Capitalogix

Software to Help You Manage Your Mind

Visual Thinking, Idea Mapping or Mind-Mapping ... whatever you call it, there are some terrific new tools available to help you think, plan and write better.

I find I'm using it more often and for more things, like: note-taking, process maps, brainstorming and presentations.

How Does It Work?

Mind-Mapping is related to outlining. So you already know how to do it.  It is intuitive, and makes it easy to see thought structure and relationships. It also makes it easy to review and re-organize the framework that organizes your data. Here is an example showing what you can do with a tool like this.

How Can You Use Mind-Mapping Software?

I use this type of software like a virtual whiteboard.  It helps me organize a meeting or present a thought process. What used to be a form on a piece of paper, now becomes the dynamic center of collective focus.  For example, here is a map template from Mindjet's MindManager; it is used to evaluate an idea using SWOT analysis (which stands for: strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat).

The structure of the outline and actually helps control focus and trigger new ideas. And the software allow me to add detail and new items in any order.  The result is better understanding and often, new ideas and possibilities.

Brainstorming.

The computer age has made it a lot easier for me to collect data. Then what? Data is a raw material, but I often want to think better ... rather than to just have more data. So, I use visual thinking tools to help me make sense of lots of ideas. It often helps me see relationships and move items around to places where they fit better, or trigger new thoughts.

For brainstorming, the software is a lot like writing ideas on Post-It Notes and moving them around on a whiteboard.  I like being able to enter information the order that occurs to me, rather than having to understand the bigger picture.

In fact, it's by placing all the seemingly random bits of information page and dragging them around into piles, that the bigger picture often reveals itself to me.

To do that, I try to figure what relates the piles, and I create a label for that category. I then try to figure out how categories fit together, and ultimately come up with a better understanding of the thought framework. From there, it doesn't take much work to fill out weaker areas of the outline, adding an idea here, moving an idea from there.

The Software Tools.

Even if you tried a tool like this before, it is time for a fresh look.  These tools have evolved and are worth having and using.

Mindjet's MindManager is the tool I use most often. The current version is stable and mature, with a nice feature set and the ability to export information into a variety of programs and formats. I especially like the new option to export a live branching version of the mind map in PDF format.

Mindjet offers a template gallery for you to download 70+ sample maps to use.

Another tool I've been using more of lately is Tony Buzan's iMindMap.  Buzan is a well-known proponent of mind mapping and has created a visually appealing tool.

It's compelling, and I'm trying to use it more. They also have a nice collection of videos explaining the software and concepts behind mind-mapping that is worth exploring.

Personally, though, for real work I find myself going back to Mindjet product.

In addition, there's an open-source version called FreeMind. Here's the link to try that tool as well.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Do gadgets that help you focus on conscious breathing work?  I found three that worked for me: Resperate, Helicor's StressEraser, and Heart Math's emWave.

My biggest complaint is that once I learned the relaxation techniques each of these devices teach,  I didn't need the device to get the results.  That also is a positive, isn't it?

I think, feel, and communicate better when I'm calm.  Learning to access that state at will is an important skill ... in business and personal life. 

So, with that in mind, here are my impressions and experience with each.

Resperate.

The Resperate unit is a little bigger than a portable CD-ROM player, with a built-in elastic strap that goes around your ribcage to monitor your breathing.  The concept behind this tool is very simple.  It relaxes you by helping you slow your breathing down. 

Resperate starts by pacing your in-and-out breaths with higher and lower pitched sound cues.  Over time it moves these tones farther apart, leading you to breathe slower and more deeply.

How did it work?  It helped me move easily from 6 to 10 breaths-per-minute, down to two or three breaths-per-minute.  This promotes much deeper breathing and relaxes the body and mind.  I find that I enjoy using this tool for about 10-minutes at a time; and I definitely feel relaxed after using it.  

While Resperate provided the most relaxation, it is the one I use least.  Perhaps because it is a little bigger and requires the belt.  Not big hurdles; but apparently big enough.

Helicor's StressEraser. 

