Gmail on your hard drive

Google its just gets better and better! A few years ago a guy name Richard Jones got the idea to hookup his Gmail to his local hard drive to act as a local drive for a drag and drop functionality for uploading files straight to his Gmail account. I started using this tool a year ago and have found it handy for sending huge files to my fellow team mates who may need a PSD, Raw video and RAR files.

You can find the Gmail Drive here.

Basically you must have a Gmail Account. 2nd you simply download and install. Configure it with your Gmail account settings, and Pesto! Sending PDFs, PSDs or storing them in your Gmail for later purposes is easy. Once your file is upload, open your Gmail account either online or with your favorite email client program, then simply FROWARD your file to whoever needs it.

Gmail Drive is a wonderful tool for Windows users, but how about you guys who are MAC fanatics or for people like me who have a Linux box? Firefox has a plugin called Gspace and it acts very similar to Gmail Drive expect you need to have Firefox open to be able to use it.

Gmail Drive and Gspace are two great tools that add to you tech life!

Present your best

I attended a service once where the preacher had a PowerPoint presentation that was... a novel!? Putting every word of your sermon or lecture on PowerPoint isn't a great idea. The audience was practically reading his sermon.

Well i thought I'd hang up a few ideas that would make a PowerPoint (or Keynote) be presentable as well as informative and beneficial to the speaker and listeners.

1. Don't abuse your visuals - Usually your visuals are posters, charts, or even a PowerPoint presentation. Whatever your visuals may be, keep them simple and don't put too many words on them. The audience isn't there to read your slides, they are there to listen to you present.
2. Don't give PowerPoint center stage. This is the biggest mistake I see speakers make. They forget that PowerPoint is a tool designed to augment their presentation not be their presentation
3. Make your presentation readable.
4. Remember, less is more. Fancy slide transitions and fly-ins get old quickly. I strongly recommend that you keep things simple. A basic dissolve from one slide to another is sufficient. And finally, cut down the number of slides. You don't need a transcript of your speech with every point and sub-point! People are only going to remember the major points any way.

Simple isn't it?

In the beginning

I guess everything needs a starting point... so I guess its time I start my own blog. This will at lest be my station, whenever some one has a question I can always refer them to this site without a long conversation of repeating words and scanning my memory banks for information. Sounds good ah?