City Images of Our Training Locations
We have been using small pictures for the cities in which we hold our trainings for some years now.
Our designer Sascha Schmidt turns these city images into real artwork. How much you like them shows that we are always being asked to make these pictures available as wallpapers, or to print on mugs or mousepads.
At least all pictures should be shown once in the overview. We are happy to comply with the last wish today. Here are our cityscapes in alphabetical order. Point or click on a picture to get details.
Happy Holidays
Our Offices Will Be Closed for Christmas
What an eventful year for ProjectWizards and Merlin Project. It's time to take a short break. We will close our offices for the holidays but you can still reach us for urgent support inquiries.
Más información…Merlin Project Celebrates 13th Anniversary
[Free Give-Away]
Today is a special day. Since November 9th 2004, Apple users can manage their projects with Merlin. That's right, we are celebrating the 13th anniversary of our Merlin launch. And we want our customers to celebrate with us. That's why we turn things upside down and give away a special birthday gift to you as a thank you for your support as our customer.
Phew… What a Week!
Actually, I should say ”What a year it’s been so far”, as an incredible three months have already lapsed since my last post. After a short Christmas break, we got straight down to work on version 4.2 and our new Express version of Merlin Project – with both being released this week!
Merlin Project 4.2 as well as Server and Go were released on Monday. Version 4.2 is all about Dropbox folder synchronization. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find these kind of Dropbox folders to be very helpful:
This can happen very quickly when, like here, three people are working in a shared folder. Resolving this was both our motivation and aim: To identify all Dropbox conflicts and resolve them automatically. It turns out that we discovered something unique with our synchronization engine. It was designed to answer the issue – and it did precisely this (and no, I’m not going to quote the A-Team here). Download the new version of Merlin Project 4.2 and save your project to a shared Dropbox folder. You can now work on the same project using Merlin Project on a totally different computer or, using Merlin Project Go, on an iPhone or iPad. On iOS devices, you just need to link your Dropbox account once. After that, you’ll then see all the changes automatically in your project. It really is a blast, and it puts the fun into project management!
The 2nd highlight of the week was Merlin Project Express. Since Merlin Project first appeared, Sales & Support – and me too – have been bombarded regularly with questions asking for a cut-down version. We spent ages trying to decide on the right mix of features, and finally come up with a great set.
And with our new app, we’re also taking our first step into new sales channels. I am talking about Setapp – a new service I like to refer to as “the Netflix of Mac apps”, which I mean in a positive sense, of course. The guys’n’gals from MacPaw – also a familiar name on the Mac scene – are behind Setapp. We took a look at this new service when it first launched and were so blown away by it that we didn’t have a second thought about jumping on board. And the best thing: You can give it a go at zero risk as the first month costs nothing. After that, US$9.99 (yes, really: dollars) gets debited from your credit card each month.
And with this, we really have earned ourselves the weekend off ;-)
Best wishes
Frank Blome
A Last Friday for This Year!
Just before Christmas I have a last post for this year.
(no) book recommendation
But I have another subject: A few weeks ago, I came into contact with the book "Holacracy, The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World." A first reading was interesting, especially because I am always looking for new approaches for a modern management. So €12.99 were put into the iTunes BookStore and every free minute invested in Brian J. Robertson's work.
Little by little, however, I began to wonder whether this is not an attempt to make the famous "Silver Bullet" for the Americans. Nevertheless, I fought over half the book until I gave up. But what is the - or even my - problem with the "Silver Bullet"?
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a friend of these so-called hype management methods. This includes some management classics, as for example "Getting Things done" by David Allen. Here it is not the method in itself, but much more my envy that I have not had the idea to make a lot of money by "putting new wine in old bottles" ;-)
But Holacracy is dangerous. If I do something wrong with GTD, I burn some personal time. This hurts, but otherwise is not harmful. If I do a mistake in Holacracy, in the worst case, I could drive a company against the wall and destroy existences. Because at this point, Brian Robertson takes a great responsibility when he says, "If you introduce parts of the Holocracy, the power structure will not change." So he demands, that the whole company has to change. This was, when my alarm bells started ringing!
In the further course, the concept became more and more opaque and complex that I inevitably built up a training and certification empire in my head. But when the comparison between a company and an operating system came up, I closed the book amused and spent my time more meaningfully.
(no) Christmas story
At this time, it is customary to celebrate a Christmas story. From all sides one can hear from "But it came to pass at the time ..." up to various versions over the old Ebenezer Scrooge, the hard-hearted nickel nurser. It is no wonder at all, that these stories are so successful. In addition to the fact that Mr. Dickens had a very pleasant "writing", storytelling is still the best methods to convey knowledge.
Taking this occasion: Due to multiple request, we have re-added the making of story for Merlin to our documentation. It had been buried more and more over the years in the blog Macpm.net. Now, we have reissued it as quick guide.
Short break
You probably already read the news, we need to take a rest. As every year, we use the time between Christmas and New Year for this. The support will be reduced to a minium, the sale and the development pauses completely. Also I personally will try to relax for a few days.
Therefore, for this year, I conclude with my best magical wishes. Spend the holidays with joy and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017. The next year will be very exciting for us as well as for you as a Merlin Project user. I am looking forward to it ...
Yours
Frank Blome
P.S.: Would you like to receive the nice snow man as project file? Follow us on (twitter:MerlinPM text:Twitter target:_blank) and send us a short message.
