It’s completely awkward for any social encounter where you’re meeting two or more new people at the same time.

I just cannot imagine saying to someone “do you know I am really likely to forget who you are so do you mind if I take your picture?”. That’s going to kill the conversation right there. Maybe that’s a British thing but I suspect not. However, I do like ReadWriteWeb’s ideas for contact management in Evernote.

One are where there is plenty of choice is in the personal profile space, in fact Google has it’s own extension for this too. In this context I am talking about the ability to display detailed personal information for a contact alongside an email that you receive from them. There are a number of players in this space including Xobni and Google themselves but my favourite is Rapportive (shown left).

All three work in a similar way by  displaying information about an individual to the right of an email in Google Mail. The information that you get depends on the extension that you are using. Google’s own has only very basic information while Xobni has lots of information about your interaction with the contact and is nicely presented but, to me Rapportive, just displays more useful information without you having to go hunting for it.

Rapportive has details about the contact including phone numbers, job title and even latest tweets and Facebook posts. All this information is culled from a variety of sources and to make the most of the service you need to hook up your Twitter/Facebook and LinkedIn accounts but once you do the richness of the information makes it well worth the effort.

What I particularly like is how easy it is to make use of the information shown in the panel. Clicking on a web address will open that site in a new tab. Clicking on the Facebook , LinkedIn or Twitter links will open the users profile in the appropriate social network. Not connected to that user? No problem. Just hit the connect button and an email request is sent. Easy.

And it’s free.

Check it out here.

Now I am getting comments where they have clearly been set up  to get round this problem by providing those entering the comments with some standard text and some parameters that can be changed. You can see some examples below.

But these are just being posted verbatim without any changes which somewhat defeats the object!

Of course if the comments don’t get published they are worthless anyway and I assume that the SEO companies are working on the fact that if you post enough comments some will get through. But not here!

{Hey|Hello} There. I found your blog using msn. This is {a very|an extremely|a really}
well written article. {I will|I’ll} {be sure|make sure} to bookmark it and
{come back|return} to read more of your useful {information|info}. Thanks for the post. …

{Pretty|Attractive} section of content. I just stumbled upon your
{blog|weblog|website|web site|site} and in accession capital to assert that I
{acquire|get} {in fact|actually} enjoyed account your blog posts.
{Any way|Anyway} {I’ll|I will} be subscr…

{Simply|Just} {want to|wish to|desire to} say your article is as
{astonishing|amazing|surprising|astounding}. The {clearness|clarity} in your post is
{simply|just} {spectacular|nice|excellent|cool|great} and i {can|could} assume
{you are|you’re} an …

Heya {i’m|i am} for the first time here. I {came across|found} this board and I find It
{truly|really} useful & it helped me out {a lot|much}. I hope to give something back
and {help|aid} others like you {helped|aided} me….

So, let’s play spot the difference. The first screen grab is from the US sign-up page:

and this one is from the UK sign-up page:

They look exactly the same right? If you can’t spot the difference then click on the images for a larger version. Or maybe I’ll just tell you.

The only difference on each page is that the dollar sign has been replaced by a pound sign.

At today’s exchange rate that is a whopping 61% increase in the price for UK users.

In the past when US providers charge UK customers at a 1:1 exchange rate these are typically the reasons given:

• that there are additional costs in marketing the product in the UK. I can’t remember ever seeing an advert except online so that can’t be it
• that there are costs in translation. Americans typically think that their brand of English is good enough for the British so that can’t be it
• there are additional costs in transportation. Nope
• Servers are located locally for a better user experience. Nope. An IP lookup shows that the slideshare servers are in Dallas, Texas

So what could it be then? I emailed the sales support line to find out why and this was the response:

As we roll out prices in different parts of the world, its not going to be exactly equivalent in every part of the world. If we were to do this, that would mean we would have to adjust prices daily to account for currency exchange rate changes.

Instead we have opted to have a different price in each market.

Since we launched pricing in pounds, we have had an enthusiastic reception and a lot of people have been interested in buying SlideShare Pro in their own currency.

Humm. I get that different markets are, well, different but none of the above explains at 61% price difference for doing, well, nothing. And if slideshare are so worried about the changing exchange rate then just let everyone buy in dollars and let the credit card companies work it out. Also I note that “a lot of people have been interested in buying” which is very different from actually buying.

I did reply to the email to ask why I couldn’t pay in dollars and this was the response:

This ticket has now been marked as closed. If its a mistake and its not solved, then please reply to me and I will immediately get back to you.

So keen to give it one more try I went back with:

This is a mistake as I have yet to receive a reply.

I am still keen to become a paying customer. Are you keen to have my money?

I never received a response so tt would seem that slideshare are not that keen on having my money and I an not going to pay a 61% premium just to give them additional pure profit. So I am off to check out authorstream, slide rocket et al to find one that isn’t going to rip me off just because I live in the UK.

