John's Technology Blog

Scanning to Evernote from a Brother MFC printer / scanner

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Evernote, and have been for many years.  I started with it back when the GUI was very different and there was no syncing - imagine that.

However, it is just recently that I configured my Brother MFC-7340 Multi-function to scan DIRECTLY to Evernote.   Prior to this I was using my copier's scan to email function, which requires more steps.

Here are the instructions which can be easily adjusted to work with many other desktop scanners.

 

Start by opening the Brother Control Center from the taskbar or from the Programs menu.  Click Configuration...



 

Choose an unassigned Custom Scan, give the button a name and pick SCAN TO IMAGE...

 

Now use the ADD button to create a new target application.  Find the evernote.exe (evernote.app on a Mac) in your PC's Program Files.  I choose .pdf as my preferred document type.

 

Once added, adjust the quality and interface settings as needed.

 

You are ready to scan to Evernote.

 

Cloud Computing for Real Estate

Presentation given on 02/17/2011

Download Cloud Computing presentation-02-17-2011

App Inventor - This could be huge

Today Google released App Inventor for Android a tool to facilitate the creation of apps for this growing platform.

While I can't vouch for the power or usability of the tool, strategically is makes sense and serves to help us consumers differentiate between the Apple's iOS and Android platforms.  Given Apple's direction of ridiculously tight command and control over any and every app, Google's approach of open-source tools and choice stands as a breadth of fresh air.

REAL ESTATE: which Real Estate apps would you like to see built?

Google better not be evil - they already dominate the world.

Google = World dominance.  Period. 

This table compares country ranking for Facebook, Twitter and Google in light of some reports showing Facebook surpassing Google in US traffic.

Country	Internet users	Facebook’s pos	Twitter’s pos	Google’s pos	Site at #1
China	360,000,000	Not in top 500	371	3	baidu.com
United States	227,719,000	2	12	1	google.com
Japan	95,979,000	30	20	2	yahoo.co.jp
India	81,000,000	4	11	1	google.co.in
Brazil	67,510,400	16	18	1	google.com.br
Germany	54,229,325	3	11	1	google.de
United Kingdom	46,683,900	2	10	1	google.co.uk
Russia	45,250,000	20	40	4	yandex.ru
France	43,100,134	2	46	1	google.fr
South Korea	37,475,800	5	19	4	naver.com
Iran	32,200,000	58	Not in top 500	1	google.com
Italy	30,026,400	2	30	1	google.it
Indonesia	30,000,000	1	12	2	facebook.com
Spain	29,093,984	2	19	1	google.es
Mexico	27,600,000	4	22	1	google.com.mx
Turkey	26,500,000	2	26	1	google.com.tr
Canada	25,086,000	2	11	1	google.ca
Philippines	24,000,000	1	10	3	facebook.com
Vietnam	21,963,117	8	192	1	google.com.vn
Poland	20,020,362	8	118	1	google.pl
Worldwide	1,733,993,741	2	12	1	google.com

Above: The top 20 countries in terms of internet users, plus worldwide results.

These number are from Facebook may have surpassed Google in the US, but what about other countries? | Royal Pingdom.

Cloud-Based Apps, One step closer.

Last week I enjoyed several energetic conversations with my tech peers at the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World 2010 conference.  Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) were popular topics.

At the same time, Google made three major announcements that make their Google Apps family more interesting and capable. 

1) The more exciting news was the purchase of DocVerse, a company that brought us collaboration from within MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  This will be integrated into Google Apps although details are sketchy at this point.  This removes the excuse of features missing from cloud-based apps, and keeps the experience familiar for power users.

2) Another announcement was around Google offering advanced backup for the Apps Suite.  Details are still out, but it should provide disaster recovery (DR) level options on all the files.

3) The launch of the Google Apps Marketplace, where other cloud service providers can sell their integrated products.  Integration with other SaaS is often weak at this early stage, but Single Sign On (SSO) is appearing regularly.  The workflow vendors such as RunMyProcess offer great promise for this sector.The Marketplace also lists many consulting shops doing Google Apps configuration and development. 

These are the pieces we need, steadily coming together.  I only wish Microsoft were competing in a more timely manner -- just to keep Google honest.

PS: I'll be talking cloud stuff in April at Computerworld's SNW conference in Orlando with the folks from Nasuni.

The future of mapping - Bing Maps at TED 2010

Microsoft's Bing is poised to overtake Google Maps in creative uses of the mapping user interface.

The implications for real estate are endless. Imagine going from city map to street map, to bird's eye view to street view -- and then walking into a photosynth-powered virtual tour of the interior of a listing. 

Very Real Estate 2.0.

Watch Blaise Aguera y Arcas do his demo:

Global Internet Usage - 2008

This graph shows the changing global internet trends as of the end of 2008. I am surprised by how much bandwidth is used by P2P. I almost never see pages in languages other than English, yet maybe I should be looking for that content.
http://ping.fm/fVJOp

Snow Leopard for $29 - Windows 7 for $???

Apple has set the bar at the right level with their announcement that the new OS Snow Leopard, due in September, will cost $29 to upgrade. 

$29.

This is what Windows 7 will be measured against in late October when it is released.   How about it Redmond?  Can you match the $29?  Can you at least be reasonable with pricing and/or family licensing?  Please call on all those sad Vista memories and find the inspiration to do the right thing and chose a price that tells the world you learned from your own painful past.

'Amazing' worm attack infects 9 million PCs - Network World

Here is what happens when millions of users ignore that little yellow shield sitting on their Windows PC taskbar.  Are you one of the 9 million?

'Amazing' worm attack infects 9 million PCs - Network World.

Here is how to fix it -- please check your systems.

Adults Outnumber Teens on Social Networks - ClickZ

Keep finding reports/articles like this one Adults Outnumber Teens on Social Networks - ClickZ that show that more and more adults are joining and using social networking tools. 

In particular, Twitter (twitter.com) has a much more adult user base.  Here is a post by Sol Young showing Quantcast numbers.  Focus on the % to the left of the age group.