We write about the strategic advantages of telework for companies, and the lifestyle advantages of telecommuting and freelancing for individuals. But every once in a while we run across a product or service we think you ought to know about if those topics are of interest.
We’ve spent a small fortune on AA and AAA batteries, and we figure you have too. Decades ago we figured out rechargeables, while more expensive to buy, could save us a bundle over throw-away batteries (even if we do like the Energizer Bunny.)
But keeping charged rechargeable batteries in smoke alarms, and keyboards, and mouses, and TV clickers, and Wii accessories, and headsets, and oven thermometers, and sideburns trimmers, and all the other gizmos meant we had to have a bunch of the suckers in a charger. And even the rechargables had to be replaced every couple of years because the chargers would ruin them.
Don’t know how we missed the memo, but Sanyo solved the problem about five years ago with their Eneloop® batteries. They’ll hold 75% of their charge, if you leave them in the kitchen drawer, for three years, and you can recharge them 1500 times before the conk out. (If you recharge them twice a week, that’ll take you 15 years, so you probably won’t to buy new rechargables ever again.)
(Yes, if you buy some of these batteries by clicking on the links in this post we make 6%. But we just bought a set of our own for $30 because we thought they’re extraordinary, and wanted you to know about them too. We don’t really care where you buy them. We have an Amazon Prime account so we get ‘free’ two-day shipping, but you might find them for about $25 at COSTCO, according to a comment on the Amazon page.
Excellent information on these batteries! I will forward it to all of my contacts, and you guys have fun with the 6%!
I would like to expose another well kept secret, and that is the subject of the lack of true end to end security in video conferencing systems!
As a Video Conferencing Consultant, I can tell you that there are many new video conferencing tools on the market today. Some of them are even web-based tools. What this means is that employees can utilize their existing laptop/desktop, and by adding a simple webcam, they have created a highly sophisticated virtual workstation.
Now, many of these web-based systems “claim” that they can provide true end to end security, but when you “scratch below the surface” you see that they only provide security at the application level, or that they have the true end to end security on one of their products, but not on the one you are ordering.
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How do you know which systems are the most secure? For starters, the U.S. Federal Government has set forth some very strict standards for the assurance of true end-to-end security in the form of their NIST FIPS 140-2 Certification list. There are currently four (4) vendors who have met these standards, and one (1) of them is web-based.
With this, for less than $30.00 per month you can now expect features like: 1) UNLIMITED meetings at a single monthly cost; 2) HD video/CD quality audio; 3) Desktop sharing; 4) Unlimited recording and playback of meetings at no additional charge; 5) SECURE instant messaging; 6) Whiteboarding; 7) Voting/Polling; and 8) Workspaces (which also must be SECURE) which allow team members to securely view and post information, share files and documents, maintain version control, organize meetings, post discussions and get work done regardless of their geographic location.
Again, all of these features should be available with no additional hardware required, except for a simple webcam, and provided to you in a single download.
You should also be able to meet with up to 1000 colleagues at anytime from anywhere in the world!