MediaGirl Toolbox

Friday, February 9, 2007

LogMeIn.com

A few years ago, I elected to start working on a desktop machine instead of a laptop. This change was great because of the benefits... faster machine, larger monitor, etc. However, when I had to travel, I always struggled with loading all my current project files onto my laptop. Also, I had to move email, contacts, passwords, software... basically everything. This was always a nightmare and inevitably involved me forgetting something important behind.

Just before Thanksgiving before leaving on a trip to Telluride, I decided to look for remote desktop software that would allow me to log into my desktop to grab files or complete any quick tasks. I tested several services out and was pretty disappointed with the results. Then I came upon LogMeIn, which ended up being exactly what I was looking for in remote access software. The best part is it was free!

Here's a quick Flash demo

Now when I travel, I leave my desktop computer on and log into it whenever I need to access a contact, get a password and, if the Internet connection I'm using is fast enough, I can even do work.

Also, I recently found another use for the service... I have clients or other programmers log into my machine when it's more helpful if we are looking at the same content, code or whatever. This is great for demos, training, website reviews, etc.

I've found one limitation and one concern with LogMeIn... The limitation is that only one person at a time can log into my machine remotely at a time so I can't do group training. The concern is that I have no way to remotely reboot my machine if I'm traveling and it turns off somehow.

All in all, I'm very impressed with LogMeIn's free account and suggest the service 100%!

0 Comments | Post a comment | Filed Under: Freelance, Tools

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Death2Spam

Death2Spam is the best thing since the Internet and the smartest purchase I made this year. Since I've started using the filtering service it has identified 46% of my incoming email as spam. $35 per email account, per year. Run, don't walk to sign up today. You will not regret it for a second.

Here are myDeath2Spam filtering stats to-date:

0 Comments | Post a comment | Filed Under: Tools

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Web Design Contracts

Here is a list of free contracts that I found for website design & related services. Make sure you go through and customize the text to reflect how you do business.

These contracts are perfect for small design agencies, freelancer designers and freelance programmers.

1. Wilson Web Design Contract
2. Independent Contractor's Agreement
3. Web Development Agreement
4. Website Design Contract
5. 4 Sample Web Design Contracts
6. Website Design & Maintenance Contracts
7. Web Site Design contract

2 Comments | Post a comment | Filed Under: Freelance, Tools

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The People’s Toolbox

It never hurts to have a tool box, especially one pre-populated with great websites that can get you quick answers. For a quick access toolbox. check out The People's Toolbox... or more specifically... the programmer's toolbox or the web designer's toolbox.

The site offers website links specific to programmers and web designers broken down by category. If you register you can add your own links and you can create a toolbox populated with links that you add.

0 Comments | Post a comment | Filed Under: Coding, Tools

Monday, January 8, 2007

CodeFetch

Coding isn't rocket science but it does take some serious brain power and brain storage! Can you image what get's deleted from your memory when you have to file away all those little tidbits of code. I'm at the point now where I barely remember my childhood.

So I was pleased to come across CodeFetch during a recent Internet browsing session. In a nutshell, it's a free service that allows you to search the source code of programming books by programming language... Flash ActionScript, PHP, HTML / CSS, Perl, Python... The results returned by CodeFetch are usefully formatted and very detailed. Give it a try.

0 Comments | Post a comment | Filed Under: Coding, Tools