Technology and Business

Thursday, April 7, 2016

TRI News April 2016

News from TRIF.COM April 2016


In the works since 2007, Harvard University, owner of the property used by CSX for inter-modal operations in Allston took back the property for a new complex for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. CSX moved its inter-modal operations to Westborough and Worcester. Pictured here is the CSX Inter-modal Terminal in Worcester after a $100 million dollar face lift and an expansion from 58 to 79 acres. Please see my online store. The store allows you to have my photographs custom printed and framed. Friend me on Facebook, look at my blogs, or look me up on Flickr. Store is now open. Check out my profile on ImageBrief! Click to Shop.	In This Issue
April 2016	FMCSA Office 365 Web Apps OneDrive for Business
Welcome to News from trif.com! First time readers, I am glad you're here! Returning readers, welcome back! I love to share the many photos I have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!	Did you know we provide... Mobile Driver Apps Real-time Updates with Signature Capture

Busy Month for the DOT/FMCSA

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration took action this past month. J and J Transportation of Belmont Street in Worcester owned by John Robles was declared to be an “imminent hazard to public safety" and ordered that it immediately cease all inter and intrastate operations. During a compliance review, the company was unable to provide vehicle maintenance records, drivers' inspection reports, hours of services records, medical examiner's certificates for drivers, fuel and toll receipts, pre-employment controlled substances tests. This may not have surfaced had the company not been involved in a single vehicle crash killing the driver in December 2015.

Violating an imminent hazard out-of-service order and operating without operating authority and a USDOT number may result in civil penalties up to $60,000 as well as a criminal penalty, including a fine of up to $25,000 and imprisonment not to exceed one year.

In March, after a four-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) revoked the operating authority registration of four commercial bus companies for intentionally provided a misleading and/or a false physical address as its principal place of business. Included is Magnum Coach Lines, LLC of Trapelo Road in Waltham, Mass. (USDOT 2489680). The company was recently organized by Valeria D Hillman-Walker of Georgia home to another bus company involved in the investigation. A motor carrier found to be operating without possessing valid USDOT operating authority may be liable for federal civil penalties of up to $25,000 for each violation. In the commercial transportation industry, it often means the companies are hiding from past offenses.

TRIF.COM
Technology Resources

Technology solutions are a part of doing business just like sales and marketing, It is an important component in servicing customers, managing costs and controlling operations.

Our capabilities bridge database design and development, Internet services, network and computer sales and support, document imaging, bar code scanning, corporate communications, fax and email programs, mobile applications, cloud computing and help desk services. Interested in taking a step forward with technology? Looking to take advantage of the latest advances? Or just want to take advantage of your new computer?

Email me at rmj@trif.com The first consultation is always without charge.

Office 365 Web Apps

Microsoft web applications (seen here in what is called the waffle) continue to grow and deserve another look. Not only are Word, Excel, Outlook and

PowerPoint available in the cloud, but now there is OneNote, Sway, Yammer, Sharepoint, Delve, Skype for Business and Power Bi all built around Microsoft cloud services and OneDrive integration. The greatest benefit to having all these Apps is they are available on your desktop, tablet or mobile device.

It does take some time to learn and make use of these applications, but in a few cases, it is really worth the effort. The most powerful and useful of these cloud tools is Microsoft OneNote. This tool can be used to take notes in a meeting or to compile documents, including emails, photos, videos, PDF's, Word files, and web reference material captured in a browser and placed into an organized folder with titled pages. OneNote is a great tool to hold information about a planned trip, a research project, a class for school, rolling out a new service or product or a project. The over riding benefit to using any of these Apps is that they are available anywhere you are.

Office Web Apps are an Office 365 tool available with an E3 license. If you aren’t an E3 Office 365 subscriber, get your trial here.

TRI is a
Microsoft Cloud Champion Partner
Specializing in deploying

Office 365
Exchange Online
Access
OneNote

Using OneDrive for Business

It was time to take another look at OneDrive for Business. I have not been a proponent for using this tool because it was difficult and convoluted. But now, those with an Enterprise (E3) Office 365 license will receive 1 terabyte (soon to be 5 tb of space according to Microsoft's Office 365 Team Blog). So I needed to test it out. I set out to copy 4,857 image files totaling 11gb of space to the cloud - OneDrive for Business. At first I used Google Chrome, but that crashed twice. Then I used windows 7 Internet Explorer and started the copy. That crashed. So then... read on.

