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Web Worker Daily

Rebooting the workforce

Extending Your Laptop’s Battery Life–RevisitedToday

The other day, in my post 9 Ways to Get Better Battery Life,  I detailed a number of steps you can take to greatly extend the time you spend with your notebook unplugged. As I mentioned there, quite a few of the tips collected came from readers of an earlier post I did, many of whom made the point that simply turning brightness down on your display can have a radical impact on battery life.

Today, in a post from Microsoft engineers working on energy efficiency for Windows 7, there is substantial evidence shown that this fairly well-known, but rarely followed tip does indeed make a big difference. The post illustrates which other steps make a difference too.

The engineers at Microsoft produced the following pie chart showing where the energy goes when modern laptops are running (hat tip to Lifehacker Australia for flagging the post):

Sure enough, nearly 50 percent of the energy drawn by your laptop goes to the display. It really does make sense to turn the brightness down when you’re working on things like documents and e-mail for exte

MixedInk: Online Collaborative WritingToday

I take a cautious approach to collaborative writing. It’s not that I don’t enjoy collaborating, or want very much for it to work out. it’s just that, in practice, it often doesn’t. And I’m speaking from experience. Lots of writing workshops, some blogs, personal projects, etc. have taught me to be wary.

That said, I approached MixedInk with open arms, hoping that maybe a tool designed for the purpose would help make the process go more smoothly. MixedInk is new free collaborative writing tool, which uses a democratic process that allows users to choose which bits stay and which get tossed. Slate.com is using MixedInk for an inaugural speech competition it’s holding, and their article about it here nicely outlines MixedInk’s features.

As a web worker, I was more interested in how I might be able to use MixedInk to produce some collaborative entries for the writing blog I manage and edit. Most of the information I came across on the MixedInk site led me to believe that the tool was designed primarily with very large groups of people in mind, with the ultimate goal being community action, i.e. letters to congres

Are You Getting Satisfaction From GetSatisfaction.com?Today

When I first heard of GetSatisfaction, I started using it as a repository for my rants about bad customer service and software or Web apps issues for companies and their products. I liked the premise of GetSatisfaction - dialogue with other customers who may be experiencing similar issues and might have answers is a smart way of crowdsourcing technical support.

However, early on, many companies were not monitoring the site and not addressing the complaints. In fact, one of my rants was actually addressed by a former employee of the company in question.

Now I’m finding that GetSatisfaction is becoming a key tool in troubleshooting all of the technical - and vendor - issues that come up in my web work.

First, I had to make sure that I was accessing the right forum to vent my frustrations. Then I had to decide if I had a question or was announcing a problem. GetSatisfaction prompts you to provide as much detailed information as possible to expedite the process of getting a response and appropriate ans

Fuze Outdoes Free Online Meeting Makers in Several WaysYesterday

Free online meeting applications, such as Yugma, which I wrote about yesterday, have gotten very powerful in recent years, but they still don’t do all the cool things they could do. Few of them offer any sophisticated way to deal with video, especially high-definition video, and the devices you can use them on tend to be limited. These last two shortcomings are why a review of CallWave’s Fuze that I saw on PC World’s site caught my eye.

After trying Fuze, even though it’s not free and I’ve been slightly more impressed with the features in paid services such as WebEx’s, I think many web workers will want to try it.

With telecommuting on the rise, and everyone looking to save on travel costs, the environment is ripe for growing collaboration in online meeting applications. Dimdim, Yugma, Yuuguu and other free applications are all outstanding, but Fuze offers some very slick features that usually cost a fair amount of money in paid conferencing applications such as WebEx’s.

Fuze is entirely browser-based, which is a conve

WiZiQ: Teach and Be TaughtYesterday

I think it’s safe to say that many online workers would also describe themselves as lifelong learners. I know that personally, I’m always looking for new ways to learn, which is why I was so intrigued when I came across WiZiQ. The web service bills itself as an “Online Educational Platform for Teachers and Learners” and is available free of charge. What it provides is a virtual classroom, the purpose of which is left completely up to users.

Definitely an attractive proposition, and one which I can think of many uses for in terms of web working applications. But in practice, what are WiZiQ’s limitations? Could I, for instance, monetize the service, and offer lessons created with WiZiQ as part of a subscription or pay-per-lesson model?

First of all, it’s clear that WiZiQ is designed with live interaction in mind. It features an extensive scheduling system, and allows you to comb your network of contacts to invite participants to join your sessions. Of course, to participate, potential students/instructors must first sign up for a WiZiQ account. Once set up, users can upload all kinds of documents, including PowerPoint presentations, to supplement their teaching.

Sessions feature a whiteboard which