// ken silver / the digital life //

The Perfect Videoconferencing Set Up

2009-05-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

For the past year I've been looking for ways to improve my videoconferencing experience. I bought a 24" iMac solely for this purpose. The camera is the highest quality output I've experienced so far - even better than the HD (high definition) from my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000... and the iMac's graphic processing makes the picture better than anything else I've tried.

So it's a very good experience. I videoconference my mother in Britain, and a couple of years back bought her a 20" iMac. We can now both videoconference from the opposite ends of the earth using Skype for Mac, with very little audio/visual lag, and no headset or external microphone. The picture is stunning 90% of the time, and very good for the rest.

This lack of hardware means that either of us can wander off around the room while still talking and it gets picked up perfectly.

It struck me that the perfect videoconferencing setup would be a extension of what we are doing now. It would be a large lifesize screen on the wall of the room, left permanently on, and would act as a window so that as each party came into the area and found the other there, they could strike up a natural conversation without appointment or set up bother.

Doing videoconferencing this way would go a long way to making the event less of a TV appearance - with all its formality and structure - and more of an interconnector of events. It would appear as if the two parties were actually in the same room on a conversational level.

How I Found A Checklist To Run My Online Business

2008-08-21T18:39:00.001-07:00

My online business has a series of sequential, recurring and mostly daily to-do steps that it needs to accomplish, or die. Items like:

- process all manual orders
- write article for newsletter and publish
- put article on blog
- write weekly article for directories
- answer client support issues
- back up databases
- check auto backups
- check order links for sales page working

And so on, right to the end task: "Clear desk completely."

There's a lot of stuff to do, even though some steps might only take a minute or two. I have about 35 daily checklist items that must be done for my business to survive and thrive. And these steps have to be done religiously every day. When there's a lot going on you have to be on top of the stuff that matters, whether it's organizational or marketing. Most small businesses have the same requirement.

But a lot of business owners don't do enough. While I'm an enthusiast of Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour WorkWeek, the reality is that a substantial or growing business needs more than an hour a day to be continually successful. So the list of essential to-do's is a large part of the success operation.

I've had many headaches over the years trying to design and run a perfect checklist system. Seems so simple to do, but it's not. One of the problems was finding a way to separate the daily tasks from the weekly ones. I kept a paper diary for a while and wrote the tasks on Post-It notes, shifting them all to the next page as required. Very messy.

Then I used the checklist in an Outlook email message that I kept in a folder titled "-DAILY". The hyphen ensured that it stayed at the top of my folder list. As each day went past I would prefix the completed task with an 'x' if completed, or a '-' if not. At the end of the week I would wipe out all the x's and -'s and start again. But that was unwieldy and time consuming, and it was often hard to see where I was at any time of the week.

The commercial programs available weren't much better either. They were often clunky and unattractive in a DOS format kind of way, and didn't present the checklist as I thought it should be set out, or buried it in other less effective areas. None really had a common enough structure.

That's until I came across gtdagenda, a web based task management system.

It has a number of goal setting and task devices built around David Allen's cult of efficiency, "Getting Things Done" (the gtd part of the program), but that wasn't what attracted me. It was the checklist system, which has proven to be an exact match for my needs.

After years of trying other things, this program has finally fitted around what I need, almost intuitively. The layout and methodology is very good. If you're task-oriented as I am, this has got to be the best way to cover your dailies. And as you 'do the business' each day, you have the confidence of knowing that your butt is covered and nothing falls through the cracks. And being web based, you know it's not going to leave you high and dry when your PC crashes.

Best way is to take a look - it's self explanatory. There's a free option too, with a limited number of items (free) through to unlimited, starting from under $4/mth.

Since I started using Gtdagenda this last week, I've actually become more efficient and motivated. Using just a checklist system - I know, sounds crazy - but it works beautifully.

Yes, I know...

2008-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm on a post holiday right now! Nothing much happening at the moment.

screens-R-Us

2008-01-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

I love the convenience of my screens! My office is on the bottom of our 4 level home, and it's a 20 second climb to get to the lounge or front door. So I'm extending my reach through cameras and screens.

At the moment I have a screen open (using the first of 4 outdoor security cameras to come), showing the road outside my office. I have motion sensor fields so that when a car drives down the road it is recorded to my hard drive, and I can play it back anytime.

I used it yesterday to see whether a courier had come up the road to drop off an expected delivery at my front door. They had (at 13.19.05!) - so I went up to collect it - the SeeEye-2-Eye eye level viewing device I talked about a few posts back. More about that in a later post. The delivery I was hoping for was a dome camera for the front door which I will connect to my security screen. That came later in the afternoon and I'm testing it now.

On another dedicated 15" tv screen I'm watching one of my Roombas vacuuming our lounge 3 levels up. I have the sound on so I can hear when the job is done. The wireless camera - one of four around the house - shows the room with incredible detail. In this photo it's easy to see how I've turned over a corner of the rug for the Roomba to do underneath, but on other occasions I can also see if our cat lying under the coffee table has her eyes open or not.

So far I have 8 working screens in my office connected round the house, gradually building up a complete surveillance. It's a great life, this video life!

portable videoconferencing device

2008-01-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

If you have a spare US$700, Creative will sell you a portable, wireless videoconferencing unit (picture from here):

This was first announced in December 2007 on the enGadget blog, and officially at CES 2008 last Saturday.

According to the enGadget website: "the portable video conferencing device promises that "you can join a board meeting in Geneva, a one-on-one in Africa, and your child's birthday party in California while you're stuck in the airport in Australia."

No launch date yet for the Creative inPerson Video Conferencing device.

where is videoconferencing heading in the future?

2008-01-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

The convenience of videoconferencing is not that hard to promote. The advantages - like those shown in this simple but cute ad, and many more like it - are pretty ho-hum by now:

Of course we know that videoconferencing replaces traveling and all its inconveniences. Yet we still do it. Yes, it's great to talk to someone from halfway round the world in an instant. But phone was the same 50 years ago.

So if it's all a little commonplace and predictable, what's the future of videoconferencing in 2008 and 5 years beyond?

I don’t think much will improve until a 'next big thing' like full color holography emerges. And hopefully not like this 1980's Star Wars version:

In the meantime I'm predicting we'll be making smaller increments of change:

- Video call quality will improve. That's a given. With all the emphasis presently put on videoconferencing as a foreign medium (not as easy to use as the phone, and 50% of the population so far not wanting it), there's not many places to go except stepping up the quality. Even so, improving quality will attract people like me, but the masses won't notice.

- The desktop will reign because it's convenient and cheap. Think how hard it is for the average person to set up a dedicated videoconferencing room with proper lighting and sound. Even though I'm a stickler for quality, I'm still very satisfied with my setup... natural window light, my Polycom Communicator for the best sound outside a head mic, and the Skype High Quality video. It will take a big quality jump to get an improvement on that.

- High definition will get better, but won't help much. Last year I went to a LifeSize demo in my city because I was curious to find out the advantages, if any, of true high definition. I wasn't that impressed. It turned out exactly as I expected. The 42" flat screen on the wall still contained a "tv announcer," and the conversation was a little disembodied as a result of a lack of high quality audio. That's the problem... HiDef videoconferencing today still looks like we're interacting with a better quality tv. The personal interaction is lost - a step removed from reality - which is the holy grail of videoconferencing.

