Any Given Sunday...

I went up to Wiccaweys on Sunday and walked three dogs I’d not met before. Two of them I wanted to wrap up and take home with me immediately and one was a little scamp.

First up was Smokey Joe. What a beautiful and intelligent collie. A little afraid to start with, a bit shy. But what an absolute joy to be around. I had a really good long walk round the cows field with Joe, we sat a couple of times and I got a couple of really sweet collie hugs near the end of our time. I can’t believe Joe will be around long at Wiccs HQ – he’s bound to be snapped up and adopted very quickly.

Second up was a little scamp called Brandy. This is a collie with lots of energy and lots of love to give. A little bit energetic for my taste but a great dog all the same. Brandy certainly cheers you up.

Finally, and on reflection my favourite dog of the day, Tara. As you might expect for a dog that’s been chained up for much of it’s life Tara is a little shy and defensive, but there’s a lovely, sweet collie beyond all that. Although the website says Tara has issues with other dogs we spent the first part of the walk with Max along to keep us company and despite being “in yer face” a bit with both of us, Tara behaved impeccably. She also showed me a fun side to her nature as the walk progressed. Here’s a couple of photos of the lovely Tara...

For those who haven’t read my blog before, on Sundays (when I can) I volunteer at a Border Collie Rescue Centre and walk some of the dogs.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Candidate attraction and print media #emconf2010

I'm on the train to London and on my way to the Online Recruitment Conference 2010 at the Royal Geographical Society. I'm presenting to over 350 delegates, so no pressure there then!!!

My presentation includes a couple of slides on my predictions for 2010, and one of my thoughts is about changes coming to the newspaper advertising model. At the time i put the slide together my thoughts were largely driven by the pressure newspapers are under as they struggle with online presence and whether or not to hide behind a pay wall. Yesterdays Apple announcement of the iBookstore has the makings of the basis on which some print media organisations will survive and prosper. I think we will be suprised by some brands that take off and some that just won't quite get the changes needed and ultimately quietly expire.

It's going to be interesting to see if print media reading habits are really going to change.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

A cold day at Wiccaweys, but happy to be back...

With Christmas out of the way it was time to get back in the saddle and settle into the routine of healthy dog walking on a Sunday at Wiccaweys. Getting there was the first challenge but once out of the estate at home, to be honest the roads were pretty clear all the way, there seemed slightly less snow as we got closer to Wiccs HQ than in Daventry (but not by much) and we managed to get the car into the yard at Wiccaweys by just taking it nice and slowly all the way from the gate. As Leisa had come with me we walked two dogs at a time, starting with Ollie and Mikey and then after lunch we had Max and Merlin. Conditions were not unpleasant and the only weather issue was the wind chill so it was decidedly better when the wind was light or non-existant.

Here’s a great picture I got of Ollie looking very puppy-ish... what a nice boy and I definitely could of gotten used to this Ollie as much as the little charmer of the same name who stole my heart before Christmas. Both Ollie and Mikey pull on the lead quite a bit, Mikey (to say he’s so skinny) is very strong. Ollie got to go to his forever home later on in the day and I felt really happy for him.

And here is Max. What a fluffball!!! There’s a good deal of German Shepherd in Max although I suspect not pure as he doesn’t have the body shape and terrible hip problems that seem to beset that breed these days. But a real pleasure to walk, he doesn’t pull anything like as much as the two collies from the morning walk  and a super nice personality. I got several kisses. And he’s as gentle as can be when taking a treat.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Online Recruitment 2010 Conference

I am speaking at the Online Recruitment 2010 Conference. More information at http://is.gd/5QcmD
I am speaking about life after job boards. What would you expect to hear covered in this session?
If you were thinking about recruitment technology in the era after job boards what questions would you want answered?
The twitter hashtag for the conference is #EMconf2010

Some of them take a little bit of your heart...

Sorry it’s a bit of a belated report but I had another great day’s walking at Wiccaweys on Sunday just gone. If you haven’t been following along, Wiccaweys is the border collie rescue centre where I do voluntary dog walking, generally on Sundays. When I arrived this week it looked like it was going to be pretty ideal walking conditions. The sun was kind of poking out, it was a little chilly but not too bad temperature wise, not much wind and given the amount of rain recently a little wet underfoot. I had barely arrived and got myself turned around when I met Vallie, one of a pair of collies learning to be a little bit independent of each other. Vallie is a gorgeous scamp of a dog who pulled me along for the ride on a pleasant walk to set the day up right. An hour later I was in for a change of dog and Sarah gave me Ollie. So Ollie and I spent the rest of my walking day together, having a great time. I am convinced Ollie remembered me from last week, because we immediately settled in to enjoy the day. Ollie’s just great to walk and has a huge skill so many collies lack, which is when he tangles himself up in the lead he can, without assistance, get himself out of the predicament. What a smart cookie!!! He enjoys his walks, but he definitely walks with you. Yes, he sniffs his way around some of the time and occasionally asks you to give him a minute while he susses out some particularly delicious scent he’s found. He also decides when he’s ready to be fed a treat, coming back to you, tail wagging and giving you “the look”. If that doesn’t persuade you then directly trying to stick his nose in your treat pocket is the signal. He’s exceptionally good with other dogs he meets on the walk. He’s usually more interested in the humans and whether they might be carrying sausage than he is in getting into argy bargy with another dog.

We came in for a break after about an hour and a half so that I could grab a bite to eat. Ollie was a lot of fun as we did this, putting his front paws on my thigh to see what was going on and to find out how much of my lunch he was going to get a share in. What was very sweet was as lunch progressed Ollie put his head down on my thigh and turned his face to mine almost like a child might and gave me such a loving look, he took a little bit of my heart right there and then. I think I was asked three times over the course of the day when I was planning to take Ollie home with me. The honest answer is that I can’t. I could be utterly selfish and take a dog home with me but it would be so unfair on him (or her). Take today – I have to set off by 5:30 am and may not be back until well after 7pm tonight. It’s just not right to leave a dog alone for that amount of time. So I have to settle for what I can at present and meeting dogs like Ollie is truly what I get out of volunteering. If circumstances were different I’d snatch up Oliie in a heartbeat.

