I caught a bit of local news on TV after the football game this evening. I was appalled by the lead story about a group of young thugs who threw a cat off a fifth floor balcony.
Not once.
Not twice.
Not thrice.
Four times!
And they filmed the incident using their mobile phones.
According to the news report the cat managed to limp away after being dropped the fourth time, screaming in agony. The cat's owner who eventually found the wounded animal took it to a local vet and the cat was put to sleep.
The incident is thought to be first happy slapping incident involving an animal. Happy Slapping is defined by Wikipedia as a fad in which an unsuspecting victim is attacked while an accomplice records the assault (commonly with a camera phone). The name can refer to any type of violent assault, not just slapping.
The RSPCA managed to track down the thugs who today pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.
I'm afraid that the severity of the sentences handed out will not match the brutality of the crime.
Tags: Animal Cruelty, Animal Rights
Friday, June 30, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Just because we can't hear them scream doesn't make this right...
The New Zealand Department of Conservation writes:
The Sun gets to the heart of the matter from my point of view...
I'm realistic enough to believe that we probably can't stop all whaling but the barbarity with which it is undertaken is stomach turning.
David Attenborough is quoted as saying:
Tags: Whaling, Greenpeace, Animal Cruelty, Animal Rights
Despite a moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, and two ocean sanctuaries to further protect whales, only a few whale populations are increasing. Slow reproductive rates and new environmental threats affect the ability of whales to recover, even in the absence of any whaling activities.The BBC in a report on the recent International Whaling Commission's annual meeting notes that:
Currently, Japan and Iceland kill whales under an IWC ruling which allows nations to catch whales for "scientific research".
Norway, which formally objected to the 1986 ban, openly conducts commercial whaling.
The Sun gets to the heart of the matter from my point of view...
And The Sun has obtained harrowing undercover footage which proves that whales suffer a torturous and lingering death when they have been harpooned.
The images, filmed by the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Environmental Investigation Agency, show a Norwegian ship firing a grenade-tipped harpoon into a minke whale.
The whale takes two-and-a-half agonising minutes to die. Others can take more than AN HOUR.
Even the Norwegians admit that around 20 per cent of whales fail to be killed straight away. Japan has reported that almost 60 per cent are not killed outright.
I'm realistic enough to believe that we probably can't stop all whaling but the barbarity with which it is undertaken is stomach turning.
David Attenborough is quoted as saying:
“And there is hard, scientific, dispassionate evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea. Dr Harry Lillie, who worked as a ship’s physician on a whaling trip in the Antarctic half a century ago, wrote this:Shane Rattenbury, of Greenpeace’s ocean’s campaign, goes on to describe the cruelty he witnessed at first hand:
“ ‘If we can imagine a horse having two or three explosive spears stuck in its stomach and being made to pull a butcher’s truck through the streets of London while it pours blood into the gutter, we shall have an idea of the method of killing. The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream the industry would stop, for nobody would be able to stand it.’
“Harpoons with explosive grenade heads are still the main technique used to kill whales today.”
“We saw how long it took for the whales to die.Call me a liberal, tea-smoking, hippy if you like but this isn't about the killing. It's about cruelty and a lack of respect for life.
“The worst example I saw was when a whale was struck three times. The time between being struck with the harpoon and ceasing to struggle to fight was 35 minutes.
“We also saw the whales being asphyxiated. This hasn’t been documented before.
“When they have harpooned the whale, they tie it to the side of the catcher ship and take it to the factory ship.
“They were being hung up by their tails with their heads under water so they couldn’t breath. That’s how they were dying. The whale normally breathes from the top of the head.
“You could see the whale tail flapping as it was being carried along — which is not the promised quick death from a harpoon.
“The Japanese claim these are scientific hunts. But no scientist could support such unsophisticated deaths. It is appalling. None of us had prepared ourselves for something like that.”
Tags: Whaling, Greenpeace, Animal Cruelty, Animal Rights
Up close and personal with an Eagle Owl
We spent a wonderful day on Saturday at the Althorp Country Show. Althorp is the ancestral home of the Spencer family, including Diana, The Princess of Wales.
