If you’re somehow a web worker like me – would be on the constant search for good, free software applications and utilities – which can help you improve.

The web is booming with software – ready for download, some good and some reeeeeaaaally bad  
With this little posting – I will round up the places, where I search for software and utils there are plenty more, let me know with – feedback to my post / comments and enlighten me.

SourceForge.net. The one and only Source Forge is the place to go. The home of all software (Open Source) that moves, and the software we need to succeed. If you can’t find it here, well – then its going to be a hard search. 
Categories, excellent search function and a match not seen anywhere else, Chance to see the activities within the individual projects and a place to find the solution – no matter what or which platform you are looking for.

TinyApps.org. Well, just a little bunch of surprises here. The site is clear (call it minimalistic) but certainly a place to find the little neat thing that can help you once in a while.

There are many other, let me have you feedback.

There are times when all we need to do is to drop in the words – Really crank out the text. (For me, that’s most of the day.) We don’t need distractions and we don’t need a bloated, high maintenance and expensive word processor with way too many features and way too slow a load time (I’m looking at you, Microsoft Word).

What we need is a minimalist, distraction-free word processor — and being the cheapskates that we are, we want it free.

Luckily, there are a number of alternatives. I personally two of these, depending on where I am and what I need to do and I have tried a few others, but always returning back to the safe bets. They do what you need to do — just write — and they do it well. If you don’t need a million features and don’t want to shell out a fortune write something, give one of these great alternatives a spin.

• Google Docs – a popular online word processor offered by Google, Docs (formerly known as Writely) doesn’t offer the full features of Microsoft Word, but it is quick and easy and can be accessed from anywhere. The choice of many web workers. And with the added excel and share-point like functionality – I can work in teams with friends and colleagues.
• AbiWord – everyone’s favorite cross-platform, open-source minimalist word processor, AbiWord is a desktop app but launches and runs so much faster than apps like Microsoft Word or Open Office. It’s light, but it does have most of the commonly used features of the bigger desktop word processors.

Havent we all been in this situation before. The new staff member, the one we really did expect a lot from, has just resigned – just after 6 months in the saddle?

What can we do to avoid this? Here is a Company who has taken a different and rather bold path, but i am sure this is a way towards succes.

Based on John McKees list of the most undesirable working habits, I would like to add my own comments.

1. Please avoid staying up to date – this is the sure way to be “out of touch” with both colleagues and partners. Sure, it’s always a pleasure for a colleague to help each other, but at the end of the day – if you bring nothing to the table, why are you taking up the space?
2. Do not provide any results (or expected results). It is not enough to be available; sometime the goal in a boring match is all that matters.
3. Be impersonal – stay at your desk. The one who doesn’t get around in the organization is not visible and not the person who will be approached, once the shit hits the fan. And remember, if not visible – how to be included in the important decisions.
4. I am impossible to replace … Duh… What do you leave behind in a glass of water, when you remove your finger.. Nothing…
5. I know everything about this job. (See #1). A true winner spends most his time tracing down the next opportunity for success.
6. I have my friends here (Support Group). Well, if you are not being challenged – you are not in the loop. A true winner (and a winning team) will always challenge each other, for the next success. It’s like a drug 
7. Accept all credit – even when it’s not earned. Do remember that sharing credit is to share responsibility. It your team members also feel that credit was given to them, they also “own the job” and will raise to the occasion and give a second success.
8. Marketing – Well, availability. Show that you are there, and make sure that you are visible. Don’t brag – but do show that most jobs (relevant or not) is something that you are no stranger to and someone who is not afraid of a new challenges.
9. Ask for help; involve your colleagues. Search for advice, feedback in process or before delivery, a second opinion should always be welcome, and does provide you with the opportunity to create an alliance with a colleague or a new friend.
10. Set ambitions – make a plan… If not, how do you know your targets and where to go.

If you are like me, unning around offices and doing different tasks for different clients, the you should try Portableapps. The idea is using common applications like Firefox, ftp, documents, and others -  have been changed so that they will run of a USB Keyring, preserving settings, cookies, logins, everything.

This in itself is cool, and i find it a life saver during my daily work. Once you get used to running applications from USB, setting up short cuts etc, it is just like normal computing.

What to use….

