As I talked on my podcast last week, I always wanted to stay in Santa Monica. I’ve heard many good things about it. I’ve visited several times over the years, but never stayed overnight. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of nights there, and it was a bit shocking. It…
Walter Mossberg , THE GO-TO technology columnist for many years, is retiring. He announced his retirement in early June 2017 and Charlie Rose interviewed him not only on his life as a journalist but they got to talk about the future. Excellent conversation. A truly accomplished and down-to-earth person. Impeccable journey,…
In today’s digital age, managing data has become an essential aspect of daily life. From storing personal files to backing up business-critical information, having a reliable and secure storage solution is paramount. Two popular options for data management are Network Attached Storage (NAS) and cloud storage. What is Network Attached Storage (NAS)? A NAS device…
Today is our 30th year anniversary. My wife, Flavia, is not a fan of this word, but today I think it is very appropriate: WOW! As of this week, we have known each other 30 years and 6 weeks. Although she did not know it back then, the day we met, I knew she…
I want to share some ideas for protecting your home that we use ourselves… We have an alarm system. THE most important thing is to post the “this house is protected by… ” signs in very visible areas of the the back front and side of the house — Back when we were…
As you may have noticed, I started a podcast! YES I know – I am late to the party, and yes I also know a lot of people are v-blogging (video-blogging) now… It is funny because it has been on my to do list for about 4 years, and I just never got to…
After years of travel, these are the 10 basic rules of travel I’ve developed. I will be telling you the same, if you go to Chicago, Paris, New York, Egypt, Japan or Santiago– no difference. Be a smart traveler: Do not get into dark alleys, be aware of your surroundings, travel light, trust your…
Although I’ve been thinking for a while, I finally replaced my standard home office desk with *nothing*. Yes, no more conventional desk! I must admit it, on one hand it is a bit liberating, but on the other it is hard leaving the past behind. Like for most of us, the music library is complete…
Hard to believe that so many people in the world simply sleep through sunrise or miss sunsets completely missing them. One of my favorite things to do is to wake wake up early and catch the sunrise. Although I enjoy sunsets, and I try to notice them every day, I am partial to sunrises…..
I love to go to different street markets – You see so much in such a compact place it is fun. It is a great opportunity to take a few pictures because there is always something new to notice.. This past week we stopped by the Pike Place Market in Seattle, and as I was…
It was a busy 2016 for me. Like every year, lots of travel (airplanes, hotels, cars, and conference rooms) . It is always good to visit customers and talk about the latest tech trends with them face to face. I love to do that, and I am lucky to do it. It was about 61…
A new year begins. For many reasons (and not only the obvious one) 2016 was a strange one. We look forward to 2017 and beyond with the best of hopes… Wishing everyone the best! P.S For some reason, as I write this, this saying comes to mind: Do not look…
I saw this article in the WSJ today, and I am so happy to see confirmation that National Geographic Channel is returning to educational and interesting programming rather than the terrible reality shows they have been for the past few years… There has been several programs so far, that have been great! Before the Flood …
It is interesting. Even though we have been using the app for about 12 months (and I am loving it) it has taken a lot of effort to get it to a point where we feel comfortable launching an a service for others to use. It doesn’t have to be “right”, and it will never be perfect,…
This is not mine, but It was a good reminder that experience is worth it and to charge for the value of your services. A critical gearbox failed and no one could fix it. So they brought in a bloke with great trouble-shooting experience. He inspected the gear drive very carefully. After looking things…
It has been a tough couple of travel days, and decided that the night was better spent catch up on work. For dinner I chose to eat at the hotel restaurant, which, to be honest, I prefer to avoid, except for rare occasions. Like most of us, I usually mind my own business, and do…
