Project OrielEmbracing Change

Here’s some links for your Friday – enjoy!

* Google is a dictionary – use the keyword define, with a search like “define: casement window” http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+casement+window&btnG=Search Good for new words, cultural words, industry-specific words, etc.
* Ever have a long url to send to someone, that wraps in the email and won’t work for the recipient? http://tinyurl.com will create a short url for any web page you like. For example, http://tinyurl.com/2qabdz is one I created for the Google dictionary link.
* The consumer version of Windows Vista is available for purchase next Tuesday. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ If you are eager to buy, there are a number of different editions to choose between including “starter”, “home basic”, “home premium”, “business”, “enterprise”, and “ultimate”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista#Editions_and_pricing

It is Friday again and per Wayne, I’d like to welcome manufacturing to the list: David, David, Gayle, Craig, and Toni. Welcome!

* Renewal Colorado web site: http://www.loveyourwindows.com/ Of note: they send out a free eNewsletter, have a live “speak now” feature (immediate call-back strategy).
* Have you heard about “RSS” and seen web sites that offer it? Think of RSS like email, except that you get posts/articles instead of messages, and they come from web sites instead of people. Similar to email there are desktop clients and web clients. My favorite is from Google @ http://reader.google.com/ and I use it to keep up with about 30 web sites each day without wasting the time to visit each individual site.
* It may seem obvious that a 17″ computer screen leads to more productivity than, say a 9″ computer screen – but did you know that the productivity continues to scale for normal office work even up to a 30″ computer screen? Here is a report done in 2005 that shows ROI on a 30″ screen happens in less than 6 months. [PDF] http://images.apple.com/pro/pdf/Cin_Disp30_report.pdf

Friday is here, and a few links you may find interesting:

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* Apple’s new iPhone / iPod made big news this week, so I’d be remiss not to mention it! Apple added a couple features to the cell phone, removed a lot of buttons, but mostly they showed their expertise in building an interface that is intuitive and friendly. Available in June. There are some great demos of it in action on their web site http://www.apple.com/iphone/
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Friday links – enjoy!

* Wayne’s website, Portico Solutions. http://www.porticoinc.net/ Wayne says “I have links to a number of CRM resource centers. It hasn’t been updated for a while so some maybe dead but though it maybe helpful for the team.” Click on Tools and Resources, then Informational Sites.
* An umbrella that knows when it is going to rain: [PDF] http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/umbrella/ambientumbrella.pdf
* “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery I found the quote while reading http://tinyurl.com/ymc89w This is a developer/designer’s discussion about how a particular web form became designed the way it is. I found it very interesting to see the different iterations, and why parts of each were accepted or rejected to further refine the usability of the form.