Helping YOU Save The World With FileMaker

Spring 2011

2011-03-21T08:34:00.002-08:00

We just returned from a winter vacation to Costa Rica and another Taoist Tai Chi Instructor workshop in Tallahassee. Too many experiences to describe but it was a wonderful break from the cold weather in Montana. We have returned to nearly spring like weather.We are about to start up 3 new Tai Chi classes at local assisted living communities in Billings and at the Senior Center in Laurel.We are

Saving the World - New Perspective

2010-12-25T10:02:00.006-08:00

Saving our planet and societies, in my opinion, comes down to an adjustment in perspective for the majority of humanity. We need to better understand the consequences of our actions and to better love and understand our fellow human beings. It helps a great deal if we understand that we are all one.My current focus is on teaching Taoist Tai Chi to people living in or near Billings Montana. This

International Instructor Workshop in Tallahassee

2010-03-22T15:19:00.003-08:00

Taoist Tai Chi™ March 2010I had a wonderful experience at the 5 day workshop in Tallahassee. It was lead by Sean Denison, Karen Laughlin and Andrew Hung with a lot of help from other international instructors. We started out with a lot of donyus and toryus. But spent most of the week working on better balance in our set. We had the most amazing 10 course Chinese New Years Banquet complete with

Creating FileMaker Value

2010-02-21T15:27:00.002-08:00

I attended a seminar the other day on value based billing by the author of Measuring what your Customers Value Most. If you are a forward looking business, you will also be looking for measuring the things your customer values most. I am in the business of helping you automate those measurements. I am also interested in providing you value based on what is most important to you and your

We can get along together

2010-01-29T09:29:00.002-08:00

If you are interested in advancing any solutions to world or community problems this TED talk is a must see. It explains why we need both the conservative and liberal viewpoints and may help you find ways to combine our strengths.

November 2009 Tai Chi in Billings Montana

2009-11-09T17:46:00.003-08:00

Wow. It's been nearly a year since I posted to the blog. We have been very busy getting our toes wet in Billings.Lisa has been very successful in getting Taoist Tai Chi established in Billings Montana. I got certified as a beginning instructor a little over a year ago at the Portland Grand Opening and am teaching two classes now (with Lisa's help). Of course I am helping her teach her classes too

Blogging Infrequently, but now from Billings Montana

2008-12-22T17:52:00.003-08:00

We moved to Billings Montana in late June 2008 to help my aging parents. We have been fortunate to find we love the place and have been successful in starting a new location for the International Taoist Tai Chi Society here. The closest until now was Portland, Or and Denver, Co.Oh, and one more thing. Lisa and I got married finally on December 29th in our lovely old home next to the rimrocks

Pura Vida

2007-06-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Coincidences sometimes help to roll the dice of what we will be doing or where we will be next year. We went on a little vacation to Costa Rica last Fall and basically were presented with one of those offers that is difficult to refuse. As you may have guessed, I am posting this from Costa Rica where we are living now. Nothing is permanent, but this is a good thing to stretch the aging brain

An Invconvenient Truth

2006-07-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

You MUST see this movie! If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend "An Inconvenient Truth". It may help you improve the lives of your descendants dramatically as well as contribute to saving the lives and homes of hundreds of millions of people on this planet.I have been seeking a way to leverage my FileMaker skills to help the most people for a few years. I think I have found the cause I

Blog Continues but not here

2006-06-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

I have consolidated my websites a bit this week and intend to continue this blog on my own website for the moment. Actually that just redirects you to the current home of my website which is http://web.mac.com/jmba/. I have found the new iWeb application in Apple's iLife software to be the most user friendly web building software and it has encouraged me to do a better job of maintaining my

First Snow

2005-12-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

We had a hum dinger of a snowfall yesterday on the seacoast of New Hampshire. My 4 wheel drive Subaru outback barely made it up the 1000 ft driveway. Luckily it was the light fluffy stuff and even though the undercarriage left a nice trail all the way the car is safely in the garage waiting to be plowed out today. Life moves too fast for me to post much here. Lisa and I have been to numerous

Playing with Features of FMPro Version 8 [Saving Files with variable names and paths]