Here's another LifeSize ad which tries to bridge this reality gap, and I think does it quite well:

- Interfaces will improve. I hope so. The Skype window, similar in design to SightSee, is very unattractive. Like Google and Amazon, it is in that state because it's simple. But simple is not always best because these interfaces are not intuitive and it's still hard to use. I hope they improve it somehow.

- Multitasking will get better. Split screens for video and data will become more important. Imagine talking with a relative and showing a photo of your family trip to them in another window. Or bringing up a website on the data window while you're talking about a product. It's done now, but not easily. This futuristic Apple ad on videoconferencing shows how well that integration (around 6:40) could be:

simplification isn't easy

2008-01-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

Why is everything about computing so complicated? Why can't the engineer geeks stay inside the box and out of the GUI designer's way?

Geeks talk in a strange language that takes years to acquire. I daren't mention words like download and upload to anyone new to computers - because those expressions just don't make sense to them.

Why don't we call it the more logical IN and OUT instead?

Or RECEIVE and SEND.

(And if you didn't know what the confusing acronym 'GUI' stands for, google it).

skype video auto-answer

2008-01-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

Skype's auto-answer is an ideal way to make the reply process easy for the receiving party. All they need to do is sit at their computer when it rings and wait for the video window to open.

To set Skype to auto-answer in video, use the Skype program menu:
TOOLS > OPTIONS > CALLS > CALL SETTINGS

Tick the box "Automatically answer incoming calls" and click "Save."

Your receiving party will still have to mouse-click the icon in the video picture to enlarge the live video if they want a bigger view.

I will be experimenting later with Macro Express to see if it will open a large window automatically.

nicholas negroponte's video vision

2008-01-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

In his 1995 book "Being Digital," the then director of MIT's Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, talked about a telepresence project he was involved in (p121).

His idea was to project an exactly registered video of the subject onto the back of a translucent, life-size mask of their face. When the video ran, the impression of reality was impressive.

Could this be the future - or at least until holography catches up with videoconferencing?

Here's a quick graphic I whipped up to show how it works, with thanks to Rutgers for the animation faces:

new video conferencing technology

2007-12-31T02:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of videoconferencing ideas. I especially like the idea of the virtual dinner:

Links to this story:
Apple iChat:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat.html
Accenture's Virtual Dining:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/family-dinners.html
TEEVE:
http://cairo.cs.uiuc.edu/teleimmersion/

new Skype keyboard idea

2007-12-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea to simplify using Skype video, which, let's face it - is not that simple for someone new to a PC.

From my observations, there is a lot of confusion when people use Skype for the first time. The layout is unduly complex, and the sequence of events is not clear - apart from the obvious ones of starting and finishing a call.

Older people especially who have not used a computer don't know which keys to use, and they have poor co-ordination using the mouse for the first week or more. The learning curve is steep.

My solution is a dedicated keyboard showing a minimum of simple buttons designed to be used in sequence from left to right.

You press the Skype button to open the program or make the window live.
You select your contact name with the up and down arrow buttons.
You initiate the call with the green button.
You stop the call with the red button.

A dedicated keyboard which eliminates pesky mouse movement and looks something like my layout would be the answer. The new keyboard could also be a part of a standard computer keyboard too.

Hope someone takes it further and runs with it.

how to do a GoToMyPC photo transfer

2007-12-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

I love GoToMyPC. It's a program you can install on your computer which allows you to remotely access your computer from any other internet-connected computer in the world. You use any browser for access, and pay a small monthly fee:

When I've been overseas I've been able to log in to my computer and answer email almost as if I was there in person. My own computer screen appears as a full-size window in the browser on the computer I am using. Move the mouse, and my own mouse thousands of miles away moves at the same time.

Which brings me to another handy application. My aged mother-in-law - who you've read about in previous posts - is not computer literate. I knew there would be a long learning curve, so I installed GoToMyPC on her computer. It has been very useful in correcting daily problems that would have required a 30 minute drive across to her place each time.

But it has also been very useful in another way.

I started a Photo Album folder on her machine and transferred family photos to it through Skype. She has been viewing them almost daily.

But today I found a better way to make the transfer. It's a simple drag and drop.

It works like this: I have GoToMyPC open on her PC displaying her photo album folder on one of my screens.

On another screen I have a folder with the photos (JPEGs) I want to transfer to her machine. I simply select all and drag them across to the GoToMyPC screen, and they transfer without any problem.

In the photo above you can see the GoToMyPC window for my mother-in-law's computer is open on my left hand screen. The files are transferring from my picture folder on the right hand screen.

This afternoon I transferred 16 JPEGs of about 500 KB (half a MB) each, and it took just a few minutes. I captioned each one beforehand so they are ready for her to view straight away.

You don't have to have separate screens of course... you can also do it by minimizing the two windows - the GoToMyPC window and your own folder - on one screen.

video calls on the move

2007-12-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Videoconferencing becomes more attractive when it replicates a real setting, or expands our boundaries of view.

For example, our daughter is visiting another country at the moment and used a wirelessly connected MacBook laptop to Skype us.

During the video chat she moved the laptop around the back of the house she was staying at so that we could see her surroundings. We saw the back yard, a friendly dog and the back lawn.

It is a huge improvement on a "talking head" scenario. Like most people I crave variety, so a background setting with a plain wall and a pot plant does nothing for me. I want to be involved, immersed.

In my office I sometimes use a 30 foot USB extension lead on my Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 which allows me to take the viewer with me as I walk down the hallway. Of course wireless is better than a cord for mobility, and maybe that will come later in my experiments.

There's no denying the moving eyecam experience has impressed everyone as they virtually explore my environment along with me.

Here's a review of the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000:

the paperless office revisited

2007-12-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm declaring war on paper... again.

A year or two back I tried to morph completely to a paperless office.

But the idea was flawed from the start because I wasn't solving the problem - paper itself. I was finding ways to digitally store it (using the Fujitsu Scansnap Scanner with a lot of success), but doing nothing to stem the flow.

This picture shows the mail and paperwork I have on my desk from a week's worth of mail neglect. They include:

Money and checks from customers. In my websites I state that I don't accept payment in any other form except for credit cards, yet they still keep sending me money.
A refund check from a company returning my credit card deposit for goods that weren't available. They were unable to deposit the amount directly back to my credit card.
An account from my Mercedes shop, because they hadn't prepared it before I picked my car up. I always like to pay immediately.
Numerous bank account statements and payment advice.

All this paperwork could have been avoided if the companies and people involved were a lot more organized and businesslike.

So my task for 2008 is to eliminate as much paperwork from these sources as I possibly can. I guess that I can quit at least 90%. There will always be the exception, like the bill from my plumber that I'll need to pay manually. But already I have eliminated a lot of paper activity by automating my payments through internet banking. Of course these institutions are obliged to send the bill and receipt as well!

However, there will come a time when everything on paper is electronically satisfied. And I'm looking forward to that day.

Here's a look at the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510:

change of video view

2007-12-26T20:22:00.001-08:00

While it's great to video chat to a person face-to-face, a bit of variety adds some interest. So I've taken to changing my backgrounds so my callers see a different view each day.

