telecommute

Yes, the long anticipated Firefox 3 Web Browser is finally here. It became available yesterday and according to Information Week it’s fast!

There are many enhancements made to the Firefox 3 browsers. Besides the increase in speed, there is easier navigation, super simple bookmarking, an awesome address location bar, download manager, improved full page zoom capabilities, text enhancements, instant website identification, and many more. Actually, according to Mozilla, there has been 15,000 enhancements.

The download of the new version of Firefox has been incredible. For the first 24 hours, the download was at 4%. Quite impressive.

So, if you are a huge Firefox fan as I am, you can download the new version here

On Friday, June 6, 2008 episode of ABC’s The View, a segment on scanning business receipts came on that I thought would be useful to some of you telecommuters out there.

As telecommuters, we can oftentimes take tax deductions for home office expenses. (Of course, check with your accountant first).Things like computers, ink, printer, fax, paper, postage, computer supplies, and others. Well, there is a neat little device and program, aptly called Neat Receipts, that will help you maintain and analyze your receipts virtually without having to keep all that PAPER!

The device was demonstrated on The View and it seemed really simple. One thing I liked about it was that it was very small and seemed portable. It seemed like it would be useful for the business traveler that has to fill out those dredged expense reports.

The feature I really liked about it was that it comes with software that allows you to organize and analyze your receipts. You can export statements to Excel, Turbo Tax, Quicken, and QuickBooks. You can also scan business cards.

I really like what this product claims to do. In honor of their segment on ABC’s The View, they are offering a $20 discount using the coupon code found on their site. How cool is that?

The price listed today on NeatReceipts.com was $199.95 but you can also purchase Neat Receipts at Staples, Amazon, Costco, Target, Buy.com, Office Max, Best Buy, Sky Mall, Office Depot and a couple of other places.

You can read more about it here.

I stumbled across this free download to create free PDF’s. PDF’s stands for Portable Document Format. I use PDFs a lot so I was happy to see this free version. PDF’s are secure documents that are widely used to distribute reliable and quality documents throughout the web.

The program actually installs itself as printer and works with any program that has a “print” menu option.

So what is the program called and where can I get it? The free program is called Cute PDF writer. It’s the free version of the popular commercial Adobe PDF.

It’s an easy download, easy to install, and easy to use. Once you have created your document, simply click PRINT. You will be prompted to choose the printer you want to use. Choose Cute PDF Writer. Make sure you save the document with the PDF File option.

You can download the program at cutepdf.com or at cnet.com.

Google sites is a new free website creation tool that Google claims can be used for such things as sharing information on a secure company intranet to connecting with family members to collaborating on a team project.

You can choose website themes and can edit the website just like a document. Attachments can be uploaded as well, links can be added, images can be inserted, and documents can be embedded. Pages can be added through the create pages feature. There are different pages with different features. Pages such as announcements, lists, dashboards, and others. It’s single simple click creation with no HTML needed.

There is site sharing and you can decide who and how many people can view or edit the site. In other words, the website can be public, semi-private, or private. You can allow access to view or edit the website by email addresses. In other words, you can allow multiple people such as students of a classroom or members of a club to submit and edit content.

Check out Google Sites today!

I wrote about Indeed.com, the mega job search website, yesterday. Well, they added a new search criteria that is sure to be very popular.

Now, you can search by estimated salary. That’s right, by salary that Indeed.com estimated for the search terms in addition to by job title, company name, keywords, and location all in one spot. And you still get results from all the major job boards, company career web pages, newspapers, and associations.

For example, to locate all Office Manager positions estimated to earn an annual salary of at least $40,000 per year, just key in Office Manager $40,000. Indeed.com will do the rest.

Per Indeed.com, they estimate salaries by using a proprietary methodology. Since many job postings don’t contain salary information, the proprietary methodology that Indeed.com uses is based on an analysis of similar job listings that include salaries.

This estimated salary feature is still in Beta, so they are requesting your feedback.

Have you heard about the job search site called Indeed.com? It was ranked one of the Top Ten websites of 2007 by Time Magazine.

Indeed.com is a job search engine. But not your ordinary job search engine. Indeed searches multiple major job boards, newspapers, associations, and company career web pages to report on your search terms and criteria.

You can search by job title, keyword, or company name as well as the optional city, state, or zip code. It compiles all results from many different sources such as Career Builder, Pro Blogger, Monster, Yahoo, Dice, newspapers, and company websites.

A nice feature of the site is that you can save your search criteria (keyword, job title, company name) and you can have the results delivered to you through an RSS feed or email.

