Cell phones seem to work just about everywhere these days. Internet
access also seems to be just about everywhere these days as well. Last
week, I found myself in a situation where I had internet access, but no
telephone service whatsoever. I was at the Discovery National
Institute in the Carribbean and there were many things I needed to
communicate to the outside world. Email was just too slow. What to do?
I
used a service called Teleflip to send text messages to my friends cell
phones…from my email. The basic part of this service is free. You
enter your friend’s telephone number followed by @teleflip.com
(7605551212@teleflip.com). Your email goes right to their phone! I
usually take off any signature I may have to avoid using the character
limit. When I get a text back, it goes to my email account. I can
then see the actual email address that Teleflip sent the text to, such
as 7605551212@messaging.sprint.com. I generally put that in my contact
book to have for future reference.
I find this service very useful for sending out texts to larger numbers of people too. There are few other services that do similar things, but I find this one to be simple and effective. If you search the web, you can even find widgets to embed in a webpage that will allow people to text you directly from your website or aggregator .
Teleflp also has a free service that will allow you to forward your
email to your cell phone (without additional data plans. Happy texting!
Everyone loves a good deal! Here’s another way to save money using that grand ‘ol internet thingy. I’m fortunate enough to have found myself traveling quite a bit this summer. I’d say that from June to September I will have been on over 10 airplanes. I hope others are getting out there and exploring as well. How do you know if you’re really getting the best deal on flights? I suppose you could listen to a little gnome, but you may want to try Kayak.c
om.
Kayak is a great Web 2.0 site that searches most (not sure if it’s actually all airlines, but it seems to do a darn good job) airlines and even site like Cheaptickets and Priceline. It’s really easy to use and lets you search using flexible dates, close airports and a myriad of other useful qualities.
When you search, check out the "other options." There’s even a little graph that tells you how the price of your ticket has risen or fallen in the past 90 days!
Another added benefit is that Kayak lets you buy your ticket directly form the airline, so you can retain your frequent flyer miles. Check it out. See you in the sky!
Hopefully we all know that it’s a good idea to periodically back up your files- documents, music, photos and other important stuff you would want to save in case of loss or failure. These days, external hard drives are pretty cheap and will hold all of your "stuff" and more. For those of us that don’t need to back up everything a large flash drive or even a memory stick (like SD sticks used in digital cameras) will do the job.
What I’d like to share is another handy idea that I’ve had to utilize several times in the last month. My computers have been experiencing "issues" lately and, as a result, I’ve had to reinstall my operating system, bury it and/or trade my computer in. Needless to say, I was fortunate I had my data backed up, but what I began to create was a single file, which I kept safely online at Google Docs.
I call this my back up file and I keep track of all the software I have to install on my new machine. For me, this stuff really adds up. Without this file, I’d end up installing the software as I needed it, but I like to have it booted up and ready to go. I also list my serial numbers/authorization codes under each software title so they’re good to go also.
Lastly, I create a small section of the little tweaks and changes I make to my system, such as disabling certain things at startup, changing power settings, installing custom fonts (such as Fonts 4 Teachers), deleting certain things the computer likes to sell me and so on. I also include any screenshots of things as I like them, such as all the items in my Quicklaunch (I use Windows). Don’t forget to include the little add-ons, such as the LAME encoder for Audacity and the Firefox plug-ins.
Creating this list is as easy as it sounds, just scroll through your programs and make a note of the things you currently have on your system. I’ve found this document to be very useful way too many times recently!
~Kootman
Via RSS
