technology called the .Net Add-in Framework that makes this principle extensible. The Framework allows RightNow’s customers or partners to extend their own implementations of the client with additional components. They then upload those components to RightNow’s servers. and RightNow’s infrastructure manages the process of downloading and maintaining the code to the agent desktops. For example, one customer has implemented an order management plug-in for the client that brings in functionality from DemandWare. So the integration happens at the presentation layer, directly between the client and DemandWare’s servers without having to add a hop via RightNow’s servers.

You would not want to do this sort of thing universally. As I mentioned above, the outward-facing Web 2.0 capabilities of the customer portal need to have the widest possible reach, and therefore they must restrict themselves to the browser. But the client software that runs on the call center agents’ desktop is serving a known user base where speed and richness of functionality have far more value than cross-platform compatibility. It’s a business role where eliminating those extra hops to the server make a dollars-and-cents difference to the operational efficiency of the business as well as affecting the quality of customer satisfaction.

So the case I’m making here is that, while some client roles value maximum reach and therefore have to restricted to the browser, as per Ismael’s rules of Office 2.0, there are other roles where maximum functionality counts for more, and where it’s worth paying the penalty of being tied to a single platform.

I understand that a counter-case can be made that putting functionality and code on the client is just a foolish way of storing up management and support nightmares that will fly home to roost sooner or later. Not to mention the drawbacks of getting locked into proprietary platforms, especially when they’re owned (horror of horrors) by Microsoft. But maybe there’s a middle way that solves those problems through standardization and virtualization, allowing users to have their rich functionality and their platform independence too.

My vision of Office 2.0 says make the client part of the cloud, too, and have a truly distributed architecture that allows edge devices to participate in the network where it makes sense to do so, rather than force them to remain powerless and dependent.

Studies have shown that we spend a great deal of our online time in our inbox. There have been many interesting techniques and strategies for saving time and managing your email in better ways. You know, things like how to be an email ninja, how to achieve inbox zero or how to make peace with your inbox and stop sleeping on the couch (OK, I made that one up, but you get the point).

This won’t be another one of those. Instead, what follows will be a bunch of tools that can make your email client more social networking and social media friendly. These sites and add-ons can make your inbox do more than walk and chew gum at the same time.

Choose Your Weapon

No matter which email client you use, there are cool snap-in tools that can enhance your email experience. Whether it’s Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Apple mail, Mozilla Thunderbird or others, you can add new Web 2.0 functionality to your inbox.

Microsoft Outlook

Xobni: If you want extended information about the people that send you emails then checkout Xobni, which snaps inside Outlook and displays many new details about senders and all of the emails that you’ve exchanged with them. The service now connects directly to users’ LinkedIn accounts if they own one, which opens a whole new world of possibilities.

OutTwit: Adds a tiny toolbar that lets you send new posts to Twitter as well as read and reply. You can now use TinyURL and send direct messages to anyone. The beauty of it all is that it looks like you’re working but you’re actually goofing off with your Twitter pals. You can have all new tweets appear in a folder called Tweets (if desired), just like email. It’s also firewall friendly.

Plaxo with Pulse: Your address book is important and Plaxo with Pulse adds a toolbar that turns your Outlook into a dynamic social network. In essence, it’s like having FriendFeed in your email client. Also, Plaxo will sync all of your contacts online with your local address book. The most powerful feature is the way Plaxo can manage all of your contacts from many different email systems such as Gmail, Yahoo mail, and more.

RSS feeds: Outlook can become an excellent way to keep up with all of your RSS feeds. While I still love Google Reader, I find myself using Outlook’s excellent RSS reader more and more because I am always in my email. I get notified of new blog posts instantly as they appear in my Outlook just like new emails. I’m hoping they will add the sharing capabilities that other readers have but other than that, Outlook RSS reader is a great time saver. Here’s how to add RSS feeds to your Outlook.

TimeBridge: One of the best features of Outlook is the ability to check everyone’s calendars for meeting availability times. The problem with that excellent feature is that it only works inside the firewall within an organization’s private network. Well, that is no longer the case thanks to services like TimeBridge. The service snaps into Outlook and allows you to share your calendar and availability with people outside of your firewall and local network. This is a powerful way to schedule appointments that will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration. Here’s an excellent DemoGirl screencast.

Gmail

Xoopit: Is one of the most innovative things to happen to email. It enables you to aggregate all of the images and videos from your Gmail account in a useful manner. You can view Flickr pictures and YouTube videos all in one place inside your email client. You can also easily share any of it with friends from your social networks like Facebook or with your own blog.

Better Gmail: Is a FireFox extension that integrates a bunch of cool features, i.e. attachment icons, attachment reminder, mail preview, filter assistant, label colors, macros, and saved searches. It’s in this roundup because you can make GMail look like one of those Ajaxy Web 2.0 sites you love so much.

GetSpace: Allows you to use some of that glorious space in your gmail account as storage just like Box.net.

gDisk: Is similar to getSpace but for Mac users.