While few business owners question whether or not the convenience and additional exposure granted by social media scheduling ( See blog post: Scheduling Social Media Content is Best Practice )is worth it, the cost of many of the “big name” scheduling services (e.g. Buffer, Meetedgar, Hootsuite) is beginning to become prohibitive. While it’s still possible…
Today, having an established social media presence is no longer optional; if you want your business to survive and thrive, it’s absolutely necessary to be active on social media. Social media content must be of high quality, interesting, insightful, relevant, and above all else, updated regularly; with so many competing voices cluttering up the digital…
Last night we created our own 31Post YouTube Channel. Not a lot of content in there yet. The first two pieces we have include: * Promo Video – https://youtu.be/8dvVU66WfFw * Added Demo Video: https://youtu.be/VBSf5zADlls We plan to posts many small how-to-videos as well as much more… Side note: With every new YouTube Channel, a Google+…
It has been with me for as long as I can remember using the Internet, but it really has been with us for only 14 years.. ( According to Wikipedia: Picasa was an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by a company named…
Today we launched two new areas getting ready for a wider release… forum.31posts.com – a forum section to enable users post comments, ask questions and /or seek support blog.31posts – If you are reading this – you are already here! We’ve had many blog entries relating to this product over in our company’s site (enterprisal.com…
We are finally at a point where the core application is at a point where we can create a few aids for our users… In order to make it easy for you to collect data to share, we have released a Chrome Extension for 31Posts. Once installed you can quickly send the current tab data…
TimeSOW is a web-based project time entry and tracking system based on timesheets designed as a flexible and scalable solution to maximize user adoption, which they adopt and use it on a daily basis.. It can track, approve, and manage team members time incurred for projects and clients you define. You can pre-assign project time…
Based on end-user feedback, we decided to rename the application The new name is 31Posts.com which is simple to remember and has more meaning… A new site and corresponding logo has been created We are still on the closed beta trials, and we have received great feedback. Stay tune for more news.. Thank you!
Every end marks a new beginning. Keep your spirits and determination unshaken, and you shall always walk the glory road. With courage, faith and great effort, you shall achieve everything you desire. Don’t forget the past, learn from it. I wish you a very Happy New Year. Published using eKalendaro
As we open the day on this last day of 2015, I came across a pretty cool article that made me think… I am just quoting the questions, but hopefully you will link to the article… When did you have fun? What good risks did you take and how were you outside of your comfort zone? …
Tonight, I decided to “Reset Windows 10” I have been using Windows 10 for a long time now… I am part of the Windows 10 Insiders Build, but only on my “test-everyday use” device… For my Win7 to Win10 upgrade, I had chosen to go through the”normal” update process for all of my production…
I love technology and how it helps us all. It is my work and hobby. I am an IT consultant and since I was a kid I have helped small, medium and large organizations design, develop, stand-up, use, train and project /program manage implementations and migrations to the latest technologies in order to meet…
I have seen many videos of virtual reality technology and sat is a couple of demos, but I must say it was early on technology (choppy at best, and generally slow) My son re-introduced me to virtual reality this weeend when he dropped by with a set of VR googles in which you put your phone…
Definitely a current topic! Finally emerging from the shadows of Gen Xers, most millennials are now in the workforce. But study after study has shown that millennials are different from Gen Xers and even from Baby Boomers, the generation that raised them. ” Develop long-term niche relationships” https://www.visioncritical.com/how-engage-millennials-customer-insight-and-marketing/ 2015-09-23T00:00:16-05:00
According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the Workspace-as-a-Service (WaaS) market, comprised of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Applications, Desktop as a Service, Hosted Applications, is expected to grow at a a CAGR of 14.6% from $4.8 billion in 2014 to $9.4 billion in 2019. The WaaS market could potentially be an $8.2 billion market by 2018….
