With this tool, you can simply send a message to a twitter account and it will post an appointment on your Google Calendar.

I have Outlook syncing with my Google Calendar. I have an iPhone that is linked to my Outlook. So from any calendar or from Twitter I can set appointments.

First, you sign up for a twittercal account. (Actually, you are creating a link between your twitter account and gmail account.)

You then follow gcal (a twitter user), and from then on you send your appointments via a twitter post such as:

“d gcal Appointment with Sophia at 7pm tomorrow”

d stands for a direct message, gcal is the user you are sending the message to, and finally the appointment description and time.

Within a minute or so, it automagically appears in your Google Calendar.

Give it a try!

Microsoft sees end of Windows era
Midori aims to uncouple its software from the hardware it runs on
Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft’s older programs.
It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.
It is seen as Microsoft’s answer to rivals’ use of “virtualisation” as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing.
Read the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7540282.stm

You can read more here: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html

I know that was a mouthful, but perhaps this video will explain it better:

http://www.salesforce.com/servicecloud/

Give it a try, by clicking on the login link on the sidebar. Then drop us a note. http://www.chrisshaul.com

They are now looking at adding issue management through Salesforce.com’s Case functionality and using the force.com platform to develop a timesheet and expense tracking system.

All of this is done “in the cloud”. What is Cloud Computing? This video will help explain it.

This past week, I was in the Bay Area on Business. Watching the local news, within the same broadcast, they were talking about Virgin Megastores closing in San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper struggling to stay alive. I couldn’t help but think about these are signs of not only a recession, but the final death throes of the old media.

We have reached the end of the Industrial Era and are well into the Information Era. In the Industrial Era, information didn’t happen in real time. In fact, it didn’t need to. There were no computers, email, Twitter, or Youtube. People hand prepared documents, mailed them, spent time reading the newspaper, and did things that were generally done over the period of hours, days, and weeks. Things were much slower then, but the culture did not demand the urgency of information that it does today.

Today, we get our news online, as we want, when we want it. We no longer prepare documents, we send PDFs via email. We instant message our peers for information who happen to be on the other side of the nation or even the world.

I always drive home the point that in Enterprise Software, it is an imperative that you must drive data to the source. In other words, you must put the origination of data right at the source. In a business sense, this means that you must put the key strokes or data collection right at the point in the process where the entry originates, such as at a quality check point on the shop floor, or with the employee for HR information.

In the bigger world, this is already happening with the coined term of “On-Demand”. Virgin is suffering due to iTunes. The consumers are directly sourcing the media. If you look at CNN’s iReport, you will see that news events are being reported by those closest to the news; usually people directly involved. People are Twittering about the airline crash that they are actually in! Talk about driving data to the source! And all of this information is being consumed by people who have a direct interest from anywhere in the world in real-time.

On the newscast, there was a pundit speaking about the death of the newspapers and how this is going to put traditional investigative reporters out of work. This is probably true, but many of these reporters are turning to new media reporting. I’m not in the journalistic world, but I would imagine that blogging, and independent reporting is becoming more the standard.

I work from home and “telecommute” (although this is a inaccurate word). I work with clients directly all over the world via web conferences, setting up systems and training them how to use these new tools. I imagine that the traditional workforce is slowly moving away from a centralized office and instead to independent teams of people who work independently from wherever they happen to be. No longer are we bound to the concepts of an Industrial model, rather we are free to explore our independent contributions to our “companies”, “teams” or other organizational system. We are moving to a world where the data is at the source.

I welcome your comments on this.

So as I was reading I was wondering why certain streets are referred to as Roads, others being Streets, and finally major through-ways being Avenues. Does anyone else know????

Okay, here is what I found out.

A Road connects places (such as between two towns).
A Street connect people (areas where there are homes and businesses)
An Avenue is a Tree-Lined Street, usually wider than a regular street.

Not so useful, but interesting.

Here are my sources (primarily Wikipedia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street
http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/26412-avenue-vs-street.html

Take a look at the video and let me know your thoughts.

Ikebukuro Station is one of the busiest stations in Tokyo. Millions of people pass through there each day. It boggles the Western Mind as to how many people are in there and how they all navigate without creating a human gridlock.

When traveling in Tokyo, you need to be aware that not only do they speak a different language, they also speak Engrish. So in the train stations that can be sometimes confusing. Thinking about Ikebukuro Station reminded me of a couple of Engrish photos I’ve seen.

Tokyo Engrish

Sign in Ikebukuro Station for Sunshine City. If you don't know what Sunshine City is, you can certainly find humor in this sign.

There are two things that are memorable about the station besides the people, one is the Yamanote line sign and the other is the music that is played when you arrive or depart the station on the train. Yes, they play music to remind people that you have arrived. In the post above, the author found the sign in a gift store in Tokyo. It is a great representation of the actual sign, plus it comes with music!

Ikebukuro Keychain

So when I saw this Key Chain it brought back many memories, including some late night returns to the hotel after having gone drinking with friends where I was trying to navigate my way through the masses of people. Or some early morning adventures trying to get through the masses on their way to work, with my luggage. In any case, if you have been to Ikebukuro, you get what I am saying.

Well the author of that blog is offering a competition for people who blog about the key chain and link to his site. Thus that was the inspiration for this post.

You can check it out the keychain here: Ikebukuro Key Chain