Sometimes, I think we take technology for granted. This evening, after getting home from the office, I made edits to our Web site from the comfort of my couch - even though the server is back at headquarters. While I've done this for years, technology continues to improve to make the process easier. With my heading off to another trade show this coming week, this time in Chicago, remote access will be essential. Here's how we do it.

1. The Apple iPod.

What? You thought this was a toy for listening to music and watching TV shows? You'd usually be right, but the iPod acts as my primary storage device, to and from the office. Now, any Mac with a Firewire or USB port is my office. So long as I backup the iPod to my home laptop (and I do), the data is not only portable, but safe.

2. Microsoft Outlook Webmail

This is one thing Microsoft does really well. I can access all my work e-mail from any computer, just through the Web. From the Web interface, I can not only send and receive e-mail, but sort data in folders, and send meeting invites, or view the calendar. With an acceptance that most corporations continue to use Windows and Outlook, I'm surprisingly happy with this tool.

3. Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection

Two Microsoft in a row! (Looks at the window toward the East to see any visitors...)

Remote Desktop Connection takes off where VNC ends. Though I've used a number of variants of VNC over the years, Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection lets me log in securely to the company's Web site, and make changes. Even while running Mac OS X, I can pop open a window to the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 box and make edits - and then log out as simply as if I were standing in front of the box in our datacenter. This, and VNC before it, prevent me from having to utilize "sneakernet" and shuttle data from my local disk to the remote machine or run local scripts.

4. FTP (Fetch 4.0.3)

The old reliable... though competitors like CuteFTP and Anarchie popped up now and again, Fetch remains a strong FTP client. As with Microsoft's RDC, I can remotely log in to upload or download data. Used in combination with all those tools above, I can upload a file from the iPod, FTP it over with Fetch, and log into Microsoft RDC to move it to the right directory before testing. (Fetch is also used to manage the graphics on this site.)

5 - 8. .Mac Sync with Apple's Safari, Address Book and iCal

This probably deserves to be higher. As a .Mac member, Apple automatically synchronizes my bookmarks in Safari, my Address Book, and my calendar (iCal) between the home laptop and the desktop at the office. This way, I don't have to wish that I had all my tools at hand - instead, I know they are there, so I can run the same queries and get the same results across boxes.

9. RIM Blackberry

When away from the desktop, the Blackberry one-ups Webmail, by taking my e-mail, calendar, and cell phone with me in one device. While I'm not the type who likes sending out large messages from the Blackberry, real-time synchronization with Exchange is essential to keep up to date. Call history and Caller ID is very nice as well - something we take all too much for granted.

10. Bare Bones BBEdit

It wouldn't do me any good to take files back and forth on the iPod from the office if I couldn't mangle them the same way at home as I do from the corporate desk. BBEdit has been my text and HTML editor of choice for nearly 10 years now, and until I gain more savvy or am up for a challenge, that isn't going to change. BBEdit was built for Web editing and ensures I see the same output on any browser or operating system, whether I'm working from home, the road, or headquarters.

Listening to ''University Microfilms International (Non Album Track)'', by Stereolab (Play Count: 11)

More in an irregularly occurring series...

Apple rumors used to be the realm of sites like MacRumors, AppleInsider and Think Secret, and Apple has notoriously had an adversarial relationship with such sites, claiming they don't have the right to leak unannounced product plans, prices or photography. But this morning, respected Wall Street Journal reporter Walt Mossberg does just that, claiming that Apple, in the "Post-PC Era", is working on a media cell phone, as well as a media center for the living room.

Steve Rubel, after a morning alone with his computer, announces the Top 25 things he's learned so far with Google Trends, including the fact that Democrats are more frequently searched for than Republicans and other insights.

With veteran catcher Jason Kendall out four games with a league-mandated suspension, his backup, Adam Melhuse, has produced, with two home runs in two games so far in Kendall's absence. Despite this, the A's faltered against the Blue Jays yesterday, falling by a score of 9-7. Somehow, the team is in first place in the early AL West race, leading Texas by percentage points.

Oh yeah... and to no surprise for us, it turns out the government is keeping phone records for tens of millions of Americans, even for just domestic calls that don't involve foreign participants. The NSA has solicited and obtained the cooperation of AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth to fork over customer detail. The NSA claims no eavesdropping or recording is happening, but at this point, can you trust them?

Listening to ''Float Away (Rivera Mix)'', by Robbie Rivera (Play Count: 1)

You may have seen the news that George W. said he believes his brother Jeb Bush, current governor of Florida, would make "a great president". Well, we thought about it and, from his perspective, we have to agree. Here are the top ten reasons Jeb Bush would make "a great president".

1. In comparison to George's tenure as president, so long as Jeb doesn't sell the entire United States to Saudi Arabia for a single barrel of oil, he would probably be instantly canonized.

2. George has proven you don't even need to know how to read to be president.

3. Having already overseen the biggest voting scam in the history of the country during 2000's presidential race, Jeb is a perfect fit to follow his brother's footsteps in ignoring national law for the sake of the party.

4. Both Jeb and George have shown they can ask their secretaries of state to follow their every word, even when it makes them both contradictory and mentally vacant.

5. Number of terrorist attacks in Florida since his taking elected office? Zero.

6. Number of wars initiated from Florida based on faulty intelligence? Zero.

7. Jeb understands living nearby a hostile region, and avoiding conflict. In Florida, it's Cuba, sitting 90 miles off shore. For his brother, it's basically anybody outside of the White House. He'd adjust easily.

8. Bush - it's the new Kennedy. Only not good looking. Or smart. Or charismatic. Or likeable. Okay, it's not like the Kennedys at all.

9. Both George and Jeb are still taking orders from Daddy.

10. With George's approval rating sitting around 33%, according to most polls, Jeb could be more popular in America even if he alienated all of the women, the entire black population, and Ivy League graduates through foolish endeavors.
Listening to ''The Hand That Feeds'', by Nine Inch Nails (Play Count: 2)

Google held their annual press day today, inviting the unwashed hordes to the company's pristine Mountain View campus, to give updates, answer questions, and of course, to introduce new goodies the search giant has been cooking up in their labs.

For me, the most interesting introduction was that of "Google Trends", which can show how frequently terms are searched for on the site, over time. Visitors to Google Trends can pick multiple keywords to search on - for instance, "Microsoft, Apple" or "Dick Cheney, Karl Rove", to compare how "hot" one keyword was across the entire Google-sphere, versus another. The Google Trends service also features news stories on the right side of your results, ostensibly to show whether hard news played any part in a search term's popularity.

Now, this isn't the first time that a service has debuted that compares Google searches to one another. A more amusing service is a product called "Google War", which, without Google approval, searches on two keywords, and shows you which one has the most results - in effect giving you a keyword's popularity by the number of times it is mentioned, rather than gauging its popularity by how many people are searching for it on a given day. GoogleFight has a similar service.

Early feedback on Google Trends has been positive. Some have gone so far as to say that public relations professionals should bookmark some searches, to see if there is indeed a trend of searching against hard news, or to gauge whether product launches are successfully entering the public mind, or if one product has more mindshare against another. You can get started on learning how to be trendy here. For a full webcast of Google's press day, visit their site.

Listening to ''Ocean Rain'', by Elevation (Play Count: 2)