About six months ago my organising system was in a bit of a mess and needed refreshing. So I read Getting Things Done by David Allen again.

(I really must get around to buying and reading his later book Making it All Work at some point soon!)

I had a good old sort out which took nearly two weeks – scary how easy it is for bad habits to re-establish themselves!

For example I stopped using email folders in Outlook and instead switched to using tags to organise them. I also had a clear out of the 8000 odd emails that were clogging up my various reference and project folders.

(Doing that made me realise just how much junk or unimportant email I get and can delete, if not immediately then after a week. So that helped dealing with 150+ emails a day and meant I could actually get some real work done!)

So everything was running smoothly until early last month. I then started to get that nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right. I was capturing tasks at home and at work but not elsewhere when they occurred to me.

I knew I had to fix this as I was coming up with tasks and ideas when I was out an about inspired by what I was seeing around me. Some people I know use their mobiles to take notes on but for me this was just too slow.

It turns out a lot of people think the same thing as Pen and Paper was voted the winner in a Lifehacker Poll in May this year.
(I just wish I’d read that article when it was first published rather than in early October!)

So I decided to do something about it a few weeks ago when my A4 sized log book I used at work was almost full.

1. The first thing I did was to replace it with a smaller A5 notebook. I now keep this in my backpack when commuting and use it to take notes at meetings. In most meetings I now don’t even bother to take my laptop. Results are more productive meetings – I can still keep an eye on email during long meetings by synchronising it to my N96 using the Mail for Exchange client.
2. It was a bit too big to carry around all the time though so I now use a Moleskine style notebook – the purple one in the image below.
3. As for a Pen? Well I have to have at least a blue biro with me at all times. If I’m using my larger A5 notebook then I make sure I have a pencil and red biro at hand as well.

With an addition of some sticky notes that seems to have me covered for now – well almost. I must find get some slim sticky notes. I saw a woman opposite me on the train last week reading a book on Creative Writing and she was using these as markers with small reminders on the part that poked out of the top of the book.

So my old fashioned pen and paper set of tools is the following:

Intuits Quickbooks 2010 now offers a CRM functionality called Customer Manager  that integrates with Outlook and allows users to combine financial and contact information into one contact view.

So is Salesforce going to start offering bookkeeping software?

Frankly, I think vendors with deep expertise in one area should keep building on that success rather venture out into new territory where they don’t have as good a grasp of the market and challenges.  I’d rather see Quickbooks and Salesforce partner than to confuse Quickbooks customers who have Salesforce to learn a new way to handle contact data.  But that’s just me.

Spot: Bhima’s Garden Restaurant, Sheshadripuram Bangalore November 2007

Every day I was finding the spot busy, all the way huge crowd there… jus up to 9 am in the morning.

It was quite curiosity that time… Wht these people would be doing..? Is ny function organized thr daily? Whr r they from? Which language they speak? Whr they would be going daily?

Spot: Varje Over Bridge, Pune November 2009

Every day in a week I am finding the spot busy, all the way huge crowd there… jus up to 9 am in the morning.

No curiosity this time.

“Time & Situation” teach you everything

Flash Back

‘Anything can happen over a Coffee’, a line read over Multicuisine restaurant. Usually practiced by me too. Just the context is changed nw & Author got a friend* free with a Coffee (My fav. pass time at Bhima’s)

* Ramsharan who is part of that daily crowd gathering there.

1-3 December 2007

Spot: Bhima’s Garden Restaurant, Sheshadripuram Bangalore

Now Along with Ramsharan Author is part of the Crowd at Bhima’s.

A man wth long mustaches & curly hair, wearing black goggle & safari comes on his TVS Suzuki.

Every1 greet him & me too. The meeting starts below the tree, this time sharing ‘Cutting chai & Bidi’ for Shivraj bhai.

Bhai:” Pichala pura hafta to nikal Gaya vo Building ke painting me. Muze bhi khushi tha tumhe 250 Rs roj dene me.ab har bar thodi na aisa kam milta hai.Mai bhi to tumhari bhalai chahata hu na…

Annonymus: Bhai .. kab tak ye aisa hi chalega pichale do din se raste me gadde khodne bhej diya aapne. Aapne to kaha tha…

Bhai: Are haa mere lal ab ye Pintu ko dekh – Maine hi to bulaya na use Ajmer se, use bhi to bola thode din kar le jo mila vo. Suru me yahi chauk me chay ki tapari pe kam karta tha, Dekh ab vahi baith ke Chay pi raha hai. Vo naya Building ka kam nikala na Yellhanka me ki Farsh bithane ka kam to apne ko hi milna hai….