After lunch the rains came. But I was ready in my new waterproof jacket, which worked perfectly. I got one of the Berghaus jobs with an inner fleece that keeps you warm and a Gore Tex outer layer that keeps the rain and wind out. It worked perfectly and I stayed warm & dry for the rest of the afternoon. It rained on and off for the rest of the day but frankly it wasn’t a patch on the more torrential downpours of the previous Sunday. I’d had such a busy but wonderful weekend that I was flagging by 3 o’clock so I called it a day, happily tired and having thoroughly enjoyed once again my time with Ollie.

Here is a new photo of the collie gorgeousness called Ollie...

...and again...

...and one last one...

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

A wet day's dog walking

It was one of those days that weather wise separates the men from the boys. It absolutely chucked it down 2 or 3 times during the day and there was a distinctly persistent feel to some of the showers, particularly in the early part of the day. That said a pretty good turn out of volunteers for such an awful day. I got to spend most of the day with Ollie, broken only by a relatively short walk with Blue. You can see pictures of both these dogs on recent reports and it wasn't exactly camera weather today so no updated pictures in this weeks report. 

I only broke the day with Ollie whilst he met prospective adopters. Sadly for Ollie it wasn't to be his day. The family that came to see Ollie were interested in a collie with what I would refer to as breed standard collie colouring and funnily enough a dog with more energy that Ollie - so closer in behaviour to a little Brynn or the appropriately named Zippy. To be honest I have some sympathy with the issue of colouring. If people have a mental picture of the breed then that's what they are going to want. It's an easy thing to say that this is a bit superficial, but we all make many choices in our lives that are about superficial look or feel. I also believe that given time and exposure people can eventually see past the superficial and find that some of the finest of the breed in terms of intelligence and companionship are the least like the breed standard in terms of looks. I know I'm biased but I have formed quite an attachment to Ollie and he will make a wonderful companion when he finds his forever home. The bit that didn't compute was that they wanted a high energy dog, because that was what they had experienced when meeting the breed previously. Their mental picture was of a dog whose temperement was closer in spirit to Zippy. As much as I love Zippy who has a super, super, personality I personally would want a forever companion much more like Ollie. Zippy is a dog that would have you forever on the go with a capacity for exercise that somedays you could just never meet. Ollie is much more of a companion animal. Someone who settles down into a walk with you. Ollie also has great skill in untangling his lead. There are some dogs you walk that you have to constantly do this for as they tie themselves up in the lead. It's not that Ollie doesn't sometimes do this himself, it's that most of the time he can also untangle himself. And there's a great sign of wicked intelligence. He's also a very gentle animal. Very considerate when you give him a treat, he doesn't snatch at your fingers like some dogs and worry you if you're still going to have your fingers when the treat is taken. And Oliie just gives the warmest collie hugs. In short he's a magnificent animal and the family that he chooses will be lucky to have him. Don't let Paul & Sarah hear me saying this, but I was almost glad he didn't go today so that I may get to spend time with him again. It won't last though, Ollie is sure to go soon.

What I did find out today was that my Nike Air "Michelin Man" coat is not as waterproof as my mental picture of it is. For short showers or a bit of time in rain, it is basically waterproof. And very warm. But there seems to come a point if you spend a protracted period of time in the wet that it becomes sort of waterlogged and the waterproof protection seems to give out or be overwhelmed. So the coat was fine until about two in the afternoon, when suddenly I found myself soaked through. The good news was that I had my change of clothes with me so didn't have to drive home feeling wet and miserable. So a visit to an outdoors shop to get a new coat for the winter season seems on the cards. A young lady who has become a very special friend in a short space of time has commented (adversely) on my usual (non rain) walking attire - which is a bog standard cotton traders fleece - so I will have to arrange for her to accompany on the trip to pick something that whilst waterproof is also aesthetically pleasing, or at least not a fashion disaster. What has worked out really well is my bargain walking boots, also from Cotton Traders. First off, and quite importantly, they are what they said on the tin. Waterproof. And three weeks in, I think I finally have them broken in. I was having a bit of trouble getting used to the ankle support but I think I'm past that now and found them incredibly comfortable over quite a long walking session today.

Anyway, got back home safe and sound. Felt great after a long hot shower and have settled in to have a catch up with Strictly and the X Factor. I think both show made the right choice this week.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

It's Sunday, so a dog walking report...

Another Sunday at Wiccaweys. It could not have been a better day weather wise. I suspect the volunteers yesterday were blown about a bit in the wind and probably got wet, today the sun was out (although you would not describe the day as warm) and there was almost no wind. Almost perfect dog walking conditions, with the exception of slightly wet ground and a muddy and slippy conditions in the a couple of places on the usual walking routes. We started slightly late but I stayed till the end today and walked four dogs, and I was really lucky to have spent the day walking the cream of the crop in terms of a lack of pulling. All four dogs today, once settled on the walk, were exceptionally good company and pretty much walked with me, rather than dragging me along on their walk.

First up was Ollie, who I walked last week...

Then, a dog I’d not met before called Storm. I not sure why but the name really suits him. If the circumstances were different I’d wrap him up in my arms and bring him home in a heartbeat. What a terrific personality. And just look at that face. Playful without being unruly, he sits and puts up both paws for his treats. What a lovely, lovely dog.

I almost didn’t go back in to change dogs, had I not I would not have met Blue. Blue, as you can see isn’t a collie. I believe she’s an Australian Sheep Dog. If I got that wrong I’m sure someone will correct me. Collie or not, another lovely dog. Eager for the walk but with intelligence to kind of look at me as if to say, if that’s all the pace you can do I’ll look after you. This is a dog that I suspect may have some difficulty being homed because of her looks. It’s not that she’s not a good looker, it’s just that she’s so unusual. It doesn’t however take long to look behind that to find a charming, well behaved, young lady with bags of personality.

I’m obviously beginning to find my stride because I still had some energy come three o’clock so I took Blue back in and Merlin out for a last walk. Merlin is one of the kennel stalwarts, he’s a lurcher and a beloved favourite of many of the volunteers. He pulls like the dervish when he first comes out on the walk, but he does settle in after about 5 or 10 minutes. We had a lovely last walk in the setting sun.

