The presentation “Tools for Entrepreneurs: Create. Collaborate. Communicate.“ started out as a way to explain very technical things to non-technical people, but I quickly realized that most people when approaching technology get intimidated by the “What’s DNS? Do I need a dedicated server?” kind of questions and therefore feel they can’t understand technology.

I feel that this technology intimidation is really due to the fact that they don’t really own their idea, and better understanding it will guide any decisions they have to make with their idea moving forward.

For me, the biggest online tool for most entrepreneurs is definitely their website. Having a website is like putting your shingle out declaring you’re in business.

In this presentation, the first section focuses on further defining your idea so you can create the site, offline, before engaging someone to build it for you (or building it yourself). From who the users / customers will be and what kind of information they want, to what the actual purpose of the site will be (conversion), to defining a list of must-have and nice-to-have features for the site.

The second section focuses on how to collaborate with those who will help your idea become a reality, from working with collaborators remotely, to the kinds of tools and software you’ll need to collaborate, and setting some guidelines for those tools to be effective.

The third section focuses on methods and approaches for communicating your idea, whether through the use of social media or just being consistent in your entire presence online.

Be sure and page through the entire slideshow to see the resources I included at the end for those looking for open source software alternatives to proprietary software, and links for getting started with ebooks and Creative Commons.

Below is the slideshow, click through to see the slideshow in your browser:

I used to be a die-hard Remember the Milk fan. Then I discovered Wunderlist.

What do I love about it?

• It’s everywhere I want to be. Check it out below: for your Desktop, iPad, iPhone, Android…there’s even a web version if I’m not near one of my devices.
• A neat and clean interface keeps me calm. I haven’t even changed the default wood background because it reminds me of a clean desk.
• Did you see I said desktop app? My browsers are such RAM hogs, I love not having to use my browser when I’m working from home and also keeping my lists available for those offline productivity sprints, too.
• It syncs, syncs, syncs. No matter what device I pick up (Android phone, iPad, computer) my lists are in sync.
• Some great drag & drop organization and quick views for upcoming deadlines.

What I hope to see in a future release:

Not too many criticisms here – I like the clean interface, the search capability, the print tasks, and unlimited lists and syncing. But one thing I’d really like to see is smart recognition of dates in the text (instead of manually selecting deadlines) and being able to set recurring events – pretty much my only gripe, and not that big of one!

Check out Wunderlist.

Disclosure: I’m not being compensated in any way for the thoughts and opinions in this post.

All the applications suggested are linked to their Android Market pages so you can check them out immediately – click on them! Here’s a direct link to Productivity on your Android Mobile – 10 Tips & 40+ Apps on Slideshare.

Did I leave one out? Let me know in the comments.

The way TextExpander works:
You insert a snippet, phrase, or entire text and then insert it into any program on your Mac (email, document, anywhere there’s text insertion) with a special character sequence shortcut that you decide on. My shortcuts are usually 2-6 characters long.

Here’s a peek into some of my snippets:

mysig = my work signature (how many times have you written yours?)
tx = Thanks
cmp = your company name

In addition, I have shortcuts for my email addresses (how about every time you log in somewhere or leave a comment on a site?), frequently-referenced URLs, and other email sign-offs like:

plm = Please let me know if you have any other questions.

But TextExpander is not just for short phrases. I have entire emails / predefined responses that can be called up with a short letter sequence (I think my longest one is somewhere around 500 words).

I used to keep a bunch of predefined emails in Google Canned Responses, but the interface is clunky and can get unwieldy if you have more than 15 or so. I often mistakenly overwrote them by clicking “Save” instead of “Insert.” And the truth is I’m not always in Gmail when I need those snippets.

How much time has TextExpander saved me? Luckily, I don’t need to wonder as they tell you directly in the app how much time you’ve saved. 10 hours of typing? Yes, please!

I definitely recommend checking TextExpander out (note: for Mac OS only). They have a free trial but I think it’s a wisely invested $34.95. If you don’t have a Mac, but have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get their TextExpander Touch app instead.

This it the English version of an article that I published on

At night, before going to sleep, do you turn off your computer? Do you leave it on to exchange your poetry and photos through peer-to-peer file sharing? At lunch do you activate your screen saver? Or do you leave your computer on during the day when doing a backup?

Why not give something more and collaborate with the rest of the world?

What is Distributed Computing?

Distributed computing is when many computers work together to resolve difficult problems or calculations, becoming a sort of virtual supercomputer. These projects are organized and managed all over the world by scientists, mathematicians and professors, but even you can contribute directly to their success!