It’s great! If you are looking for a job, try Indeed.com. You may just find what you are looking for!

If so, you may be interested to know there is now a virtual equivalent of those yellow “sticky” notes to add to your addiction. The manufacturer of this ever popular office staple, 3M, now has a virtual version of the post-it notes to use on your PC’s desktop. And best of all, it is free!

The virtual post-it note freeware is aptly named Post-it Software Notes Lite. It mimics the famous classic sticky pad notes. You can link an alarm to a note, change font size and color, but you stuck with the classic yellow color of the notes. You can even add pictures to the notes and print the notes as well.

The small program sits in your system tray. To pull up a new sticky note, just hover you mouse over the icon and use your mouse to peel off the new sticky note. It even mimics the actual sound of peeling a real post-it note.

Keep in mind this is a very basic software program. There are other programs out there that offer more extensive functionality and features but come with a price tag or monthly subscription fee. However, if you are just looking for a free basic “virtual” version of the classic post-it notes, then this free tool may be for you.

To download this freeware program, head on over to Cnet.com and search for Post-it Software Notes Lite. As of the date of this writing, there has been 1,703,538 downloads.

Obtaining a work at home or telecommute position can be difficult. Competition is fierce for these jobs. Oftentimes, the hiring manager or recruiter gets substantially more resumes for a telecommuting/work at home/remote/virtual position, that he or she gets for a traditional outside of the home job.

So, what can you do to help you stand out from the crowd? Brainbench is there to help. There are about 20 free certifications that you can get including MS Excel 2007, MS PowerPoint, 2007, MS Word 2007, MS Windows Vista Desktop, Java 2 Fundamentals, and many others. A lot of the free certifications are in the IT area. There are about 600 other Certification Tests, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe PageMaker, Internet Research Techniques and Resources, QuickBooks, Quicken, and many, many more. Most of the fee based certifications come with a $49.95 fee.

Besides the individual skill certifications, Brainbench offers Job Role Certifications. I
saw quite a few that were relevant to the telecommuting world. Positions such as Editor, Financial Analyst, Market Research Analyst, Web Administrator, Web Designer, Legal Secretary, IT Manager, Human Resources Professional, Technical Writer, and the list goes on.

So, if you want to stand out from the crowd, a Brainbench certification, may just help to give you a leg up on your competition.

Has this happened to you one time or the other when working at home on your computer? You’re humming along just fine working away through your company’s system, website, or intranet. Then suddenly you get an error message or the system’s output changes. I know it has happened to me once or twice (ok more than that – but who’s counting, right?).

So, you email your boss and he or she tells you to email him/her a screen shot. Yes, the tech people need that to help figure out the problem. Oh, ok, you think to yourself. How in the heck do I do that? Well, have no fear as I will tell you how here. It’s quite simply really.

To capture your entire computer screen, locate the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It can be in various places depending on your keyboard, but most keyboards have this button in the upper right hand corner of the keyboard.

Hit that Print Screen button.

Next, open up your imaging software. Paint works just fine. You will find the Paint program by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint.

Open up the Paint program and select Paste - Ctrl + V or choose the Edit, then Paste menu in Paint. This will paste the entire image of the computer screen into the Paint software. You can then use the Paint’s cropping features to alter the image is needed.

Next, just again Paste this image into an email or Word document and you are all set.

Suppose you only want to capture the current window you are working in. You can do this by holding down the ALT button while simultaneously holding down the Print Screen button.

So now you know how to capture a screen shot! Try it out, it’s actually quite neat!

Jott, currently a free tool and in Beta stage, converts your voice into emails or text messages. Jott also converts your messages into lists, appointments, and reminders. How cool is that?

Jott’s been discussed all over the web now, from The Wall Street Journal to CNN to The New York Times. And its starting to make it’s way through the blogging circles. From what I read, it’s getting a lot of thumbs up.

Okay, so how does it work? Simple. You just simply call (866) JOTT-123l and leave whatever message you need a reminder for (i.e. Email report to John, email baby’s photos to Grandma, make chocolate cake for birthday party) and Jott will transcribe and deliver that message to your email. Ah the beauty of voice recognition technology!

Jott can have many uses, but many of its’ fans use it for reminders. They call the toll free number from their cell phone when they are away from the computer to remind them to do certain things.

Other really cool features is that it sync with the Google calendar to help create appointments. The newest thing is that they have Jott for the BlackBerry. Oh boy, I bet the CrackBerry Addicts sure love that!

If you are a Jotter, let me know the ways in which you have found it to be helpful!