And the race is on….

When I was in Boston, Steve Stafford pointed me in the direction of Google Reader. He explained that this can be useful as it gives you some idea of how many people subscribe to your blog. Now Steve is a regular blogger as we all know and his approach to blogging is to provide an article which takes up no longer than 5 minutes a day of somebodies time. This I believe is a great approach, the average person has the attention span of about 15 to 20 minutes. So short sharp to the point articles are a great idea and is probably the way most people learn. Anyway…..Steve stats for his blog currently are….

What was a complete amazement to me was that I’m not far behind the Revit Blogger Master,  however Steve is the original and is more prolific in his articles, where he leads, others follow. ; – )

Anyway, I’m glade those that read my blog find it useful????

Windows Live Writer 2011

Do you blog? Well I have just been fortunate enough to get a new laptop, a Dell Precision M4500! So in the process of downloading and installing some of my regular web apps….I realised that Microsoft have introduced LIve Writer 2011. Well worth installing from what I have seen so far, it can be downloaded from here.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer?os=other

London Festival of Architecture

Picking up on Simons blog article about the London Festival of Architecture, we at HOK London have also got involved!

 

We’ve greened our office and given our atrium area a village green theme along with real grass! hmmmm doubt it will last a week. :-)

Weekend Rant

About a month or two ago I reworked the branding a bit for CAD-a-Blog.  I developed a new logo (never really had an old one) and started using a new template for my blog.  I even started posting again after a long time of neglect.  I soon noticed that my traffic was cut in half?  WHAT?  Where my posts that bad? Probably so.  After further investigation I realized it wasn't my feed traffic that was reduced; it was my search engine traffic.  Hmmm.  After even further investigation I realized that I no longer had any keywords in my meta data.  In fact, I had almost no meta data at all!  YIKES!  I fixed that.  Now let's see if people can find me again.  I hope so.



On another note, but similar in some way, at work I recently became the CAD/IT Manager, due to the former administer leaving.  I have been at the firm for right about a year now.  As is good practice, when one IT manager leaves, the next goes in and changes the passwords, for everybody's sake.  Well I missed one and it was preventing our backup system to run properly.  The point, is that change is good, change is inevitable, but if we don;t do it properly, something is going to skip through the cracks and have a large affect on you, eventually.

Change happens, especially in the CAD industry.  Software changes, it has to, or else the companies producing that product will have nothing else to sell and will die off.  AutoCAD, Revit, Solid Works, Microstation all change.  It is our job as CAD users to change along with it.  That means training.  Training can be supplied by your employer.  It's a good idea to train your employees.  This makes them feel you care about them, even if you don't.  It also makes them better.  I've known of employers that didn't train for that reason.  They felt that giving their employees more skills meant they were more marketable.  If you are an employer, ignore this feeling.  You will benefit the most if your employees are well trained.  The best way to keep your employees is to keep them happy.  Training is one thing you can do.  More pay is another.

Training is expensive.  So is inefficiency.  Inefficiency will kill moral and a budget.  It always pays to do things right the first time.  Sure it often takes longer and costs more in the beginning, but that time, and more, will be spent later on in the life of a project. 

In conclusion, take time to train yourself even if you have to pay for it.  If you don't, then the next will and will take your job.  An employer loves hiring a person that already knows what he or she is doing.  I know keeping up with a new release of your favorite CAD software every year is tough, but it is necessary.  That's why I am here to help.  Come to CAD-a-Blog for great tips.  And if that isn't enough, hire me to train you!

It's always good to know what you are doing.

Weekend Rant

About a month or two ago I reworked the branding a bit for CAD-a-Blog.  I developed a new logo (never really had an old one) and started using a new template for my blog.  I even started posting again after a long time of neglect.  I soon noticed that my traffic was cut in half?  WHAT?  Where my posts that bad? Probably so.  After further investigation I realized it wasn't my feed traffic that was reduced; it was my search engine traffic.  Hmmm.  After even further investigation I realized that I no longer had any keywords in my meta data.  In fact, I had almost no meta data at all!  YIKES!  I fixed that.  Now let's see if people can find me again.  I hope so.



On another note, but similar in some way, at work I recently became the CAD/IT Manager, due to the former administer leaving.  I have been at the firm for right about a year now.  As is good practice, when one IT manager leaves, the next goes in and changes the passwords, for everybody's sake.  Well I missed one and it was preventing our backup system to run properly.  The point, is that change is good, change is inevitable, but if we don;t do it properly, something is going to skip through the cracks and have a large affect on you, eventually.

Change happens, especially in the CAD industry.  Software changes, it has to, or else the companies producing that product will have nothing else to sell and will die off.  AutoCAD, Revit, Solid Works, Microstation all change.  It is our job as CAD users to change along with it.  That means training.  Training can be supplied by your employer.  It's a good idea to train your employees.  This makes them feel you care about them, even if you don't.  It also makes them better.  I've known of employers that didn't train for that reason.  They felt that giving their employees more skills meant they were more marketable.  If you are an employer, ignore this feeling.  You will benefit the most if your employees are well trained.  The best way to keep your employees is to keep them happy.  Training is one thing you can do.  More pay is another.

Training is expensive.  So is inefficiency.  Inefficiency will kill moral and a budget.  It always pays to do things right the first time.  Sure it often takes longer and costs more in the beginning, but that time, and more, will be spent later on in the life of a project. 

In conclusion, take time to train yourself even if you have to pay for it.  If you don't, then the next will and will take your job.  An employer loves hiring a person that already knows what he or she is doing.  I know keeping up with a new release of your favorite CAD software every year is tough, but it is necessary.  That's why I am here to help.  Come to CAD-a-Blog for great tips.  And if that isn't enough, hire me to train you!

It's always good to know what you are doing.