Ramsharan: Bhai … Pranam… ye naya Banda hai… Maharastra se. Kam chahiye bolta hai.

Bhai:… (Looking towards me)

Kyu re padha likha hai kya kuch?
Kya Kam ata hai…
Farsh ka. ?
Centring ka. ?
Light fitting …?

Me: Jee Bhai sikh lunga ab.

Bhai: Are Sharan naya hai ye. Ek kam kar kuch din tere hi sath rakh; vo jo school ki plaster ka kam chal raha hai na us pe le ja na 3-4 din.

(To Me) Dekh Munna kya nam hai tera, naya hai filhal tu aur kam bhi nahi ata kuch khas. 125 Rs dunga roj ka.aur koi hoga to le ayiyo kal se tere sath.

Me: Jee Bhai ji.

Bhai: Are ha Sharan vo apane Shahanawaz ko bol na bulaya hai maine.

Ramsharan: Jee Bhaiji bol dunga.

1st December 2007

First day started with Plastering school Building at Hebbal…
(Around 18 Km from Sh.puram; double seat on Ramsharan’s Bicycle)

(To be continued…)

“There is a new update available for download (ver. 2.2.1). To install, click the link below.”

Ahh…updates. No, I’m not talking about me writing a blog post to say how much work I’m not doing, nor to ramble on about things happening in my life. I’m talking about technical updates for programs, hardware, software, and most importantly…operating systems. Because this is a tech post. And unless you’re a nerd, it will be boring. Go read something else.

Okay, so I’ve been beta-testing the new Microsoft Office 2010 programs for the past week. I have two words: HOLY CRAP. Microsoft, since they’ve fallen sadly behind Apple on the popularity chart, has to begin ramping up the actual quality of its products, because people don’t just buy Windows stuff without thinking anymore. And I’ve heard so much whining about the interfaces on the 2007 products in my own circles, I can’t imagine how many whiny, spoiled people complained to Microsoft about it themselves. (Personally, I really liked the 2007 change. It was new, well-thought-out, and gave a fresh rejuvenation to a very old and firmly-established product line.)

But when people got wise to the design flaws (tabs were sometimes confusing, buttons were placed oddly, less customization was possible, etc.) and began having Windows ME-like daymares with Vista, talk began to circulate of a savior to the common man oppressed by poor programmers: CollabNet’s OpenOffice!

OpenOffice is a free, community-driven suite of programs that run the MS Office files, Mac files, Linux files, and basically any other file you can possibly find on any computer since 1985. The suite contains equivalents for Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, and Publisher, is compatible with almost every operating system, has peer-created content by the gigabyte, and is laid out just like the good ol’ days of MS Office 2003. Wow. What a great find. And best of all, it’s FREE. Yeah. Check it out here.

I’ll admit: I tried it. I already have Office ‘07 installed, and I already really like it, but I thought, “Why not?” Thirty minutes later, I realized why not.

(In my opinion:) It’s terrible. I don’t really know why. But it bugs me the heck out. Everything seems so…Linux. Which is correct, I guess, because it is. What else would be compatible with everything? The interface is old and decaying, the file extension process is confusing and not for surface users, and the running programs are hefty and awkward. Seriously, see for yourself. (If you like it, more power to you. If not, maybe you’ll agree with me on the next few paragraphs.)

I don’t think Microsoft will quickly release its hold on the word processing business. I know Apple is developing new software, and that Adobe is getting in on the cloud-processing, but Microsoft loves its money. And the Office programs can reach $680 for its “Ultimate” package. Huge business will buy thousands of licenses for these programs, and that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for the Gates kingdom. And now, with the server technologies developing into multi-billion-dollar revenue-generators, they’ve kept ahead of the game with their OneNote and SharePoint programs, their Office Live online suite and collaboration, and the release of betas for testing by the general public. It’s really incredible business.

