Interloper View

I found a need to come up with a system to help me remember. Over the years, the process has changed but the goal remains the same. Since moving to an Android phone I have been using GTask.  GTask GTask is a third party app build using Google Task (since Google did not provide an app). It works well to help me track my task, to do list and provide reminders for follow up. Calendars are useful to track your schedule but it is not convenient for task that require follow up or use as reference. I can easily create a task from my GMail. GTask is simple and easy to use but provides text only fields. I decided to explore Google Keep. Keep Initially I used keep as an enhanced version of gTask so I do not need GTask anymore. A few things I like about Keep are: I can now attach a photo to the entry. It provides a convenient way to use certain cards like Starbucks, Domino’s privilege card. Entries are available without network. I do not subscribe to mobile data

I recently noticed that my android phone was incurring data charges (while I was not on data plan). Initially, I thought it might be due to a virus, rogue app or some setting I may have accidentally activated. In order to trace the issue, I started removing apps from my phone, but the data charges kept happening. On the first day the charge was RM5 but subsequently it ranged between 2 cents to 20 cents. In order to stop the hemorrhage, I activate a one month plan. The one month plan was RM 30 for 30 days, but the unknown data usage had already cost me RM 15 without any benefit to me. I also tried resetting the phone to factory mode, but found that the phone automatically restored some of the applications that were still installed - great feature, but not when I am troubleshooting this data leech on my phone. Resetting the phone helped in resetting the data counter and allowed me to see the amount of data consumed. It was the background data were incurring the cost of my mobile data

I have used Libre Office and Google Drive for most of my work at home. However, there are times I find it necessary to return to Microsoft to get things done. The alternatives do not seem to be able to get the right functionality. SkyDrive Excel ribbon I do not know if this is due to pattern or because the developers of alternatives do not know how to do it. The one option is the ability to copy and paste banking data and recognize the balances as numbers instead of text. Google Spreadsheet can’t do it, Libreoffice also failed. The balance column consist of the currency sign, in my case MYR and the comma delimiter. I found two products that recognize them instantly and both products are from Microsoft. They are Microsoft Excel and Skydrive version of Microsoft Excel. The Skydrive version of Office provides very little functionality compared to Google Drive but this is one function that works well. I also found that Microsoft provides me 50 Gigabyte for free compared to 15 Gigab

I just found out that Google Maps Navigation has been enabled in Malaysia even though it is not listed as the list of countries with this feature enabled. The version of the application I have on my phone is 6.14.4 but I am running it on Android 2.3.5. Personally though, I prefer Waze. This is why I prefer Waze over Google Maps Navigation: Waze uses less data compared to Google Maps. Waze provide more information - other Waze users lets you know of traffic jam, obstacles etc. The voice on Waze sounds better. You have more options and configuration in Waze. I read in another article the features of Waze is already incorporated in the application in some countries. I just have not seen in here in Malaysia.

Google platform provides a rich set of tools for management. In Part 1 , I focused on Gmail, Task and Calendar. I shall continue with other tools and how it complements my activities as a manager. Collaboration Google documents strength is in collaboration. It is very easy to create either a Document (Word), Spreadsheet (Excel) or Presentation (Powerpoint) and collaborate with either your team members or people in remote locations. I indicated the MS Office equivalent in parenthesis for those who are more familiar with the Microsoft suite of tools. When you share the documents, you can either give others the right to edit the document, comment on the document or just view the document.  In a meeting, the attendees can edit the document and everybody else in the meeting can view it. Comments can also be used to raise questions and highlight items for others to respond to. Each collaborator can activate a setting to trigger to inform them of any changes in the docu