------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 2, Issue 13 Well, I'm back from my trip. I had a great time and got a lot of ideas for running my business. One thing that didn't go so well was the whole watching video on my computer plan. While it works great on my computer at home, the network in a large hotel is just too unreliable for the video playback to settle into anything like watch-ability. Oh, well, good thing I packed a couple of DVDs into my luggage. One thing that did work well for me was a nifty service called Tripit. What a great way to keep track of my travel information. More in the article below. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: TripIt, TripIt Good 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: TripIt, TripIt Good ---------------------------------------------------------------- Travel can be a lot of fun. Exciting activities, interesting people, exotic locations are what bring us to step through our doors with suitcases in hand. A little less fun is the piles of information you need to track and organize in order know where you are going next. Ordinarily, my wife prepares a folder of that information whenever we are heading off on an adventure. Heaven help us if we ever misplace it. Now there's a more efficient way of doing things. It's called TripIt (http://tripit.com/). TripIt plays upon a fairly simple concept: The confirmation emails we receive for airline reservations, train travel, car reservations, and hotel stays have a nice predictable format. They've used this feature to build a system which can take those confirmation letters and centralize the information for you. I used TripIt for my recent journey down to Orlando. Now, I didn't make use of every aspect of the service, but what I did use was as easy as forwarding an email to a friend. As with most of these systems, I first had to set up an account -- a pretty straight-forward process -- after that, though, I just forwarded my verification/confirmation emails to the TripIt service. The next time I went to the TripIt site, I could see all of my travel information for my business trip. TripIt had even gone so far as to include a weather forecast for the days I would be in Orlando. With the travel plan in place, I was able to get the itinerary fed into my Google Calendar. I could also share that information feed so my wife, Lisa, knew my schedule, too. Speaking of sharing, TripIt also has the ability to have "friends" with whom you can share your travel information. The reasoning behind it is that (especially for frequent business travelers), you might discover that you and a friend are both traveling to the same city. Nothing like finding a friendly face in an unfamiliar location. TripIt isn't perfect. My hotel confirmation came as an email message with a PDF file attached to it. TripIt couldn't process it. In general, though, it does pretty well with the major chains and travel services. So, if you are an Expedia or Travelocity user, for example, you should be OK. If you are a frequent business traveler, or know someone who is, it might behoove you to take a look at this free service. If you decide to give it a try or have already been using it, please drop me a line at gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com and let me know how it is working for you. Copyright 2008, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 -- First Class http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2008/06/first-class.html "I just got back from a trip down to Orlando, Florida for the Extreme Business Makeover 2008 conference. I'll talk more about that later, but for now I want to focus on something else..." Sunday, December 23, 2007 -- Best Laid Assumptions http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/12/best-laid-assumptions.html "...Of course, the lack of a White Christmas probably won't kill me or even inconvenience me much for that matter, but it does put me in mind of more serious examples of counting on things staying the same..." ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. 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