Category Archives: Uncategorized

SketchClub is an App and a Community.  It provides ANYONE with the desire to express themselves artistically to create beautiful art.  No artistic training is required. However, for those that do have training, it is an exceptional way to create and share your works with others. 

As an example of that, pictured here is a drawing by artist Vermeer who happens to be one of the most able and prolific of the SketchClub artists.  This piece is astoundingly beautiful. The program allows the artist to render extraordinarily accurate portraits such as this, or expand your horizons with imaginative abstracts.

SketchClub provides all the tools and advanced drawing capabilities of applications such as Photoshop but is actually more intuitive and fun to use.  It has a wide array of tools, brushes, colors, layers, copy, merge, and more.  As you complete a piece of art, you can save it, push it to Facebook, email it, and share it with other SketchClub artists.  You might get a thumbs up or maybe a nice comment, or, if your work is outstanding in the eyes of another, you may receive a heart.  Special works will be featured by the site operators (fondly calling themselves Gloperators) which will earn your art a bigger audience.

In the end, it’s all about finding peace and pleasure in creating and the comradeship of sharing your efforts with other like-minded artists.  Yes, we are all artists!

How do you improve your connection to your customer?  How do you make that connection unique, distinct and difficult for others to replicate.  One way is introducing a customized software application into the mix.  With a special program you can impact information, communication and service in such a way that you become an integral part of your customers business.  More than providing excellent service, you can provide a distinct service.  Maybe something that hasn’t been done before, maybe a link that no one else has conceived. 

TRI is presenting a one-hour webinar presenting some ideas, concepts and custom applications that may give you something new to consider. It is our intention that you will leave the webinar with a new vision for improving your connection with your customer, becoming an even more important partner in their business cycle.  We will be discussing communication, information and service and different ways you can impact those areas in a special and distinct way.

The webinar is free and will be held on Thursday, July 21, 2011 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm. Register here.  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/339075183

What is a webinar?  Think about a webinar as a way you can attend a conference without leaving your desk. Using your computer and telephone, you can hear a presentation (like a conference call) and also see the presenter’s slides (watching over an internet connection) and you may be able to see the presenter as well.

If you want to live in a 28,000 square foot home like this, take the job as CEO of one of our health care companies. Could the regulations be questioned? The law states: “Compensation is not excessive if reasonable”. Read it for yourself here.

New temporary regulations for non-profit health care compensation were issued in 2001. How is it working? Judge for yourself. Here are some annual compensation figures from 2008 for the CEO’s of our nations largest health care providers:

• Aetna – $23 Million
• Caremark RX – 78 Million
• Cigna – $25 Million
• Coventry – $14 Million
• Humana – $10 Million
• United Health – 13 Million
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts – 3.5 Million

In the case of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the compensation represented a 26% increase when net income fell49%. Add to this the options available to these executives and you can see pretty clearly that something is broken. Bill McGuire of United Health has $1.6 billion in options. Ron Williams of Aetna has $174 million. Ed Crawford from Caremark Rx has $249 Million, Joel Gemunder from Omnicare has $110 million.

I’ll leave the commentary up to you.

This is a complicated subject that deserves some attention. First, what is a web portal? Simply stated, a web portal presents information and software services in a unified way through a web browser. It is far different than running your own software on your own servers. A web portal application runs on one or more host computers storing data in one or more locations and the use of the portal is paid for on a recurring basis as in a monthly or annual fee. The major advantages of a web portal are:

• No investment in hardware
• Little or no investment in software (unless the service is customized) as the application is rented as needed
• No support staff is required to maintain server or client systems
• Software can be operated from anywhere in the world

So let’s look at a custom Inventory Control system to compare. If you were to purchase this and the server that it requires, it would cost upwards of $25,000 not including customization and portable data terminals / bar code scanners and the monthly support would cost roughly $225 per month. So if you amortize the cost over 5 years and add the month-to-month, it would add up to about $650 per month at which point new hardware and would probably be needed.

Compare this to the cost to of a basic Inventory Control Web Portal Application – between $420 and $600. A maintenance-free solution at a considerable savings.

So when you are looking at new software, consider Web Portal solutions.

The Path Less Traveled

When was the last time you visited with nature, all by yourself.  To walk, sit, watch, hear and most of all empty your mind of the clutter. I know, it’s harder than cleaning the basement. But it’s a powerful and rewarding experience.  This time of year especially.  Sounds seem to travel farther.  Colors are more brilliant.  Air seems fresh and clean. 

The birds are transients this time of year, gathering, singing and nervously flittering  as if something was beckoning them.  Leaves rustle from the footsteps of chipmunks or squirrels or maybe some larger creatures.  Ponds are full of ducks and geese catching their breath before they once again begin the arduous journey south. 

So why wouldn’t you spend some time pondering.  Calm yourself.  Take a moment to consider….. nothing.  And if you do it once, why wouldn’t you do it again and again? Think about making a change in your schedule.   Think about calendaring an hour to have a meeting with nature. Combine it with a walk or a jog.  Breathe the air deeply. Look past the trees in front of you.  Find water. Puddles, ponds, lakes or oceans. Look for small creatures moving in the water.   Consider how nature works.  How water flows.  How the wind blows.  How the trees sway.  How the clouds move.  How the rain falls.  How the leaves fall.  Just spend some time contemplating the things you don’t spend time contemplating every other day.  It does change your perspective.