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| What’s Your Favorite Web App, Wagner James Au? Posted: 24 Mar 2009 04:00 PM PDT Written by Aliza Sherman. Wagner James Au, aka Hamlet Au in Second Life, is author of “The Making of Second Life”, a GigaOM contributor and founder of New World Notes. For three years, starting in 2000, Au was hired by Second Life creators Linden Labs as an “embedded journalist” to cover the world’s emerging society. Here he talks about why he uses Paint.net and Plurk.
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| The Home Wi-Fi Reboot: Don’t Neglect It Posted: 24 Mar 2009 04:00 PM PDT Written by Samuel Dean. Are you a web worker who depends heavily on a home Wi-Fi network? There are more and more of us, and I’ve written before about the importance of doing regular checkups on your wireless network to make sure you’re getting the best performance. Recently, my home Wi-Fi network was giving me some trouble, and I went down the steps in the trusty troubleshooting checklist and was able to get rid of the problem.
I frequently like to write and work on a laptop, so that I can move from room to room. A home Wi-Fi network is great for this, and I can even get a good signal outside my home most of the time. However, recently I found my Wi-Fi signal getting dropped at regular intervals, which is really very annoying. In instances where that happens, you just use a sniffer utility to reestablish the connection, but it’s annoying to have to do so. I have a secure Wi-Fi network, and though I wasn’t exactly sure what the problem was, I knew it wasn’t interference from neighboring networks. One important thing I learned a long time ago is that a Wi-Fi network needs a cycled reboot of all essential components on a regular basis. This means turn off the computer that your router is attached to, turn off your broadband, physically disconnect the modem and router connections, turn off and physically disconnect your access points, turn off portable devices hanging on the network, and then reconnect and start everything back up again. I actually learned the value of that on a support call years ago when I got my first Wi-Fi network installed. It makes perfect sense. How many times have you solved a computing problem by rebooting, or shutting down an application and going back in? After a cycled reboot, I was pretty sure that my dropped Wi-Fi problem was solved, but as an added step, I changed the channels on my router and access points. I learned about the importance of this through some reader comments to this post here on WWD. I recommend taking a look at them and following the links provided if you’re having any Wi-Fi problems at home. Here is a good tutorial on channels and changes from Wi-Fi Planet. After this second step, I never have had another problem with signal drops. Truth be told, I’m not exactly sure what my problem was, but I’m pretty sure I was running into some kind of interference. Many electronic devices in a home can create radio interference, so if you’ve been experiencing signal drops, try the steps described here.      |
| Skimmer, a New Lifestreaming Client Posted: 24 Mar 2009 03:12 PM PDT Written by Simon Mackie.
skimmer is a cross-platform desktop client, built using Adobe AIR, that gives you a single interface to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube and Blogger. Even in beta it works pretty well, and has some nice touches, such as displaying Twitpic images inline so you don’t have to open another browser tab. Think of it as a Tweetdeck-like app that also allows you to keep an eye on what’s happening with your friends on Flickr, Youtube and Blogger. You can also use it to upload photos and video. It is a very elegantly designed application that looks great. If I wanted a full-screen Twitter/lifestreaming client I would probably consider using skimmer, but it’s a bit too heavyweight for me. I prefer having a small, unobtrusive twhirl window at the side of my screen to keep up-to-date with what’s happening on Twitter. While you can set skimmer up in a “widget”-size window, it still takes quite a lot of screen real estate; it’s probably best to run skimmer on a second screen. I’d also caution that the app takes a lot of memory to run (a common problem with AIR applications). skimmer is currently using nearly 200MB of memory on my machine – hopefully this is something that will be addressed in a future version. Have you tried skimmer? What did you think?      |
| freckle Offers Hassle-Free Time Tracking Posted: 24 Mar 2009 02:00 PM PDT Written by Scott Blitstein. Based on the number of time tracking applications we’ve covered here on WebWorkerDaily, and the frequency with which new ones are being introduced, it’s obviously an area that’s in high demand. Even among the team here we all seem to be on our own missions to find the perfect time tracking solution. Dawn recently wrote about her experience with Harvest and I’ve certainly tried my share of apps over the last few years. But after a couple of months of trialing, testing and tweaking, I’m ready to commit to freckle. I had the opportunity to talk in depth with Amy Hoy, lead designer of freckle, about what it is and isn’t. It is designed to be simple, easy to use and unobtrusive. It was developed to address what they saw as problematic with the time tracking solutions that they were using. It isn’t for teams requiring time sheet approval, org chart hierarchies, assignments or permissions. freckle acknowledges that while time tracking is a necessary task, it isn’t our real work, but rather an interruption of it. The thought is that if it were easy and painless to use, we would be more diligent about our time entries. With freckle it’s all about the syntax. Once you learn it you can log time