Tag Archives: James Carlini

DETROIT: THE “SCARED STRAIGHT” DESTINATION FOR CITY ADMINISTRATORS

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

The city of Detroit is faced with a 50/50 chance of bankruptcy and this should not be taken lightly. Many can criticize what led up to this financial catastrophe, but the more important issue is what can everyone learn from it? Continue reading

MUNICIPALITIES GONE WILD: EAST DUNDEE AMBULANCE BILLING FEES

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By James Carlini
We have all heard about the municipality in California that has paid some of its administrators with six-figure salaries as well as six-figure pensions, but we think that is a very rare occurrence and that our own municipality would never get that bad.

Look closely at your own municipality and its agencies. Are they gouging you on the price of services? Are you paying double compared to the Continue reading

TWO WEEK NOTICES WENT OUT WITH NICKEL BEERS

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

Do you still use a rotary telephone (do you even know what that is?)?  Can you buy gas at 20 cents a gallon where you live?  Times have changed, companies have changed, and giving a two-week notice went out with nickel beers. Continue reading

MUSEUMS: SETTING A FUTURE DIRECTION BY PRESERVING HISTORY

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

Any civilization in the last 5,000 years can only be understood and measured by what we can read and discover about them.  If they did not keep track of their accomplishments and cultures, chances are, we would know very little about them and their achievements.

  •  If you do not know where you came from, do you really have a good idea of where you are headed?
  • How do you build upon the accomplishments of the past or avoid the mistakes of the past if you are unaware of them?

These seem to be good questions to ask people who do not have a good grasp of how this country started and developed throughout the last 200 years.  As was pointed out by one museum curator, those in the last generation (the Great generation of World War II) seemed to have more Continue reading

ILLINOIS PENSION REFORM: ROAD TO NOWHERE

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

The latest attempts at putting Illinois back on the right road to fiscal solvency and promote a more enticing image to attract businesses should be accompanied by the song by the Talking Heads’ “We’re On a Road to Nowhere”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtCittJyr0]
We’re on a road to nowhere….. After a 66% tax increase in state income tax, we are still billions of dollars behind in Continue reading

SYSTEMS DESIGN: STILL TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT

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By James Carlini

Systems design has come a long way.  Or has it?

Taking various organizational procedures and applications and automating them has been going on for over four decades.  Next-generation systems have been selected and implemented more than once or twice in those four decades.  Millions, if not billions, have been spent on computers, data centers, developing and training personnel, and software applications.

Initial attempts were focused on getting a software program in place and getting people to adapt to the automated system.  A lot has happened since original systems were developed, yet basic design concepts and comprehensive testing to insure quality still seem to be Continue reading

MEDIA BIAS: CALLING OUT THE “EXPERTS”

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By James Carlini

Are you as tired as I am in listening to someone who is supposed to be giving you the news and instead is spinning the story to adhere to some personal political agenda they have?  Evidently, the only way to stop this obtuse reporting is to call it out every time it happens and question those who are either totally clueless or have some other agenda they are trying to foist on us.

logo fbi 03IS THE FBI ANY GOOD ANYMORE? Continue reading

COLLEGE DEGREE and COLLEGE DEBT? NO GUARANTEE FOR A GOOD JOB

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By James Carlini

Did you know that the amount owed on college student loans is over $1 Trillion and two thirds of the graduating seniors (in 2011) owe a little over $26,000 when they walk out trying to find a job?  (Source: http://projectonstudentdebt.org/ )

The amount owed for student loans is more than what is owed on the total amount of credit card debt.  The big difference is that you cannot Continue reading

FLASH MOBS, FLASH ARRESTS: SMARTPHONE JUSTICE

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By James Carlini

Last weekend, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile experienced teen-age flash mobs (organized looting) creating disturbances and mayhem among people there who were trying to enjoy the downtown shopping district.

This has been going on for several years, but the Chicago media has filtered it out of their stories until Continue reading

REAL ESTATE AGENTS: AS FAST AS GLACIERS

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By James Carlini

pic real estate for sale The housing market has really been slow the last couple of years in the United States, but you wonder if it could have recovered faster if real estate agents would do their jobs.

In Illinois, real estate agents range from very good to very poor.  Some have no sense-of-urgency in respect to Continue reading

AREA CODE 809: JUST ANOTHER PHONE BILL SCAM

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By James Carlini

Area Code 809 Phone Scam

There are a lot of Emails going around on the internet warning people to watch out for any calls that say to return the call to a number inside of the 809 area code.  Some have said this is an exaggerated threat, but if you look closely, it isn’t.  This kind of scam happens.

Graphic Caution Phone ScamThis is a real threat and will cost you money and more importantly, time, if you get caught up in it.

The Email being circulated warns of calls coming in to be Continue reading

SMARTPHONE WARS: SAMSUNG Galaxy 4

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

It’s been almost a year since I moved up to a Smartphone.  I did not jump on the first wave of Apple Smartphones because I wanted to see how the market shook out and what competitors would offer.  It is so typical to see technology get refined in a short period of time after the market becomes established.

My final choices at the time were the Apple iPhone i3 and the new-on-the-market “dark horse” at the time, the Continue reading

CURBING DISCOURSE IS NOT AMERICAN

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By James Carlini

Patrick Henry Stipple engraving by Leney, after Thomas Sully Published by J. Webster, 1817, Copyprint Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-4907) Library of Congress (134) “I may not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”  Patrick Henry said this just before he said his more famous line, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

It is sometimes misattributed to Voltaire, but the reason I bring it up is because we are experiencing too many curbs to discourse in both the new media of blogs as well as our traditional TV and print media.

The average American wants to hear Continue reading

CLOUD COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE: THE COST OF DISRUPTION

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

graphic the cloud network shFrom an upcoming white paper: 

Many organizations that are looking at implementing a new network infrastructure for Cloud Computing, a new building being built, or any other network capability, better look closer at their network designs.

Why?  Continue reading

DEFINING 21st CENTURY REAL ESTATE

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

Real estate is going through some critical changes in this century.  It has become a more complex product to understand, manage and sell.  It has become more sophisticated than just “selling space”.  It has gone beyond the inclusion of traditional amenities of energy management (HVAC), life safety, security, elevators and Continue reading

GOVERNMENT RESCUE

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

How many people watched the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night? I watched a little of it and then decided that Bar Rescue (with Jon Taffer) was more interesting and had some better ideas to save small businesses across America.

If you have never watched it, Bar Rescue, is where a tough, no-nonsense, Bar business expert goes in and Continue reading