Current Issue of AECBytes Magazine released today - includes article about Digital Signing in AEC

Today, AECBytes released its latest newsletter.  One of the interesting articles in this issue AECBytes newsletter was this one:

(Here’s just the beginning of the article):

Digital Signing in AEC

Movies, medical images, telephony and more have gone digital— but the human signature primarily remains a hand-scrawled vestige of our paper-based past. Even as the AEC industry works to add efficiency and security with digital workflows, the process of applying signatures, seals, and stamps remains paper-bound. Printing a page each time a signature is needed, then converting back to a digital file to send it, clearly is inefficient and impractical for many large- scale documents.

Fortunately, digital signatures have become the virtual equivalent of wet ink signatures, legally as well as in practice.

Later on in the article, this heading appears (and it is followed by a lengthy discussion):

Why Go Paperless? 


The business benefits to moving away from paper-based workflows are compelling.

You can access the AECBytes newsletter, and you can, if you want, download a free copy of the newsletter (in the form of a pdf file) by visiting this web-page:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/749580

Great time to go on vacation (or on business) to Western and Central / Eastern Europe!

The incredible decline in value of European currencies (against the US Dollar) has made it very, very attractive to visit Europe.  Your dollars will go a long way, much further than was the case when the dollar was not as strong against Europe’s currencies.

Take, for example, these exchange rates (which I took screenshots of today on Google Finance):

The Euro

1 EUR = $1.1653 USD

The Czech Republic Koruna

1 CZK = $0.0418 USD

The Hungarian Forint

1 HUF = $0.0036 USD

Prague and Budapest are fabulous cities to visit, and, now, with the Koruna and Forint very, very weak against the dollar, Hotels, Train tickets, Restaurants are, and shopping is, basically, “on-sale” for people who have dollars.  You can also get great deals on condo’s, if you’re adventurous enough to consider buying real estate in a European country.

For reprographers who want to turn their trip expenses into a tax-deductible expense, I’d be happy to introduce you to my reprographer friends in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland.

Fed Beige Book Report (Jan 14th issue) on Real Estate and Construction Activity

Federal Reserve Beige Book, published Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions

From the “overall” summary section (considering the entire country):

Real Estate and Construction
Single-family residential real estate sales and construction were largely flat on balance across the Districts. Sales declined somewhat on a year-over-year basis in the Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Dallas Districts. In the Philadelphia District, year-over-year existing home sales finished lower in November, but pending December sales in some areas were up notably over December 2013. However, builders of new homes in the Philadelphia District reported weak traffic for prospective buyers and fewer contract signings. San Francisco reported that overall home sales picked up in December. Richmond reported a modest increase in housing market activity. Home prices increased modestly, on balance, in the Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas Districts. The Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City Districts all reported slightly slower single- family residential construction activity. However, the pace of single-family home construction increased in some areas of the San Francisco District.

Commercial real estate activity expanded in most Districts. The Philadelphia District reported a modest pace of growth for commercial real estate leasing activity, and Boston reported improving conditions in commercial real estate markets overall. Commercial real estate activity in the Chicago and Kansas City Districts expanded at a moderate pace. The Dallas District noted that office leasing activity remained strong, but one contact noted a slight pullback in demand from oil and gas firms. Demand for apartments in the Dallas District also remained strong. New York City’s co-op and condo market showed continued strength in the final quarter of 2014; apartment sales volume was down from the exceptionally high levels of the prior year but still fairly brisk, while selling prices were up moderately. Commercial construction activity increased in most Districts. Activity grew modestly in the Philadelphia District and a bit faster in the Atlanta and Chicago Districts. Atlanta cited the multifamily residential segment as a source of growth, while Chicago credited demand for industrial and office buildings. Commercial builders in the Cleveland District reported a moderate to robust increase for projects in the pipeline. Dallas reported that overall commercial construction was strong. San Francisco reported that multifamily residential construction was strong in many areas of that District and that retail, office, industrial, or infrastructure projects were widespread across that District.

Note; here’s a link to the complete Beige Book Report.  If you are interested in the comments – about real estate and construction activity – in each of the 12 Fed Reserve “districts”, you’ll find that commentary at this link:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/beigebook/files/BeigeBook_20150114.pdf

HP WallArt 3.0 helps Latex customers grow interior decoration business

HP WallArt is an easy-to-use, cloud-based web service that helps simplify the design, visualisation and production of customised wall decoration applications. It is free of charge for HP Latex customers and is already in use by more than 2,400 customers in 81 countries.

Link to article:

http://www.largeformatreview.com/business/business-news/5298-hp-wallart-3-0-helps-latex-customers-grow-interior-decoration-business