So, before your next scheduled backup, take a trip down memory lane and do a little spring cleaning: weed out those old favorites!

We record our own conversations while in the same room, using digital recorders. Interviews are either recorded while in the same place as the interviewee, using digital recorder. Or, if the individual we are interviewing is at another location, we use Skype’s conference calling feature. I later add other segments by recording by directly onto the computer using a headset.

Here’s our toolbox:

MacBookPro

Sony digital recorder and/or iPod Touch for recording conversations.

Skype in combination with Call Recorder software

Garage Band & Logitech USB headset

iTunes–after the program is complete, I export it to iTunes and then upload.

There are a lot more of us out there on our own these days, and it’s hard to do it all in a solopreneur office.

Especially for entrepreneurs and Do-It-Yourself types, “Unraveling Web Development” may be the kick in the pants you need to either get on with it, or finally make the decision to outsource your project.

Whichever camp you’re in, you can be implementing the tips in this guide in no time: just go to the simplified PayPal order form here.

Just fill in the form like this:

Item: Unraveling Web Development
Amount: $15.00

Or, if you have questions or would like to see a sample page, just contact me here: ktcosmos-at-LooseEnds-dot-net.

Tapping into your inner grandpa and grandma may inspire you to look around at what you can fix or repurpose in your closets and drawers. Making things last is a good thing these days, right?

Perhaps you lack the tools or know-how for working on your vehicle or plumbing, but anyone can learn to darn a sock. If you wear nice wool or alpaca socks, for example, you’ll want to make them last. And even if you didn’t knit them yourself, the hand-knitters in your life will be impressed that you appreciate these special gifts enough to preserve them. (You might earn yourself a few more pairs by taking care of those you already own!)

Darning reinforces the area where the fibers are wear-damaged, giving you many additional years of wear. The pair I will use as my example were knit (by me) of yarn that isn’t really suited to socks but I loved it and made them out of it anyway. Consequently, the cuff will never wear out, but I have made repeated repairs to the sole by darning.

Supplies

• Favorite sock with a hole in it.
• Darning needle (these are large blunt-ended needles with eyes big enough to thread with yarn.
• Some scrap yarn, at least 45 inches—it should be of a similar thickness as the yarn the socks were originally knit from but doesn’t have to be the same yarn or be a matching color. No one will see the darned area but you.
• An actual or improvised darning egg: this can be a smooth egg-sized rock (I use a baseball) but please don’t use a real egg.

Step-by-Step

1. Drop your improvised darning egg into the sock so that you have a solid, rounded base to work against.
2. Holding the sock firmly against the darning egg, run a line of stitches around the hole, about 1/8 t0 1/4 inch in from the hole’s edge (this will depend on the thickness of the original yarn used to knit the sock). Your line of stitches should look like this – - – - – - you do this by dipping your needle in and out of the sock’s fabric. Leave a tail of yarn that is about 3 inches long, which you’ll weave in to hide and secure when done darning. (see photo below)
3. Now you’ll create a series of long stitches that go from one side of the hole to the other (like setting up one of those potholder looms when you were little). Use the row of stitches surrounding the hole as your guide and make these stitches fairly close to one another, being careful not to pull in the edges of the original hole, which will cause your sock to become misshapen. To avoid that, just hold the sock tightly over the “egg.” (see photo below)
4. Finally, create a perpendicular row of long stitches, weaving them over and under the first row of long stitches you made, resulting in a lattice, or basketweave pattern. Your goal in this step is to create a snugly woven section of fabric, so use the end of the darning needle to compact the woven stitches against each other every other row or so. (see photo below)
5. Weave loose ends into the inside of the darned area and clip with scissors.

Just how many minutes a day can you justify without cutting into your workload? Or, if you have employees, can you afford to have your people Tweeting on the clock when a fair amount of their networking is personal and may possibly introduce security and data leak issues?

Web Pro News has published a piece today by Chris Crum on this subject: “Is Social Media Good or Bad for Business?”

Speaking of this, here are other related posts from the Loosely Speaking Archives:

Unintended Outcomes (of Social Media)
From Bulletin Boards to Brightkite: How we stay in touch
Loopt, Brightkite Invites: I’m Confused!?
Tapping the Power of LinkedIn

These older sites are interesting in that if you use “View Source,” you can track the progression of the technology behind how used to work. Other than their timeline value (questionable!), they are beginning to show their age. Perhaps archaic and obsolete are more apt descriptors of their functionality as viewed through a 21st century lens.