So, for me, a fine day’s dog walking. Sadly the day was somewhat marred by the fact that one of the dogs got loose and when I left to come home, despite the best efforts of the team, we have a poor soul who’s missing in action. Everyone is devastated and tonight I have my fingers and toes crossed and my thoughts are with Paul & Sarah.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Finding my inner rock god...

I think I have found my intellectual level on the Wii.

Air drumming!

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Time...

I've just de-duplicated my iTunes collection. 

It's possible I have too much time on my hands.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Life feels good - I hope it's not a bubble

I’ve been dog walking at Wiccaweys. I spent the morning with Ollie and the afternoon with Paddy. Ollie is wonderful to walk; he’s not one of the high energy pullers so once we settled in he was the perfect walking companion. I set my iPhone on shuffle and mellowed out for a couple of hours. This is Ollie:

After lunch I switched over to Paddy. Pre-warned that he was a puller I was ready for him but he still almost managed to pull me over before we’d even left the yard area. Paddy might be high energy but he’s also a real love. When I stopped for a sit, I got a right royal cuddle session; although this partially driven by his desire to find the pocket holding the gravy bones. As it had rained overnight the ground was a bit damp and a little muddy; so my clothes are covered in muddy paw prints pretty comprehensively from shoulder to knee. Good job I’m using a set of old clothes exclusively for the task and they go straight in the washing machine as a job lot when I get home. This is Paddy:

I love that eye patch look although I’m partial to Collies with “naughty spots”.

After the upheaval of the last several months, life feels good again. I’m completely off the anti-depressants and feeling really good about that. Am starting to do something about the weight that I gained whilst on the anti-depressants. I’ve made a very conscious switch from buggering about to trying to remove the majority of sugar from my diet. I have NO full fat coke in the fridge, have replaced the bowl of sugar for tea and coffee with Splenda and have only a very limited amount of sweets / chocolate in the house. I think I am finally following the advice I was given by my doctor when first diagnosed as diabetic – everything in moderation. Between that, the exercise from the dog walking and the Wii Fit Plus I’m trying to take better care of myself.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Fleetwood Mac live...

Am coming down from an awesome performance by Fleetwood Mac at Sheffield Arena. If you have a chance to go see them I most heartily recommend. Can't sleep yet so I thought I'd record a few thoughts for posterity.

It was my first time at Sheffield Arena, what a great venue. I much prefer it to the NEC. I managed to trade my two tickets at the back of the arena for 1 ticket just 12 rows from the front plus cash. So had a fantastic view. The only marginal downside was being sat next to the scouser from hell. Clearly short of the odd marble he kept shouting at Lindsey Buckingham to play "Go your own way", which was the last song of the main set, so he kept it up most of the night.

Such minor annoyance could not detract though from the greatness of the Mac. Lindsey Buckingham really is a maestro. I can't think offhand of a better guitarist that I've seen live. Even when he went off into guitar solo heaven he held a meaningful tune that you could not help but tap, sway or dance along to. Contrast that with most solos that show off guitar competency but really aren't musical. Case in point Mick Fleetwood and his drum solo, ok so it proves he can play but I just wanted it to end and them to move onto a song.
Stevie Nicks was fantastic, she's still got one hell of a voice and together with Buckingham they belted out all the great anthems.

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie provide a solid backbone to the band and with supporting cast the delivery was faultless. The only missing member of what you might consider the classic Mac line up was Christie McVie.

I don't know what's happened to the average British concert goer since I last went to a gig, but when did they start all sitting like lemons? You can't go to a live gig like this and not dance! What's the point of shelling out £60 for a ticket if you're not even going to try being moved by the music. If you just want to watch them play competently buy the DVD. Have we lost our soul or is it just good old British stoicism? Have to admit I got up and boogied. Showing my age I guess.

An electrifying night that will live in my memory for some time to come.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

On my way to see the Mac

Just setting off in plenty of time to see Fleetwood Mac at Sheffield Arena tonight. Classic night in prospect. iPhone is primed for a Mac fest on the drive up.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Postcard from an iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Postcard from an iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Postcard from an iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

A work of art...

I probably won’t ever get to see my Lassie again, so I’m converting my favourite picture of her:



into artwork...

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Eau de Brynn

He looks like butter wouldn’t melt. This is little Brynn after my fairly unsuccessful attempt to wear him out by walking him for a couple of hours. When we started the day he already had poo on his hind quarters and he managed to find and roll in fox poo when I wasn’t looking. It’s impossible to be mad at him though.

He was as affectionate as ever, particularly when I got the gravy bones out. I got a hug and a cuddle but I’m really glad I didn’t get a French kiss because if you look at this photo you can actually see the fox pooh on his cheek. Yuk! And boy did he smell bad again. Vintage “Eau de Brynn”.

I also spent a bit of time with a new arrival at Wiccaweys. This next photo is Tipper, who looks a bit like Martha Jones. Quite the gentleman, very affectionate and put Brynn in his place firmly but fairly when the youngster tried to nip in and steal a gravy bone.

Three weeks in and I’m still enjoying my time volunteering at Wiccaweys HQ on Sundays. If man’s inhumanity to man wasn’t bad enough sometimes, his inhumanity to these wonderful creatures beggars belief.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Windows 7

I'm installing Windows 7 and I feel like such a daredevil, as typically I'd wait until SP1 with an operating system. That said I have found Vista to be clunky, so I'm hoping the pre-publicity that this is a much smoother OS is right. Too late to back out now though!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

What a difference a day makes...

This cheeky chappy is Brynn, one of three border collies I took for a walk today as a volunteer dog walker at the Wiccaweys border collie rescue centre.

Right now every muscle in my body aches from about 5 hours of non stop walking. My clothes are covered in mud and dog poop. But these dogs are magical creatures. When Brynn and I stopped about half way into his second walk I sat down on the grass and I swear to you that dog gave me a hug, a cuddle and in true collie style a wet kiss.

I also met Martha Jones, a bit of an old relic like myself. We thoroughly enjoyed more what you'd call a stroll than a walk. I could tell Martha was enjoying it when half way round her walk she prestented her belly to me for a good rub.

Charlie was the third dog I met. Far too much energy for me, but what a playful character.