There are hundreds of active distributed computing projects and the majority of them are non-profit projects that need volunteers to accomplish the project. A volunteer “donates” bandwidth, processor (CPU/GPU) time, memory (RAM) and space on their hard disk for a project.

For example, a project requires a calculation of 405 million sums. Without a supercomputer it would be impossible to complete it, or it might take years. Instead, if your computer does 20-100 sums, and mine another 100, together with other 100 computers, an army of volunteer computers manages to do it faster and with a lower cost or free for who manages the project.

The first distributed computing project is GIMPS, Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, begun in 1996, for the search for new prime numbers. Through this project they have discovered 12 new prime numbers in the last 13 years, the most recent in September 2008: 2 ^37.156.667-1, a number 13 million digits long!

How it Works and How to Get Started

Distributed computing is executed through a program installed locally on your computer. This application communicates with the project servers to download data, resources and upload results. Often a middleware is used to manage more projects (and their applications) together or manage the project across multiple volunteer resources.

You’ve heard of software, the applications that you install on your computer. The hardware are peripherals that have physical space inside your computer. But what is middleware? A middleware is a layer of application that manages to manage more than one application, share resources and driver libraries between them, or manage the priority of the processes of several applications. It can be also used to manage applications and resources across several computers.

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is a platform of middleware that permits a volunteer to easily participate in distributed computing because the interaction with the projects is completely managed by it. BOINC is the most well-known and used** software with more than 1,5 million users (and 500.000 active users) on all of their projects. It was developed by Berkeley University in 2002 and it’s open source as well as LGPL.

When your computer is idle for a period that you decide (like 10 minutes), a screensaver is activated which communicates with the software installed locally so that it can proceed with the distributed computing. An alternative configuration is to give the calculations low priority so as not to impact the performance of other processes while you are working normally.

How to get started with BOINC:

1. Choose a project: (there’s a list of all the distributed computing projects on Wikipedia)
2. Download and install BOINC
3. Insert an email address and password (the address will not be published, it serves for some communication from the team, but a way to identify you for credits and interact with the team)
4. At this point your computer is assigned tasks or calculations to complete by the task manager of the project.
5. Your computer will download data files and apps (if necessary) from the project server.
6. When the tasks are completed, it will upload the results onto the remote project server.
7. Your computer will automatically request new tasks based on your preferences.

**You can also participate in a project that does not use the BOINC platform as some are available ad stand-alone distributed computing projects, such as GridMP which is used by the World Community Grid di IBM (and has 200,000 users).

For every set of tasks completed, there is the possibility to earn credits (the appropriate number is determined by the difficulty and/or resources needs to complete them) which are added to your volunteer profile. You can also ask for more tasks and proceed.

Some interesting Distributed Computing projects

There are hundreds of active distributed computing projects all over the world – just look at the list of all the distributed computing projects on Wikipedia to see the possibilities. Many projects are overseen by universities and volunteer groups, and, seeing as BOINC is open source, a project can be started and launched by anyone!

Here are some interesting and popular projects:

• SETI@ Home – Perhaps the most well-known BOINC project, SETI@Home is the search for intelligent life outside Earth through radio telescopes.
• Combat cancer or AIDS: Compute against Cancer – Help Conquer Cancer or fight AIDS FightAIDS@Home
• Folding @ Home da Stanford University: studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. Folding @ Home
• Einstein @ Home: Uses a computer’s idle time to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors Einstein @ Home
• or if you prefer a more entertaining approach - Project Sudoku or Chess960@Home
• or more artistic: RenderFarm@Home to render 3D graphics, The Internet Movie Project to create animated films for the public domain.

Mini-FAQ on Distributed Computing

• Is it safe? Could I be at risk for spam or viruses?

As all software downloadable through the internet, there could be some risks. For each project you will be asked to download files and executables for that particular project. Take a look at the site and the information available before deciding to participate in a project. Many projects, however, already have thousands (if not millions) of users and a strong and reliable reputation.

The relationship between the volunteer and the project is based on trust of the project and that it:

• will provide applications that don’t damage their computer or invade their privacy
• is truthful about what work is being done by its applications, and how the resulting intellectual property will be used.
• follow proper security practices, so that hackers cannot use the project as a vehicle for malicious activities

• Is there a minimum commitment to participate?

Your commitment is as you decide. You can connect one day and another no. Your participation is divided into sets of tasks, so you can complete your current tasks and then stop, or immediately continue with new tasks.

• Does it cost to participate?

Obviously there can be costs in terms of electricity consumed due to the fact that you leave your PC on to participate in distributed computing when it might be otherwise turned off. But maybe not. How many times have you left the PC “just for a moment” and then you come back a half hour later? This time (and electricity) “lost” would be much welcomed.