They have also updated their Sync client. According to Microsoft; "After a successful preview program, we are happy to report that the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is now available for deployment. Our top priorities for this release were improved reliability and performance, as well as delivering core capabilities such as selective sync, support for large files up to 10 GB in size and removing the 20,000 file sync limit.". I have tested this out and can report that I successfully synced 8gb of files in just a few hours. And another 2.4gb in an hour. It works! Also, the online interface for OneDrive for Business is hands down nicer and more intuitive than Dropbox which hasn't changed in years.

This upcoming month, I will analyze the resources and impact on work flow comparing Dropbox with OneDrive for Business. Dropbox has always been a resource hog when starting and when syncing. As expected, OneDrive for Business seems to integrate with Windows with less impact on the user. If that proves out, that is very significant. I'll report back next month.

OneDrive for Business is an Office 365 tool available with an E3 license. If you aren’t an E3 Office 365 subscriber, get your trial here.

Nuts and Bolts

Do you send emails to the same group of people all the time? Save yourself some time and create a Contact Group in Outlook. Click on the Address Book item in your Home Ribbon. In address book, click File, New Entry. Select New Contract Group. Give it a name and then add people to the group. You can have a group of two people or more than 100. Next time you send a message to the group, just type the group name instead of all the members' email addresses.

Robert McKay Jones
TRI
9 Waushacum Avenue
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564

Direct Line:
978-422-4324
rmj@trif.com

Copyright ©2016 TRI
All Rights Reserved
All Photographs Copyright ©2016 by Robert McKay Jones unless otherwise credited
Artists Sketch by Bruce Davidson
This document is provided for informational purposes only.
The information contained in this document represents the views of Robert McKay Jones and Transportation Resources, Inc.
All information provided in this document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.
The reader assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document.
Permission to use the words in this document for commercial purposes usually is granted. However, commercial use requires advance authorization.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

News from TRI

I have taken similar pictures of the Boston skyline from Cambridge but particularly like this one because of the star-burst lights along the Longfellow bridge. These are construction lights along the bridge because the Longfellow is going through a major renovation. The project was scheduled to be completed in 2016 and cost around $300,000 million, but has hit numerous delays and is now set for completion towards the end of 2018. The reconstruction of the salt and pepper towers was completed this past month. Please see my online store. The store allows you to have my photographs custom printed and framed. Friend me on Facebook, look at my blogs, or look me up on Flickr. Store is now open. Check out my profile on ImageBrief! Click to Shop.

In This Issue

March 2016

ReCaptcha Project

Feeling Special

Twitter

Welcome to News from trif.com! First time readers, I am glad you're here! Returning readers, welcome back!

I love to share the many photos I have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

Did you know we provide...

Mobile Driver Apps

Real-time Updates
with Signature Capture

Is Twitter for You?

It is Twitter's tenth anniversary. It is hard for most of us to understand why more than 300 million users are actively tweeting every month. Some is reality based, some vanity, some political and some social.

It isn't hard to understand why the growth of Twitter year over year is declining. Twitter lost 2 million users in the 4th quarter of 2015. That is a first quarter loss. That said, the revenue jumped 48% to $710 million. The stock price has almost inversely matched tweeting users. With a high of $69 in 2014, it has sunk to around $17. The current retained earnings hovers near 2 billion dollars. That is a lot of ground to make up especially when the company is still losing $500 million a year.

What is becoming interesting is Twitter in business. In the end, Twitter is great for those building a social media following. Here are some reasons to use Twitter:

If your customers are already using Twitter, then it makes sense for you to use Twitter.
A great way to provide real-time customer feedback
You can research your prospects
One more way to broadcast news
An avenue to provide real-time discounts or coupons
Might be a good way to view competitor
Helps define your brand

Here are some cautions:

Follow before engaging
Take conversations off-line
Don't tweet unless you plan on tweeting again, and again, and again

TRIF.COM
Technology Resources

Technology solutions are a part of doing business just like sales and marketing, It is an important component in servicing customers, managing costs and controlling operations.

Feeling Special

Those of you who know me know that my wife and I (and the whole family) are BIG fans of Disney. We love the quaintness of Main Street USA, the incredible ambiance of Wilderness Lodge and Mickey Mouse is a hero of mine as is Walt Disney. Disney Vacation Club is their point-system time-share offering and we became members back in 2001 with our home resort the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. This year, there are lots of improvements being made to that resort, so we made other plans.