Now, for a review of the Office 2010 beta:

Beyond satisfactory. Microsoft is beginning to impress me with their innovation. The new big thing is user themes (the user can create their own theme by selecting pictures, colors, module positions, etc. for their programs), and ‘10 now caters to that idea. The modules, very similar to 2007, are now much more user-maneuverable, and the options everything on the interface now offers are tremendously helpful. Searches have been streamlined to work better for less-experienced users, and return a wide variety of inputted results. Programs like Outlook now offer email string collapsibles, much like advanced coding programs. Contacts have the ability to be connected to and from popular social networking sites via developer kits and smart people. The tabular layouts have been kept, but dumbed-down for the more-confused user who can’t just look at pretty pictures. Word provides easy access to much-used properties; Excel looks excatly the same, but better; PowerPoint won’t confuse anybody anymore, ever; and Access is full of brand new awesomeness that I never actually compared to 2007. It’s probably exactly the same, too. But everything has the look of a cleaner, polished, “this isn’t a test anymore” program, and it’s about time, since Apple has made more headway in the last three years than probably expected.

If Microsoft wants to stay on top of the game in the upcoming battle for customers, they need to quit thinking like they own everything forever. Because even if they do, it’s not an excuse for lukewarm quality. And there’s plenty more companies willing to get in on the action when something bad happens.

A note to consumers: Don’t settle. Don’t ever settle. Look around for programs that fill your needs, and do so with the least amount of discomfort to your and your hard drive. OpenOffice is a great example of teamwork and Linux programming. Adobe’s Acrobat.com is good example of web-based word processing. I’ve been using it for over two years, and it hasn’t failed me yet. And there’s tons more freeware programs to check out. But personally, until I either have no money for Office, or someone designs the most beautiful alternative, I’m sticking with Mr. Gates on this one.

Well, it is not the easiest journey.  Especially if you, like me, no longer have access to your Outlook 2007 Media.  But here is a way to pull it off. No guarantees, but hope it saves you some time:

1.0 YOU NEED OUTLOOK
OK, you can try to do it without Outlook using a plug-in, but I couldn’t get that working.  Other than that Thunderbird can’t recognize PST files without Outlook installed.  If you don’t have access to your media you can download the Trial version from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/outlook

When you install Outlook, it will set up a mail account – be sure to set one up, even if it is bogus.  Because with no email profile, Outlook won’t create a PST file…and with no default PST file, you can’t open a DIFFERENT PST file.  Why? Oh, please don’t get me started…

2.0 OUTLOOK MUST BE ACTIVATED
For me, if Outlook wasn’t activated, I couldn’t point it to my PST file.  It would blubber about it being a “reduced functionality mode.” Activation, luckily, cures this.

3.0 OUTLOOK MUST BE YOUR DEFAULT MAIL PROVIDER
You can change it later, but if you already have Thunderbird as your default, then Thunderbird import will fail.  So, when you install Outlook, make sure it is set to be your default mail program (No, I don’t know how to set it after you install).

4.0 REMOVE PST PLUG-IN (IF YOU INSTALLED IT)
If you installed the PST plug-in from Softpedia, uninstall it and restart Thunderbird.  That thing will block Thunderbird’s default import process.

5.0 OK, YOU ARE READY!!
Once you have set the stage by completing the above steps, you can begin the process of importing your PST files to Thunderbird by doing the following:

• In Outlook, you should have a default PST.  To get to YOUR PST, you use the FILE -> DATA FILE MANAGEMENT menu option, click ADD and point it to the PST  you want to use.
• Then you will point to that file, click the SET AS DEFAULT and restart Outlook.
• If you are paranoid, like me, you will then go back into data file management, remove the default PST file and restart Outlook.  Because Thunderbird creates file-based email folders, I want to make sure it didn’t encounter 2 “Inbox” folders – I don’t know how it would handle that. 
• WARNING: If you have nested folders in your PST and any folders have the same name, I’ve read you can encounter problems with Thunderbird’s import. In Outlook, you will want to review your folder names and make sure there are no duplicates.
• Close Outlook, and start Thunderbird
• Use Thunderbird’s Tools -> Import and select “mail”, then select “Outlook” - it SHOULD, with all the above steps completed, begin the process of importing your data. Mine took about 10 minutes, and was about 480MB of data.
• Repeat the above only select “Address Books” and that should bring in your contacts.

I am far from an expert, here.  Just a computer geek that found the learning curve a bit obnoxious, and thought I would share what I found out.  If it didn’t work, you can try Aid4Mail (i didn’t). Good Luck!

