Author: Derek

Your Useful Links for 3/9/25

Good Day All,

Just a few links I found useful or cool.

Weird Word Tip – via Journal of Financial Accounting (JOFA). Lets you select a rectangular block of text. Just by holding Alt and dragging.

Go Ahead, Take the Stage via JOFA. This is not just your standard boilerplate public speaking tips, this has some fresh advice that I liked. Now only if I had a venue to speak at…

Last one – I’m not going to provide a link, but its for those of us who use the text box feature in Adobe Acrobat.  Adobe doesn’t make it easy to change the font options on these, but highlight the text and press Ctrl + E .

–Derek

Malware is dangerous and costly!

Good Day All,

Out friends over at IT Canada have given us a strong warning against using unlicensed or pirated software. A study conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) found a strong correlation between malware attacks and users of unlicensed software going as far as to say that distributors of pirated software may embed a virus, or worm or other malicious piece of code which will unknowingly put your data at risk.

I’d like to remind you that software piracy is theft, and I’m shocked that some very large organizations are using unlicensed software to the extent found in this study. Although not necessarily caused by pirated software, lets look at the Sony breach as a testament that you don’t want that to happen to you.

With this in mind, lets all do the best thing for our clients, employees and other interested parties. Just buy the license.

–Derek

CIOs with unlicensed software are courting trouble: BSA via IT World Canada

Can You Do Real Work With the 30-Year-Old IBM 5150?

Hello All,

Recently my Grandfather passed away. We were very close and this loss has been difficult for me. One hobby that my Grandpa shared with me was his love of computers and you can see the influence that it had on my life and career.  In memory of him I wanted to share some material related to the IBM 5150 – the first IBM PC.

He had worked for IBM for his entire post-military career as a computer engineer and programmer. The computers he worked on were the now classic room sized machines but when IBM released their first consumer PC he had to have one for his home. He saw so much potential in computers and it was always fun and interesting to hear his thoughts on the technology of today – especially being so connected to its roots.  I should add that he kept up with computers as time went on.

Today – I wanted to share an article in that vein of comparison between new and old.  In fact, if his still working 5150 comes my way, I’m hoping to write something similar.  The below article is a bit dated being written in 2011 but it’s a fun read especially for anyone with an interest in vintage computing.  I won’t go into it to much here, I’ll let the piece speak for itself.

Stay tuned to my blog for my own 5150 experiments!

–Derek

Can You Do Real Work With the 30-Year-Old IBM 5150? via PC World 

 

 

Using Business Intelligence to Understand your Residents

Good Day All,

Just read Using Business Intelligence to Understand your Residents by Tim Blackwell. I found it rather interesting about how they were using technology to return a human touch to their customers.  Readers of my site will know how much emphasis I put on practical uses of big data. So this one’s kinda cool. Check it out and as always share your opinions in comments!

–Derek

Using Business Intelligence to Understand your Residents via Property Management Insider

10 STEPS TOWARDS A BETTER, MORE PRODUCTIVE YOU IN 2015

Good Day All,

Just finished reading 10 STEPS TOWARDS A BETTER, MORE PRODUCTIVE YOU IN 2015 by Shawn Parr. He outlines some tips to incorporate into your life for a “better” year in the upcoming 2015.

I always enjoy lists like this, and for the most part this is a fresh take on this kind of advice. I especially enjoy his tips on finding meaning in everything you do. This is important – is everything you do have some meaning to it? It doesn’t always have to be the grandest of meanings, for example a simple chore like taking out the trash is meaningful in the way that it adds beauty to your home, or improves the hygiene of the kitchen and so on. Another gem is to “Shut up, and listen” some of the best advice I was given was to not fill the void of silence with words. For example, in negotiation when you ask your counterpart a question don’t give them answers. Let the silence fall, and wait while they form an answer.

Take a look and share some of your advice with me in comments.

–Derek

10 Steps Towards a Better, More Productive You in 2015 via Fast Company

 

 

5 steps to bringing analytics to life

Good Day All,

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. Just read this article about bringing analytics to life. I like learning about Big Data, the whole topic speaks to me. In another life I’d probably would’ve gotten an Informational Decisions Science (IDS) degree. Masamvu discuses how organizations need to move away from descriptive analytics (i.e. what happened) to predictive analytics (i.e. what will happen).  But the key is that we need to focus on creating actionable results where we can have an effect on what will happen.  Masamvu breaks this into three bullet points

  • Understand the purpose of the initiative. In other words, why are you performing the analytics?
  • Ensure they have the right expertise and resources in place, understanding who is going to do it and how much it will cost.
  • Have a clear business case and road map for action from the insights.

Do you use Big Data insights in your organization? How are these used in CRE? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

–Derek

5 Steps to Bringing Analytics to Life via CGMA Magazine

 

Should FedEx & UPS just lease some space?

Good Day All,

This morning’s Chicago Tribune had an interesting article in  it Rental properties retool as packages pile up. Basically it explains the difficulty property managers experience dealing with the temporary storage of packages for their tenants. Especially as we enter the holiday season and a normal increase in deliveries is expected. What I especially enjoy about CRE is the minutia we deal with, many people probably wouldn’t consider a UPS delivery would need any special forethought or planning but, as we know and this article explains, it requires some special arrangements and advanced planing. For example it mentions that E2, a development in Evanston IL, is adding a refrigerated storage for food and flower deliveries.

Time to weigh in – is package delivery a serious amenity that developers need to consider or is this article blowing the issue out of proportion by highlighting a few instances?  Let me know in comments.

–Derek

Rental properties retool as packages pile up via Chicago Tribune