One of the demonstrations was given by the Hawkeye Falconry Display Team, professional falconers with many years experience of showing birds of prey. As an opener they have an eagle owl fly over a line of children lying on the ground. They invite photographers to get in close and take pictures. I managed to capture this shot using my wife's new Canon EOS 350D in sports mode.
At this point the bird is just a second away from flying over my head to land on the trainer's glove.
Tags: Falconry, Canon EOS 350D
One of the demonstrations was given by the Hawkeye Falconry Display Team, professional falconers with many years experience of showing birds of prey. As an opener they have an eagle owl fly over a line of children lying on the ground. They invite photographers to get in close and take pictures. I managed to capture this shot using my wife's new Canon EOS 350D in sports mode.
At this point the bird is just a second away from flying over my head to land on the trainer's glove.
Tags: Falconry, Canon EOS 350D
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Attitude is everything...
Like most people I get copied in on viral emails making the rounds. I recently received this one:
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man. " I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply... I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
I found support for this parable from an improbable source. I'm currently reading "The ultimate book of mind maps" by Tony Buzan. Buzan describes the human brain as a synergetic system, a system where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
Thus a thought does not exist in isolation, it fits into a network of other thoughts and associations that exist only in your own brain. This network is a kind of internal super-mind map of your growing thoughts, ideas and memories. As you think, new connections between thoughts are forged and your internal mind map becomes more sophisticated, complex and powerful. In other words, more than just the sum of the individual thoughts.
The more you use your brain to think about something, through repetition, the more you strengthen the links between thoughts, making the mind map of these thoughts and ideas stronger. Everything you do or say or think or feel increases the probability that you will do, say, think, or feel in the same way again. If you do things well, speak and think positively, and generally feel good about yourself, others, the world and the universe, the probability continually increases that you will do better, talk and think better, and feel and be better. This is sometimes referred to as a virtuous circle.
The flip side of this is that if you do poorly, think and act negatively, practice inadequately, and regularly feel bad about yourself, others, the world, and the universe, then with every such thought and act you increase the probablity of a continuing and deepening downwards spiral.
Buzan concludes that the brain principles of synergy and repetition mean that our brains can be both infinitely creative and infinitely destructive, but the power to use you brain positively and to the greatest effect lies in your own hands.
It's your choice.
Key learning points summary:
(1) the synergy created by the ability to connect thoughts and ideas is a fundamental benefit of mind mapping tools such as MindManager
(2) that repetition is important to strengthen retention (mapping + repetition = better retention)
(3) mind mapping provides a powerful way to harness the potential of the brain
Tags: Mind Mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, Tony Buzan, LifeHack, Personal Productivity
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man. " I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply... I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
I found support for this parable from an improbable source. I'm currently reading "The ultimate book of mind maps" by Tony Buzan. Buzan describes the human brain as a synergetic system, a system where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
Thus a thought does not exist in isolation, it fits into a network of other thoughts and associations that exist only in your own brain. This network is a kind of internal super-mind map of your growing thoughts, ideas and memories. As you think, new connections between thoughts are forged and your internal mind map becomes more sophisticated, complex and powerful. In other words, more than just the sum of the individual thoughts.
The more you use your brain to think about something, through repetition, the more you strengthen the links between thoughts, making the mind map of these thoughts and ideas stronger. Everything you do or say or think or feel increases the probability that you will do, say, think, or feel in the same way again. If you do things well, speak and think positively, and generally feel good about yourself, others, the world and the universe, the probability continually increases that you will do better, talk and think better, and feel and be better. This is sometimes referred to as a virtuous circle.
The flip side of this is that if you do poorly, think and act negatively, practice inadequately, and regularly feel bad about yourself, others, the world, and the universe, then with every such thought and act you increase the probablity of a continuing and deepening downwards spiral.
Buzan concludes that the brain principles of synergy and repetition mean that our brains can be both infinitely creative and infinitely destructive, but the power to use you brain positively and to the greatest effect lies in your own hands.
It's your choice.
Key learning points summary:
(1) the synergy created by the ability to connect thoughts and ideas is a fundamental benefit of mind mapping tools such as MindManager
(2) that repetition is important to strengthen retention (mapping + repetition = better retention)
(3) mind mapping provides a powerful way to harness the potential of the brain
Tags: Mind Mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, Tony Buzan, LifeHack, Personal Productivity
Saturday, June 17, 2006
It doesn't sound like risk management as I understand it...
