Wahooo! I Won a 3-wall National Title

My body aches and probably will for the next week, but it's all worth it cause I just won the "A" 3-wall Nationals Singles tournament for 2008! My partner and I also came in second in "A" doubles. We were one point away in a tiebreaker... so close!

It was a good reminder to the things in life outside my work/business/computer. It also helps with motivation for improvements in my handball game and the desire to want to take it to the next level. There were some extremely impressive players out there and I will continue to try to take my game as far as I can.

My Annual Handball Trip

I'm out at 3-wall nationals right now in the middle of Ohio. It is an annual trip I've made for the past 7 or 8 years. The handball community is a wonderful thing. It just transcends some many communities. First, handball is a family. Not just your family (it's often to see generations of handball players from ages 13-75), everyone here is like family. When out at a national tournament you have people from California, Texas, Canada, Ireland, New York, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and of course Maryland and the DC area. This tournament is also a time I spend with my dad every year.

All the insanity of around of starting a business, makes it easy to forget. I did almost miss it, because I was working myself too much earlier this summer and for awhile there didn't think I would make the trip. It's important to remember there are other areas to life that need attention and give you balance. Traditions are a good force!

Philips VOIP841 Review Update

I've still been using the Philips VOIP841 and still love it.

Here are a few other issues / points I've noticed:

1. System Starting - Sometimes after being on for a long time it ends up non-responsive all it says is "System Starting" - Unplug the base station and plug it back in, always works for me.

2. Adding contacts - from the phone isn't the most intuitive. There is a "Add Contact" menu option in the main menu. I kept looking for it in the Contacts area.

3. Chat messages - I would love for the phone to support chat messages. It could handle it just like a text message on a mobile phone. I'm sure this is a tall order, but I still want it.

4. Contacts from your Skype account - Not sure when a syncing interval happens, but it's not near immediate. That's somewhat annoying. Maybe there should be a request updates from your account or something.

5. Amendment to my last review (#2 on the wish list) - The device DOES have a headset jack. For some reason I totally missed it.


Overall I still love the device. It's essential to my home office!

To Blog or Not to Blog

Every day I wonder if I should be blogging more. It's all the rage you know. Everyone is doing it! Honestly I am still trying to figure out why I should be doing it.

Why to do it?
1. It can enhance my "web persona" and drive traffic to my web business.
2. I can potentially help other people in the world with what I post.
3. I can practice informal writing and funnel abstract thoughts and ideas into something others are interested in.
4. Find out what this is all about and give blogging a chance.

Why not?
1. It takes time.
2. I hate feeding the hype machine and doing something EVERYONE is doing.
3. Worried about offending people.
4. I don't quite understand it.
5. I don't enjoy proclaiming myself as the master of some top 10 list or something that I may not be a subject matter expert on.
6. Fear my time is wasted in it and no one really cares what I think.


Personally blogging is tough for me. I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone else.

1. I have plenty of ideas on what to blog about but want to keep them in line with a certain topic. Is this a personal blog (all topics centric to me), or a blog on a certain topic?
2. Many of these ideas are incomplete thoughts, if I post something I want it to be complete, which takes time.
3. I am worried about what I say / put into writing and have to one day defend it when I don't even remember what I said. At the point of writing I am sure it made sense to me, but I don't like something out there that I may not agree with later.

After looking over my reasoning, I think a lot of the reasons not to do it boil down to discomfort. Discomfort in the medium. Discomfort in my own writing. Discomfort in the time it takes away from other things.

I'm going to give it a try. To be less formal and to just see if it's something I can get into and understand. See if I can find my blogging voice.

Free Easy No Registration Phone Conferencing

Problem: Just for those times when multiple remote people are emailing back and forth on a hot discussion and you just need to get everyone on the same page for a quick discussion.

As my business grows, there more times when I need to quickly get people on a call. At the company I used to work for, I remember some overhead to reserve a conference bridge, or go to a room with a good duplex speaker phone. Of course in my placeless office, I don't have my own conference bridge.

Solution: I've started using Powwownow for quick phone conferencing, where I can just pick a pin number, send it out to people, dial in and BAM you're in.

Some advantages I see:
- Instant Access with no Registration
- International Calls and Skype Access that will also lower the costs for international users.

Some concerns:
- With the quick Open Access, you have to create your own PIN and there is no guarantee that someone else isn't using it at the same time, but of course that leads you to at least want to register.
- Confusion in the different phone numbers they have. There is one for "Open Access" (American Accent) and one for "Enhanced Access" (British Accent)

Hope it works well for you too!

*I have not researched or used a lot of other services, but if I find the need to explore more, I will. I also have not used any of their "Web Conferencing"

Placeless Office Tools: Cost Effective Fax Center Setup

Part of running a business requires both sending and receiving faxes. I typically send and receive business contracts and other items that require signatures for verification once every couple of months. I wanted a solution that allowed me to send and receive faxes from anywhere, but charged me purely on usage.

The Internet is not short on web sites that set you up with "virtual fax machines". Most of the sites charge monthly subscription fees for their services, ranging from $10-$20 per month for basic accounts. Since I have such a low frequency of fax usage, this solution did not work for me.

Recently I've discovered a way to pay per fax sent over the Interet instead of the recurring fee, so my costs match my usage. Receiving is even better, I've coupled my solution with one of the traditional faxing websites for receiving all my faxes for free with a private number.

Sending Faxes

PamFax: http://www.pamfax.com/

• Requires Installation
• Requires Skype (Which I already have as part of my placeless office ensamble)
• Has a nice "Portal" interface to view your fax history.

Receiving Faxes

jConnect: http://www.j2.com/

• Sign up for "JConnect Free" and get a dedicated number and unlimited receives.
• Beware of assaults of "Upgrade to Premier" at every turn. (A good example on ramming it down a users throat)
• Don't install j2 Messenger to read your faxes... First, it's a horrible interface. Second you just don't need it. When you get the file in your email of a received fax, save the file with the PNG extention.
• Aside from that, the service works very well and serves my purpose!

Before today, I would just run out to Staples and pay per page. Sorry Staples... Also beware of http://www.faxdigits.com/ for receiving, my first attempt the number was busy (and they state it is never busy) and the second attempt never showed up in my inbox.

Sony VAIO - Hibernation Keeps Happening Issue

I have had my Sony VAIO SZ340P with Windows XP SP2 for almost a year. (Since May of 2007). The only issue I have had with it is what seemed to be random re-hibernation after coming out of hibernation.

Problem Details
1. Hibernate laptop by button or closing the lid.
2. Transport laptop
3. Un-hibernate laptop
4. Screen comes up for a few seconds then automatically goes into hibernation again.

For months I thought it was related to hibernation or starting back up with various conditions; was it plugged in when hibernating, was it running just on battery when starting back up, if I hibernated by closing the lid. It was really annoying and couldn't pin point it.

I scoured the Internet and didn't find anything on it. Finally I fixed it and I thought it was worthy of posting about it so maybe it would help someone else if they googled it.


Solution
1. Go to "Power Options" under Control Panel
2. Go to the "Advanced" tab
3. Under the "When I close the lid of my portable computer:" select "Do nothing"


My assumption is that somehow the event of closing the lid gets triggered even if the computer is already hibernated or is hibernating or is coming out of hibernation... and once it comes back up, it sees the trigger and back into hibernation it goes. It has never looped, it was always just one or zero time. It probably has not affected anyone but me, but I hope it helps someone!