Gmail as a Time Tracking/Invoicing Tool

I do a bit of consulting work on the side. One of my biggest administrative headaches has always been tracking time and invoicing accurately. It never failed, the end of the month would roll around, and I would spend hours figuring out how much to bill to whom. Not a great way to run a business.

I tried several systems to track my time, but they all failed me in one particular aspect - portability. I needed to be able to enter time, as I worked it, from wherever I was at that moment. Timely (no pun intended) entry of data was the only way that I found I was ever accurate in my record keeping. I tried several online systems, and while very full featured, they still required a working browser and web connection. I tried an Excel document that I kept synced to my Treo using DocumentsToGo, and while that was very, very close, the entry interface on a tiny 320x320 screen left a lot to be desired.

Last month, I stumbled across an idea that I think is perfect: Gmail. I'm a huge Gmail fan, and was a pretty early adopter. I sent myself an invite (I still have 97 left) and created a new Gmail account called 'youwishiputmyaddresshere.time@gmail.com'. Now when I finish a billable item, I send an email to that address with the pertinent info in the subject line, such as, "My Client - 1.25 hours - Email Troubleshooting". If I feel the need, I can expand on that in the body of the email, but that's pretty much all I need. The message automatically has a date and timestamp, so no need to record that. At the end of the month, I go into my 'time' Gmail account, and there are all my entries. I can search for a specific client since I use consistent abbreviations for them all, and once I've transferred the time to an invoice, I can archive the messages.

Personally, it's perfect. And free. I no longer have any excuse for not tracking my time, since I can send email from just about anywhere, thanks to my Treo. If you have need of something like this, I strongly suggest you try it before spending time and money on solutions that you may not need.

More Guild Wars

As a big fan of Guild Wars, I'm looking forward to the new expansion, Guild Wars: Factions, due out this spring. This Gamespot article has a general overview of the new continent we will be able to explore. Pretty cool.

I am curious how this will work with existing characters. By the time Factions is available, my Ranger should be maxed at 20th level. The article mentions that we'll be able to move characters from the original game to the expansion, but it also states you don't need the original to play. My concern is that will the adventures be geared toward lower level characters, or toward the high end?

The Ports, The U.A.E, and the U.S. Government

A Dubai based, United Arab Emirates government owned company called Dubai Ports World is set to purchase the British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. That British firm currently operates major commercial operations at six major U.S. ports, including Miami, Baltimore, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The Bush Administration has approved this action, even though it would give a MIddle Eastern country a controlling interest in some of our businest ports.

Add to that decision the known fact that U.S. Ports are one of our most vulnerable security areas, and you have a recipe for... drama in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Senators and Representatives from both sides of the aisle, as well as two govorners - Pataki from NY and Ehrlich from MD - are voicing concerns over this transaction.

Ehrlich, concerned about security at the Port of Baltimore, said Monday he was "very troubled" that Maryland officials got no advance notice before the Bush administration approved the Arab company's takeover of the operations at the six ports.

You should note that I have called this a recipe for drama. Not disaster, as some reports are making this out to be.

I'm confused as to what the issue is here, but my cynical side is pretty sure it's got the problem nailed down. Simply put, our government is apparently afraid of all folks from that part of the world. In news reports on NPR, as well as the AP newswire, the biggest concern listed is that two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the United Arab Emirates. Huh? What has that got to do with anything?

To that concern, I'd like to bar Mr. Pataki from having anything to do with his ports, because one of the Oklahoma City bombers (McVeigh) was from upstate New York. That's valid right? Right?

We live in a global economy. And frankly, I can't see how the resistance to this action is anything but a knee-jerk, fearful reaction. This is exactly the kind of behavior that breeds anti-Americanism and resentment around the world.

Yeah, I'm back.

So I took a break. :) It wasn't planned, but it happened. I should start to ease back in this as I scratch the need to write. I've got some updates on paintball, blogging in general, and other stuff.

New Google Desktop Features?

Can't say that I'm too keen on some of the new features of Google Desktop. The new 'Search Across Computers' feature allows users to search for certain file types across mulitple computers. While this may be very convenient for folks like myself who routinely use multiple computers, I'm not keen on the idea of my documents being stored on Google's servers.

In order to share your indexed files between your computers, we first copy this content to Google Desktop servers located at Google. This is necessary, for example, if one of your computers is turned off or otherwise offline when new or updated items are indexed on another of your machines.

The EFF is particularly concerned about the possiblity that law enforcement could subpoena information stored on those servers. This would, in effect, allow the government to access data that would normally require a search warrant to obtain.

I'm not an overly paranoid person, but I'm not thirlled about the general direction the state of personal liberties and protections are headed in our country. While this does not necessarily fall into that category; disabling this feature, or abstaining from the use of Google Desktop does represent a simple step that the private citizen can do to protect themselves.