The StressEraser is a portable biofeedback device, smaller than a deck of cards.  On the top, there is a hinged slot to put your finger.  The finger reader measures your pulse and galvanic skin response. There is also an LED screen on this device that helps you pace your breathing, and shows your level of stress or relaxation.

Without focusing, the line is erratic and jagged.

However, with only a little bit of training, it's easy to create a very smooth sign wave that indicates a steady breathing and a healthy heart rate pattern.

With this tool, I get the best (most relaxing) results with an in-breath of about five seconds and an out-breath of about the same length. I like doing this for five minutes or so; it is a nice break in the middle of the day, before an important phone call, or a decision-making session. 

I find that it helps me focus. Of the three tools, this is the one I find myself using most often.  This might be because I like the graph and how it gives me instantaneous feedback about my breathing and focus.

HeartMath's emWave.

This is the smallest of the tools.  The emWave relies on either a thumb sensor or, my preference, a clip that attaches to your earlobe. The technique is very similar to what you learn with the StressEraser. It involves steady breathing and a focus on reducing heart beat variability.  It has four levels of challenge.

It sounds strange, and I don't claim to understand the science behind it, however focusing your attention on your heart while doing the breathing exercise seems to make a difference.  Somehow, when you focus your attention on your heart, that is when the machine changes color to indicate that there is "coherence". And, in my experience, this is the most relaxing part of the exercise. More coherence equals less stress.

I tend to use this tool less than five minutes at a time to feel calm and refreshed.  It was also the easiest for me to have success with (in this case, to get the "green light" to come on).  So, the emWave is the smallest, easiest and quickest of the three ... and it works.  I'm going to use this more often.

So why did I use one that is more challenging?  Habit, or perhaps that defines part of the reason I need to relax?

How To Type More Accurately and Much Faster With Asutype

I'm surprised by how much of my typing is now done outside of traditional e-mail or business software (like Microsoft Word). Instead, my typing is done in web-based applications like my blog, Facebook, or Twitter. That's where a program like Asutype really shines.

I have been using a very effective spell-checking and text expansion program for several years now. It works so well that I forget it's there, even though it automatically fixes most of my typing errors and makes it easy for me to enter repetitive phrases or pieces of information.  The bottom-line is that it helps me type more accurately and much faster.

There are three basic ways to use the software.

1. Correct Mistakes Interactively. The first is an interactive spell checker that works as you type (hence the name "Asutype"). When you type something that isn't in its dictionaries, it pops up a correction box with several of the most likely replacement candidates. This provides a quick and easy way to fix your spelling without having to retype anything.
   
   
   
   
2. Correct Repetitive Mistakes Automatically. The software also keeps track of the mistakes you make as well as the corrections that you apply and allows you to create a list of automatic entries. From time-to-time I'll review the list of corrections and choose to add them to my permanent list. When I do that, then next time I mistype that word or phrase, the software automatically fixes it (without even asking). This means I type much quicker because most of my typing mistakes are repetitive and that means I make them consistently). I'm actually surprised by how many different ways I could misspell certain words. It's not so much that I don't know how to spell them, it's that my fingers don't do the right thing when I'm trying to type quickly or get distracted.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Automate Repetitive Typing.  The software also has some very powerful text expansion capabilities. I think of them almost as abbreviations or shortcuts. There are certain words or phrases that I type often (examples include: Capitalogix, our web address, or phrase like "please contact me if you have questions or comments".). Another example might be to use the abbreviation "VTY", which could expand to "very truly yours" …  and then your signature block.

You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so I'm glad that Asutype helps me seem like a good speller. Here are the links for you to find out more information or to download a trial copy yourself. I don't have anything to do with the company other than I'm a happy user. I've had my license for years, and I can vouch for their service, support, and the good experience that I've had with their tool. I hope you like it too.

What I Love Best About the Kindle, Amazon Took From Vegas.

Disruptive Technology:

I remember the first time I used TiVo. I instantly knew it was a disruptive technology that would change how people watch TV. It's even better than I thought I was. That doesn't mean it was a great investment in the stock market; but it was a terrific investment in the household.

And the ripples of this technology are still being felt whether you're using TiVo or some other digital video recorder.

