Helping you effectively select and use innovative and appropriate technology

What? Do you know what that means? If you do, you are in the wrong place.

Do you know what someone means when they say they need more bandwidth? Or mouse potato? Ok – I have not heard that one either – but it is the online version of a couch potato.

What about Twitter – have you heard that in conversation and stuffed a cookie in your mouth rather than show your ignorance?

Or seen text messages like PA (which means Parent Alert) on your kids phone and wondered what they mean?

Well – Netlingo is a great site to help you with new fangled acronyms. They have a special section on text messages. You could even Google it from your iPhone.! 

Do you have trouble finding the perfect color combination.  I know what I like when I see it, but I love color so much, I cannot always weed out the bad combinations.  There are lots of color generators out there, but these sites will inspire you:

colorcombos.com - skip all the ads and scroll down

Kuler- this is too much fun!

Daily Color Scheme

Web Design Resources - again - skip the adds and scroll down.  A nice long list of combinations.

These are in no particular order:

Purchasing:

Consistent Computer Bargains, Inc. - good prices for nonprofits

Tech Stock- eligible organizations can apply for donated technology products at the lowest possible cost

Gifts in Kind -  contact your local United Way about this program.  Sometimes it takes a while, but it is great to see what they have.

Researching Software:

Social Source Commons - categorized information posted by lots of people

Tech Soup - a free and open discussion about software and other useful topics

Ideal Ware - candid information about nonprofit software

My son got Vonage a couple of years ago and liked it.  When I moved my office out of the house, I decided to try it. I pay around $23.00 for 500 Minutes a month.  $14.99 for service and about $10 in taxes.  Glad I looked, I only have 43 minutes left for the next 3 days.

I also have the visual voice mail for .25 a message.  If I am not in the office, I get and email with the translation of callers message with a .wav file attached of the voicemail. I am not sure who is translating these, but here is one example. This was from a guy who was picking up a tent I was donating to the Scouts.

“Hi. This is (Tom Jeff?) calling. I’m just calling about the couple of plunge. I will be headed to town tomorrow afternoon at respectable time bigger on the whole 4:00. Maybe we could get hooked up on that and get that hand off to keep on plan to forward. give me a call tonight  if you want  and see you tomorrow. Thank you.Bye-bye.”

Translation: Hi, this is Tom Chapman calling.  We’ve spoke about that REI tent a couple of times. I will be headed through town tomorrow afternoon at respectable time.  I can be there before 4:00. Maybe we can get hooked up on that and get that tent handed off and see if I can find a home for it.  You can give me a holler later tonight if you want.

So as you can see, it’s good that I can listen to it!

Set up – It was incredibly easy to install.  It came with a modem that I plugged into to our router and then I plugged in my regular phone and boom — I had a new phone.

At first I had a phone number that was long distance from Kansas City, so I had to have it changed so it was a “metro number”.

Support – I’ve only had to call them a couple of times.  One time the service was really good, and the other time it was pretty bad.

Speed Problem - My biggest ongoing issue is my broadband provider’s speed.  People say I’m breaking up sometimes. I suspect that my upload speed which runs in the 120’s according to Speakeasy is not enough.  My broadband company says to reboot their modem and that seems to help. Vonage also allows you to choose how much bandwidth you give to them – which I have maxed out.

Overall – I love it.  I’d give it thumbs up.  I can also take it with me if I go somewhere – but that seems a little extreme.

Want to try it? Contact me and I’ll give you my vonage number.  cheryl @ cherylh.com

TechSmith, creators of Camtasia, has created a great little screen casting program called JING. It is resident on your desktop at all times, and can capture screenshots, with voiceover, quickly and easily. All you need to do is choose an area of your screen, and click the record button and start talking. I did a few tests with it and found it very easy - and even fun - to use. I did a few tests, here is one.

Did I mention it is FREE?

I just got back from the NTEN conference. If you don’t know about NTEN - please check it out. It is chock full of ideas, information, blogs, newsletters, lists and more that can help you come into the 21st century whether you are a nonprofit or a consultant.

Three of my clients were there - but more about that later.  For now, just check out NTEN!

Solpath - believes the grant-making community should determine what software providers deliver. Hum - interesting concept.

They have prepared 4 reports thus far:

• A Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems
• A View of the Grants Management System Marketplace
• Grants Management Software Interview Analysis Report
• Grants Management Software Survey Results and Analysis