And bettering the world will have a cost anyway, and you want to help, right?

Other Resources

• Distributed computing on Wikipedia and a list of distributed computing projects
• Grid Republic : an online interface which helps in the getting started and signup process
• International Science Grid this Week – a weekly newsletter
• Volunteer @ Home – information for volunteers
• Grid Cafè – a place to learn about grid computing, brought to you by CERN.

What are you waiting for? Your computers are ready to participate!

Photo by jmv

Dear Ask the Geek,

I have a quick question about the copyright info you have on the photos on your blog. I have just started my blog, and I love posting my photos. Should I be concerned about doing that? I was hoping to ask your advice and a bit of your wisdom on the matter since you have more experience blogging. If one adds the copyright sign like you do, does that protect the images? Also, on a technical note, how do you add that to your photos? I use a Apple with iPhoto, but I also use a PC.

Any advice would be so helpful!
Budding Photographer – Blogger

Dear Budding Photographer – Blogger,

On my food and travel blog Ms. Adventures in Italy you might have noticed that I have “sararosso.com” on all my photos, but that’s not to say that it’s the right thing for everyone. Let’s look at each of the issues of your question in more detail.

• The Difference between a Watermark and Copyright
• All Rights Reserved and Creative Commons
• How to Create a Watermark

The Difference between a Watermark and Copyright

First of all, let me clarify that the semi-transparent text you see on my photos is not a copyright. It’s a visible digital watermark that is an opaque text layer that I insert in my photos. Invisible digital watermarking takes the process much further and actually embeds identification information digitally into the file which cannot be seen. This is not very widely used and would be the sort of thing a professional photographer may do. It usually requires special software.

A watermark does not necessarily protect the photo’s copyright. To learn more about copyright, Read the { When I Have Time A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons } In it, I touch on the fact that copyright is inherent with original works of art like photos. In short, you automatically “own” the copyright to your photos. It’s up to you to decide how you’d like your work to be shared/modified/re-worked by anyone that finds it.

A watermark, more than an actual legal mark is what I consider to be a social deterrent that serves two purposes:

1. deter the user from stealing the photo which is unusable for many (profitable) ends
2. help render it recognizable by the author or others in the case that it is re-used somewhere else

While it won’t stop your photos from being taken, modified or re-published, it may deter someone interested in taking the photo since they don’t have a pristine photo available for their means.

All-Rights Reserved and Creative Commons

I decided to keep my photos All Rights Reserved except for a small selection of photos on Flickr that I have released under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-Non-Commercial which means I expect to be attributed as the original author but that people can re-publish/modify/build on for non-commercial means.

Depending on your objectives, you might also decide to change your license terms on your photos. I suggest you read the When I Have Time A Guide to Copyright and Creative Commons and decide what’s best for you.

How to Create a Watermark

There are several ways to create a watermark, and several programs you can use to do it. Most are specifically photo editing software, and some are even free!

Some include plugins or actions to create a watermark, but there is a simple method to do it that will work in almost any program:

1. Open your photo file (Geek tip: always work on a copy of the file so the original remains untouched)
2. Create a new layer or text layer
3. Type in the text you’d like to appear (your name, your blog’s name or your URL)
4. Adjust the opacity or transparency of that text layer so that it is visible to the degree you prefer.

Some prefer to create a “frame” to the photo with their URL or to not use transparent text at all but rather the full text color, but it’s completely your preference.

Photo-Editing Software to Make Watermarks with:

Here are some suggestions of software to get you started. Making a watermark is something you’ll have to learn the first time you use a software program, just like any software, but once you know the steps it’s quite quick and easy, and you can set up a batch to do it on a group of photos in many software programs for your next blog post.

• Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom – I’ve been using Photoshop for more than 10 years, so I’m most comfortable using it. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a lighter version of the software for the budding photographer (like you!)
• GIMP – a free, open-source alternative to Photoshop that is rich in features.
• Picnik – online photo editing with a lot of options. Choice of Free or Pro versions.
• PicMarkr – a free, online way to add watermarks. Pro installable version available, too.
• Watermark.ws – an online and free tool to add watermarks.
• CNET 15 Online Photo Editors Compared – some free, some with paid pro versions, including some of the software I mentioned above.

Good luck, and start experimenting!

Sara Rosso (aka WHT’s In-House Geek)

Some highlights from the presentation:

• What is Open Source (OS)
• Why Open Source
• Open Source in the world
• The Girl Geek and the Open Source World
• How to Contribute
• Appendix A: Some Open Source Alternatives for Proprietary Software