Ya se puede descargar gratis Microsoft Office 2010 en español y no hemos podido resistir la tentación de probarlo cuanto antes. Dados los numerosos cambios que Microsoft ha introducido en su nuevo Windows 7, es lógico que existiese cierta curiosidad por conocer qué novedades han incluido los de Redmond en esta nueva entrega de su suite ofimática. ¿Han mejorado Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook y demás respecto a Office 2007? Comprobémoslo en el siguiente análisis.

Primeras impresiones

De entrada, el aspecto de las aplicaciones no difiere demasiado de la versión anterior de Office. Pero claro está que hay unas cuantas variaciones, más pequeñas en unos casos y muy significativas en otros. Todos han adoptado plenamente la interfaz Ribbon, de modo que el manejo se vuelve mucho más intuitivo. En lugar de desplegar los habituales menús contextuales, ahora las herramientas se aglutinan en una banda inferior. La gran mayoría llevan un icono asociado, de modo que identificarlas es mucho más fácil.

De modo similar actúa el botón Office. Situado en la parte superior izquierda de todos los programas, aglutina las principales funciones del menú Archivo. Al pulsarlo, aparece una nueva pantalla con los comandos comunes: cargar o salvar el documento, imprimirlo o compartirlo por correo electrónico o como entrada de blog. Una vez más, los iconos ayudan a reconocer ágilmente para qué sirve cada uno de ellos.

Edición de imágenes

Es una de las novedades más llamativas en Office 2010. Además de la inserción de imágenes desde archivo, ahora se nos permite capturarlas y editarlas sin necesidad de usar software adicional (como Photoshop o GIMP). Especialmente práctica resulta la herramienta de capturar pantalla, que con un solo clic permite insertar la imagen (completa o recortada a nuestro gusto) de cualquier ventana activa en Windows. Muy útil a la hora de redactar tutoriales o manuales técnicos, por ejemplo. O agilizar el flujo de trabajo cuando se trabaja con imágenes de la web.

Incluso se les puede aplicar varios efectos y filtros artísticos. Podemos insertar grano de película, trazos de pincel o desenfocar la imagen. Cada uno de ellos dispone de varios parámetros de configuración para ajustar el resultado. Pero sólo es posible aplicar uno al mismo tiempo, así que no podremos combinar varias “capas” como en programas específicos de edición de imagen. De todos modos, sí que es posible realizar ajustes básicos de brillo, contraste o saturación.

Y ojo con la opción de eliminar el fondo en las imágenes, que es realmente atractiva. Permite recortar una zona de la foto sin necesidad de realizar complicadas selecciones, pero al mismo tiempo con resultados muy satisfactorios. Y con apenas un par de clics de ratón.

Live Preview

Introducir la función Live Preview en todo el conjunto de programas es otro de los aciertos de Office 2010. Ésta nos ofrece una previsualización en tiempo real del resultado que ofrecen determinadas herramientas. Por ejemplo, a la hora de aplicar los retoques de foto comentados anteriormente. También a la hora de copiar y pegar, un alivio para los que nos hacemos un lío con las distintas opciones (que si combinar formato, que si mantener formato original y demás).

Word: compatibilidad con OpenOffice

Aparte de todas las mejoras ya mencionadas, las aplicaciones también se han reforzado de forma individual. Word 2010 ha dado el paso adelante y desde ahora también acepta documentos en ODF. Es decir, el formato nativo de editores de texto de código abierto, como por ejemplo el popular OpenOffice. Además, también puede abrir o salvar modificaciones en documentos PDF.

Como novedad incluye un sistema de seguridad que se activa automáticamente al cargar archivos descargados desde Internet. Cuando abrimos un documento que hemos recibido por correo electrónico, Word impide que realicemos ningún tipo de edición sobre él a menos que desactivemos su modo seguro.

PowerPoint: edición de vídeo

Insertar archivos de vídeo no debería suponer demasiadas complicaciones en PowerPoint 2010, pues las herramientas ofrecen bastante versatilidad a la hora de editar las imágenes en movimiento. Así podemos corregir el contraste y el color, recortar la duración, insertar fundidos y aplicar algunos efectos artísticos. Nuevas animaciones y paletas de gráficos SmartArt (que también encontramos en los otros integrantes de Office 2010) completan su lista de novedades reseñables.

Outlook: lavado de cara y chat integrado

La inclusión de la interfaz Ribbon, junto al cómodo botón Office, hacen de Outlook 2010 un programa más asequible. El uso de menús en formato cinta y los iconos de referencia visual nos permiten encontrar rápidamente las distintas opciones. Modificar la configuración de las cuentas de correo o imprimir un mensaje resulta ahora bastante más sencillo.