amazingly quickly. The time entry form can be accessed from any screen on the app. It’s just three boxes: time, client or project, task and/or tag and then done. With careful naming, and by taking advantage of the auto-completion functionality, you can do this in just a few keystrokes. Any new project or customer data I enter here is created for me on the fly. There is no need to go in and create a client, create a project, create a task for a client, and then log the time. In one step I can create, log and tag everything I need. I can always go in and add more detail later when it fits my schedule. Not only is time tracking critical for billing, but I am also realizing that I need to keep better track of where the rest of my hours are going. A simple asterisk after a tag flags an item as non-billable and the reports make it obvious to distinguish between the two. A nicely designed “Pulse” page gives a good overview of time logged by day and by project. You can hover over the pie charts for more details. Like time entry, reports can also be run from any page. You can narrow down your data by project or tag, and then download your results as a CSV file for use in your invoicing application. Sometimes it’s the little things that make me smile when using an application, and freckle is full of these surprises. For example, as easy as it is to log time, I do sometimes need to go in and add things at a later date. If I start to enter in my time information and realize that I’m on the wrong date, it doesn’t erase what I’ve entered when I choose another tab to make the correction. A little thing but a nice surprise. Time rounding increments can be set on a per-project basis to reflect the different billing arrangements you might have with individual clients. Once I had settled on a tagging structure which worked for me, freckle just feels “right” to use. I wish there were more integration options but an API is currently in beta so they should be forthcoming. It is already possible to log time along with code commits with the Beanstalk Hosted Subversion service. As of now there isn’t a widget or any other means to log time externally to the application, but as I always have a browser open that hasn’t been a barrier to my adoption. I did suggest the ability to log time via Twitter like I can do with tasks using Toodledo. The quick-fire syntax would suit that well. My big issue with freckle is the cost. For a single user on the $12 per month solo plan I am limited to ten active projects, which just isn’t enough for me. All other plans feature unlimited projects as well as increased users and SSL connection but upgrading to the next tier runs to $24 per month. Perhaps accurate time tracking will help me recover that difference, but as part of the suite of applications that I use to run my business, an updated Freckle plan would be the costliest. I am finding that with clever use of projects and tags I can make the cheaper plan work, but it is less than ideal. There is a free one user/one project plan to use to check things out, and all of the plans offer a 30-day free trial. How are you tracking your time? Would freckle be a good option for you and your team?      |
| Keep Productive Away From Home Posted: 24 Mar 2009 01:00 PM PDT Written by Dawn Foster.  Photo by Tomás Fano Last week, I wrote about dealing with the typical home office distractions like loud neighbors, household chores, family members and more by using a few techniques: music, embracing the chaos, and relocation. This week, I’m dealing with a different type of distraction. While I work out of my home most of the time, as a consultant I occasionally need to travel to client sites. For example I’m spending this week in New Jersey providing training and advice about online communities to a new client. And for me, travel is always accompanied by a different set of distractions. Already, sitting here in my hotel room, I’m struggling to concentrate on blogging. The room is freezing; I’m using my laptop for heat while the room warms up to a civilized temperature. Earlier, I was distracted by the need to head to the lobby for snack food after my healthy dinner salad just wasn’t quite filling my need to munch. I’m also feeling the time pinch. With a day of travel and several days of client meetings, I will still need to find time to keep up with email, other client work, blog posts and more — and somehow get some sleep. I have a few coping strategies. Get ahead on your work before you leave. I spent some time this weekend getting a jump-start on my work, and I also typically try to use the time on the plane to catch up on email or write blog posts. Today I had the best intentions of doing work on the plane, but my need for sleep won out, so here I am writing blog posts in my hotel room. Leave the TV off in the evenings and use the time to work. I’m not a big fan of television, but sometimes I tend to turn it on in hotel rooms even when I don’t really want to watch it. I also find that once I turn it on, it tends to stay on, so the best way for me to focus is to leave it off entirely or at least wait until my work is done. Squeeze in a little extra work whenever you can. You can catch up on email before breakfast, at lunch and during other downtime to avoid at least some overload when you get back to the room for the evening. Have fun and get some exercise! We can’t work really long days without a break if we want to maintain our sanity. Walk to dinner, run the stairs or use the hotel gym facilities to get the blood pumping and reduce that sluggish travel feeling. How do you cope with travel distractions and stay productive during your business travels?      |
| Plan Your Web Working Career Path Posted: 24 Mar 2009 09:00 AM PDT Written by Darrell Etherington.