A BBC report suggests that the shuttle has been cleared to fly despite objections from both NASA's top safety official AND lead engineer.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin told a news conference:
Tags: NASA, Shuttle
NASA administrator Michael Griffin told a news conference:
"I can't possibly accept every recommendation given to me by every member of my staff, especially when they all don't agree."Adminsitrator Griffin describes the Flight Readiness Review as spirited. After the Columbia disaster and the following investigation I would have thought the top safety official would have a "golden vote", but apparently not.
Tags: NASA, Shuttle
Connecting to the bottom line...
Nick Duffill writes the always interesting Beyond Crayons blog. I wish he wrote more often. His recent post on how mapping software creates value inside organisations provides some good pointers for anyone who has ever tried to evangelise the introduction or use of mind mapping software in an organisation.
Tags: Mind Mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, Nick Duffill, Beyond Crayons
To understand the potential value of software mapping in your organisation, ask yourself: "What core processes are not working very well today because we struggle to describe and communicate fundamental concepts in a consistent and engaging way?" If the answer to this is "none", then it is probable that software mapping will remain a novelty at the fringes of your organisation. However, if you can produce a strong answer, then you have every chance of completing the value chain between the technology and the bottom line.I think you can extend the point to lots of software tools. If you can't connect the tool to the bottom line you can demonstrate exquisite functionality till you're blue in the face, but you won't get much traction.
Tags: Mind Mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, Nick Duffill, Beyond Crayons
We're a long way from the Bill Gates obituary...
Matthew Ingram has written a thoughtful analysis about what the Bill Gates announcement really means and comes to the conclusion: not very much! I can see his point; nothing is going to really change for the next two years, the announcement has had zero effect on the share price and the one really interesting signal was the strengthening of the positions of Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie. The implication is that this lessens the grip of Steve Ballmer.
The story even made Newsnight here in the UK and you catch still catch the transmission over the weekend at the Newsnight website, click the "watch the latest programme" graphic. The BBC introduction took a few swipes at Gates (monopolist and Netscape murderer) and sums up the challenges that Microsoft faces today as; mobile computing, new devices that don't run Windows (i.e. Linux) and the free software movement.
In the discussion Microsoft were represented by my favourite geek blogger, Robert Scoble, which must have given the Microsft PR department heartburn, given that Robert recently announced he was moving on. Robert, in a comment on his own blog, suggests that he was chosen because 1) he was available, 2) the BBC don’t trust anyone that PR shoves in front of them and 3) they figured he'd tell the truth cause he's leaving anyway. Newsnight also fielded the economist Irwin Stelzer from the Hudson Institute to provide an "independant" viewpoint.
The discussion opened with the point that Gates used monopoly power to stifle innovation and competition. Robert countered that the rise of Google and Apple didn't suggest that Bill gets it all his own way. Stelzer made the point that Gates did stop some innovation and you can't escape the fact that the courts had upheld this view.
There was general agreement that Gates is a better man than some of the great capitalists of the past, that he did change the world, and that he is undoubtedly a very smart man.
Joel Spolsky remarks on meeting with Bill Gates some fourteen years ago:
Tags: Bill Gates, Robert Scoble, Newsnight, Joel Spolsky
The story even made Newsnight here in the UK and you catch still catch the transmission over the weekend at the Newsnight website, click the "watch the latest programme" graphic. The BBC introduction took a few swipes at Gates (monopolist and Netscape murderer) and sums up the challenges that Microsoft faces today as; mobile computing, new devices that don't run Windows (i.e. Linux) and the free software movement.
In the discussion Microsoft were represented by my favourite geek blogger, Robert Scoble, which must have given the Microsft PR department heartburn, given that Robert recently announced he was moving on. Robert, in a comment on his own blog, suggests that he was chosen because 1) he was available, 2) the BBC don’t trust anyone that PR shoves in front of them and 3) they figured he'd tell the truth cause he's leaving anyway. Newsnight also fielded the economist Irwin Stelzer from the Hudson Institute to provide an "independant" viewpoint.