Pero la mejora estrella en Outlook es sin lugar a dudas su nuevo chat integrado. A través de él podemos iniciar conversaciones de mensajería instantánea con nuestros contactos, exactamente igual que hacemos en Gmail. También es posible comunicarse mediante llamadas de voz, pero de momento la opción de videoconferencia no se encuentra disponible.

Excel: gráficos pequeños en celdas

De Excel 2010 destaca sobre todo la inclusión de los Sparklines o gráficos en miniatura. Cuando incrustamos una tabla con valores numéricos, es posible añadir una pequeña interpretación gráfica de los mismos que apenas ocupe una celda. Con ello conseguimos visualizar la evolución de los datos insertados o verificar la relación entre pérdidas y ganancias.

Otras mejoras

Las herramientas de traducción reaparecen en todas las aplicaciones del paquete, así como un corrector ortográfico que aspira a resultar más exacto. En principio, las búsquedas de texto también deberían ser más rápidas y detalladas, aunque a primera vista se desenvuelve de forma similar a las versiones anteriores.

Aunque lo que quizás muchos estén deseando oír es que, en efecto, Office 2010 tiene un funcionamiento ágil y fluido. Pese a que se ha mejorado la interfaz gráfica y se han integrado algunas aplicaciones avanzadas (Live Preview o los filtros de imagen), cualquiera de los programas consume menos recursos que sus versiones anteriores. Incluso en un equipo con Windows Vista y lo justo en memoria RAM es posible trabajar sin interrupciones ni largos tiempos de carga. Sólo esa mejora ya conseguirá que muchos usuarios den la bienvenida a Office 2010.

Tanto si tenemos Outlook como Thunderbird, u otro cliente y no nos gusta o no oímos el sonido que emite cuando nos llega un nuevo mensaje y lo queremos cambiar tenemos que:

In Lotus Notes, I was able to create subcategories in particular for my contacts.  For example, in Lotus Notes, if I entered “Personal\Family” and “Personal\Friends,” Lotus Notes organized Family and Friends as subcategories under the Personal category.  Whether it’s contacts I’ve converted or a newly created contact, Outlook doesn’t interpret the backslash character (“\”) as a separation for nested categories.  Instead  “Personal\Family” and “Personal\Friends” exist as additional categories on the same level as the “Personal” category.  If I view my contacts by category, and collapse everything, it would look like:

+Personal
+Personal\Family
+Personal\Friends

Alternatively, in Lotus Notes it would look more like:

-Personal
    +Family
    +Friends

Is there a special character in Outlook that would provide the same functionality?  Or is it just not possible to have subcategories within Outlook contacts?

With the breaking news announcement by LinkedIn and Microsoft of the new Outlook Social Connector (OSC) functionality for Office 2010, few bloggers are noting (yet) that this *is* Microsoft’s upcoming answer to  GoogleWave, the latter of which is very much still in beta while the former is set to be released in “early 2010″.

Both OSC and GoogleWave are supposed to revolutionize the “Inbox” (after xobni and SenderOK pioneered the way) by providing photos, profile data and the message/attachment history of people who send you communications. Let’s take a look under the hood of what both the giants are proposing:

We just received a GoogleWave account this week. We’ve found that the GoogleWave Inbox does not receive Gmail Email destined for the Gmail Inbox. I can’t even send a normal Email to my Name@GoogleWave.com address. Why not? People only want to go to a few places per day to communicate with others. They now go to their Email Inbox and maybe their Twitter application and Facebook page on the web. Does Google expect them to go to another URL (GoogleWave.com) to do additional communicating with others? Waves are like forums. GoogleWave will kill the forum software industry and the need for people to buy domains to park their forums…but will GoogleWave become the first place people go when they turn on their machines? Not until waves share the Inbox with normal Email.

We’ll have to assume that GoogleWave and Gmail will be merged by the time Outlook 2010 becomes available in “early 2010″. The GoogleWave Inbox will have to accept normal Email. Waves themselves are great. But unless a merge happens, GoogleWave will just be a web portal to find and join fancy forums on subjects we search for.

