I suppose people who are good with computers already know this stuff and that people like me who are only marginal with computers will read this list and say, “Wow, sounds cool,” and then throw up their hands in despair. Nevertheless, I thought this article in Slate magazine offered some excellent ideas about how best to equip a computer in these modern times. Now, all I need to do is make friends with one of those good-with-computers people who will take pity on me and get my computer revved up.
Maybe I’m out of it (uh, what’s Skype?), and everyone is using this already, but just as example, this sounds pretty amazing:
“GrandCentral. This service gives you a single phone number that connects all your phones. When someone calls your GrandCentral number, all your phones (home, work, cell, Skype, etc.) ring—or, depending on rules you can set for the caller or the time of day, a certain subset of the phones ring. It's a great way to manage your voice mail, too—you can have different greetings for different calls, and you can access all your messages through a simple Web interface. The one downside: GrandCentral was purchased by Google in 2007, and it's now limiting the number of new registrations.”
Anyway, here’s the complete article, “The 18 Things You Need for Your Computer,” by Farhad Manjoo.