Gaim for Personal Productivity
Gaim, a all-in-one open source Instant Messaging client available for Windows and Linux, has been a popular way for people to communicate without the ads of AOL’s AIM, the pressure to upgrade to the Pro version of Trillian, or the resource hogging of running multiple IM clients. What most people don’t know is that Gaim is also great for getting things done.
Somebody offline? Send SMS for free!
Using the AIM protocol, you can do quick SMS messages to anyone who has a cell phone, even if that phone isn’t set to have IMs forwarded to it from AIM. To do this in Gaim, go to Buddies >> New Instant Message , and in the text box type the number, so if my number was 724 555 1234, you’d type “+17245551234″ without the quotes. Easy as pie!
Imified - Blog, Gcal, and 37signals Apps from IM
A new service, brought to us by the folks at Imified.com, allows you to do a multitude of things from the comfort of your message window. To use it, send an IM to Imified saying whatever you want. Available Imified services include
- LiveJournal
- Blogger
- Wordpress (Wordpress.com and hosted wordpress)
- Google Calendar
- RememberTheMilk
- 37Signals Basecamp and Backpack
- 30 Boxes
- MovableType
- Stikkit
- and also Imified’s own notes, reminders, and todos
Lastly…
The final advantage of Gaim that I’d like to share is that you can set Aliases for each of your contacts, so instead of “x0×0MrPuFfClInTy0×0x”, you can just call your hypothetical friend “Bob Smith”. Yay for Mnemonics!
