VerusNova

Here is a tool I find invaluable if you are overloaded with tons of data about your IT systems but can’t get any real information. Splunk allows you to centrally collect and index all text-based data such as syslog and windows event logs, router config files, security data (firewall & IDS), and network management events. You can then search, group, and consolidate that data to make it easier to find out what’s really going on.

In their own words:
Splunk is “the IT Search Engine that indexes and lets you search, navigate, alert, and report on IT data from any application, server, or network device. Securely access logs, configurations, scripts and code, message, traps and alerts, activity reports, stack traces and metrics across thousands of components, from one place, all in real time.”

With a free Splunk license you can index up to 500 MB/day. The commercial version allows distributed searching which I find really useful but if you only need one Splunk server than that shouldn’t matter.

Splunk - funny name; great open source tool…

Print Free Graph Paper:
OK - not so glamorous, but if you use graph paper it can come in handy in a pinch. probably not cost effective in bulk, but when your trig homework is due or you need to create a layout for your house project this is very useful. Comesin Cartesian, Log, Polar, Isometric, and more.

Printer Anywhere lets you share any of your printers via the internet. I use this at home by connecting the 3 laptops via Printer Anywhere to our desktop. Then I send a print job without having to resort to a flash stick. I can even sit a drink coffee in Panera and send all of my printing to my home printer or my friend’s printer.

This free utility lets you hide your printer from the world if you desire and require manual approval to print jobs which can stop someone from printing the Encyclopedia Americana to your house (printer spam?)….

Here are 12 great project-oriented collaboration sites:

1. MindQuarry - Mindquarry provides a powerful set of collaborative tools for use online and offline to streamline teamwork between information workers in small to large enterprises.
2. InstaColl - An easier way to securely share your Microsoft Office documents with remote colleagues in real time.
3. Nexo - Creating your free personalized group site is a breeze (recently acquired by Shutterfly)
4. OpenTeams - Project collaboration, blogging, social networking, community building, and knowledge management
5. Project Spaces - Simple, secure and powerful web-based workspace to help your project teams, workgroups, committees, partners, and others quickly and easily connect, share and collaborate.
6. Mind Touch Deki Wiki - Deki Wiki is an easy to use and sophisticated wiki for authoring, aggregating, organizing, and sharing content.
7. Sosius - Sosius gives you tools to communicate and schedule, assign tasks, develop strategies, and team workflow.
8. Project Office Net - Free project management, time tracking, wiki, and more all in one!
9. MyQuire - Created for real users who want simple tools to get projects and tasks done
10. Clever Tools - Project management, time tracking, bug tracking, and more.
11. WebAsyst Projects - Manage and track your projects and tasks online with this intuitive interface (free)
12. Zoho Projects - Plan, Track, Collaborate and Manage your Projects Online - easily.

NAS systems don’t have to be pricey anymore - at least on Linux.

Free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, is based on m0n0wall and supports: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS, AFP, RSYNC, iSCSI protocols, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, Software RAID (0,1,5) and has a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 32MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key. There is also a VMWare disk image available.

Learn more about Network Attached Storage here.

FlightStats has a plethora of great tools related to air travel. This is not just a fare finding tool, but will show the status of any flight (up to the minute!) and will send alerts for any flight or airport. Want a heads up when your flight is delayed so you can make alternate plans before everyone else? Want a reminder to pick-up your spouse when the plane is 30 minutes to landing? Check out this very well done online site.

Ever wonder how much cash you will need in your pocket for that taxi ride from the airport to the hotel?
World Taxi Meter gives you an estimate of the cost of a taxi ride in cities worldwide. Currently supported: Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York, Prague, Rome and San Francisco.

Have you ever found yourself wondering what a rar file is? How do I extract the goodies from this LZH file?
Don’t feel like downloading a special unzip tool for a possible one-time use?

Wobzip will decompress your files online. Any compressed file type, no downloads…

OK - hopefully these tools will prevent a full out attack of the PM’s from Dilbert-ville…

Liquid Planner (currently in beta) - is the best new online PM tool I’ve seen. Many of the online PM tools focus around collaboration (as does this one) but come off more like a task-planner and calendar than a true PM tool (think, Zoho Planner). Liquid Planner has a nice GANTT chart and other “traditional” PM aspects on top of the great collaboration tools.
Cost: (free during beta) else, $25/mo per user - first user is free.

5pm Web - This is another good one; lots of customization options, a great file/document repository feature, and easy to use. Also includes GANTT + collaboration.
Cost: $14/mo for up to 5 users and 10 projects (a great price!)

Project 2 Manage - More of a team organizaer and task list, but it is pretty well done and also…
Cost: Free

Task-a-Do - This is more of a collaborative writing PM tool. It tracks who edited and contributed, and where the document is in the pipeline. If you write a lot of proposals or other group writing projects - take a look at this one. It is very simplistic but gets the job done.
Cost: Free

KoolWire - Convert multiple pages and document types into one big PDF.

PDF Escape - Fill in PDF forms, add text and graphics, add links, and even add new form fields to a PDF file, all online.

PDF Hammer - Edit your PDF files online for free; reorder, rotate, delete pages, etc.

Hello PDF - Convert PDF to Word and preserve the original layout of your PDF in an editable MS Word Document.

PDF Text Online - Extract test from any PDF document (multi-language)