What an awesome day!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Sometimes

Sometimes... breakfast in a hotel is a relaxing start to the day. On other days it's a pain in the neck. Today it was the latter. Orange juice ran out just before I got there. Sugar shaker had gone missing, so couldn't sprinkle on my ever soggier rice krispies. (hope my doctor doesn't follow me as i'm a diabetic, but honestly it's just a little shake). The table, of course, has cube sugar. I ordered cooked breakfast with white toast, forgetting this is a "make your own toast" establishment. They could have told me when I sat there like a lemon and ordered the damn toast. Which gave me the dilemma of hot breakfast with bread or cold breakfast with hot toast. What's that expression... Oi Vey.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

I am a free man

I am not a number, I am a free man.

 Am very much enjoying my trip to Rotterdam. Logitics very smooth, hotel different but quaint and most importantly bed awesomely comfortable. Have slept like a baby for 2 nights. Conference day yesterday was interesting and prompted some thoughts. Will cogitate for a couple of days. Definitely need to draw. Amazingly liberating feeling not to have laptop with me. This will probably be the longest stretch I have been unplugged from work in 5 years.

 Met an extraordinarily nice lady from Denmark at the conference and ended up just the two of enjoying candlelight dinner at very nice Italian restaurant. I have made a new friend.

 Am just wondering around the shops in Rotterdam today and looking forward to a few hours in Amsterdam tomorrow before the flight home.

 Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Anyone have any good icebreakers or team building exercises for a senior team?

I bought a book of these ages ago but would you believe it, just when it would come in handy I don't have it to hand.

 If anyone has any simple icebreakers or team building games, could you let me know.

 Thank you.

 Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Is this what we have become

I went out for a quiet Sunday lunch today, and bought a newspaper to linger over, as you do, only to read a very sad story about a beloved family pet that has been put down after yobs fed cannabis to it. The drug caused the animal to have repeated seizures, which left it blind and deaf.

 What kind of sick society have we become. Its stories like this which persuade me that sometimes animals are more deserving of compassion than people.

 Stringing the perpetrators up by their nuts is too good for them.

 Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Police overtime - I'm in the wrong job as usual

Police officers are able to double their salary by working 60 or 70 hours a week. I do understand they do a difficult job at times but I wish I had the same capability to influence my salary. I usually pass the 40 hour mark sometime on Wednesday or Thursday.

 And you have to ask: is it safe? The worst I could do is grump at someone in an email. These guys could get themselves killed.

 Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

And here is the truly awful hotel

Shhhh... Don't tell anyone but this place is magnificent. If you spread it around everyone will want to stay!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Slumming it...

The hotel I'm staying at this week is truly a wonderful place. Have just been for a swim and I'm now talking a walk around the grounds. Tucked away is this lovely little garden with a Koi pool.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

How to feel stupid in one easy lesson

So there I am, minding my own business, looking for a coffee, and reading a large advertisement for luxury apartments in London (and choking on the asking price) when... BAM... walked straight into a lamppost, face first. Boy does that hurt. Doesn't do much for one's dignity either. I bled for a while, the little shop across the road sold tissues but not wet ones so ended up arriving at one of our London HQ's looking like I'd been in a brawl. Not such a good start to the week.
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Jon & Kate, WTF

Sometimes cultural references just pass me by, and if anyone mentions this might have something to do with my age I'll slap them.
 
I finally read a newspaper article that explained the background of Jon & Sue plus 8 (US based reality show about couple with twins and sextuplets). Apparently it's all gone a bit pear shaped in the marriage and the whole sorry saga is major news.
 
I guess I'm just one of the 56% of adults (according to the BBC survey) who don't want to watch reality TV shows.
 
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Among other things was Nixon a dumbass

Another bunch of Nixon tapes were recently released, reminding us all of the Watergate scandal.
 
I can kind of picture the conversation when Tricky Dicky first arrived at the White House about how awesome it would be for his presidency to have a permanent record.
 
You have to wonder why it never occurred to him a few weeks, months or years in why this was such a bad idea. I mean, he was there, making all these dumbass comments. Surely the thought must have crossed his mind that the reality didn't really match the high expectations he might once have had. Dumbass.
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Salads not so healthy

It seems that some supermarket salads contain more fat than a Big Mac and fries.
 
I've never been one to bother much with what's the "right" thing to do, which might be why I'm heavier than ideal but to be honest I think I'm better off for the not worrying about it. On the whole I'd rather eat what I like than what someone else tells me is what's good for me, especially when what's good for me seems to change every five minutes.
 
Middle aged rant over.
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Farrah

US actress Farrah Fawcett, famous for her role in TV show Charlie's Angels, has died of cancer at 62.

I seem to remember having quite the crush on Farrah at one time.

How very sad.  

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Bumper Sticker

Saw this on the car in front of me while queuing to get on the motorway earlier today: "If you think this car is dirty try a night with the driver". Even better, the car was being driven by a rather attractive lady. If only I was 20 years younger...
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Sting...

I've known for a long time that I come from the same town as Sting. I didn't know until today that in 1991 he played a gig 500 yards from where I was born and brought up for the first 18 years of my life. Small world...
 
http://www.sting.com/news/news.php?uid=4523

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Is this the funniest joke ever?

Clement Freud is a sad loss. He told this joke on a radio programme and many consider it the funniest joke ever told. It's at least partly funny because you don't expect someone like Clement Freud to tell a joke with this kind of punchline. You have to be made of stone if you can't at least raise a smile to this:
 

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Britain finds another talent...

Hot on the heels of Susan Boyle the Britains Got Talent show discovers Shaheen Jafargholi. Check out this video on YouTube:
 

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Diabetes Type 2...

Excellent basic description of my diabetic condition - type 2 -
 
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068721/

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

mikeyy: Second Twitter Worm on the Loose

Useful to have this to hand, contains useful advice if you do get infected...

http://mashable.com/2009/04/12/mikeyy-another-twitter-worm-on-the-loose/

Sent from TwitterFon

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Probing inappropriate rage...

Interesting Harvard Gazette reported study probing links between rage, depression, diabetes...
 
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/08.26/01-anger.html

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

What really offends David Mitchell...