Some of these sites have benefited from regular content updates over the years, and others have been completely redesigned since their earliest versions. Then there are those clients who proudly display 14-year-old sites which they’ve never changed (go figure) since the original site files were ftp’d to the host’s server. For ALL of these, an overhaul of the back end is way overdue.

Whether table-based or rife with other deprecated (or soon to be) tags, these sites should all be updated and be completely modernized using CSS. In particular, if your client’s site is a teenager now, you should help him prepare a budget for an update (kind of like paying for orthodontia, but maybe not as expensive).

If you haven’t been providing web design for long, you won’t have this problem, UNTIL a new client asks you for a site update or redesign of his older site, and you discover that you’re going to have to start from scratch. Hence, you have what seems like an ethical conundrum.

Let’s say your client is basically happy with the way her site looks, but you know better. How do you persuade her that the parts she can’t see, and that she knows nothing about, need to be changed without sounding like an smarmy snake oil vendor?! Not only that, how to explain to the client that it’s not simply a matter of taking her 250 pages of HTML and changing it all out in just a couple of hours’ time.

Have you devised a successful strategy for explaining that your original technology was “best practice” way back when, but no longer technically viable, and that you will need to charge them to bring it up-to-speed?

As of this writing (October 22, 2008), Geekgyrls is closed and offline.

Internet Marketing Specialist Anna Baron, owner of The Virtual Link, is launching a new forum just for us girls. Make that gyrls. Make that geek gyrls.

Anna describes Geekgyrls.com like this:

“It’s just a fun place to hang out, share information, etc. It’s not virtual assistant related, however VAs would certainly fit into the mix perfectly. If you have a blog, website, newsletter or anything else that would help me out, I’d really, really appreciate a mention of this new forum. Also if you know anyone that is a geek, web site designers, graphic artists, programmers and just nerds in general…please tell them about this forum – the more the merrier!”

Scoot on over to check it out! Look for my post in Anna’s contest forum when you do stop by. Be sure to reply somewhere on there to let Anna know ktcosmos sent you.

By the way, the forum may not be officially up and running until about September 1, so try again if you can’t get to it on the first try.

Here’s the what & why:

“The information you’ve so generously shared with A List Apart will help us form a picture of the ways web design is practiced around the globe. We hope that making this data available will have a positive effect on best practices and employment, and will enhance public understanding of, and respect for, our profession.” –A List Apart

You’re the who.

Note from ktcosmos: This article was originally developed at the request of a colleague, who was tackling a conversion project herself. She published it on her new blog but then contacted me recently to say she had grown frustrated and stressed out over the conversion and management challenges and so ultimately decided to take the blog down. So, while written by me, this article is now moving from its original location to its new home here.

If YOU decide to tackle a static-to-WP conversion yourself, I hope this article helps you with the process.

Sooner or later, you may want to incorporate a blog component into an older, static web site. Or, like me, you’ll, get to thinking, “Why not combine a static site with a blog using WordPress as a Content Management System?

As an example, I had built a community information site a few years ago and had generated some nice SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and page rankings for such a young site. “Wouldn’tt it be great if people could interact with the information on the site by asking questions? I pondered, imagining the traffic increase that could result from that.

After briefly considering installing a discussion forum, I opted instead to execute a conversion that would retain some of my key pages as static pages, and swap out other old pages for WP posts, with the goal of generating a sense of community via commenting.

You might be thinking Joomla, Drupal, or some other platform would work best for you, but I’ve been a WordPress admirer for several years, so that decision was simple.

About nine months ago, when I was still just considering the pros and cons, Dirk Riehle posted a question about the process at LinkedIn.

Before you dive in yourself, read the replies Dirk received for an overview of what to expect.

If you did take a moment to review the discussion on LinkedIn, you’ve probably already started your own pros and cons list.

Decisions to make before you make your move:

1. Which blog platform should I use?

2. How will I import old content into the new platform?

Even though I researched the process and proceeded with caution, some of the results are great and others were unexpected and unsettling. Therefore, ask yourself how comfortable you are with unpredictable and/or confusing outcomes for these questions:

1. Is it possible to preserve rankings, traffic, and links that point to the old site from my old site?

2. How will people find my new site content after the conversion is complete?

Here are the steps I followed in my own conversion.

1. Selected a WordPress theme I thought I could modify that would look fresh but familiar to those used to my static site page layout.

