Just got back from Chicago and the ASAE Annual Meeting. I think ASAE outdid themselves once again with this meeting. I'll go so far as to say that the opening general session, with "An Association Musical" as its theme, and featuring Lee & Bob Woodruff, was the best ASAE opening session I've ever attended (and …
I'm off to ASAE's Annual Meeting in Chicago. I serve on the ASAE Technology Section Council, so I'll be in that meeting on Saturday, and then generally wandering around for the rest of the conference. (This is one of those rare years that I won't be speaking at a session.) If I see something of …
In the storage room of my house is a box from a printer that reads "Data Processing Forms." The picture on the outside of the box is of paper that has those "tractor feed" pinholes on the sides, for feeding through a dot matrix printer. Mind you, this box is no more than 15 or 16 …
A colleague of mine tells me that his hard drive on his laptop has crashed, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to recover it. The kicker is that he hasn’t run a back up on that drive for almost a month, so he’s probably lost a month’s worth of work. What’s amazing is that even …
I was on the phone today with a hotel, confirming my reservations. The reservations agent asked me for my name and then said "Let's see how they have your reservation set up." "They"? If I'm calling your hotel, isn't it "we"? I come across this too frequently when talking to association staffers about what they …
After nearly 20 years of working with associations on their databases, I’ve come to one conclusion: No one loves their database. OK, that’s an overstatement; I’ve met three or four people over the years who truly loved their databases (these are strange people). The reality is, most of us tolerate our database programs, and many …
Everyone's experience is the same (Or, It's just as bad everywhere else) Read More »
I recently conducted an unscientific poll of my clients and contacts, asking them one simple question: What database issue are you being challenged with right now? I received over 120 responses to this question. Interestingly, the answers fell almost evenly into five broad categories: Reporting/querying – 26% Data integrity – 20% Web Integration – 20% …
I've been a long-time user of X1 Technologies desktop search (more here). There used to be a free version of X1, but now they only sell the "professional" version for $50. I'm telling you right now, it's the best $50 you'll ever spend. I know Yahoo and Google provide free desktop searches. I've tried them …