I thoroughly enjoyed this exceptionally well written and well targeted rebuke aimed at some of "our nations finest" by David Mitchell.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/12/david-mitchell-jonathan-ross-russell-brand

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Diabetes 'impact on brain power'

I could have done without stumbling across this news. Although I don't suffer from hypos I am diabetic and have known for years that my memory is getting worse. Trying to be a little positive I suppose that the medical advance the research represents means that they are a step closer to understanding the issues even if a cure remains beyond reach...
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7937947.stm

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Perceptive Commentary

Michael Portillo makes some interesting comments about the Prime Minister in today's Times. I certainly empathized with the observations about the public being pretty fed up with banker bonus payments and the like. There is no doubt that there is a feeling that we have returned to an era of sleaze but I don't get a sense of the rage that was present the last time we experieced ongoing revelations of snouts in the troff which signalled the downfall of the Major government. I wonder how this percieved lack of rage will translate at the ballot box if Brown can maintain the illusion that he is not at least partly culpable for our economic problems and that his Treasury experience makes him the man to steer us to calmer waters. Cameron is not Obama and I can't see him delivering victory simply on a "time for a change agenda... 

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

A rabbit is not just for Easter...

I'm more of a dog person myself but all creatures deserve more respect than this...

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Court fines mother for phoning son too much...

It always uset my mum when i forgot to call her... looks like this mom found a different response mechanism...

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Bored

Is anyone else tired of the whole Lohan / Ronson saga?

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Remembering

Now I remember why I didn't regret moving to Manchester from London all those years ago. This was taken after the worst of the morning sardine behaviour.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

I want one...

Degree of desire 100%
Chances 0%
 
Doesn't stop me looking though.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Watching progress

I'm definitely liking the National Rail app on the iPhone. This screenshot shows live progress of the train I am on as we head into London.
 
Awesome customer service entertainment from the driver who apologised for late running of the train, blamed his train operating company and hoped they would get their act together before they lose the franchise.
 
He's even made the time up and looks like we will be right on time!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Interesting: Google is just an amoral menace

Here is the link to the Guardian article. I think it's from the print version of the Observer.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/05/google-internet-piracy
 
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Long Day

This morning I felt a little sorry for Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM as he stoically accepted a "request" from the President of the USA to step down. This afternoon I can see why he was so calm about it when his payoff totals 23 million dollars.
 
Don't ever tell me there's only one set of rules. Between the golden parachutes, the scandal of bankers bonus payments for failure and MP's expenses we have entered another golden era of sleaze. What's got me confused is the seeming lack of anger from the general public. I'm going to be paying for this mess for the rest of my life and if recent stats hurled around by financial journalists are to be believed so are the next generation. God help them. As if they won't have been left enough of a legacy with global warming.
 
It feels like it's been a long day. I came off a lazy weekend, and had a bit of a non stop day with meetings, I ran my first demo / workshop to introduce twitter to some of the team at work, then into a quiz night to raise money for a child who has a terminal illness. After that drove 2 hours to hotel I'm staying at tonight in Bristol prior to a client visit tomorrow. So now it's heading towards midnight and I'm winding down trying to feel tired enough to sleep. I guess I feel weary rather than sleepy.
 
My quiz team finished 4th out of 11 but we woz robbed! Honest guv!
 
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Ultimate Guide to Twitter

The people at webdesigner depot have published a great guide to Twitter titled "The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter" .

And if your not on Twitter, why is that?

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Spring has sprung...

Not sure the iPhone camera does the view justice. Lassie and I are watching the sun set by the lake. The tragedy of dropping my phone and cracking the glass is on the way to being sorted. I have an appointment at the Apple shop in Leicester on Friday.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

A bit proud of myself...exchange to iphone synchronisation

I've managed to sync my exchange calendar at work with my Google calendar using Google Calendar Sync.

I've then managed to sync my Google Calendar with my iPhone using Nuevasync. NuevaSync allows direct, over-the-air, native synchronization of the iPhone with calendaring services including Google Calendar. OVER THE AIR i.e. no need even to dock my iPhone.

That's what I call a good days nerding.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Cold and windy today...

I'm sitting by the lake, watching the world go by. It's started to rain so I think we will head home. The wind is bitter!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Isn't she beautiful

This has to be one of my favourite recent pictures

That's the two of us putzing in the garden.

Posted via email from stevenewson's posterous

Reports of our demise...

Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I know, I know, it's been months since I wrote on my blog but it isn't supposed to be burden. We should write when we have something to say, right?

Whilst the blogosphere has been busily reporting it's own demise and others think it's just a slowdown there remain many corners of the globe, uk, corporate sector that don't know what blogging is, or if they do they haven't embraced the idea of blogging. I'm trying to figure our whether or not I should have added "yet" to that last sentence because I'm still trying to figure out if this sector is ever going to embrace the concept.

And then I read Jeremiah Owyang's post today on how blogs can help corporations.

I intend to shamelessly steal the following ideas:

(1) Here’s how corporate blogs can help a company:

Soften or improve brand
Rapid Response tool
Intelligence gathering
Build better products from two-way conversation
Encourage advocates, embrace detractors
Sales Tools: Education or conversation starter
A living White Paper
Sales lead
One of the ways to evolve the irrelevant corporate website

(2) In a few years, blogs will be issued like email accounts.

Damn; so much to do, so little time.

How to merge multiple documents using PDF Creator

It had completely passed me by that Microsoft had dropped Office Binder in Office XP and beyond, because "usage studies... revealed that Binder was not heavily used". It's annoying though, isn't it, that just when you have a need for a feature that it's not there anymore.

A quick hunt on Google tells me more than I need to know about Binder and there is even a pretty scary tutorial on how to add Binder to your system from a previous version of Office - scary because the final instruction is about checking registry entries and undertaking a "repair" of your current installation.

What I wanted to do didn't feel like rocket science. I had four or five source Word documents that I needed to be able to print out in one step, in the right order, whenever required. The formatting of the various documents did not allow me to create a merged document by embedding each source document within it.

What I finally came up with was to print the documents using the "Wait - Collect" function in PDF Creator, then use the PDF Creator Print Monitor to combine the documents, then print into one single PDF file. Bingo, one document created from the source documents with formatting of each individual document perfectly preserved, and the objective achieved, which is the capability to print out the source documents in one step in the right order.

