Technically speaking…

Some users will go just about anywhere the big blue e will take them.  They do not think about the consequences of their travels as they use the Internet and, until confronted by someone with concerns about browsing, they will likely continue to surf to their hearts content.

Many organizations implement web filtering applications such as websense or other solutions to display a pleasant reminder that the site being visited is blocked, others simply cut the surfer off at the knees by crippling the Internet connectivity of a logon account or a workstation.  These methods are both effective and can work depending on the situation and amount of restriction needed, however most employees today understand that certain things are not work appropriate or (NSFW) and will not violate these policies.

Some other users might think since the company  isn’t watching them every step of the way that they are free to do whatever they choose.

IT Administrators can employ many a monitoring applications to track every click, or just log websites.  One such utility is IEHistory View.  TechRepublic’s Bill Detweiller outlines this tool and its usage in a video post for IT Dojo.  Click here to watch

For those of you who are fans of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the next release will be made available on Tuesday June 17th 2008.

Version 3 has many enhancements in speed and ease of use over the current version and will integrate the functionality of many popular plug-ins directly into the browser.

Some of the features include:

• One click bookmarking
• Improved Security
• Lightning fast performance
• Built in Spell Check
• Zoom
• Phishing and Malware protection
• 5,000 Add ons and counting

That is not all however, Mozilla is aiming to set a Guinness World Record for most downloads in a 24 hour period.  On the 17th of June, you can participate in Download Day by simply downloading the latest full release (no upgrades will be counted).  To see more about the world record attempt click here.

As we have seen in previous posts Remember the Milk has reinvented task management. In previous posts I have gone through an overview of the service and taken an in depth look at a few of the features available. In this post I want to visit the topic of task notes used with RTM.

When a task is added to Remember the Milk, the user is able to specify a location, a due date, repetition, and tags associated with the task. Sometimes a task may need some more information. This is where notes come into play.

Each task entered into Remember the Milk can have its own notes. The number of notes is unlimited, however I recommend keeping this to a manageable level, three notes is the most I have found useful. An example of a task where notes could be very useful is a task such as get groceries. If a task is added for get groceries, a note (or multiple notes) can be added to provide a list of the items that are needed… milk, cereal, and other things.

Rather than adding a single task for each item that is needed at the store a note showing these items might work a little better and keep the task list clear for the items that fit best there.

Let’s get started on going through the notes process with Remember the Milk.  To add notes to a task in RTM, you must first create a (or select an existing) task to which you can add notes. Task Creation is covered in this post. To select an existing task, simply check the box next to that task in the list of avaialble tasks in RTM.

Once you have your noteworthy tasks checked and are all ready to go, look up the page at the top right of the screen, where the task details are listed.

Figure 2

With the task selected, click the Notes tab also shown above. You can add as many notes as you need to a particular task. Simply click the add notes link on the notes tab to add a new note.

Once you click the Add note link, another box will appear for you to enter the text of your note and click OK to save the note you entered. The note count is then incremented to keep track of all of the notes you have added.

To edit a note that you have entered already, click the edit link listed next to the note title on the notes tab. The Note add and Note edit dialogs look similar, below is the edit view for an existing note.

The image above shows the note text box and the edit link. The note editing text box will be the same for adding and editing notes.

Once you have finished entering the information for a particular note, click save to append the note to a task.

That is all there is to the creation of task notes in Remember the Milk. The process is very simple and could help creates fewer, more useful tasks.

Remember the Milk allows users to share tasks with other users. To get this working, you will need to add contacts within RTM. If these individuals are not Remember the Milk users, you can invite them to sign up when adding them as a contact by entering their email address.

To get started with contacts, click the contacts link at the top of the page.

On the contacts page, you will see a list of the contacts you have added to your RTM account.  If there aren’t any yet, don’t worry you can add them by following the steps below:

1. Click the Add Contact link at the top right of the page
2. Enter the RTM user name of the person you wish to add or their e-mail address if they aren’t an RTM user yet.
3. Tab off of the entry field

This will add the individual if they are already a Remember the Milk user.  If not, you will be asked if you would like to add them at the top of the page.  The message looks similar to the one shown below:

Clicking the lined would you like to invite then? will display the invite tab (which can also be clicked from the Contacts page).

To invite a new user/contact to Remember the Milk simply complete the form displayed on the Invite tab and click send.  This will email the person you entered and provide them an easy way to join Remember the Milk.  Once they do, they will be added as a contact and you can begin sharing tasks with them.

You probably noticed that the above image displays a groups tab as well.  This is for organizing your contacts, making it easier to share a task with multiple contacts.

