Todd Clarke's Technology Corner v2.0

Microsoft has created a gigapixel photograph of Seattle – http://gigapixelartzoom.com/

Note everyone was happy – check out these protestors?.

Can you find the space ship?

Discovered Easter eggs include:
“Error 404: Site Not Found” banner
Pink Floyd Guy
A game of picnic-person-beer-pong?
A 4-circle, 1-square fashion show
Yellow mannequin & a person holding an “O” sign
Front stoop/Sidewalk yoga
Rooftop spaceship
Painter with easel on the sidewalk
Rooftop chalk circle drawers
Lego building and construction site
Photographer and two subjects on some stairs
Four people proud of a painted cloud banner
A woman planking on a man in the park
A blue mannequin and a person holding a “.” sign
Several ballet dancers above a “shark-filled” pool
A giant white snake held by three people.
Someone wearing a blue dinosaur/dragon head mask
Someone carrying a painting across a street
A recreation of “Thriller”
Three people in a row painting in a park
Two upside down people near a gas station
Four artsy cars in a parking lot
A man painted purple next to a guy holding a sign of a television
A man on his back kicking a woman high into the air above him on the sidewalk
A sidewalk artist painting a woman in a bikini snow suit
A man on crutches narrowly avoiding a lot of banana peels

Thanks to Gizmodo.com

Nifty Drives is another Kickstarter.com project. This one offered Mac laptop owners the ability to turn a little used SD card slot into a permanent storage drive.

Reminiscent of Apples packaging,NiftyDrive did a nice job on packing and labeling their product:

I ordered the 64 gigabyte version for Apple Macbook Air (it was not available for my Mac Retina 13″), and I have to admit, I like the design and fit of the product.

Here is a photo of what it looks like installed flush with my MacbookAirs SD Card slot.

 The product includes the holder (shuttle?), the MiniSDCard and the nifty logo hook which is used to remove the holder.

So how do I use it?

I’ve made a backup of all my data and put it on that drive – its small enough to be removed and put into my wallet (the mini sd card), and permanently installed on the mac so it doesn’t get accidentally used.

All in all it makes a great interim backup tool.

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.

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.

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: