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Need some more time at the office? Perhaps you’ve got a project that needs several hours of tedious work. You could hire an assistant or a temp to come in and handle these tasks, but if that’s not an option in these economically challenging times, try virtual outsourcing some of your research, data entry, word processing or travel planning to a virtual assistant on the Internet.

Virtual outsourcing isn’t anything new. In September 1998, Business Week interviewed people at several US-based virtual outsourcing firms, and they discussed how their companies help small- and medium-sized businesses reduce their overhead expenses.

In 2006, this American Bar Association article discussed virtual outsourcing for legal firms.

You can even outsource your social networking, although that seems to defeat the purpose. Make sure the virtual outsourcing firm has some privacy guarantees.

This post at Elance has more details and a list of 25 examples.

Related posts on billso.com

• 9 December 2007: The mobile office in Honolulu
• 29 January 2007: Quiet time
• 21 August 2004: Reverse outsourcing
• 6 August 2004: Do NDAs mean anything in India?
• 1 June 2004: Irish IT staffers turn on their CEO after outsourcing announcement

First, the good news: crazy rasberry ants are smaller than fleas, but they will eat fire ants. I hate fire ants, and I don’t miss them at all.

Now here’s the bad news: these ants also eat plants, and they like to get into electronic equipment, including network cable and hard drives, according to CRN. That’s a recipe for failure.

Pray that paratrenicha species near pubens don’t come to your neighborhood.

See the Associated Press, Texas A&M’s web page and BoingBoing for more information and links.

Updated 16 May 2008: here’s the New York times article about the crazy running ants.

Photo courtesy of Texas A&M University.

Related posts on billso.com

• 26 August 2004: Killer bees reach Oklahoma
• 13 August 2004: Giant mutant ants in Australia

As I mentioned in my billso.com article from 2 May 2008, if you are carrying high value items on your airline journey, do not check them with your baggage. Carry the items with you on the airplane.

Matt Mullenweg, the man behind WordPress, learned this lesson the hard way last week when he lost several high-end cameras and lenses on a US Airways flight.

Image courtesy of xrrr through a Creative Commons license.

County politicians in Los Angeles have passed legislation championed by the RIAA and MPAA that lets authorities confiscate property from anyone convicted of IP theft or piracy. See Wired for more information.

The RIAA uses automated methods for collecting information fom LimeWire and other peer-to-peer programs. Data including the IP address and the files offered for trade are collected. The trade organization also has an automated takedown notice and settlement system that targets universities and students. The RIAA uses a manual process when investigating commercial ISPs. This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education has some details.

Meanwhile, BoingBoing reports that the US House of Representatives has passed a similar measure (HR 4279, PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008). The bill may not get through the US Senate this year.

See Ars Technica and TechDirt for more information on this ridiculous piece of legislation.

Related posts on

billso.com

• 11 May 2008: Qtrax makes a free music download deal with Universal
• 15 March 2008: 10 years of MP3 players
• 21 February 2008: Copyright and fair use
• 4 February 2008: Better than free
• 13 November 2007: File sharing and campus security
• 5 October 2007: What’s wrong with copyright?
• 17 July 2007: A quick explanation of copyright law
• 29 September 2006: US copyright law in verse
• 15 August 2004: American Library Association promotes fair use
• 27 June 2003: Sue your best customers

I’ve finished grading my IS 7010 course for Spring 2008.

Grades are available in the TurnItIn.com gradebook.

Google has invested US$10 million in BrightSource as part of the Internet firms’s RE>C initiative. According to news.com and ValleyWag, BrightSource builds solar thermal facilities and sells the generated electricity to commercial customers and electricity. The generation system is cost-effective during peak periods of the day.

Google’s data center use large quantities of electricity, so Google.org has been awarding grants to suppliers of renewable energy technologies such as solar, thermal and wind.

Google also announced today that it is hiring a Head of Renewable Energy to supervise the company’s research & development programs. The company already invested in eSolar and Makani Power - see this Google web page more details and links.

I’ve posted the final grades for my Spring 2008 IS 6100 online students. The marks can be viewed in the TurnItIn.com gradebook.