We booked ourselves into Disney's Vero Beach resort in October using their on-line reservation system. We have never been there, but have heard good things about it and the vacation points are quite a bit less than those required to stay at Wilderness Lodge. So a few minutes after I booked the reservation, I received an email from Disney Vacation Club:

"Welcome home Robert Jones! October is our favorite month at Disney's Vero Beach Resort because you're coming home!". Well, I just thought that was a great opening sentence. Sure, I know the same email goes out to every single guest. I know I am a sap. But that doesn't make the sentiment seem any less sincere. Disney has a way of making you feel special and isn't that what we all want from time-to-time?

So how is this newsworthy? I think it is one of the things that sets Disney apart from other major corporations like Citi, Bank of America, Comcast, Walmart, Pfizer or ExxonMobil. It makes me think, what have we done to make our customers feel special? It's something we all need to work on.

TRI is a
Microsoft Cloud Champion Partner

Specializing in deploying

Office 365
Exchange Online

Access
OneNote

The ReCaptcha Project

Security on the Internet is often confirmed through the use of a captcha or reCaptcha, a graphic word or phrase that needs to be solved by the user before proceeding. The captcha has always been annoying, difficult to read let alone interpret, but this has changed.

The reCaptcha project uses graphic words excerpted from scanned books or photographs of street signs as the Captcha source image. Then it has multiple users translate the graphic word or sign into text characters and the results are saved. One word at a time is verified by many people to digitize entire volumes more accurately than any computer. This builds a library of digitized books published before the digital age and makes maps more usable and readable.

In essence, the reCaptcha project harnesses a global human effort to flawlessly perform optical character recognition to digitize the world around us. For more information on how this works, see this Ted Talk.

Nuts and Bolts

Microsoft, like all major software houses shoves "enhancements" down the throats of its users. The new feature in Microsoft Outlook which created the Clutter folder is one of those ill-thought-out features. The problem is that it creates an extra step for us users and yet another email folder for us to manage. We have the ability to create Outlook Email Rules for any inbound email, so why do we need Microsoft deciding into which folder an email should be routed? I remain clueless. So to turn off the Clutter feature in Office 2013, you need to sign onto the Outlook Web App. (File - Account Settings - Access this account on the Web). Click the settings gear top-right, select Options, Go to the Mail options on the left side and select Clutter. Uncheck Separate items identified as clutter. There is a video describing this here. If you need help, please let us know.

Robert McKay Jones
TRI
9 Waushacum Avenue
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564

Direct Line:
978-422-4324
rmj@trif.com

This email was sent to robertmckayjones.stager52@blogger.com
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Transportation Resources, Inc. · 9 Waushacum Avenue · PO Box 452 · Sterling, MA 01564 · USA

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

It's News from TRI

I spent the day around Boston Harbor last week. I started in Dorchester at the JFK Library and worked my way around to Charlestown which is where I took this image of the Boston skyline at dusk. I ended in Cambridge for some night shots of Boston and the Zakim bridge. Boston is such a great city with wonderful neighborhoods. The Harborwalk is an enormous asset to the city with 38 miles of walkways. When done, 47 miles will be available as a result of the waterfront revitalization program. For those that don't visit, you should. Please see my online store. The store allows you to have my photographs custom printed and framed. Friend me on Facebook, look at my blogs, or look me up on Flickr. Store is now open. Check out my profile on ImageBrief! Click to Shop.

In This Issue

February 2016

Solid State Drive Upgrade

Online Home Buying Auction

Learning with Lynda

Did you know we provide...

Mobile Driver Apps

Real-time Updates
with Signature Capture

Upgrading to a Solid State Drive

I have written before about the advantage of having a solid state hard drive (SSD) as your primary drive. It is lightning fast compared to a 7,200 rpm hard drive. Lightning! That helps you with boot up time and application load time. However, does it really make sense going through the trouble of adding the hard drive, reinstalling windows and all your programs? You can see details of all the steps here. It doesn't help with Internet speed or necessarily speed up applications. I submit that it is rarely a benefit to go through this process.

It is far better to buy a new computer with an SSD drive as its primary hard drive already installed. The new computer has been built specifically for the use of the SSD drive. Components have been selected and optimized to allow the computer to perform at its best. There are other factors that come into play which may not allow you to obtain your peak performance.

