This is definitely outside of the area of topics that I typically blog about, but I had to put in a note for one of my favorite, must have Vista Sidebar Gadgets: The Package Mapping Gadget.  If you order a lot of stuff online as I do, you'll find that most online stores will be nice enough to notify you when your package ship and they will give you a tracking code (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.), so that you can go online and track your package.  I really like that option, as it gives me the "near real-time" ability to keep track of where my packages are in the shipping process, but I still have to go online to do it.

That's where this little gadget comes into play.  You just download it and add it to your Vista Sidebar (everyone is running Vista right? ) and just by giving your package a Title (some short/friendly name) and the tracking ID for whichever service your package was shipped by, and this Gadget will periodically (you configure how often) go out and check on the status of your package and updates the gadget UI.  I prefer this over going to the Web for the information, because I am developer and I like to be time-efficient (i.e., I am lazy!).

This is where you can download this (free) gadget: Click here

There are other gadgets that perform a similar task, but this is the one that I can personally recommend.

~ Robert Shelton

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