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How do you hold your drink?

2009-05-29T17:40:00.002Z

A psychologist observes 500 drinkers at Walkabout and categorises them into 8 personality types by how they hold their drinks: the flirt, the gossip, fun lover, wallflower, the ice-queen, the playboy, Jack-the-lad and browbeater. Humorous.

Only in America? Or is it?

2009-05-10T10:01:00.005Z

Launching in September 2009, The U.S. takes sports marketing to the next level with... the Lingerie Football League: full contact American football, with women wearing helmets, pads and not much else. Times's Own Slot has a run down.

Given the UK is often fond of blind-borrowing U.S. sporting concepts (to wit: Twenty20 entertainment, including cheerleaders and half-time shows), will it be a surprise when a variant is launched in the UK soon? Lingerie Premier League (of soccer) anyone? Sponsored by the Sun?

A glorious Summer ahead for cricket

2009-04-29T17:01:00.000Z

I'm looking forward to the cricket season. For England cricket, it is a loaded Summer, with the best of the old and the new: the Ashes and the Twenty20 World Cup. There aren't any other major sporting distractions either: no football World Cup, no Olympics.

As Mike Atherton says in the Times, let's hope the England & Wales Cricket Board takes the opportunity to erase the feeling that "the game [is] being driven not by a safe pair of hands but by a teenage joyrider under the influence of a wild cocktail of drugs".

Multimedia from Kicking Horse

2009-02-21T18:17:00.002Z

I've just uploaded some photos from the latest trip to Kicking Horse to Facebook. We didn't get much new snow, but the conditions were fine. There were loads of beautiful, blue sky days on offer, as you'll see from the photos. Here's a slideshow of the photos:

We even fooled around taking some videos from our small point-and-shoot digital cameras. The quality isn't the best, but we had fun riding fast with cameras rolling. Tom then did some quick work on his Mac to create this simple video.

I noticed that there are a lot of videos of Kicking Horse on YouTube. Take a look at the Related Videos column on thisvideo page.

Next time we may have to take along a camcorder...

British snowboarders: TNG

2009-02-07T18:00:00.001Z

All this snow in the UK... will it encourage the next generation of British snowboarders, I wondered the other day.

Then I came across this article in the FT about British pro-riders, many of whom started out on dry slopes or mole hills in Scotland. One, Jenny Jones, did not get on real snow until she was 18. She recently won gold at the Winter X Games, a prestigious competition held this year in Aspen, Colorado.(Check out the amazing ride and front size 270 in this video).

My conclusion? Absolutely. Consider the number of parents who were home-bound over the last week or so due to the so-called "extreme snow event". They played in the freak snow with their kids, many introducing the future snow-bunnies and snow-dudes to white stuff for the first time. I think the next generation of British snowboarders are well on their way.

By the way, I have posted a few photos from my recent trip to St. Anton, Austria. We had amazing amounts of new snow and even a blue sky day to really enjoy the scenery, as the photos show.

The Terrible Ten(?) most responsible for the economic tsunami

2009-02-02T12:31:00.001Z

The Times has a pithy article on the 10 people most responsible for the recession. The former head of UK's Northern Rock, Adam Applegarth, as well as the "rocket scientists" who pioneered the collateralised debt obligations seem to be grave omissions.

Sneaky Google

2008-09-05T08:34:00.006Z

It's amazing what Google tries to get away with. For 24 hours after its launch, the original End User Licensing Agreement for the new Chrome browser signed away rights to all of the user's content transmitted via Chrome over to Google. It read:

You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Within 24 hours, Google had altered the EULA to:

You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.

This is not the first time Google seemed to be behaving sneakily around privacy and content rights. A similar scenario played out at the launch of Google Docs, the online word processing and spreadsheet applications in 2007.

Google's explanation? It happened because of a copy-and-paste job: "Google re-uses swathes of its Universal Terms of Service across all its offerings 'in order to keep things simple for our users.'" Hmmm.

As a company that takes pride in releasing good quality software products (even in beta releases, as the current version of Chrome was), they must have some hardcore quality assurance processes. Either they don't have the same robustness on the legal side, or they just want to tease the world and assert their now-almighty power.

100 things we have learned from the Beijing Olympics

2008-08-24T18:00:00.004Z

The Olympics have been a revelation in so many ways. This article from the Guardian mentions 100 things we have learned.

China asserted its management and governance skills (and near-unlimited resources and spending power) to put on an impeccable Games, clearly asserting its status to the world.

We also learned that Usain Bolt is a big cricket fan and that his hero is Australia's Matthew Hayden (who has promised send the human speeding bullet an autographed bat). We can only imagine what could have been had Usain taken up cricket and become a fast bowler for the suffering West Indies.

Britain surprised most -- not least the Aussies -- by demonstrating an unexpected level of sporting excellence and making the 4th place on the medals table, behind sporting superpowers China, the United States and Russia.

This bodes well for London 2012, which I am very excited about. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the Olympic spectacle in my city.