It is always far better to increase the RAM of your computer then install a new hard drive. RAM is what helps your computer think faster, react faster, process faster and jump from application to application faster. If you have 4gb now, double it to 8gb or better yet quadruple it to 16gb. And if you are specking out new computers, think 16gb as your norm.

Who doesn't run with multiple browser tabs in background along with Outlook and Excel or Word running as well. This all takes memory. Because we are multitasking more than ever before, add lots more memory and you will happily notice the difference throughout the day.

TRIF.COM
Technology Resources

Technology solutions are a part of doing business just like sales and marketing, It is an important component in servicing customers, managing costs and controlling operations.

Online Home Buying Auction

Buying a home tends to be the biggest decision in the lifetime for most people. For many, it is a once in a lifetime experience. So how can the Internet complicate that process? Introducing Hubzu.com. There are more than 10,000 properties in the United States being auctioned off. More than 8,000 are single family homes. Most of these are being sold "as-is". The methodology of selling homes online has been out there a long time with Zillow, Realtor.com, MLS, Redfin, Trulia as well as all the independent realtors. Auctioning however is a different world altogether and the Internet adds a new dimension. Buyer beware.

If you spend a short time online, you will see that many people have had some bad experiences with Hubzu. You will not only see Hubzu, but also GoHoming and Altisource (all the same company). Looking closely at the comments, you will see that Hubzu is the web front for an advertising and negotiating game of real estate. Those that know how to play the game and have the benefit of experience, knowledge and patience, and are comfortable walking away can win in the end.

The game often seems to go like this... Someone makes a bid, it turns out to be the high bid, but the reserve was not met. The Seller counters with a much higher price. It is declined. They re-list the property for a price near but higher than the prior highest bid. This process might repeat itself three or four times. Each time, the reserve price is lowered. Eventually, and without apparent logic, the buyer may acquire the property. There is a robotic automation that is difficult to figure out.

Only the daring and persistent should play the game.

TRI is a
Microsoft Cloud Champion Partner

Specializing in deploying

Office 365
Exchange Online

Access
OneNote

Learning with Lynda

We need to learn new things every day and we need to take on that responsibility seriously. It is why I don't begrudge my monthly payment I send to Lynda.com, a learning site now owned by LinkedIn. I have been using Lynda.com regularly since 2012. They provide excellent quality learning videos and webinars on new technology, photography, software, business, marketing and even leadership plus many other subjects.

One of the great things about Lynda.com is you can watch on your Android, iPhone or iPad and your computer or TV using your Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV or AirPlay. Brilliant. The best place to watch is when you are on a treadmill or an elliptical machine at the gym. They are excruciatingly boring machines and learning while you move is quite rewarding.

Nuts and Bolts

Most USB Drives are still non-solid-state, so they are mechanical and spin. It can be a pain in the neck because they wind down when not used which means they need to wind up to get to speed which takes time, sometimes a half minute. Here are a couple of tips to keep those USB Drives spinning. From your Control Panel, go into the Device Manager. Check your Disk Drives and under Policies, select Better Performance. Under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, select USB Root Hub and under Power Management, deselect Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Lastly, in Control Panel – Power Options, edit your plan settings and click Change advanced power options. Under Disk Drive – Turn off hard disk after setting, change to Never.

Robert McKay Jones
TRI
9 Waushacum Avenue
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564

Direct Line:
978-422-4324
rmj@trif.com

Copyright ©2015 TRI
All Rights Reserved
All Photographs Copyright ©2015 by Robert McKay Jones unless otherwise credited
Artists Sketch by Bruce Davidson
This document is provided for informational purposes only.
The information contained in this document represents the views of Robert McKay Jones and Transportation Resources, Inc.
All information provided in this document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.
The reader assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document.
Permission to use the words in this document for commercial purposes usually is granted. However, commercial use requires advance authorization.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

January News From trif.com

I love this image. Just before sunset in the golden waters off the coast of California just north of San Diego, specifically La Jolla Cove, surf paddle boarders follow their passion. But this photo also conveys a sense of carefree solitude and peacefulness that is enviable. Please see my online store. The store allows you to have my photographs custom printed and framed. Friend me on Facebook, look at my blogs, or look me up on Flickr. Store is now open. Check out my profile on ImageBrief! Click to Shop.

