It’s Raining on the Oregon Coast

April 2nd, 2010

I’m on “vacation” in Manzanita, Oregon, staying at  a cute little beach house. Since it’s pouring rain outside and we have WiFi Internet, it’s a nice chance to work on a little personal blogging, which I’ve been neglecting while trying to keep up with our growing real estate business.

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to cook. I made delicious banana pancakes this morning, while enjoying the little patch of blue sky outside our living room window. My dog Chase and I went running down the beach this morning during a brief lull in the downpour. I only saw one person on our two mile stretch of beach. That’s one of the things that I love about Oregon :)

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Using the Apple Cinema Display with Windows

January 24th, 2010

I recently upgraded my computer and decided that the nicest display I could get for my budget was an Apple Cinema Display. I found the refurbished model for $599 and have not been disappointed. However, I am a PC user running windows, and Apple clearly did not intend for PC users to buy this display.

In light of this, I will share what I’ve learned about running the display on a Windows PC. First, you need a compatible video card, because apparently the display does not work with all PC video cards. I am using a Sapphire ATI Radeon 4890 which is one of the few cards that is known to be compatible. I read elsewhere that cards using the newer ATI 5750 chipset (which I wanted to get) do not seem to work, though I haven’t tested this myself.

The next step in making this display compatible is dealing with the mini-Displayport connector that is not available on any PC video cards that I am aware of. The solution is a cheap adapter, the Mini Displayport Female to Displayport Male Adapter Cable.

Now the last part of the fun is the integrated Apple Isight camera. Apple doe not offer the PC/bootcamp drivers available for download directly from their website. Instead they offer packages of drivers that are in a format that only can be loaded on a Mac (thanks apple), however, if you have access to a Mac then this package of drivers can be burned to a PC compatible CD. From this CD, the file you need is the latest AppleiSightInstaller64.exe or AppleiSightInstaller.exe depending on whether you or running a 64-bit or 32-bit OS. In my case, the only version of this driver I could track down was slightly outdated and so I actually had to edit the INF file to make it work, however, if you don’t know what an INF file is, then you are probably better off finding a friend with a Mac to burn the latest driver CD for you and while you are at it you should have them update your display’s firmware.

Good luck to anyone else who is foolish enough to mix Apple hardware with a PC :) 

7FA8FN85WBGB

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Off To A Slow Start

January 2nd, 2010

I would like to start blogging once a week, but right now I am focused on the design of the site and so until I get the design updated to something a little more attractive my posting will be infrequent.

The next step in the design process is to get a professional photo shoot done. I want the design to include some pictures of myself, but none of the ones I have now feel quite right. While I am at it, I’m going to get some pictures taken with my new puppy, Chase.

As you can see below, he likes to play frisbee just like his dad.

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Writing A Mission Statement

December 2nd, 2009

Every website should have a mission statement, and my website is no exception. To get started I used a template from the WordPress getting start guide, and because I am a big fan of lists, I’ve created a set of numbered fill-in-the-blank questions from it:

  1. This website will be dedicated to X, Y, and Z,
  2. and cover the topics of A, B, and C.
  3. The audience will be ______ _______ _______.
  4. I will be adding posts every ______ about ______ _______.
  5. I am doing this because ______ _______ _______.

So I’ll answer them one at a time and try to explain each of my answers.

  1. This website is dedicated to me, myself, and I,

It sounds funny, but no joke. This is my personal website to build my personal brand. So what, you might ask, is a personal brand?

Personal Branding is a way of clarifying and communicating what makes you different and special – and using those qualities to guide your career or business decisions. It’s about understanding your unique attributes – your strengths, values, and passions – and using them to separate yourself from your competitors or peers. In this sense, personal branding means clearly communicating the unique promise of value that you have to offer your employer or your clients.
William Arruda, Personal Branding Guru

I think this website will help me identify and communicate the unique promise of value that I have to offer.

  1. and cover the topics of Real Estate, Internet Marketing, and My Life.

I am a real estate broker and own a real estate brokerage. I have developed multiple top-ranked websites and have nearly a decade of experience in information technology. I figure “my life” covers just about everything else I could write about.

  1. The audience will be clients, peers, friends and family.

I decided to go with open-ended answers for this one because I honestly don’t know who will end up reading this. This could become a professional blog that occasionally gets personal, or a personal blog that is very professional. Only time will tell.

  1. I will be adding posts every week about the local real estate market, how to market online, and all the cool things I do.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I hope to write a lot more than once a week, but a weekly commitment seems like a good place to start.

  1. I am doing this because I have a need for self-expression and to have a public personae.

Putting it all together, here’s my edited mission statement.

This website is dedicated to myself and will cover the topics of Real Estate, Internet Marketing, and My Life. The audience will be clients, peers, friends and family. I will be adding posts every week about the local real estate market, how to market online, and interesting things I do like playing a Halloween Ultimate Frisbee tournament dressed in an ’80s tuxedo. I am doing this because I have a need for self-expression and to have a public personae.

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10 Years In The Making

December 2nd, 2009

That’s how long it took me to take a break from building websites for businesses so I could build one for myself! I first registered milancole.com on April 17th, 2000, and I thought I would build a site shortly thereafter. Of course many years and many websites later, I am finally fulfilling this dream and am excited to have a forum to express myself.

Getting off the ground

This new blog is going to about my life and my work as a real estate broker, real estate brokerage owner, general contractor, technology manager, volunteer, and whatever else I end up doing. I am committed to making this site a forum for honest self-expression and I hope that my readers will agree and encourage a lively debate.

To get started, I found this guide to getting started with WordPress which suggested answering the following questions:

1. What am I going to do with this website?

I am going to express myself and my work.

2. Who is going to read this?

Colleagues, clients, friends, and family.

3. What kinds of information will I be posting?

Real Estate, Internet Marketing, SEO, My Life.

4. Why am I doing this?

Because I want to and maybe it will help me make money.

5. Who am I doing this for?

Myself and my clients

6. How often am I going to be posting and adding information?

Weekly.

Thank you WordPress! Having a list of questions helped me to identify what this website will be about. I hope that it will evolve over time to reflect my growth and varied interests. The next step is to combine these answers into a paragraph that represents my personal mission statement, which is coming soon.

Image courtesy of nasa1fan/MSFC and Flickr.

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