The Kindle is a Disruptive Technology Well-Placed In the Consumer Adoption Cycle:

Using a Kindle reminds me of the first time I used TiVo. Only this might be different, because we're several generations of technology further along. And the world is ready for it.

The Kindle 2 is ergonomic and reasonably fast. It is a great way to read.  It also has a built-in Internet connection, which means you have access to content virtually anywhere. And it just so happens that the content you want is the content Amazon sells.

Chances are you already go to Amazon's website.  Because of economies of scale, not only do they have a bigger inventory, they have a bigger community of users who rate the books and write reviews of the books.

A few years ago, Barnes & Noble and Borders tried to compete with Amazon online. As a user, I went to the competitors' site once or twice ... but the first time Amazon had the book I was looking for and the other site didn't ... or the first time that Amazon had reviews of a product and the other site didn't - well, that was all it took to stop going to those sites.

And Amazon continues to extend that edge with bigger inventories, more product lines, and a truly mature delivery pipe. Their storefront and shopping cart has been used tens of millions of times is an important part of the value proposition.

Psychologically Smart, Part 1: Amazon Banks on Funny Money:

Once you have a profile on Amazon, it doesn't feel like you're spending money. Casinos know the token is treated differently than cash.

On the Kindle, Amazon makes it easy for you to buy with "one click" over their "Whispernet" always-on data network. So you don't hear or feel your money as it leaves your account. This is brilliant.

Psychologically Smart, Part 2: Amazon Banks on Your Addiction to Instant Gratification:

Even better, though, is how they handle samples.  It is already changing how I use Amazon. With the Kindle, I have instant gratification.

I can find a book and download a sample in seconds. In many cases, the Kindle version is dramatically cheaper than the old paper version. So, I suspect that I'll be downloading samples of many books. And when I like the author's writing style or find a few ideas that I can use, I'm one click away from being able to read the rest of it (even if I'm in a meeting or stuck at the airport).

Over time, I might find that I prefer certain books in paper format. On the other hand, I've been surprised by how likely I am to read a little of this and a little of that.

And being able to have a whole bookshelf is a pretty cool competitive advantage too.

The Twitter Tools I Use All The Time

Last week's article predicted that Twitter is likely to be in your future. In this article I'm going to share some guidelines and the best tools I've found to make your Twitter use easier and more productive.

The number of third-party tools available for Twitter is one of the best indications that the service is destined to continue growing in functionality and popularity. I tried many things and settled on a few that work well. Hopefully that list will save you some time.  It is at the bottom of this article.

Twitter 101: The Basics.

Twitter can be anything you want it to be.  If you only want to follow a few friends and keep things very social, that's okay. On the other hand, if you want thousands of followers and the ability to drive traffic to your website, it's still okay.

I've come up with some basic guidelines that work well for me. I'll share some of them with you here.

First, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. So make a good first impression. That means choosing the right user-name and picture to support the image you want.  It also means that you should fill-in your one-line bio in a way that makes people want to find-out more about you.  Try to use the key words that will help people find you using search (or choose to follow you when they look at your profile).

Second, Twitter is not e-mail, and you're never going to read all of it. This was hard for me because I'm used to starting at the beginning and ending at the end. I like that kind of structure. However as the number of people you follow grows ... the stream of information becomes overwhelming. It helped me to think of it as a stream. That meant I didn't have to drink all of it, but it was there for me to dip my cup into anytime I wanted.

Third, Twitter doesn't limit your ability to follow people for the first 2,000 people. For most people that means that Twitter doesn't put any practical limit on them. However, after the first 2,000 followers, Twitter restricts your ability to follow additional users using a simple guideline ... you are limited to a 10% extension of your followers. So if you have 3,000 followers, then Twitter will allow you to follow up to 3,300 people. With very few exceptions, that means that I un-follow someone if they don't follow me back. A lot of people follow that rule. This brings me to the fourth rule.

