Seriously, no-one owns the customer. I personally think it’s very disrespectful of the customer. At the end of the day the customer calls the shots via their wallet. Where this isn’t the case there is usually something else at play and it’s often more sinister, something I call intellectual deception. These behaviors are often legal and facilitated by the system and regulations for that industry. In law you see this all to often.

This TED talk by Philip Howard below actually hits on some of these issues (you need to read between the lines). I think Philip may be editing himself. It takes a brave person to do this talk and face off against his peers and industry. It’s not just in the area of Law that you see this. It’s observable in banking, accounting and financial planning.

In business we should have some control over the customer relationship but it must be earned and lay in a bed of respect. If you kill their problems, find ways to save them time and help them get what they want, then you are deserving of their trust. Then your grip will be firm. Quite often customers have faced intellectual deception and they end up “lawyer haters”. So they become careful with their trust. Then as a business you are only as good as your product, advice and possibly the most recent dealing you had with them.

In summary the trip is a flight into Melaleuca via TasAir and a walk 83km east coming out at Cockle Creek. The trip took us 6 days but you do need to allow 8 days. Bad weather can prevent you crossing the Ironbound Range and river crossings may not be possible if in flood.

It is a remote walk and there is a wide variety of terrain experience. The walk has three superb climbs. The first easy climb is into the Red Point Hills and the second was a difficult, windy, cold one over the Ironbound Range. The final climb is up to the top of the South Cape Range. I created the following elevation chart to highlight the climbs.

There are no roads, fire trails, huts or human infrastructure other than timbered sections of the track and the odd pit toilet to protect the ecosystem. So you are on your own other than the odd bush walker. There’s plenty of drinking water in creeks and streams. All seem to contain frogs, yabbies and fish. Some creeks flow red due to tea tree.

If you plan to do the walk then permits from TasAir flight departure or from Cockle Creek National Parks Office are $30. Take a map, compass, fuel stove (no fires allowed), first aid, an EPIRB and cold/wet gear.

The fauna is evident everywhere. You are certain to see at a minimum yabbies, freshwater fish, frogs, wallabies and many bird species. If you are lucky you may see the very rare Orange Bellied Parrot. There’s an incredible diversity of flora such as the Isophysis tasmanica orchid which we saw when crossing the Ironbound Range. If you like those strange looking plants in Dr Zeus books then you’ll love the Pandani and Scoparia up in the ranges.

I highly recommend reading King of the Wilderness the Deny King biography by Christobel Mattingley. Launceston Field Naturalists Club’s Guide to Flowers & Plants of Tasmania is also an excellent resource if you want to get the most out of the flora experience. Matt Downunder wrote a good post about preparing for a 10 day hike in south west Tasmania.

I’ve posted our Tasmania South Coast Track photo set at my flickr.com account

He generally finds songs he likes on YouTube or on the back of our CD’s. Once he knows the songs name he searches YouTube for people who play that song using a Piano and learns their keystrokes. It might not be finger choice or timing perfect but I think he is getting the notes right. On the weekend he wanted to get his efforts up on Youtube like the other “Piano People”. Being a parent who wants to encourage kids to create content I helped him upload a video taken from an iPhone into my YouTube account. So here’s Caleb playing Clocks by Coldplay…

Apple shops are a good example. They sell coolness. The stuff they sell implies you’re not cool if you don’t have it. You almost feel guilty if you don’t have their cool stuff. Maybe that’s just me?

Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, recently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab (Please contact us if you want to show it next!). It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

What’s really interesting is how Apple is promoting these pre-release HD trailers. The content is rich and attracts traffic. Very smart Apple. Is the strategy is to get conversion to Quicktime format? Or, is to get high end CGI work to be associated with their brand which is also very strong in device and web design.

They are also pushing the new fantasy scifi called Avatar which is definitely worth a look even just for the pure CGI talent.