Review: Belkin Mouse Trap, Cruzer USB Memory

Here are a few suggestions for when you're traveling - or if you need gift ideas for the person never seen without a laptop. The first product is the Belkin Mouse Trap. No, it's not a staging for the Agatha Christie play, but, rather, a handy small case. I know I'm not a big fan of touch pads, and when I remember to, bring a travel mouse with me - something small that I can move about and whose buttons I can click. But the problem has been finding a surface that works well with it, as even when I do remember the mouse, I don't remember to bring an extra mouse pad.

That's where the Mouse Trap comes in. It's got a semi-circular shape with a zipper on the outside. You can store a USB cable or two, even a travel mouse, zip it up, and slide it into your laptop case. Why bother? Not only do you have some of those little knickknacks that you may need, but when you unzip it, the case opens up and offers ... a mouse pad surface. There's a circular strip on the outside of the case that helps it stay in one place while you slide the mouse about. Retail price is $12.99.

USB memory sticks are pretty standard fare, but I've been using a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium (not actually made out of the metal) for a while. There are two reasons. One is that the USB connector on the model I have actually slides into and out of the case, meaning that I can't lose the cap, which leaves would leave the connector exposed. The other is the synchronization software. I can sync the Cruzer with my copy of Outlook, and then let me run my emails, calendars, contacts, and so on from the Cruzer. In other words, I get to take important parts of my computer with me while the computer stays in the office. It's the digital equivalent of "I went to a big conference in a fabulous city and all my computer got was this crummy t-shirt." List is about $35 for the 1GB version, $50 for the 2GB, and $100 for the 4GB.

If you already have the USB memory, then I've heard about synchronization software that might interest you, although I haven't had a chance to try it yet. It's called MojoPac. There's a free version and a higher-end consumer version that runs $49.99. I don't know all the details, but you can check them at the web site. At worst, you download the free version and find that it doesn't do what you need.

Four More Outlook Tip for Writers

Here are a few more things I forgot in my recent post on tips for using Microsoft Outlook:

• Send Email in the Future Sometimes you need to remember to send an email in the future. It might be a second or third follow-up email that you don't want to send yet, having just launched a message. Perhaps you realized today that you need to send someone a reminder a week from now. Whatever the reason, when you've written the email and before you've sent it off, click the Options button. Check off Do not deliver before and provide a date. Now the email will sit in your outbox until the day it's supposed to go. After that, the next time you send and receive, the message will be on its way.


• Get a Receipt Another feature of the Options button is the ability to request a receipt for delivery and/or when the recipient actually reads the message. This won't always work; some people won't allow receipts to go out, but sometimes it works. I find that getting a receipt on delivery works better, because generally the receiving email server can do that without getting permission from a user (if it's set up to do so at all, which not all are).


• Set Importance Another choice on Options (and available is setting low or high importance (instead of normal). You may have seen this on receiving emails that seem to have a little red exclamation point - that's an "important" one. I think the importance button should be called the PR minion button.


• Automating Send/Receive if You want mail to go in and out on a given schedule and don't want to think further about it, go to Tools/Options. Click on the Mail Setup tab and click the Send/Receive button. Check the first Schedule an automatic send/receive every and pick the amount of time between send/receive cycles. Look a bit farther down and you'll see a second such check box. That lets you have Outlook go online to send and receive on a regular schedule even when Outlook isn't online.