CEOExpress Update

April 21, 2004

Note from the Executive Editor

Welcome to Spring! Our April letter is full of some existing favorites you may not know about, along with new tips and tricks. Please let me know what other things are of interest to you, or what other topics you would like to explore, and we'll see if we can pull them in to future newsletters. And speaking of spring, you need to buy a CEOExpress Baseball Cap. (See "Shameless Self Promotion" below for details.)

April Notable Features and Discoveries:

Our Live Information Concierge Service: If you have never used our VIP concierge service, you should give it a try. Questions from CEOExpressSelect members to the concierge have included:

I am confused with all the available MP3 players in the market. Can you please recommend me 3 products? These are my criteria….
What's the best way to get food stains out of silk ties?
I am trying to find out what was going on in the world in the year 1878?
I would like information on the best sources for renting an international cell phone for Asia.
I am looking for a high quality, reputable portrait studio in St. Petersburg, Russia.
What do contemporary historians consider to be the definitive biographies of Alexander the Great and Hannibal?

Real Help from Real Humans, Right Now! No other website has this remarkable service and it is a benefit of your membership. Find it under your name on your homepage.

Another Outlook Tip: Did you know that you can access your browser homepage in Outlook as well as having it available on your standard browser? Microsoft has integrated all of its applications (the upside of a monopoly), so that they are melding into one. Just follow these simple instructions and you can run your entire online life through your Outlook. (Note: This does not work in Outlook Express.)

New Technology- RSS Feeds: Everyone is talking about RSS feeds. What is RSS and why should you care? RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is an XML feed designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. It is essentially a content distribution system that enables news organizations, individuals and everyone in between to automatically send information out to an audience that has subscribed to the feed. Why should you be interested in RSS? It is becoming a new standard through which Internet users access information—information organized in a way that is user-centric rather than just topic-centric. For example, let's say you like the BBC news, Dilbert comics, and the Red Sox, and you are a CIO interested specifically in Knowledge Management (from CIO magazine). Your RSS newsreader can be set to pull in content from all these sources and create a real time view of the world on your desktop that is designed specifically for you. It will be updated automatically and you only need to go to one place. There are newsreaders that even integrate with Outlook. If you are a consultant or company with a particular expertise, you might think about creating an RSS feed and making your expertise available to others as a marketing initiative. There are many who are now using RSS feeds in place of email newsletters. RSS feeds are found the same way that websites are—via keywords and RSS search engines such as www.feedster.com.

Great Personal Tip: Did you know that PBS Frontline makes many of their special reports available for viewing in full on their Internet site? They have fabulous programming, but the viewing times can be inconvenient. Do yourself a favor and watch "The Man Who Knew". It is the story of John O'Neill, the FBI's leading expert on Al Qaeda who became frustrated with the FBI and in an unfortunate twist of fate, took at job in the summer of 2001 as head of security of the World Trade Center. The program chronicles the clues and missteps of the FBI over many years through O'Neill's personal story. (Broadband connection is required to view the program.)

Keyboard Shortcuts: These are simple ones, but I use them everyday and just recently found out that everyone doesn't know about them. If you are a pro, just skip this section and I promise to trot out some more obscure ones next time :-) These are the ones I use everyday:

Ctrl + N:

Ctrl + F:

Ctrl + C:

Ctrl + X:

Ctrl + V:

The "F1" key

The "F5" key

These are all available in various ways in the toolbars at the top of an application, but I find it much quicker and easier to use the shortcuts.

April's Software Recommendation: GoToMyPC is a must-have service that enables you to do two things very well and very easily:

1) It instantly allows a client, a partner, or potential customer to securely view your computer desktop. You can walk a client through a slide presentation, work on a spreadsheet together with a partner or give a product demonstration-from anywhere in the world. You simply send an "invitation" to the person who you want to have access your computer. When they receive the email, they click on a link and you assign the level of access. This software has saved me thousands in travel expenses by allowing me to do great demonstrations from my office. It is far less expensive than conferencing solutions and the only way to go when you are doing a one-on-one.

2) Its second use is just as good. If your office and/or home computer is connected to the Internet, you can access both from anywhere in the world. This access is highly secure and even includes a system for one-time passwords for use on public computers. Stop dragging your laptop around. I access my work computer from home and vice versa with enterprise level security. I could do the same thing from China.

GoToMyPC costs only $19.95/month unlimited use. There is a free 30 day trial. Give it a try. (They were just acquired by Citrix, so they are only going to get better).

Newsletter Archives: We have created an archive of all these member letters, so all the tips and ideas can be at your fingertips.

Shameless Self Promotion: Just in time for Spring, CEOExpress Baseball Caps have arrived! We now have terrific, embroidered CEOExpress Logo Caps in black and navy. I would greatly appreciate each CEOExpressSelect member buying one and wearing it proudly and often. You will be our walking advertising campaign. The more people who join Select, the better the quality of the features and services we can provide. We are selling the caps at cost, so that everyone will buy one and the word will spread. Just $10 will buy you the best-looking cap anywhere. Buy them through our online PayPal shop, or call Amy at 617-482-1200, Monday through Friday.

As usual, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send me a note.

Best regards,

Patricia Pomerleau
CEO
CEOExpress Company
617 482 1200

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