Portable IrfanView 4.20

Portable IrfanView 4.20
IrfanView 4.20 Portable | 1.26 MB IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. IrfanView is a fast, simple freeware image viewer and editor that supports all major graphic formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, animated GIF

Portable FantasyDVD Platinum 9.40.1108
FantasyDVD Platinum 9.40.1108 Portable | 10.41 MB Whether watching DVD movies on your laptop as you travel, using your computer as a second DVD player for your kids or watching a movie on your desktop as you work, FantasyDVD lets you get the most out of any computer with a DVD drive. In addition to all the features you find in your home entertainment DVD player, FantasyDVD gives you advanced

There’s a place for everyone at ATEC

There’s a place for everyone at ATEC
If you’re an Alpha developer, you’ve no doubt heard about our yearly Alpha Technology and Education Conference (ATEC), and maybe even attended one yourself. This year’s conference took place in Atlanta from Sept. 4-6.

Every year, Alpha Five developers from around the world converge for a few days to share best practices, tools, tips, and techniques. But the conference emphasizes more than just theories and concepts of Alpha Five development. Rather, we show developers how to take full advantage of Alpha as both a desktop and Web database development program.

Sound good, but not sure if a full conference is the right place for you to learn more about Alpha Five? Our very own Jerry Brightbill attended this year, and wrote up a fairly detailed summary of his overall impressions of this year’s conference attendees. Here are his notes.

Most of the attendees were not full-time programmers. A significant portion were employees of companies where IT or application development was only a part of their jobs. The people in this category used Alpha Five mainly to fill a specific business need, and only learned enough about the product to meet that need. They had limited resources available to commit to a solution.

Nearly all of the application development was on the desktop using the built-in DBF data format, and most coding was limited to action scripting and simple Xbasic. Networked applications were common, but many were using terminal services or some type of VPN, rather than loading runtimes on users’ computers and using shadowed configurations.

Most of the small companies represented had some type of IT department, even if it was only one person working at it part time. This IT function typically limited the computer configurations allowed on the users’ computers, and was often tasked to do everything as cheaply as possible, which may be why few used runtimes loaded on multiple computers.

There were a few people there who could be considered full-time developers, but most were desktop only. Even the full-time developers used only limited parts of the capabilities of Alpha Five. Some had a commercial product, and limited their knowledge to the requirements of that product.

There were a couple developers who were doing Web development. Interestingly, these developers did almost no desktop development other than reports. A couple had worked on some hybrid solutions, but quickly moved to browser-based-only development.

A number of people were running most of their business processes using databases based on some version of Alpha Five, but very few of these systems could be considered “integrated.” Most were built piecemeal with little initial specification development or overall design.

Other data platforms, such as Excel, Lotus Notes, and paper-based processes, were common elements of the overall “system” in use. Most of the interest and focus appeared directed at solving a specific problem, and not on efficient overall design.

Since most of these systems were used by a limited number of users in a controlled environment, a number of elements considered critical in a commercial application were often not a concern. These limited interest areas included usability, scalable designs, limiting user access to program elements, etc.

Some people could be considered “dabblers” or “hobbyists.” Overall, the attendee makeup was heavily weighted to people using Alpha Five as a tool to solve a business problem. Previous conferences tended to have a larger proportion of the “hobbyist” element.

Many people expressed interest in alternative data platforms, but cost was a major concern. For that reason, many were looking at open source solutions, such as MySQL. Very few even considered more robust enterprise solutions as SQL Server or Oracle.

There was a lot of interest in Web development, primarily as an alternative to internal networked applications. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a large amount of interest in public Internet applications, but that may be because of the makeup of the attendees. Apparently some of the companies hired outside consultants to build limited public Web sites.

Most of the attendees recognized they have to learn new technologies, and the sessions on Web development and SQL were very well received. But there was a reluctance to move away from what they were doing now. As is common in small business, most were working on at least one generation old technology, and many were using Alpha Five Version 7 and Alpha Five Version 8.