The discussion opened with the point that Gates used monopoly power to stifle innovation and competition. Robert countered that the rise of Google and Apple didn't suggest that Bill gets it all his own way. Stelzer made the point that Gates did stop some innovation and you can't escape the fact that the courts had upheld this view.
There was general agreement that Gates is a better man than some of the great capitalists of the past, that he did change the world, and that he is undoubtedly a very smart man.
Joel Spolsky remarks on meeting with Bill Gates some fourteen years ago:
Bill Gates was amazingly technical. He understood Variants, and COM objects, and IDispatch and why Automation is different than vtables and why this might lead to dual interfaces. He worried about date functions. He didn't meddle in software if he trusted the people who were working on it, but you couldn't bullshit him for a minute because he was a programmer. A real, actual, programmer.Joel does go on to critique why he thinks things have gone wrong since those early days but he gives a sense of why Gates did succeed in the first place.
Tags: Bill Gates, Robert Scoble, Newsnight, Joel Spolsky
Thursday, June 15, 2006
What a search engine spider sees...
My minor research project on internet search continues.
A search engine comprises three major components:
(1) A spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") that goes to sites and reads them. The crawler copies everything (text, pictures, documents, everything) back to the second part of the system…
(2) The database and index - the database stores all data sent back by the spider and indexes of all the data are constructed to make finding information easier using...
(3) The front end - a program that accepts your search request, looks in the index and returns results to you.
When you search at a search engine your are searching the engine’s copy of the internet, not the internet itself.
If you ever wondered what a spider actually sees when it visits your site have a look at this tool which will scan a page and show you the results, as well as provide useful page data such as word density, meta keywords, links, and other bits of page information.
I found out about the spider tool via A Welsh View.
Tags: Search, Google, Yahoo
A search engine comprises three major components:
(1) A spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") that goes to sites and reads them. The crawler copies everything (text, pictures, documents, everything) back to the second part of the system…
(2) The database and index - the database stores all data sent back by the spider and indexes of all the data are constructed to make finding information easier using...
(3) The front end - a program that accepts your search request, looks in the index and returns results to you.
When you search at a search engine your are searching the engine’s copy of the internet, not the internet itself.
If you ever wondered what a spider actually sees when it visits your site have a look at this tool which will scan a page and show you the results, as well as provide useful page data such as word density, meta keywords, links, and other bits of page information.
I found out about the spider tool via A Welsh View.
Tags: Search, Google, Yahoo
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Getting fired for blogging on the increase
WSJ columnist Jeremy Wagstaff quotes a survey of large US companies:
Tags: Blogging, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel
Nearly 1 in 5 companies (17.3%) has disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies in the last year. 7.1% of companies fired an employee for such infractions. Ouch. 10% of public companies investigated the exposure of material financial information via a blog or message board posting in the past year.Truth be told I thought the principles of blogging were better understood than these statistics imply. A small investment in "Naked Conversations" sounds like a good idea for both the companies and the bloggers.
Tags: Blogging, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel
SnagIt users not immune to Flickr crackdown
Having recently posted about the new SnagIt to Flickr extension it was a blow to come across this article about a Flickr crackdown on screenshots.
Tags: Flickr, SnagIt
Online worlds collide as Second Life fans and Flickr spar over how to handle screenshots on the popular photo-sharing site.Whilst the crackdown arises as a result of the volume of Second Life screenshots being posted, it apparently applies to any account where more than half of the images in the Flickr account are screenshots or other types of non-photographic images, so it's worth knowing before anyone heads off filling their Flickr account with SnagIt screenshots.
At stake is a little-known Flickr policy of flagging accounts that contain mostly non-photographic images and preventing images from those accounts from appearing in public areas of the site, including search.
As a result, many screenshots on Flickr are AWOL -- at least as far as the general public is concerned. That's angering and confusing some of the people who carefully stage scenes in the popular virtual world and religiously post the results online.
Tags: Flickr, SnagIt
Google Me
The NY Times published an article on Sunday pointing out one of the downsides of social networking sites likes MySpace, FaceBook, and Bebo. A really quick overview of the article is that students should beware of what they are posting on these sites as recruiters are beginning to use these sites as an evidentiary source in hiring decisions as the students apply to join the world of work.
