So why do I LOVE Digsby?

So why do I LOVE Digsby?

1) Multi-Protocol IM: Do you have friends, family, co-workers and contacts using multiple IM clients like AIM/AOL, YIM/Yahoo, MSN/Windows Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook Chat, Myspace Chat and/or Jabber? Do YOU use more than one client of those IM networks to communicate? What if you could combine the same person that uses more than one service (say YIM or AIM and Facebook) into one contact listing?

2) Social Networking: Do you use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or LinkedIn? Do you like to stay on top of notifications and feeds (and only those you select) and be able to respond or post easily?

3) Email: Do you use another client (like Outlook or Thunderbird) to notify you of new email messages or like being able to delete, mark as read or mark as spam on the fly? Would it be nice to compose an email straight from an IM message window? Would you like to be notified of emails from free services (like Yahoo! & AOL) that won’t link with your PIM client unless you pay for their premium service?

4) Search: Do you like to search on Google, Wikipedia, Bing, eBay, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, OneRiot or Technorati quickly and easily?

5) Interface: Do you like an IM client than you can change the skin on, the look of the IM windows, customize notifications, enable to auto-dock and auto-hide?

6) Twitter: Are you interested in a kick-ass Twitter client or currently use an external client for Twitter? Would you like your Tweets to be in chronological (rather than reverse) order to make them easier to follow? Would you also like to create Twitter “groups” to organize those that you follow like you have with the “lists” feature on the Twitter website? Would you like an auto-suggest/auto-fill feature when attempting to tweet someone you are following, but can’t quite recall their exact user name?

7) Status Updates: Would you like to be able to set your status across multiple Social Networks and/or IM Client Networks from one place?

Three important caveats to using Digsby:

1) If you are on an Apple/Mac, Linux/Ubuntu or any NON-Windows PC then Digsby is, as of yet, unavailable. Other excellent options include Trillian, Pidgin/Adium or simply web-based Meebo or mobile-based Nimbuzz.

2) If you use IRC a lot then Digsby also, as of yet, does not support that protocol. Again try Trillian or Pidgin/Adium… both excellent choices.

3) If you are on Windows, don’t use or care about IRC and are interested in installing Digsby be VERY careful upon installation to check and untick any options Digsby might attempt to install toolbars, spyware, “news feeds” or idle bandwidth for SETI projects if you don’t want them. Sadly this is one of their ways of funding the software.

http://www.digsby.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16grAzndW9w

TOP FINANCIAL WEBSITES

The Following Sites are More Academic and Less Media:

1) https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

2) http://www.bankrate.com/

3) http://www.cardratings.com/

4) http://www.choosetosave.org/

5) http://www.federalreserveeducation.org

6) http://www.investopedia.com/

7) http://www.irs.gov/

8) http://www.lendingtree.com/

9) http://www.savingforcollege.com/

10) http://www.socialsecurity.gov/



Very good site for financial management: http://www.mint.com/



The Following Sites Are More Media, But Still Useful:

1) http://www.pbs.org/nbr/

2) http://www.suzeorman.com/

3) http://www.daveramsey.com/

4) http://www.morningstar.com/

5) http://www.smartmoney.com/

6) http://www.kiplinger.com/

7) http://money.cnn.com/

8) http://www.marketwatch.com/

9) http://www.businessweek.com/

10) http://www.ft.com/home/us

I avoided mentioning the Wall Street Journal directly as they have recently migrated to a pay only site.

From Dave Ramsey's Website: "Start a Legacy Drawer"

Part three in our series of getting your life organized is about the Legacy Drawer. If you've listened to Dave for any amount of time, you've heard him talk about the Legacy Drawer. So what is it? Basically, it's a drawer that houses all of the important information your family needs in case something happens to you. Preparing for when you are no longer here is not a fun task, but it's crucial to do this for your family.

Every household needs a Legacy Drawer. It doesn't matter if you're single with no kids or 76 and have 12 grandkids—you need a Legacy Drawer. It's the last gift you will give your family, so make it a good one. If you truly care about your loved ones, you will take the time to create a Legacy Drawer.

The drawer should be somewhere in your home and contain everything your spouse or family needs to know if you aren't around—anything that has to do with your financial life should be in that drawer. You must organize it in a way that anyone can find a specific document in 30 seconds. All files should be clearly marked, in order, and easy for a grieving family member to find. There's no need to go into extreme detail when creating your Legacy Drawer. Simply include the appropriate documents in an easy-to-understand format, and you're good to go!