Evernote have today upgraded their Chrome Extension to extend it to offer “smart clipping”. Previously when you clipped a webpage to Evernote unless you highlighted the bit you wanted stored you simply got the weblink. Now it automagically seeks out the body of the web article and stores that. The only other app that I have seen do this is Instapaper the read-it-later service. While it is not exactly the same, Instapaper converts it into something that is more or less a black and white article what Evernote is offering is pretty similar along with the added bonus so syncing to all places I have it installed and that it pretty powerful.

This has led me to think that perhaps I could dispense with Instapaper and go with Evernote alone. On first view the answer would seem to be yes.

Tried clipping with the new Evernote extension? How good has it been for you?

I say that it is easy but that is only the case if you are au fait with the way that Mac Folder Script Action work, which I was not and to make matters worse the way they work seems to have changed between Mac OSX versions making a Google search a challenging exercise.

Anyway, here is what I did to get a watched folder for Evernote on a Mac running OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard):

1. You will need to create a new folder that you want to be “watched”. I created one called Evernote in Documents.

2. You will need to go to the following article on Thought Asylum on Evernote watched folders on OSX. Copy the script to the clipboard.

3. Open the Applescript Editor and paste the script from step 2 into the editor.

4. Compile the script

5. Choose File | Save As…from the menu

6. This is the important bit! You must save the script in the following location: /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. I called the script Save to Evernote.

7. Now go back to the folder you created in step 1 and right click on it and select Folder Actions Setup… Ensure that Enable Folder Actions is ticked and that the Folder you want the action on is listed and ticked.

8. Click the + button under the right hand pane and a new screen with a list of scripts to attach will open. On this list you should see your newly created script.

And that’s it. I hope that someone finds that useful.

Google Chrome

No change here and, in fact, I am more wedded to Chrome this year than I was last having used it for a full 12 months I still much prefer it to both Internet Explorer and Firefox. The addition of extensions has just made it all the more useful and a large part of my day is spent within the browser.

Google Mail/Calendar/Reader

Here’s the first casualty of 2010 – Google Reader. I can date the day that I stopped using Google Reader to the day that Pulse for iPad was released. All my mail is delivered to one of two Google Mail accounts – either Gmail for home or Google Apps for work, and then pushed out to my iPhone with no fuss. Love it because it simply works.

Remember the Milk

According to Remember the Milk I completed 3,523 tasks with the service in 2010. I think that speaks volumes of how valuable it has become to me. I am often to be seen sat with my iPhone in hand tapping out a quick thought task into RTM. Only gripes are that 1. there isn’t a dedicated iPad application, although one has been promised and 2. I cannot sync my tasks with any third party apps. Come on guys, no one likes a closed platform.

Evernote

Another absolutely essential application. Evernote now has literally everything fed into it as I have gone completely paperless. I scan all paper documentation into Evernote and then can quickly search for it when it is needed. Both the Mac and Windows applications have been updated this year to be faster and more usable.

iPhone/iPad

When I first heard about the iPad I dismissed it as just a large iPhone – how wrong could I be? My iPad has transformed how I consume information, particularly news feeds and magazines. My main way of accessing both RSS feeds and twitter is the iPad – I love the ease with which the information is made available.

This has meant that I have used my iPhone less as the screen is just too small for some things, such as accessing the web.

Unfuddle

Unfuddle continues to be my primary work application. Using the web based service to record all enhancements and bugs in our product. It hasn’t changed all that much in the last 12 months but does now have the obligatory iPhone app.

Zumodrive/Dropbox/iFolder

Zumodrive is one of those applications that could easily be forgotten about it is so tightly integrated into the operating system that you might be forgiven for thinking it was part of Windows/OSX. It has become something that I am using all day everyday and would be lost without it now which is why I read with trepidation recently that Zector had be acquired by Motorola. I hope that they remain true to their word and the service stays as it is.

While I still use Dropbox it is not as key as it once was, particularly as it now is being replaced at work with iFolder where we get more control for free.

Skype

When Skype went down earlier this year it was a big deal for our business as this is the primary means of communications between us and our developers who are off shore. It really hampered out progress while it was down which is a testimony to Skype’s importance and the need to ensure that you have a contingency in place for when something like this happens.

Sony Reader

I read more books in 2010 that I have in any other year of my adult life and the Sony Reader is the reason why. Its compact design, clear screen and ability to hod more books than I would likely read in a lifetime make it great. It’s not without its problems and the price of ebooks and availability is just shocking but nevertheless it means I can and do read more than I did before.

Why don’t I read ebooks on my iPad? Simple the size and brightness of the screen is just makes it a tiring experience.

MacBook Air

A couple of years ago you would have been hard pressed to find an Apple product in our house, these days it’s hard to find a Windows machine. Apple’s build quality is just stunning and justifies, in my opinion, the premium you pay – and the MacBook Air is a premium product. Its size and its weight make it the machine to slip into a case and carry with me everywhere and it is instant on, perfect for meetings and quick presentations.

