Work Smarter – Not Harder 09/27/2009
Posted by mritsema in web.Tags: Capitalism, Leadership, Management, Productivity
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A friend in my peer group recommended the book:
Getting Things DONE – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
As I start reading it, I ran into this article in the Wall Street Journal – Personal Journal | Work & Family section:
If You Need to Work Better, Maybe Try Working Less by Sue Shellenbarger
Bottom line:
- Focus on priorities
- Get ahead of deadlines through schedule management
- Remove the meaningless clutter
- Figure out how to relax & ’shut it off.’
I’m attempting to apply these new skills to improve my productivity and work – life balance.
Consider checking out these resources and their potential personal impact in this “always on” world.
Productively,
Michael Ritsema i3 Business Solutions, LLCBing Pops With Visual Search | TechCrunch 09/15/2009
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Played with Bing yet? I was skeptical at first, but I’m fast becoming a fan of Binging things visually, instead of Googling things– and wading through a milion text links:
“There are more than 100 visual galleries ranging from movies, books, and cars to products, animals, and sports teams. The sorting categories change each time.
“So for movies, you can filter by release date, title, or rating. Cars can be sorted visually by make, price or mileage. When you resort, the images fly around the screen to find their new positions. The visual search acts as a showcase for Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, which makes the animations and visual rendering possible.
“The whole concept,” says Mehdi, “is that the world of search will change. There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search.””
via Bing Pops With Visual Search. TechCrunch
Windows 7: The revenge of Windows Vista | InfoWorld 09/11/2009
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Tons of technical data in this ‘first look’ assessment of Windows 7… but how does ‘7 shape up from a usability perspective?
In other words, does it cure all the stupid and aggravating things we have to put up with in Windows XP?
Yup:
“… the new Taskbar is shaping up as one giant leap forward for Windows usability. Simply put, the version 7 Taskbar reinvents the Windows UI, with an embrace of the object-oriented ideas and concepts that inspired so many of today’s modern graphical environments.
The ability to pin your entire workspace to the Taskbar — including applications, documents, and utilities — and interact with them in a consistent, predictable manner makes the Windows 7 UI a revelation for many users. Add to this the beefed-up saved-search mechanism (that is, the new Libraries folder) and the myriad Aero gestures (Aero Peek, Shake, Snap), and you have what is perhaps the most compelling OS upgrade incentive in recent memory.
Bottom line: The Windows 7 UI is light-years ahead of both Windows Vista and XP in terms of overall usability and general operator productivity. Many users will likely upgrade based solely on this feature — it’s that compelling.”
Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records | The Healthcare IT Guy 09/10/2009
Posted by thaadsma in design, development, healthcare, user interfaces.add a comment
We work with an increasing number of physician practices in Michigan, and a few have EMR systems. But most don’t– yet.
This article by a physician challenges EMR vendors to make their software products better before EMR goes mainstream. From Dr. Bill Cast:
“Physicians know that better exists. They have experienced Google, Amazon and e-Bay. Game lovers know that Electronic Arts’ “Tiberium,” now 15 years old, exceeds the capabilities of their professional health care software. They know from Yahoo and MSN the value of configuring a home page suited to delivering niche-information of their own preference. They know from using Word and Word Perfect that they can create precision documents merely by tweaking a template. They know they can use voice commands to make a phone call on their Blackberry. They know that they can find drug information more easily on Google than proprietary software. They suspect that if their EHRs and EMRs had physician-specific home page functionality, that they could drop and drag orders, answer FAQs, dictate letters, and save time with templates with many fewer clicks. Ordering medications should be as safe and uncomplicated as using E*Trade.
Today most EHRs and EMRs are invasive both to workflow and finances. While high cost is a significant barrier to physician adoption, workflow disruption remains the killer deterrent.”
via Guest Article: Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records | The Healthcare IT Guy.
40 Years of Internet. Let’s have a recap… 09/09/2009
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Whoa. The Interwebs are reaching middle age!
“What better time to recap on the last 40 years and provide a brief history of how a technology that has changed our lives, came to be. Before you begin reading however, if you’d like a more visual representation, you may want to sit back and watch this wonderful video that will take you through the decades to today.”
Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist 09/08/2009
Posted by thaadsma in Linux, broadband, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, mobile web, virtualization, web, web services.add a comment
In case you missed this article on Cisco before you headed out for your Labor Day weekend, There’s a wealth of information on where Cisco’s been and where John Chambers intends to take them. Of particular interest is their foucs on virtualization:
“In the case of servers, souped-up computers that dish up data, the market shift Cisco intends to ride is virtualisation. In essence this means that the servers in a data centre are turned into a pool of computing power to be tapped into as needed rather than being used individually. Virtualisation creates a lot of complexity, to which Cisco has found an answer, says Robert Lloyd, who heads the group that has developed what Cisco calls the “unified computing system”. Its parts—servers, storage disks, memory—are held together and managed by a powerful switch running Nx-OS, one of Cisco’s operating systems.”
As a Cisco Select Partner here at i3 Business Solutions, we see their products as essential to “making things really work.” As more and more of our business systems– and personal networks of devices– get interwoven and integrated, I can only think that Cisco ultimately will be in the middle of it, making them all work together.
via Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist.
Mike Ritsema speaks out against tax burden on Michigan businesses | NewsChannel 3 09/03/2009
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Mike Ritsema, one of the partners here at i3 Business Solutions, was recently interviewed by the local media regarding the tax situation in Michigan. Click here for the video:
Click here for the full story at NewsChannel 3
Here are some additional comments Mike made:
“”It seems to me, they understand if we give tax credits and abatement, it creates jobs and business, but they want to raise taxes on employers in the State of Michigan, and they don’t correlate the two, it costs jobs,” said Ritsema.
Ritsema owns i3 Business Solutions in Grand Rapids. He was a leader in fighting against the failed service tax in 2008. Many said that tax would have arbitrarily raised taxes on many businesses, everything from landscapers to consultants.
“I think it’s the nature of government to choose winners and losers and as they looked at the State of Michigan, they said manufacturing’s hurting, we’re going to help manufacturing, we’re going to move taxes over to other businesses and industries,” said Ritsema.
Ritsema says he was surprised to hear about a new effort announced on Wednesday to try to revive a form of the service tax, essentially a tax on luxury and nonessential services.”
