2011
Skype offers free WIFI access in 50 US Airports
Make travelling less stressful with free WIFI from Skype. Until December 27 2011, The fine folks at Skype are offering you an hour of FREE WIFI internet at more than 50 US Airports. All you need is a free Skype account and a Windows, Mac Skype application (or IOS Skype WIFI App). You can read the Skype blog posts and get a list of participating sites here. In years past, we have seen Google offer similar gifts (but alas, not this year).
Features I want to see in Evernote
I love the power and simplicity of Evernote. Having used it for a little while, I have some suggestions I wanted to share with you (hopefully someone from Evernote sees this, because improvement recommendations sent to their support box seem to get nowhere). You can email notes into Evernote and they get saved into your default notebook. I would love for my Evernote account to have multiple email addresses, each saving a note to a different notebook with particular tags (like a predefined filter).
Be safe when staying in a hotel (part 4) - Hotels are for spying
In most countries, a hotel is simply a convenient place for you to stay and recharge. Without naming any specific countries, local intelligence agencies in some of them are known to use hotels as an information collection tool on guests. In these countries, you should assume that everything you do is monitored including telephone conversations via the telephone assume the hotel's internet service is monitored assume the room is bugged for audio monitoring and sometimes even video This being said, it is important to never leave your laptop, PDA or confidential/important documents in the room.
Be safe when staying in a hotel (part 3) - What to do when checking in
When travelling, it is best to assume that anyone can be a hostile. When you pull up to the hotel, ensure all of your luggage is removed from the taxi or bus. Stay with your luggage until it is brought into the hotel lobby. Even in the lobby, always keep an eye out for your luggage. Remember that thieves are always looking for distractions and a busy lobby may be the perfect opportunity to snatch your items (or stuff something) in your bag.
Be safe when staying in a hotel (part 2)
How to choose the safest hotel room Always choose a room between the 4th and 6th floor (never lower and never higher). The 6th floor maximum is in place because most fire department truck ladders have a maximum height equal to the 6th floor[ of most hotels]. Any higher and rescue during an emergency becomes problematic. The 4th floor recommend is in place to make it difficult for someone to enter your room from the ground floor (from the outside).
Be safe when staying in a hotel (part 1)
Having travelled to over 30 countries, I have picked up some interesting tips and tricks about hotel safety over the years. Since the holiday season is approaching and many of you may be travelling, I thought I would write a couple of short, bullet point style articles to help you stay safe. The Preparation Before leaving, I strongly recommend that you make at least 3 photocopies (front and back) of the following documents: Credit cards All tickets (airplane, train, show, etc) Passport Important documents you may be travelling with I would leave one copy with a trusted resource back home ( as a worst case scenario backup) and carry 2 copies with me in different places.
The Getting Things Done (GTD) Weekly Review Process
As a GTD fan, I have read the book, listened to the 10CD audio seminar, read the articles on GTD Times and subscribed to David Allen’s audio blog. In all of these mediums, one of the key messages that seems to come up over and over, is the requirement to do the weekly review. What would happen to your car if you never changed the oil? The car would get sluggish and eventually the engine would die. Same thing for GTD.
The four truths about Getting Things Done (GTD)
Like I have said over and over, I love Getting Things Done. It has allowed me to stay on top of things and I try to teach it to as many of my colleagues as possible. Having worked with dozens of people, I realize that there are some misconceptions about GTD, so I decided to write this article to talk about them. 1. GTD is simple and difficult Whether you read the book, listen to an audio training program or participate to a live training class, you will realize that the core concepts of GTD are simple and based on common sense.
Blackberry Playbook fire sale at $99
In Canada, our major retailers have been selling the Playbooks for up to $300 MSRP for the last 2 weeks and some of them are now sold out (Best Buy and FutureShop). In addition to this promo, Research In Motion (RIM) is also giving away a free 16GB Playbook with the upgrade of an enterprise BES server to v5 until December 31. Rim seems to be in a very festive mood becauseThe Verge is reporting that Blackberry is hawking its 16GB tablet for $99 on its employee only portal.
