Far From Home

Use Outlook? You need Xobni.

My boss sent me the link for Xobni when it had just surfaced, and I installed it.  I haven't used Outlook without it since, and in the rare cases that I've had issues with it (always brief), leaving me without it, I've felt totally lost without it.

Xobni makes it easy to instantly find any email in any of your folders, search your email in threaded format, find any attachment that you've ever exchanged with a person, and a crapload more.  It has a clever, intuitive interface that makes you want to use it, and use it you will...

Maybe it appeals best to people like myself whose jobs are extremely email intensive, with a need to constantly go back and find things quickly, but I'd think just about anyone that uses Outlook knows how easy it is to lose an email in the abyss, even if you are meticulous about maintaining your folders of archived mail.

Give it a shot, you won't be sorry.  If you don't like it, it's easy to uninstall.  

links:

Xobni Website

OMG Drool @ Photo of Geek Heaven

...And I thought I had a lot of monitors.  This puts me to shame in a major way.

One can never have too much screen real estate.  Period. :)

Not much else to say here except goddamn!  If only they were widescreen.  And 24" each. :D  I wonder how many video cards this guy is using... or if they're hooked up to multiple machines.  I'd want them all on the same one.

Read the actual lifehacker article for more info.  I haven't even gotten that far yet. :)

[via lifehacker.com]

Dropbox - Sync Made Simple

Dropbox is, as stated on the official website, "the easiest way to share and store your files online."

In no way is this an exaggeration.  For quite some time, my DJing partner and I have been wishing we had a way to not only transfer files between eachother easily and without size limitations, but to do it passively.  In other words, I want to be able to drop files on his computer whether he is around or not, and vice versa.  Whenever he gets around to sitting down at his PC, they'll be there.  

Now, this isn't a brand new concept, just by far the most brilliant execution I've seen.  There's plenty of replication / syncronization technologies that could resolve this on some level or another, but without the online-storage aspect that Dropbox provides, only partial solutions remain, many of which are extremely expensive.

I have no doubt that there are other services like this, and I'm sure some of them are probably good, but given the fact that within minutes, Dropbox was up and running and working precisely as intended... well, you could say I'm impressed.  

It may initially seem like you have little need for something like this, but I'll bet if you think about it, you will probably be able to identify some creative ways to get value out of this app.  If nothing else, this is a stupid-easy way to keep your data backed up externally, and if you've never lost your data to a harddrive crash, you'll be certain to eventually in this technologically charged day and age.  Better safe than sorry.

Best of all, Dropbox provides accounts with 2GB of available storage for free!  If you want more space, you can upgrade to 50gb for $9.99 a month.

To download Dropbox, visit the official website.  Or alternatively, for more insight into what this app can do, check out the numerous Dropbox-related posts on lifehacker.com.

Caffeine: Common Workplace Hallucinogen

This isn't in the least bit surprising, but it's funny:

"Research suggests people who drink more than seven cups of instant coffee a day have an increased tendency to hallucinate."

Frankly, if you aren't hallucinating after that many cups of office coffee, you probably have bigger problems than drinking too many cups of coffee...

"They studied 200 students who were asked about their typical intake of caffeine products.

Those who had a high caffeine intake were three times more likely to have the heard voice of someone non-existent than "low" users who consumed less than one cup of instant coffee or its equivalent.

Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices and sensing the presence of dead people were among the experiences reported. Researchers also found that people drinking as few as three cups of brewed coffee each day may experience mild hallucinations, such as hearing voices that aren't there."

This explains a lot about my average workday.  With the amount of coffee consumed by some people I've worked with, it's amazing they aren't speaking in tongues at least 60% of the time.  In all seriousness, many people are heavily dependent on it, which isn't a big problem, generally, but it falls into the category of behavior that probably has a negative impact on one's maximum life expectancy in some way or another, surely.

"Researchers believe the hallucinations stem from the caffeine, rather than the coffee. Besides coffee, caffeine can be obtained from sources such as tea, chocolate, "pep" pills and energy drinks."