Each day I put the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 video camera on a different one of my four monitors. Because they are arranged in a curve on my desk, it means the webcam points at a different part of my office. So far the reaction has been good. Variety is the spice of life!

See Eye 2 Eye

2007-12-24T00:51:00.001-08:00

For the past year I've used a home-built videoconferencing unit I developed that enabled me to make accurate eye contact with my video caller. I'll give more details in a later post, but I was intrigued to come across a similar system in principle shown here, at Bodelin.

It is designed to give true eye contact with your caller. The unit fits over the top of your screen, and with a couple of 45 degree mirrors reflects the image so that you are looking directly into the subject's eyes. I've ordered one just now, and will do a review when I get it.

The Bodelin website explains: "See Eye 2 Eye works like a periscope. When you place this patented device over your webcam, a set of mirrors beams the picture of the person you're talking to onto our optical grade beam-splitting glass, which sits in front of your webcam lens. You can see the reflected image while the other party isn't even aware you're looking at anything but your webcam."

One of my questions about its usefulness is the small image size. It looks like you need to reduce the caller's image to 320 x 240 on your screen to get the picture to fit the unit.

That's too small for me - I like to increase a video to full screen (19") for full immersion. A small picture is no better than a videophone like the Ojo with all its size and quality restrictions.

Some people will prefer small talking heads, but I believe the true immersive experience involves a varied background and extended views. For example, when I pick my Logitech Quickcam 9000 off the top of the screen and turn it round my home office, the viewer is always excited to see the larger view. This is the ultimate experience for improved realism and interactivity.

why does business need to videoconference?

2007-12-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

I can see the usefulness of videoconferencing for family and friends. But I'm not really sure it's needed in business.

How important is it to see the expression on someone's face when you're talking to them in a business or selling situation? Would it make or break the sale? As a boss, would you be more inclined to promote someone if you could see their demeanor (and acne) rather than all the ticks in the right boxes on their CV? I think that business video calling is hugely overrated, and its general uselessness could be part of the problem for videoconferencing not taking off as quickly as predicted.

Recruitment and executive placement will possibly promote the business need, but it is only a very small part of the business landscape.

But connecting visually with family and friends is really where the future of videoconferencing is, whether from the desktop, or a commercial service like Amigo Live (pictured above). There's a huge advantage in seeing familiar people on a regular basis, especially when they're overseas or a great distance away.

Everyone knows the advantage of seeing family they haven't talked to for a while. This morning my mother-in-law - the same 93-year-old I've talked about in an earlier post - Skyped my mother in Britain, half the world away. By all accounts it was a tremendous bonding experience, since my mother-in-law hadn't seen her since visiting the year before. That's the real value of videoconferencing, and it's where the most gain will be made.

I can see that in another decade all the dedicated high definition and expensive business videoconferencing rooms will be lying unused, while video calls will carry on from desktop to desktop. Email and telephoning will rule, as usual.

Skype High Quality video calling

2007-12-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

I've been using a Skype High Quality video calling setup for the last week, and the results are spectactular.

Here's an excellent and detailed review on the process by Skype Journal blogger Jim Courtney. I'll give my personal experiences and more detail in later posts.

a glimpse of the videocall future

2007-12-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

What will videoconferencing look like in a few years? Here's one scenario I've thought about...

I'd like to predict that in the near future we'll all have a remotely controlled robot in all our homes that we can use as our own persona, or body double. When it's placed in a remote location - a friend's house for example - we'll log into it remotely through the net and our own video face will show on the remote robot.

We will be linked to it. It will act as "us" on our command, moving about as we would in the remote surroundings. It will send images and sound back to us in a 3D process that would enable us to be there virtually.

We could move though the host room and sit by the grandchildren, perhaps reading a story to them (providing they are used to the concept and won't get freaked out!) Or we could sit on the sofa, or across the dinner table and join in the family conversation.

We could even hire one located at seminars, museums or trade shows and wander the floor looking around and interacting with the staff. This concept would make videoconferencing useful. It's being done already at a simpler level.

iRobot are doing this with their ConnectR, a virtual visiting robot due out 2008:

HeadThere.com has the Giraffe:

A primitive-looking robot called IvanAnywhere is a working solution:

UCLA Medical Center has had a robotic doctor since 2005:

Honda have their ASIMO robots jogging along at 6 km/hr and serving tea. You can imagine how effective this could be as a 2-way interface:

It's only a matter of years before this concept accelerates to a sophisticated level.

"By the end of 2010, we'd like to see these robots working at every street corner of the city," said Tomohiko Kawanabe of Honda's Fundamental Technology Research Center.

At the moment these processes are very primitive. The experience of being there would have to be developed further for it to work, but I'm sure that current research will have that done within the next five to ten years.

why we still don't like videoconferencing

2007-12-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

Videoconferencing is not new. Global business has been using videoconferencing for the last 15 years. And in the last couple of years programs like Skype have made huge strides in increasing quality and ease of use for personal users with their High Quality benchmark introduced this month.

Videoconferencing is mainstream. Today at 3.15pm I saw Skype has 5,153,338 people online at one time. It's been as high as 10 million, which shows how a large number of people are accepting and using this type of technology.

But only about 50% of my friends and family enjoy videoconferencing, and this percentage seems to be typical. The main barriers seem to be reasons they won't readily admit to:

- They can't multitask while having a video call. Most telephone users will do something else while they are talking, like typing or paperwork. I've sometimes done that myself. One member of our family readily admits that she enjoys looking out of the window during a phone conversation. She can't do that with a video call however, and feels obliged to remain looking interested during the talk. While that's not difficult if you like the person (or they are related!) but it's hard work to keep up the pretense if you have to be there.

- They don't want to look like a slob, either personally or their home. Most people want to get spruced up for a video chat. Why? I don’t know, since many will invite people into their messy house and greet them in old clothes. But the 50% will give this reason as an excuse for not wanting to use video. It's a bit like the early days of the automobile, where everybody dressed in their Sunday best to go out motoring. Now we just drive around in a T-shirt and jeans. Dress is a barrier that has to be overcome.

- Videoconferencing is just not real enough. That's because a generation of one-way television viewers find it difficult to accept, subliminally, that the screen will interact and talk back to them. It's a mental expectation that the screen is uni-directional, as if we're not talking to a person but just to a familiar image on TV that is not quite real. A real-world example... our grandchildren can sometimes be slightly rude when they Skype us... even though they wouldn't dream of doing it to our face. There is a removal of reality because subliminally they believe they are talking to a representation rather than a real person.

- There's no eye contact. We're all familiar with the standard webcam view... the person on screen studying our chin - and only occasionally looking up if they are aware of good webcam etiquette. We soon get used to the downward view of their profile. But the difference true eye contact makes is remarkable. Most people can discern an eye contact variance of less than 5° at around 20 feet. That means they will be able to tell when a person is standing 20 feet away and looking past your shoulder. The small deflection is immediately obvious. Wow. The human brain is massively sophisticated in discerning these slight differences. So why do we put up with it?

What's the answer? How can we get people to enjoy videoconferencing? I've got some ideas which I've used, and which I'll expand on later.

recap on the digital life

2007-12-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

I'm older than many net users. Next year I will celebrate my 60th birthday. But despite those six decades, I still feel 21 inside with all the excitement and promise of flying cars, wall-to-wall videoconferencing and a no-work society still welling up inside me from time to time.