Gmail + Google reader: Is a FireFox monkey script that integrates GMail with Google Reader

Remember the Milk: Is an excellent site to keep track of your to do lists. This Firefox extension will allow you to snap it into your Gmail system! It’s a perfect one-two punch.

Apple Mail

Soocial: Like Plaxo but only for the Mac, not really for Apple Mail. It does sync your contacts from Mac OS address books as well as from Gmail and even HighRise.

httpMail Plugin: Allows Apple Mail to work with Hotmail accounts.

How to add gmail to Apple Mail: Includes a screencast demonstrating how easy it is to do.

How to import RSS feeds into Apple Mail : Good technique for bringing feeds to your Mac Inbox.

MailTags: Adds the ability to tag your emails with keywords or categories that you can then use in Spotlight searches or Smart Mailboxes. It lets you add notes, priorities, and due dates to messages, as well as tag RSS articles when read in Mail.

MiniMail: Comes in handy by minimizing the Mail window down to a much smaller version that displays previews of incoming email messages. You can also work with and respond to emails directly from this mini window. This is a great way to multitask while on your social networks.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Feed Mailer: Allows access to RSS feeds through email. This is especially useful for those users that have limited Internet access or are in environments that prohibit certain computer use such as government or education institutions. It also enables less savvy users who are more comfortable with an email interface to benefit from RSS feeds.

SMSClient: Firefox/Thunderbird extension that enables you to send SMS messages directly from your Browser or email application.

SixSense Toolbar: Lets you find people in your area and locate friends. In addition, it provides bulletin boards that are tied to the specific location that you are at. You can use it on your Wi-Fi enabled laptop at cafes, the library, etc.

Apple Mail: Makes your Thunderbird mail look like Apple Mail.

Zindus: Lets you Sync your Address Book with Google and manage your Gmail, Google Reader or Google Calendar contacts from Thunderbird and vice-versa.

Contacts Sidebar: Embeds your address book in the sidebar so you can surf your social networks on the same screen and still have access to your contacts.

Conclusion

As with the suggestions we make for FireFox extensions, we highly recommend that you do NOT attempt to install too many of these email add-ons and plugins at one time! If you do, you risk bringing your email client to its knees and possibly damaging it. So, we recommend trying them one at a time to see which ones you like best. The more memory and better horse power your system has, the better. In the end, you will find that it makes a lot of sense to add tools that will allow you to multitask while working with your email client. 

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Now Facebook Wants to Own Your Email
Flock Announces Beta 1.1 at MacWorld
Fuser to Launch Email Aggregating Service
LinkSpank: A Naughty Version of Digg?
E-mail Organizer Xobni Goes To Invite-only Beta
Xoopit Upgrade: Search Your Gmail Photos, Videos and Files [Invites]
Email Becomes a “Digg” Network with Grouptivity’s iPond

Most Facebook developer events we've attended have been a bunch of dudes drinking beer and talking shop. Last summer, our first official day of work at SAI was capped off with a trip to the developer 'Hackathon' at Union Square Ventures, where coders ate pizza, sipped and talked about their apps. That was cool.

So what's the point of an invite-only Facebook seminar with a 30-minute "keynote" that someone's paid $15,000 to give? We can't think of one. Yet that's what Facebook is apparently promoting next month at the Harvard Club of New York: "Facebook Developer Garage Media Executive Circle,", an invite-only event for 100 people, for which organizer Fahad Khan has decided he needs up to $70,000 worth of sponsorship money.

What do attendees get to hear? That 30-minute keynote, delivered by someone who ponies up $15,000 for the privilege; followed by up to two 20-minute, speeches ($10,000); followed by up to four 10-minute stemwinders ($5,000). Then a speech by someone from Facebook's monetization team, and a panel discussion feature people we've never heard of, moderated by Khan.

Sounds pretty corporate to us, and also to Jonathan Sarno, who brought this to our attention; he'll be organizing the more familiar, low-key Facebook developer garage the next night, "Funding the Facebook app" -- free and open to anyone.

We couldn't get ahold of Khan to answer some basic questions about his event, so we'll let him explain in comments: What's the utility of an event like this for a Facebook developer? We can't think of one. And doesn't this smell dangerously bubble-like to you?

See Also:
Have Facebook Developers Been Flocking To OpenSocial? No
Who Are The 9 People In Mark Zuckerberg's Inner Twitter Circle?
Facebook Wants To Get Serious. Its Users Want To Play Games

Photo: Fred Wilson

A powerful, easy-to-use, and free MP3/OGG/WMA/CD jukebox/organizer/ripper/tagger (read more)

A leader of The Yippies http://www.yippies.org/ also a Recreate 68 Organizer http://www.recreate68.com/ uses a 'Peace Bat' to pummel a Photo of John McCain. About as bad as the violence got during the DNC, and obviously a fun distraction waiting for a protest march to start.