2. Decided to install my blog in a separate subfolder on the server where my original site lived. That way, I could recreate the pages as I had time and would be able to utilize the strength of my existing domain name.

3. Copied and pasted all page content into new posts or pages, as described above. While some advocate creating a custom php script or using RSS to import your content, and there is even a site that will purportedly help you with this task (http://www.nvu.com), I found cutting and pasting from the browser window was sufficient. Uploading all those photos that you may have on your old site was trickier. I used a WP plugin called Batch Image Upload. which I found referenced on Lorelle on WordPress’s site. HOWEVER, Lorelle checked in with me recently to say that this plugin has been associated with some security issues. So, do your research on this plugin before using.

4. Created htaccess codes so that site visitors (to the old, original site) AND Google’s robots would be seamlessly redirected to the new page names and locations.

5. Created a sitemap for the new version of the site and notified Google Maps of it, and requested that they index the pages via Google Webmaster Tools ((http://www.google.com/webmasters/).

The Good and the Bad (no ugly)

1. Page Rank Decline and Traffic Loss.

From my research, I thought that 301 redirection would prevent a loss of traffic and that my existing Google Page Rank would migrate over to the new site.

After two weeks, the traffic was almost back up to where it was before the conversion, but it did drop by about half initially. It looked as though my PR was gone for good, but then about 5 weeks later, it, too migrated. Ok, it was only 4, but after two years, I was proud of that! As I read somewhere, this is a good opportunity to work on building that back up! Optimism is essential when working with SEO.

2. Make careful decision on where to Install WordPress.

Had I installed all WP files in the root directory, my PR may have right away, since the site wouldn’t have the /blog appended to the domain name. Since I didn’t, I may experience slower gain in rankings.

3. Google Says I have too many Redirects?!@%%#

I’m a frequent flyer over at Google’s Webmaster tools area, which I use to alert Google to new sites I build after I create and upload sitemaps. The diagnostic tools there are very helpful. I found a big red WARNING notation there yesterday, which read:

“When we tested a sample of the URLs from your sitemap, we found that some URLs were not accessible to Googlebot because they contained too many redirects. Please change the URLs in your sitemap that redirect and replace them with the destination URL (the redirect target). All valid URLs will still be submitted.”

All I could say was AAARRRGHHHH!

Now, the redirects themselves are working, but Google’s warning has me wondering…

4. Changing the sitemap of the original site to reflect the target URLS specified in the 301 redirects.

It seems counterintuitive to have a sitemap file referencing urls which don’t exist in said directory.

However, since Google said I should, I did update that ENTIRE original site’s sitemap with links pointing to every page within the new blog. Too soon to tell if that was a good or bad idea.

5. Redirection is not the same as site indexing.

Even though the redirects you install will take your site visitors and bots to the new site seamlessly, that doesn’t mean the new site itself has been indexed. I discovered that yesterday while checking my stats and diagnostics at Google’s Webmasters Tools.

6. Quirky little home page issue.

WordPress’s control panel will let you select a static page as the first page seen when a visitor enters your site, but then takes visitors into the blog part of the site. I haven’t tamed this quirk yet, but there are several resources below that will help you accomplish the task.

7. WordPress constantly introduces new versions and makes strong recommendations that you install them.

If you end up managing your own WP sites as well as those of your clients, you’ll need to consider that everytime you update a site to the newest version, not only do you need to budget the time for uploading the new files accurately, but you may have to spend time after wards troubleshooting site crashes and other unexpected results.

8. Just updating doesn’t eliminate vulnerabilities or hacks introduced already.

Yes, you need to stay current, but if you have been the victim of a hack prior to updating to a newer, more stable version, you may bring the infection with you unwittingly. Read more about the aftermath of a hack and how to clean up your files here and here.

9. Dealing with the “Duplicate Content” no-no, as defined by Google.

You may or may not be penalized by Google based on the way WP handles content. This issue concerns the fact that more than one complete version of each of your posts may exist on your site unless you use some little coding tricks to avoid that, or utilize post excerpts.

In the end, the conversion was a little more challenging than I anticipated, but I am happy with the outcome and wouldn’t hesitate to use WordPress to redesign another site. In the meantime, I am thinking of hiring someone to fix my quirky little home page issue. Interested? I’m just a little tired and ready to work on something else!

Here are a few of the resources I found helpful.