In This Issue

January 2016

Retooling

Collective Conversation

Subscription Software

Welcome to News from trif.com! First time readers, I am glad you're here! Returning readers, welcome back!

Happy New Year! I love to share the many photos I have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

Did you know we provide...

HubSpot Integration?

Mobile Web Apps?

Retooling

Every year, I try to take some time to question and evaluate the past year so that I can retool for the next year. It isn't always obvious or planned. It isn't always a retreat or a conscious getaway that affords me the time to consider the changes that have taken place and those about to happen. Sometimes, it is tension in the back of the neck that tells me a shift is in the air. The tectonic plates of business are always in flux, sometimes change comes quietly, sometimes catastrophically.

The prime directive must always remain the same however. Companies that span lifetimes provide true value. In the eyes of the customer, the service provided must always be unique or superior. Like the great Jack Nicholson line in As Good as it Gets, "you make me want to be a better man"; no matter what you do, you want to help make your customer be a better company.

I have witnessed time and again, in those clients that I have known the longest that they always retool, re-imagine, re-evaluate. They may change procedures or service methods, but never deviate from the prime directive. They may modify the sales approach or adjust product lines but never stop providing a unique service. They may adopt new tools or forge new partnerships, but they always have their customers' needs in clear view.

With small businesses, profit is essential, but the prime directive is always the value of the service you provide to the person on the other end of the hand you shake, your customer. It is principles like this that make capitalism work. Those who forget this are doomed to failure or dissolution.

TRIF.COM
Technology Resources

Technology solutions are a part of doing business just like sales and marketing, It is an important component in servicing customers, managing costs and controlling operations.

Collective Conversation

In 2015, Microsoft took some big steps in telephony – but of course is stumbling. Microsoft is positioning Skype for Business to be the unified integrated communications solution for tomorrow. Where Cisco and Avaya have the market cornered today, Microsoft has its aim on unseating Cisco and is focused to deliver "a complete, enterprise-grade communications solution at global scale with Office 365". Yes, they have been working on this for a long time. After all, we implemented Lync (now Skype for Business) in February of 2013, almost three years ago. It has been difficult to implement in an environment requiring a switchboard operator and console. There has been no real change in the last three years, but it looks like that is about to change. Microsoft is going to begin providing its own voice calling plans as part of its Office 365. An E3 license with the Skype for Business Cloud PBX add-on and a voice calling plan.

The problem right now is that the technology is in flux, no one knows how to do anything. There is no experience. There is no Microsoft Support. The installations are not wide-spread. Not all users have the option to add this service to their Skype for Business application. TRI is scheduled to attend the 8 hour Skype for Business Academy later this month in an effort to get up to speed on Microsoft's latest offering.

Why do we care? Because unified communications is the future of collaboration and it currently lacks a real-time link between voice, video and data. What unified communications will be to us in the future is a collection of collaborative tools all intertwined and connected on the same network. A group, any number more than one, will be able to have collective conversation using multiple communication devices and peripherals – screens, tablets, headphones and microphones. I can't wait, it is long-overdue.

TRI is a
Microsoft Cloud Champion Partner

Specializing in deploying

Office 365
Exchange Online

Access
OneNote

Subscription Software

Is here to stay! If you think that subscription software is a fad, think again. Microsoft, Adobe, and all web-based software (SaaS) have converted to subscription services. Why? It works! It allows them to manage their customers, manage updates, control software piracy, insure uniform usage which simplifies support and reduces support expense.

This is true for software firms that have millions of users. For small software houses, not so much, purchase and support is still the standard practice.

Nuts and Bolts

Have you ever wanted to send an email, but not until a certain date/time? A little know option in Outlook allows you to do just that. Delay Delivery gives you the ability to schedule the delivery of an email so that it is not delivered before a specific date and time.

In the same dialog box, you can also add voting buttons to an email so that it is voted on, accepted or rejected, yes, no or maybe or a custom . You can also request a delivery receipt. A delivery receipt tells you that an email message was delivered to the recipient's mailbox - not that it was read, just that it was delivered.

And lastly, using the Message - Tags menu, you can flag a message for action or follow-up reminding you to follow-up on the email on a certain date. This is very helpful if you use emails to manage work flow.

Robert McKay Jones
TRI
9 Waushacum Avenue
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564

Direct Line:
978-422-4324
rmj@trif.com