BusinessPro

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

For years, this home officer has griped about the sad realities of mobility. Sure, our technology is getting smaller and smaller. Wireless phones, cameras, PDAs and MP3 players all fit in our pockets. Heck, most can even fit in one pocket all at once. But the bricks and cables that power them require cargo pants or cavernous laptop bags – which in short order are converted into rats’ nests of tangled cables. And no one has created a laptop insert into which we can organize all our devices, cords, cables, bricks and the like. But what if… What if one device could solve the power and empowering woes of the modern road warrior? A solution could just be the CallPod by ChargePod. This funky little gizmo can charge up to six devices – at once. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

The IT guy remembers the service call well. His clients’ wireless computer network was suffering slow Internet transmission speeds, lumbering downloads and uploads, and recurring outages. The wireless network was several years old, a fact made worse by the client’s two-story home’s concrete block construction. Thick walls and distance taxed the unit’s transmissions. Moreover, the use of several cordless phones in the 2.4 GHz frequency interfered with the wireless network’s signal. When it was installed several years ago, the technology was leading edge with peripheral hardware and services like digital cameras, online gaming and music downloads. Several years later, their network was stretched way beyond its means. The remedy: Upgrade the network and replace the cordless phones with those in the 5.8 GHz range. As a result, transmission speeds increased and the connections were reliable throughout the home and everyone in the house was pleased.

This family’s situation was a “poster child for reasons why an upgrade of a wi-fi router was necessary,” said the IT Guy. Companies or consumers who installed a wireless network when the technology emerged in the early 2000s were on the leading edge of wireless connectivity. Today, though, that same hardware can lag significantly behind the current technology, leaving users with service outages, slow throughput and lost productivity. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

The Web is SO cool…

Lest you think I’m some newbie who just discovered the Internet in 2008, take a gander at two pretty cool services I use all the time: TinyURL and Pandora.

Pandora.com: Named for the mythological first woman offered up by the Greek Gods, this service is dubbed “radio from the music genome project.” Hit the site, register (it’s free) and then type in a favorite band, song or genre. I dropped in Led Zeppelin. First came “The Ocean,” then Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine,” then “Back in Black,” and Hendrix’s “Castles Made of Sand.” OK, so “Smoke on the Water” came up twice. And it tossed Nirvana’s “Lithium” in with these classics. And generally it was kind of heavy on the classic rock we can get for free on that other radio (you know, the one in the car that we don’t drive as much because we work from home…?). But that’s OK.

There was some less common stuff: Gypsy Eyes by Hendrix and Badge from Cream’s 2005 Royal Albert Hall concert.

Like Celine Dion? YoYo Ma? Progressive rock? Classical? It’s all there. Just set it and forget it. It’ll stream all day. Free. With no commercials. Broadcast it throughout the home with products like Logitech’s Squeezebox and Transporter. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Power is an interesting thing. Measured in joules, it can be like a diamond, providing clean and pure energy that enhances device operations and even prolongs its life. Or it can be like a cubic zirconia — “dirty” and unreliable and just bad for the components. But more importantly, it has value — especially to the penny-pinching home office. In the home office, you want clean, steady power — and protection from surges and spikes that can trash your PC or components as thoroughly as if your kid hit them with a hammer. But you also want to scrimp and save and keep power from seeping out like so many dollars under the office door.

Enter the APC Power-Saving Surge Protector “Essential Series.” With the flip of a switch, you can cut power to key components — saving money and improving component lifespan. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Let’s survey the landscape of my home office’s technology graveyard: I have an old PC — circa Last Century and long since obsolete; a once-coveted, leading-edge Nokia analog cell phone my daughter now uses as a playtoy; two CRT monitors long ago replaced by flat-panel monitors; a few keyboards, mice and other gadgets and hardware that serve no purpose but to keep me from having to dust the shelf-tops on which they rest. They consume my space. There has to be a better solution.

Enter MyBoneYard, an online service designed to help people ditch the old tech.

This is no idle concern. The mercury, chemicals and various elements that exist in PCs and monitors is enough to make your body glow green. Once crushed and in the landfull, these nasties leech into the groundwater, polluting the environment and the water that irrigates our crops, quenches the native fauna — and flows through our taps. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Power: Abundant, it drives the home office. Limited, unreliable or “unclean,” it can bring the wheels of business to a halt. APC has come out with the Power-Saving SurgeArrest. This surge protector provides home computer systems guaranteed protection from damaging surges and spikes — and saves electricity.

The device features new master/controlled outlets, which work to reduce energy consumption by automatically shutting down power to unused peripherals, such as printers, scanners and speakers when the computer is in sleep mode. Pretty cool — especially for home officers who are so dependent on their tech, but often overlook the little details. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Cheerios. Cheetos. Burritos. The home office menu stretches all along the buffet line. But only one of these tasty treats can help quell the hunger of anyone starved for cable management.

The Ativa “Burrito” Cable Wrap is designed to wind unruly wires, cords and cables into a nylon sleeve that once Velcro’d shut, can keep them better organized. It streamlines the process by “shortening” the length of cables – up to 18 feet – otherwise left exposed. Suction cups and a magnet can affix the burrito to any desk back or flat surface. Available at Office Depot and other locations, this Consumer Electronics Show Innovations Award winner (whose review unit came wrapped in aluminum foil — pretty sharp, indeed, so says TechCrunch) is available in a variety of colors – black, orange, yellow and blue. A blue burrito? Now that’s downright unpalatable. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Lorne Fisher knew there had to be a better way.

When clients in Europe and South Florida alike couldn't easily download large files from his FTP server, Fisher was left in the lurch. Work ground to a halt, potentially dragging down projects and his professional image along with them.

So last fall, Fisher signed up for YouSendIt.com. The service allows users to upload large files or zipped documents up to two gigabytes in size. On the other end, recipients download the file without clogging their e-mail inbox or suffering through FTP woes. It certainly beats e-mailing files, he said. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

When it comes to labeling folders, the pen or pencil has been my best friend. Pick up a new account? Grab a folder and scribble the client’s name across the tab. A new year’s beginning? Jot down 2008 on a folder (sometimes, I’ll even drag out my other friend, trusty Wite-Out, and just change the last digit). Got a new pet or a new kid? Well, you get the drill. It’s not pretty. But it works. Then the K-Sun LABELShop BEE3 label, bar code and heat shrink tube printer flew in and almost everything changed – literally. I labeled folders, files and shelves. It even got me on a clean-up binge, starting the year-end purge-and-shred process of clearing out file folders of documents I no longer need. Label printers in general are good for organizing the small or home office. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

A few weeks back, I was sitting in a hotel lobby, me and my Earl Gray, enjoying each other’s company while I surfed the ‘net on free wi-fi. A week later, I had another cup of hot tea. And free wi-fi still abounded. Only this time, I was in a friend’s quaint beach house three doors from the Atlantic on the Jersey Shore. And the wi-fi? It wasn’t from our friend’s home; it was courtesy of their neighbors.

See, when they set up their wireless networks, the neighbors took “plug and play” all too literally. They plugged their wireless routers into their cable or DSL modems, and every computer in the home with a wireless card or USB adapter was able to surf. And with their network name (SSID) unsecured and broadcast to the masses, so, too, was every PC within a couple hundred feet. Read more