Koala-T Assistant (MyKTA)

What a great day… and it’s Valentine’s Day! It is a beautiful day outside and I get to hear the horse carriages trotting around my corner waking me up this morning with an Old World feeling. There are days when it is so amazing to get to wake up in Old Sacramento. All the lovely couples will be down here treating their sweetie to a gorgeous day of interesting shops and restaurants and either sitting alongside the river or sitting on the deck enjoying a cocktail on the Delta King overlooking the river. Old Sacramento really gives you that Old West feeling when women were ladies and men were gentlemen.

In two days, the 16th, it will be my birthday and I feel kind of spoiled today. I usually take the whole week for my birthday because I have Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and I take the week off from work. Yes, I have this week off. Also, this year starts the 2010 Winter Olympics and the United States is doing pretty good and we’re ranking pretty decently. So grab your cup of coffee because I’ve got something for you. My gift to you. I know it’s my birthday, but I love to share great things.

Goal setting and evaluating my accomplishments and my “stupid” moments really hit me around my birthday. That is why I joined the gym in November and set the goal to weigh 145 by my 45th birthday (I am super duper close) and weigh 125 by the end of May (that’s my daughter’s birthday). Also, big decades are motivators, this being 2010. So my big reflective milestones every 5 years.

I failed to mention this to you at the beginning of the year, but you still have time to catch up. My first gift is for you to check out Darren Hardy’s blog at the Success blog (this is one of the links I share on the sidebar). He is literally giving away his Designing the Best 10 Years of Your Life for FREE. I actually paid for this last year and it is the exact same material, with accompanying worksheets (downloaded PDF), for all who register for their blog feed. What I love about this idea is that it is like joining a massive Mastermind group. You can read and participate in the comments. With the written material, this interaction isn’t available. So how awesome is that?!

If you use Firefox, I do, you can use Add-ons. Here is the second part of my combined gift to you. Grab the add-on called “Read It Later.” I mentioned in an earlier article that I purchased the iTouch for my birthday. I love it and have a technique for utilizing it in your productivity. “Read It Later” can be downloaded as an App to your iTouch or iPhone, and it’s FREE.

I am able to save my Google Reader items that have some length to them and sync to read it later on my computer offline if I choose, but this isn’t where I really need it. If I’m sitting at my computer already, than I can read it. I need it for when I can use it productively away from my computer. Such as, commuting and you are not the driver, waiting in an office, standing in a lengthy line, etc. For me, I use it when I’m on the cycle at the gym.

Yesterday, for my one hour cycle workout, I listened to music in the background for the rhythm intensity to keep my legs pumping me into a sweat and read my Darren Hardy blog. “Read It Later” has you sync for offline. Here is my learning lesson for you after using it yesterday in my workout. You can sync for offline web and/or text viewing. I only had it on web viewing. It’s pretty, but small and on the iTouch you are not able to zoom. So, my suggestion would be to sync the text view for readability.

So with the combination of these various technology items, you can still be productive during your downtime when you don’t have access or it isn’t reasonable to have your computer in front of you. It is a great series and I promise you will get so much information, ideas, and motivation by reading it. You don’t have to sign up to view the blog, but you do to access the worksheets and the worksheets are a great supplement to the program. I highly suggest it. Darren also does videos, which were not a part of the written material purchased last year. So the program has really expanded with how he has incorporated this being a live participation model. Do not leave this site without checking it out.

I promise, you will love what he is doing with this program. Like me, I can’t afford the thousands of dollars it costs to go to week-long seminars, and I don’t have the time. This is like an online education/seminar for everyone who participates for FREE. I know there are some people who don’t tend to value information or things unless they have to pay for it, but I am telling you that it is the same thing and, to be honest, an expanded version of what you had to pay for just a year ago. So I appreciate Darren for offering this to so many people who can use it, but can’t afford to pay for something like this and who need it the most to acquire the skills, techniques, and tips that it takes to be successful.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day to you, Happy Birthday to me, and I wish you all great success.

I would love to hear from you if you decided to join and your thoughts on the program and any other ideas you have that make you productive and encourages your success. I also hope you find information here helpful, so please share with the people who could you positive things in their life. Also let me know how fantastic your Valentine’s Day is. I’m off to see my mom for Valentine’s Day and I texted my daughter to tell her she is my lovely Valentine’s girl. Did you tell your special people how amazing and appreciated they are today? Well… get to it!

With great love and affection to my Sparkle peeps.
-Layne

I just finished reading an article about whether or not blog comments are essential to a site, such as this, or not.  The biggest issue that  comes up from having a comment section on a site has to do with controlling spam, self-advertising, and just random crap.  I take a couple of precautions for this.  One is that I moderate comments seeing that it reflects what is written, as well as information that contributes to others using a plugin called Diques Comment System.  I also use the WP-SpamFree plugin.  I have found these two tools to be very helpful in managing the degree of random comments and allows me to focus on the quality comments.  It is an extra step, but it also allows me to stay on track and respond in a timely manner.

