Where Am I ? Find your Latitude and Longitude position with Loki

I neither know my street address nor the city name. So how do I determine the exact latitude and longitude of my current location without using handheld GPS receiver ? 

You just landed in an unfamiliar city at midnight and your taxi driver takes you straight from the airport to the hotel. Before you crash on the bed, you want to plan your next day like what are the nearby restaurants, places to see, shopping stores, etc.

Now the problem is that there's nobody at the hotel helpdesk to help you with this data. Yes, you could have used Google Local to get all this [local tourist] information but unfortunately you are not sure about your current geolocation so how does Google help you ? 

Well, there's an easy out - Start your web browser and use the Loki extension to find your exact physical location using Wi-Fi. While there are tons of sites that help you find your latitude and longitude by city or Street address, Loki will pinpoint your exact location on a world map without requiring any input from you.


Once installed, Loki can be integrated with services like Google Maps, A9 Maps, Flickr geotagging, Weather.com or for even locating the nearing Walmart or Home Depot store. You can also share your current location with anyone who owns a mobile phone via SMS.

My Computer isn't WiFi enabled
When you dont' have a wi-fi access, Loki will use your current IP Address to figure out your latitude/longitude (like ip2location) though it's not so accurate and only an approximation of your geographic location.

Is Loki available in my city or country ?
Loki is built on top of the Skyhook Wireless WiFi Positioning System which uses WiFi access points to triangulate your computer's position. So it's available in most parts of the US and will soon expand to European and Asian cities.

Loki is like your virtual GPS device embedded inside your computer. Give it a shot.

Loki | Loki Channels | Download Loki - for Firefox, for IE

Useful Latitude / Longitude Tools and Resources

Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculation - Calculate the physical distance between two points on the earth given their latitudes and longitudes [in miles or kilometers]

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names - find out the latitude and longitude of any street, city or country.

Mapquest Maps - Map a lat/long coordinate using degrees or decimal values. 

Productivity Tips for Working With Microsoft Outlook

Sarah shares her favorite Outlook Tips and features that help in Getting Things Done faster:

Form Emails – Using templates, you can save standardized emails so you don’t have to type the same thing over and over again. I use forms for things like emailing a new user’s login information to their supervisor or emailing someone a note letting them know their issue was input as a helpdesk ticket.

Creating your own form is easy – just write the email, then go to File –> Save As, and choose “Outlook Template (*.oft)” from the drop-down box. The email is saved as a template. Next time you want to use that form, open it by going to Tool –> Forms –> Choose a Form. Change the drop-down box to “User Templates in File System” and then pick the template you created.

Search Folders & Favorites – Search Folders let you create virtual folders based on certain criteria. For example, you could make a folder of email from your boss you categorized as “Important” or a folder of your emails that have attachments. Even better, add these Search Folders to your Favorite Folders list and hide your Mail Folders list so that all you see is your Favorites. You’ll be surprised how rarely you’ll need to view your “real” folders.

How I Use Outlook - 7 Tips

There are so many things you can do with Outlook, but I have to admit, I've never fully explorered all its features. However, the more I "live" in my Outlook at work, the more I've become obsessed with finding new and useful ways to get things done as efficiently and quickly as I can. On that note, here are a few Outlook tips I've discovered that have been making my work life easier.

1. The ClearContext add-in - every since someone told me about this add-in, I've been using the heck out of it. Although I can only afford the free version, I've found it unbelievably useful for categorizing my mail. Since I had been using a folders system prior to the Outlook 2007 upgrade, I didn't feel much like redoing this system just to use Outlook 2007's color-coded categories. Instead, I use a mashup of ClearContext labels and Outlook cateogries. ClearContext lets me label my mail and these labels are linked to an Outlook category list. As I visually scan my email, Outlook's color-coded categories help me find what I'm looking for fast. When it's time to move an email from the Inbox to its category folder, I just hit the "File Msg" button on the ClearContext toolbar and the message archives itself to the appropriate folder. (Another option for filing is SpeedFiler, which I hear is good, too). 
2. Natural Language - I've been using Outlook 2007 for many months now, but I just discovered this feature thanks to a tip I read online. The new version of Outlook lets you enter appointments on your calendar using natural language. Instead of using the drop-down box to pick a date, you can type in real expressions like "day after tomorrow," "one week from today," "two months from today," "three days from now," and much more. You can also use expressions like "today + 3 days" and Outlook will figure that out, too. Finally, you can type in the names of holidays and use them in expressions like "the day before Christmas." 

3. Outlook Calendar on the desktop - this software lets you pin the Outlook calendar to your desktop. The calendar stays there all the time so you can always see what's upcoming. It's not just a view of your calendar either, it's the real Microsoft Outlook calendar, so you get all its functionality, like direct editing, drag and drop of files, etc. Awesome.

4. Search Folders & Favorites - how did I live before Search Folders? Search Folders let you create virtual folders based on certain criteria. For example, you could make a folder of email from your boss you categorized as "Important" or a folder of your emails that have attachments. Even better, add these Search Folders to your Favorite Folders list and hide your Mail Folders list so that all you see is your Favorites. You'll be surprised how rarely you'll need to view your "real" folders.

5. Fast Email Searches - If you use Outlook 2007 on Vista, you have Vista's killer search built into Outlook. However, at work, we're still on XP. No worries though...you can download Windows Desktop Search for Windows XP like I did and experience the glory of fast searches. With either Vista or Desktop Search, results are displayed as soon as you start typing in text.  

6. Form Emails - Using templates, you can save standardized emails so you don't have to type the same thing over and over again. I use forms for things like emailing a new user's login information to their supervisor or emailing someone a note letting them know their issue was input as a helpdesk ticket. Creating your own form is easy - just write the email, then go to File --> Save As, and choose "Outlook Template (*.oft)" from the drop-down box. The email is saved as a template. Next time you want to use that form, open it by going to Tool --> Forms --> Choose a Form. Change the drop-down box to "User Templates in File System" and then pick the template you created.

7. Minimize to Tray - I'm surprised how many people don't know how to minimize Outlook to run in the System Tray. This is an absolute necessity (it should be the default!). Right-click on the Outlook icon in the Notification Area (next to the clock). In the menu that displays, select "Hide When Minimized."