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Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, News, Productivity, Freeware, Social Software

Toggl, free web-based time-tracking

togglSo you use basecamp for project management or Google's apps, or something else, but how do you track your time on a project? basecamp offers time-tracking, but you have to pay a bit for that feature. Any cheapskates out there who like to get something for nothing, even if it means remembering yet another logon to yet another website? Many of us would jump at the chance, it isn't like any of us have a problem with web accounts, how many do you have again?

Toggl is an excellent solution, offered in a completely savvy web 2.0 interface that gets you where you want to go. The site tracks time and lets you hit a toggl (whoa, go figure) button to start and stop your "billable hours" timer. I was a bit wary at first that toggl wouldn't offer a way to change the time it had recorded, leave you stranded with pushing the button every 108 minutes until you got the right amount of time, but my worries were completely unfounded. I was ready for something much harder than clicking on the box and reentering my own length of time.

If you think pie is easy, toggl is easier. Complete with a reporting feature and multiple projects, toggl's goodness clocks in (pun somewhat intended) at the right price of free. As you know, our motto here is one more happy cheapskate, or wait, I don't think we actually have a motto. I'll have to get back to you on that. meanwhile check out toggl, and you will never wonder if you charged your client enough for the hours you spent on that killer project.

Add "toggl" to your spell-checker, jack, and you won't be disappointed.

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Web services

The Web Design Survey

web design surveyA List Apart wants some information from you for a new survey they have released online.

Statistics have never been compiled for the Web Design profession, including designers, developers, project managers, writers and editors. This survey is aiming at tracking such questions as who we are, where we live, job titles, skills, education, and background.

By filling out the 37 question survey online, A List Apart will not only increase the knowledge about the industry, but each participant will be entered into a random draw to win a ticket to An Event Apart, an Apple 30GB video iPod, a jump drive, or a t-shirt.

The contest and survey remains open until May 22nd 2007, and data will be presented on A List Apart.

Filed under: Business, Internet, Office, Productivity, Web services

Less Accounting, more fun

less accounting

Who wants to spend time and energy on accounting? Most people would rather wash the car or even scrub toilets. That might change soon thanks to Less Accounting.

The whole goal behind Less Accounting is to make book keeping as simple and easy as possible. The team behind Less Accounting, Less Everything, believes that users will never again use Quickbooks. In fact, they're so bullish, they see themselves changing the accounting landscape as much as 37Signals changed project management with Basecamp.

So how does it rank in real-life? Less Accounting provides users with three main categories, Money In, Money Out and Watch Money. Money In allows users to easily drop in sales leads, notes, proposals, invoices, and deposits made. Money Out has areas to input Expenses and Mileage. In the Watch Money category, users can get an account summary with bank account activity and view all paid expenses and deposits. It does not tie into your online banking; it's merely another tool to use for cross referencing. Through Watch Money, Sales reports can also be generated, as well as reports for both paid and unpaid invoices.

Everything is pretty straightforward to use, and the design is clean and very attractive. A few things that were missing in the beta test included some kind of tutorial or walkthrough of the application, and it wasn't very evident where data could be exported from reports, which I later came across on the top right navigation which might blend in a little too much. Aside from that, it wasn't too earth shattering. I would like to maybe see this application tie into 37Signals for contact and project management the same way that Freshbooks does, now that might be something to get people going on this.

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Finance, Internet, Utilities, Productivity, Web services

Project planning with Goplan

goplan project managementWeBreakStuff has officially launched their project management solution called Goplan today. The online software is pinned right beside Basecamp, how will it fair out?

Like Basecamp, Goplan's project management solution allows teams to build an area where they can collaborate, manage files, chat and manage timelines through a calendar. Depending on what plan is chosen, teams using Goplan can also:
  • Manage multiple projects
  • Manage task lists
  • Issue tracking
  • Publish public facing project news
  • Synchronize calendar's
  • Real-time chat with project members
  • Control who sees what and how
  • Store project-related files in a secure environment
GoPlan is powered with Amazons EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) and their S3 (Scalable Storage Service) as well. The team has been working with a beta account for the past year, and launched the initial alpha on Amazons technology. WeBreakStuff chose to go the Amazon route because they didn't want to be affected by slow servers, thank goodness. Goplan will also use the much talked about OpenId in the future, supporting the ability to use your same login account info for other websites.

