Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Blogging from Office 2007 (Beta 2)

  Well, I finally got Office Beta 2 downloaded and all of my machines upgraded from Beta 1 Technical Refresh. So far, so good. Performance is still not ideal, but it's much improved from previous builds (especially in Outlook). I was going to write this in Word, but I can't seem to get it working. When I try to configure an account, I get a popup that asks me for a password, but clicking either Ok or Cancel doesn't close it. I guess that's why it's still a beta, right? Like most of the new Office, I absolutely love the interface in Word 2007. I've been using it since the alpha last September, and I've used it for 5 papers over the past two semesters. It's wonderful. That being said, it's sort of weird to say that Word supports blogging. Is it sad that this might be what people use Word for most? (Well, and writing e-mail in Outlook, since Outlook 2007 now forces you to use Word as the editor). Personally, if I wanted to blog from one Office product, I think it would be OneNote. It looks like... Posted May 25 2006, 04:20 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Productivity, Web 2.0

• Addicted to EVDO

  If you listen to Mobile Tech Roundup , you'll know I picked up EVDO a few weeks back. (And if you don't listen to MoTR, well, why aren't you?). I am addicted to EVDO. It might not sound like such a big deal, but it's incredible when you no longer have to think about having a high-speed connection. It's a life-changing event the first time you sit in the doctor's office and you're online. Suddenly, the wait isn't such a big deal. I take the bus instead of the subway now because it's no longer "lost time" - I can sit there the entire time checking e-mail, etc. As much as I hate the idea of carrier lock-in with my laptop, it's making me think long and hard about a lot of the notebooks released recently with embedded WWAN support. The ThinkPad T60 and X60 are both available with embedded EVDO receivers (there is a slight bulge though). If the new ThinkPad tablet has EVDO, I might be willing to overlook the lower resolution screen. Of course, an always-on EVDO connection is a great complement... Posted Apr 10 2006, 04:36 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Gadgets, Productivity, Tablet PC

• My Crusade Against Cubicles

  Cubicles are just awful . It is often thought that the openness contributes to team building, but I still insist real relationships are not built in the office. The openness is also a huge drain on productivity especially for work that requires contiguous blocks of time. (Context switches are expensive, after all). My manager recognizes this, and although it's clear the cubicle farms aren't going away entirely we recently discussed strategies on how to address the productivity issue. Some of us already use some of the empty offices when we need to really buckle down, and it would be interesting if this was a bit more formal. (Call them office shares). Another suggestion was to have "work hours" such to guarantee uninterrupted blocks of time. Now there's a report that they're also a security risk . The British security service MI5 is warning business leaders that their offices are probably badly designed against terrorist bombs. The common modern office consists of large rooms without internal... Posted Apr 01 2006, 09:14 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Productivity, Innovation

• Using Exchange and FolderShare for ubiquitous access to your information

  I've mentioned in the past that I have an effective way to consume information , and also alluded to my use of FolderShare , but I never really discussed the system in its entirety. The problem I want to keep my desktop and tablet synchronized, including e-mail, contacts, documents, etc. I want it done seamlessly and without requiring any affirmative action by me. I need to be able to synchronize or access those files even when I'm not on the same network (which is most of the time). The solution It might sound like a tough thing to solve, but the combination of Exchange Server and FolderShare make it quite easy. Sure, it's not a perfect solution, but it's damn close. Exchange for the information When I have my tablet, I'm running the full Outlook client, connected to the Exchange Server via RPC over HTTPS. This means that all of my e-mail, contacts, and calendar information is live data. Not only do I get new items, but I can create new items, mark things as read, delete items, etc. During... Posted Feb 22 2006, 11:16 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Productivity, Outlook Tips, Web 2.0

• Another reason to love Foldershare: Distributed mirroring!

  I've been using Foldershare for awhile now and I'm absolutely in love with it. Coupled with Exchange Server and an RSS aggregator in Outlook, it has pretty much solved the synchronization problems I've struggled with forever. For those of you not familiar with Foldershare, it's a neat little service (recently purchased by Microsoft) that allows you to keep libraries of files synchronized across a number of computers via HTTPS (i.e., even behind corporate firewalls and public hotspots that otherwise restrict access). The software even provides web-based access to your files on any machine. It's pretty amazing if you ever have to rebuild a computer - just install Foldershare, subscribe to the library, and you have all your files. I did this after running the recovery disk against my temporary replacement hard drive on my Toshiba, and it copied all of my 500+ MB of documents while I was in the shower. In other words, Foldershare comes the closest I've seen to the utopia of virtual folders... Posted Feb 02 2006, 12:11 PM by Tim with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Security, Productivity

• Organized, but no RSS feed

  I feel a bit like Scoble saying this, but Tracy just pointed out what looks like a very interesting site for organization . As you could have guessed by now, the problem is that they don't offer syndication - which means I'll probably never see their content, especially anything new. They even have a Tip of the Day section , which would be perfect for a subscription. Let me subscribe to that, and maybe I'll get a few useful tips and be reminded to come back to your site. (I also couldn't give you guys a link to their feed either, which I think is a great idea and I'm obviously trying out now). Syndicated feeds are an opportunity to build brand loyalty. In the past, everyone wanted you to sign up for their newsletter. People, especially the clean-inbox junkies who would probably love this site, generally resist having things delivered via e-mail, even if they're still ending up in Outlook. The alternative today to get us hooked is RSS. Posted Jun 06 2005, 05:24 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Rants, Productivity