If you have ten British pounds burning a hole in your pocket and don't require proof that you've actually spent it on something real - then this is the holiday must-have for every dreamy-eyed techie.

Sentforever.com will send a text message into outerspace for all eternity.

If we really do ever have a "War of the Worlds" this is a great way to start it. At the very least, given the inanity of the average text message; I'm guessing any intelligent life out there won't think the same of us.

Maybe we can beam out our Facebook profiles into the great beyond while we're at it. Who wants to throw out the first snowball at the Klingons?

I hate to be pithy on Christmas Eve. But, how does a dotcom that sells overpriced text messages to shoot off into space (as in the "Final Frontier") get funding in times like these?

For you last minute shoppers, the good news: you don't have to worry about getting it delivered by tomorrow somewhere here on Terra Firma. Just a thought!

Happy Holidays!

Renee Oricchio

Who needs Starbucks or any other hotspot for you and yours on the go? Coming soon (as int the first quarter of '09): Mifi. It's a 3G wireless router that provides Internet access for as many as five devices up to four hours. Thus, the "m" in MiFi is for multiple.

Made by Novatel, this little guy that literally fits in the palm of your hand, is expected to be priced at less than $300. It requires no external broadband connection. Novatel refers to it as the first of a line of "intelligent mobile hotspots" that "creates a personal cloud of high speed Internet connectivity". (When in doubt; throw in the word "cloud" into any high tech press release to ensure more coverage).

It's easy to imagine this as a handy little tool for smaller businesses. For one thing, the price is right. Imagine a presentation team taking this on the road. It's also good for juggling multiple mobile devices like not only laptops; but multimedia devices and cameras, too.

There are no shortages of places to go on the Internet for reviews of products, vendors, movies, blogs, you name it!

I happened across a site recently called VendorRate. What a great idea! What a great layout! VendorRate has a search mode to pull up a single company and review a whole snapshot of customer review data. Not only does it give an overall rating of the company; it breaks it down by services offered, customer service, reliability, timeliness, etc. You can even call up a service or product category and compare the main vendors in that area. For example, call up cloud computing and there's a side by side comparison of Amazon, Salesforce.com, etc.

There's only one problem.

All the data is typically based on 50 people or less. So, what is this really telling you?

Especially, when you consider the likelihood that the PR departments of some of those vendors have stacked the numbers with bogus reviews. One or two planted reviews could skew the data very easily with so few contributions in the mix to begin with.

There are some good review sites out there.

How to separate the good from the bad from the ugly:

- Look at how many individual reviews are involved.

- Read up on how the site compiles its reviews (based on customer feedback, independent usuablity testing, etc.). If the site doesn't offer details then that's a bad sign.

- How independent is the site? Who sponsors the site? Are they reviewing their own sponsors or their sponsors main competitors? Are they owned by the people they are allegedly reviewing independently. If it's not clear, move on!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Papyrus is probably not the most professional font choice for e-mails or corporate web sites (unless your company sells Ancient Egyptian artifacts).

But what is the most universal of the more conservative, professional fonts that would be the safest bet to use company-wide?

The short-list of conservative, widely used fonts would be:

Arial (Helvetica on a Mac), Times New Roman (Times on Mac), Georgia, Verdana?

Notice "Wing Dings" is not on the list. I'm not sure who uses Wing Dings or for what purposes.

Is it:

- Times New Roman (TImes on Macs): As characterized on yesterday's posting, Times New Roman may be the corporate grey pinstripe suit of the font world. But, it's not necessarily the best choice; especially for web sites. It's not bad a choice, just keep it at 12 points or larger. Times New Roman is very hard to read at smaller font sizes.

- Arial (Helvetica): Reads better on web sites and e-mail. However, it too is a narrow font that tends to start cramping up in smaller sizes.

- Georgia? Good choice! This is one of my personal favorites. It's a little wider and reads cleaner, especially online.

- Verdana? Even better! Verdana was actually shipped way back with Internet Explorer 3. Historically, that is meaningful. IE3 shipped at the time the Internet was really taking off and Verdana was the preset font of choice because it was considered the optimal font for online reading. Like Georgia, it is a wider, cleaner font easy to read in any point size.

So the winner: Verdana, by a nose.

This may seem like a really obtuse topic to discuss. Which is precisely why so many professionals run into trouble by not putting some thought into their font choices.

