License 2 Code

Okay, it didn’t save my baby…but it is pretty sweet. I’ve used it extensively at my office for the past 6 months or so.

ClearContext (http://clearcontext.com) is a great Outlook plug-in for managing your email. There are others for managing your workday (such as the GTD - Getting Things Done - plug-in). However, I feel this one has the most active development and a great featureset.

The reason I need a plugin like this is because a) I want to be as responsive as possible to people and b) I want to keep a clean inbox everyday. Keeping an clean inbox ensure I haven’t missed an important conversation.

The #1 feature I use is the auto-categorize feature. The way this feature works is: first create have a destination folder for email threads on a certain topic, then drag an email in a thread to that topic folder. ClearContext will then assign the remainder of the emails in that thread to the topic. Then, you can move these emails to this folder by pushing the assign button (either the current selected email or the whole thread).

The #2 feature I use is the feature that schedules an appointment from an email. It automatically copies the selected email as an attachment and inserts the first part of the email as the body of the appointment. A future release will automatically add the recipients of the email to the appointment.

The #3 feature I use is the ability to “defer” an email. This feature pops up a dialog asking you how long to defer the email (# of hours, # of days, # of weeks, a specific date, etc.). Then the email is removed from your inbox until the appointed time when it is reinserted into your inbox as an unread email.

The #4 feature I use is the prioritization of email. ClearContext assigns a priority of email based on the “importance” of the email using a custom algorithm. I’ve found this categorization to be fairly representative of reality.

There are other features including a dashboard overview of your inbox, tasks, and appointment, the ability to find related emails, the ability to convert an email into a task and others. However, this is a good start. =)

A workplace book group is starting up with Core Security Patterns. This is a well regarded title if you’re to believe amazon reviews. And its huge. If you are perhaps bored to sleep by the topic and an opportunistic thief breaks in thinking you an easy mark, you’ll have something to bludgeon him to death with.

While the first chapter suggested the size was more about lack of editing than content, the second chapter was actually very useful. Excellent overview on symmetric/asymmetric keys, ssl, and key concepts in security.  And if the readable chapter wasn’t enough - you can check out Hamlet D’arcy’s excellent material prepared for the topic.

Seriously - Mary Queen of Scots as a real example to help me discuss security? Trust me it works AND is interesting. And if that (or the second Mary piece) isn’t good enough - see the online-merchant of venice example. I guess you don’t get the name Hamlet without being able to quickly rattle off great Bard references.

Using real-world examples to discuss security principles reminded me of Dick Hardt’s great Lessig-style short presentation explaining authentication/identity 2.0. Relates a form of third-party trust management in the physical world (photo IDs), to how one might think about identity trust in the electronic world.

Fits well with the Queen of Scots example-style, and while I think it will help you understand identity in a new way, if nothing else it’s completely well-done and uses a keen style of presenting.