John K. Davis, Independent Distributor, SendOutCards

First Impression

I’m amazed. NEO Pro 3 is significantly improved over NEO 2.5--an improvement that far exceeds the normal advances in a mature application from version to version. At first blush I must admit that I feel blown away by Caelo’s ambition.

NEO has always been a compelling plug-in for Outlook. Email management is supposed to be Outlook’s main thing, but everyone who uses it to manage more than 50 email messages per day knows that it falls short in many ways. NEO has always been what Outlook was supposed to be all along.

The big deal flows from the way NEO handles the filing--it is all automated. Here is a good diagram of how it works:

NEO Rocks!

I have been an enthusiastic user of Nelson Email Organizer (NEO) for years. The application works with Outlook to make email management a cinch.

NEO will be updated to version 3.0 any day now. I’m really excited about the new features. I will be writing a lot about the new software in coming weeks and will reveal many details about this awesome utility.

For now, I encourage you to view a Macromedia Flash tutorial (requires sound), that does a good job of explaining the basics about NEO: Tutorial for NEO Version 3

You can get more information now about NEO at their website.

Blog Spam

We all hate email and fax spam. Now, enterprising hackers have learned ways to post comment spam on weblogs. I use TypePad software. Here is what one of the developers of TypePad says about the problem:

Some TypePad weblogs have received spam messages in their comments recently. We're doing our best to work on technical solutions to this problem, and to help combat it we are currently testing some possible solutions on TypePad.

If you experience any problems leaving legitimate comments at one of my blogs, please notify me and I will get the problem resolved immediately.

Invention Machine

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, Tina Hesman, wrote an interesting story about Stephen Thaler that was published in the January 25 edition of the paper. She began:

Technically, Stephen Thaler has written more music than any composer in the world. He also invented the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush and devices that search the Internet for messages from terrorists. He has discovered substances harder than diamonds, coined 1.5 million new English words, and trained robotic cockroaches. Technically.

Thaler, the president and chief executive of Imagination Engines Inc. in Maryland Heights, gets credit for all those things, but he's really just "the man behind the curtain," he says. The real inventor is a computer program called a Creativity Machine.

Janet in Wall Street Journal

Janet was quoted in an article on the front page of section D, Personal Journal, in today's Wall Street Journal. The article is titled "Divorced Parents Face New Legal Hurdles." The link will be valid for only a week, or so. I created a personal copy of the article for my personal use and would be happy to let you read it if you let me know that you are interested.

Janet also hosted an event at the law school recently where Michael S. Dukakis was honored. Here is a photograph that was taken at the event:

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Obscured Vision

My prior post here of December 23 promised information about the latest version of Vision, the desktop knowledge management tool from Mirror Worlds Technologies, Inc. (MWT). I would never have predicted that it would take a month for me to report back on this matter, but problems with the application prevent me from using the software and technical support as been unable to find a solution.

Once Vision had catalogued the information in my PC, I opened the application and began exploring its features. I quickly noticed that the thumbnail service was not working.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Extraordinary Future

For those who do not subscribe to my TUUN blog, I posted an open invitation there to register for an Adult Religious Education class I will facilitate next month. Let me know if you can join us.

Brave New Babies

Newsweek: Brave New Babies

The brave new world is definitely here. After 25 years of staggering advances in reproductive medicine—first test-tube babies, then donor eggs and surrogate mothers—technology is changing baby-making in a whole new way. No longer can science simply help couples have babies, it can help them have the kind of babies they want. Choosing gender may obliterate one of the fundamental mysteries of procreation, but for people who have grown accustomed to taking 3-D ultrasounds of fetuses, learning a baby's sex within weeks of conception and scheduling convenient delivery dates, it's simply the next logical step. That gleeful exclamation, "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" may soon just be a quaint reminder of how random births used to be.

Tom's Advice

My friend, Tom, left a great quote on my voicemail: Come Alive.

A number of people have already made a valuable contribution to my job search and I am humbled by the great support. I am also very glad for the assistance. If you have ideas, inspiration, a lead, or whatever, I will accept the contribution with gratitude.

Adult RE Class

I will be facilitating an Adult Religious Education class on Wednesday, February 18, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the Lounge at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego. The class is about transhumanism and its relationship to Unitarian Universalism. Can you join us?

Transhumanism is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase. We will discuss the transformation that is now underway; its promise and its peril.

Unitarian Universalism is at the forefront of promoting humanism and the philosophy, in many of its permutations, now dominates as the prevailing viewpoint of most Unitarian Universalist congregations. But just as humanism was not well received by the movement when it was first promoted as a religious idea, transhumanism is finding some difficulty finding support from Unitarian Universalists today. We will also discuss this situation and its ramifications.