I don’t plan to discontinue them at this time because I believe there is more than one point of view.  This allows others with similar experience in what I write about to contribute or an alternative way of doing the same task.  It also allows a person to disagree and detail why, an alternative point of view.  I use Feed Reader to manage quite a few blogs that I like to keep up with that provides me lots of ideas and suggestions, and some purely for entertainment.  Personally, I find the comments entertaining and informative.

It could be viewed as self-aggrandizing that is if you are merely looking for a “pat on the back.”  I appreciate the comments for two reasons, the opportunity for someone to give their feedback and the opportunity for others to provide their experience and suggestions.  Personally, I comment on someone’s blog when I feel I have something of value to contribute.  Many times, as I generally read through my Feed Reader, I don’t get to view the comments, but can quickly read through the articles.  I will click on the article link if I am interested in what comments others have made or would like to contribute a comment myself.

At this point, I don’t believe that a comment section is a “make or break” option for a website.  However, I believe it is the quality of the content that dictates a websites traffic.  If you provide quality content that is written well, your followers will come.  I must admit that I don’t believe I get that much commenting.  I don’t know if that is good or bad, but do find my website traffic increasing over time.  This I track with both a Google Analytics plugin and FeedBurner.  If people find your information interesting, they will keep coming back and will refer others who may enjoy it as well.  As you will see on my sidebar, I share many of my favorites to you as I love sharing really great things, opportunities, and ideas.  As if you couldn’t tell by the information that I write on here to share.

I would love to know your view on comments, whether you use them or not, and your personal experience with them.  So feel free to share your experience on both the commenting and the moderating sides of commenting.

Have you ever had something staring you right in the face and you just don’t get it. It happens when you buy a car. All of a sudden the car you buy is everywhere, before, you rarely saw it. Now they are EVERYWHERE.

Let me just say, I didn’t mean for this to be so long. After going through the information, I really wanted to provide the details of what you would see and get. So with that said, I hope you enjoy the post and check it out for yourself.

That brings me to my challenge for today. I work on three different computers: the office, home, and the laptop. I don’t lug my laptop around with me wherever I go. So I was looking for technology that met three criteria:

• My work has become more collaborative, requiring the necessity to be able to share documents with people who are not on my network or server;
• I would need access to the documents when working on a different computer, once again, not on the network or server; and
• I need to be able to work the document in the program I created it in and others can use as well.

There you have my dilemma.

It dawns on me that I have been reading a lot in my “feeds” about Google Docs. So I dove in to see if this was the answer I had been seeking. I work on resumes and require access to the most current version of the document when preparing a mailing series. The document is in Word, complete with graphic lines and WordArt Text.

Google Docs failed my qualifications. Google Docs strips it down to its basic elements. Looks nice, but anything graphical is eliminated. I suggest this as a simplistic method of sharing information. One great use is for students. Kids who are living between two houses and juggling homework between the two. This option eliminates carrying a flash drive in a bag full of books.

My conclusion for Google Docs is a glorified word processor and hard drive in the clouds. Nothing fancy, but it does store your documents for retrieval wherever you are and available when working on various computers.

My second option, Office Live Workspace. As soon as I executed the desired workspace, the Job Search Workspace, loaded the Word document, and then executed the saved document, I got exactly what I wanted. Microsoft Word executed and the exact replica of the document slid onto my desktop. Now I had to test the second criteria: sharing the document. I sent off the invitation to my client to see if she was able to access her documents.

She was floored with what she was presented. She had her resume and cover letter, but she was also greeted with the following: Interview Preparation Notes, Interview Schedule, Interview Thank You Letter, Job Contacts, and Informational Interview Request. I had just prepared her with the perfect “workspace” to keep everything organized, managed, and manageable. And, she could access all this information anywhere.

She divides her time between the office, the place she lives at during the workweek, and her home 100 miles away. She prefers to keep her travel light, so eliminating the need to transport her computer back and forth every week definitely simplifies her life. However, she does travel with a plethora of flash drives and my work doesn’t have to be included when she is searching for all her job search documentation. I just made her computing life easier, arrangement of all her job search information in her workspace environment, and now whenever she needs changes, I have access to all the necessary information at once.

Needless to say, our previous method of manipulating the information was emailing back and forth. When the next round of resume submissions came, I had to request her most recent information. There just had to be a better way. The “cloud.” Now, we are on the ground running.