First, here's where the wrong font can give users and companies fits:

1. On the company web site: fonts look differently when viewed on different browsers; and smaller. For example, Arial is so popular on Windows that it's the preset font on Microsoft products. Macs don't have Arial. The equivalent is Helvetica.

2. On e-mail: same issue. The other big mistake that users make is taking a little too much latitude with their creativity. It's one thing to use the font Comic Sans Serif on your own time putting together that PTA flier. Don't use it on an e-mail going out to clients. Times Roman (or Times on the Mac) is the font equivalent of the traditional corporate grey pinstriped suit.

3. Consider a company mandated font. Why spend all that money on coordinated marketing collateral and then have your employees sending out e-mails, blog postings, Powerpoint presentations and print materials in a tower of Babel of various fonts? Keep your look consistent across the board with one or two universal fonts (and clear directions under what circumstances each is used).

Tomorrow: Which of the "safe" fonts is the most universal and therefore "safest" to use across the board?

Hint: It's not the grey pinstriped suit!

I used to be a Staples Reward customer. I unsubscribed to the e-newsletter and cut up my card yesterday.

One of Staples main competitor's, Office Depot, is going through some rough times. Who isn't in this economy? In recent weeks, Office Depot has announced it will shut down some 126 stores and 33 distribution centers.

It's not pretty. But, it's also not fatal when you consider in this country alone that Office Depot has more than 1000 stores from coast to coast.

So here we are in the middle of the season of giving, charity and kindness to all and I get my monthly rewards newsletter from Staples via e-mail.

The headline reads, "You can always count on Staples." It's followed by the first couple of lines of the Office Depot press release announcing the store closures.

The newsletter goes on to fearmonger to office supply customers who might shop at Office Depot whether their rewards will be honored, whether ordered products will arrive on time and whether office supplies in their area will be readily available.

The last line reads,"And remember, when other suppliers are closing their doors we're here to stay."

Ick, poo! That was sleazy!

Memo to Staples:

- You know how the American public made it clear in the last election that they are sick to death of negative campaigning. Ditto for negative advertising. If you can't compel people to your way based on your own positives, then find a new line of work.

- A lot of companies (and their employees and investors) are hurting right now. Office Depot is one of them. Don't kick people when they are down. It's just poor sportsmanship. You may intimidate a few extra people to shop at your stores, but at what price to your public image? Is this really the image you want to have?

- Your claims are not even fair. Who said anything about Office Depot rewards not being honored or products not being available or delivered on time? I think the 1000 other chain outlets will manage just fine.

There's a cautionary tale here for companies that send out e-newsletters. Newsletters by e-mail can be cranked out really fast. Maybe too fast. Production may be reduced to a quick-as-a-flash, but companies still need to take the time to edit and vet their content before hitting the send button.

In other words, not so fast with the Easy button.

Here's something for insomniacs to think about at two in the morning. Your web browser may be exposing all your passwords and other sensitive personal information to hackers.

The self-proclaimed Internet lockbox, Internet Explorer; Apple's untouchable Safari; open source choices, like Firefox and Google Chrome, vetted for security by the world? None of the above have bragging rights that they are keeping your most personal information safe according to a new study by Chapin Information Services.

The weak links are pretty universal falling into three areas:

1. Your browser is not checking the destination where passwords are sent.

3. Your browser isn't telling you when invisible forms are getting triggered and tapping into password management information.

For the record, Google Chrome fared the worst on the list. Safari came in at number two.

I can think of many service industries that drive me crazy (lessee... banking, health care, insurance companies of any kind really, etc.). But few industries that actually sell tangible products can get away with frustrating their customers the way high tech does and with such wild abandon.

Here's my list of "Would it kill you..."

1. Microsoft, to admit Vista is a dud. Announce a new initiative to overhaul Windows with the top priority being to slim it down, make it crash less, startup faster and design security features so that users can easily customize it to their needs. As big as you are, I've watched you scramble over the years with major initatives to overhaul your direction. Try this one!

2. Apple, to get serious about lowering the prices of your Macs to compete with PC prices.

3. Google, to allow users to download Youtube videos to our desktops so that we can access them for presentations without Internet access. Here's an old list of cheats to work around it until they do. If Apple, through iTunes, can charge us .99 cents to download a copyrighted song for unlimited use, then why can't I download an amateur video of guys disco dancing on treadmills for less than a buck, as well?

