If you’ve come here looking for Xobni invites, don’t bother. It’s open to all now.

Go make your Outlook less excruciating.

March 10, 2007

• When I defragment a disk, I like to know how much is left. It doesn’t have to be a graphical cue, but a percentage done can’t be hard to add.
• Why doesn’t the right-click work in the message list in Outlook 2003?
• Can you detect when a program is activated by an actual mouse event, versus a coded mouse event? The Security Theatre warnings are annoying.
• Parts of OWA don’t work in IE7, likely due to some arcane security setting.
• When I double-click to open a folder, why does Explorer think about it for a few minutes? Or does it just take a lot of smoke breaks?
• Hey, when you prompt me to determine if I actually want to run a "protected" program, why can’t you take that extra microsecond and remember my choice for a couple of minutes. GNOME asks for credentials when you need to run a program as root, and holds those credentials for a while, making some processes that much more convenient.

March 12, 2007

• Ok, the VPN software I have at work doesn’t work, so it’s ok to use Outlook Web Access (OWA) over IE7. WRONG. Apparently it’s up to the IT department to patch and reboot a running Exchange Server to allow Vista IE7 users to access OWA. Technical people seem placated by this, but I am not. Microsoft, did you think this through. "Oh yeah, everyone loves to reboot their Exchange servers on a daily basis!"

Tags: Vista, annoyances, list, OWA, Exchange, IE7, Juniper, Netscreen Remote

Ok, I will admit to using MSIE for one thing: Outlook Web Access.

I am at a hotel in Minneapolis where

1. I have to pay $9.95/day for wireless access
2. They block my VPN access to the Exchange server

So, I fire up MSIE and start getting weird errors. And other things go wrong when new windows get opened.

Looks like I have to re-build my system. I hate that.

Like this needs to be explained any further.

As has been said elsewhere, the high-priced turnaround team seems to be getting the job done…

…as long as the job was to send Siebel into a shotgun marriage to keep it alive.

Technorati: Siebel, CRM

I tried. I really did. I tried to use the Moleskine Planner as a supplement to my daily Outlook calendar, but it didn’t work out. It’s too heavy, too bulky. I think that one of the spiral bound planners might work better for me; I will try that next year.

It is a beautiful book. I may convert into a daily diary, writing an entry that fits each page, with comments on the day. But too carry around in my backpack, it just doesn’t work.

TECHNORATI: GTD, Moleskine

This week, I had a conversation that included a discussion of whether Microsoft Office applications should be webified.

I think that this is the only way that MSFT is going to be able to get people to support a new version of their product. A web application running on an IIS server (you think they would make able to run on Apache? PSSSHAW!) would support thousands of users, even remotely (HTTPS).

How? Well, once you load the Web app…the load is effectively off the server until the user needs to save, or import, or merge, or speel…spellcheck. Users get to free up cruft and crap from their machines by only loading apps when they need them, and only the apps they need.

OWA is already good enough to replace the bloatware we call Outlook.

As one lunch companion pointed out, there has to be a version of these apps running in a lab somewhere in Redmond right now.

I would buy access to a new version of Office served over the Web in a heartbeat in order to dump the cruft and creep that currently occupies 300MB of drive space.

Gates: ‘Information overload’ is overblown

Of course it is, Bill! We all have a staff of 50,000 people to do our bidding so that we can sit back and dream up visionary statements like this.

Bill, thanks to Outlook and Exchange, no one can be free of work at anytime! With information transferred to Mobile devices, we can now forward vital e-mails with FYI to anyone in the world!

Long live productivity! Long live technology slavery!

I can’t believe Gates is so far removed from the reality of what his products have unleashed. Maybe it’s time to have a Send Bill Gates to Work Day!

And, did I mention that Gates says that Office 12 will solve everything? Or was that Word 6.0?

Scoble is using ClearContext to clear out his Outlook Inbox. [here]

I solved that problem a long time ago. What e-mail?

The Moleskinerie (A Moleskine fan/Bzzzz blog) agrees with me that the Stationery is Bad campaign is for only some of the digerati elite. [here]

I got my Moleskine Datebook 2 days ago…I love it. As a member of a corporate culture, the Outlook Calendar is an evil necessity. But I am finding that I am far too tactile to live by that alone. I like being able to make random notes about a day on a piece of paper, and hold it in my hands.

I have many of my old datebooks, and when I look back over them, I can vividly remember the events that I note, remember why a to-do was so important, and have access to the memories with a simple glance.

PDAs and calendaring software allows us to have an extreme focus on the present; journals and physical datebooks allow us to remember the past.

I am off to purchase an Accordion Folder now….

If I could, this is what I would boil my travelling package down to. Brian Mitchell has manage to simplify his life to where I am aiming for.

Brendon Connelly hits almost on all cylinders with this post. I was shocked to see someone who relies on almost exactly the same toolbox (in a different configuration) as I do.

• I am off to buy a Moleskine Datebook
• I use http://www.notetab.com/and vim to do most HTML/PHP/SQL/whatever editing
• HyperSnap for screen capture
• SQL in Microsoft/Sybase, MySQL, and Oracle flavours

I have never been able to gracefully integrate a PDA into my life. I have tried 4 times, and all 4 have failed miserably. I am a pen and paper man for contacts, appointments, etc.

Outlook Calendar is good for business meetings…but for the rest of your life?

The one tool that he doesn’t mention: Google. I know that it is so omnipresent that it is easy to miss, but if you do fewer than 5 Google searches a day, and you work in high-tech…what do you do?