Tools for Webmasters

Google Webmaster Central blog

The Effect of Redirection on Site Traffic

Search Engine Watch

Web Master World

Tips for Migrating from Static to WordPress

Symbolcraft

How to make the front page and home page of your converted site behave how you want them to (something I’m still working on)

Turbocharged

Blog Oh Blog

WordPress Codex

Double Black Design

MoshuBlog

Speaking of this, here are some related posts elsewhere on Loosely Speaking:

Page Rank DOES Migrate after awhile

Oops; here we go again (another WordPress update)

Google Status Restored: The WordPress Hack Aftermath

Busted by Google (the story of a hacking episode)

Converting From Static Site to WordPress site? (the background behind the article above)

I can still recall hearing the name Microsoft sometime in the early 80′s, and wondering just what that even referred to?!

At that time, the computer I had at my disposal at work only ran off a floppy disk, (this is of course before computers had any memory to speak of) which had to be inserted into your compter’s disk drive to make anything happen. I wasn’t even aware I was USING software and often wondered what software looked like and what functions it could be expected to perform.

One of the first programs I owned was a grades management application, essentially a large spreadsheet into which you could enter your students’ names and grades on specific assignments, and then it would tell me what grade each kid had at that moment in time. This program revolutionized my teaching life! I could be on top of my students’ progress and grades in an instant, and had so much more time to spend planning great lessons as opposed to sitting with calculator in hand late into the night. If I was meeting with a parent, I could pull up the spreadsheet and show them just how their child was progressing. Commonplace today, but a huge leap forward back then.

Today, as an entrepreneur and self-employed person, I choose the kind of services I am providing and, therefore, the types of software on which I must be proficient. If it weren’t for AdobeSystems and Apple Computer, I wouldn’t be making a decent living in my present career as a Virtual Assistant specializing in web development and graphic design.

The longer I reflect, though, I can’t help but think about the activities that I just don’t find time for anymore, thanks to the advent and evolution of software that entails quite a bit of study and practice to achieve even basic proficiency. I’m drifting off to the good old days when I had time to garden, cook great meals, knit and sew on top of working a full time job and raising a family.

I’m looking out my office window at a gigantic pile of mulch that waits patiently for me to spread it. Too bad I don’t have some software that could do that for me…

Trading outside employment for self employment, I earned the right to being the sole decision maker when it came to purchasing new equipment (I love checking that box on surveys). My pride in being my own boss also means burning the midnight oil so that I can be up to speed enough on my latest technology purchases to be able to turn out a job the next day. Blaming software for what is probably just a downside of self-employment is unfair. But, it IS expensive and it DOES have to be upgraded all the time and there is NEVER an end to that cycle.

In comparison, my gardening (trowels, etc.), knitting (needles, etc.) and cooking (pots & pans) hardware have never been replaced and my sewing machine is 50 years old and still going strong. Not to mention the kitchen software (tablecloths, potholders and aprons) I inherited from my grandma, which are older than me.

Lost and gone forever? Not quite.

I thought that some of the software that I truly valued in the early years of my own computing experiences (and which led to my current ball and chain relationship with my technology) seemed either to have languished or altogether vanished. Not so in all cases.

• The now obsolete ClarisWorks was my first wordprocessor. I stubbornly held onto it until it turned into AppleWorks. I still run that morph of ClarisWorks for everyday wordprocessing tasks that don’t need to be delivered to clients. Read about the history of this one here.

• The tools which kept me organized when I first became a solopreneur were NowUpToDate and NowContact: I never met anyone else who used or had heard of them back when they were my workhorses. Does anyone still use these forerunners of contact management software? I just discovered they are still being distributed!

• Before there was Photoshop, there was Graphic Converter. Way before I could afford Photoshop or Photoshop Elements or Jasc’s PaintShopPro, this program got a daily workout in my office. It is a terrific graphics editing program that came as a free utility with one of my first computers. I have kept it installed ever since. I once had an issue about which I contacted the company and I heard back from the developer, Mr. Lemke, right away. I even got to meet him briefly at this year’s MacWorld 2008.

• Justin R. Cohen’s Baby Smash came installed on my first Apple IIe and my kids loved it to death. In fact, today they’re all grown men but they sometimes yell out “BabySmash!” at random moments, like other (normal?) people might holler “Bonzai!” I don’t think you can find it any longer, but here’s a newer alternative. And here’s a newer program, same name, that might be fun for those with little ones.

Thanks, Lorelle, for this somewhat provocative writing challenge. Maybe I’ll modify my work/life balance, so as to get back to churning out a little more of my own favorite software, uh, soft-ware, like the little green sweater pictured above.