STEP 1

Print the first document, instead of using "Save" as you normally would, use the "Wait - Collect" option. Repeat with the second and any subsequent documents.

STEP 2

In the PDF Creator print monitor use the toolbar function to "combine" your documents, and then the function to print, which will output a single PDF document.

There's probably a number of ways of doing the same thing but this method has two distinct advantages:

(1) I already use PDF creator as my usual facility for creating PDF's so it's always have it handy

(2) PDF Creator is free, although I encourage you to make a donation if you find it as useful as I do


Tags: Office Binder, PDF Creator

A Ton of Love...

I love this heartwarming story for all kinds of reasons...

Six months ago a lion named Jupiter was rescued from a life of abuse and malnutrition in a traveling circus in Columbia. According to an AP report, a woman named Ana Julia Torres, who runs a shelter for injured and mistreated animals in a poor neighborhood in Cali, Columbia, saved him, along with 800 other "recovering creatures."

"Here we have animals that are lame, missing limbs, blind, cross-eyed, disabled," said Torres. "They come to us malnourished, wounded, burned, and stabbed, with gunshots."

People are shocked and amazed to see Jupiter lavish long hugs and kisses on his rescuer, notes a report on Channel 6 News in Florida, who carried the story. "It is amazing to see an animal like that be so sweet and affectionate," said Torres. "This hug is the most sincere one that I have received in my life."

Tags: Lion, Lion Hug

Are you a "Booger" too?

I subscribe to the bLaugh RSS feed and generally have a good chuckle at the comic. Today's comic is hilarious...



This is from the bLaugh About Us page:

bLaugh is already being called a… “MAD Magazine for the Blogosphere.” But since our moms are the ones who said that, it doesn’t really count. What us, worry?

This is the (un)Official comic of the blogosphere - colorful, satirical, and comical. Expect parodies of “A-List” bloggers all the way down to the meme of the day - no holds barred. Brad Fitzpatrick is bLaugh’s artist, and Chris Pirillo is its creative writer.

Technorati Tags: bLaugh, fun

What did Google do to deserve this...

Looking at the front page of Techmeme this morning you'd be forgiven for thinking that the bell has been tolled and the eulogies written to signal the end of Google.

Michael Arrington questions whether the Official Google Blog is entitled to call itself a blog.

Nathan Weinberg at Inside Google picks on the accidental deletion of Gmail Inboxes, Orkut having an outage and a hiccup in the ranking of some prominent sex blogs.

The New York Times features the next in line of the so-called Google killers. Yawn.

Don Dodge had the anchor story on Techmeme regarding the controvery over Google promoting it's own services in search results pages. Simply put, Google is being accused of hypocrisy, having criticised Microsoft in the past for employing similar tactics.

Wow, did we all get out of bed on the wrong side yesterday or what?

I look on 2006 as the year when I've embraced more Google services than ever and see 2007 as the year in which Google are likely to capture ever more of my attention rather than less. I think the biggest change in my online behaviour of last year was moving from Newsgator to Google Reader and finally embracing reading feeds in a river of news fashion.

I predict that in 2007 Picasa Web Albums will probably develop far enough to see me move from Flickr.

I predict that in 2007 Google Blog Search will lead to me spending less time at both Technorati and Techmeme.

I predict that in 2007 Google will do something big in the arena of either online presentations or online drawing (in other words a Powerpoint or Visio killer).

I think it's fine that we hold Google to high standards but this sniping at the "do no evil" motto and suggestions that Google have reached some mythical "end of the road" are stretching credibility a bit thin for me.

Technorati Tags: Techmeme, Google, Michael Arrington, Techcrunch, Inside Google, nathan weinberg, New York Times, Don Dodge, Newsgator, Technorati

The presidential election of 2008 is already underway...

The United States presidential election of 2008 is going to be fascinating for any number of reasons. Technology will play a role without doubt. Blogging will have an impact; the only question being how much of an impact that will be. Robert Scoble recently tagged along while John Edwards announced that he’s running for President.

I think the most important aspect of the election will potentially be the fact that it will represent the first time a woman has been a credible candidate for the presidency. A poll of New Hampshire Democrats released Thursday by the American Research Group indicated that the undeclared Senator Hillary Clinton of New York has 27 percent support, significantly ahead of John Edwards who has just 18 percent support.

This is, of course, a long race and much can happen between now and election day. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards

15 seconds of fame...

In 1968 Andy Warhol made the statement that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." In 1979 Warhol reiterated his claim: "...my prediction from the sixties finally came true: In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes."

Warhol may turn out to be right in principle but wrong about how fleeting fame might be, courtesy of CBS Interactive.

If you had 15 seconds to tell the world whatever you want to, what would you say? Well, now's your chance to be seen and heard on national television, courtesy of CBS Interactive. Post your 15-second video on YouTube, and CBS Interactive will select one to be broadcast on TV! The first selection will air on Sunday, February 4, 2007.

This has the potential to be fascinating.

[Link]

Technorati Tags: andy warhol, CBS, Fame

Ticket to the moon...

I have some vivid memories of watching the moon landings at school as a child. I was just eight years old when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. When I travelled to Florida on holiday one of the highlights of the trip was the visit to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. I guess you could call me a child of the space age.

It was with some sadness, therefore, that I read in this article on CNN about the scale of indifference among 18 to 25 year olds for the NASA vision to return to the moon and then go to Mars.

I guess the good news is that NASA is recognising that is has a problem and therefore is applying some thought to how to turn this around. The article indicates some understanding of what the solution has to manage, but I'm not convinced they have yet found the inspiring, viral idea that will get them to their goal.

I hope they do, before Congress decides the vision has insufficient public support and quietly buries the plans.

