This Halloween I might dress as the economy. I can’t think of any scarier. You’re right to be scared too, especially if you’re a nonprofit and beholden to funders, because you’ve got to make the case why you need a good website. Hold on. Reality check: you aren’t thinking of cutting funding for your own […]

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”710″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”320″,”height”:”480″,”alt”:”Dead Computers”}}]] [Image: Flickr user ultrahi] Sometimes it pays to go for a walk around the neighborhood on trash day. Last week I found a Mac computer sitting on the curb waiting for the garbage guys to take it away. It didn’t look like anything was wrong with it, so I lugged it home, plugged

My partner spotted one of these at the jQuery conference in Boston on Sunday. It’s a cheap ($249.99 on Newegg.com) and adequately powered (2GB) tiny (2 lbs, 7″) laptop. It’s the perfect little buddy to take with you to conferences, off-site meetings or other events. It’s also got a solid-state disk, which means you can

I found a great thought on one of my favorite websites Useit.com the other day, and a powerful argument for having your own name for your blog. Jacob Nielsen says: Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”709″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”500″,”height”:”333″,”alt”:”Plastic 52: Week 3″}}]] [Image: Flickr user ElDave] Sometimes, you have to hate them. When your computer stops working, it’s their job to fix it, and pronto. Who can blame you for popping a few capillaries when you’re on hold for countless minutes or waiting for a response to an e-mail you sent last week?

In the next few years, we’re going to be hearing even more about so-called microblogging. So it’s not a bad idea to start reading about it now. Besides, many organizations are using microblogging with products such as Twitter to great effect (follow me on Twitter, if you’re curious). An article in BusinessWeek talks about how

Backups are the buzzkill of most people who work on computers. Being organized is often tedious. But spending a few minutes on a regular basis making sure that the information on your computer is safely stored somewhere else for emergency retrieval is time well spent. SimpleTech Signature Mini makes the job a little less tedious,

[This is the third in a series about e-mail. Read earlier posts under the category e-mail.] Emoticons, short for “emotion icons,” and also known as smileys, are punctuation combinations that can help soften an informal message. Here are some frequently used emoticons and their definitions. Use them in moderation; too many can make your messages

[This is the third in a series about e-mail. Read earlier posts under the category e-mail.] Here are a few easy tips for tidying up messy messages: Check spelling and grammar before sending. Spell-check goes a long way toward making you sound smarter, but some people surprisingly don’t use it. Don’t use all caps. I

[This is the second in a series about e-mail. Read earlier posts under the category e-mail.] It seems e-mail overload is inevitable as long as people reach for the sometimes sinister “cc” field. By including everyone in your address book, or even a handful of people who you might like to include in a discussion,