Right before leaving Boeing, I did a two part blog post call moving on (part 1 and Part 2) where I covered some of the computing issues I had been dealing with as I left Boeing. Having a Boeing laptop for many years had negated the need for a personal computer and associated software.
In this blog, I would like to review the changes and see what ones have lasted, additions since then, and which ones haven’t worked out.
Gmail is still my official mail for work related correspondence.
Boeing used Outlook and the only feature that I miss was 
One program that I have not used much is Thunderbird email. This is a free email solution. I stopped using it because it doesn’t do so well at bringing in my Comcast email. This may just be a configuration problem I’m having. With it only bring in my Gmail account, it is a just as easy to work directly in Gmail instead of layering only software on top of it. Recently, I have been taking another look at this software wondering if I have missed some functionality.
Google calendar is what I’m using for calendar functions, it works great. I have some trouble in that I have so little use of a calendar now, that I find I miss things because of the lack of structure centered around the calendar. This is a recurring theme with me, having a regular structure is required in order to keep on top of things. I have Mozilla Sunbird, the calendaring program, loaded on my computer and it is in the same category as Thunderbird. It is good software, but I’m having a hard time understanding why I would use this over Google calendar.
Google now has off line versions for all of their products. I haven’t been disconnected or working offline, but if I was, my information would still be available offline for both mail and calendar. Both of these Google products work seamlessly with my android phone.
Remember the Milk has been great for tracking my tasks. It has the ability to set up
For browsing I have both IE and FireFox; I prefer FireFox but some sites just
For Job searching, I am primarily using Simply Hired. I love how it interfaces well with LinkedIn. It also has an interface with FaceBook which I think needs some work. I now have my searches loaded into FireFox so that I can go into a job search folder and open all tabs and it goes off and opens 15 tabs which take about minute to complete. The first tab is Boeing, then I have a set of company searches, and then a set open ended searches on different specific search terms. I have the company searches set up that they only bring in information from the companies website (here I am assuming the all the jobs a company puts out will be on their site which I think is a good assumption). Also these searches bring up all the jobs that the company puts out. This allows me to understand what jobs the is putting out. Sometimes their language is for a job is different than a search term would pick up. The down side is I have to go through all the jobs posted; for Microsoft, Expedia, UW, and Starbucks this can be quite a few, but I can go through these pretty quickly especially after I get familiar with a company’s specific language.
For networking I’m using LinkedIn in a number of ways. Keeping track with my contacts activities, researching links to jobs that I want to apply for, and through the use of groups and commenting in group activity. I am also using Facebook as a way to stay connected with people. I have been using Twitter to gather interesting information, to post articles, and to get news. I have been trying to learn how to use twitter for more job possibilities but haven’t developed a good understanding of how to use this as tool for jobs.
Instead of using adobe postscript reader I have switched to a product called Nitro that allows better taking of notes and highlighting. It also seems faster.
A product that I just started using but like is a note taking program and interfaces well with phones, Firefox, the internet and a stay alone program. This is called Evernote and is great for gather information from many different sources and bringing them together in one common database. I’m looking at storing all of my job requisition information in here.
Another product that I have just start using is called Zemanta. It helps with blog writing and automatically brings up resources as you type. This can also be used in constructing email. This is nice because it makes the writing process even more of the learning process, makes the blog entries more graphical and provides more take away information.
Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health – 1997 – Can the mind heal the body? The Buddhist tradition says yes—and now many Western scientists are beginning to agree. Healing Emotions is the record of an extraordinary series of encounters between the Dalai Lama and prominent Western psychologists, physicians, and meditation teachers that sheds new light on the mind-body connection. Topics include: compassion as medicine; the nature of consciousness; self-esteem; and the meeting points of mind, body, and spirit.
