An e-String Around Your Finger

Want to have some fun? Free for nothing I give you this, from the same guy who gave us Quickbrowse.com – Marc Fest. If it catches on, it may ultimately cost some modest amount, as Quickbrowse now does. But for now it’s free.

Just go to 1q11.com and click Help for instructions.

I’m not saying 1q11 (‘one queue eleven’) will or should replace your Palm Pilot and/or whatever systems you have in place to help you run your life. Nor will it yet call you on your cell phone or make your pager beep (though it could make your Blackberry buzz). But for those who like to tinker, it could be fun to take a look.

Basically:

1. You can set up e-mail reminders SO FAST. Type . . .

Soccer ball!
;;m rd

. . . and you will get an e-mail that says ‘Soccer ball!’ on Monday (the ‘m’) – and then repeated daily (the ‘rd’) – reminding you that you need to go buy one.

2. With another keystroke you can tell it to send this reminder to a different e-address as well (or instead) – perhaps reminding your better half about the soccer ball at the same time. (Or reminding her of tonight’s party.)

3. With 1q11 you can have many different ‘sheets,’ easily accessed with a pull down menu. One might be for your reminders, as above. Another might be a handy place to store info you want accessible wherever you are, from any computer. You’re at a cybercafe in Prague and you need someone’s phone number . . . maybe you pasted your phone book into this sheet before you left . . . it’s now accessible to you from anywhere.

4. Maybe you want someone else to have access to that same phone list. Just give that person password access to see it. One sheet could be called OUR SCHEDULE and you and your better half could both access it, from different places, and each amend it as new invitations pour in. (Don’t be modest: I know how popular you both are.)

I would treat 1q11.com as a work in progress, with an uncertain future. But for those of us old-timers, who used to like to experiment with new (free!) software and suggest improvements, 1q11.com is useful fun.

{CORRECTION: Yesterday’s reminder about TIPS, lifted from an earlier column, spoke of inflation-protected rates ‘above 4%.’ In fact, since that earlier column, rates have fallen. They are now “above 3%.” Sorry.}