Archive for the ‘Lifehacking’ Category
Yammer in Projects
Friday, January 13th, 2012I’ve recently started a project where the teammembers are spread across two different locations and within the locations over multiple floors and rooms. The activities we have to perform can be done mostly by individuals but other members depend on the output of others. So it is essential that the teammembers are aware of the activities of other teammembers and their status.
To discuss all important actions, risks and issues I scheduled a weekly projectmeeting where most teammembers attend in person and some by phone. Because we are spread across the two locations it always takes more time for some of us to attend physically. Another downside of us not sitting near eachother is that we don’t meet at the coffee machine to have informal chats about what we are doing and also formal meetings take a little more effort.
To improve the team collaboration I’ve setup a Yammer network. You can think of Yammer as facebook for businesses. I use a very limited set of functionality of Yammer, just the status updates which can be placed in the Yammer feed of ‘our network with Yammer’. I’ve asked all teammembers to regularly post a status update and check our feed daily. Of course I could have asked all members to send me a status update by email daily which I can then collect and spread within the projectteam. The latter would cost me time and I would delay the information flow. The benefit of using Yammer is that members can reply on the status updates of others.
If it turns out that my teammembers will not use Yammer actively I still have the alternative to organize one or two additional status meetings so people can meet and discuss their ‘things’. Instead of a couple of status messages which takes 15 seconds to write, they will be in a meetingroom for a hour.
I believe Yammer is a usefull addition to my projectmanagement tools to keep the team informed and in contact.
Why replacing your ‘good old’ printer might be a good idea
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Last week I took some photos of our daughter and of course there were some nice ones between the bad ones 
. When I want many photos printed I use an online photo service like foto.com where a photo costs nearly nothing. It only takes some time before the photos are printed and send by mail.
We wanted one photo printed at that moment so I started my big and huge HP Business Inkjet 2600 and printed a photo. As I had experienced before, the colors were not accurate and we were disappointed by the results (again). The HP is great for printing A3 project plans and other drawings but not for photo printing because of lack of decent color management. Next I used my older HP Color Laserjet 2550 to print the photo. Colors matched much better but resolution was average. This added to the fact that I was still using a very old scanner with document feeder on a USB 1 connection (sooo Slooow) and my wish for a faster duplex scanner, the search for a new multifunctional started (and the other printers were placed on ‘Marktplaats’ the Dutch e-bay).
After some searching I found the Canon Pixma MX885 with (Photo)printing, Scanning, Copy and Fax features and best of all, it has a duplex automatic document feeder for the scanner. Otherwise I might have gone for a little cheaper model or maybe an Epson. Last night I installed the MX885 and printed a photo on special Canon photopaper and I was amazed by the quality. The quality was at least the same or maybe even better than the photos I ordered online.
This post might sound like an advertisment for Canon but that is not my goal. What I want to state here is that even if you have some hardware that was great some years ago like the HP Business Inkjet 2600 was in 2004/2005 and it still works like a charm and is for heavy use, it might be wise to just look around to see what is offered today in 2011 and decide if you want to invest some money in a new device.
I think it is true: ‘You don’t know what you are missing if you haven’t seen it before’.
Another one is to think again before you are buying for 200 euro’s on cartridges and printheads instead of buying a new device. This Canon costed me less !!
No excuse for not having a backup
Saturday, June 4th, 2011This morning I read a magazine in which an article was written about home burglary. One of the remarks made by people who had experienced a home burglary was that it was terrible to happen because they lost so many private belongings. So far I completely agree! Then the remark was made: “my notebook was stolen which contained all photos and documents of my child”. That last remark made me write this article about backup. People assure their houses and belonings, paying several euro’s a month, to get some money from the insurance company in case of home burglary. Why didn’t they invest a little time and money in a decent backup?
You should invest some time and/or money to protect your data from getting lost.
InMaps – Visualize your professional network
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011LinkedIn labs have created a visualisation tool for your LinkedIn network. The image shows your connections to other members of your network. You can create your own InMap here. The video is an introduction video from InMap.
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