Google has developed a handy set of tips and tricks to help you use Gmail or Goggle Apps better.  The tips are broken down into 'Ninja' categories ranging from While Belt to Gmail Master.  The levels are supposed to correspond to how many emails you have to manage each day.  I found the tips to be useful reminders about some of the unique features available to Gmail and Google Apps users. 

It is definitely worth spending a few minutes thinking about how you are going to sort your emails.  With the amount of emails many of us receive each day it is very easy to let some slip through the cracks. 

Become a Gmail Ninja. 

I'm surprised in my talks with people, that many of them have heard the term cloud computing.  I would almost venture to say (in my informal analysis) that more people have heard about cloud computing than Software as a Service or SaaS. 

Cloud computing certainly is a good buzzword.  I'd think we all at one point in our life lay on a lawn staring up at clouds trying to find shapes and animals in the sky. 

Clouds tend to evoke happy feelings of nature and childhood.  What is ironic is that the computing cloud lies within data centers that now consume more electricity annually than Sweden--not exactly nature-like.  And these data centers are tightly regulated and secured--not exactly child friendly.

Now cloud computing or SaaS does have many benefits especially for small businesses.  When you run you applications on servers in data centers  (aka the cloud) you are given access to very powerful computers as well as fast internet connections.  For the price, a small business would not get the same power with a server running in the office. 

Another one of the benefits of running applications in the cloud is that small businesses no longer need to worry about a server breaking.  In the cloud, the servers are all maintained by professionals. 

Certainly cloud computing is not the best fit for every small business, but it is definitely worth taking a look at as a way to reduce IT costs and the hassle of running your own servers. 

The New York Times has a very interesting article about the data centers that run the cloud.  If nothing else checkout the slideshow of great pictures that take you inside some of the nation's largest data centers.

The Washington Post recently reported that several individuals were arrested for hacking into business phone systems (PBX Systems that are widely used in small and medium sized businesses) and running up $55 million dollars in phone charges.  

What I think is worth noting is that these PBX systems could have had the best security and the latest software patches and they were still just as vulnerable, because of the weak passwords.  

The reason these PBX systems were able to be hacked was because the default passwords were left on the system.  A weak password for a computer system is akin to a medieval castle having 10 foot thick walls and a wide mote surrounding it, but no one bothers to close the gate when the attackers come.  

When I talk with people about network security the conversation usually centers around having the latest software patches and security updates.  While this is very important (and there is little excuse for not keeping up with this) I think the conversation needs to move more towards creating good passwords.  

I know that it is almost impossible to keep all the usernames and passwords for the hundreds of websites and devices we have to log into.  I'll admit that I have Firefox save many of my passwords so I don't have to type them in every-time I visit a site, but I don't think this is where the biggest vulnerability lies.  

With so many sites and computers accessible via the web, users should take more care to pick stronger passwords.  Passwords that involve a loved one, or hobby or birthday are always a bad choice because those types of passwords are the ones first tried by hackers.  

Again with the PBX systems that were remotely broken into, it wasn't because users had saved there passwords, but because no one bothered to change the default passwords.  

Had the administrators of the PBX system simply chosen a stronger password, they would have been spared in hundreds of bogus phone bills.  

One technique I like to use is to create a password from a phrase that I will always remember.  

For instance, the quote, "To be or not to be" could be made into the password: 'Tbontb' or '2bontb' each password would be difficult to crack, and yet easy to remember.

Here some other online resources to help you pick better passwords:

1. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~help/security/choosing_passwords.html
2. http://pharmacy.ucsf.edu/pharmd/students/comp/accounts/choose/
3. http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
4. http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/hacking101/a/password.htm

I know that many people have difficulty wrapping their minds around the fact that open source software exists and continues to flourish.  (I often have difficult believing this as well.)  I mean when you think about it, how can thousands of people be writing software for free that rivals and sometimes exceeds the software that you have to pay for?  I mean these people are often doing this work without compensation and yet they continue to turn out great software. 

If you have a few minutes (and I realize few of us do these days) and are interested in seeing one aspect of how open source survives read this article about open source projects that are helped along by commercial companies. 

Companies will sometimes sponsor open source coding events where they bring together open source developers for a short period of time, usually with the goal of adding or improving to an open source project. 

What is surprising is that these open source events can often be held for less than it would cost for a company to develop the software in-house. 

But we again return to the paradox of open source software...if a company just paid to sponsor an open source event wouldn't they want to keep the code developed during that event.  With open source anyone can use and modify the code...even a competitor to the company that just sponsored the event. 

So we are again stuck with the wonderful mystery of how open source software continues to thrive. 

Read "How to Sponsor an Open Source Sprint"

I still recommend that many businesses check out Google Applications for their email system. The standard edition (which will meet the needs of almost all businesses) is available free for one hundred users.

