One of the minor irritants with e-mail is the inability to confirm that your intended receiver has in fact received and opened your message. One possible solution has been to request a return receipt, but that often irritated the recipient! Now comes a free new service Itraceyou.com that traces your e-mail and notifies you as soon as the message is opened! Now none of your recipients can say, "No, I never received your message" because you'll have a record of its receipt--date and time. All without those aggravating return receipt messages (that no one ever returns anyway!

Control the weather from your desktop!

Weatherbug.com gives you complete control over the weather--right from your desktop!

After a tiny download, this magic trick sits quietly in your task bar and on command unobtrusively delivers live continuously updated neighborhood weather conditions, personalized forecasts, camera images, radar and alerts straight to your screen.

Planning a trip? One click gets you nationwide weather links listed by state. This handy tool was selected as a Television Broadcast Editors' "Pick of Show" at NAB 2000. Must be good with all those weather Gurus around!

A clipping service for television

Tveyes.com monitors a broad range of television broadcasts in real time and sends you instant e-mail, instant messaging, or wireless messaging alerts when your keywords are spoken on television programs. These folks "watch" TV for you and get the latest news, commentary, or “buzz” on topics of interest to you – whether you are at home, in the office, or on the road - as it is broadcast.

How do they do this? They grab close-captioned text from TV broadcasts and fire instant e-mail alerts to you when your keyword is used on the air. Then if you want they will send you an expanded transcript and link to the appropriate network websites. The basic service is free and If you really want to sleuth these folks offer expanded services.

Published: March 3, 2001

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John M. "Jack" Peckham is the Executive Director of REcyber.com (the Real Estate CyberSpace Society). In that capacity he oversees the development and delivery of the latest up to the minute Real Estate Cyberspace tools, strategies, networking structures and services that the Society provides its members to leverage their effectiveness, visibility, professionalism and earnings. As host of Real Estate CyberSpace Radio, he provides over 40 hours of programming to help listeners integrate the power of the Internet into their daily business lives. He is the author of several real estate books published by Prentice Hall and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich including his latest Master Guide to Income Property Brokerage from Wiley Publishing. A columnist for the Boston Herald for nine years, his syndicated columns have appeared in over 100 papers nationwide. Jack loves to sell real estate has been involved directly in the sale of over one billion dollars in Real Estate. Today he sells in his jeans and fuzzy slippers as a one-man shop and has closed over $40,000,000 in sales on the Internet recently in 20% of his working time. The balance he spends directing the affairs of the 10,000 member Real Estate CyberSpace Society. The Society awards the RECS (Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist) Designation to members based on the current criteria. He served as Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is a Past President of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and has been honored as the Massachusetts State Realtor of the Year. You can reach Jack at or by calling 617-523-4441.