Todd Clarke's Technology Corner v2.0

Todd Clarke's ideal office setup taken with iPhone 4s

Todd Clarke's ideal office setup

Todd Clarke's ideal office setup

Todd Clarke's ideal office setup

Todd Clarke's ideal office setup

I have been pursuing my ideal office for decades and this arrangement is the closest I have come to a nirvana of office productivity.

What you see here includes 7000 gigabytes (7 terabytes) of storage, 9 screens, 4 computers all controlled by one keyboard and mouse sitting on an Ikea desk. http://www.ikea.com/
Additional equipment on deck includes 2 iPads, one Kindle fire, one iPhone, a Fujitsu Scansnap S510 scanner (for going paperless), a Brother PT-2430PC labeler and of course the all-important Aeron chair.
Most of the monitors are 22” to 24” Samsung’s with a 22” Samsung USB Driven monitor a Phillips Boom Boom monitor and a Mimo 7” USB driven monitor. The desktop computers are redundant setups with a physical keyboard/mouse switch and Multiplicity software that ties them together with the MacbookAir, and the MacMini.

The computers are task driven and run software during the day based on their portability. Starting left working right they include:

I have found this setup to be very efficient. The two HP desktops run jobs that take a long time – like backups or print runs, or they are used for big projects we have going – stuff that I want to leave up (like maps). The Mac mini is used mostly for coding apps for the iPhone/iPad. The MacbookAir is my main day to day machine – so its running email, contact management, quickbooks, and document management. It is configured in such a way that on a moments notice I can pull its plug and dash out to a meeting.

The glass wall you see to the left of my desk is a 8’ wide x 4’ tall white board that we write on and/or tape things to as we work through projects .

How is your office configured?

One of my favorite blogs – Lifehacker.com has a great gallery of office setups – including this mobile one or thi sone in a barn – and this map shows where everyone is located that has made a contribution to Lifehackers Workspace show and tell.

Just a few days after I posted this article, I came across this showcase of minimalist office setups.

I am a big fan of Kickstarter, a website that matches investors with inventors.

I just came across this new hardware design for a “Tron Like” keyboard and mouse:

If you pledge $350, and the inventor raises another $31,000 – by April 2012, you too could own one of these futuristic keyboards/mouse combos.

Thanks to the MN/Dakotas CCIM chapter and SOIR for a fabulous turnout and a great session!

The list of must have iPad apps can be found here.
and the article I wrote on iPad apps can be found in the Journal of Property Management.

You can also always search our blog for iPad or Apps for the latest news.

and I’ve uploaded yesterday’s powerpoint here MN-CCIM-SIOR-Tech-SocialNetworkingWebinar-11102011.

If you have interest in taking our tech session a bit further and using social networking -click here to watch our Prezi.

While there are a lot of neat features on the new iPhone 4s (and IOS5), one of the neatest is rarely discussed and that is the ability to sync your phone over your wifi connection.

This makes you cable free! (except to charge). In addition to upgrading your phone you will also need to upgrade iTunes.

In a scene out of the book Aerotroplis: They way we will live next, Apple notified me yesterday that my iPhone 4s has left its facility in Shen Zen, China (where Foxconn makes the phones), and has passed Hong Kong and is enroute to LAX on the way to being delivered to my door this Friday.

See the Aerotroplis CCIM webinar here, or even better – see the author, Greg Lindsay, at CCIM Live This Friday August 14th, 2011 in Phoenix.

No, I don’t mean the ability for your Kindle to share its books with other Kindles.

What I am speaking of is the feature in Kindle that allows you to highlight some text then hit two keys to have that highlight and your comments pushed to Facebook and Twitter.

Previously, I used Kindles clipping menu, then I had to hook the Kindle into my laptop, copy the file, login in to Facebook and Twitter and post – an easy 10 minutes has now been saved – thank you Amazon!

This is what the post looks like in Facebook:

This is what the post looks like in Twitter:

And this is what the results look like for the user:

What a treat to finally get to visit the world’s largest electronics market Ahikabarra in Tokyo is full of electronic parts, Robots to be built, Anime “girls” and more laptops/tablets and iPhone accessories than you view in a week!

Digital camera technology has advanced so far in the last handful of years that any gains from the next new camera have been incremental.

Just a few years ago, we used to spend a considerable amount of time discussing the technology in the camera’s and how that equated to better prints, or better photography.

I believe that once digital cameras surpassed 8 megapixels, the added benefits of smile recognition, GPS, or steady cam technology is mostly an incremental gain.

A new lens and record technology may throw that mind set out the door.

Typically photograph has a fixed single lense (those the term SLR, or Single Lens Reflex) that can focus on one portion of the photo.

This new technology has multiple lenses that track each and every light beam in the photo, which allows for dynamic focusing of the photograph AFTER the photograph is recorded.

The Lytro.com website has a number of examples, and I’ve captured 2 here to show you a shifting field of focus:

Every other month, I report on the latest technology for the IREM associations Journal Of Property Management in their “gadgets” column.

This month’s issue provids coverage on the must have apps for your iPhone and/or your iPad.

Thanks again to the IREM staff for doing a phenomenal job on the layout!