To create a group select the groups tab from the contacts page and click the add group link and enter a name for your group.

Now that you have created a group, you will need to add contacts to the group to make it useful.  Select the Contacts tab to see the list of available contacts.  Once you have selected all of the contacts you wish to add to a group click the More Actions drop down and select Add to “Group Name” group.

Removing contacts from a group uses a similar method, selecting the contacts to be removed and choosing Remove from “Group name” Group.

To share a task with a contact or group, complete the following:

1. select the tasks link at the top of the page to return to your task list.

2. Select the list containing the task you wish to share

3. Select the task to share by checking the box to the left of the task (you can select multiple tasks)

4. Click the More Actions drop down box

5. Select Share with…

Once you select Share with, you will be taken to your contacts list.  At the top of the page a message will be displayed asking you to confirm sharing of the task.

The share button on the message will appear dim until you check one or more contacts or groups to select them.  Once this is done, the button will become clickable and turn blue.  Click the share button to share the task with the selected contacts or groups.

Contacts provide an easy way to share tasks with single users or groups of users.  Sharing tasks can ensure that all parties involved can see the same information about the task.  This also saves time when entering a task because it only needs to be entered once.

After a task is shared, the options tab for the task will display the users or groups that the selected task is shared with.

Hopefully you will invite friends and co-workers to give Remember the Milk a try.

Next up a quick look back at task notes.

Last time I posted about Remember the Milk and some of the features the online task machine has to offer. Today I want to look a little further into some of the other things that RTM can do, properties of a task and maybe some of the services that Remember the Milk can interact with.

Location Location Location

Sometimes a task needs to happen at a specific location, other times the location might be used to denote tasks in your home town but not at home. You can create locations for tasks in Remember the Milk using Google Maps functionality that is built into the application.

Note: Locations must be created before they can be assigned to tasks

To create a location Click the locations link at the top of the page (shown below)

Once the locations view is displayed a Google Map is displayed. If locations have been added, the map will be centered around those locations. To add a new location complete the following steps:

Simply enter the address into the text field above the map and click Go

This will place the desired location on the map and center it in the view.

Click on the flag displayed on the map. This will pop up a save location box. In the box enter the name of the location and click Save. You will then be able to assign this location to the tasks you create.

To assign the location to a task select the check box next to the task you wish to edit. This will pull up the properties for the task on the right of the page:

In the selected tasks properties pane, click the globe next to the heading Location. Then you can begin typing the name of the location you want to assign to this task. Locations you have stored in RTM will be available for assignment. Also, when a task with a location is selected, the user can click on the link for the location to pull up a map showing the selected location.

Next up - Contacts.

For doing something many users have been hoping they would see for the last couple releases of Office.

PDF support .                                                                                                  

Microsoft has included Export to PDF functionality in the beta releases of Office 2007. They have also been in talks with PDF creator Adobe about how they could get this done.

Apparently Adobe is not happy with the fact that Microsoft wants to trim some of the bloat out of the add-in and limit its features.

This is a rediculous argument. A properly configured installation of PHP on the web can create PDF documents from virtually anything you can save in Office. Also… there are a number of open source PDF writers out there that do the same thing as the MS Office addin functionality would do, enable me to not buy Acrobat.

Open Office supports this functionality (or did in the last release I downloaded) so what is the big deal… Money.

Adobe wants Redmond to raise the cost of Office to include the feature or charge for an addin… that doesnt make sense, because all you have to do is look for it and there will be a Free PDF application that you can use from any other software including MS Office.

Why not give the users of all of your products a little help (regardless what other applications they use)?

Adobe is looking to take Anti-Trust action agains Microsoft in Europe… apparently somethings might not wash here so they goto Europe to kick Microsoft in the knees?

I am not saying Microsoft is always right, but they are trying to provide a service that will likely bring benefit to both companies, not to mention a host of Users worldwide.

I was recently invited to participate in a beta for FareCast. This site predicts the cost of airfare to certain cities based on current prices, past prices and forecasts the likelihood of the price going in any certain direction or maintaining constant.

The idea is to help you find the best time to purchase your tickets, not just the best time to travel.

From the little bit of browsing I have done this service looks to be a great way to look for airline tickets.

You enter the city you are leaving from and the destination along with the number of travelers and the length of your stay, then farecast goes to work to make recommendations as to when you might buy your tickets. It also provides links to multiple airline websites. When you click to purchase the tickets, you are directed to the airlines website to do so.

The site is in private beta right now and has limitations in features. I did find a graphic showing a bit about what the results look like, and have posted it below:

I am very excited about this service for booking or planning vacations in advance. Those who travel alot on business or personal trips could gain quite alot from a service like this.