Has my absence made your heart grow fonder? That's what they say happens, you know? Aside from getting ready for the NOLA Tech Revival -which starts tomorrow! - one of the many projects that has kept me away was co-authoring a Technolawyer TechnoFeature with my dear friend Ernie the Attorney. We tend to tinker a lot with all kinds of tech and as you can tell, we like to share what we learn. So we wrote a piece about our experiences with various VOiP tools - both web based calling and internet phone calling. It comes out on Tuesday, May 30 (you'll have to subscribe to Technolawyer to receive it via email and shame on you if you aren't already a subscriber - their newletters rock). But writing it made me think to expound here on one of the points we made.
Like Ernie, I use Packet8 VoIP
for my office phone and it's great. This business of only having one line - a cell phone - doesn't work for me. I try to protect my cell phone number like I do my main email address and my social security number. I'm not kidding. I manage technology, rather than let it manage me. Sorry, I digress...the point is, I have a Packet8 phone for my office line. I have it configured so that a voicemail message left by a caller is immediately forwarded as an attachment to my email inbox. This means that no matter where I am, I will be notified of a new message and be able to listen to it. How? Well, thanks to my most fabulous Palm Treo 650 
. I use Versamail (and actually Chattermail also) on my Treo to get email messages for my various email accounts. Both of them allow me to download attachments such as documents, pictures, and now voicemails. Check out the screenshot of my VersaMail inbox displaying the email from Packet8. The Treo comes equipped with a WAV player - which is the file type Packet8 uses to send voice mail messages as attachments. On opening the email message and tapping on the attachment, the voicemail message plays. How cool is that? 
It's not just your PC that's at risk next week when we spring forward. You'll have to think about your Mac, your Blackberry, your Treo and/or your Windows Mobile Device also. I took care of my Treo and Mac last night, both were simple procedures and only took a few minutes. Here are some links you should check out to make sure your devices are DST-ready:
