New Stuff

Laptop Missing CTRL-Break key?

Steve Backman — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 16:44:49 -0400

Microsoft developer environments and maybe other realms use the key combination CTRL-Break to interrupt execution of code for testing and debugging. Problem is, some keyboards, including my Dell Latitude 13, no longer have a Break key.

At least on the Dell, try combination of CTRL-FN-F12. Great!

Snagit and GMail

Steve Backman — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:50:58 -0400

Snagit is a terrific, professional grade screen capture utility for Windows users (now also finally available for Mac users). Use it for preparing documentation or for documenting support issues with your software. You can learn more here: http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/default.asp.

One minor frustration has focused on its lack of integration to Gmail or other webmail. Here is a blog post with a good, partial solution that works:

http://bit.ly/n0r68J

Database Designs at Mass Nonprofit Network/Associated Grant Makers 2011 Conference

Steve Backman — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:50:27 -0400

Please join Steve Backman and the Database Designs team at the Mass Nonprofit Network/Associated Grant Makers 2011 Conference. The conference takes place this fall on October 20, 2011.

In keeping with this year's exciting theme, "Leading the Way," Steve will be co-presenting a workshop on "Data Driven Technology Leadership" with Debra Askanase and Marc Baizman. And look for the Database Designs booth at the conference.

We're Expanding! Database Designs is Looking to Hire a Salesforce CRM Consultant

Steve Backman — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:07:27 -0400

Are you a Salesforce whiz interested in expanding your skills, working with a wide range of nonprofit clients and collaborating with a great team of people in an independent consulting company? If so, Database Designs would like to speak with you.

Steve Backman at NTEN: Social Media and Contact Relationship Management — the New Mix

Steve Backman — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:32:16 -0400

Steve Backman, President of Database Designs, will be a presenter at the workshop Social Media and Contact Relationship Management — The New Mix at the 2011 NTEN Conference in Washington, DC, March 17-19, 2011.The workshop will be held on Firday, March 18 from 1:30-3:00PM.

Out From Under Too Much Data

Steve Backman — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 11:25:37 -0400

Shelley Podolny’s March 12 New York Times column, “The Digital Pileup,” started me thinking. “Because electronic information seems invisible, we underestimate the resources it takes to keep it all alive.” Podolny reports global data usage of 1.2 zettabytes (a lot of gigabytes). For the US alone, 3% of the national power supply supports “server farms,” the giant data centers with aisles and aisles of servers.

Cloud Security in the Era of WikiLeaks

Steve Backman — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:38:50 -0500

Salesforce helped pioneer the concept of putting confidential organizational data in a "public cloud" system. Other key vendors offering public cloud data services include Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3 services. "Cloud" has come to mean many things to many people as far as putting internal office functions up on the Internet. The word “public” is important to understand. This means that all data--every corporate and nonprofit user--sits in one enormous database. This is in fact a reassurance, not a drawback.

Nonprofit Contact Management with Salesforce Breakfast Briefing

Linda Roistacher — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:59:12 -0500

Database Designs is holding a breakfast briefing on Thursday, February 24 from 10am-12:30pm to share our perspectives on what’s new and emerging in Salesforce, when and how best to use new features, and how to improve your management of the transition to Salesforce.

Learn more. . .

A Fresh Look at Dragon Voice Recognition Software

Steve Backman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:47:14 -0500

Something different about this blog entry then my usual ones is that I'm dictating it instead of typing it. Every so often my mouse hand and wrist bothers me for a week or two. The last time this happened, I decided to get a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking software and try it out. Coincidentally, a couple weeks ago, in the middle of all this miserable snow we’re having in the Northeast, a friend and colleague tore a tendon in in his elbow. I convinced him to try out the software. He needs to write all the time, and he has been using it almost exclusively and successfully.

Virtualization on the Mac

David Gabbe — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:57:35 -0500

While I recommend VMWare to clients who have VMWare as part of their infrasturcture because the Mac virtual machines can be opened on a PC or enterprise server, Parallels gets high marks as well. Here's a nice summary I found:

http://www.mactech.com/2010/12/16/preview-virtualization-benchmarks