Many years ago, my mother wrote out a check for the rent of our house at the time, stuffed it into an addressed envelope, slapped a stamp on it and tossed it into a mail box. The letter was picked up the next day by our neighborhood mailman, and mom assumed that it would reach the rightful person in a day or two. A week later, however, she received a call from the landlady asking why the rent hadn’t been paid. Mom checked with the bank… the check hadn’t been cashed. She spoke with the post office. They didn’t have a damaged envelope on hand. No one could figure out where the mail had gone!

Mom canceled the check, and sent out a new one. Lo and behold: the original envelope was delivered to our house a week or so later. Our rent check had decided to go to Vegas without us, apparently. There were postmarks on there for our home town – and for Las Vegas. What happened to it in between the two dates is a mystery to this day.

While this may have happened many years ago, we still do see lost mail at times. It happens. Think of how many boxes and envelopes the post offices handle each day. It’s mind-boggling to try and add it up. This is why I feel the Google Envelopes (still only a concept at this point) could be a great idea.

If these were a reality, you would type your address and the address of the person you’re mailing something to into the program. Print your envelope and SEE the route right there in front of you. No one can get lost this way. Both addresses are clearly displayed along with a map between the two points.

There is one slight problem, though. This will only work so far if the sender’s address is west of the recipient’s home. I’m sure there’s a workaround for this, but I haven’t figured out yet what it would be.

What do you think? Would you print these fun little envelopes and use them for yourself? Or… would you rather have the ability to say “Gee, I don’t know where the check is. It must be lost in the mail.”

How to Track Your Mail with Google Envelopes

As I sit here preparing for the big event tonight, I can’t help but reminisce about Cory. While doing so, it just reminds me of the past ten years in general in my life. What a decade it has been! I’ve been fortunate to make a good career out of doing things I am passionate about, and I can honestly say I love what I do. My Gnomedex conference is heading into its tenth year in 2010, and I promise you we’re already working hard to make it as awesome as we possibly can!

I’m not one to make resolutions, really. Instead, I prefer to set goals for myself. I know that if I say “I will… “, it will likely not happen exactly the way I planned. Life gets in the way. Priorities can change in an instant depending on what’s going on around you. I would rather just set some goals for myself, my community, and my work. What goals or resolutions do you have?

I could never have accomplished everything in the early part of this year that I have if it weren’t for all of you – the community. Your support, strength and enthusiasm have driven me further, helping me to reach for new heights personally and professionally. You guys (and gals!) are the backbone of everything I do. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here, and going along for the ride with me on our journey into 2010!

Have a happy, healthy and safe New Year, everyone!

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See Ya, 2009! Hello, 2010!

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Maps – More Types Than You Know
By Michael Russell

For most people, when they think of a map, they think of maybe a couple of different kinds. But the truth is, there are more types of maps than you can possibly imagine. We’re going to take a look at just a few of them and the kind of information you’ll get from them.

We’re probably all familiar with the common map of our world. This map shows all the countries, where they are located, their shape, size and even some major cities within each country if the map is large enough. Of course there are also breakdowns of our world map into continents to get a more detailed view.

We are also familiar with the individual road maps that we use for traveling across country or even from one city to another. These maps are probably the most commonly used maps in the United States, especially by people who do a lot of vacationing by car.

But maps don’t end with these common types. For example, there are climate maps available for just about every area in the world. A climate map shows general information about climate and precipitation of an area. Mapmakers usually use different colors to illustrate whether an area is dry, like in the desert, or very wet as in a rain forest region.

There are also what are called economic or resource maps. These maps show the natural resources most common to an area and also the relative economic status of an area, whether it is an affluent area or one that is relatively poor. These are also color coded to signify economic classes such as blue for income between $40,000 and $50,000 per family.

Another kind of map that is very important for politicians is the political map. These maps show a particular region’s political affiliation, whether democrat, republican or independent. These maps usually come into play during election time.

Then there are maps that are called physical maps. These maps don’t necessarily point out the country or state name but what kind of terrain one might find in this area. For example, a physical map of the United States when viewed would show a very mountainous area out west and flat lands to the East. These maps also show where lakes and rivers are located. Green is usually used to show lower elevations and orange and brown are usually used to show the higher elevations.

But maps don’t just end with those related to our world land masses. There are kinds of maps available today that years ago, especially before the age of the Internet, we didn’t have. Probably the most popular of these is what is called the site map.

Site maps are maps of a particular web site. What a site map does is simply list every single page that is contained in a web site. These site maps are really more for search engines than for real people as it helps the search engines rank the sites better by being able to access all the content on the site without missing anything.

These are just a few examples of the different kinds of maps that we has at our disposal. Yes, a map isn’t just a map any more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

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Must be a full moon or something. Am I exhuding pheremones that attract CEOs? Here’s the latest:

I am writing to let you know about a beta mapping technology and new series of free downloadable digital destination guides launched recently. Schmap Guides are digital destination guides to cities, islands and regions throughout Europe and America. In common with their hardcopy counterparts (Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Fodor’s etc.), they contain useful background reading, top picks and suggested tours, reviews, directory listings, photos and maps. Schmap Guides, however, are digital and downloaded for free to the user’s computer.

Schmap Guides, however, are useless thanks to this new technology called a “search engine.” That, and who wants to download and install something that you can already get on the Web with software you already have? I’d probably be a lot more gentle with these guys if I didn’t receive a generic email from the CEO.

Schmap + Sucks = Schmucks