Fourth, you'll end up with a lot more followers if you follow people back. Tony Robbins and Bill Gates can get by following a dozen people and still have 100,000 people follow them. I suspect that you and I won't be able to do the same thing. At first, I spent a lot of time deciding whether I was going to follow a certain person. Over time, however, I started to set the bar much lower. It simply took too much time to filter. So now, I follow back almost everyone, but I'm very quick to un-follow someone whose messages are too frequent or too distracting. This was simply a more efficient way of dealing with the practical realities of using Twitter.

Fifth, this is social media ... be social. For every two or three posts, have at least one with a link to an interesting article not by you. Also, study a few of the stars, thought leaders, and examples of your target customer. Note that they have different behaviors. Then match and mirror relevant behavior (follower/followee ratio, number of posts with external links, etc.).

Hope that helps.

Here are the tools I use to make working with Twitter easier and more productive.

Browsers:

• TweetDeck: Very nice, full-featured Twitter browser application.  I keep coming back to this.
• Twittelator Pro: Complete iPhone Twitter client. I tried them all, this was the best for me.
• Power Twitter: If you use Firefox, then try this add-on.  It works very well.

Search:

• Twitter Search: See what's happening - right now.
• Twithority: Comprehensive and pretty Twitter search by rank, time, etc.
• Twilert: Receive e-mail updates of tweets containing your brand, name, or any keyword.

Stats:

• TwitterCounter: Great graph showing your Follower growth, top 100 lists, etc.
• TwInfluence: Measures the combined influence of a user and their followers.
• Twitalyzer: reports on relative influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity, & clout
• Twitter Friends: Lots of statistics about your Twitter behavior and contacts.

Looking for Trends:

• ReTweetist: Find the most popular items and people on Twitter.
• ReTweet Radar: Another trend-spotting service with Twitter word cloud.

Find and Manage Followers:

• Mr.Tweet: Very nice service that recommends followers and helps you connect with them.
• SocialToo: Reporting service shows who followed or un-followed you; lets you auto-follow back.
• Twitter Karma: Who do you follow but doesn't follow you back ... and who aren't you following?
• Twollow: Auto-follow people on Twitter based on keyword matching in their posts.

Utilities:

• TwitterFeed: Easy way to send your blog's RSS feed to Twitter and other services.
• TweetBurner: Shorten & track URLs used in you posts (works with TweetDeck & Twitterfeed).
• TwitBacks: Custom Twitter background for your profile.

Finally, Here are some good posts to expand your Twitter horizons:

• Twitter in Plain English - a brief video answering the question Why? (Vimeo)
• Twitter Basics ... and More! (James Dickey)
• Personal Branding with Twitter. Nice list of things to consider. (Sebastien Page)
• Finding the right Brand Voice on Twitter.  Nice list to consider. (Mashable)
• Twitter Graphics for your "Follow-Me" Badge. (Sebastien Page)
• Twitter Background Images for your Profile Page. (Sebastien Page)
• Nice Twitter-related blog. (Twit Tips)

Social Media 101 - The Name Land-grab

Real Estate is about location, location, location.  That's true on the web as well.  Years ago, I watched people rush to register Internet domains.  Well it's happening again; only this time it is on a wide-range of social media sites.

Before I go further, or before you decide to skip to the next article, here's a piece of advice worth paying attention taking; Register your name, your company name, and any other product or keyword you want to protect on Twitter.

I'll take that even further; register those names on other social media services as well. I'm talking about companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon, and Digg. Even if you don't believe you'll use the service, you may not want someone else talking to the public using a name that they may associate with you. Here is a link to a service that helps you reserve your name.

I watched my kids use instant messages, texting from their phones, and then Facebook. Slowly I've adopted these technologies. Still, it's hard for me to believe that I'm using Twitter.  If you're not using them yet, you probably will soon.

The Big Three:

LinkedIn is the most corporate of the services. It's an enhanced resume with a clever algorithm to figure out how you can connect to someone else. So, if I wanted to contact Mark Cuban, it would tell me which of my director second level contacts have contacts with him.

Facebook used to be for college students, but has quickly become the most popular social media application. I'm amazed at how many business people use this as their primary form of keeping in touch with people socially.  The Facebook platform is evolving quickly and is very easy to customize by telling it that you want to see you more of this and less of that.