4. Printer manufactorers, to lower the prices of your ink cartridges. At the very least, update your programs that notify us when the ink is low so that they are honest and the ink is really low. Yes, I know you make more money when we replace our ink cartridges when they are still 30% full. But, think about the landfills and all those businesses out there hanging on in a bad economy. Sometimes greed is not good, Mr. Gecko.

5. Security software makers, to rewrite all those popups screens in terms that make sense to the average non-techie user. What's the difference between low and medium risk, anyway?

In case last week's unemployement report didn't convince you. Or the continued wrangling over the automaker bail out. Or the bail out of Citibank. Or....

Here are some signs from the tech sector that hard times are here:

1. Apple is rumored to be working on a deal to sell iPhones at Wal-Mart (I'm not making this up!).

2. It's December 11th and you can still find a Wii for sale in time for Christmas delivery.

3. Things are so bad, spammers are laying off employees (okay that time I was being a smart aleck).

4. VC money is now an oxymoron.

5. A year ago Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! at $33 a share. It's now trading at $12 a share, Jerry Yang is gone and apparantly Microsoft could care less.

What a difference a year and a scary recession make! While everyone is sweating bullets over just how bad retail sales will be this holiday season, I decided to take a break and think of something really trivial: MacWorld, which is coming up in January.

Usually MacWorld is highlighted by some fan-tabulous product launch that wows tech reporters, creates lots and lots of buzz and leaves Apple fans salivating and speculating over when said product will actually hit the shelves. Lawn chairs and other camp out equipment is brought out of the basement in anticipation.

You get the idea.

Can you see this making sense this time around, however?

Rumors are already bouncing around the techno-blogosphere about MacWorld. Apparantly, there are widespread reports Apple plans to announce a new product that is outside the usual devices (not an iPod, iPhone or Mac). Best guesses are that perhaps it's a tablet (iTablet?) or something to compete with Amazon's Kindle (iKindle?).

I would say both are good guesses. The tablet sounds more likely to me. However, Oprah endorsed the Kindle. When Oprah blesses something, we all know what that means (East of Eden goes back on the New York Times bestseller list after 50 years and Barack Obama becomes president.). That may be just enough endorsement to make Steve Jobs want to jump in the digital book reader market (Microsoft will realize it's a market 18 months from now and jump in late with something that is both inferior and succeeds anyway).

All that being said, who can think about new product lines at Apple in this economy?

Thought question of the day: in today's economy would the launch of the first iPhone or iPod have made it?

Actually every season is the time to do site testing! That being said, how long has it been since you bought something off your own site or ran some optimization tests of any kind?

With less than 20 shopping days to go until Christmas, now is the time to doublecheck your shopping cart for bugs, etc.

January is not the time to find out there's something klugy going on with your site.

At the very least do this:

1. Buy something off your own site. In fact, buy three things and ship them by different methods (overnight, two to three day shipping and ground). Find out how long they really take to arrive. Find out where the buying process gets most frustrating. Have someone outside your company buy something. You know your site a little too well. See what it's like for a new visitor finding their way for the first time.

2. Run some basic site analytics. Where are you losing them?

3. Look at last year's sales figures. Yes, the economy is worse. But, it's not always the economy to blame for low sales. Look at what's moving and what's not and how your site may be a factor.

Do it today. Reminder: December 12th - 15th are generally the biggest online shopping days of the year. Those are the days most people figure it's the last chance to order in time for holiday delivery.

No pressure!

Props to Intel! They have found another way to deliver when the chips are down (pun intended).

Intel set a goal this year to donate one million employee volunteer hours and this past Friday they announced they had hit it.

How appropriate that it was also the the UN's International Volunteer's Day.

Intel set this as a goal to celebrate it's 40th anniversary this year. What a great way to celebrate - by giving back!

This was truly a company-wide effort. Some 47,000 Intel employees around the world participated.

We hear a lot about volunteerism and giving to charity this time of year. What impresses me is that this was a year-long effort. It's easy to forget that there are a lot of people in the world who need help those other eleven months a year.

So your company has only one hundred employees or ten? You don't have to be an Intel to give so generously. Set a goal and make the bar high in relation to your company. Consider it the Intel challenge.

The irony doesn't escape me that Friday was also a day that the new unemployement figures came out announcing another 500,000 jobs lost in this country.

It's going to take more than Intel to ease this kind of pain. Let's get to work.

If you want a hint at what may be the "next thing" in tech, just keep an eye on recent filings at the U.S. Patent office.

