I’ve been looking for a nice little web app for my wife and I to manage our finances. I stumbled onto Wesabe a while back and slowly but surely been putting my financial info into in. it was OK, but seemed to be missing two important features: Auto upload (Please don’t make me login to my bank’s website… it’s way too much work before I even get going) and a simple budget so I can see how much $ I have left to spend (or see if I went over).

Wesabe knocked the first one out by throwing a firefox add-on our way that auto uploads your data from your bank. +10 for that one, guys.

Now with auto-uploads from my accounts to Wesabe, I was almost there… one glaring feature missing. Budgeting! How can I know if I went over my limit? Luckily I read a blog post about how “Jason” the CEO of Wesabe would be available on the phone for questions every afternoon, from 12 to 4 p.m. PST. Yeah right! I was finishing up my late lunch today when I thought - why not? I’ve got a question - how do I get a budget going?

I pick up my cell and after 2 rings I was talking to Jason… the CEO. Pretty cool. I ask him about how I can set up a budget to track my spending. He told me about a dropdown on the Spending Summary page that will let you set a “spending target” (come to find out that people don’t like the word “budget”… so they call it a “spending target”) This is exactly what I’m looking for.

My only complaint is that this feature wasn’t in the FAQ or in the sidebar for me to easily find - I hope they fix that. I thanked Jason and that was it. He said if there’s any other suggestions to email him.

Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I got my problem solved by speaking with the CEO directly. Imagine if you could do that with other company’s products.

Thanks Wesabe.

Technorati Tags: feel good

Juniper VPN on Windows without installing the invasive McAfee VirusScan and Firewall
or
“How I learned to stop worrying and love the VPN again”

(In reality this should work with any OS that will run Firefox and Java)

Rational: Some large companies require a very invasive virus scanner with cranked up policies. (Ever try to compile code while your virus scanner is in the middle slowing things down? Painful!) These steps will let you login to the VPN without having to jump through the hoops of install the full McAfee suite

- Install Firefox and the Firefox Java plugin (http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp?locale=en&host=www.java.com:80)
- Install the user agent switcher addon (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59)
- Download a list of useragent strings at http://techpatterns.com/downloads/firefox/useragentswitcher.xml
- In the UserAgentSwitch options under “User Agents” on the (left hand side), “Import” and then browse to the useragent strings xml file you just downloaded.
- Now back in FF go to Tools -> User Agent Switcher and select “Safari 125.8 (MacOS)” [I believe other non-windows user agent strings will also work but I haven’t tested all of them]
- Browse to your vpn login page
- Enter your username and password as usual and change the Realm to Mac / Linux and hit “Sign In”.
- Click on the “Client Apps” icon at the top right of the page
- Click on the “Start” button for Java Secure Application Manager (It’ll give you an error popup window - just close it)
- Now Click on the “Start” button for Network Connect and it should open up the VPN client.
- You are now on the VPN network.

Technorati Tags: feel good

Today is my last day at Apollo Group, Inc. It’s been a good experience and I’ve meet some very cool people. I move on to start with iMemories tomorrow. Moving on…

Two cool guys that I know have just started a new online store for developer swag: CodeSmack

Check it out!

I started Econ 301 at Western International University yesterday. The class seems good and it shouldn’t be too hard to get an ‘A’.

Bad News:
The textbook (softcover, mind you) costs a whopping $160!?!?! What gives? I feel like I’ve been financially taken on that one. Hello, Better Business Bureau?
That price is not ethical, period.
“In Soviet Russia you do not buy textbook — texbook buys you!”

Good News:
Greg Mankiw is the author and seems to be generally aligned with my personal New/Neo-Keynesian leanings. In fact check out his 7 economic New Year’s resolutions for 2006

I ran across this amazing idea at the economist.com that I’m sure will eventaully catch on here in America: Group Buy. Now - some vendors will be willing to negotiate (Mom and Pop shops?), while others won’t (Walmart?). Very cool thinking.

A cool concept has been thrown out for those of us local to Utah: Geek Dinners.

The next one will be this Wednesday, Nov 30th, 2005.

Be there or be square.

From the website:

What is a Geek Dinner?
It’s a social gathering for techies to discuss new and upcoming technology, get to know each other, and hopefully foster new business relationships. Dinners are open to anyone interested, spouses are welcome but not guaranteed to not be bored!

Is this a new idea?
No, it’s happening in several places around the country. As far as we know, the first formalized Geek Dinner happened in San Francisco. The dinners seem to foster a growth in the tech community and that is the result we are hoping to achieve.

I’ll have to throw my opinion in on this one:

http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

I agree - especially #7, #8 and #9.

Not bad for the guy who was the founder of Blogger and now runs Odeo.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Bless TechCrunch!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/11/21/companies-id-like-to-profile-but-dont-exist/

Take a company… any company and add a little Web 2.0 to it. Mix well and bake. What do you get?

It’s an interesting question to be sure.

What are the common Web 2.0 elements that successful companies have used?

• Rich Web Functionality like AJAX (think Google Maps)
• Content Aggregation / Syndication like RSS
• Social Networking Elements (think digg.com)
• Open APIs like SOAP or REST -> Hackability (once again think Google Maps)

For homework:
Pick any company. Apply the above elements to it. Stir.

It’s time to think folks - the web is about to explode — again