SenderOK Social Network Email Profile in the Outlook header pane

Microsoft’s OSC will present Email with sender profiles with “rich history” in the Email header pane (like SenderOK now does – xobni does this via an extra “frame sidebar”). Microsoft will immediately get many of the world’s businesspeople as users (many of the 500 Million current Outlook users will upgrade to Office 2010). Users will apparently see Email sender profiles via APIs from social networks similar to what xobni and SenderOK now do for Outlook 2003/7  (currently SenderOK draws from its own social network “business card exchange”). OSC will not have the great xobni multiple PST search functionality nor will it have the excellent SenderOK Email priority sorting functionality. But xobni and SenderOK would both like to get the lion’s share of 500 million users overnight the way Microsoft will.

Who will win the “Social Email Fight” between Google and Microsoft? Well…Google business customers are already reading their Gmail hosted mail inside Outlook 2003 and 2007 (a major win for both Google and Microsoft). If Google wants to really win this, they will need to build an Email client that works offline. Gmail and GoogleWave will also have to work together on a platform that can be worked on offline by the time Microsoft Outlook 2010 arrives with OSC.

Otherwise Microsoft *will* win the battle to keep Outlook as the first program businesspeople open on their computers in the morning.

And remember what I said above, if Google leaves GoogleWave.com as a separate URL destination, it will just become a portal for those who want to join forums.

What about Mozilla, AOL and Yahoo? If they don’t move fast, the upcoming OSC vs GoogleWave fight will trample them down, even if the fight is one-sided (with GoogleWave becoming a mere forum portal).

They may want to give us a call. SenderOK, unlike xobni, already has the technology that works with webmail and our plug-in now provides Yahoo, Gmail, Live and Outlook with photo business cards in the Email header pane.

What about international webmail portals like Web.de in Germany or Mail.ru in Russia? They’ll need to get this type of technology quickly as well and SenderOK is the only company that can provide them with this now.

Regarding social network executives, the Microsoft OSC announcement is a big boost for LinkedIn (who will be providing Microsoft’s first API feed) and Facebook managers are probably camping on the lawn tonight outside the Microsoft campus in Redmond. LinkedIn is agreeing to let Microsoft know that any given Email address (sender) was linked to a specific person in the LinkedIn database. This means that nobody can anonymously send Email anymore using an Email address that LinkedIn knows belongs to them (there will be stories of people trying to send Email anonymously and getting “caught” by the profile they didn’t know would appear on the other end).

The future of social networking really *is* inside the Email client, even if the Email client is in a web browser. If you get a message from someone (and Email and SMS text messages are the dominant messaging form), then the photo and profile data that message associates itself with will become the main place for people to go to update their data. Fewer and fewer people will be heading for specific URLs on the web to communicate with contacts on some socnet site – and this includes Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter applications MUST merge with Email clients. The current separate situation is only temporary.

Final Note: Gmail will soon have anti-phishing icons, similar to what SenderOK does. Microsoft has not announced that they will have this helpful and potentially profitable functionality (corporations would pay to have their logos serve as anti-phishing icons = symbols of authenticated Email).

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This week is Build Boston week in, well, Boston. Sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects (Boston’s local AIA chapter), it’s a week where architects from New England and beyond converge upon the city for a crash course in everything of interest in the profession and pick up their much coveted learning units along the way.

On Wednesday I had the pleasure (or was it self-inflicted torture) of sitting in on McGraw Hill’s 2010 Construction Outlook presented by VP of Economic Affairs, Robert Murray. I say torture only because of the often depressing data that was presented. The good news is things are getting better, the bad news – many of the things that are getting better are merely presenting in lower negative numbers. For example, in 2010 commercial building starts are expected to be at negative 4 percent, in 2009 that number was negative 43 percent.

Here are some  highlights I took away:

• There’s lots of talk about new urbanism, smart growth and transit oriented development. As I enjoy the benefits of urban living every day I think these are all great things. However, the data is showing that it’s still the big box stores and single family residences that are getting built. I think it’s going to take a stronger economy before developers and banks are flush enough to return to funding more creative urbanistic projects.

• Residential construction will start rebounding first, composed primarily of single family and small scale multi-family housing. This could be a nice boost for single architects that have decided to set up shop on their own after a layoff. Sole practitioners and/or small firms are more nimble by nature and can reap more from small fee jobs than the big firms can, putting the smaller guys at an advantage for long term success.

