Well it came and went. No more bustling through stores trying to beat a little old lady down for that new, hot item that has limited quantities. No more listening to holiday music when you’re at the grocery store, in your car, walking through department stores, or sitting down to eat at a restaurant. It’s time to put all the holiday cheer behind us and prepare ourselves for the new year.

For the next few months, everyone will be discussing the inevitable – New Year’s resolutions (NYRs). Even as you’re reading this you’re already creating your mental checklist of NYRs. Some of the popular ones are: lose weight, drink less, exercise more, join a book club, become a popular socialite, make more friends, etc. The good news is, most of the things you want to change about yourself in 2010 can be accomplished with all sorts of technologies. Since this is a blog, and we’re not actively having this conversation, I’m going to put myself out there and share with you my NYRs for 2010.  For the next week, I will be posting one NYR per day and the technologies out there that can help me achieve them. Read the rest of this entry »

When faced with the inevitable question, “What do you want for Christmas?” tech geeks typically don’t have a hard time listing out all the toys we want. The great thing about any hobby is that there’s always something new and exciting around the corner to get your heart pumping and the butterflies in your stomach flying. Technology as a hobby most certainly can be an expensive addiction, but there is always something new on the horizon (and more than likely one or two knock off brands that fit within your budget). So tech geeks – when the “What do you want for Christmas?” question is staring you in the face, what do you answer with? I’ll start with my list.

1. MacBook Pro – 15-inch – So I can create killer websites, videos, and all sorts of multimedia. While I do love my Dell notebook, I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon and become a Mac. (My PC will always hold a special place in my heart though.)
2. Bamboo Fun (Wacom product) – So I can create better graphics and digital drawings. I want the flexibility of my wrist for certain angles that you can’t get with a mouse.
3. Laptop Sleeve – Why? My briefcase doesn’t feel protective enough, plus they have so many jazzy looking sleeves for the fashion-forward tech geek.
4. Microsoft – Arc Laser Mouse – So I can easily fold it up and stick it in my bag for safe transport to a client meeting. It’s much more portable than my current mouse and this one is sort of a novelty.

In all honesty, my list could go on and on and as you can see – none of these things are cheap! So what is Santa to bringing you this Christmas?

An empire like Google is sure to find itself faced with many admirers, copy cats, and wannabes. Google’s creations are typically forward-thinking and revolutionary (for instance, Google Wave)—it’s only natural that someone would want to try to come up with a bigger, better version of the technology.

SAP (known for providing software such as Business Objects) is working on an application called “Constellation”. Constellation uses some of the principles of Wave to bring the real-time environment to business users for collaboration. One of the features being discussed is the ability to publish collaboration efforts to other platforms such as SharePoint, wikis, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

I read somewhere that the purpose of technology is to “improve the way of life”. I believe this assessment to be true. If you think about any piece of technology—fork, shovel, computer, internet—all of those things are designed to improve life and make it easier. If technology is created with that in mind, why so often do we find that technology companies or IT departments muddy up their processes with unnecessary tasks or too many people involved? Isn’t a large part of technology principles to make life more efficient?

In general, it’s good to have checks and balances in any process. You want to make sure things are done accurately as well as efficiently. Unfortunately, many companies take the checks and balances to the extreme. There is such a thing as “too many cooks in the kitchen”. I’m sure many of you know exactly what I mean. Read the rest of this entry »