It is good to see that after listening to the feedback coming back from their enterprise customers, Microsoft is reconsidering the publishing of what is included in each of the patches. In and early report Microsoft said that it would not provide detailed information about most Windows 10 patches. That plan did not sit well with IT managers…
We’ve all been through it before. We’re in a meeting, or having a discussion with a client, when suddenly we feel like reality has been turned on its head. Our client insists that something happened, when we know it didn’t. Perhaps it has to do with who was supposed to handle a portion of a project,…
After LA and San Diego, San Jose is the third largest city in California topping 1M residents, and it is the fastest growing? 20 things you did not know about San Jose, CA https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/san-francisco/south-bay/things-you-don-t-understand-about-san-jose http://www.mercurynews.com/census/ci_25667294/san-jose-officially-tops-1-million-population-likely 2015-08-28T01:52:30-05:00
Disclaimer: I am a technology consultant, and Microsoft products and technologies are my bread and butter. As I have noted in the past, I have been very pleased with the "new Microsoft" and the Mobile First / Could First messaging and direction. It has been great to see Office 365 being adopted at so many places, and…
Stupidipity.com very Funny Stories and Site People tend to do stupid stuff just to get some attention or gain some popularity…cheap popularity to be exact. However, some people actually do these dim-witted things without any intention of the sort…in other words, clueless acts of stupid. These acts, intentional or unintentional, and the discovery of them…
Apple said it would be replacing iPhone 6 Plus cameras that take blurry photos due to faulty hardware. The phones include those that were sold primarily between September 2014 and January 2015. Mine is not one of them as I got mine in mid 2015 I have been very please with this phone. Best phone battery…
It is the middle of 2015 and by now I always thought I would have my photo library on the cloud. I have tried most, if not all, of the sites out there: Flickr, Shutterfly, SmugMug, Google Photos, Amazon Photos, and many of the cloud file-sync services (DropBox, OneDrive). But they just do not cut…
We’ve all heard it a million times before, “you are your own worst critic”. We are so worried about what others are going to say or thing about us when we take a particular actions that very often we forget to listen to our deep inner voices. The ones that matter. Because of this tendency,…
For the most part I love Windows 10… However, I have noticed that it not always behaves “as expected”… One notable example that annoys the heck out of me right now, is that when I enable the “Hey Cortana” voice feature on my desktop, I loose the capability of clicking Start, and start typing what…
The platypus also known as the duck-billed platypus is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia. 2015-08-17T23:51:52-05:00
You need to do all you can to give your business the edge within the marketplace. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows you to keep, maintain, search and centralize information about your customers which in turn increases your ability to focus on business for success. More information means better relationships. When you use CRM…
So you are late for a flight, yes you cut it too close, but you think you are ok because you are in the TSA lane. WRONG! Lately, I have noticed tons of folks that are not frequent travelers use the TSA lane, and they have no idea shoes can stay on, laptops can stay…
Interesting article on how Microsoft's $15 billion cloud bet ended up at the center of the company http:/ /bit.ly/1Nq7bIZ
Funny story about the outdoors. My wife and I were walking on a popular trail around our town. I was behind her to let her pass a narrow portion when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement by her foot. Almost immediately and suddenly something jumped and was coming at…
Funny thing… I asked Cortana: Do you like Google? Cortana responded: I like to imagine the “I am feeling lucky” button in Clint Eastwood voice. 2015-08-09T20:58:34-05:00
I have many hundreds of PDF files and sometimes they do not have the a name that corresponds to the content. Renaming these files, has proven difficult to do as you have to look at them, exit the program and then renaming it to something that makes sense.. So many times I wished for a program…
I have been using Windows 10 Technical Preview (and their various releases) as part of the Windows Insider for about 5 months now. It has been a great journey. There are plenty of reviews out there, so no need for another one… Now that is out, I have installed it on every one…
So proud of my son! He self published his first short story to Amazon! Very cool how Amazon is letting people ( like my son) self publish books.. But really the story is very good and with tons of excellent details about the library… A Tales of Iradathka short piece, get a glimpse into the…
In the past, a large portion of IT architecture time was spent evaluating and sizing separate pieces of infrastructure (network, server compute, storage and such) to make sure they’d work to meet a forecasted demand for the service that they were looking to provide. Teams of people (vendors and internal resources) used to spend many…
I am not surprised: Google+ officially splits into Photos and Streams. Hangouts separates as well. http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8131639/google-officially-splits-into-photos-and-streams 2015-03-03T10:25:49-06:00
Over the last few years, many System Integrators (SIs) and Information Technology (IT) consulting firms have found themselves in trouble as the number of clients decrease and revenue takes a downward trend. In-house IT departments, who’s budgets are cost-centers, are also being affected and in the same category. What has changed so dramatically within the…
Testing eKalendaro Application Today I am testing the integration of eKalendaro with my blog. This is my a test. http://ekalendaro.com 2015-01-27T02:21:28-06:00
Over the years, I have seen many different versions of this, but I liked this one which I just ran into… I am not sure where it actually originated, but I found the graphic and Powerpoint version at: http://www.phibetaiota.net/2012/09/graphic-difference-between-a-boss-and-a-leader/ Enjoy!