• Having the knowledge and experience working with sites in need of environmental clean-up will be a strong competitive advantage as we see growth in spending resulting from stimulus funds distributed to the EPA, Corps of Engineers and DOE ($17.8 billion). In most cases previous matching requirements for cities and towns to take advantage of these funds will be waved. Money for the 2^nd round of stimulus dollars needs to be allocated by March 2010.

• Now is the time to be looking at transit oriented development as these projects will likely start breaking ground in 2011. However, as I stated in my first point, we need to look at ways to make these successful without relying on big box stores. To make TOD truly livable we need to be thinking lifestyle retail and take the gamble that this market too will come back. In Massachusetts we have Westwood Station as one of our TOD projects that has been put on hold. Robert noted that while this project started out incorporating a mix of lifestyle retail with a couple anchors, the developers are now looking to bring in more big box stores to help lift the project off the ground.

These are just some of the takeaways from 30 data laden pages of slides that were presented. If you’d like a copy of the presentation send me an email and I’ll be happy to share the document with you. Vconyngham [at] gmail [dot] com.

Here’s an interesting article in which Jim Rogers talks about the future of commodities and the prices going only in one direction: Up.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1929502,00.html

As Supply Chain Managers, we should all read this and take our risk management measures!

5+ Weaknesses for the Interview

This is in continuation to the earlier post named “5 Strengths & 5 Weaknesses @ Google!” since the weaknesses described in it couldn’t be used for a real interview.

We deceive!

We Live to deceive!

We  Live to get deceived!

We  want people to deceive!

No matter how much you sugar coat Lies and words of Self-Deception, they still remain what they Really are. Does Reality matter? I am not sure about it anymore really. Growing up in life, Growing up to life all those years, I have not been able to make up my mind on that and the notions I held in my years of innocent childhood have been tarnished by the ugly reality of the World I live in. Why is it that Truth doesn’t get us the desired results in life?

When it comes to interviews especially, one of the most likeable and expected questions is “Describe your strengths and weaknesses”.

I would certainly find it not very hard to answer that question but to answer it As Expected by the Interviewer is another story.  Over the years, I have come to realize that my Dictionary meaning of the Term Weakness when it comes to Interviews is completely wrong.

Dictionaries might describe Weakness as:

1. An inadequate quality; fault
2. A flaw or weak point
3. The property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain

My version of Weakness means: “An extreme personality trait or characteristic (that you may have or not have) sugar-coated to highlight that it acts as a merit for earning big buck to the hiring company.”

Another important fact of life that I have learnt is that everything in the world is Relative.  Thus, naturally my definition of Weakness is discussed in the context of the interview.

Though I have always wanted to speak my mind on what I really believe my weaknesses would be in front of an interviewer but believe me, this will not get you anywhere especially in a job market. One in a million HR managers would actually admire your Truthfulness in this regard and you would surely face more rejections than approval to do the same. I still can’t comprehend the idea of what the interviewers really intend to understand in us from our reply.

Is it the skill and tact with which we can lie? Is it our ability to think One Step Ahead and get things done before being asked? In this case, the homework we might have done to have a well prepared answer. Is it the quality of shrewdness and self selling ability (i.e. marketing) in us? Or is it the diplomacy and ingenuity with which we handle the question?

However, I still want to maintain a shred of decency and truth in my reply to the prospective employer in hand. This is because I can’t think of losing my Truthfulness for one and secondly because my notions about life are quite different and distinct and I believe no matter how the world works as per others, it works how you want it to work for you; it works how you perceive it to work. Since discussing this is irrelevant to the scope of the current post, I would just resort to a quick list of 5+ Weaknesses that I believe can be used for the interview.

