I was working in a large corporate IT environment. We had implemented a great FileMaker project management solution that had been in use for years to track all the important information associated with thousands of jobs.

An IT executive decided to replace this FileMaker solution with something that was considered more of an “enterprise solution”. To him this meant a web-based application with an industrial strength Microsoft SQL Server backend. (Sometimes I agree this might be necessary…but in this case it was not.) Call me cynical, but I do believe that some of these major decisions are made on the golf course by buddies that want to help each other’s companies and do not have the knowledge required to make a good technical decision.

Anyway, a new company was brought in with their project management solution and a team of developers that were tasked with customization, importing of data from the existing system, and implementation of the product including training, etc. I was interfacing directly with the new developers to assist with reproducing similar functionality as the original solution and to import the existing data when the developer threw up his hands and said “I hate FileMaker!” “Why?” I asked. “Because it does things we just can’t do.” was his answer. He was finding it very difficult to replicate functionality that is inherent to how FileMaker works as a client…functionality that puts power in the hands of users to find and work with data in ways that can take hundreds of hours to replicate in a pure web-based solution.

The new application was eventually implemented. Soon after, it was rejected by users as more difficult to use and less useful that the original FileMaker solution. After a few months, the company that made the product was bought out by another vendor and they killed the application. So in the interim of deciding what new direction was necessary, the FileMaker solution was reinstated.

I’d estimate up to $2.5 million dollars of money was thrown at this problem with the major result being an incredible waste and loss of productivity…all because FileMaker was not considered to be an “enterprise solution”. The lack of understanding of what FileMaker was and what problems it is good at solving caused this issue.

FileMaker solves many problems effectively and with elegance. Since FileMaker is a tool to build totally customized software, it all depends on the quality of the developers that build the solution. Although, FileMaker can handle more users, FileMaker excels in the workgroup space where there are often less than 250 users…meaning a smaller company or a department within a large corporation.

Knowing when to deploy FileMaker to solve a problem and take advantage of its capabilities is the key to winning. When it does fit, you’ll hear the end users and IT management say in unison “We LOVE FileMaker!”

One client required nightly imports from an external database to update contact names, addresses, and other information. They also wanted a report of all the changes made each night. This is not a trivial programming task. There is no automated log of change transactions in FileMaker…and even if there were, it might not be so easy to make a nicely formatted report of it.

Our first attempt at tackling a solution was to add several new fields to the contact table to store the previous values before importing. For example, we added NameFirstPrevious, NameLastPrevious, AddressLine1Previous, CityPrevious, etc. Before we run the import, we execute a script to copy the current values into all the Previous value fields. Then after the import occurs we compare the old and the new values through calculations and show the differences. Here’s how the store previous values script looks:

Go to Record/Request/Page [First]
 Loop
 Set Field [CONTACTS::CityPrevious; CONTACTS::City]
 Set Field [CONTACTS::NameFirstPrevious; CONTACTS::NameFirst]
 ....# Many more lines here
 Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit after last]
End Loop

Then the calculation to see the differences:

If(CONTACTS::NameFirstPrevious<>NameFirst; "Changed First Name: " & NameFirst; "")

This worked great on our test set of records but it quickly became evident that it would not work on large data sets. At one point, with several thousand records it took over 9 hours just to store the previous values!

Optimization 1:
We realized the the amount of work FileMaker needed to do to reindex all the fields in the Contacts table each time a change was stored was slowing things down significantly. So our first optimization was to eliminate some of the reindexing. We changed our script to check if the values were different before stored the previous values which made a change to the field in Contacts. It looked like this…

If [CONTACTS::City<>CONTACTS::CityPrevious]
 Set Field [CONTACTS::CityPrevious; CONTACTS::City]
End If

This actually sped things up quite a lot…cutting several hours off the process.

Optimization 2
Even then, we realized later that it could be optimized further if we moved the previous value fields out of the Contacts table altogether to another 1-1 related table by the primary key ContactID. This table would reindex very quickly because the only items in it would be changes. So the new script set the field through a relationship (Contacts_ContactsPrev) that allowed new records to be created automatiaclly:

If [CONTACTS::City<>CONTACTS::CityPrevious]
 Set Field [Contacts_ContactsPrev::CityPrevious; CONTACTS::City]
End If

With these two optimizations, the script now runs in less than 30 seconds on a regular basis…quite an improvement from the original 9+ hours…and we have the report we need.