In a way I've already accomplished those many childhood dreams. I work alone, digitally - almost on autopilot - with the world as my market, without leaving my desk. I'm dictating this post through Dragon Naturally Speaking and sharing my work on four 19" screens (pic).

With the click of a button I can access most of my family in far-flung parts of the world, and talk to them face to face.

Another click or two and I can buy products from any part of the world, and have them sent anywhere. It's an incredible existence, far surpassing anything I had ever dreamed of.

As an example, a week ago I bought a new webcam for my brother who lives in Britain - a Logitech Quickcam 9000 for high quality video through Skype. I already had one.

Although it was a Christmas present for him, it was really for me... because I benefited most from the better quality video. But the exciting part of this giftgiving was that I was able to purchase it from Amazon.com in UK, and have it delivered to his doorstep in a matter of two or three days.

Today, this is commonplace. Kids take the net for granted. A few days ago my grandson, aged 11, added another contact to his Skype list with the help of my brief instructions. Computers weren't even invented when I was 11, for goodness sake, yet here he was deftly managing this overly complex business we call the internet and computer.

But there's a lot wrong still with our digital world. Design and function are primitive. Last week I gave an old computer to my mother in-law, who's 93, so we can video chat. That's her setup on the right.

She has done remarkably well in working it out with my brief instruction - considering she had never used a computer in her life. But there were a lot of physical problems to overcome like controlling the mouse and understanding what a window is. Still, we've gone far enough to make and receive Skype calls, and no doubt she will start building her list of contacts in time as I did.

So the internet and computing at any level is still fiendishly complex. And until you tutor someone who has never worked on a computer do you realize how much underlying knowledge you have built up over the years.

My ambition is to make our digital life as simple as possible. At the moment I'm doing this awkwardly with complex workarounds like hotkeys and automatic mouse & keyboard sequences because there isn't a better way.

But it shouldn't be like this. More on this later.

Picasa is working again

2007-06-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it should work again, but a full install of Picasa yesterday resulted in all my photos returning... captions and tags - all back. The result is I've decided not to go with Flickr, but now that Picasa has web-based storage, I'll move everything across to Google.

Not sure that I like all my digital life being in one googlebasket though. I may use Flickr as backup. (23 December 2007 : Still not used Flickr. It's hard moving away from familiar territory! And I've gone off using Google for everything for security reasons. More about that later).

the vanishing keyboard - still sticking around

2007-06-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

At the end of this recent post I talked about hoping to eventually quit my keyboard.

Since all my work is dictated, I thought a keyboard would be of little or no use. Well, after trying to do without it over a couple of hours, the result showed that I was way out in my thinking. Actually, it's very unlikely that I'll be able to quit the keyboard just yet. And here's the main reason... a program I find essential...

ShortKeys. It's an absolutely essential utility containing a large number of text shortcuts, and I use it constantly.

There's 660 of these shortcuts I have built up over the years. You can see about 50 of them in the graphic here.

If you didn't know the advantages of ShortKeys, let me tell you that there are hundreds of URLs that I use frequently, but have never typed but once. That's because with a shortcut for each of them, ShortKeys does the rest.

Those shortcuts also apply to long paragraphs, signatures, passwords, HTML code, and dozens of other exceptionally useful pieces of text. It's fair to say that ShortKeys is one of the most valuable software programs I own. Everything else on my desktop can be duplicated in some way - except the myriad of shortcuts I use to automate and hugely speed up my digital life.

So eliminating the keyboard would need mean that I would have to dictate each of the shortcut keys. That's actually harder than it sounds. I've never been able to get my dictation program, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, to any sort of accuracy dictating a single symbol, even though it's 99% accurate with everything else. In fact, I don't even know how to dictate single letters... I'll have to go to the ShortKeys' support page to find out, when I get some time.

Looks like the keyboard is here to stay for a while!

Another advantage of ShortKeys is increasing security. I use a large number of detailed, complex alphanumeric passwords that are identified only by a small number of ShortKeys letters. But since these initial letters are in code, and are known only to me - it's impossible for anyone to identify the program they come from.

There is no way that a keylogger or trojan program - should they get past the large number of virus protection programs I have - would ever be able to identify them.

In short, ShortKeys is an essential part of automating my digital life. And I see now they have an associated macro program called Macro Express. If it's as good as ShortKeys, it'll certainly be invaluable.

Will Microsoft's new display catch on?

2007-06-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

The Microsoft Surface tabletop PC is straight out of the film "Minority Report." It looks really interesting.

But there's a catch... it requires large arm movements to manipulate the objects.

My mouse pad - in contrast - measures about 5" in diameter, and I don't even use 50% of that space. Micro-movements allow me to get the mouse pointer to any of my three 19" triple screens.

Will we get tired using the huge surface that Microsoft has developed, or will it just become an interesting way to exercise? Will the next generation of kids start looking like gorillas with overdeveloped arm and chest muscles?

I think not. But the Surface concept is exciting and innovative, and I'm looking forward to using it in the future.

Though I'm more interested in brainpower as a way to interact with a computer. Less effort - more promise. Surface is a step in the right direction.

babysitting the Roomba

2007-06-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

My Roomba hasn't been working very well lately. It would vacuum for about a couple of minutes, then stop with some of the indicator lights blinking. When I pressed the "clean" button on the remote, it would work again.

So I've taken to check on it using my lounge security camera. I have a wireless cam set up high in our lounge, and it overlooks most of the area.

The screen sits next to my 4 screen setup in my downstairs home office, and it's easy for me to check whether the Roomba is still going - or whether I have to go up and reset it again. Fortunately it seems to be working for up to 10 to 15 minutes at the time now, but just in case it doesn't, I'm able to keep a beady eye on it. (OK, since I wrote this it has been a trooper - carrying out the full 40 min clean without stopping).

You can see it arrowed in the photo above. When it disappears behind the sofa and I don't see it for a while, I turn the webcam sound on and listen for it.

One day I'll send it in for servicing, but the main problem is that my second backup Roomba isn't working either. In their favor, I have to say that of the 5 Roombas I have owned, they all seem to work quite well for up to a year, and I use them each day. It's certainly worth the $599 a year (the cost of a Roomba in our country), to replace a cleaning service or the time we spend vacuuming our house ourselves.

I'm getting serious about going digital

2007-05-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I decided to take my business - and my life - fully digital. That was the main reason for this blog.

Up till now, it's been a bit hit and miss... touch and go. Mainly because my expectations were well ahead of the existing software and hardware available.

But a number of things have been happening to change that. Among those, and I guess most importantly, has been Google's move to offline web based applications announced a couple of days ago. In time, Google Gears for example, will allow you to work on your Gmail offline, then move it to the web when you're ready.

I'm already using many of Google's apps for my digital business, and I'll list those in a future post.

So their development is a great step forward, but it's more than that. It signifies the move towards the "empty computer" concept - a great term which basically implies that everything you need is held on a server somewhere, and you access it via your computer which acts as a conduit. It's all very similar to Oracle/Sun's Network Computer (NC) a few years back, which didn't catch on.

