These Bicycle Cufflinks are a wonderful talking piece and just perfect for the stylish bicycle lover or collector of interesting pieces. Well done to the very creative people at Gothamsmith!

(hat tip swissmiss)

Here are some of my favourites shots of the day.

More image can be found in the gallery on the Sandshoes website.

The E-Type was launched in 1961 at the Geneva Motor Show and almost immediately received universal acclaim. It was recognised for both design and performance and turned the heads of other prestige car manufacturers.

“The most beautiful car ever made”. – Enzo Ferrari

In the swinging 60′s the E-Type became the car of choice for celebrities such as George Best, Brigitte Bardot, Steve McQueen and Tony Curtis. But at a purchase price of £2000 it wasn’t completely out of reach for the regular car lover. Between 1961 and 1974 over 70,000 E-Types were produced.

The design of the E-Type has been recognised in more than just automotive circles – with New York’s Museum of Modern Art having an E-Type on permanent exhibit and London’s Design Museum dedicating an exhibition to all things E-Type earlier this year.

Much of the design magic of the E-Type is due to the genius of aircraft and car designer Malcolm Sayer.  He was a 20 year veteran of Jaguar when he pasted away in 1970, and even though he played a part in the design of the C-Type, D-Type, XJ13 and XJS, the E-Type Jaguar most likely remains his most iconic design.

But E-Type is not just a care of the 60′s… it still has a place in the language of automotive design today.

“The E-Type is a design that even today continues to inform the work we do in styling the Jaguars of the future.” – Ian Callum, Design Director, Jaguar

There is no excuse now for not having suitable wrapping paper (and giving gifts in the store’s plastic bag like my in-laws are know to do).

Designed by Fabio Milito and Francesca Guidotti.

Hat tip to David Airey for the heads-up on this.

With 25 surfers on Cronulla Point, another 10-15 on Shark Island and 3 times that amount perched along The Esplanade watching the thrills and spills, it’s been a morning the the crazy, the brave and the adrenalin junkies.

wide on the point

shark island

goats can fly

close to the edge

shark island - inside

shark island shallows

the wave they come for

deep inside at shark island

the craziest of them all - a body surfer on shark island

With 27 surfers still on the Point and tow-ins now happening on the island, I think that the adrenalin will last the day through. Stay tuned for the afternoon edition later.

It is compatible with any device with a standard 3.5 mm headphone socket such as MP3 players, PDAs and computers. Eyes of the robot are the headphone sockets. Includes key chain which means you can take it with you wherever you go.

I suspect that this might be a must for the families that have some digital sharing going on in the back seat of the car on that next trip away.  Think it will also be a great addition to the kit coming on our trip to Europe at the end of the year.

Unfortunately I haven’t found any suppliers on Australian yet but there are several in the USA and UK.

And for me, the confusion that these people feel is frustrating.  Does it really have to be this way?  Should these intelligent, articulate business owners being feeling left out in the cold, not know the “right” decision to make?

We are at a place (in the western world at least) where access to technology has never been so plentiful and the opportunity to establish and operate a business so real for so many people – BUT – it seems that jargon, “technology snobbery” and an over-abundance of options is landing many small business owners in a quagmire of decisions.

Should I have a website or a blog? Or both?

Is WordPress, Typepad or Blogger the best option? What about Drupal, Business Catalyst or proprietary CMS?

Should I upgrade to the new version of MS Office or look at one of the new web suites available from organisations like Google?

What should I use for my online shop?  Paypal or bank for credit card processing?

What do I do to ensure that my business is findable on search engines?  Should I hire a SEO expert? (What is SEO in the first place?)

What is VOIP and how do I take advantage of it?

These are just some of the technology choices confronting small business owners.  When there is limited time to operate your business and achieve a good level of online and offline success, dedicating time to deciphering these questions can seem like being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.

If you are like my online friend Rosa Say you might be asking yourself something like she did in a post called Learning 101 in Web 2.0 and Globalization 3.0-

Innovation-speak gone nutso… I’m confused too. What does it all mean, and do we really have to learn it?

But is success in the online world just about the technology?

In my opinion the answer is NO!  My experience, and the experience of many others, shows that having a successful business in the online world is more about developing conversations with your market or community and less about what technology you use.

Does your market really care about the technology?  If so then you are probably already spending time keeping up with the latest technology.  (You may even be contributing to the conversations that are confusing other business owners).

Hugh Macleod over at GapingVoid got it spot on in this post -

The web is not about technology. The web is not about a new media to market one’s wares in. And the web is certainly not about you.

Remember the following line, first coined by Jeff Jarvis; you will need to rely on it for the rest of your life:

The web is about people.

And he also added :

The end result of this is, with the advent of the internet and various forms of social software, suddenly highly savvy networks of people are springing up in their millions. They’re talking to each other. With or without your permission.

Read that last sentence again – the one about the fact that conversations are happening with or without you.

If you are a business owner then there is something I want you to do today – STOP listening to the experts about what is in and what is not, what you should be doing to be on the first page of Google results or what you just have to do to have an internet business that allows you to retire (those things may or may not be worthwhile).

What I want you to start doing is finding a way to have conversations with your marketplace via some sort of online platform.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, expensive, pretty, or “in”.  What it does need to be is active, interesting and thoughtful.

This is enough of me ranting for now.  In the meantime I am interested in what you think about the demands that the world of technology has on you and your business.  Is it working for or against you?

With the news so full of destruction, trauma and the worst of humankind it can be easy to forget to stop, look away and notice the beauty that still exists in the world.  The tulips that my husband walked through the door with 2 days ago was just want I needed to stop and notice the positive beauty of a simple flower.