A surprising number had not upgraded, as they felt they didn’t need Web capabilities or SQL support and the older versions worked adequately. There was some interest in future developments, but most wanted solutions they could use now.

The main reason given for not moving to Web or SQL was the learning curve. Many of the people were fairly new to database development in general, and had struggled to reach the knowledge levels they had achieved. The concept of learning any additional techniques was daunting.

The overall format of hands-on, two-hour training sessions was very popular. Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the people in each section actively participated, while others just watched the projection screens and followed the learning guides. In some sessions, the percentage was much higher, and some a little less. Each session included discussion periods that introduced a number of topics.

Most attendees expressed the importance of face to face discussion periods, such as question and answer periods, breaks, lunch, and even evening sessions. There was a lot of networking when sessions were not being held. All of the sessions seemed to have a lot of interaction between the instructors and the people in the session.

As you can see, Alpha Conferences are excellent learning environments for developers of all stripes and skill sets. I encourage you to attend the next one. You’ll be glad you did, and smarter, too!

New Carrollton Police Department puts Alpha Five on patrol
The best part of my job is hearing about the new and exciting ways our customers are using Alpha Five to make their jobs easier. I recently had the chance to talk to Lt. Richard Hartnett from the New Carrollton Police Department in New Carrollton, M.D., to see how he’s used Alpha in the force. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

Hartnett is the Director of IT for the NCPD, and he recently built a database that lets officers file electronic incident reports using the mobile computers in their squad cars, instead of having to fill out tedious and time consuming reports by hand.

Read on, or take a look at the full PDF version.

Customer Profile
The mission of the New Carrollton Police Department is to safeguard life and property, preserve the peace, prevent and detect crime, enforce the law, and protect the rights of all citizens.

Location
New Carrollton, M.D.

Industries
Public safety

Situation
The New Carrollton Police Department needed a way to computerize their incident reports. Their paper forms were repetitive, tedious, time consuming, and at risk for errors or misfiling. Lieutenant Richard Hartnett, Director of IT at New Carrollton Police Department, wanted a database that would let officers write an electronic incident report using the mobile computers in their squad cars. He wanted the reports available to other officers in the field, at the station, and from other counties, all in real time. He also wanted to eliminate time wasted due to repetitive entries. Every time a person was involved in an incident, their information would have to be re-entered on a new paper form. Lt. Hartnett wanted officers to enter information once, then pull up the appropriate database record and update it as necessary. Lastly, computerized forms would solve the problem of space limitations that the current paper reports presented. Lt. Hartnett knew the answer was a Web-based database, but like most cops-turned-IT pro, he didn’t have the programming skills required to build it from scratch. Or so he thought.

Solution
Lt. Hartnett had some IT experience through his previous position at the Berwyn Heights Police Department. He had previously used OmniForm to computerize Berwyn Heights’ incident reports. But that old platform wasn’t Web-based, wasn’t programmable, and required information be batch transferred from officers’ vehicle computers to the station at the end of each shift. After experimenting with several tools without success, Lt. Hartnett discovered Alpha Five. He quickly got up to speed with Alpha Five’s visual approach to application development, and had an initial version of New Carrollton’s database operational in short order. By using Alpha Five’s Action Scripting, component builders, Genies, and built-in Web security framework, Lt. Hartnett didn’t have to write a lick of code. And because the application lived on the Web, he could deploy it once, and provide access anywhere there’s a secure IP connection. He didn’t have to install any software on individual PCs or in officers’ vehicles.

Benefits
The result: a high-performance, intuitive Web database that is now addressing all of the requirements the department established for it. Its design lets officers enter an electronic report in the field, and have that report immediately accessible by other officers in the field or back at the station. And because it’s Web-based, no special software, hardware, or other components need to be installed in officers’ computers or cars. They simply fire up a Web browser, enter the URL of the database, key in their credentials, and get instant access to the entire incident records management system. Alpha Five’s powerful yet easy-to-use tools made it possible for Lt. Hartnett to achieve the lofty goals he established for the database, without having to learn a computer language or writing a single line of code. As a result, New Carrollton and five other municipal police departments are now tied into the system, giving hundreds of local officers access to critical incident information in real time. In fact, the system has been so successful with the six police departments, Lt. Hartnett hopes to expand that access to law enforcement agencies throughout Maryland and beyond.