However, there's still a way to go before I can turn my digital life on. But there's something that's causing me to accelerate my progress. And that's a series of "recovered from a serious error" dialog boxes over the last week. I'm taking this to mean that my hard drive will eventually expire shortly.

I have everything backed up of course, but it's hugely inconvenient to get everything back and working again.

That's why my mission to go fully digital is getting quite serious right now.

And as I was writing this post, I idly wondered how much could I could reduce my physical computer setup.

At the moment my triple screen configuration is now essential to me for boosted productivity - so that stays.

But do I need a keyboard?

I do all my 'typing' through Dragon NaturallySpeaking, so do I really need keys?

Also, most of my gestures are done through the mouse - so most of my keyboard use could be eliminated... if I could break the habit. (Photo shows my Logitech cordless keyboard and MX3000 mouse on my desk).

That will be a pretty exciting step - either fully quitting my keyboard or maybe only using it briefly when required.

As always, my increased productivity (read "laziness") is prime. Let's see how far I can take that.

Picasa fails, so I'm going online

2007-05-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't added anything to my Picasa photo album system since Xmas.

Sadly I have not been able to access Picasa on my computer (Windows XP Home), despite many reboots and downloads. This means I have effectively lost all the tags and organisational ability of Picasa, and I'm very annoyed.

So I'm looking at using Flickr to leave all my photos online and avoid this disaster happening again. I'll keep you posted.

get a better webcam picture

2007-05-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

I videoconference a lot with my relatives overseas. As an ex-pro photographer I'm very conscious about lighting and camera positions.

Just now I came across an excellent step-by-step blog on how to improve your basic webcam lighting to get a better picture. That's the author in the picures above. See the story HERE

the robots are coming!

2007-05-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading this fascinating excerpt by "How Stuff Works" creator Marshall Brain.

He talks about the rise of a robot workforce within the next 20 to 30 years, and its effect on the world. The implications are mind-boggling.

Start here: http://marshallbrain.com - and go to his interesting "Robotic Nation" story here: http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

find more here...

2007-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

I've put a lot of the information that would normally run here over to my lotto blog at: http://honest-lotto.blogspot.com/

Take a look.

just putting you through now...

2006-08-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

My wife and I use the phone a lot. But she gets more calls than me. So it was very frustrating to keep answering her calls and either taking a message (I'm no secretary!) or searching through the house to find her.

The solution was remarkably easy... we each have our own phone line. But rather than having two separate phones, I decided to go to for Panasonic's PBX system, the Panasonic Digital Super Hybrid System. We've had it for nearly 2 years now, and it has given us a huge increase in efficiency and effectiveness.

For example, since we each give out our own dedicated line phone numbers, this immediately stops any message taking. If we are not in, then the message goes to our separate voicemail boxes. I don't answer her calls, nor she mine. Easy.

But there are other benefits as well... I put an extension in all our main rooms: the guest bedroom, kitchen, my wife's office, the main bedroom, my office (photo above), the garage (right) and a doorphone (below) which can be answered by any extension.

So whenever we get a call that needs to be answered by the other partner, we can transfer it through. We can also have our calls transferred to our cell phones.

In short, the system acts like the switchboard system of any small office. I couldn't do without it.

my paperless office

2006-08-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

One of my goals over the years has been to have a paperless office to match my concept of a truly digital life - ebook sales, automatic payment, and no paper ever... a fully digital business, all completely online.

But I haven't done it until last year for 2 reasons:

1. The equipment around wasn't easy or simple enough to use. Till the last year or so, paper automation was marginally effective. Scanners were primitive and slow, and they required several lengthy steps to get paper into a digital format.

2. Most people and organizations I researched in the past gave very good reasons for not doing it. These negative reasons included difficult access to files, poor reliability of backups, and lack of tactileness... something about wanting to "feel" the paper information source. Stupidly I took notice of them. (Note: If you want to do something badly enough, don't take notice of anyone. I found none of these reasons applied to me when I finally made the move).

Well, over the years I reviewed all these options regularly, but my latest reviews brought up some interesting case studies. A number of law firms who had taken the paperless route for a year or two and gained great benefits from it. Here's a bunch of people whose livelihood depends on the integrity of paper, and yet they were all moving towards full digital storage. Courts of law in many countries accept PDF files without any question. That had to be a big factor in my decision to go paperless.

And since I'm a strong advocate of paperless books, it seemed a bit silly not to extend that concept to the rest of my business life.

So I took the plunge early last year, and I'm happy to report my paperless office has been an overwhelming success from day 1.

It was easy, painless, quick and fun. Here's my equipment, and as you'll see - you really only need the scanner:

SCANNER: Fujitsu ScanSnap (see photo above):
This tiny desktop 600 dpi machine scans up to 15 sheets a minute, does both sides of the document automatically if I need it, and places the image directly to PDF, email or file. The automated PDF conversion is the secret to a truly paperless approach. Without it, any paperless approach would be seriously hobbled.

SHREDDER: Fellowes Home Office unit. This is an optional choice since you can get rid of paper in other ways. But it makes a very satisfying sound as it gobbles up your paperwork. It's a very permanent move too, making my transition a no-going-back move. Sometimes you need to burn your bridges to move forward!

BACKUP: iBackup A fully automated online backup service through dialup or broadband. I've never seen anything as simple to operate as this.

Here's what I do each day to win the paper war:

When paper of any kind...a magazine article I clip, an invoice, notice or bill... gets to my desk, I run it through the ScanSnap which is permanently on.

The item shows up on Windows Explorer in the supplied Adobe Acrobat 6.0 program as an untitled PDF file. I name it immediately in a COMPANY NAME - DOCUMENT NAME - ITEM - DATE format and drag it to the appropriate folder.

I have only 2 folders for all my files, marked BUSINESS and PERSONAL. The Business folder has sub-folders, each labeled as a financial year... 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 etc. There is one other sub folder which I've labeled PROJECTS.

Since my scanned files are shown in alphabetical order in Explorer - and that's the way I retrieve them too - there's no need to get any more complicated than that.

The next important stage is backup. It's no good having everything on disk, on another hard drive or in a separate computer. That is too time-consuming and temperamental to retrieve. Disks die, PC's fail, you get burgled or your house goes up in smoke. And all at a time time that you least expect it.

So I have everything backed up to the online backup service. For a paltry $9.95 a month for a 5Gb storage, iBackup automatically backs up everything when I want it. I have set the backup options to daily at 2am.

For the first few days I used to keep the day's scanned paper copies in a tray and only shredded them the following day when I was sure the backup had been done. But it didn't take me long to ignore that step and go direct to the rubbish bin via the shredder! Since most filed documents can be retrieved one way of another (using the wind-back part of Windows XP), there's little chance of anything permanent occurring in the 12 hours prior to backup.

When I'm happy that the file has been scanned and filed correctly, I pop the paper into the shredder under my desk and it's gone for good.

Here's what happened in my very first day of using the paperless system. I had scanned and filed about 50 documents, and later that afternoon I had the need for one bill that I remembered I had already done.

