I'm sitting in on a "webinar" today (how I loathe that word!) hosted by The Conference Depot using some software called On-Site Pro. They recommend that you test your browser compatibility, etc. before the meeting starts, which I did. I was greeted by this:

You are running the Mac OS X Operating System. On-Site Pro no longer officially supports this Operating System.

The application may work for you with limitations. However, for a better meeting experience, please upgrade to a Windows 98/2000/NT4/XP operating system.

Even if I don't like it, I can understand them not supporting OS X. (Although I suspect that "no longer" is stretching the truth ... I doubt they ever did support it.) But calling a switch to Windows an upgrade -- that's going too far. (And never mind that this "upgrade" would require buying new hardware, which they fail to mention.)

I have an XP box here at work that I could use -- but I want to see how serious the limitations actually are. More later.

Update: The limitations are pretty serious: the software didn't work at all. Good thing I had a Windows box handy ... but here's to the day when I won't have to.

… but I have to, ‘cause it feels so good. ;-)

I told you so!

(And heartfelt congratulations, as well.)

Here’s another cat on the loose, leaving an empty bag behind.

For several months now, my friend Stuart Halloway has been talking to me about his new job, and the project he’s been working on. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the website is finally showing some details—the company is out of stealth mode, and I can finally start talking about it.

Stuart’s job is with a company called Near-Time, and the product is called Flow. It is, quite frankly, the collaboration tool I’ve wanted for a long time. I saw an early version in October, and even in a rough state it was breathtaking. Flow includes the best of Wikis, blogs, browsers, bookmark managers, outliners, and email clients, all in one program. Flow gains a lot of power from having all of those things integrated into one interface (and it doesn’t hurt that it’s a good interface).

Although Flow is useful for individuals, it’s designed for collaboration. It seems to me to be an ideal tool for collaborative research, planning, and development work of various kinds, especially (but not only) if you can’t be face-to-face. Best of all, Flow is a collaboration tool that doesn’t require constant connectivity. The assumption of intermittent connectivity is baked into Flow and the protocols it uses for information sharing.

Near-Time is preparing for an early-access release of Flow in the coming weeks. If you and some others in your group use Macs, I urge you to register and try it out. I think you’ll be impressed.