Till today.

A client sent me a zipped file with the file extension you see in the title of this post and when I clicked on it to upzip (using the latest version of Stuffit Expander), it generated a bunch of XML stuff.

Googling that unfamiliar file extension, I found this discussion (and the apparent solution) on one of MS’s discussion forums.

From Mactopia, I found this description of the problem, er, solution:

“Open XML Converter allows you to convert Open XML files that were created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows so that you can open, edit, and save them in earlier versions of Office for Mac. Open XML Converter can convert Word documents, Excel workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations that are in the Open XML Format so that you can open and edit the files in Office 2004 for Mac and Office v. X for Mac. You can choose to convert and open one file, or convert a large number of files.”

So, what does this mean to you, if you get one of these files?

• FIRST you need to update your version of Office for Mac 2004 with a 11.5.0 Updater (you must have Jaguar/OSX10.2.8 or later).

• THEN, you will grab the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0 (for this you must be running Tiger/OSX 10.4.9 or later).

Pay attention to this discrepancy: if you are running Jaguar, you may update your version of Office, but you will have to update to Tiger to be able to run Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.

Both downloads you need were released just two days ago, and can be found here. The instructions are clear, but you’ll find if you click on “How to Install,” you land on a stylish window that encourages you to print the installation instructions. Someone forgot to create print stylesheets and you’ll get a document that is dark gray printed on black. At least I couldn’t read it, but then I’m 55 years old.

Here is another page where you’ll find the Mac 11.5.0 Updater and one for the Open XML Converter (on which the print out is legible).

Does that make you just a tad nervous? Are the downloads going to be buggy? Will you be able to open your Word docs? Did you happen to see how many updates and downloads and patches are released on a daily basis over there at Microsoft’s dowload center. Eek.

How does it work?

Well, the file did open, and I was able to edit it. Altogether, It took about an hour to find the reference to the issue, locate the downloads, read through the system requirements, download, install and test.

We’ll see.

Now, just as I think I have a handle on enough web-based technologies so as to feel current, I have heard about some new ones that I don’t grasp! I want to fit them neatly into some sort of mental genre folder. Help!

The scoop on Loopt.

Loopt’s website explains that it can “turn your mobile phone into a social compass.” It looks like a combination of Geocacheing (where people are the hidden items) and Twitter, but is not available to all cell phone users at this time.

Newsweek (“Hey, I Know Where U R,” May 5, 2008), featured an interview with its developer, Sam Altman, last week. Altman explains that “it’s amazing how often you’re near one of your friends and don’t actually know it.” Take the free tour/demo on the site and for just $3 or $4 per month, you can be in the loop(t). Read more about it at Wikipedia.

Genre: Mobile Social Mapping Application (according to CrunchBase)

Go fly a Brightkite :

Same idea as Loopt, but doesn’t require GPS and works with any and all cell phone carriers, as long as you have text messaging capabilities. The Brightkite blog explains, “Users can see where their friends are and what they’re up to all while maintaining comprehensive degrees of privacy to non-friends. Depending on a user’s privacy setting they can also be open to meeting others nearby.” It integrates with Twitter and Fire Eagle (yes, another social networking option by Yahoo). Currently in beta, there’s no cost as yet.

Genre: Location-based Social Network (the preferred description per Brightkite’s site).

Ok, phew. That wasn’t so tough to understand after all. Just a new genre (to me) and something fun to try out, taking social networking to a new level. And it brings us full circle back to when all networking was done in person, and we enjoyed bumping into those we knew when running to the post office or grocery store.

I would love for you to mentor me on how you approach this task!

I recently jumped into the role of moderator on two groups I belong to. Simply keeping up with all the discussion on the forums takes an amazing amount of time.

Having observed some talented moderators handle online tension with great finesse, I find I’m a little anxious about not coming off like your elementary school principal if I do have to jump into the middle of some acrimonious exchange.

Since the concept of the forum dates to ancient times, and since bulletin boards and discussion lists were some of the earliest forms of online communication when the Internet was just taking off, there is a wealth of information to draw on.

Effective moderation may not be possible until you have earned the respect of group participants through actively contributing to the conversation yourself. In taking up the moderation challenge, you have an opportunity to hone your leadership style and skills.

