Is email broken? I have been struggling to manage email for a long time as I attempted to liberate my inbox back in 2005 only to once again stare email bankruptcy in the eyes. Email is such a double-edged sword since I need email to communicate but get so much of it becomes difficult to use effectively. I am not alone, I have heard the same things from a number of colleagues and recently TechCrunch editor and founder Mike Arrington even called the communication crisis produced by email a opportunity for an entrepreneur. I recently met Jared Goralnick who is a bit of a productivity guru. Jared joined me on quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode number 17 (below). He recently founded AwayFind.com. AwayFind, a DC-based startup, looking to help ease some of the email burden so you can focus on your day-to-day tasks without constant interruptions. With AwayFind, which is currently in private beta, users can setup a page (like this one I created) to include in auto-response messages to anyone that emails them. The auto-response offers a little explanation as to when you might get to the mail and a form which can contact the user directly via SMS text messaging and email if the item being sent was an emergency or needs to be handled immediately. Watch the latest SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode with Jared Goralnick now.

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SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending March 23, 2008.

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I am pleased to say that TECH cocktail, the events startup that was created by Eric Olson and I back in Ma y 2006 has made a couple of exciting moves today by launching a substantial redesign of the TECH cocktail website that we have been working on for the last couple months. In addition, you might notice that we also have announced the first ever TECH cocktail CONFERENCE (or TECH CONFERENCE for short) which will take place in Chicago on May 29, 2008. Register now - it should be a great event!

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After an evening mixer last night which helped to get everyone together DEMO08, as its name implies, was filled with lots of demos. Rather than review every single company that launched a product today I will give you a brief overview of each one. Overall, I was impressed by a couple of pen-like gadgets, a few enabling technology sites, a couple video sites and of course mobile products.

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Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending December 23, 2007.

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Are you particularly good at something and want to tell the world just how to do it? Or do you work at a company looking to setup some free online courses but don't know where to start? If so, you might want to check out Neulio. Neulio, an Orlando, Florida based startup, recently launched to offer a free platform for anyone looking to create an online course to educate via distance learning.

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What's it take to start your own company these days? Everyone has their own opinion on this question. FoundRead recently sat down with Art of the Start author Guy Kawasaki to talk about just how to bootstrap and start a company with limited resources.

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I got a chance to sit down with Future Works and Bub.blico.us founder and PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis to chat about the book Now Is Gone that he assisted Geoff Livingston in writing. The book is a good primer for anyone that is thinking about the new media landscape from big companies to entrepreneurs.

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Are we in another Web bubble? The Richter Scales has produced a parody video that my friend just sent me that takes on an old Billy Joel tune to explain we that we truly are in another bubble. Regardless of if you think that another Web bubble is about to burst or not, it is a very well done video and will most likely make you grin.

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I co-hosted a sixth TECH cocktail in Chicago last night and co-host Eric Olson and I had a blast doing it. With 500 plus attendees at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville there was so much energy and love in the room it was an amazing feeling. I got to see many familiar and many new faces as we continue to try and build a better and more tightly connected community in Chicago.

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I got interviewed by trend junkie and entrepreneur Greg Cangelosi of Trend TV this week while at the The New New Internet Conference. In case you might not know Greg Cangelosi is a podcasting expert and just authored a book titled . I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.Greg and I sat down and chatted and he captured the casual interview on Trend TV.

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A common theme I have run into in life and in conversations with friends and colleagues recently is something I will refer to as "lifestyle management." We work hard but strive for the short work weeks with more free time to enjoy life. Finding the ability to do everything you want to in your 24 hour, 7 day week can be a struggle. As Web productivity tools have risen, many of us still try to do MORE with the time we have freed up from leveraging these tools. Email, Instant Messenger and everyone and their bothers mobile device usage has caused us to look for more instantaneous actions and reactions. How can you get everything done? An intriguing approach that I have recently seen on the rise is the usage of a personal assistant. This article will look at a few of the current online personal assistant options.

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Are you a startup looking for funding? A couple of week ago YouBeTheVC.com launched to offer up a creative "reality funding" approach similar to that of American Idol. YouBeTheVC.com, created by Boston-based VC firm Bang Ventures offers aspiring entrepreneurs to compete and the general public will picks the winners. The top 3 selected companies/product ideas will be given $15,000 in seed money and office space in the Boston area and additional guidance and services.

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TECH cocktail Boston took place last night in the shadow of Fenway Park and brought the Boston tech scene together. With about 400 people in attendance, TECH cocktail Boston brought together a number of startups, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts for an evening of food, drinks and passionate conversations. It was pretty wicked!

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Planypus (planyp.us), a startup co-located in Chicago and Washington, DC, offers friends and family the ability to create collaborative plans. Think of it as a wiki for your social life. Today Playnpus has announced the closing of its Series-A financing. What are they going to do with the money?

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Last week I mentioned that TECH cocktail, an event I co-founded with Eric Olson, was coming soon to Boston and now I am pleased to announce that you can now sign-up for TECH cocktail Boston. We’re bringing TECH cocktail to Beantown (Eric's hometown) and it's bound to be wicked!

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Spigit launched into beta in mid-July to offer up a startup simulation game to help entrepreneurs showcase new ideas and innovations and in the process connect with a network of professionals. Spigit seems to have blended a multiply player online simulation game with a social network while aimed at creating a new company. Spigit can act as a testing ground for new ideas by helping to predict if they will succeed or fail with less invested.

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Amie Street, Rhode Island-based music startup with an interesting online music business model by allowing prices to be based on artist interest and demand, has taken a Series A round of funding led by Amazon.com. Though many were skeptical of Amie Street's model, I thought Amie Street could disrupt the music industry and it turns out Amazon.com is buying into it as well.