So optimizations are possible when we keep at it and think through the possible options. For me, I often need to let the problem stir in the back of my mind for a while before I have the inspiration needed to fix it. Sometimes, I’ll wake up in the morning from a good nights rest and have the “ah ha” moment immediately. I think “If I change this, it will work!” …and often it does!

• Apple is now worth more than the GDP of Greece….literally an entire country.
• Apple’s revenue was $46.3 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 73%.
• Apple sold 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods, 37 million iPhones, and 15.4 million iPads.
• With a market cap of around $419 billion, Apple is now the largest company in the world, overtaking Exxon Mobil’s market cap.
• Apple’s $96.7 billion in cash reserves is larger than the combined market capitalization of 474 companies in the S&P 500.
• Apple’s revenue for the quarter was more than twice that of Microsoft Corporation.
• Apple’s net income grew more than Google’s revenue for the quarter.

If you never purchased Apple stock in the past, you’re kicking yourself. It recently traded at an all time high of $454.

There is a certain satisfaction gained for long-time Apple supporters that have endured a lot of hard times. There were those that ridiculed Apple as a niche player relegating the Mac to graphics and artsy people only. They said it was not a serious business machine because of it’s graphical user interface while Microsoft went on to copy most of the look and feel with Windows. Analysts have been wrong so many times about Apple showing that they never really understood its strategy or place in the computer arena.

Well now the world is different. Macintosh vs. Windows isn’t such an important consideration anymore. Apple is in an incredible position from any standpoint. In the end, Apple creates great products that are designed well and really work to get the job done. No one can argue with that. I’ve seen time and again companies saving significant headaches and improving bottom line results by an investment in Apple technology.

On the other hand the Windows market is still a huge business. The amount of time spent supporting, maintaining, and training people to use Windows workstations is staggaring. It won’t go away soon, but it’s importance is being challenged…primarily by the mobile market. Everyone wants mobile. If you can’t take it with you easily it simply isn’t as useful. The mobile market is dominated by Apple’s iOS and the iPad/iPhone.

Cimbura.com is positioned well to provide solutions that work for all users across platforms…Mac OS, Windows, web and especially Mobile (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)…all through our custom FileMaker and web solutions.

With FileMaker being a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple (though 80% of their clients run Windows), they have significant resources behind them to succeed in the future. In addition, FileMaker has been profitable ever since their inception…even without Apple’s backing. FileMaker is devoting the R&D necessary to move users into the future with a cost-effective and worthy solution to many business problems. We’re proud to be a part of it.

Sources:

• Seekingalpha.com
• Investmentweek.co.uk
• Usatoday.com
• MacWorld.com

If you have a standard VGA monitor adapter connector, then it is an analog video signal coming from your Mac (even though the computer itself is digital). I suggest carrying multiple adapters so you have backups and options to connect to nearly any projector. It is not uncommon for an adapter cable to go bad. Since they are not commonly found in the PC world, it’s good to have another on hand. A digital signal would be output from a HDMI or DVI adapter (see below).

To determine what kind of adapters you need, first find out what video port is available on the side of your MacBook. It will be one of the following male connectors:
1. Thunderbolt (newest)
2. Mini Displayport
3. Micro DVI
4. Mini DVI
This apple article describes them all. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3235

The other end of the adapter would be a female:
1. VGA – Video Graphics Array.
2. HDMI – High-Definition Multimedia Interface. (Used for most new TVs…also a standard port on the MacMini. This cable can also transmit audio…but may not do so automatically from the Mac.)
3. DVI – Digital Visual Interface.

This end of the adapter will connect to the video projector cable itself. I suggest that you have one of each on hand (VGA, HDMI, and DVI) and an extra VGA since that is the most common.

Answer: It depends…

When you purchase FileMaker you get a blank slate construction tool for powerful database solutions. There are some built-in template files that are included but they are quite basic and may require a good amount of work to make them work specific for your work situation. It’s kind of like purchasing a spreadsheet tool like Excel. Excel doesn’t come with the actual spreadsheets that will really make it truly useful. You need to design them yourself for your situation.

Every FileMaker database is different…depending on who developed it for you, the skill level of the developer, and what kind of standards or best practices they used to develop the solution.