1. Lack of Experience: While I know that I don’t have any Direct experience for the position I am being interviewed for, I have professional experience that required all the desired qualities of professionalism.  My previous employer can second that I was effective and efficient in my previous job and I believe I can contribute and deliver fully to the new one. If given a chance and little time, this weakness can be overcome easily with my professional attitude.
2. Carefree Attitude: (While this is strength on one side, it can also prove to be a weakness. Dynamism and passion/enthusiasm is required to lead.)I am only carefree and relaxed till I think everything is under control. As soon as the deadlines and pressure pump in, I become proactive to meet them in the most efficient manner.
3. Working Alone: I prefer to work alone as I think I can deliver my best, concentrate and can avoid spending my energy on the team issues.  But since I like challenges and my past work didn’t really allow me to coordinate and work in team much, I am looking forward to grow in that area professionally.  I am excited that this will enable me to define some best practices in the area.
4. Getting Over Burdened: As mentioned earlier, I want to deliver my best and this perfectionist attitude makes me reluctant to delegate work to my subordinates. I can’t trust fully on their abilities and therefore, I over burden myself with work. The over-whelming feeling does take its toll sometimes. I realize this clearly and consciously and I have tried to work on it. Recently, I coordinated an event and tried to delegate as much work as possible and stick to concentrate to my duties.
5. Time Management Skills: Sometimes my perfectionism can affect my time management skills. Both of these are related and as I manage to curb that weakness, I believe this will be solved too.
6. Lacking Assertion: I don’t believe in coercion to get things done. My lack of assertion also stems from that fact. But I realize that this attribute is greatly required to build a strong character.  I have been working on this in my personal life as well as my teaching career and have successfully managed to have an upward graph.
7. Lacking Rational Thinking: Sometimes, I get over sensitive to what others have to say about my actions and notions. This is especially in areas of personality. I can’t meet everybody’s expectations and I can’t stop implementing the decisions I believe are right in my heart. I have tried on work on this area by researching and reading on human psychology and have managed slightly to understand and read people’s psychology and view every statement or comment in the light of practicality and rationalism.

There could be a much bigger list to use for the interview but since it was to match my Friend in order to carry the element of Truth in it, I have tried to keep it precise.  Also I believe that if asked to provide for 5 weaknesses or more, you should avoid the exact count since it makes the interviewer believe that you have had it planned already and that’s why he is unable to check your ability to respond to something out of the blues.

Some old fashioned, stereotypical employers do want the candidate to be well prepared and well read for all the questions so this decision will be based on your own personal analysis of the interviewer.

I personally believe that you can’t use one answer for each and every interview. Just make sure that your answer matches the position and business for which you are being interviewed. Analyze the interviewer’s personality, try to get into his mind, be attentive to his line of questioning, his attitude and what the things are he is stressing on.  For instance, if he’s insisting on finding the right candidate who can Grow with the company, you have to mention that this is one of your wish and desire. If you have had a couple of years experience with a previous employer, highlight it. If you don’t have this, then explain implicitly that its always been your dream and intention to Grow with a company but you also believe that you can and should not continue to work any longer when you start realizing that you can’t deliver your 100% and can’t work to your full potential. Since this won’t be honest and truthful to yourself and to your employer and you can’t continue something with a guilty conscience.

Another handy tip is to always have personal and professional experiences related to your strengths and weaknesses prepared since mostly the next question in line is to give an example to support your claims.

In a Nut Shell:

1. Be truthful.  Keep your conscience Alive.
2. Your strengths can actually be used as weaknesses.
3. Reply dynamically (as IT people would say). Base your reply on the given situation analysis. Avoid using the Prepared answer if it doesn’t fit well in a given interview scenario.
4. Understand the True definition of Weaknesses in the given scenario. Don’t start babbling your A, B, C ….Z personality weaknesses. Keeping in perspective the Job and Position, draft your weaknesses.
5. Your weaknesses are Actually things you professionally lack right now but are active and willing to develop.

The last thing to note here is that every person is different so no matter how much articles you read, no matter how much research you do on the Best Practices, there aren’t any hard and fast rules or text book definition of interviewer’s expectations or interviewee’s responses.

If you need any more examples to tricky interview questions, use a comment section below.

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Follow the link for details+ilustrative on how to migrate from your existing outlook express to outlook 2007 without loosing your data.

1. Open the Outlook 2007 Startup Wizard. Click Next.
2. At the Account Configuration page, it reads “You can configure Outlook to Connect to Internet Email, Microsoft Exchange, or other Email server. Would you like to configure an Email account?” Select NO. Click Ne
3. At the Cancel Configuration page, check the Continue with no email support checkbox. Click Finish.
4. Outlook 2007 opens. Click on File, Import and Export.
5. At the Import and Export Wizard, select Import Internet Mail and Addresses. Click Next.
6. Select Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or Windows Mail. Check Import Mail and Import Address Book checkboxes. Click Next.
7. At the Import Addresses dialog box, select Do not import duplicate items. Click Finish.
8. Import Progress dialog bar appears.
9. When Complete, Import Summary appears. Click OK.

link: Migrating from Outlook Express to Microsoft Outlook 2007.