Trick #1: Voice Mail Super Tricks

Think of the possibilities if you could have different voice mail greetings for different callers to your cell phone. A very professional one for your boss or clients. A wild and wooly one for you crazy friend. How about "This line has been disconnected" for your ex-friends?

CNBC, the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle have featured this interesting service that replaces your cellular voice mail with a significantly better voice mail system that includes a set of cool new features like personalized greetings for each caller, online voice mail access, and complete control over who can leave you a voice mail.

If nothing else, this is worth a visit just to listen to some of the clever voice mail messages these folks have put together for the asking. And guess what -- this service is on the house.

Trick #2: Use This Gem to Save Your Tail

If you have never accidentally deleted files from your recycle bin -- stick around. Companies get rich from offering recovery service and/or expensive software to recover from our boo boos.

Now comes an undelete program that PC World Magazine rated "Very Good" that you can use to recover those deleted files in the blink of an eye. When you read the help file you will find that there are a couple of technical issues to be aware of, but the program looks a bit like Windows Explorer making it relatively easy to navigate.

This is a good program to have available right after one of those "oops" moments. And, unlike the big expensive packages, this little gem is on the house.

Great Place #1: Microsoft's Top Secret Project

Want to see the next level of computing? The folks at Popular Mechanics put together an extremely interesting video showing Microsoft's new "Milan" project. Here you will see a demonstration of Microsoft's new "Multi-Touch interface" that for now is built into a coffee-table design.

You almost need to see the demo to appreciate how truly revolutionary this product is. You can upload files by simply placing a device -- like a digital camera -- on the table top. You can physically move files around with your hands. You can even enlarge or reduce the size of a photo image with the swipe of your fingers.

Lots more and like they say, "You gotta see this to believe it."

Great Place #2: Check Reviews Before You Buy - Visually

Want to get a quick and easy handle on how others have reviewed a product you are considering buying? These folks make it very easy -- and if you are a visual person you can get an immediate read with their interesting bar graphics.

They accomplish this using a new type of search engine that gathers and analyzes user reviews on the web, and then presents the results in easy to comprehend visual bar type summaries that run from red (bad) to green (good). You can search here for your product and see how users who reviewed that product rated it. You can also directly access the most helpful reviews and a lot of other pertinent information regarding that product or class of products.

Great place.

Published: October 11, 2007

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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.