The FileMaker Training Series is a great book for learning the ins and outs of developing a database with FileMaker. It goes into a lot of depth. We use it ourselves to review information when we’ve taken the FileMaker Certification exam to become a certified developer.

Here’s an overview of the topics covered in the FTS manual.

So, depending on what you want to do with FileMaker, it could help you.

• Do you want to learn how to better use an existing FileMaker solution that you already have? If so, the FTS won’t help much.
• Do you want to develop your own databases or enhance an existing database at a developer level? If so, the FTS will give you the background you need to know about FileMaker.
• Are you a person that will learn well from reading a book and working through it on your own? If so, FTS (without a classroom setting) may be a great option for you.

We’ve found many people get more value out of some individual coaching sessions with us where we take a given task or something you’re trying to do in FileMaker and build a solution together while you learn. We combine best practices with the training to get you started quickly.

If you are interested in learning FileMaker from a book or video, here are links to some products that that you may want to look at:

• FileMaker Training Series
• FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual by Susan Prosser and Stuart Gripman
• Lynda.com online training.
• FileMaker Pro 11 Essential Training by Cris Ippolite

If you have a high speed internet connection and a TV, this tiny purple box (about $50 with no hidden fees) connects your TV (via an HDMI cable or the included analog RCA cable) to the internet to get tons of content viewable in your living room. It’s simple to setup and you can connect it to several movie and audio services you may already have accounts for on your computer like Amazon.com (Prime members get thousands of free videos and free 2 day shipping for about $79/year), Pandora internet radio, etc. If you decide to purchase other paid services like Hulu Plus ($7.99/month) you may even be able to ditch your cable provider, save money, and go all internet with your TV.

Right now the Roku box is a better value than the Apple TV. It allows access to more affordable content at half the price. We used it to listen to music during our celebrations, watch funny classic movies like The Great Race via Amazon prime, view our Facebook photo albums with the family, and catch one of our favorite inspirational catalysts from NorthPoint TV.

For such a low investment and no monthly fees it’s almost a no brainer to add one to your home. New content is being added every day so your purchase becomes more valuable over time.

In the mean time I had several older phones that I wanted to sell. I decided to try several services that I’ve mentioned but not personally experienced before. Here is my final review, the results, and my recommendations after personally testing three different companies to sell my old iPhones:

(1) Hello Totem – Cellular Distribution Strategies LLC www.hellototem.com 888-224-7231

I used Hello Totem to sell an iPhone 3G 16 GB for $77.23. The entire process took 22 days (11/11/11 to 12/2/11) from getting the online quote to receiving the money in my PayPal account. They are highly rated by other web sites.
In a second instance, I sold them my iPhone 4 32 GB for $222.76. The process took 26 days (10/27/11 to 11/16/11) from getting the online quote to receiving the money in my PayPal account.

Although they have free shipping of the device there is no tracking # on the US Postal Service First Class box they send which makes me a little nervous. Their prices were very good though it took a while to get the money.

(2) Gazelle.com – Second Rotation Inc. www.gazelle.com

I used Gazelle to sell an iPhone 3GS 32 GB for $131. The entire process took 23 days (10/31/11 to 11/22/11) from getting the online quote to receiving the money in my PayPal account. If you’re doing holiday shopping at Amazon.com, you can choose to get an Amazon Gift Card as payment and they’ll add 5% to your total.

(3) CashForiPhones – LDR LLC www.cashforiphones.com

CashForiPhones is a family of web sites cashforlaptops.com, etc. I completely lost trust in them as they provided a bait and switch tactic by quoting a higher price on the front end and then lowering it once they had my phone. They also made the process difficult through poor customer service requiring me to resubmit my order online.
Their web site quoted a decent price for an iPhone 3G. I sent in the unit and they said they found a slight crack and scratch on it and would give me $15. My phone was in identical condition to the one I sent to Hello Totem and got $77.23. The entire process took 17 days (10/31/11 to 11/16/11) from getting the online quote to receiving the money in my PayPal account. Once they have your phone you have little recourse. I could ask them to send it back but then I’d have to pay for postage.

Overall, I recommend Hello Totem for selling your old phone. Stay away form CashForIPhones.com. I feel they ripped me off.