Twitter is getting popular quickly; and it has a lot of business momentum.  It drives traffic and is quickly becoming useful as form of search engine that shows trends and what's happening right now.  I see more third party development and support for Twitter than the other platforms combined.  I didn't "get" Twitter at first; but it is growing on me.

Here is a cartoon comparing the three services.

• On LinkedIn it seems like connections are made based on worthiness. 
• On Facebook connections are based on how you know the other person
  (and it's common to have more Facebook friends been LinkedIn connections).
• On Twitter your follower list is more elastic; people will come and people will go
  (and it's common to have more Twitter followers than Facebook friends). 

So go register some names, and next time I'll share some of the tools I use to make using social media easier and more productive.

Does the Kindle 2 Make Sense?

The world is changing quickly. Just because you made money a certain way for a long time doesn't mean that this is how you'll continue to make money in the future. In fact the practical realities of time and technology suggest that this is not the case.  In this environment, you have to adapt and re-invent yourself.

Creative Destruction in the Publishing Industry:

Think about what has happened to publishing in the past decade. I'm talking about: television, movies, and music ... but also newspapers, magazines, and the book industry.

Personally, I read more than I ever did before; but I hardly ever go to a bookstore. I buy a lot less magazines than I used to; and I have to think hard to remember the last time I purchased a CD.

That doesn't mean people aren't making money in these areas. I suspect it just means that different people are making the money. The industry is changing. It's a new game, with new rules, and new opportunities.

How the Kindle Changes Amazon's Business Model:

I've had the new Kindle 2 for about two weeks; and I like a lot.  I'm impressed by the machine, but I'm more impressed with the business platform that Amazon is creating.

Yes, they're going to sell a lot of books on the Kindle.  Amazon will build a base of brand-loyal Kindle users.

Plain and simple, though, the Kindle is going to change Amazon's business model.

Right now bestsellers cost $9.99 (which I suspect is a loss leader because they still have to buy the book from a traditional publisher) and certainly cannibalizes their business of selling paper books.

They are signaling that they expect to make money differently in the future. That is part of the reason I like Amazon's decision to invest so heavily in the Kindle platform. It's a subsidized campaign to bridge to a new business model.

You Will Have Access to New and Extended Forms of Content.

More avenues will open to profit in different ways.  For example, I expect that Amazon will soon sell a paper copy of the book along with an electronic version for premium price. And you'll also soon have the ability to unlock more features.  That means that you'll be able to pay to consume what you choose (whether that's a one-time viewing, a permanent license, the right to print, share, or listen to the audio version or watch the multimedia presentation version of the content).

They have an opportunity to re-define what you consider a "book" as well. And I predict that it won't be long before you can buy a book that is electronically enhanced with expanded content. Here is how I envision that might work. For example, let's say you buy a book on blogging. It might describe how to set up an account with TypePad or WordPress. The enhanced version of the book, which you paid extra for, could have links and setup wizards to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Do you want to allow search engines to index your new posts? Here's how to do it, and click this button to have us set it up for you.

Think about how many areas would benefit from this marriage of content and skills transfer what about a book on trading that helped you build the pattern recognition or money management rules into your charting software or trading platform?

Trojan Horse Strategy: This Will Turn the Publishing Industry Upside-Down.

I think the bigger opportunity is the Trojan horse that turns the publishing industry upside down.

Think about how hard it's been for a new author to get a book published. Even before that, they had to find an agent. If that happens and they withstand the countless rounds of rejection, then the publishing house decides if one and how the book is released and the artist gets perhaps a dollar per book.

In the near future, an author who understands social media and generating buzz published their book or pamphlet through Amazon's Kindle channel and keep the majority of the money. It's faster, frictionless, and more lucrative. 

And Amazon can start to cut-out that pesky middle-man.  Why deal with a publisher, when you can let the author believe they are the publisher?  With this model, there is more margin for everyone (except the old-line publishers, who better be re-inventing themselves with a new value proposition).

It's Not Just About the Publishing Industry; They're Out To Change Your Industry Too.