Technorati Tags: NASA

Google Reader

As I haven't had much time to blog I haven't had the chance to report that I've moved over to Google Reader and although I thought I'd never find that I would be happy with a feed reader tool that wasn't based in Outlook I've actually found the transition relatively painless. This is how I went about implementing Reader:

(1) I was able to get going in minutes by importing an opml file of my Newsgator subscriptions

(2) I keep all my subscriptions in a simple list, in other words I don't create folders. I do, however, only list updated subscriptions. I sometimes scan the list to zero in on favourite feeds but most of the time I use "All items" view and just next, next, next through my items in expanded mode. I never use the list mode. So after all this time I finally get completely the concept of a "river of news", but it's taken Google's implementation of it to win me over.

(3) I keep my "All items" view and each subscription sorted by oldest. I like to read in the order in which people wrote items and I also keep an eye on how far behind I am with my feed reading.

(4) I love the way "Starred items" has been implemented. This makes it easy to retrieve items I want to blog about or to go back and read a post in more depth later on.

(5) I also totally love the way that shared items has been implemented. Robert Scoble used this feature to re-introduce his link blog. I use it to share items of interest from my feeds with my wife and friends.

I'm definitely a convert!

Tags: Robert Scoble, Google Reader

Sigh...

So I haven't blogged in over a month and now that I have some time to catch up I find the spammers have found a way to hit haloscan and statcounter is down. Terrific!

Mindjet responds to resource useage issues

I've been aware for some time of concerns that some MindManager users have been voicing over issues which manifest as high consumption of CPU and RAM resource when using the product.

Mindjet have published an update today that illustrates they've been listening, working on the problem and now believe they have a structured way forward to attack some of the issues.

The route map consists of some specific changes that will be made to how MindManager utilises CPU and RAM resources coupled with some advice on using MindManager on a tablet.

Whilst MindJet make the point that they only have data on 80 users suffering with these problems out of a user base of over 800,000 I think the issue has (so far) been a model of how blogging can help companies listen to user issues and respond to them.

Tags: Mindjet, MindManager

State of the Blogosphere

Dave Sifry has published his quarterly State of the Blogosphere report. This is my view of the findings:

• Technorati is now tracking more than 57 million blogs (although only 55% are active)
• The blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days
• About 100,000 new weblogs are created each day
• About 1.3 million posting are made per day
• There is a strong correlation between frequency of posting and Technorati ranking.

Boy, is the blogosphere getting big. I'm glad I was among the "relatively" early adopters because my ranking, pathetic though it is, still puts me in the top 1% 0f active blogs. Cool. Is it cool to say cool these days?

Tags: Technorati, Blogs, Blogging

MediaFire free file hosting...

I'm trying out the free file hosting service at MediaFire, and I'm using it to share the mind map files that I talked about in my previous post.

Creating an account is as simple as providing your email address and picking a password.

Uploading couldn't be simpler and the service provides unlimited uploads / downloads and unlimited file sizes, for free (it's all ad supported). The upload progress page is quite spiffy:



and they make the process of sharing your file once uploaded as easy as can be...


I don't want to sound like the prophet of doom, but I've seen a number of these services come and then migrate to a pay service. Bottom line - I hope MediaFire manages to secure enough ad revenue to provide a basic free service in it's current form ad infinitum.

As it stands this is a great, no-nonsense, file hosting service.

Tags: MediaFire, file hosting

RSS Primers

I starred a post in Google Reader to come back to at a later date and blog about. It was something Steve Rubel wrote about the best primer on RSS that he's seen to date.

I must admit that I usually send people who ask me about RSS to the BBC primers either here or here.

I thought Wikipedia made heavy weather of it, even the section on "usage" (which is effectively the introduction) was a bit technical for the average reader; quickly descending into XML's, Atom's, and client sides.

I googled "RSS primer" and the number one hit also get's technical pretty quickly; less than a page in and we're looking at what an RSS file looks like.

Where do you send people for a good introduction to RSS?

Tags: RSS, RSS Primer, Steve Rubel

The fedaration against bullets (FAB)

For the past year or so I've been interested in my approach to producing presentations. Google Desktop Search tells me that Robert Scoble blogged about Beyond Bullets in March 2005, although I think the source of Robert's post was this post by Steve Rubel.

I mention this because I can't believe I haven't blogged about Beyond Bullets before now. I occasionally run across posts like this one, which makes a headline out of the hypothesis that bad PowerPoint is costing something like $250m dollars a day in wasted time whilst the fine print points out that the problem isn't the software, just the way that people use it. And there's any number of this type of post with a headline about the many ways to create better PowerPoint but when you get to the source you find it's good advice only if you're going to keep approaching presentations in the same old way.

Beyond Bullets was the first time that I'd come across a radically different approach to PowerPoint. Here is my short version of the book:

Bullet points are easy but they are an obstacle. They make the atmosphere formal and stiff. They tend to make people confused and unclear. They "dumb down" critical thinking. The alternative? Tell a story; (1) write a script to focus your ideas. (2) storyboard the script to clarify ideas and provide the foundation for the words and visuals (3) engage with your audience.

When I first read the book I mind mapped my learning. The mind maps I created with supporting files are available here. If you have trouble downloading drop me a mail at steve.newson@gmail.com and I'll email the file to you.

Cliff Atkinson, the author of Beyond Bullets, also writes the Beyond Bullets blog, although it's been silent since July, 2006. I hope Cliff will blog again in the future. If you're seriously interested in creating better presentations then I highly recommend the book.

UPDATE: Kathy Sierra who writes the awesome Creating Passionate Users blog has some great advice in this post about adding graphics to your blog, book or presentation.

Tags: Beyond Bullets, Robert Scoble, Powerpoint, Presentations, Mind Manager, Mind Mapping

Penguin goes shopping...

I promise I'm not trying to takeover from Cute Overload, but this is priceless...



Tags: Penguin, Cute

Zune has installation issues...

You have to feel for the guys at Microsoft sometimes. If catching up with the iPod wasn't hard enough already the first reports trickling out from pre-launch sales of the Zune suggest installation isn't going to be straightforward for everyone.



"Embrace and extend" may have been taken care of. Extinguishing the iPod is just going to take a bit longer.

Tags: Microsoft, Zune, iPod

I'm not usually this lucky but...

If it wasn't already obvious to regular readers of this site I'm a big fan of MindManager from Mindjet. I've had access to the application for the past couple of years through my former employer, but have been unable to use my maps for the last several weeks since starting my new job. If I'm honest I haven't had time to miss it properly as I've been so busy settling in to my new role.

