What Impressed Me This Week

Filed in archive Noteworthy on August 18, 2006

Cheap Video Conferencing That Works: I found a new video conferencing tool (www.ivisit.com) that is a cross platform (Mac and PC) and actually works pretty darn well. The Lite version is free and if you opt for the Plus version (just $50 a year) you can host up to eight people in your own chat room using audio/video. My install on my iMac went pretty easy and customer service is live via video and immediate. Pretty darn cool.

If your friends do not have a webcam they can still participate using a microphone, many recent computers have a built in microphone. The service also features a text chat feature for up to 100 people.

My windows friends had mixed results installing but with persistence it does install and work. Other than better documented help files or FAQ for the price it is a great option for holding a video conference.

NOTE: if you try this software out search for gregbd, you will find me in the B2B area and look me up and say hello.

Bootstrapme: Seaside Observations - this is a new blog that I visited by Shawn Hessinger. The writing seems thoughtful and useful. For example I like the post where he suggests that:

Don't throw away those old office chairs, desks, office partitions or computer monitors. If you've been unable to sell them at auction or in the local classifieds, why not donate them to a business that can make good use of them?

eons.com - is a baby boomer website with 70% of all new Eons members are between the ages of 50 and 60 years old and 45% of new Eons members are women. It also has a sweet implementation of Web 2.0 features including a very cool lifemap so you can tell your story and share memories. http://lifemap.eons.com/ In the goals area you can save your top 10 things to do before you are 100, I love the question: "What are the top 10 (or more!) goals you want to accomplish before you're 100?" That is so much like a baby boomer planning to live to 100. Lets do it!

The site seems to focus on US citizens but I entered my Canadian Postal Code and it seemed to accept it as long as it was just five characters.