Pricing for Goplan's online project management tool ranges from a free two project account with no chat or calendar features, to an unlimited account featuring unlimited projects and 80GB of storage for $100/month. Is it a Basecamp killer? Highly unlikely, but now they have some serious competition in the new cleanly designed Goplan.

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, Web services

Project Time management online with timeXchange

project time management

timeXchange is an online peer-to-peer application that lets users record and report time and expenses, collect and approve team reporting, and protect and control data online. Its important for any worker to keep track of time in order to ensure work schedule and budgets are met. There are many great time management solutions availble, from online solutions, desktop software, to the basic Excel Spreadsheet route but timeXchange has some interesting features that are worth taking a look at.

When setting up a new project, you can choose who gets reports. These reports get sent complete with your hours and tasks listed, making them easier to track and analyze data. timeXchange helps out with collecting and approving timesheets which can be then viewed and analyzed and data exported to other applications. Security is a big concern for timeXchange. Encrypted data and reporting are stored on secure servers, and only those with permissions can access it.

Like any new application, this one takes a while to get used to, and there is a ton to set up, but it seems like this could be a strong player in the time management arena. Other online time management applications are TaskAnyone, ProWorkflow, Tick, Zoho Projects and Basecamp.

[eHub]

Filed under: Internet, Text, Social Software

Experience Project, 43things meets MySpace

Experience ProjectThe Experience Project is a site where you can anonymously share your life experiences in a very web 2.0 (social) way. The site reminds me of 43things, where you list your goals, but the Experience Project is a bit different. You can join groups that align with things you have experienced, have not experienced, or plan to in the future. You can meet up with people (anonymously), share your plans, secrets, dreams, and well, experiences with everyone. In the interest of anonymity, the site will even automatically blur a picture of you as your icon, so you are not recognizable to everyone else. You might find the site interesting or just downright annoying, it is hard to tell. If nothing else, go check out the software this site uses. It is interesting, not to mention the notion of why anyone would ever want to share things like this on the web. Two words: morbid curiosity.

Thanks Arron!

Filed under: Business, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Social Software

activeCollab - web-based, open source collaboration and project management

activeCollab - web-based, open source collaboration and project management

Web-based project management seems to be all the rage lately, and activeCollab is a great example. A 100% free and open source project that is under 'heavy development', activeCollab 0.6 offers what seems to be the now-standard array of messages, tasks, projects, milestones and documents, along with a tagging system and per-user project permissions. activeCollab's site even includes a list of upcoming features and offers screenshots of a forthcoming 0.7 feature: a much-updated files section.

Of course, this app offers a few advantages over popular web-based project management solutions like Basecamp, including the fact that you can host activeCollab yourself, on your own domain.

If you're interested in learning more about everything activeCollab offers, they offer a helpful screencast and writeup to get you more up to speed without having to install and tinker with it yourself. I personally haven't used this yet, but my web host recently added it as a one-click install, so I'll post a review in a week or so once I move my sites over and have time to get things up and running. In the meantime, why not check out activeCollab for yourself?

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Productivity, Web services, Commercial, Freeware, Social Software

Tablet PC + Basecamp = Scout

Tablet PC + Basecamp = Scout

37Signals' Basecamp is pretty slick, wouldn't you agree? Tablet PCs, in their own right, have quite the slick factor as well. Wouldn't it be cool if someone, say a small software company called Luckymonk, came up with the idea of combining the two, say with a product called Scout? It sure would!

While Scout isn't quite ready yet, Luckymonk offers a preview screencast of everything that will be possible once it's released. As an added bonus, the company will be releasing their Basecamp API wrapper for .NET 2.0 as well. For now, however, you Tablet PC owners will just have to bookmark Luckymonk's Scout product page under 'ToDo'.

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Web services

Krugle - the developer's search engine

Krugle - your place to find code and technical content

Search engines are great, but what if you're a developer looking for very specific results: code, and sites about code? A new search engine called Krugle might just be the answer. It offers three separate search options: one for code, another called 'Tech Pages' for code documentation, forums and knowledgebase articles, and a third called 'Projects' which, as you might guess, helps developers track down open source projects. Users can even specify which language they're working with and whether they want to filter results from code comments, function calls, class definitions and more.

While I am no developer, this looks like a great tool for the code ninjas amongst us. Krugle is even hiring, too. Are there any DLS readers who have a developer alter-ego? Sound off if you think Krugle is doing you any good.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

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