When I joined the Rotary Club of Los Osos, CA, I got a lot of handshakes and a free breakfast, a presentation about the organization’s history, and access to 30 other businesspeople looking to network.  I got the chance to provide humanitarian service, as the group’s charter states, and I got to socialize with the group’s members and their friends who wanted to do the same thing.

When I joined FaceBook, I didn’t get any handshakes or free breakfasts, and I can’t say I’m helping build goodwill and peace in the world. But my universe isn’t limited to the people in the meeting room at the golf course on Friday mornings . It’s only limited to every person I’ve ever known who’s joined the wildly popular Web site and a lot of people I’d never met before joining.

No one needs to tell you that when you get rid of a hard drive or whole computer, there'd better not be any traces of confidential client data on it. And simply deleting files doesn't hack it. Drive Erazer, from WiebeTech, can erase a 250MB drive in under two hours, the company says. You just connect it to a drive (with or without a computer) and flip a switch. The Standard version for 3.5" IDE/PATA Drives is $99.95 MSRP; prices go up to $199.95 for other drive types.

You can’t afford to miss a call, but you also can’t stay tethered to your office phone all the time. Virtual PBX is one possible solution. my1voice uses your existing phone equipment, and can connect calls to any phone, whether or not it’s in the office.  Operations are handled over the Web. So small offices can look bigger without investing in pricey PBX system hardware. You still have to pay for your phone lines, and extra minutes can be pricey (the cheapest option is $10/month, with 100 free minutes; 5 cents/minute after that). 30-day free trial; 24x7 customer service.