Today I opened a checking (current) account. Big deal, you say. It was - the whole application and approval process was done online. It wasn’t with an “Internet Bank”, but with a regular Brick and Mortar bank. There is a branch about 3 miles from my house, and another one close to where I work. I’ve actually seen the one close to home, but the one near my work I found via the Bank’s website.

My intention was to go into one of the branches and open an account. However, I spotted the option to open an account online. Since I know this bank from their TV advertising, and the website was professionally done, I knew it was fairly safe.

Previously I’ve signed up for a PayPal account, and then for an excellent savings account online, but this was a first for me. Being a checking account, they have to get your “authorized” signature somehow. So in the first set of checks the bank sends out, a method is provided to capture your signature.

Part of the process is a credit check which is then turned around to verify that you are who you are claiming to be. I had to do some quick online looking up for that one. Once your identity is verified, it is just a couple of choices. The bank really impressed me with the “You should save this information” prompts, and downloadable PDF files of important agreements. The whole process was followed up with an email outlining the important points. Very slick and professional.

There are a number of books available on the subject (see here), including one from the popular “Dummies” series, “Banking Online for Dummies“.

I’m a web worker. Are you?

I fell into it purely as a result of the work I do as a magazine editor. Eventually, print gave way to online publishing, and I found myself working in a virtual world where I no longer needed to linger over the shoulder of a designer putting pages together — we could shuttle URLs back and forth until we were satisfied with the results. And given the economic doldrums in tech during the new millennium, layoffs became common enough that I finally decided it was time to go freelance fulltime and stop depending upon the “kindness of strangers” to keep my future rosy.

That’s why I’m excited to read Connect!, a new book by former Web Worker Daily editor Ann Zelenka. (Full disclosure: I’ve worked with Anne and still do a bit of blogging on WWD.)

Connect! is a manifesto for the new way of working. The knowledge worker of the ’90s — who inhabited a cubicle and worked on a massive project defined by his or her employer alongside other people who worked for the same company — has given way to the web worker, frequently a free agent who works anywhere broadband can be found on “a variety of projects across organization boundaries… [collaborating] with people she’s met on the web on an ad hoc and occasionally more formal basis…”

As Zelenka describes it, desktop-installed software has given way to web-based services . And the work process of building and creating now consists of composing and assembling. The currency of time and money now includes attention: If you can get it, it can have value for you. Our connections aren’t around the espresso machine; they’re online through Twitter and our personal blog comment sections.

I’m looking forward to reading this book specifically for two of the chapters: “Burst Your Productivity,” where I’ll learn “new methods and tools” to help me manage my to-do list, calendar and daily activities (always a challenge!); and “Rethink Your Relationship with Email,” where I’ll “explore different ways of dealing with and relating to [my] email.”

But it may be that you want to learn how to work more effectively with colleagues who aren’t physically in the same offices; or you want to “explode” your career, helping you figure out how to work when, how and where you want.

At any rate, over the next month you’ll find me buried in its pages at the second cubicle near the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature at my local library. They have incredible — and free! — wi-fi there. Now, if they’d only add that cocoa bar, I’d be set…
 

I have a new project. In fact, I’m always getting involved in new projects. But I’m no expert in project management, and sometimes I make some truly stunning errors because of it. For example, there was the time I actually believed one of my staffers when he said he expected we’d be able to launch the new version of the Web site in a week — which I duly announced to a panel of executives without first confirming with my own eyes. Surely, you’ve never performed that kind of gaffe!

I suppose I could buy myself a copy of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge in print and spend the next year of my life reading through it when I’m tucked into bed. (Let’s just say, it would give me a chance to catch up on my sleep.)

Or I could attend a week-long seminar to learn all there is to know about leading successful projects. But I’m not sure my spouse would survive that long on her own in the company of our five-year-old.

That’s why I’m thinking about spending $20 or so and buying myself a copy of Scrappy Project Management. It looks highly readable:

“The Moose is Not Loose. Scientists tracking the migratory behavior of moose asked some engineers to design and build a satellite receiver/transmitter for them. When it was ready, the researchers fitted it into a collar that would fit around a moose’s neck. They stealthily crept out of their camouflaged den, tranquilized and tagged the object of their scientific desires, then scurried back to their observation post. They patiently waited and watched, but the blip on the radar screen showed no movement. Moose were known to be highly territorial, but the researchers were still a bit surprised at how very small their territory seemed to be. They finally went to check on their reclusive hoofed mammal, only to find him dead in the very same spot where they first attached the tracking collar.

“Cause of death? The transmitter weighed so much that the animal was unable to stand while wearing it. Aghast, the scientists went to the engineers, exclaiming, ‘You killed our moose!’ to which the engineers replied, ‘What moose?’ They were oblivious to the fact that their product was going on a moose’s neck. Yes, this really happened.”

Best of all, it’s 156 pages with BIG margins. Don’t worry, boss. I’m on it! That deadline is mine.
 

In my last post, I promised to share a solution to my iPod speaker challenge that I wished I’d followed.

Thanks to my friend Neal, who introduced to me to the Accurian Wireless FM Transmitter (and bought me one too!).

He found it at Radio Shack (the same place I picked up my iSymphony speaker), and the sale price was exactly the same: $19.99. But the Accurian model, which looks like a computer mouse, uses your car speakers to broadcast the audio. Just plug in the jack (which hides inside the device when you’re not using it) to whatever you’re playing from — iPod, CD player, laptop, or satellite radio receiver. Then choose one of the eight available frequencies not already in use where you are, set your car tuner to the same frequency and rock out! (Or, in my case, listen to Annie Proulx’s Bad Dirt.)

The Accurian runs on two AAA batteries — or you can use the car power adapter and eliminate the waste.

I wasn’t familiar with this little gizmo before, but, of course, now I’ve found a slew of alternatives, the cutest of which is probably the Mito AudioBUG 350.

Can’t wait for my next road trip.