In the past I would have done this to find a filed document:
- Gone to my file cabinet.
- Selected the year folder if I knew it.
- Found a space on my desk (usually not much free space there!), opened to the alphabetical section and searched through the paperwork until I found the right one.
- Unclipped it from the file folder, did the action - faxing, whatever - and reversed the steps to put it away again

Simple enough, it seems. But don't forget I had to file it in the first place, and that's no walk in the park. Like most other entrepreneurial types who seem to share a dislike for paperwork, I used to leave my paper filing for a week or two. Then the pile seemed too big to do all at once so I'd only do a part of it. So it grew incrementally, and I was never really up to date.

Contrast that with my situation now, where every item of paper gets filed immediately it hits the desk... mainly because it is so quick to do - but also, I have to admit - because there is a fun factor involved. It's easy, and meets my futuristic plan. With every paper I file, I get closer to my nirvana of a fully featured and accessible paperless office!

OK, now to find the same file in the paperless setting today, under the new system, I do only this:

- Go to Windows Explorer,
- Open the Folder required,
- Click the document to open it, and read it onscreen.

All this sitting in one place, moving only the mouse and small parts of my brain! :)

In practice the process is far simpler. I can quickly do a search for the document since my file naming system will identify most of what I need to find it in the name.

How have I benefited from the move away from paper?

- Space! My paper mountain is dwindling rapidly, and so are the boxes and files I use to keep them in. That means more free office space and clutter. That can't be underestimated.

- Order. Ever wondered where in your office a document is filed? Even the best paper file system won't get it quicker than a keyword search on your PC. Takes just seconds.

- Time. That's not much of a saving right now, but as more of my paper gets digitized there will be huge savings in locating and tracking paperwork.

- Convenience. In the past if I had a query with an account, I would phone and fax the information with a letter. It took 10 minutes including the search and faxing. Today I did the same thing, except I sent a 2-line email with the file as a PDF attachment. Took barely a minute all up.

- Security. Anyone can enter a paper office and take files in an instant. All files are stored identically the world over. But a digital file is different. It is near impossible to get without knowing passwords and location.

- Backup. This hasn't been tested yet for me, online or off. My house hasn't burnt down, nor my computers stolen or crashed. But it may happen yet, and I'll be whistling Dixie when it does because getting it all back again from its distant server will be a breeze. And changing computers won't be the onerous task it has been in the past. I still have files on my laptop that I haven't transferred to my year-old PC because of numerous problems with cables, disks and internet connections. Now I can simply select files from the backup server and make a coffee while it swaps them over for me.

Of course there are a few paper items I haven't chosen to digitize. Equipment manuals, books and some magazines are still better in old-fashioned paper and ink. However, if I buy an ebook, I tend to read it online without printing it out. Most people prefer to have a paper copy. I'm different in that respect I guess, taking the paperless option to its extreme.

Overall I have taken a long time to join the completely digital age - longer than a closet futurist like myself should have taken. But the wait has been worth it, the rewards are numerous, and the whole enterprise is just so much fun than before!

December 2007 update here

how to prioritize for profit

2006-08-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I made some big alterations in my daily working life - and found these simple changes rewarded me with some huge benefits.

I used to start my to-do list with "essential" items that turn out to be maintenance issues only. I found there is only one thing in life that should get priority... because without it you won't have a business, a place to sleep, a car to drive, a happy and contented family and no debt.

And that is: PROFIT. So I changed my daily to-do list priorities in this way:

1. Items that make me money immediately.
2. Things that need to be fixed straight away in order to continue my moneymaking.
3. Everything else.

So everything I do now is directed towards getting PROFIT. first. Then the rest of my business life is tackled at a lesser pace as it's needed.

how often should you send out a newsletter?

2006-08-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

How often should you send out a newsletter? Most people get this wrong. The question should instead be: What should you achieve by sending out a newsletter, no matter how frequent?

Why should you send out a newsletter at all?:

1. To impart interesting information that will help your prospects and buyers make money, and,
2. To sell your main product or back ends, to make you money.

You can achieve this either by sending one newsletter a month, or one a day like me.

However, some folk don't like getting daily newsletters. But if you persist you'll find there are a lot of hidden advantages...

Let's say you manage to write one newsletter each day for years. One of the advantages is that the sheer frequency of your ongoing messages implies that you know what you're talking about... specially when you can come up with something new and interesting each newsletter.

To emphasize that, you should number your newsletters. For a long time I didn't used to number my own newsletters, but since I did - and now that we're up to almost #250 - that size alone tells my readers that I have had something to say for quite some time.

And if they don't like it, they can delete it or leave it unread. I consider it's just like watching TV... you always have the "off" button option.

But let's say that 50% of your target audience tune you out because of your daily frequency, regardless of the message. It's not the end of the world. They won't go around criticizing you on every blog and forum on the globe. They will just unsubscribe. (Or, not so good - they'll filter your message out, which makes your leaving a lot more permanent. There's not much you can do).

The other reason to increase frequency is to increase sales. So let's say each day you are contacting 50% of your list. The number of selling opportunities grows each time you do that.

And I can prove that relationship:

I sometimes miss my daily quota, and sometimes three days goes between newsletters... but one thing I've noticed - sales ALWAYS double, triple and quadruple when the newsletter goes out. Part of this is because I make a selling offer in every newsletter. But even when I don't, sales still increase.

I believe this is solely due to frequency. Try it and see.

7 advantages of dual screens

2006-07-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Dual screens have a huge advantage over a single monitor. Here's some examples from my own use:

1. Speed: Even with broadband, it takes 2-10 seconds for many web pages to appear. Some websites are very slow and will take up to a minute... Forbes is one example. While that's happening I can be working on the other screen - it's amazing how much you can do in as little as five seconds. There's no way I will wait a minute for any page to load - except when I really need the information on it, and this is the productive answer.

2. Speed 2: I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking for all my typing, but some programs accept my dictation more easily and faster than others. For example, this reply is dictated faster in a blank Outlook email window than the forum post window in Opera. I can keep the original post open on one monitor to remind me of the subject, while dictating on the other.

3. Pop-ups: For some reason with UltraMon - the dual monitor software I use - a web page will load first on one screen, but any pop-ups associated with it will appear on the other. This makes it easy to scan the pop-up page, and view or delete it quickly if need be. Works with both pop-ups and pop-unders.

4. Daily chores: The first thing I do every morning is to open about 40 regular websites in one hit and check them out. (I do this by having them added all under one "Daily" bookmark). These include my own websites to make sure they are loading correctly, news sites, forums, my banking websites and so on. It takes about 30-60 seconds for all these to load, so I can be working on the other screen, say, checking my mail, while I wait.

5. Work patterns: I can work on my newsletter and keep it open on one monitor while I look for related information on the other. It means I can keep referring back to various items on the newsletter far more easily, rather than opening it from another browser tab each time and losing track of my thoughts.

6. Work patterns 2: When I do a search on Google, for example, I can leave the search list on one monitor while I check out the websites on the other. So while the websites are loading, I can be scanning the Google list for the next item.

7. Visual effectiveness: Being a visual sort of person, I find it much easier to have everything showing rather than in hidden windows. This alone makes the whole setup a boon for me.

These are just a few of the many advantages I've found, but it's fair to say that my work effectiveness has been much more than doubled for almost everything I do. And now that there's a triple head video card out, I'm looking forward to adding another monitor and getting the further advantages of a triple screen setup.