As Amazon builds up the infrastructure to run their business, they've decided that they're willing to sell their excess capacity to you with a new product line of Amazon Web Services. It's on-demand technology capacity that is flexible, state-of-the-art and cost-effective.

Yes, there is still a need for humans. So it's no surprise that Amazon has a new line of business they call the Mechanical Turk. And it's a marketplace for humans to do the work you want to outsource. It leverages Amazon's marketplace catalog and is another example of how they're becoming vertically integrated and well-positioned for the future.

As a consumer, I like what I see; and it's only going to get better.

Bottom Line:  Amazon's competitors and suppliers are going to have to adjust their business models.

But the real point wasn't just about Amazon's foresight or skill. It's a challenge and a a wake-up call-to-action for you to look at what you do, and what you need to do ... and for you to figure-out what your future company and the future you is going to focus on and do to succeed.  The environment is changing.  It is time to adapt and re-invent yourself.

First Impressions of the New Kindle.

Frankly, I didn't think I would love it. I was wrong.  Perhaps more important than just "loving it", I like using it.

It's thin, light, and easy-to-read. At first I wasn't sure it felt right ... But, at first, I didn't buy the leather cover. Believe it or not, that made a big difference. I like that it now feels like a "book" in my hands. There is a lot to like, and I got used to it very quickly.

A Mini Feature Review:  Here are the basics.

• Terrific Display: it uses fast and crisp E-Ink technology;
• Huge Capacity: it will hold over 1,500 books;
• Wireless: it has built-in free access to Sprint's data network;
• Great Battery Life: it lasts for more that 4-days worth of reading, even with the wireless on;
• Built-in Keyboard: to annotate text, or to use search capabilities and the Internet;
• Text-to-Speech: surprisingly well done and useful while driving or doing things.

Looking Good Is A Good First Step.  While I was waiting for my Kindle to come, I guess the thing I questioned most was whether I'd actually read on it.  Right out-of-the-box, my first impression was that the Kindle had a great display.  I took it outside, and it still looked terrific, even in the bright sunlight. I did have to adjust the font size for it to feel "right" to me. However, it was easy to figure out what felt natural (and here is a hint for the older readers ... at night, a slightly bigger size is what feels natural to me).

Having Lots Of Things To Read Is Nice Too. Carrying a bookcase full of books in pencil-thin package is pretty cool.

There's over a quarter million books available for the Kindle, and that number is growing rapidly. Many best-sellers are just $9.99, which is much cheaper than the paper versions.  In addition to books, Amazon has made it easy to read web and blog content with the built-in browser and free Sprint data network. Also, you can convert and transfer Microsoft Office and PDF files by e-mailing them to your Kindle's e-mail address.

Cheap Is Good, Free is Better.  To get you used to reading on the Kindle and using Amazon's store to get the content, they've made an impressive amount of books free. The first book I downloaded was a free copy of the Bible. I heard it was a Good Book. That's good business on many levels.

Download Sample Chapters To Make Sure You Like It.  Taking that concept a little further, Amazon also makes it easy to download a few sample chapters of many books to your Kindle before buying. This has already changed how I use Amazon, and it adds a key benefit that the storefront bookstores relied on, browsing several books to find the one that suits me. Now, I can do that anywhere and anytime.

And once the sample is on your Kindle, it's only takes one-click to get the whole thing. It's all very fast, very convenient, and very clever marketing.

Yes, I sense it's the future. And I'm a gadget guy who loves to play with the future early. However, I'm also a gadget guy who has a pretty big gadget graveyard for things that didn't work so well. The Kindle works well. I can tell because I'm using it more, not less.

All-in-all, I'm impressed.  Next time, I will talk about the business implications of the Kindle on Amazon and its customers, competitors, and suppliers.  Till then, here are a few other links worth exploring.

• Amazon's Kindle 2 Page With Pictures and Demos
• RadarFarm's News Links about the Kindle 2
• MobileRead's Wiki Page for the Kindle 2

Getting More Out of Outlook

Here is a great tool I use to manage e-mail better.  It works along-side of Outlook.  It is called Nelson E-Mail Organizer.  It works great for me. 