In the Workspace I have provided her the following documentation:

• Resumes;
• Cover letters;
• The Interview Schedule, listing the company, job position, the event the company is attending or attended, location, the start time, the end time, job description, the interviewer(s) name(s), the interviewer(s) title(s), and the interviewer(s) phone number(s);
• Interview Preparation Notes where she can contact the department in advance to prepare for her interview. She works for the State and is seeking a promotional position. If you have been asked for an interview, you can request their interview questions in advance and they will email it to you. I know, that was weird for me when I first found out.
• The Interview Thank You Letters;
• Job Contacts where she can enter information from their business cards to send their Thank You Letter and follow up; and
• Information Interview Request. It was an option that she had not even considered and may consider in researching what it might take to get the position she wants.

Office Live Workspace comes with a variety of workspaces that preload with various templates just for that subject. Here are the choices of workspaces and their preloaded templates you have to choose from:

1. Class Workspace
   • Class List with Contact Information
   • Class Notes
   • Essay Outline
   • Important Dates
   • Syllabus
2. Essay Workspace
   • Paper Milestones
   • Team Paper Outline
   • Term Paper Template
   • Thesis Template
3. Event Workspace
   • Business Event Flyer
   • Directions
   • Event Agenda
   • List of Invitees
   • Notes
   • Party Invitation
   • To-do List
4. Household Workspace
   • Announcement Board
   • Emergency Contact List
   • Grocery List
   • Household Event List
   • Household To-do List
5. Job Search Workspace
   • Cover Letter
   • Informational Interview Request
   • Interview Preparation Notes
   • Interview Schedule
   • Interview Thank You Letter
   • Job Contacts
   • Resume
6. Meeting Workspace
   • List of Attendees
   • Meeting Minutes
   • Meeting Notes
   • Meeting Presentation
   • To-do List with Owners
7. Project Workspace
   • Participants
   • Project Notes
   • Project Overview Presentation
   • Project Post-mortem Presentation
   • Project Proposal
   • Project Schedule
   • To-do list
8. School Workspace
   • Graduation Requirements
   • Notes
   • Semester Schedule
   • Sports Schedule
   • To-do List
   • Useful Contacts
9. Sports Team Workspace
   • Announcements
   • Directions
   • Season Schedule
   • Snack Schedule
   • Team Roster
10. Study Group Workspace
    • Announcements
    • Event List
    • Meeting Notes
    • Report Template
    • To-do List with Owners
11. Travel Workspace
    • Business Trip Itinerary
    • Packing List
    • Personal Data Form
    • Travel Checklist

On the left sidebar you have “My Workspaces” where you can view and select from the various Workspaces you are working with. On the right sidebar you can view “Activity,” “Comments,” and your list of “Shared” persons for the selected Workspace. The preloaded templates use the various Microsoft software applications, but Workspace is not limited to just Microsoft applications. Because you can upload your own documents, you can have access to any of your program documents as long as you have the program application on the computer.

It’s easy and it’s free.

If you found this article interesting, I hope you will share your thoughts and ideas of what you do in resolving sharing issues in an age where sharing information has become essential. How have you simplified your sharing challenges? I look forward to hearing your experience.

The internet has taken over. Ten years ago, the extent of our technology beyond using MS Office, Lotus programs, and WordPerfect (now owned by Corel), was Outlook for internal and external communication. Not today, business relies on full-blown internet use for managers and staff beyond communication. We research, network, communicate, interact, connect, and get informed. Our basic internet experience involves several factors on how you view, retrieve, and receive your information. It’s mostly about personal preference.

Web Browsers

Here are the players: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Flock. View your website or blog on these browsers as they are ones being used by the people you want to be able to see and access your information. View this link to get some details on each browser.

Search Providers

Choices, choices, choices. If you weren’t aware, well here is it. There is something for everyone and everything. It just might open up your internet world and discover there is life beyond Google and Yahoo search.

I remember the day when shopping had its limitations. You almost felt like you had to be a model to find anything to fit. We’re all different, whether size, shape, taste, style, or preference. Social networking some prefer Myspace, while others like Facebook, and for others it is LinkedIn. That is just a small pool of selection that match your social network and lifestyle. But that’s for another blog altogether.

For a great resource for web browsers view this link. For an extensive list of search providers, broken down into categories, take a look at this link.

Enjoy your new internet toys!

With the internet and the extent of its development, our lives are almost a free-for-all to anyone who wants to get information or “dirt” on us. It can almost feel like the Big Brother theory we heard about years ago, but it is much more than that. It is not only the government, it is our neighbors, employers, prospective employers, our mate/partner, or even a possible date.

Now most of us have “Googled” ourselves or others, but how often do we make a point of seeing what information is being put out there. Here is a simple solution that keeps me up-to-date on information that could be about me. It’s Google Alerts. Once a week I receive a report on what is being put on the internet that contains my name. It’s not always about me, but I am informed. I also keep Alerts on my kids, company, and the State of California.

Are you aware that your traffic violation is on the net? Well it is if you get your ticket in Sacramento. The SacBee lists your full name, the date of the violation, the violation, as well as the city your reside in.  Yup, that is a lot of information.  And it’s not just traffic violations!