Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Well Spoken - tip of the week

Practice counting to three before replying to a question, even when the answer is on the tip of your tongue. This conveys thoughtfulness, self-confidence, and generates interest on the part of the listener.

posted by The Office Grapevine at 1:22 PM 0 comments  

Monday, February 27, 2006

Whether looking for a VA or not, this is good info

Have you ever thought about how you think? Most of us don’t take the time to analyze how we analyze problems, we just do it. Sometimes, though, you can think too hard when you should be listening to your instincts.

Take the example recounted in “Blink,” a recent book by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s the true story of a statue purchased by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. After paying $10 million for the work of art, it was discovered to be a forgery. Plenty of “experts” examined the statue from all angles and aspects, believing it to be “the real thing.” However, there were a handful of inspectors who scrutinized the piece and simply “felt” that something was wrong, although they just couldn’t quite put their finger on what that was.

Seems that it just didn’t “look right,” and at first glance they knew it was a fake. Unfortunately, because they were unable to back up their hunch with indisputable facts, their analysis of the work’s authenticity was ignored. We’ve probably all experienced a similar situation, where we just knew we were right, but we let others make the final judgment because we lacked the conviction to convince them otherwise.

This is the difference between thinking and feeling, facts and truth. We think about facts, but we feel the truth. The facts can be manipulated, but the way we feel is immovable. At the end of the day, it is how we feel that guides our decisions and dictates the direction we follow. So the next time you have a hunch or simply a strong feeling about something, listen more closely to yourself. You’re probably a lot closer to the truth than you realize!

posted by The Office Grapevine at 9:27 AM 0 comments  

Friday, February 24, 2006

Looking for Wireless Connectivity?

Find a Wireless Connection Wherever You Are

Most travelers know that if they’re in the vicinity of a Starbucks, they can likely purchase a day’s use of Internet access along with their coffee, but wireless hot spots aren’t just for airports and coffee shops anymore.Hot spots are turning up in some surprising places. In fact, entire cities are enabling city-wide Wi-Fi for local residents. The proliferation of wireless Internet access means that you can easily get a change of scenery without having to redecorate your work space or hang out at the airport. Before you hit the road in search of Wi-Fi, check out these handy Web sites:

Wi-FiHotSpotList.com offers a robust search function to find wireless Internet access. You can enter an address and search within a radius of 1, 2, 5 or 10 miles. You can also search by specific providers.

The Intel Centrino Mobile Technology Hotspot Finder returned more hot spots within a 10-mile range of our test locations than the other Web sites. In addition to the search features of Wi-FiHotSpotList.com, you can also select a type of location, such as a marina, pub or car wash, and whether the locations are paid or free. It searches at designated distances up to a 100-mile radius from the address you enter.

JiWire powers the Intel site and boasts a database of more than 102,000 hot spots. However, its search criteria is less specific than the other sites.

WiFi411 has similar search options to the Intel site, but in terms of geography, you can only narrow it down to a city and zip code – not a street address.

Some sites also offer contact information, maps, directions and pricing so you can pick the hot spot that best suits your needs. And paired with GoToMyPC, it’s easier than ever to access work files and programs back at the office from wherever you happen to be.

posted by The Office Grapevine at 9:43 AM 0 comments  

Thursday, February 09, 2006

This week's image tip

When shopping for items to fill your wardrobe; buy quality not quantity! The best-dressed spend 2/3 of their money on accessories and 1/3 on clothing.

posted by The Office Grapevine at 2:18 PM 0 comments  

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Great EXCEL Tip

It's been a little while since I've posted. I came across this amazing tip for Excel users who want a quick and easy way of changing all caps to proper caps for large mailing database files.

  • Highlight all the empty cells in the column where you want the formula results (Column B for Column A changes)
  • Type in the formula for the first cell =proper(A1)
  • Hit Control+Enter

This will automatically fill in all the highlighted cells in one swoop. No more copying and pasting the same formula all the way down the column.

Voila! You're done.

You can then delete column A and move on to the next issue. Too cool!!!

posted by The Office Grapevine at 7:38 AM 0 comments  

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Interesting Website

As you know I like to offer all kinds of different options, information and just plain ol' fun stuff. Well today I got the skinny on an interesting concept.

"A guy in Boston put together links to every streaming public radio station he could find, just out of the goodness of his heart, so I love telling everyone I know about it so they can support it--although it's free, and you have to hunt hard for his request for donations." ~Nina Feldman

Check out: www.publicradiofan.com
PublicRadioFan.com features program listings for hundreds of public radio stations around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.

posted by The Office Grapevine at 5:26 PM 0 comments