I found the article interesting in itself as a demonstration of the use of Web 2.0 by an industry in which I have more than a passing interest.
The importance of the message is magnified when you discover that MySpace is the 7th most popular website in the UK (3rd most popular in the US and 5th most popular in the world).
The same argument equally applies to any blogging platform. If you are identifiable from your blog profile or your blog content then your blog probably says something about who you are and what you stand for. It's worth a thought if you're thinking about applying for a new job what your trail of blog posts says about you.
Brings new meaning to the phrase "google me".
Tags: NY Times, MySpace, Facebook, bebo, social networking
I found the article interesting in itself as a demonstration of the use of Web 2.0 by an industry in which I have more than a passing interest.
The importance of the message is magnified when you discover that MySpace is the 7th most popular website in the UK (3rd most popular in the US and 5th most popular in the world).
The same argument equally applies to any blogging platform. If you are identifiable from your blog profile or your blog content then your blog probably says something about who you are and what you stand for. It's worth a thought if you're thinking about applying for a new job what your trail of blog posts says about you.
Brings new meaning to the phrase "google me".
Tags: NY Times, MySpace, Facebook, bebo, social networking
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Google not the only one with a China issue...
A report on Apple's iPod's factories suggests that Google aren't the only major player with a China issue.
Tags: Google, Apple, China
Tags: Google, Apple, China
Monday, June 12, 2006
The secret of success...
I'm doing some background research on the development of search. I found an interesting page on Yahoo which describes "how it all started". I see that Jerry Yang and David Filo, the Yahoo co-founders, started their "guide to the internet" in a campus trailer.
Google famously began life in a garage.
The secret of success is clearly to be consigned to really bad accomodation.
Tags: Yahoo, Google
Google famously began life in a garage.
The secret of success is clearly to be consigned to really bad accomodation.
Tags: Yahoo, Google
Sunday, June 11, 2006
I come to praise Robert Scoble, not bury him
Top story in blog circles today is that Robert Scoble has apparently decided to move on from his job at Microsoft. The blogosphere is awash with ill-informed hogwash as to Robert's reasons for moving on, so much hogwash in fact that Robert felt moved to correct some of the more scurrilous gossip.
I claim no great insight into Robert's reasons for moving on, but give the guy a break. He's doing what's right for him, what he feels will be best for his career and his life.
There have been few people in my life that have genuinely inspired me. I'm not embarassed to say that Robert is one of them. I've never met him, although I hope to remedy that at some point in the future, but I feel I know him better than some of the people I come into contact with every day.
Robert has done a great job at Microsoft and he deserves praise for his accomplishments. I wish him well as he sets sail in a new direction.
Congratulations, Robert.
Tags: Robert Scoble
I claim no great insight into Robert's reasons for moving on, but give the guy a break. He's doing what's right for him, what he feels will be best for his career and his life.
There have been few people in my life that have genuinely inspired me. I'm not embarassed to say that Robert is one of them. I've never met him, although I hope to remedy that at some point in the future, but I feel I know him better than some of the people I come into contact with every day.
Robert has done a great job at Microsoft and he deserves praise for his accomplishments. I wish him well as he sets sail in a new direction.
Congratulations, Robert.
Tags: Robert Scoble
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Creativity
From a post by Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen:
The struggle against mediocrity is an uphill battle. I found this to be a great insight into why it's worth it to strive to be different, and in particular why I have always sought to make my PowerPoint presentations out of the ordinary.
Tags: Presentation Zen, PowerPoint, Presentations, creativity
"Creative power" or "creative imagination" is not only for "The artists of the world," the painters, the sculptors, and so on. Teachers need the power of creativity too. So do programmers, engineers, scientists, etc. You can see the application of creative genius in many professional fields. Remember, for example, that it was a group of brilliant and geeky-to-the-core NASA engineers on the ground who in 1970 were able jury rig a solution to the life-threatening build up of carbon dioxide in the damaged Apollo 13 space craft. Their heroic fix, literally involving duct tape and spare parts, was ingenious improvisation, imaginative...and it was creative.Amen.
