Tech Tip: Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk (RTM) is an online task list. The FRC IT Team is all over this tool. We love it!

“Manage tasks quickly and easily.”
It has been tested and passed inspection. The interface is so easy to use. You can easily assign a task for “tomorrow” and repeat it “weekly” and it will convert your input to the date and time. Very cool.

“Get reminded, anywhere.”
Receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo!). One task list where I am.

“Organize the way you want to.”
Create as many lists as you need. Use the task cloud to easily see what you have to do. Want to store notes along with your tasks? You can do that too.

“Work together to get things done.”
This feature has been great for collaboration. We share task lists and individual tasks between the team. It has increased our productivity… everyone on the team is on the same page.

Add tasks wherever you are.
Adding tasks is as simple as firing off an email (even from your phone). See an important date on the web? Add it to your list with Quick Add.

Email Etiquette

32 most important email etiquette tips:

1. Be concise and to the point
2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions
3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation
4. Make it personal
5. Use templates for frequently used responses
6. Answer swiftly
7. Do not attach unnecessary files
8. Use proper structure & layout
9. Do not overuse the high priority option
10. Do not write in CAPITALS
11. Don’t leave out the message thread
12. Add disclaimers to your emails
13. Read the email before you send it
14. Do not overuse Reply to All
15. Mailings > use the bcc: field or do a mail merge
16. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons
17. Be careful with formatting
18. Take care with rich text and HTML messages
19. Do not forward chain letters
20. Do not request delivery and read receipts
21. Do not ask to recall a message.
22. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission
23. Do not use email to discuss confidential information
24. Use a meaningful subject
25. Use active instead of passive
26. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT
27. Avoid long sentences
28. Don’t send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks
29. Don’t forward virus hoaxes and chain letters
30. Keep your language gender neutral
31. Don’t reply to spam
32. Use cc: field sparingly

Thank you, Jeremy Jackson, for the website.

Bill Gates’ Last Day

In light of Bill Gates’ retirement, here is a video of Bill’s last day at Microsoft.

This video was aired back in January during Gates’ last keynote at CES.

Firefox & Gmail

The IT Dept. loves Firefox. The IT Dept. loves Gmail. Here are a few neat add-on’s that will help you maximize Gmail’s potential in Firefox.

Do you know of a cool add-on not listed here? Please comment and share it with us.

-Better Gmail 2 – Add useful extra features and skins to Gmail, like hierarchical labels, macros, signatures, file attachment icons, and more.

-GTDIndox – GTDInbox transforms Gmail into a powerhouse of productivity and manageability. It gives you a better inbox.

-Delegate to Remember The Milk – Allows you to create RTM tasks from Gmail messages.

-Gmail Manager – Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.

-GSpace – This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.

Temporary Groups

This has to be one of the coolest things Fellowship Technologies has released in a while.

A temporary group acts just like a regular group in F1, except a temp group expires after 3 days. However, a temp group can become a regular group.

So what’s the benefit of temp groups? Suppose you run a report and you want to email everybody the report was able to pull. In the past, it was a pain in the neck to email individuals from a report. But now you can send the individuals from the report results to a temporary and send out a Group Email just as easily as you would with a regular group.

Click here to see a short demo!