Author: gblackpe Keywords: DNC DNC08 Denver CO Colorado Recreate68 Yippies Peace Bat Added: August 28, 2008

Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Telluride, Cinematical Indie

Last year was great for American independent cinema; this year, not so much. The lineup for the 35th annual Telluride Film Festival has been announced, and only two U.S. filmmakers made the cut -- Paul Schrader (Adam Resurrected) and Tim Disney (American Violet). In addition, David Fincher will be there to screen his cut of Zodiac and to accept the festival's Silver Medallion.

According to Michael Jones at Variety's festival blog, the scarcity of U.S. films is simply the result of not very many homegrown films being submitted. Some likely candidates, like Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler and the Coens' Burn After Reading, chose to focus on other festivals. Other contenders, like Revolutionary Road, Milk, and W., aren't done yet. The writers' strike and the big studios' ongoing financial problems with their art house divisions also contributed to the dearth of American product.

It looks like a fantastic foreign lineup, though, with 22 films from 14 different countries. You can see the full list here (and there might be some late additions), but some of the highlights include: Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky (U.K.), Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long (France), Kim Ji-Woon's The Good, the Bad and the Weird (South Korea), and Ari Folman's animated Waltz with Bashir (Israel).

The Telluride fest takes place over Labor Day Weekend every year in the small mountain town in southwestern Colorado. To maintain its reputation as a down-to-earth, unglamorous, it's-all-about-the-movies festival, the organizers don't announce the lineup until the last minute, thus avoiding most of the hype and celebrity-gawking that plagues Sundance. Cinematical's Kim Voynar is there, so watch for her coverage over the weekend.

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First, do this: Download "Sweat", "Salt", and "Juicy", three new jams from Rafter's Sweaty Magic EP, due September 9 from Asthmatic Kitty. Got 'em? Good.

Now, make a video for your favorite song.

Done? Damn, aren't we speedy.

Toss that video onto YouTube and make damn sure you add it to the Rafter Sweaty Magic YouTube channel. Now sit back, relax, and prepare to be judged.

Judged by whom, you may ask? Organizers Asthmatic Kitty and Microcinema have assembled a truly bizarre panel of celebrity (and celebrity-ish) judges for this second Rafter video contest. Should you submit an entry into the contest, know that your handiwork will be seen by none other than "Entourage" actor Adrian Grenier, Dan Deacon, Liars, the staff of wacky Nickelodeon kids' show "Yo Gabba Gabba", actress Sasha Barrese, internet sensation Leslie Hall of Leslie and the Ly's, and Christine Starkman, the curator of the Asian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Thanks for putting the notion of a Dan Deacon "Entourage" cameo in my head, internet! Couldn't possibly be more awkward than Kanye's.

So how did Adrian Grenier get involved in this? Well, Rafter was a musical guest on Grenier's television show "Alter-Eco" on the Planet Green network, and they hit it off.

Beyond getting their stuff looked at by that ragtag crew, entrants are putting themselves up for some fabulous prizes. First place gets a grand in cash, second gets half that, and the third gets $250. Three runners up will get an assortment of Asthmatic Kitty swag of the CD and t-shirt variety. All entries are due by November 15, and the winner will be announced on the Asthmatic Kitty site December 1.

Rafter himself seems to be staying out of all this, opting instead for a handful of West Coast dates next month.

read more

Michael J. McCarthy once lived two lives. In one he traded utilities for Citigroup (C); in the other he ran the bawdy website Takeareport.com under the pseudonym "Large." McCarthy got so famous on Wall Street ("take a report" is industry slang) that organizers at the upcoming Dallas Security Traders annual convention offered him the keynote, presumably via an anonymous "Contact TAR" email address on the site. Taking the speaking gig was McCarthy's mistake: It put him and TAR on the radar of his bosses at Citi, who promptly fired him.

Writing under an anonymous (or pseduononymous) handle like "Large" gives many bloggers the freedom to get really politically incorrect and really fun. And TAR is fun even if it's crude: Think Andrew Dice Clay channeling Perez Hilton (or vice versa). McCarthy made sure to never reveal his name or his former employer on his site, and he forwarded content to a friend to post for him.

But it's hard to stay anonymous when you're taking speaking gigs. These days McCarthy is filing for unemployment and looking for work. But he doesn't seem filled with regret. The blogger is still making his speech in Dallas, and is still putting up 4 posts a day on TAR.

PSP homebrew developer roe-ur-boat, author of AutoStart and Basket Catch, has released a new program called Home Viewer. It's a simple homebrew organizer that lets you sort through your homebrew.

You can sort your homebrew apps alphabetically or you can sort them manually. The dev also notes that future versions may include an MP3 player and other features.

Home Viewer has a search function and lets you run programs straight from the app. You can launch PBPs, ISO/CSOs and PSX games. Here are the controls for the program:

• Circle: Launch selection
• Triangle: Move selection up in the list.
• Cross: Move selection down in the list.
• D-pad: Scroll up and down
• Start: Options menu

Download: Home Viewer 1.0
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forums


More homebrew from roe-ur-boat:

• AutoStart PRX V4: added autoboot bypass feature, PSone games launcher
• Basket Catch v1.0 - improved graphics and animation

Todo list organizer software helps you become more productive and more organized

Helps you become more productive and more organized