Back down here on earth, the seemingly mundane business or conference presentation, designed and delivered with the help of slideware, can be a very creative thing. A presentation is an opportunity to differentiate yourself, or your organization, or your cause. It's your chance to tell the story of why your content is important, why it matters. It can be an opportunity to make a difference. So why look, talk (bore?) like everyone else? Why strive to meet expectations? Why not surpass expectations and surprise people? Besides, audiences' expectations are quite low as far as presentations are concerned anyway (unless you're the "Steve Jobs" of your field).
The struggle against mediocrity is an uphill battle. I found this to be a great insight into why it's worth it to strive to be different, and in particular why I have always sought to make my PowerPoint presentations out of the ordinary.
Tags: Presentation Zen, PowerPoint, Presentations, creativity
Win a copy of MindManager at jkontherun...
Having just tagged a post with MindManager, I was looking at the Technorati Tag for MindManager and see that jkontherun is running a competition with 6 full copies of MindManager 6 as prizes.
To enter the competition you need to leave a personal productivity tip in the comments on the blog post which announces the competition.
I plan to enter, so I'm going to give my entry some thought over the course of today. The competition closes at the end of this week (June 15th).
Tags: Mindjet, MindManager, Mind Mapping, Personal Productivity
To enter the competition you need to leave a personal productivity tip in the comments on the blog post which announces the competition.
I plan to enter, so I'm going to give my entry some thought over the course of today. The competition closes at the end of this week (June 15th).
Tags: Mindjet, MindManager, Mind Mapping, Personal Productivity
Maven Mapping
Through my participation in the Yahoo group for users of Mindjet's MindManager software I have found (and subscribed to) Maven Mapper's Information, the blog of Brett Bumeter. I've been reading back through his blog over the last couple of days to find that Brett writes intelligently about MindManager, as well as the latest trends in Knowledge Management, software and gadgets; all topics which are close to my heart.
I noted that we share similar views on:
(a) Online Meeting Software - Webex is expensive and clunky and for me GoToMeeting provides a better experience, more cost effectively.
(b) Visual Project Maps - as a potentially interesting solution to implementing project management methodology. I have a copy and and will probably write more on this product once I've given it a more thorough evaluation.
(c) NASA. I'm a big fan, and have been since childhood. As my career moved into project management I always looked to NASA as one of the pinnacles of the project management professsion. After all, these were the people who project managed putting a man on the moon.
Maven: Malcolm Gladwell used the term is his book The Tipping Point to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors - i.e.: those charismatic people who have wide network of casual aquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups. Connectors can thus easy and widely distribute the advice or insight of a maven.
Tags: Mindjet, MindManager, Mind Mapping, Brett Bumeter
I noted that we share similar views on:
(a) Online Meeting Software - Webex is expensive and clunky and for me GoToMeeting provides a better experience, more cost effectively.
(b) Visual Project Maps - as a potentially interesting solution to implementing project management methodology. I have a copy and and will probably write more on this product once I've given it a more thorough evaluation.
(c) NASA. I'm a big fan, and have been since childhood. As my career moved into project management I always looked to NASA as one of the pinnacles of the project management professsion. After all, these were the people who project managed putting a man on the moon.
Maven: Malcolm Gladwell used the term is his book The Tipping Point to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors - i.e.: those charismatic people who have wide network of casual aquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups. Connectors can thus easy and widely distribute the advice or insight of a maven.
Tags: Mindjet, MindManager, Mind Mapping, Brett Bumeter
Friday, June 09, 2006
PubSub drops off the radar
I was pondering blog posts I might write this weekend as I was driving home tonight and I was thinking about a kind of "whatever happened to PubSub" article. I came up with the idea as I was thinking about the things going on in the blogosphere as I began to take part in it back in March 2005. PubSub was a big thing back then, Robert Scoble seemed to mention them in every third or fourth of his posts, and they had the potential to be huge. The space they could have occupied is today filled by Technorati, in particular the watchlists feature. Today Technorati is almost as big a part of my daily online experience as Google and I suspect the same might be true for a great number of bloggers.