Of course, most of the ideas submitted for patent protection never see the light of day. Time will tell on this one. But, who hasn't been in this position. You're at a business dinner (or a match.com date) and then there's that squirmy moment when the check arrives. Who will throw down their plastic first? Perhaps a split check down the middle? What about the guy who orders three cocktails and an appetizer with a steak compared to the woman who orders a ceasar salad with a little chicken on top and just water, please?

Big Blue has heard your cries. Enter patent application #7,457,767. IBM is proposing a tableside device that would allow all parties to individually tick off their share of the tab until the bill is totaled out to zero; calculating tax and tip, of course. I wish I had one right now.

There's no guarantee this will ever make it out of the R&D department. For the duration, HP still makes some fine calculators.

For today's IT workers, all those Microsoft certifications may not even be worth a mention on your resume by the year 2020.

Here's why:

Cloud computing is more than just the favorite buzz term in technology this year. It's for real. All the big players are moving in that direction (Amazon, IBM, Google, etc.). For the small to midsize business, especially, it means accessing a level of computing power that would otherwise be cost prohibitive and just impossible to implement in terms of network infrastructure.

The Open World Forum has just put out its 2020 Floss Roadmap that predicts in that year 40% of all IT jobs will be related to open source computing due to the popularity of cloud computing.

The report is long and requires signing up with the forum to download it for free. Don't let that scare you off investigating. It's a worthwhile read that covers seven key areas of IT (publics policies, innovation, ecosystems, cloud computing, IT governance, careers and FLOSS in an open world), plus recommendations.

FLOSS by the way stands for Free/Libre Open Source Software.

Clearwire's big plans for coast-to-coast WiMax are getting a littly muddy thanks to the plummeting economy. According to Reuters, CEO Benjamin Wolff says that 2010 roll-out that would bring WiMax to 140 million Americans is likely to stall for awhile due to the state of the credit markets.

Pownce OutTwittered

Remember Pownce? Don't worry, it's less than two weeks away from becoming a future trivial pursuit question (the geek edition). Pownce is (soon to be was) a "microblogging" social network similar to Twitter. Once upon a time (for about five minutes), there was some buzz that Pownce might actually become a formidible competitor for Twitter.

Nope! Pownce is officially shutting down on December 15th. The co-founders are off to work for Six Apart, the parent company of popular blogging tools like Moveable Type and TypePad.

Prediction: Don't be surprised if Six Apart launches a microblogging tool in the near future.

Net Applications, the Nielson-like rankings monitor of operating systems, has already put out its November numbers and the report comes with a number of interesting "firsts".

- Windows has dipped below 90% of market share for the first time.
- Mac finally hit above 8%.
- Windows Vista finally broke the 20% barrier.

My take:

- In case you've forgotten what a juggernaut Microsoft is within the operating system industry, just look at these numbers. Despite all the bad press over Vista and popularity over Firefox, Microsoft is still dangling around 90% of market share.

- Who cares? The operating system wars are over; not because anyone lost. It's just that everyone lost interest. The web is the platform of choice now.

In difficult times, we all need to pay attention to a few things to keep
our jobs, according to Dan Tynan of InfoWorld

Cheering yourself up and focusing on the bottom line are 2 of the 7 things you need to get busy on....

Here's how the logic goes. The Friday after Thanksgiving is, as we all know, known in the retail world as "Black Friday".

They mean that in a good way, as in profits that are "in the black". It's traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year kicking off the holiday buying season. Think about it. Everyone's off of work and by that time dying for an excuse to get away from their dysfunctional families.

Answer: the mall!

With the advent of online shopping over the past decade, Monday has unofficially become "Cyber Monday". Presumbably, all those looky-loo's who didn't pull the trigger on their purchases on Friday return to their computers on Monday and buy it online.

There's some truth to it. But, it's actually not the biggest online shopping day of the year. It's more like the fourth or fifth. The biggest days are around mid-December, the equivalent of 11th hour shopping for online buyers who want guaranteed shipping by the 25th.

Still, perception is reality. Many online eTailers like to capitalize on the "Cyber Monday" schtick and tend to offer special deals today to entice shoppers not to abandon those carts.

For the record, not everyone flees their families by running off to the mall. A lot of that "Black Friday" action happens online. So a good chunk of consumers are fleeing to their computers, instead. "Black Friday", however, was more like "Flat Friday" this year for eTailers with $534 million dollars in online retail sales. That's up a puny three million dollars from last year.

Given the times, all retailers should be grateful it wasn't "Red Friday".