Chart The question is where to begin, and how to avoid making too many mistakes or following too many false leads along the way. I’m a visual person, so I recommend starting by literally charting your course. You can pick your software of choice, but for me, this is a task that mind-mapping software is nicely suited for, especially since my career path is non-linear. A pen and paper or word processing software could work just as well, depending on your preference. Start with your current state of affairs at the center, then brainstorm a number of possible directions your career could take. You could do this by comparing yourself with others in the field, by taking a survey of existing professional goals you might have, or by asking friends, colleagues and relatives what they imagine in your professional future. This last one can produce some very interesting answers, often those that you would not come up with for yourself. Use your career goals and directions as end- (or mid-) points surrounding your current state. Now comes the fun part, which is figuring out how to get from point A to point B in as few steps as possible. That might mean taking courses, reading books, consulting other professionals, increasing monthly sales output, joining professional organizations, etc. Focus on one goal at a time, and choose them in order of importance. Then, when you’re working out your map, figure out which steps toward it are absolutely necessary, and which are just beneficial. Rank the steps in order of importance once they’re broken down into these two categories. In the interest of not overlooking minor but crucial things like paperwork and application processes, try to be as detailed as possible, including attaching time estimates. Check Once you’ve accomplished a sub-goal, go back and check your career path chart against the results to see if what you’ve achieved actually does further your progress towards your overall objective. If it hasn’t opened up more options or helped in some way, you may want to rethink your overall strategy. Pay attention to your timelines, too, and see if your estimates are accurately reflecting your experience. Choose Of course, all the mind maps in the world won’t make the big choices for you. For that, you need the experience of your peers. Identify people who are currently in the places and professions that you’d like to be. If possible, try to find out how they got there by charting their career trajectory. Luckily, the web working space isn’t a brave new frontier any longer, so you don’t have to fumble around in the dark on your own. Other people have made mistakes for you, and there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of that. Always remember, though, one of the big advantages of being a full-time web worker is that you don’t have to follow someone else’s prescribed idea of how you should grow professionally. Even if you do use someone else’s experience as a model, make it your own as well. The Internet, after all, has no use for hundreds of Robert Scobles. How are you managing your career path?      |
| Say Hello to Blellow, Microblogging Web Workers Posted: 24 Mar 2009 07:00 AM PDT Written by Eric Berlin.
It turns out that Blellow is more than just a name. In fact, it’s an ambitious microblogging platform geared toward the web working and networking set. Note that I used “networking” without the commonly tacked-on “social” in front of it. Blellow is looking to become the LinkedIn of microblogging platforms, as opposed to the more chit-chatty, freewheeling space (crammed into 140-character or less bursts) that Twitter currently occupies. The idea is that while Twitter and Facebook are now relatively “mainstream” places to keep up with current friends and ruminate about thoughts both big and small, Blellow offers a platform for microblogging professionals and web workers to coordinate meetups, find jobs, seek out projects and engage in professional conversations through the “groups” areas of the site. One of the first things you’ll notice after you register and login to Blellow is that it feels different than most microblogging sites. There’s a torrent of statistics and communications management tools on the left column, including detailed stats that run down the number of friends, followers, “@” replies and “kudos” you’ve received (which may seem familiar to those of you who spend time using MySpace blogs) as well as data on public and private groups. With regard to kudos, Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable points out that, “Kudos are like credibility, so each time you receive kudos for a job well done, you'll rank higher in Blellow search results, which could expose you to new clients and more work opportunities.” Like Yammer, Blellow asks the simple question: “What are you working on?” In response to that question, Blellow allows you to enter up to 300 characters, which may be a more comfortable space to get a fully-formed thought in, as opposed to the 140-character limit that Twitter famously imposes. Blellow handles public groups in kind of a nifty way. While Twitter uses the hashtag (#) convention to allow Twitter search and other third-party services to track topics, Blellow uses the percent sign (%) for tracking group conversations. For example, Apple Love (”A group for the discussion of Mac OS X, Apple Desktop & Laptops, and of course, the iPhone”), is set up with “%apple” in the post entry field when you visit the group’s page. That means posts entered from the Apple Love group, as well as anywhere else on Blellow in which “%apple” is used, will be aggregated into the group’s stream. This is a smart way, in my view, to allow for the organic creation of mini-communities within the larger Blellow platform. The challenge with any new social site, of course, that offers many features is to get people to use them and to avoid the dreaded “ghost town effect” in which things look a bit tumble weed-y. Private groups is an area that Blellow is looking to monetize, charging $5 per month for a private group with up to 1GB of storage, or $10 per month for 10 GBs. If Blellow can make headway in signing up groups in any numbers, look for other microblogging sites to follow this model. That said, because strong private group experiences already exist for free in other products like FriendFeed Rooms, it’s likely it will be hard to get many to cough up cash for a private group, at least initially. The way in which the Jobs section is set up reveals much about who Blellow is targeting, namely web workers and creative professionals. With a default setting of All, there are currently filters for Design, Development, Writing and Other. The Projects section, an entirely separate area found on Blellow’s top navigation menu, again focuses on web workers looking to make some extra money or to engage in a resume-building project of some sort. Examples of projects – which may be toggled between Paid and Pro Bono – include designing a business web site, building a Facebook app and writing a web site review. Would you consider using Blellow for business networking or for finding work?      |
If you constantly find yourself flicking between clients and browser windows for the different social networking apps that you use, you might like to try 
If you’ve taken to full-time web working as your sole source of income, one of the challenges you may have already encountered is that there is no clear or pre-determined career path to follow. In other words, it can be hard to see the next rung on the ladder, or if one even exists. There are no road maps, and it’s completely up to you how to progress professionally. It is possible (and maybe inevitable) to take steps that appear helpful at first, but that won’t lead to anything in the long run. Here’s how I plan my career path.
As I was leaving a bar late one night while at 
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