I am helping a good friend navigate the concepts of Project Management, and instead of emails back and forth I decided to place her as a blog, in case others are looking as well. The format he learns best is via videos. so I am helping to sift through and point him to the best…
Times are changing; cloud-based technologies (public, private or hybrid) are sweeping the world of IT. The pace of change is fast and furious. Every other day we do hear of some new service or technology being rolled-out and, as the famous saying goes, change is inevitable. Changes to IT departments, System Integrators and IT consulting…
My professional live has revolved, in great percentage, around Microsoft and Microsoft technologies. It has been a good life, but over the few years it has felt it like swiming against the current because of the major trends out there.. With so much of the market going cloud-services, device independent application delivery, bring-your-own-device,…
About a year ago, I wrote a post “Bitcasa – I Am All In” recommending a file storage provider called Bitcasa. I loved the idea of an infinite USB drive on the cloud… Must inform, that I can no longer recommend this service, as it is no longer the same as the original Bitcasa value…
I have noticed that the airlines I travel in, there has progressively been a bit less leg space, and the seats were switched to the new “thin” style ones.. I have known for a while that this was a trend, and it was happening, but did not think much of it until this week.. The…
I am posting this in the hopes that It can save someone time, as I am sure this will not be a one-off occurrence… If you want to skip to the short summary click here. I was expecting to have a quite and relaxing Sunday morning My plans where limited to to mowing the lawn,…
There are many things that can be challenging when you travel, but when you travel as much as I do, there are a couple that can really be annoying. They are not super important, nor they are earth shattering, but somehow they get to me.. Cost of a water bottle = $4.98 in some airports!…
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) is a technology that enables a computer to send and receive data across a network by establishing a connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryption. The basic principle is that once you establish a secure connection, the server handles all of your internet on the back-end which secure…
I have not encountered this in my travels yet but I have been told this is true sill on some far-east airlines..Part of the PanAm story.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8bQKyTHhoQ
Cloud computing is one of the hottest buzzwords in IT field. This concept is not new — Users are already using cloud technology for last 10 years. The best examples, widely used by individual users and organizations, but not specifically known as cloud solutions, are Gmail, PayPal, Facebook, Dropbox, Salesforce and many others. However, using…
This is a placeholder blog post to start it all.! More to come soon…
I have been flying to San Francisco, CA for work for many years now, and it is one of those cities in which I always learn something new. The last couple of times have been no different. One of my favorite cities! SFO Side note: There is an old guideline in advertising/marketing, that I read…
What a pain! – I manage 3 different WordPress blogs, 5 different twitter accounts, 3 Tumblr blogs and 3 Facebook pages. Each of those channels had a different topic and audience. Every time I need to do something, I have to log in into the different accounts and admin interfaces and have a zillion tabs…
I have several older computers that serve different purposes around the house.. File Server, Media Server, etc… With Microsoft XP coming to an end in April 2014, I have been exploring alternatives as Windows 8 nor 7 are viable options… Again, these are not my primary devices, just single-purpose additional devices which for some reason…
I got a BIG laugh when I heard about this on the news last night regarding the issues the healthcare signup website is having. Reporter: Do you feel confident the issues with the web site will be addressed? Project Manager: I feel very confident they [ the contrator ] said the issues will be addressed…
I went to see the movie Gravity last night, and I must say: It was one (if not the best) movie I have seen… The special effect, the fact that there are only 2 actors, the views, the realism of he scenes, the zero-gravity, the shadows, shades and reflections, the details on the equipment… SOOO…