We recommend that your Legacy Drawer contain 11 things. Although it may seem daunting to gather all of this material together, you will be happy you did once the Legacy Drawer is created:

1. Cover Letter. This is simply a letter stating the purpose of the Legacy Drawer. Nothing fancy, just a way to introduce your loved ones to the contents of the drawer.


2. Will & Estate Plans. All information pertaining to your will and estate, including names of the executor and Power of Attorney should be located in one file.


3. Financial Accounts. Anything that has money in it and your name on it should be listed in the Legacy Drawer. This includes account names, amount and account numbers.


4. Funeral Instructions. All details and specifications for funeral plans should be listed so the family can fulfill your wishes. If you are married, you need one for you and one for your spouse.


5. Insurance Policies. All insurance information, including health, car, disability, term life, etc., should be combined into one single document for easy reference. List the type of insurance, who the policy is for, contact information and policy numbers.


6. Important Documents. Any legal or other important documents you have should be noted in the file. This includes deeds, birth certificates, Social Security cards and titles.


7. Legacy Letters. Since the intention behind the Legacy Drawer is to keep your legacy going after you've passed away, it's a great idea to include letters to your loved ones.


8. Monthly Budget. Add a copy of your written budget, so your spouse or loved ones know how to operate your household once you're gone. This will help your family keep track of bills and focus on more important things.


9. Tax Returns. Keeping tax returns in your Legacy Drawer is like an insurance policy for yourself in the event that you get audited from the IRS. Hopefully you never have to pull them out, but if you do, at least you are prepared.


10. Safe Deposit Box. Keep copies of all your Legacy Drawer papers in a safe deposit box—you can never be too careful. Include information in your Legacy Drawer on where your safe deposit box is and who has access to it.


11. Passwords. Write down all passwords, combinations, usernames and PIN numbers. This information allows your loved ones access to any documents, money or information that is left when you are gone.

If you put your mind to it, you can create your Legacy Drawer in 30 days! It's tedious to gather all of the documents and paperwork that goes into the drawer, but it's a necessary task in order to protect you and your family.

My Dewey Color System® Career Testing Results

Best Occupational Category: You're a CREATOR

Keywords:
Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

CREATOR OCCUPATIONS:
Suggested careers are Advertising Executive, Architect, Web Designer, Creative Director, Public Relations, Fine or Commercial Artist, Interior Decorator, Lawyer, Librarian, Musician, Reporter, Art Teacher, Broadcaster, Technical Writer, English Teacher, Architect, Photographer, Medical Illustrator, Corporate Trainer, Author, Editor, Landscape Architect, Exhibit Builder, and Package Designer.

CREATOR WORKPLACES
Consider workplaces where you can create and improve beauty and aesthetic qualities. Unstructured, flexible organizations that allow self-expression work best with your free-spirited nature.

Suggested Creator workplaces are advertising, public relations, and interior decorating firms; artistic studios, theaters and concert halls; institutions that teach crafts, universities, music, and dance schools. Other workplaces to consider are art institutes, museums, libraries, and galleries.


2nd Best Occupational Category: You're an ORGANIZER

Keywords:
Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate

These conservative appearing, plotting-types enjoy organizing, data systems, accounting, detail, and accuracy. They often enjoy mathematics and data management activities such as accounting and investment management. Persistence and patience allows them to do detailed paperwork, operate office machines, write business reports, and make charts and graphs.

Top 5 Firefox Add-Ons

I usually try to keep my Firefox add-ons (extensions) to a minimum few that I truly value and use on a regular basis. If there is one or two that I love but rarely use then I might add it but keep it "disabled" until I find that rare time I need it, which also requires a restart of the browser. By limiting them and not getting gluttonous I can avoid causing Firefox to become far more bloated, sluggish and unstable. One of the reasons other browsers 'appear' to be faster is the lack of add-ons/themes, few if any customizations and the fact that nearly all of them (except Firefox) pre-launch in the background with Windows. Don't believe me? If you have multiple browsers then restart Windows and check your task manager... or better yet check start up services under msconfig.exe

Having said all of that, my top 5 Firefox add-ons are:

1) Ad Block: Does exactly what you think. Often blocks flash and java based video ads as well. More to the point it blocks all the ads flooding a webpage like landmines to accidentally click. Best of all is the speed you will enjoy while using it. I often never realize just how many ads there are on a website until I use another browser.

2) Flash Block: Same principle as above, but for Flash - which is Adobe's memory hog of a internet monopoly (not unlike it's equally piggish and domineering sibling .pdf) I seriously cannot wait for HTML5 to arrive soon enough so we can all put Flash behind us. It prevents all of those animated ads and videos (including on YouTube and MySpace) from auto-launching until you tell it to.