2005-09-17T21:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a good tip from FileMaker’s Famous Andrew Lecates explaining how to save a file to a specific path.This is one of the new features in version 8 which was previously possible only with the aid of a plug-in.1. Set a script variable to the path as a text string.3. Enter the variable in the path dialog to 'carry' a calculated paththereFor step 1, use a script step like this: Set Variable [$

FileMaker 8 Rocks

2005-09-04T05:45:00.000-08:00

I have just attended the annual FileMaker Developer Conference where FileMaker 8 was introduced. FileMaker 7 introduced some great new functionality and removed a lot of the old limits on FileMaker Database systems. Version 8 adds some great new usability features that will save time for users and developers alike, reducing the cost of development and improving responsiveness. We were told to

Loving MacJournal from Mariner Software

2005-04-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

I am loving MacJournal from Mariner Software . This is a great notebook and journal keeping software which has built in capability to post directly to my Blog. I am posting this from my journal rather than going to a website and navigating to the correct page and pushing the correct series of buttons. It makes Blogging an order of magnitude more simple in my humbe opinion.The same company

Looking Forward to Getting in Shape

2005-04-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

With the return of good weather to New England I am looking forward to getting into better physical shape. I took my long neglected mountain bike into the bike shop for repairs and tune up and discovered that I could replace it rather than repair it for about twice the cost of the repairs and end up with a much better bike. So I am ready to hit the road pedaling as soon as it stops raining.Who

Test Posting by Email

2005-04-28T03:56:00.000-08:00

Did you know you can post a blog article by sending an email to your secretblogger address?This is really cool if it works.Have a great day.-- Joel Bowers Certified FileMaker 7 Developer

Saving The World With FileMaker

2005-04-28T03:43:00.000-08:00

I am still extremely busy upgrading my favorite client > from FileMaker 6 to FileMaker 7. They are the kind of client am focusing on. My efforts in some small part aid the more than 1000 teams of highschool kids (perhaps 20,000 kids) to gain an interest and have some fun with science and technology by building a robot and playing games with other robots from other teams. Although the title of

Direct Help

2005-03-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

I am still scheming to find a way to multiply my effort to provide the most help to this world and the people in it. My latest idea is to use my FileMaker and Web skills to build a people to people direct help connection.The underlying motivation is that people who are jobless or in need have value to offer but which may have become blocked. Offering to match pay for work volunteers with work for

Wholly Cow!

2005-03-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

A year has passed since my last post. It was one of those best of times and worst of times years for me and my family. My wife passed away of Cancer on October 25, 2004 a young 58 year old, one of the most vibrant people I have ever met. We had a wonderful marriage for 32 years having lived in Montana for the first 7 years, in Saudi Arabia for the next 13 years and the remainder here near the

The Calm Before the Storm

2004-02-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I have not kept up my resolve to post to this blog more often. Just too many other things to do. Marketing always takes last place when I am too busy then things get too quiet for a while while I spend a little more effort making connections again with the FileMaker World. Good things come to those who wait. While rumours of the next version of FileMaker seem to be tightly controlled

Keeping Up With Software

2003-08-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

I am drowning in my curiosity. I attempt to keep somewhat informed on a lot of different software especially in my areas of interest. This involves lots of time to download and fool around with freeware, shareware, and demo versions of commercial software. The only sane way I have found to even attempt keeping up with more than a handful of applications is by using VersionTracker.

Email Archiving in FileMaker pro.

2003-08-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

I discovered eMessage Archiver 4.01 on VersionTracker today. eMessage Archiver 4.01 - VersionTracker: I am still checking it out, but this shareware solution looks like it is worth a look if you are interested in archiving your email. It was written by retired generalist in science, philosophy, and practical thinking named John Carlson. He originally built this system for his own use using

Leveraging Capabilities To Help The World

2003-07-31T18:08:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked by a business associate (my financial advisor) for advice on how to get more business. Thought you might be interested in my answer. "Leverage your value to others!" Today as in years past people are more comfortable with word of mouth referrals than in doing the hard work of interviewing and comparing competing product or service offerings. So what would make me more

Announcing a FileMaker interface to your iTunes Library

2003-07-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

I am looking for an improvement on my "Saving the World with FileMaker" title. It is a little outrageous and perhaps has some unintended religious connotation. I want to focus the ideas I post here on the good things that can be done with FileMaker so I want the title of my blog to strongly reflect that feeling. Speaking of helping improve the world. Wouldn't it be nice to find, view and play