Before settling down to write I was checking out my feeds only to find out that TDavid over at "Things that... make you go hmmm" links to a Techcrunch post reporting that:
Tags: PubSub, Technorati, Robert Scoble, TDavid, TechCrunch
Before settling down to write I was checking out my feeds only to find out that TDavid over at "Things that... make you go hmmm" links to a Techcrunch post reporting that:
Blog search engine PubSub had massive layoffs today after last minute merger discussions with knownow fell apart. It looks like a shutdown is imminent.C'est la vie.
Tags: PubSub, Technorati, Robert Scoble, TDavid, TechCrunch
It looks like the paparazzi got there first...
Having read the novel and been to see the film of The Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed finding this page of interactive panoramic views of some of the main locations from Dan Brown's story. Quicktime is required to experience the panoramas.
I was particlarly struck by the panorama of The Mona Lisa. It's at least one of, if not the, most famous painting in the world and I guess I shouldn't have been suprised, but the crowd looks like an international gathering of the paparazzi. I guess I just had a mental picture that going to view the Leonardo's work would be a much more sedate and cultured experience.
Tags: Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Leonardo Da Vinci
I was particlarly struck by the panorama of The Mona Lisa. It's at least one of, if not the, most famous painting in the world and I guess I shouldn't have been suprised, but the crowd looks like an international gathering of the paparazzi. I guess I just had a mental picture that going to view the Leonardo's work would be a much more sedate and cultured experience.
Tags: Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Leonardo Da Vinci
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Google Office Top Ten Talking Points
Google have dominated the technical news headlines since Tuesday with the launch of Google Spreadsheets, and everyone seems to have an opinion. Just to be different, here are my top ten "Google Office" talking points:
(1) What has happended to the Writely acquisition? In order to "kill" Office you have to launch products, not just acquire them.
(2) When Writely has been "integrated into Google's systems" will it have interoperability with Word document formats?
(3) Not everyone will have the $500 dollars or so purchase price for Office 12. It's unrealistic to say that a Google Mail / Word Processing / Spreadsheet package that's free and offers document interoperbility with the Microsoft Office Suite will not be attractive to large numbers of non-corporate users.
(4) If the 80:20 rule appplies to Word and Excel, and you're in the 80% of users who use only 20% of the functionality, why would you pay for something you don't want, when what you need is free?
(5) If Micrsoft can secure Office 12 against the levels of piracy that previous versions of Office have suffered, non-corporate users are going to need a cheap (free) alternative.
(6) Startups with no IT department will find a (free) Google Office Suite an attractive proposition.
(7) Where's the Google Search in Google Spreadsheets?
(8) Will Google have a PowerPoint killer anytime soon?
(9) Is this Google strategy about competition or is it about disruption? Is some competition with Microsoft such a bad thing anyway? Competetion has generally driven Microsoft to produce better products.
(10) Would you bet against Google?
Tags: Google, Microsoft, Google Spreadsheets, Google Office, Microsoft Office
(1) What has happended to the Writely acquisition? In order to "kill" Office you have to launch products, not just acquire them.
(2) When Writely has been "integrated into Google's systems" will it have interoperability with Word document formats?
(3) Not everyone will have the $500 dollars or so purchase price for Office 12. It's unrealistic to say that a Google Mail / Word Processing / Spreadsheet package that's free and offers document interoperbility with the Microsoft Office Suite will not be attractive to large numbers of non-corporate users.
(4) If the 80:20 rule appplies to Word and Excel, and you're in the 80% of users who use only 20% of the functionality, why would you pay for something you don't want, when what you need is free?
(5) If Micrsoft can secure Office 12 against the levels of piracy that previous versions of Office have suffered, non-corporate users are going to need a cheap (free) alternative.
(6) Startups with no IT department will find a (free) Google Office Suite an attractive proposition.
(7) Where's the Google Search in Google Spreadsheets?
(8) Will Google have a PowerPoint killer anytime soon?
(9) Is this Google strategy about competition or is it about disruption? Is some competition with Microsoft such a bad thing anyway? Competetion has generally driven Microsoft to produce better products.
(10) Would you bet against Google?
Tags: Google, Microsoft, Google Spreadsheets, Google Office, Microsoft Office
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