JSesh – Jonathan Sessions lives here.

E-mail can become burden rather than time-saver

October 20, 2007 No Comments

Checking and responding to e-mail is one of the biggest time consumers in the modern office these days. How has one of the most successful leaps in technology and necessary components of the office become such a burden? The system is misused and abused. It is not just spammers causing harm, but also family, friends, co-workers, and sometimes even ourselves. Almost 70 percent of the e-mails sent in September were spam, according to Symantec’s State of Spam monthly report. If you are not using spam filters on your mail server or mail application, you are probably wasting time going through e-mails you do not need. If you are using Outlook, make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft (http://office,microsoft.com). Whether using a Mac operating system or Windows, select the “Mark as Junk” feature, rather than just deleting junk messages. Those systems continuously learn. As you mark more things as junk, the more the system understands what is junk and filters it out before it gets to your inbox. Family and friends also hamper e-mail productivity. I will be the first to admit I have sent non-business related e-mails, but I do not mass-forward them. Most chain e-mails are as functional as chain letters (and usually about as accurate). Mars will never appear to be the same size as the moon, dialing *77 on your mobile phone will not contact the highway patrol, and, although Bill Gates is giving away his money, it is not going to people who have mastered the art of the forward button. I recommend going to Hoax Slayer (www.hoax-slayer.com) and Urban Legends Reference (www.snopes.com); check the validity of your message before passing it along. Finally, I believe we are our own worst enemy. We do not use e-mails as we should. We work too quickly,

Once you go Mac, you may never go back

August 11, 2007 No Comments

Working at one of the very few Macintosh shops in town, my colleagues and I get many questions about “switching.” People have seen the ads on TV–”I’m a mac; I’m a P.C.”–and the iPhone spots. Some “switchers” are familiar with Apple products; they have iPods and have used iTunes. Others are shopping for new computers and want to see what the Mac has to offer. One thing potential switches have in common: misconceptions about how a Mac can help them. One misconception is that a Macintosh computer isn’t a “business machine.” But many companies in Columbia have discovered otherwise. Woodruff Sweitzer, an advertising agency, is an all Mac company, utilizing more than 30 Mac desktops and servers, with only a couple Microsoft Windows based servers. While advertising is a creative field in which Mac platforms are commonly used in design and production, at Woodruff Sweitzer, all departments of the office are using Macs: design, traffic, accounting, even the people in the corner offices. For them, Macs manage all aspects of the business. They have no trouble with compatibility, using Microsoft Office for Mac. They even used Microsoft Exchange–running on a Windows server–for e-mail and calendar management in Entourage (a Mac program similar to Microsoft Outlook). Bill Costello, director of business development at Woodruff Sweitzer, shared his story of migrating back and forth between Windows and Mac. In his opinion, the intuitive nature of the Mac “blows Windows away,” and after using a Mac, going back to Windows was cumbersome and difficult. Being back on a Mac, he says, he is able to work more efficiently. One of Costello’s favorite features of the Mac is Apple’s Keynote software. Keynote is Apple’s answer to PowerPoint. While it is able to import and export PowerPoint files, native Keynote presentations look exponentially more sophisticated

Creativity of Programmers in Web 2.0 Allows use of Internet as Application Platform

July 28, 2007 No Comments

Meetings are a missive drain on valuable time, but what other options are there to keep everyone on the same page? E-mail? Inboxes quickly become filled with messages with the subject line reading “RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: july 10th meeting.” How can the modern office use technology to speed up productivity and keep employees out of the conference room? One possible answer is web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a buzzword tossed around increasingly these days to describe the shift toward using the internet as an application platform. Simply put, it is using sites on the internet as programs. The idea is: web 1.0 was a viewable resource; web 2.0 is interactive; publishing becomes participation. Web 2.0 is a new way of building websites. However, the technology behind these sites is old. The tools of web 2.0 sites are pre-existing standards that have been around for many years. All that has changed is the creativity of the programmers constructing the sites. Because these are standards, there is nothing needed to use web 2.0 on your computer (except, in some cases, a browser update, which is free); most likely, you are already using it. Sites such as facebook.com ,wikipedia.org and flickr.com are all considered web 2.0. Although these sites are great examples of how web 2.0 works, they are not business solutions. A client approached me just last week, needing his technology organized. In addition to receiving e-mails synchronized between several computers and a mobile phone, he needed something to manage his workflow and collaborate with his employees, while in a mobile setting. He was hoping to make e-mail cater to his needs, but e-mail has serious limitations. Once e-mails start flowing in, it is easy for things to slip through the cracks. He needed a program that would

Despite flaws, iPhone lives up to hype

July 14, 2007 No Comments

Many reviewers have concluded that the iPhone is not a business tool, classifying it as nothing more than a fancy toy for people with deep pockets. Being an apple consultant and an “iPod aficionado,” I decided to put these claims to the test. Before getting my iPhone, I was using a Blackberry 8700. With a full keyboard, push email, web browser and computer sync, consumers can’t get much more in a business phone. The Blackberry is also more than two-and-a-half inches wide and eight tenths of an inch thick, and not easily slipped into a pocket. After using the iPhone for a week as my business and personal phone, I was satisfied with how well it functions. However I have found a few limitations that might prevent the iPhone from being suitable for everyone. After waiting in line for four hours and dropping $600, I became one of the estimated 500,000 people to get an iPhone on launch day. The iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m., and I was home by 6:30. Because I was not an AT&T customer, I needed to create a new account and activate the phone, both accomplished through iTunes in a simple five-screen process. The steps included entering information to have my existing phone number ported over to AT and T and choosing one of its plans, all of which are incredibly affordable and comparable (I am saving money each month by switching from my Blackberry). By 7:30 my iPhone was synchronized with information from my computer, my phone number had transferred, and I was receiving calls. By now, most people have seen the TV advertisements for the iPhone. I cannot stress enough that the commercials do not do the iPhone justice. The phone is sleek, simple to use and intuitive. The phone is

Welcome to JSesh.com

Tech Sessions

E-mail can become burden rather than time-saver

Once you go Mac, you may never go back

Creativity of Programmers in Web 2.0 Allows use of Internet as Application Platform

Despite flaws, iPhone lives up to hype