UPDATE: Sunday 27 May 2007 - I've had a triple screen setup now for the past 3 months. I'll write a review at some stage here, but the quick overview is this: Even better workability than dual monitors! I could never go back to a dual setup. I have even tried a 4-monitor setup a few weeks back, but strangely, found that not as convenient.
UPDATE: 5 January 2008 - After linking the 4th monitor to my triple setup instead of from a separate PC, it works far better. Now I'll never go back to a 3-screen setup!

my office desk revealed

2006-07-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is my workplace and home office where I'm happy to spend a lot of my day. It looks out over the harbor where the view is ever-changing. The items on my desk (glass topped Frezza, made in Italy), going from left to right are:

- Pen holder. No surprise there... I sometimes use a pen but not that often since I'm almost completely paperless now.
- Digital thermometer. Gives both inside and outside temperatures through a remote sensor. Also a bunch of other weather related stuff which doesn't help me at all since I can see it out the window.
- Dual monitors. Absolutely essential items for productivity. These are two identical HP 19 inch Pavilion flat screens. I use UltraMon (www.ultraMon.com) to control the picture and mouse across both screens.
- Beamer videophone. I bought this about five years ago when it first came out, and used it with moderate success. Now I leave it unplugged on my desk as a reminder that one day videophones will be easy to use and become commonplace.
- Panasonic Digital super hybrid PBX telephone system. I have eight telephone extensions in our main rooms and garage, controlled by a central master switchboard in a cupboard at the middle of the house. Great for transferring calls between rooms, answering the front door speakerphone. We can intercom through the phones in each room. There are more features than we'll ever need.
- Plantronics headset system. This is connected to my computer through Microsoft Outlook, so I dial out through my contacts folder. I very rarely dial a telephone number manually any longer, and can't even remember my family's phone numbers.
- Headset for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I rarely type any longer. With the 98% accuracy of Dragon, there's no need.
- Remote. This controls another screen by the side of my desk connected to several remote-controlled security cameras throughout the house, as well as showing satellite TV. I wanted to put this on my desk, but it looked a bit messy. One day I'll figure out where to put it!
- Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.
- Herman Miller Aeron (chrome) office chair. The Rolls Royce of office seating. My back would be a wreck without it.

My PC sits in a cabinet behind me. I keep the doors closed and it is almost silent.

the start of my digital diary

2006-06-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I thought it might be a good idea to compile my daily life in a digital photo diary. It would reside only on my computer, and not be available publicly.

The main advantages for this diary, for me, were:

1. A digital album as a permanent and interesting archive for our family.
2. I wouldn't have to keep a text diary, because each picture would act as a memory jogger by association. (Since sometimes I can barely remember what I did last week, any form of visual kicker would be a real advantage. That's proven to be true enough so far).

According to Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, 72, of MyLifeBits, his own life diary project increased his recall of almost everything in his life. And his family noted that his memory improved. That's good enough for me.

My first step was to download Picasa, Google's free photo album. Once it was installed, it went out and found over 2500 photos on my hard drive which it then compiled into folders and arranged by date. It found many hundreds of Jpeg's that I had completely forgotten about... and my hard drive is barely 2 years old.

I decided that by cataloging chronologically by day and month, then labeling each photo with a number of keywords, I would have a fairly good way of finding anything fast. It also aided memory retention by grouping the photos in a daily view.

After a few false starts and a bit of experimenting, my captioning system ended up being in this order:
- the date... Fri 23 Jun 06,
- followed by listing the people or items in the shot, from left to right,
- followed by the location.

For example: Fri 23 Jun 06, Judy, Rachel, Michael, lounge, Drivet Court.jpg

This way I could find all photos which contained, say, Judy, then allow Picasa to sort them all by date. It's remarkably efficient so far.

Each day has its own folder which appears on Picasa's index in the lefthand window - so finding a date is very fast.

Then I started taking photos of what I considered were important events each day. Since my Canon Powershot A40 camera was a bit large and heavy for convenience snapping, I bought a Sony DSC-T7. This 5 megapixel ultra-compact camera is about the size of a credit card and a third of an inch in thickness. It's perfect for the job... I can slip it in my shirt pocket, and because it has the fastest take-up time of any digital camera, I can be shooting in less than a couple of seconds.

The visual diary is only one part of my "Digital Diary" project. The other part was becoming paperless. I started this about a year ago, and now have all my bills, accounts, receipts and most paper items in PDF form. Again, I captioned these PDF's in a similar manner to my photos, and find that I can locate any item within a few seconds.

I'll talk more about my progress in detail in future posts, after I get back from overseas in about three week's time. In the meantime, here's a current screenshot of my diary. It not only contains photos, but also:
- web pages
- Outlook contacts and notes
- newspaper clippings (photographed with the Sony--much quicker than scanning)
- location maps (our Yellow Pages has a mapping facility)
- tv screenshots of programs I watched.

More about all this in detail later when I get back (and probably after I catalog several hundred holiday shots!)

UPDATE: Sunday 27 May 2007 - For several months I have not been able to access Picasa on my computer (Windows XP Home), despite many reboots and downloads. I have effectively lost all the tags and organisational ability of Picasa, and it is very dispiriting. I'm looking into using Flickr and leaving all my photos online to avoid this happening again.

shock writing

2006-06-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

I wrote today for the first time in many weeks.

When I say I WROTE... let me explain. I hand-wrote.

I had to fill out a form by hand, and yes...the experience came as a shock. My handwriting has deteriorated - just as my typing has because I use Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation software almost exclusively now.

'Use it or lose it' came to mind.

This illustration shows a Laser DigPAD which turns handwriting into text, and archives your doodles and charts. Guess I won't be needing one.

small things that make a big difference

2006-06-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

A few posts back I talked about the browsers I use. My main browser of choice is Opera... I've been using that for a couple of years for its main advantage - speed.

Opera is 2 to 3 times faster than Internet Explorer. But it's not perfect. Sometimes it doesn't format some web pages correctly, often leaving essential buttons invisible. This blog is a good example... the button that allows me to insert graphics on a new post is not there.

So sometimes I use Firefox for the Alexa and Page Rank data it provides, and on very few occasions, Internet Explorer.

What is keeping me using Opera when it exhibits these flaws? The answer is gestures... this is the only browser which allows you to control it using the mouse gesture.

For example, if I want to close a page, I simply scribe the letter "L" with the mouse while holding a left click, and the page vanishes. If I want to create a new page, I simply left-click and hold, while drawing the mouse down vertically.

There are many other gestures, but believe me - these small actions simplify and speed up my browser work dramatically. Take Opera for a test ride... you may be converted.

the wave of the future

2006-06-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

If you want to get more out of your words, you need to make the written word interesting to read...brighten up the way it is presented. For example:

put your text into bullet points.

shorten your paragraphs down to 2 or 3 sentences.

use ellipses, color, bolding, italics, underlines and capitals in your text.

increase the number of subheadlines you use.

But most importantly - in this visual age - you've got to use graphics. Photographs, illustrations, line drawings, graphs, screenshots, video. They all help to make the web page more interesting and powerful.

In this blog - and more particularly my lotto blog - I've started using graphics in a big way. Take a look at my Honest Lotto System blog.