I just changed the Comcast modem which has been in service about 3 years in my house to what is suppose to be the latest from Xfinity / Comcast.. My Internet speeds went up from what they used to be (about 30%) but I must admit that I can’t wait to have Google Fiber…
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a bit, but now that I have a new device (Samsung S4) that uses yet a different USB charger it is time I do… I have been annoyed by USB chargers and USB power for a bit….. Urgh.. Not all USB chargers are the same anymore… (Side note:…
UPDATE: Nov 1, 2014: Bitcasa changed their value proposition and is no longer something I can recommend. Many issues including bad migration management and very BAD customer service. See my updated on this here Original post: August 2013: After using Bitcasa for a couple of months, I am all in! The hardest part…
What ever happened to printed encyclopedias? That is a question usually asked by older generations as many of the youth today have never really had a daily interaction with this printed media. Most people today are used to receiving information via their digital books or other paperless mediums that are better for the environment. We…
What ever happened to printed encyclopedias? That is a question usually asked by older generations as many of the youth today have never really had a daily interaction with this printed media. Most people today are used to receiving information via their digital books or other paperless mediums that are better for the environment. We…
Part of the Going Paperless Series Companies that are making the change to a paperless office want to shred the originals and only keep a digital copy. This is an excellent way to archive documents, but you should follow these recommendations to avoid the loss of a document: Photo Credit: By Jonathan Joseph Bondhus (Own…
Today is the day Google Reader ( RSS aggregation tool ) service will no longer be available after end of day today.. A lot has been written about this topic. No need to beat a dead horse, but I must say this one hurt, as there were no good replacements until just recently. I love waking up…
The trend for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has been the cause of a range of issues for companies and employees alike. A recent survey uncovered some startling facts about BYOD and the approaches people are using with regards to managing, or not managing, personal devices in the workplace. Although more than 70% of people…
I listened to Anthony Flint’ TEDxBeaconStreet session on: Housing the Coming Billions in Cities. Overall it was an very interesting presentation! One thing in it it was a chart of the Top 21 Cities in 2025. This made me think, which are the top 21 cities today, and how much will the positions change between now and…
There can be no doubting the changes which are sweeping many workplaces in terms of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and what these changes mean for IT Departments. Whilst many employees in all kinds of fields have been happily bringing their own devices to work and accessing corporate systems, IT Departments have been playing catch-up…
Consumerization of IT is the latest trend that has taken the IT world by storm. It refers to the growing tendency for devices, gadgets, and systems to emerge in the consumer market and then spread to business and government organizations. Consumerization is a major IT industry shift, since earlier technology-based products had their origin in…
I just listened to Chris Jordan’s TED presentation: Turning powerful stats into art. The presentation is very good, but one particular item kind of stuck with me… How many papercups does our society use servicing hot beverages per day ? 40 Million cups! That does not sound like much until one begins to *visualize…
Got tired of tweaking and fighting with the now officially retired iNove theme, so a new theme is emerging on this site… My requirements for this site are very simple. Pick something that is not retired. 🙂 Clean and simple. Fixed with. 2 columns for regular posts. Ability to use custom menus Top Banner can…
In the last week or so a number of news have come out regarding how the state of the U.S. economy is getting a bit better. As far as I can see, this is mostly measured by the stock market, housing values and general consumer confidence. On the surface, this is very good news for…
A couple of pieces of news that really made me go “hmmm” this week are: Microsoft will stop the Windows 8 reduce price offer and will go from $40 dollars to $199 starting Feb 1. – I knew this was coming, but I was secretly wishing it would not. At the same time, why do…