3) Bookmark Autohider: This cool Firefox 3.6 add-on auto-hides your bookmark toolbar. It is also customizable! All you have to do is draw your cursor up to the URL field and then it appears for as long as you have dictated it to. Then it goes away. Too cool. I used to have a userchrome hack to do this, but it never worked perfectly and could not be so easily customized.

4) Coral IE Tab: There are some web pages that just haven't been designed to function outside of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Now no webpage is off limits and no need to switch browsers... with one exception still - Windows Update (of course). You can, however, also launch said page externally in IE itself with one click as well. It has icons available for the "Tools" menu, the navigation bar, the status bar and the 'right click' context menu.

5) Easy YouTube Video Downloader: If you just absolutely MUST save that video you found on YouTube to keep for posterity, this is your add-on.

Now there are many other add-ons I have tried. Some are no longer necessary when the function was added into Firefox (PDF Tab), some were crap (too many to mention), some are no longer supported or updated for Firefox 3.6 One of my other favourites was Answers... as in Answers.com I don't mean the search engine field plug-in, but an actual extension that enabled you to highlight and click on any word/phrase on any page and use the context menu to look it up on Answers.com - which would provide you with dictionary definitions, a thesaurus, Wikipedia listings, translations, search engine results, conversions... BRILLIANT! Sadly it hasn't been updated for 3.6 The best thing about was I could leave my search engine set for Google AND have the add-on for Answers - both accessible via the same context menu!


Lastly... themes. My favourite theme/skin that I have ever used (and still do) is "Noia 2.0 eXtreme" I used to use the Oulook 2003 Blue Skin and Bartoccelli's Silver Skin, and liked them both before they became out of date and unsupported for Firefox 2.0 and 3.0, respectively. Then I found Noia 2.0 eXtreme which has the silvery greyness of the toolbars and colourful icons that Silver Skin did (plus dynamic)... and most surprising of all is how many additional icons/links I can have on the bookmarks toolbar (or even the main/file/nav toolbar) vs. other themes - including supposed "mini-themes". Yet this one looks as big as any normal theme. Kudos to Kongbeat Kuatrakull! :-)

[UPDATE to my IM blogs with Nimbuzz included]

I have just discovered yet another multi-protocol IM client that features something none of the others do: Nimbuzz http://www.nimbuzz.com

As I mentioned in my previous blogs I have used Trillian, Pidgin, Digsby, Meebo, VoxOx and now Nimbuzz (in addition to single clients like AOL/AIM, Yahoo IM/YIM, MSN/Windows Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, IRC, MySpace IM, Facebook IM, et.al.) When using one of the multi-protocol clients, including Meebo, there is always an issue with mobile phones. The networks block or restrict it's usage assumedly to encourage the $$$ spent on SMS per-text charges, apps or bucket plans. Nimbuzz is the FIRST multi-protocol client (and I think the first IM client period) to get around this, at least for now. So here are my latest recommendations when choosing a client (unless ALL of your friends, family and varied contacts just happen to be on the SAME, single network - like AIM, YIM, MSN or GoogleTalk):

1) Pidgin (Windows)/Adium (Mac) for cross platform, open source and the nearly ALL the networks aggregated into the same client.

2) Digsby for the primary networks with email/webmail (POP, IMAP, AOL, Yahoo, Google) and social network integration (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) - but it's still only available for Windows.

3) Meebo for multi-integrated IM via a web browser when you are on a computer that's isn't your own (work, library, friends/family, etc.)

4) Nimbuzz for multi-integrated IM via a mobile device.

First Impressions of the Apple "iPad"

OK - so the Apple iPad could have been a break-thru device if it wasn't for some glaring flaws and omissions to it's design. I envisioned it as being a device that could replace the netbook or even the laptop when one was in the market for a new one, so long as said person was willing to make that evolutionary leap into 100% cloud computing. But sadly, no dice Apple:

1) No camera?

2) No multi-tasking?!?

3) STILL no Flash support?

4) 4:3 display?

5) I can understand no optical drive today, but no ports to speak of? No MicroSD card slot? No USB or IEEE port? No ethernet? No HDMI out? NOTHING AT ALL?!?

6) That stupid name. Do you have NO women in R&D/marketing/design at Apple?!?

7) What if you aren't near WiFi or have access to 3G in your area for some *ahem* reason? No connectivity would make this device completely and utterly useless - and not useless in a Netbook way, but 100% useless... speaking of WiFi and 3G (which isn't REAL broadband anyway, by the way) that brings us to:

8) AT&T again Apple?!? Have you learned nothing from the iPhone partnership?