Google just announced the ability for Outlook to sync with the Google Apps servers. Unfortunately this is only available to users of the premier edition. So you will have to fork out $50 per user/per year, but for those who can't get away from Outlook, this might be a good alternative to paying for Microsoft Exchange.

Google Outlook Sync has the following features:

- Fast mail sync between Outlook and Google.

- Full calendar sync, including recurrence patterns and attendees.

- Contacts sync for all Outlook fields.

- A Global address list with email auto-complete contacts lookup.

Read more about using Google Apps with Outlook.

There are a number of companies that will charge you to sync your emails and contacts with a smart-phone.  Before you sign up for one of these services I recommend you consider some of the free options. 

Tech Crunch has a nice graph that gives an overview of what options are available, what capabilities they have and what the cost is. 

I say you shouldn't pay for this service because there are many different free options.  For those who use Google Apps (which I highly recommend for small businesses) Google allows you to sync your calendar, email and contacts completely free. 

Another free option is the open source program called Funambol.  I just downloaded this software and am starting to play with it. 

As with so many things software related, I continue to remind people to take a moment and research some free options before paying money for a software product.

Cc:Betty is a website that tries to make it easier to track group conversations.  All you need to do to sign up for the service is to create an email and Cc' betty@ccbetty.com.  This will automatically create a website for your email thread and will also allow anyone included in the email to view the email's website. 

This service is free and very easy to sign up for (remember all you need to do is Cc:betty.  I see this product being useful for organizations and clubs, where you are sending emails to a bunch of people.  This way anyone can go in and view all the emails relating to a particular conversation, even if they accidently deleted them in their personal mailbox. 

Cc:Betty has other features that make it easier to view information from your emails. 
    - If photos are included in an email, betty will automatically create an online photo album for those photos. 
    - Any dates will be turned into downloadable calendar events. 
    - Attached documents or links are organized into a easily viewable format. 

Learn more about Cc:Betty. 

PC Pro is reporting that Novell the backer of the Suse Linux distribution is looking at the possibility of creating an open source apps store.  Like the iPhone app store, developers would upload apps and users could rate and review them. The primary difference between the iPhone store and Novell's would be that all the software would be free at the open source apps store. 

Holger Dyroff, the VP of business development at Novell said that, "It's a new way of marketing open source, It's also a method of educating people about the benefits of open source."

I certainly think this would be a great way to promote open source products and allow people to quickly distinguish between the good and the bad.  Sourceforge.net which serves as the largest repository of open source software is great because of the breadth of software available, but its interface, isn't as user friendly as the iPhone apps store.  Sourceforce also doesn't allow for feedback (at least I'm not aware of this feature) which makes it difficult to know the quality of a software product without first trying it out. 

As I come across them, I will continue to post any updates about Novell's Open Source App Store.

The engineers at Google always amaze me.  They will collect information from thousands of users and test which shade of blue will make people more likely to click on a link.  Nearly every decision at Google is based on data collected from users. 

I remember watching one video by a Google engineer who explained that Google's upgraded spell check featured would automatically provide a few search results with the correct spelling if Google was certain about the misspelled word.  Why spend days working on the new feature like this? "Because if we can get you the information you are looking for with one less click that is good enough for us," explained the Google engineer. 

Google Squared is another way that Google is trying to get us the information we are looking for with one less click.  Google Squared is a beta search function that presents your search results in rows and columns. 

After playing with the feature, it became apparent that this search is good if you want a list, but doesn't work well for other types of searches.  For instance if I type "Hawaiian Islands" in Google Squared I will get a nice list of all the islands of Hawaii and some pertinent information about them, along with an image.  This is a great alternative to searching for Hawaiian islands and then having to sort through several websites to find a basic list of all the islands. 

Other searches, like for "US Presidents," provide a list, but some of the shortcomings of Google Squared become apparent.  For instance, I only get ten US presidents (I have to click "Add next 10 items" for 10 more presidents) and they don't appear to be in any logical order.  So if I wanted to get a chronological list of the presidents it would be quicker to do a normal search for US presidents and then click on the first link that appears in the organic search results.

One feature that is particularly interesting is the ability to add columns to the search results.  This can be very powerful when you are trying to make a list with specific information.  Watch the Google video for a demo.

Some of the results are interesting.  If I search for best actor, I get a list of ten actors, who Google thinks are the best.  The top ten includes actors like Henry Fonda, Tom Hanks, and Ben Kingsley.  Not my choices, but apparently the internet thinks so.   

Overall Google squared is fun to play with and could be very useful for certain types of searches, but it needs some refinement before it is a reliable alternative to traditional Google searches.

If you are interested in some of the reasons why I started this business please read this press release that talks some about my experiences in the Marine Corps and why I started KTG.