Smarterware » Pelotonics

Off to Comic-Con; Have Some Links

Gina Trapani — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:16:27 +0000

Things have been quiet here this week and will be till Sunday because I'm working at Comic-Con, San Diego's nerdy popular culture explosion at the downtown convention center. If you're in San Diego and going to CC, come say hi to me at The Guild booth #4417, where I'll be helping out selling The Guild DVDs and t-shirts. In the meantime, catch up on stuff I've been posting elsewhere.

At Lifehacker earlier this month I published How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network's WEP Password with BackTrack and then the follow-up, WEP Cracking Redux: Beyond the Command Line. Both these articles got a huge response, but don't worry, I'm not going blackhat: it was all proof-of-concept.

Also at Lifehacker: Gmail Tasks Keeps It (Too) Simple. Very exciting news that Google is moving into to-do lists, but they need to take it up a few notches.
Inspired by the reader response to the Gmail Tasks piece, over at the Pelotonics blog PeloLife, I posted Simplicity vs. Features: Crafting the Perfect Task Manager.
How to Troubleshoot a Flaky Internet Connection [Lifehacker]: This is everything I know about getting back online when you get knocked off.
Must-Have Google Search Tricks [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]
Save Hours of Typing Time with Text Expansion [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]
Extreme Ways to Shorten and Reduce Meetings [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]

Back next week--hope to see you at Comic-Con! If not, keep an eye on what's going on there at io9.

Everywhere But Here: June Posts About the Internet

Gina Trapani — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:00:17 +0000

Rather than put up a new post every time I do something somewhere other than here, I'll save it up and get it all over with in one giant self-promoting shot once a month.

Here's my Mac-heavy byline roundup for June.

Gmail Power Tools [Macworld]
Hands On with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Developer Preview) [Lifehacker]

Contributed sections to Customize the OS X Workspace and Manage Files in OS X Your Way [Macworld]
Tweak Your Way to a Better Finder [Lifehacker]
Extreme Makeover: The Email Inbox Edition [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]
Master the Art of Working Remotely [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]
Coming to a Microsoft Shop Near You: More Macs [Work Smarter at HarvardBusiness.org]
Co-Twittering @Pelotonics with CoTweet [PeloLife]
Springtime for Apple Podcast (MP3 Available) [Copper Robot]
A rant on the uselessness of user manuals [T3 Magazine] -- Doesn't appear to be available online yet, but I had tons of fun writing this and will add the link when it comes online. T3 is a UK mag but I believe there's a US edition available as well at your local newsstand.

That is all. Carry on.

What I’m Up To: Joining the Advisory Board at Pelotonics

Gina Trapani — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:44:44 +0000

Update: As of November of 2009, I'm no longer on the advisory board of Pelotonics.
I'm happy to announce that I'm joining the advisory board at Pelotonics, LLC, a startup here in San Diego making a project management web application of the same name. I met founders Troy Malone and Daniel Marashlian last summer at the bonfire meetup I organize here in town, and their energy and enthusiasm impressed me off the bat.

As a product, Pelotonics is both very mature and just getting started. It's live and available for folks to sign up and use, but it hasn't even begun to get the recognition it deserves. My recent informal survey of what project management apps people are using seems to indicate that there's a market for something somewhere in between Basecamp and Microsoft Project. Pelotonics has a great shot at that market.

This is the first time I've advised a company, but it's something I'm already enjoying. I've worked at internet startups almost my entire career, and I love to see the inner workings of a successful online product. As a blogger who's constantly dealing with product pitches, it's going to be very interesting role reversal; part of my job will be helping the wizards behind the Pelotonics curtain get the word out.

Of course, as someone who critiques software for a living, I've got lots of opinions on how Pelotonics can improve, and I'll also be sharing them with Troy and Daniel in the coming months. Finally, I'll note my involvement on the board any time that I mention Pelotonics or cover any of its competitors.

If you're in the market for a project management webapp, give Pelotonics a whirl, and let us know what you think.

Related: Marshall Kirkpatrick's post at ReadWriteWeb, Gina Trapani to Join Productivity Company Pelotonics As Advisor and the official announcement over at PeloLife, the company blog: It’s official: Gina Trapani is on our Advisory Board!.