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Add Somewhat Frank Weekly Video to your page As I highlighted earlier this week, Gary Vaynerchuk of the popular wine video podcast Wine Library TV made an appearance on the NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien television program this week. In case you missed watching it on Wednesday evening you...

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Gary Vaynerchuk, the host of WineLibrary.com's video blog Wine Library TV is a pretty entertaining guy. I got a chance to see Gary's energy in action a few months back when he both demo'ed and sponsored at TECH cocktail DC 1. Gary's love for wine and charismatic personality has created...

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Last night I was in Chicago with Eric Olson co-hosting TECH cocktail Chicago 5 for an estimated six hundred guests at John Barleycorn near Wrigley Field. Eric and I co-founded TECH cocktail just a year ago looking to help foster a tighter and more amplified technology signal and community in...

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TechCrunch20, the TechCrunch conference coming up in September, is offering a platform for newly launching companies to present for free in front of an audience of hundreds of press, bloggers venture capitalists and entrepreneurs and potentially win a $50,000 prize. TechCrunch has been assembling an impressive and assorted list of...

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Birthday logo thanks to Orli Yakuel. Somewhat Frank is embarking on the terrible two's - that's right, today is Somewhat Frank's blog birthday! I have to say the last two years have flown by with thousands of article and comments being generated on Somewhat Frank. Thank you to everyone who...

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Do you have dreams of being a rock star but are in need of a band? This can be a common problem for many talented artists as they can jam like no other but don't have an official band. Indaba Music makes it possible to create a virtual band to...

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Photo of the Week: Jen Consalvo recently snapped this photo titled backlight. A little sunshine is a beautiful thing and is good for the soul - this little yellow guy appears to agree. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 06.17.07 YouTube Remixer: Edit Videos Online At YouTube YouTube has officially launched YouTube...

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Congrats to Chicago-based feed management and advertising company FeedBurner for getting acquired by Google. The rumor that started a few weeks ago has been confirmed by FeedBurner today (June 1, 2007). There are more details on Google/FeedBurner deal here. In addition, they are just a great group of people. Being...

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What's next? This is a question that many may be asking. At the 2007 Next Web conference (June 1, 2007 in Amsterdam) they are hoping to find some answers. In the meantime, check out this video (above) which was posted here. It was recorded via iChat Video as Tim O'Reilly...

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Photo of the Week: This photo was taken by James Yu at Pier 38 in San Francisco on Thursday night (May 24, 2007) as part of the NewTeeVee and MetaCafe Pier Screenings. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 05.27.07 Facebook Moving to An Open Platform Strategy Facebook has announced a new strategy...

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Photo of the Week: This photo was taken by Brian Solis of a video camera recording Sarah Meyers interviewing someone at the May 2007 Girls in Tech in SF. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 05.20.07 Watch TV Stations From Your Web Browser More and more services are popping enabling users to...

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Is it just me or is Gabe Rivera turning up everywhere this week? It appears Gabe Rivera, the creator of techmeme and other news aggregator sites, had a very big week. I know Gabe is very modest, but I think the Mims song "This Is Why I'm Hot" might be...

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A few hours ago, TECH cocktail completed its first event in DC at the popular MCCXXIII bar (1223 Club DC, for the non Roman-numeral types). The event was packed with hundreds of guests mingling as the place rocked to music, wine, product demos and mingling. Over 225+ technology enthusiasts, VCs,...

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Wine Library TV, a popular wine video blog that shares the wine expertise of founder and host Gary Vaynerchuk, has announced it has acquired the wine social network Cork'd. In simple terms, Cork'd is site for a wine lover to share and rate wine. It seems like a great fit...

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Twiistup took place last night (May 9, 2007) at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, California to bring together some of the Southern California technology community. Twiistup, previously highlighted on Somewhat Frank, was founded by Mike Macadaan with the help of Ryan Buckholtz. Twiistup attracted a large turnout which filled the bar...

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Are you looking for music videos on YouTube? You are not alone. Middio launched publicly on Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2007) to help users find all the music they are looking for on YouTube. Middio indexes YouTube music videos so that you can search by song or artist and...

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Photo of the Week: This was the view from Sweet View on Derby Day at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 05.06.07 Microsoft to Buy Yahoo? Nope. Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a...

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I am happy to announce that TECH cocktail is coming to DC in May! Coming off a great event in Chicago a couple of weeks ago we are excited to be co-hosting TECH cocktail DC 1 (TcDC1) on May 17, 2007 from 6 to 9:30pm at MCCXXII, a sweet venue...

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Looking for a fall conference to attend? Mike Arrington, editor of TechCrunch, has just announced the details of the TechCrunch20 conference at the VC 2.0 session he moderated at the Web 2.0 Expo. The conference is being co-organized by Jason Calacanis and Mike Arrington and sponsored by Sequoia Capital with...

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If you are going to be in the Los Angeles, California area on May 9, 2007 then I would recommend you make your way to Zanzibar in Santa Monica to Twiistup. What is Twiistup? Twiistup, founded by Mike Macadaan, a friend and AOL colleague, is an event that aims to...

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Photo of the week: This San Francisco Trolley photo taken by, friend and co-founder of TECH cocktail Eric Olson, was the first photo I found on Flickr related to the Web 2.0 Expo this week in SF. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 04.15.07 The Web 2.0 Expo Is Upon Us I...

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With April flurries plaguing the Midwest the past few days, TECH cocktail 4 offered the Chicago technology and entrepreneurial community a place to get out of the cold spring weather to enjoy an evening of fun. With a number of activities and another excellent turnout which included an appearance by...

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