An Easy Way to Save Time.  I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of time managing and dealing with e-mail during a normal business day. So, on one hand, it's something that I take for granted. While, on the other hand, it's an area where I'm most likely able to save time or benefit from improvements in the tools or process that I use.

Over the years, I've tried many different tools to help me search and organize information better. The Nelson E-Mail Organizer (or "NEO Pro") is the best I've found so far. By that, I mean that it's a complete whole product solution (not just a utility) and I use it every day.

Rather than just listing all the things I like about it, I put together a two-minute video that highlights the features I value most.

Here is the direct link to the demo video.

Finding A Needle In A Haystack.  Nowadays, it is easy to suffer from information overload.  For example, I keep my mail in different files. 

• My corporate mail resides on a server.
• I also use personal e-mail accounts that are web-based from services like Google and Hotmail.
• And I archive old mail separately in files that I keep on my computer.

That makes finding what I'm looking for more difficult than simply using Outlook's built-in search capability. Luckily, NEO Pro works just fine under these conditions. It gives me a unified view into all my e-mail.

It's Not Just A Search Tool - It's A Better Way to Organize Your Information. 

There's a difference between a simple search utility and a tool to allow you to organize and filter what you're looking at in useful ways. An easy way to understand this capability is based on time. For example, show me all mail I got today, or this week, or this month. That's useful, but there are so many other ways that I may choose to interact with my mail.

Distinguish and Deal With Direct Mail Differently Than Bulk Mail.  One of the most useful filters, for me, is to see direct mail from people I care about - separately from the bulk mail and subscriptions that make up most of my message traffic. NEO Pro makes this effortless, and this feature alone would be enough for me to use it every day. What this means is that I can come back in from a meeting and instantly see the things that are important for me.

Use Categories.  Another way to filter information is to categorize mail in ways that make sense to you. So, I use categories like Technology Newsletters, Hedge Fund News, and Market Commentary.  Of course, you can create categories that make sense to you; so you can read what you want, when you want.

Find Everything To or From a Person.  Another feature I really appreciate is the ability to see all mail to or from a particular person in one place (even if they have multiple e-mail addresses). In NEO Pro, there is a view lets me do exactly that. Even better, I can access it in one click from any other view.

In addition, here's a link to their tutorial page where you can investigate other features and benefits.

Another tool worth looking at is Xobni (which is Inbox spelled backwards).  Learn more here.

So Bad, It's Good

Microsoft has a new product that people use to create a new genre of really bad music.  I have to admit that I enjoy it, even though it's like watching a train wreck.

Microsoft just released Songsmith, a product where you sing the words as best you can, and its software supplies computer-matched musical accompaniment. The truth is that it probably has some pretty advanced technology.

It has become trendy to take a vintage rock video, strip out the instruments, and then let Songsmith process the classic song in "unexpected" ways.  So, if you want to hear the Police's song, Roxanne, differently than you had before ... Songsmith is the right tool for that job.

To make things worse (or better) Microsoft's promotional video for Songsmith is so bad that it is painful to watch.  It is so campy I suspect it was done intentionally to generate buzz. You've got to see it to believe it.

Here is the direct link. 

For the record, I'm a fan of Microsoft.  It may not be a popular position to take, but I like and use lots of their software.  They come up with many innovative things.  The ad, above, may not be their best effort. So watch and listen for yourself?

Here is the result of Songsmith processing the classic Police song, Roxanne.

Remember, you get to choose lots of options, like tempo, style, and instruments.  So, someone wanted it to sound like this.  Still, it speaks for itself, doesn't it?  Here is the direct link.

Here's one with a slightly better result ... Oasis' Wonderwall.

Here is the direct link.

Here are a few other links worth checking.  Remember, real music sounds better when this stops.

• Here is a link to a Techcrunch article about Songsmith and its ad.
• Here is a link to a collection of other horrific Songsmith versions of Billy Idol, The Cars, etc.
• Here is a link to more strange re-mixes.
• Here is a link to a spoof of the ad that isn't politically correct, but you may find funny.
• Here is a link to Microsoft's product page for Songsmith.
• And if you still want more, search for "Classic Hits by Microsoft Songsmith" on YouTube.