A couple of weeks ago one of the GTD blogs that I subscribe to - What's the Next Action - reviewed MindManager and announced a competition with five MindManager Pro 6 licences as prizes. The prizes would go to the finest, most original, thoughtprovoking or best-coloured mindmaps on any topic of choice. So I submitted one of my maps and thought nothing more about it.

So I was hugely pleased to read that I was one of the winners.

The map that I submitted was the one I made of my CV (resume). The judging panel called it innovative and original. Scott Herrick commented on the results on his BizBlog and thought the map was cool. High praise indeed.

As Scott pointed out I wrote about the creation of the map in this post.

I'm so glad to have MindManager back in my toolkit.

Tags: Mindjet, MindManager, Mind Mapping, mindmapping, GTD

Launching a takeover...

Ok, so I have the front end:



... now I just need a spider, an indexed database, a few servers, some power and the big G better watch out!

Something tells me Sergey and Larry don't have much to worry about for a while.

Follow the link to create your own customised Google homepage (at least until the takedown notice arrives).

[Link]

Tags: Google, Joke

My link blog...

You know me by now, any chance for a gratuitous picture of a panda and I'm you're man.


This picture was taken at the WoLong Panda Center in China by ynts060701

It's also from one of the first posts on my link blog which you can find here, or you can subscribe here.

Tags: Panda, Pandas, Google Reader

When I'm 65...

Speaking of motivational quotes here's one from the great George Burns:

"Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples."

I hope I feel the same when I get there.

Tags: Motivation

I feel the need, the need for speed

I've read some of the commentary about Marissa Meyer's speech at the Web 2.0 Conference in which she offered some insight into what Google have learned about speed, the user experience, and user satisfaction.

The lesson, Marissa said, is that speed matters. People do not like to wait. Do not make them.

I hope the Google Reader team were listening. For various reasons I've recently moved from Newsgator to Google Reader as my aggregator and I have to say that for the most part the experience has been excellent.

Things I like:

(1) Starred Items - I can mark an item as starred to come back later and blog about it. This means I can keep the reading process and writing process separate when I want to.

(2) Shared Items - makes it easy to share blog posts with my wife, so I don't have to keep emailing her either the post or a link to the post. She can subscribe to my shared item feed so I don't have to say "Honey, did you see that post about...." anymore. Robert Scoble took this feature one step further and turned this functionality into his link blog, simply by advertising the page / feed details. There are some problems with layout on the page view, but the feed works perfectly well.

(3) River of News - I never really got the argument about a "river of news" until I started to use the "All items" view in Reader. I show only the new items in the expanded view and use the Next / Previous buttons to advance through my unread posts as a river of news. I don't usually use keyboard shortcuts as a rule and I know that I could use the j / k keys for Next / Previous movement, for some reason I personally prefer the Next / Previous buttons. Each item I land on is automatically marked as read. I can "star" or "share" as I go. I can also email or tag items but I don't use the email feature often and haven't used the tagging feature at all. I don't have to use the river of news view and when I want to, I can zero in on feeds that I'm interested in at a particular point in time. What I have noticed though is that I do get through the reading process faster than I did using folders in Outlook. I haven't changed the number of feeds I'm reading so unless everyone is suddenly writing a whole lot less than before the river of news approach is definitely speeding up how fast I can get through my reading.

What is less good is the time it takes to load items into the view. As I move through my river of news it appears that the reader loads twenty items at a time but it seems not to load the next 20 until you get to the bottom of the current twenty, so I'm continually waiting while the reader is "loading next 20 items".

To be fair Google Reader is still a beta product and they're probably still working on improvements. As Marissa has pointed out though, speed matters.

Tags: Google Reader, Newsgator, Robert Scoble

Motivation

According to the blurb on the website, the Quotations Page is the oldest quotation site on the Web, established in 1994. They have over 25,200 quotations online from over 3,000 authors, and more are added daily.

The quotes are broken down into categories, one of the categories is called "Motivational Quotes". It's possible to subscribe to a feed from this category that sends your reader four quotes per day.

Two recent quotes were particularly relevant to my ongoing fascination with Getting Things Done, so I thought I would share them:

"Life is too complicated not to be orderly." (Martha Stewart)

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials." (Lin Yutang)

These are the sort of quotes I like to use as an email tagline, although my favourite tagline has always been a project management line:

"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine."

Tags: Motivation, GTD, Getting Things Done

FogBugz as a Help Desk application

I've mentioned recently that I'm a fan of the work of Joel Spolsky.

At my last place of employment I implemented Fogbugz to replace the defect tracking and enhancement management tool we were using at the time and I found that it made light work of that task with the added bonus of an impressive reduction in costs. I was particularly impressed by how uncomplicated it made everything compared with what Joel would consider "high ceremony" equivalent bug tracking tools. I found it to be software that epitomised the whole "less is sometimes more" ethos.

Reading Joel's blog this morning I picked up today on a great article by Kiere on using Fogbugz as a Help Desk application. The back story is that Kiere was looking for a Help Desk system but due to budget constraints (we all know about those, right!) decided to take a look at how he was using Fogbugz and for the investment of a bit of thought and with a few tweaks here and there he's got a functional help desk ticket system together with a knowledge base. Very cool stuff.

It makes you wonder how often software purchasing decisons are made on the strength of "I need one of those" rather than thinking about leveraging exisiting tools first, which is an obvious question to which part of the answer is that you need smart people who can make the intellectual leap which identifies the possibilty in the first place.

Knowing that Joel has read Kiere's article I also wonder if he's planning on a few changes in the next version of FogBugz to make operating the software as a Help Desk tool a more obvious component of the marketed functionality.

Tags: Joel Spolsky, FogBugz

What do you mean I didn't win...

This was just too funny to pass up. Keep your eyes on Faith Hill's reaction to NOT winning the female vocalist of the year gong at the recent Country Music Awards show.



There has been some suggestions that Faith was only joking but I'd have to agree with those who think that's a last ditch attempt at damage control.

I'm sort of reminded of one of Colin Powell's lessons:

"Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it."

I'm also a closet Carrie Underwood fan.

Tags: Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Viral Video, Humor