I am less bought in to OSX and think that Windows 7 has the measure of it.

WunderRadio/Subsonic

Subsonic is just brilliant and is not pretty much the only way that I now listen to music. Whether it is on a computer or portable device I can have my whole music collection available and queued up. WunderRadio does the same for me only for listening to music.

DOA

So that’s the list. But what about those that have dropped off the radar? Well the move to Mac has made me rethink how I blog and having been a staunch follower of Windows Live Writer I have now ditched it in favour of either Wordpress itself or Blogpress on the the iPad. Also gone is the Netbook the MacBook Air has seen that off pretty effectively.

That’s my list for 2010 – what have you found to be invaluable?

For example the business I work for often needs access to designers to do small scale work for our website. We can’t afford to retain the services of someone locally as we simply don’t have enough business to put their way to make it worth their while but the work still needs to be done.

Step forward vWorker (nee Rent a Coder) which allows prospective employers post their projects to a worldwide audience of skilled people. Those waiting for projects tend to be from the fast growing economies of Asia and Eastern Europe where they can use skills gain from their day job to carry out small scale tasks in the evening to earn extra income. Also I have been able to find fairly niche skills that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

So far I have posted about 25 projects to vWorker and on the whole the quality of the work has been exceptional given the amount that is being paid. Typically I use vWorker for small development projects in technologies that we don’t have in house and graphic design and in all cases I have paid less that $100 for the work – far less than I would have with a local resource.

That’s not to say that there aren’t pitfalls to using someone remotely. They need careful managing just as any other employee does and there is also a responsibility on you as an employer to make sure that your requirements are well defined to ensure that you get what you pay for. I have learnt over the years that spending more time at the outset clearly setting out your expectations saves trouble further down the line. However, your money is not released to the worker until you are happy and there is an arbitration process should that be required.

I have also found that again, like employing anyone into the business, selection of the individual to do the work is something that you need to spend time on, looking at feedback from previous jobs and examining portfolios of work. My experience has been then individuals are better than companies and you can build a relationship with them. This has led to me having a series of workers who I return to time and again for pieces of work as I know that they can deliver the level of quality I am looking for.

I have only mentioned vWorker in this article but there are many other similar services on the internet and I have used several others but none have been as successful as my projects posted on vWorker. My business is a small business of three UK based employees and three full-time outsourced developers. This is supplemented by another six or so people who provider regular work for us that have been sourced from vWorker providing graphics, development and documentation skills that otherwise would either not have got done or would not get done to the high standard we are able to achieve now.

vWorker and sites like it, have provided a vibrant market place for small business to tap into a huge pool of talented resources and for those resources to showcase their work on a larger stage and get the opportunity to earn some extra cash. A real win-in for all concerned.

Have you used vWorker or some other outsourcing solution? Leave a comment and let us know your experiences.

Perhaps the most significant of these is the new priority based inbox which Google themselves have added. This aims to sort the wheat from the chaff in your inbox using some background magic.

What I do really like though is the ability to add/remove sections. A starred section section is added automatically but you can add sections based on filters.

The one gripe I have is that the view does not seem to refresh automatically when you make a change. So, for example, if you starred an item it does not appear in the starred list until you refresh the inbox.

A couple of new third party add-ons have also surfaced in the form of Rapportive and WiseStamp.

Rapportive is similar to xobni but, obviously, is for Google Mail rather than Outlook. It replaces the adverts down the right hand side of the screen with information about the sender culled from the web. So where possible there will be information from LinkedIn, twitter feed etc.

I suspect that the problem is that people separate their personal and business email accounts and so won’t necessarily have their Facebook account recorded against a business email address. I am probably the worst case of this as I use different email addresses for each service, for example, facebook@domainname.com, twitter@domainname.com etc so making it even more difficult to track.

When it does find some information it is a pleasant surprise and works well but right now it just doesn’t find anything often enough.

Finally WiseStamp. This is a service to embed more functional signatures into emails. Using the web-based interface you are able to add buttons to services like Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc, a link to your latest blog and your latest tweet. This all gets neatly formatted and automatically added to the end of your email.

The bad news is that WiseStamp automatically embeds the signature on all emails on all Google mail accounts that you have open. This means that if you manage multiple accounts, and in particular multiple business account, you have to remember to change the signature each time before sending – something that I just don’t do and so end up sending the wrong signature. I am told by WiseStamp that auto detecting of the current email account is coming and for me it cannot come soon enough.

So of all the three new additions to Google Mail it is the one developed by Google itself that triumphs. Both Rapportive and WiseStamp have some way to go before they become as essential as the priority inbox already has to me.

Used any of these add-ons and feel differently? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Three friends of my younger son have designed and built a high altitude balloon and launched it. Beneath the balloon was a camera and other instruments recording details of the flight. You can see an example of the pictures below and they are simply stunning. You can see more pictures here.

The best bit is that they sent details to Wired magazine and had the following published.

Well done guys!