US thanksgiving black friday sales record set
Although the final numbers arent in yet, many analysts are already predicting a record year for Black Friday sales. IBM is predicting a 24.3% increase sales over last year for black friday sales. ComScore says online sales grew 26% (compared to 2010) totalling $816 million. ShopperTrak said : “This is the largest year-over-year gain in ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate for Black Friday since the 8.3 percent increase we saw between 2007 and 2006. Still, it’s just one day. It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season.
Crowdsourcing design work with 99designs.com (a review)
If you are planning to start a new small business or have a small business that requires some design services, you may be tempted to try out one of the newer crowdsourcing websites. The first time a customer asked for my advice about these sites, I had no idea. As a manager in a larger organization, I have never used these types of services but decided to check them out. I asked my network of contacts and found a handful of individuals that provided their real-world experiences.
Airports may be hazardous to your Kindle
Over the last couple of days, we have been hearing more and more complaints from Kindle owners about airport X-Ray machines killing their beloved eReaders. The UK Telegraph reports some travellers claiming their device was bricked after going through the X-Ray. The devices were nonfunctional with blank screens. Amazon is denying that there is a design issue but seems to be replacing affected devices. Some specialists believe it may not be the X-Rays themselves but more a static discharge from the machine’s thick rubber conveyor belt.
Smartphone activations don't matter (iphone or android)
Whether you’re in the Apple or Android smartphone camp, at one time or another, your side used creative statistics interpretation to justify why you are the market favorite. The numbers used most often are total activations or total devices sold. But how important are these numbers? Until a platform reaches critical mass, it is very important for the manufacturer to keep pushing the platform forward. With critical user mass come the apps which in turn will drive additional growth. So a platform needs enough users to make the platform interesting to developers but after that point, who cares!
Outsourcing ITO/BPO best practices
As mentioned in my post on November 7 2011, I was a guest speaker at a breakfast meeting for the Montreal Association of Information Security. My presentation was about best practices, tips and tricks about outsourcing. As promised, I am making my presentation available here in PDF format. It can be freely distributed as long as it is left intact. You can download it for free from my Evernote account by following this link : file.
State of my blog
My blog has been online for just over a year now and I am extremely pleased with it. Over the last 30 days, my blog has received over 94,000 visits. During this time, I have had visits from 73 countries. The top countries (with unique visits) are [in no particular order]: USA Canada China Poland UK Hong Kong Austria Italy Russia Japan Australia Taiwan Mexico The most commonly used browsers to visit my site are (in order of importance):
4 Tips to remember when Outsourcing to China and beyond
I have spoken and written about outsourcing to China for a couple of years now. Although China does require special handling, many of the high level recommendations are the same as regardless of where you decide to outsource. So here is a summary style high level overview of some of the important considerations: Ask Why: Ask yourself exactly why you are outsourcing. It is because you want to reduce your costs, access specialized skills or as a risk management exercise? Understanding exactly why you want to outsource should be your first question.
Discussion about Outsourcing Best Practices Nov 15 in Montreal
I wanted to let you know that I will be discussing Outsourcing best practices at an ASIMM event on November 15 in Montreal. This event will cater to new and experienced professionals alike. We will also have a Q&A session at the end where I will answer your questions (using my 15 years of international Outsourcing experience). Update on 2011-11-09 15:04 by Edward N Kiledjian I am currently building the presentation but will post it on my blog (post event) in PDF format for you guys to see.
Weather Trends 360 predicts weather 1 year out
My local news station weatherman seems to have a 50/50 success rating predicting the 5 day forecast. Imagine my surprise when I learned about a company called Weather Trends International that claims to provide weather prediction for up to 365 days into the future. At first I thought this was another fly by nights hocus pocus type website, then I checked out their client list. It includes names like Walmart, Loblaws, Target, Coca Cola, Heinz and many more. The prediction
Review of the Zagg InvisibleShield for Iphone 4/4s
Years ago, I learned the importance of protecting my devices to keep them looking newer longer. Even after a couple of years of use, most of my electronics look fairly new. One of my secrets is the InvisibleShield product from Zagg. What is the Zagg InvisibleShield? It is a specially designed thin and transparent film that you install on your phone to protect it from scratches and minor bumps. I bought the Maximum Coverage product which has all of the required pieces to protect the front, back and sides.