I haven’t tried them all, but the ones I have ill say what I think in a one liner:

* Portable Firefox – Can you argue against this one.
* Portable Filezilla – If you need a FTP client I think this is .
* Pidgen, well messengers are everything.
* Openoffice, well why not

The future is portable

Surely this has to be the way forward in computing. Small USB/Card based operating systems that can be inserted and run on any/many systems. When my settings from my PC are carried over to different devices, that has to be the near future. Even with the network’ed computer – there is something very intuitively comfortable about “to have and to hold”.

Read this article online for quite some time ago.

This article does provide me with a long list of excellent suggestions and something to think about in regards to getting control of your email: pick and choose the techniques that work for you, and you can make a dramatic impact on that junk heap of an inbox.

Please find this article on the web. It may be long, it may be difficuelt to read – but it surely makes sense.

30. To motivate, you have to empower. Motivation involves not only being enthusiastic and pumped up about approaching the task, but also involves being equipped with the tools and the ability to complete the assignment. When you delegate an assignment, convey to the team member that it is now THEIR exclusive responsibility that the job gets done. If it doesn’t, they will be held accountable.

Are you doing your backup’ing regularly. If not, then proceed and get into Mozy Backup Services for your desktop computer.

Its easy, simple to setup and something that’s free of charge (for the first 2GB) and just compare this to the price of you loosing all your data. This is the most amazing service i have been using (now for more than 12 months). IT’S FREE – WHAT CAN YOU LOOSE ??

And yes, the service is also for MAC – it doesn’t come with add’s and once you get addicted, there is a way to get all data – not just the 2GB safe  in their hands – since how many of us does take our backup offiste. What would happen if that  external harddrive are gone – what are you going to do ?

This is surely off-topic; but i do encourage you to visit the website: http://www.thehumorarchives.com/

Customer: “I got this problem. You people sent me this install disk, and now my A: drive won’t work.”
Tech Support: “Your A drive won’t work?”
Customer: “That’s what I said. You sent me a bad disk, it got stuck in my drive, now it won’t work at all.”
Tech Support: “Did it not install properly? What kind of error messages did you get?”
Customer: “I didn’t get any error message. The disk got stuck in the drive and wouldn’t come out. So I got these pliers and tried to get it out. That didn’t work either.”
Tech Support: “You did what sir?”
Customer: “I got these pliers, and tried to get the disk out, but it wouldn’t budge. I just ended up cracking the plastic stuff a bit.”
Tech Support: “I don’t understand sir, did you push the eject button?”
Customer: “No, so then I got a stick of butter and melted it and used a turkey baster and put the butter in the drive, around the disk, and that got it loose. Then I used the pliers and it came out fine. I can’t believe you would send me a disk that was broken and defective.”
Tech Support: “Let me get this clear. You put melted butter in your A: drive and used pliers to pull the disk out?” At this point, I put the call on the speaker phone and motioned at the other techs to listen in.
Tech Support: “Just so I am absolutely clear on this, can you repeat what you just said?”
Customer: “I said I put butter in my A: drive to get your crappy disk out, then I had to use pliers to pull it out.”
Tech Support: “Did you push that little button that was sticking out when the disk was in the drive, you know, the thing called the disk eject button?”

Silence.

Tech Support: “Sir?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Tech Support: “Sir, did you push the eject button?”
Customer: “No, but you people are going to fix my computer, or I am going to sue you for breaking my computer!”
Tech Support: “Let me get this straight. You are going to sue our company because you put the disk in the A: drive, didn’t follow the instructions we sent you, didn’t actually seek professional advice, didn’t consult your user’s manual on how to use your computer properly, instead proceeding to pour butter into the drive and physically rip the disk out?”
Customer: “Ummmm.”
Tech Support: “Do you really think you stand a chance, since we do record every call and have it on tape?”
Customer: (now rather humbled) “But you’re supposed to help!”
Tech Support: “I am sorry sir, but there is nothing we can do for you. Have a nice day.”

Just wanted you all to remember, that one very powerfull solution (SME Server) is out there, and its quite easy to install.

There is a review and a how-to placed here – Do try it out, It most likely will surprise you.

This tutorial shows how to set up a fileserver for small and medium enterprises with SME Server 7.1.

SME Server is an open-source Linux server distribution (released under the GPL) based on CentOS that can turn a computer into a gateway, firewall, fileserver, printserver, mailserver (including webmail), etc. In this article we will focus on the fileserver aspect of SME Server.