Sending large attachments via email is a mess. Many times the emails will fail due to mail limitations. On the receiving end, getting huge attachments can slow your email down or bring it to a halt altogether. It’s just not a good thing to do. In the past, I’ve used a service such as YouSendIt.com but gave up on that a few months ago when I found an easier, more effective, and free way to do this utilizing Dropbox for files up to 2GB in size.

First, go out and get a Dropbox account if you do not already have one and install it on your computer. You’ll need to attach your Dropbox account to an email address. If you want, you can create a new free email address with Gmail for just this purpose.

Here’s how to share a large file with anyone:

1. Drag the file you want to share into the “Public” folder in the special Dropbox folder. Note: Anything you drop in this folder is potentially available to the world. Do not use this method for confidential or sensitive documents.
2. Right click (or hold down the Control key and click if you have a 1 button mouse) on the document.
3. From the Dropbox sub menu choose “Copy Public Link”. This will place an internet URL on the clipboard.
4. Create your mail message and text in your mail application of choice. From the Edit menu, choose Paste. This will paste the link into your email. When your email recipient clicks on this link they will download a copy of your document.

This is a great way to send a large PDF file, audio clip, etc. Another advantage to this method is that you can easily update the document without resending it to people. Just replace the file in your Dropbox public folder with one that has exactly the same name. The next time it is downloaded the user will get the latest version.

Question: I have been told that when showing pictures of photos on an external video projector, that it is best to use a Windows PC with PowerPoint…that the Mac and Keynote has the pictures showing up as dull or dark. Is this true?

Answer: If you are having issues with presentation slides showing up on an external projector that are less than optimal, this is likely due to the settings and configuration or software versions, not an inherent issue with Mac vs. PC or PowerPoint vs. Keynote.

First, make sure you are using the latest operating system version revision. (Please do a full system backup before doing this!) There were reports of some issues with this kind of issue around version 10.6.3 of Snow Leopard. There are various Color Display Profiles to choose from is the Displays System Preferences and a calibration process where you can adjust the gamma. In some cases there may be a problem with the default “VGA Display” profile.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. Click on Displays.
3. Click on Color.
4. Turn off “Show profiles for this display only”
5. Choose “Generic RGB Profile” or “Wide Gamut RGB”.

On some versions of the Mac OS, the following may also help:

1. From the Go menu in the Finder, choose Utilities.
2. Open the “ColorSync Utility.app” application.
3. Click on Devices.
4. Click on Displays and choose “VGA display.”
5. Under “Current Profile” click the down-arrow, select “Other…” and select “Color LCD”.

Here’s an Apple support article that describes the process of calibrating an external display.

I would always suggest that you arrive early to a presentation and test your laptop with the particular model of projectors they have installed. Then you will have time to get the settings right. As an alternative, if you have the option, use your own projector that you have pre-calibrated.

Question: Every so often, a window appears announcing that OpenBase is updating my files. Is this a good thing? Should I find and delete OpenBase?

OpenBase is an industrial strength SQL-based database  tool that is used by some Mac OS applications to store, retrieve, and search information (Wikipedia OpenBase article).

You can find out where OpenBase is installed on your system by running the following command in a Terminal window:

locate OpenBase

It might be getting started up via an entry under one of the following directories:

/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons

OpenBase may have been installed by an older application called StickyBrain which was a replacement for Apple’s Sticky Notes. It is also used as the backend database for Daylite from Marketcircle and LightSpeed POS (Point of Sale) solution from Xsilva . So if you’re continuing to use ANY of these applications (or some unknown application that may need OpenBase), it would be very wise to NOT remove OpenBase.

Otherwise, you may be able to remove it and save on some system resources. Some people report faster performance…especially if multiple instances of OpenBase are open and running. (You’d see this in the Apple “Activity Monitor” application.) If you are unsure of what application might have installed or is using OpenBase, DO NOT remove OpenBase unless you have completed a recent full backup of your entire hard drive with SuperDuper! See my important backup article for some tips.

If you are very sure of what you’re doing and you want to remove all traces of OpenBase, then open the Mac OS Terminal and type the following:

sudo /Library/OpenBase/bin/RemoveOpenBaseScript

Please, if you’re at all squeemish about doing any of these things, let someone help you out so you don’t break something…and backup first!