MSN Messenger Alerter
After Rob's recent VC post about how Telligent is self-funded, it's topical to bring up a post by fave VC Rick Segal.
No, I've never taken money from the man, never even met him. But you get a very good sense of a person from a twice-daily blog (or that's how it seems), so I'd go there first.
But Rick didn't like the Windows Live Messenger option to alert him if *any* of his contacts came online. I agree, that's been turned off on my computer since day 1.
But, there have been occasions when I've been waiting for someone to get into the office so I can finish a task, and I'd really like to know when they come online. (btw, like many Telligenti I work from home. Looking out my office window at the parking lot wouldn't really help me know when Kevin turns up in Dallas).
So, rather than rant like most people, Rick put his money where his mouth was and spent $200 on a coder to write a little tray app to listen to these events and allow you to see when specific people come online, go to lunch, get busy, etc.
And then he published the exe and source code! Thanks Rick, that's very cool.
And the tool is cool too. I've been running it for an hour, and although I don't have anyone to track right now I can see how this is going to be very handy. Add this to my list of handy utilities.