I know one thing: I need to do more… I set the stage in Part 1 of this post which is an effort to document my current state of mind regarding where I am about my goals in this adventure.. I realize now that: Income comes from conversions from traffic you attract. It is funny……
I know one thing: I need to do more… Yes it is a bit of a spin on the ancient Greek phrase know as the Socratic Socratic paradox,: “I know that I know nothing” or “I know one thing: that I know nothing” Early on I said that I wanted make an effort to…
I am not sure if it is only in my area, but have you noticed products come in the same size packages, but have more packaging, and less product inside ? I have noticed this in crackers (Saltines), honey graham cookies, aspirin, vitamins, and many other products out there… The latest, and what prompted me…
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Like so many out there, I have been using the iNove v1.4.6 (by mg12) theme forever! It has been very stable, reliable and I’ve gotten used to it. I like it a lot.. I try to stick to “out of box” and make no modifications to the theme files, but one thing has bug me…
Even with all of our electronics, digital devices and such, paper waste is still tremendous… A single one-terabyte external drive can save as many as 500 million sheets of paper. A 150-page employee manual — pretty massive in real life — takes up less than 7.5% of a four-gigabyte flash drive. An entire filing cabinet’s worth of…
Been meaning to add a photo gallery to this site for a while, and I finally got around to doing it.[lg_image folder=”Markets/” image=”20100320121528.jpg” align=”right” display=”thumb”] I do not consider myself a photographer (not even amateur), but from time to time, I get lucky and I say to my self, “darn that is a good photo…
One of the best presentations I have seen regarding digital content. Absolutely full of of fact and bit of info… 137 pages! It covers every aspect of the digital movement. I can’t think of anything missing… BIG kudos (and thank you) to Business Insider for making it available to all! Highly recommended viewing! http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-digital-slides-2012-11…
Just last week, I received an email letting me know that the documentary was completed for kickstarter project: I am Fine Thanks . This is something I did not fund, but was looking to see how it would turn out. I downloaded the movie ($5.00 DRM free) and watched it on a plane ride.. Bottom…
Sometimes, we just have to tip our hat to other bloggers that have excellent articles they have published on tips and tricks for going paperless.. This one is about a flowchart on how to go paperless! Going paperless is not easy or trivial. It is a hard choice! This is why when we find…
The quintessential smartphone has evolved from a high-end consumer product for the executive level business person, to a common man’s necessity. Taking this development into consideration, businesses are now considering implementing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) programs with an aim to drive employee productivity using new technology. Managing BYOD Whether you already permit your personnel to bring their…
In one of my previous postings, I talked about the amazing growth of digital content fueled, as of late, by tablet devices. One industry that is being forced to change leaps and bounds is the publishing industry. Just last week, it was leaked that two major player in this space, Random House and Penguin, were…
“The dream of going paperless has been a pervasive part of our discourse for years but has yet to materialize.” I bet there are at least 50 articles, right now that you can search for in your browser that start that same way. I bet also that each of these articles offers some revolutionary approach,…
I really like the concept of Chrome OS – with so many places now where WiFi is enabled and mobile phones becoming wifi routers it is beginning to make sense… I have been considering a Chrome OS based machine for a while, but frankly, I think the prices have been a bit too high… I…
I just read (eh-hum) listen to the book Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick which was published back in 2010, but never got around to reading… What a fascinating and intriguing book. It really is an unprecedented behind the scenes look a Facebook’s journey from its college origins, to raising capital, to feature introduction, to Twitter compete,…