If you don’t have material from your own resources, you can get plenty of royalty-free photos and illustrations here:
- yotophoto.com
- sxc.hu
- morguefile.com

I use Photoshop to scale down full-size graphics, but you can also use a free service called JPEG Wizard

If you use Google's Blog to produce your blog, you can pull graphics files straight off your hard drive and have them automatically sized by this system.

Marketer Mark Joyner uses a daily cartoon and a small accompanying message in his blog. He relies on a link to his forum to generate discussion.

Visit Mark Joyner for more of his
personal development brain puzzle cartoons.

I believe this is the wave of the future... video and graphic illustration will become more powerful now that broadband is relatively cheap.

Don't underestimate the power of a picture!

how to develop a gut feeling for profit

2006-06-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

We often hear about a businessman having a gut feeling about a particular enterprise. This explains how some people can make money from an opportunity, and the rest of us don't.

A gut feeling is easily developed. All you need to do is read a lot, mix a lot, and constantly experiment with different opportunities. After a while you get a feel for what works and what doesn't. So here's the point of this post...

I figure there are two types of people who make money on the internet... or for that matter in any media. The first is proactive, action related, a fast mover. They tend to jump on opportunities as they first develop, and make big money until the trend quickly drops away.

The second--which is more my type... waits to see how a new trend develops, and if it looks profitable then climbs (cautiously) on the bandwagon. There can be much profit in both setups... just depends how quickly you want to accumulate the experience and financial benefits.

Which works best? Here's an example...

Over the years I've bought a lot of products, and looked at a lot of opportunities. In my business - e-book publishing - the current trend is to write articles with a byline and link, and post them on article directories. As the articles are taken and published by other entrepreneurs who need them, the link acts as a powerful search engine benefit... pushing your web site higher and gaining more traffic.

I've always thought that duplicate content produced this way would ultimately act negatively against the writer. So in the six months to a year that the article trend has been active, I haven't done anything about it.

While I might have lost the short-term opportunity, I'm actually better off.

What I figure will happen is this... the search engines will act to reduce the ranking position of web sites which have duplicate content pointing to them.

This means if you happen to get to number 10 rank in Google because of all the articles you have written and the promotional back links you gained, you will see your position drop as Google downrates your importance.

Multiple articles will actually act as a negative influence.

So now we wait to see whether this will happen. Call it gut feeling, or experience?

If so, it means that the long-term strategies I've been doing for many years are still the best. In the meantime I have a bunch of largely useless short-term products sitting on my hard drive!

success the Gary Halbert way

2006-05-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

Why do some people make a lot of money in business, and others don't?

What distinguishes the successful from the not?

And why can 100 people read the same book, or take the same course... and only one succeed?

I believe it has nothing to do with talent. It has a lot to do with persistence, but that's not the reason either.

The answer - for our marketing business - is: PERSONALITY.

This is the distinguishing attribute between the winners and losers.

The world is full of people with similar talents. The internet is rapidly showing how very many of us all think alike. Millions of us write the same, spell the same [think how many people can't use 'lose' correctly and spell 'loose' instead], and produce identical web sites... millions of us. Identical.

To stand out from the crowd, we need to show our true personality, and the weirder it is - the better.

To see how well an off-center personality can succeed, take a long look at The Gary Halbert Letters. Gary - by his own admission - is the best copywriter in the world... and he often presents a crazy attitude in his writing.

But his unique personality shines through, and people hire him for millions of dollars. He's worth studying.

While you're there, take a look at the Rolls-Royce letters. Read and learn from a master.

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UPDATE: Sadly Gary passed away in April 2007 at age 63.
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what's a Single Action website?

2006-05-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

One advantage in being around a long time is that you get to see the same things repeating themselves. The current trend is something called a "Single Action" web site.

I've been doing this for 10 years so it's nothing new to me - except that very few people know how to do it successfully.

I'm going to reveal the secrets now. But you won't need to write them down... it's all pretty simple.

Here's the secret:

1. Devote your web site sales page to one product only.
2. Never deviate from selling that product only.
3. Do not put another product on that page.

So what happens when you get a visitor to this kind of website? Yes... you guessed it...either the prospect wants the product, or they don't.

The outcome is simple if they do.

If they don't, you must have a way to attract them at another time. For that you use an opt-in mailing list with an autoresponder sequence of selling messages.

OK, the structure of such a setup is a bit more complicated. But mainly it's pretty simple. My "Home Publishing Secrets" is a good example of that. Take a look.

tool of the century

2006-05-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

If there's one tool I absolutely can't do without, it's a tiny application called ShortKeys. You store any kind of text... URLs, signatures, sentences, paragraphs, names, unusually spelled names... under any kind of keyword that you prefer.

When you enter that keyword, ShortKeys retrieves your full text and pastes it into practically anything... webpages, emails, toolbars.

Now, that all seems very convenient, but unless you can remember your keywords, it's not much use. So defining the keyword is the secret.

I have what appears to be a complex set of keywords, but to me they are entirely logical. For example:

I use W to indicate a URL. then I used the first letters of the web site. So:
wks typed will give me "http://www.kensilver.com."
wct will type "http://www.copywritingtool.com."

Using this simple code, you can produce anything. I found my typing workload has decreased by at least half. And of course, I never make a mistake in important text, like my signature files.

home (self) publishing secrets

2006-05-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

I wrote "How To Make $100,000 A Year Part-Time Creating Profitable How-To Manuals" about 10 years ago, and it was a very popular e-book. It's still available from me here: Home Publishing Secrets

I found one of the most effective ways to reduce refunds on a physical product - as small as they were for me at the time - was to shrinkwrap the manual. You can apply the same principle to any hardcopy product. Read more about that tip at Home Publishing Secrets

what's this browser doing so high in my top 5?

2006-05-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

I got a surprise today when I looked up my browser stats from visitors. Internet Explorer was top dog of course, but in 2nd place was a relative newcomer over the last year - Firefox. Here's the percentages for the top 5 as they figure in my website life:

Internet Explorer - 86.3 %
Firefox - 9.5 %
Netscape - 1.4 %
Safari - 1.2 %
Opera - 0.5 %

They all have their uses. I use each one separately for different purposes:

Opera as a daily browser for its speed (it's 2-3 times faster than IE!)

Firefox for its built-in Google Page Rank and Alexa toolbar, and keyword density calculator. More about that later.

IE for some operations that Opera won't do for some unknown reason. For example, Opera won't allow me to add a new newsletter in my favorite autoresponder, GetResponse

I test every new webpage through these 3 browsers before releasing them to the world, and I recommend you run your webpages through the top 3.

I'll be writing about many more tools in upcoming posts, but it's surprising how few you need to run a profitable internet business.

how I got to 1st place in Google - in 24 hours

2006-05-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

I hadn't done anything search engine related with my Honest Lotto System website for many years. Affiliates have been the prime driving force for my sales most of that time.

Consequently it was so far down on Google's search engine that I couldn't find it at all.

So last week I decided to do a couple of things to get it moving along...

1. Increase the number of keywords.
2. Redesign the website to make it more search engine friendly.

And it took just 24 hours to jump straight to 1st position!

You can get more detail on how I did it at my Copywriting Tool page... it's in the newsletter.

And welcome... this is the first post of my second blog. My other blog has been running since last year, and is How to Win At Lotto.