Really, you think it might be the fairly powerful stimulant causing these effects?  Or is it the "coffee"?   What is this mysterious "coffee" in scientific terms?  Perhaps the aroma of the fresh brew is simply too intoxicating to handle. :)

Or perhaps this is a sensationalized repositioning of nothing more than the information found on a No-Doz(TM) warning label?  On wikipedia, a description:

"An acute overdose of caffeine, usually in excess of about 300 milligrams, dependent on body weight and level of caffeine tolerance, can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication,[71] colloquially "caffeine jitters". The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are not unlike overdoses of other stimulants. It may include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.[69] In cases of much larger overdoses mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations and psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.[72][73] "

At any rate, don't try this at home, folks.  There is nothing fun or interesting or amusing about the psychadelic effects that you might acquire from excessive caffeine consumption.  They would more aptly described as hellish and should be avoided at all costs.  There are significant cardiovascular risks when consuming such large doses of caffeine, as well.

[source: foxnews]

Palm Pre = Looks Really Awesome

It's about time, but it really seems like Palm might have managed to come back with a serious contender with their latest contribution to the smartphone industry:

treocentral.com : palm pre info 

I am definitely getting one of these the moment they are available.  I've been trying to figure out what to replace my personal phone (Treo 755p) with, and now I have an answer!

Best Ad Campaign RIM Could Ask For...

President-elect Barack Obama does not want to give up the Blackberry that he is so used to having at his disposal, and who can blame him?

...the Secret Service, as well as Obama lawyers, are concerned it could easily be hacked and are demanding the new president hand over the BlackBerry before he moves into the White House... But in an interview with CNBC Wednesday, Obama made clear he's not giving it up without a fight.

.. from CNN : Obama Not Giving Up Blackberry Without a Fight 

Is this not the best possible advertising campaign for the Blackberry you can possibly imagine?  These quotes are not only very cool because they demonstrate that our new president is not hopelessly lame, but also very powerful advertisements for the Blackberry:

"They're going to pry it out of my hands," the president-elect said.

"You know, this town's full of lawyers. I don't know if you've noticed…and they have a lot opinions. And so I'm still in a scuffle around that, but it–look, it's the hardest thing about being president. How do you stay in touch with the flow of everyday life," he added.

"I've got to look for every opportunity to do that – ways that aren't scripted, ways that aren't controlled, ways where, you know, people aren't just complimenting you or standing up when you enter into a room, ways of staying grounded," he said.

I wouldn't want to give up my Blackberry either.  Don't give in, Barack!

Allow Yourself to be Filled with Shame...

I don't know how it took me so long to think of putting this up here...

This describes me at least 50% of the time, but probably far more, and that's why it's both hilarious and horrible simultaneously.

Click on the image for a larger version in a popup window!

Check out the official comic website at toomuchcoffeeman.com.

Self-Handicapping Excuses Don't Work?

lifehacker.com : Why Your Self-Handicapping Excuses Don't Work (And How to Fix Them!)

Big surprise, right?

That being said, I'd never really thought of it in such cut-and-dry terms before.  I know that I've been guilty of such excuses for the majority of my career.  The article points out findings that indicate that if someone else makes your excuses for you, they come across as completely legitimate, even repeatedly.

Maybe I would have come to the same conclusion if I hadn't gotten so little sleep last night...

Five Ways to Get Out of "Faffing" Mode

faffing - "the art of doing something without acheiving anything."

This short article is from back in April, but this kind of insight almost never becomes outdated...  I'm the king of "faffing," a term that I wasn't familiar with until right now.

Just a reference point, I should be working right now... and I'm running behind schedule.  And I'm writing a blog entry.  Extreme faf-mastery.  Just call me Aaron Fafran.

Five ways to get out of faffing mode ...from lifehack.org.

mint.com - first impression

I'm sure there's plenty of mint.com reviews out there that are far more comprehensive than this blog post.  However, I feel the need to state that I arguably got more insight out of 2-3 hours spent on mint.com than I have from using the disasterous Quicken for months.  

That is a bit of an exaggerated claim, perhaps, but not nearly as exaggerated as it should be.

Back to mint-- I am quite impressed, thus far..  Very easy setup, and very clever!  We'll see how it goes.

Anybody else use mint 'round here?