Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

The OpenOffice.org project is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of source code to the Project. Other major contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google.

Additionally, over 450,000 people from nearly every part of the globe have joined this benevolent Open-Source Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that everyone can use.

Cut Costs

In the current economy, the entrepreneurial spirit has been challenged in many new ways. Small businesses simply cannot afford to spend money on highly priced software programs, so out of this struggle and need the open-source software movement has begun.

Remember the time your friend borrowed a jacket from you but forgot to return it? And, each time you saw him you hoped you would remember that he didn’t return it, and uncomfortably brought up the subject, only to have him forget again a day later?

While the makers of Hassle Me intended the site to send you “nagging” reminders every variable amount of days, I found this site to be more useful in keeping track of nagging others (something which I detest, yet find necessary, for lack of others’ organization skills). 

Market research has the power to make or break any business idea you have. You may be planning, for instance, a retail clothing store targeted at women ages 35-44. But, what if the location you chose has an abnormally low percentage of residents in that target market? The result most often would be a lack of business, potentially without your ever knowing why (and leaving you erroneously blaming your logo, for instance).

Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau tracks just about every useful detail about our cities. Whereas it would normally be a major headache to sift through all of the data, I use a site that cuts down my research time to just a few minutes.

Google released a new feature on Google Maps called My Maps, which allows users to make custom landmarks such as road trip stops, vacation spots, favorite restaurants and more.  Additionally, My Maps allows you to share these maps with friends.  The platform aspect of this allows developers to import data into My Maps, which could help you geographically see where your friends are, see gas prices on the map, and all sorts of other nifty things.  To see this in action, I found a Googleplex My Map, which will show you around the Google Headquarters.  This is a new type of social networking which has many possibilities.  I have come up with just a few myself, but I’d love to hear of anything more you’ve thought of as a potential application of this new feature.

Google has just come out with a free service called Google Paper (still in Beta), which allows you to “Archive” any email you want, and have Google mail it to you in an envelope.

An overview of some neat features:

- One click mail option
- Mail will arrive within 2-4 business days
- Attachments will also be printed and sent (excluding mp3s)
- Photos will be printed on high-quality glossy paper

I can tell you already, this is a major event in internet history.  This will bridge the gap for the non-internet literate folks out there who want to keep in touch with the internet crowd.

An interesting report came out recently which highlights the shift in where Americans are choosing to live.  For the first time, Americans are more likely to live in an apartment than in a house.  Reasons for this include the uncertainty in the housing market making home ownership less attractive, as well as the prohibitive cost of the purchase. 

In terms of life style, Americans are also less likely to be married than they used to be (there are more unmarried people than married people for the first time), and are living the “bachelor” life for longer.  I think shows like “Friends” displayed single, apartment life as glamorous, and therefore many people didn’t feel pressured to get married and “grow up”.

The folks over at FaxZero don’t think you should have to pay to send faxes, and offer free (ad supported) faxes from your computer in a one-page form.  Faxes can be sent to any U.S. phone number (Puerto Rico included).  FaxZero has sent over 100,000 faxes so far.

File Types

You can type in text to fax or you can attach a PDF file, Microsoft Word (.DOC) file, or Excel Spreadsheet (.XLS).

Limitations

The free version of FaxZero has a two fax per day limitation.  You can also pay $1.99 per fax that doesn’t have any ads on the cover page if you wish.

Roto-Rooter, the largest plumbing service in the U.S., has opened up a sweepstakes to win a “Pimped Out John”.  This toilet, given to one lucky winner, will have all of the necessary (and quite a few unnecessary) tools for today’s man in this “war zone”.  According to Roto-Rooter, the average person spends 11,862 hours in the bathroom in a lifetime.  Needless to say, it would be a much more pleasant time if there were something to do.

 “The bathroom is the perfect place for your very own throne.  It shouldn’t always be regarded as the room of last resort,” contends Steven Pollyea, Roto-Rooter vice president of marketing. 

Dictionaries are wonderful references to have on hand, aren’t they?  The most noticeable flaw in a dictionary, however, is that you can’t hear each word being pronounced properly.  As a result, you are unlikely to try out a new word in your next meeting, for fear of messing up on the pronunciation and being embarrassed. 

These days it seems like everyone has a solution for your voice communications.  The wireless providers have a cell phone for you, the voice over ip (VOIP) providers have an internet line, and of course who could forget the traditional old school landline phone.

To make your life easier, join GrandCentral which allows you to get a local phone number.  With this new number, you are able to:

- Listen in on a voicemail in realtime.

- Keep a phone number that is yours, not your phone or location’s (i.e.- for your lifetime).