For More Information
Alpha Software, Inc.
781-229-4500
http://www.alphasoftware.com/

New Carrollton Police Department
301-459-0142
http://newcarrolltonpd.com/

Sad news

Sad news
Regular Alpha blog readers have probably caught on to my love of dogs. I talk about them all the time. One of our favorite Alpha dogs, however, was a beautiful hound mix named Hurley. Hurley lived with Bridget, who helps keep this blog up and running.

Bridget and Hurley made quite a pair. He often accompanied her to work, and was a perfect gentleman while in the office. When they weren’t at work together, they were usually jogging, swimming at the beach, or romping with the other dogs at the local dog park.

But a few weeks ago, Hurley was struck by a car, and he didn’t make it. We are all very saddened by this news at Alpha (though I doubt anyone is as sad as Bridget — she’s a bit of a wreck without her baby).

In case you couldn’t tell from his last Alpha post, Hurley was quite a goof ball. And he was incredibly affectionate and intelligent. Take a look at Bridget’s post on her beloved pup on her own blog, Yellaphant. Now try and tell me your heart isn’t breaking too.

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Continue to Market Your Business to Succeed

Continue to Market Your Business to Succeed

More than 50% of service business owners experience this feast or famine scenario. What if you could create an environment so that the well never ran dry and would permit you to continuously market and promote your business? There is another way to keep yourself supplied with an eagerly waiting list of prospects with whom you can work when you have the time and space in your business. Often referred to as “drip marketing,” this strategy is defined by a deliberate, planned and sequenced system of deploying marketing messages over a period of time. In many cases, drip marketing is conducted through direct mail, but the Internet entrepreneur can create her own drip marketing campaign as well.

Here are 6 secrets you can use to create your online drip marketing campaign and keep prospects in your pipeline:

1. Client attraction device. The best way to get prospects into your marketing funnel is to give away something that would compel them to part with their name and email address and join your list. Often called an “ethical bribe”, your client attraction device must answer a pressing problem experienced by your target market. You can format this information into an ebook, special report, ecourse, audio recording, video, or some combination of all of these.

2. Newsletter: Whether you choose to publish a hard copy newsletter that’s directly mailed to your prospects or an email newsletter that is emailed on a regular schedule to your list, your newsletter is the best “stay in touch” device that you have. Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise.

3. Blog. Business blogging has become more popular than ever. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediate get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader, Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. You need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.

4. Article marketing. One of the best ways to generate traffic to your site or to your blog is to regular write and publish high quality articles that demonstrate your expertise. In addition to placing these articles on your website and blog, you’ll want to get them distributed throughout the Internet on high traffic article directories. Ezine publishers, reporters, print media editors, and bloggers all frequent article directories in search of quality content to present to their readers.

5. Social networking. If you don’t yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board. Business owners are getting prospects on their lists and making sales every day to people they met exclusively through social networking. Best of all, these strategies are free of charge!

6. Public speaking/teleclasses. What better way to wow prospects than for them to hear you speak at an organizational meeting or on a teleclass? Speaking locally to groups comprised of your target market or holding teleclasses are very effective ways to build your list and increase the number of prospective clients. Design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your list.

Don’t become overwhelmed and try all of these strategies at once. Pick one that you find appealing and work at it for 3 months. If you discover that you don’t enjoy it or that it’s not working for you, try another one. Continue to slowly add more drip marketing strategies until the process is firmly ingrained in your day-to-day business practices. Ultimately, you’ll create a list of prospects who are ready, waiting, and eager to hire you.

This post provided by Donna Gunter, Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach helping independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com