Martin Reed who publishes Community Spark, addresses the primary role of moderators as he sees it:

“When you take on forum moderators you need to make it clear exactly what you expect from them. Most moderators see themselves as forum police officers and will only edit/delete/lock content without creating any themselves. This is a mistake – make sure your moderators know that their primary role is to encourage interaction, to encourage member involvement, and to encourage a sense of community within your forum. “

Here are some resources on how to become an effective moderator:

The Real Purpose of Forum Moderators Revealed, How to Effectively Moderate Forums, and don’t miss this: Archived List of Articles on Forum Development, by Martin Reed, The Community Spark.

The Forum Leader’s Guide to Life â€â€? Parts 1 and 2, by Aaron Brazell

The Moderator’s Home Page, by Mauri Collins and Zane L. Berge

To connect with all your clients, you need reliable phone and internet service. Yes these are called “Technology,” but they are also services you have to pay for evey month, like gas and electricity, so I have grouped discussion of them together as your “utilities.”

Let’s take phones first.

You may use a landline, your cell phone, a VOIP option or any of a number of web-based phone services.

What will not work is to run your practice from your personal home phone number. So, from the outset, your budget will need to allow for additional $$ for the approach you feel will suit your needs best.

Some VAs offer live phone service, and if that’s your intent, you’ll need either a multiline phone system, or a service such as Ring Central that enables you to have distinctive rings for various clients, retrieve messages, manage faxes, etc.

If you do not plan to be reachable live by phone during your business hours, you may be able to use one line with answering capabilities, and then check messages and return calls on a routine basis. Many VAs who do project work prefer this option, and convey to their clients at the outset that they schedule phone conferences on an appointment basis only.

If you will be conducting meetings or teaching classes virtually, or making arrangements for clients who do so, make certain your phone service allows for conference calling. Or, look for online meeting capabilities. Here’s a link to an earlier post in Loosely Speaking that reviews a number of these: Online Meeting Rooms.

Victoria Santiago has several relevant posts on how to choose the right telephone setup for your office on her blog: www.homeofficetelephony.com. You’ll find additional useful information here: www.yourtelecomadvisor.com.

Also, take a cruise through Jeff Zbar’s (the Chief Home Officer) entire category on Telework & Virtual Officing for more to chew on as you mull your connectivity options.

Which is a nice segué, actually, into

Internet Service

You may have been a happy AOL user for many years, but when you launch a professional service business from home, most people agree that you need to go in a different direction. Your two choices are dsl (through your preferred phone company) or cable service, but PLEASE don’t try to run a VA practice today using dialup technology only.

Why not use AOL? Think of it as a consumer level, rather than professional level service. When you, or your mom or grandma made your first forays into internet communications, AOL made it easy. But in setting up a home-based business, you want to convey that you are a professional and taking the next step up to acquiring an online identity that reflects your business name is an important move. Trust me, general consensus is that AOL does not convey that. Keep that email address for personal correspondence, if you like, or for back up when you are traveling or the like.

Internet technology introduces potential for security breaches. Websites and blogs can be hacked (this one was earlier this week, in fact!). Sensitive data can be hijacked.

You are responsible for many of your client’s digital assets, so don’t open up shop without learning how to plug up those security holes. Security Lapses in the Home Office, by Chief Home Officer Jeff Zbar will help you review your set up.

Also, check out Skunkage: Risk Management for the Self Employed elsewhere on Loosely Speaking for additional security considerations.

This wraps up our series.

I’d love to share other home office setups here on Loosely Speaking.

Let’s keep talking about what you have found you can’t live without in running your home-based business. You can email me (ktcosmos at Loose Ends dot net), comment or send me a guest blog post of your own. Pictures are welcome.

Previous posts from this series:

Equipping Your VA Office: Assessment (Part 1).

Equipping Your VA Office: Furnishings (Part 2)

Equipping Your VA Office: Software (Part 3)

Equipping Your VA Office: Hardware (Part 4)

Equipping Your VA Office: Office Supplies (Part 5)

Equipping Your VA Office: Reference Material (Part 7), by guest blogger, Alan Eggleston

Checking out some random posts about MW on MacRumors.com, I found this:

MacWorldEats, which you can download, install in the Notes folder on your iPod (which of course you would be bringing with you, anyway!) and then you can select by cuisine, proximity, etc. Yay!

More:

Here’s a compleat list of events, parties, etc. The Hess List

Some folks suggest you forgo the keynote and instead visit your local Apple Store and watch the live stream there.

Got Predictions? You can enter a predictions contest at Insanely Great News or Michael Yurechko.