Let's hope the Team GB sporting authorities don't fall into the British trap of complacency after such a spectacular performance this time around. Remember what happened to the England cricket team after the 2005 Ashes?

Wireless charging for devices becoming a reality?

2008-08-22T13:56:00.004Z

I've been dreaming of a day when we could get rid of the wires needed to power laptops and other gadgets. That day is getting closer apparently, according to this article. It describes an experimental technology from Intel that uses a magnetic field and induction to broadcast up to 60 watts of power 2-3 feet.

The technology can be embedded in desks and shelves, and an appropriately-equipped device would charge itself without connecting to a wired power source. Now that our mobiles have Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity and our living rooms can have wireless networks and speakers, the days of the tangled wires seem to be numbered.

This development can bring about a step-change in consumer electronics. It also has eco-friendly ("green") implications, because the number of throw-away chargers heading to landfills could be cut significantly. On the negative side, are we ready to take on another source of potential radiation as well as signal interference?

Mis-managing Yahoo!

2008-08-06T11:07:00.009Z

Here's a polar opposite perspective on management, as a follow up to my previous post on Google: The outspoken founder of the popular photo sharing website Flickr, which was bought by Yahoo! in 2005, recently commented that Yahoo is a poorly managed, short-termist company which is more focused on quarterly financial reports rather than on innovation and staff morale.

Google has the luxury of free cash flow to not worry (too much) about quarterly results and focus on (and invest in) strategic plays.

On the other hand, a company focusing so much on financials and traditional management, would at the very least be expected to run its shareholder meetings properly, particularly when the board is under attack. Yahoo's recent "tabulation error" of shifting 200 million votes to the "for" column from the "against" column does not bode well for its financial or process controls.

Counting errors matter in business as well as in politics. Luckily, in business the management, and particularly the board, can be held directly responsible.

Managing Google

2008-07-28T09:49:00.003Z

Simon Caulkin, the Management Editor of The Observer, has a piece titled "How to make $4bn without really managing" on Google's management practices. His main take is that Google does not apply traditional management practices, abhors people with "traditional" management experience and places innovation, talent and group-think (my term) as its priorities.

Having a monopoly position in a category that is synonymous with the company, and the associated cash position this brings, certainly allows Google to experiment and indulge as others simply cannot. This not something that can be replicated easily elsewhere. From what I hear from insiders, the troops are yearning for some management, especially in the middle manager and lower ranks. It will be interesting to see how time, market pressures and the ever-increasing numbers of staff affect Google's management ethos.

What's next for Wii?

2008-07-18T10:32:00.001Z

The BBC website has a video interview with Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata, where he reflects on the company's decision to buck the trend of hardware-based, hardcore gamer-focused competition to the mass market, software title-driven strategy which has paid off so successfully. What Nintendo has done is an excellent case study for thinking "outside of the box."

He does acknowledge that the hard core of gamers have been starved of titles on the Wii, but says that these titles have longer development cycles and would be addressed within the next 2-3 years.

Also noteworthy, much of the innovation comes from the company itself -- the new Wii MotionPlus is an example. Nintendo needs to keep up the momentum and innovation, particularly by getting 3rd parties to develop for the Wii platform.

Seven types of brands

2008-07-17T10:55:00.001Z

A brand consultancy has categorised popular brands into 7 types based on how they will perform in a down market. Typical of a brand consultancy, they have branded the 7 types as 'Modern Classics', 'Dominators', 'New Heroes', 'Wallpaper', 'Icons', 'Nadir' and 'Reinvention'. It's fun to guess which brands fit into which. 'Dominators' include Tesco, Ikea and Starbucks, while 'Wallpapers' include Dixons, KFC and Woolworths. I would have thought these categorisations are relevant even in the context of 'normal' market conditions.

Internet addiction is an illness?

2008-03-24T11:47:00.001Z

Netaddiction.com has a psychiatrist-developed internet addiction test made up of 20 multiple-choice questions, including:

How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go on-line again?
How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?
How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet?

This test would be another funny internet diversion, but for the serious attention internet addiction is now getting. The American Journal of Psychiatry has an editorial in its March 2008 issue recommending that this is a disorder that should be added to the official list of mental illnesses.

As the most wired country on earth, South Korea seems to be by far the leading nation of internet addicts per capita, with most addicted to internet gaming. The country even runs boot camps to cure internet addiction, which is no surprise given online gaming is a professional sport there. Star players are treated like rock stars, with the attendant entourages and groupies.

As gaming is not as big in Europe and the United States (yet), the corresponding addiction is more likely to be on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, gambling, online dating or pornography.

Experts say the first step to shaking the addiction is to join a self-help group. An offline one, I assume.

"Pirate" snowboarders on camera

2008-03-22T11:15:00.001Z

Burton announced the winners of the "poaching" contest which they sponsored. The videos of "pirate" snowboarders riding three resorts which ban them (Mad River Glen in Vermont, plus Alta and Deer Valley in Utah) are a fun viewing.

In one clip, there's a great sequence of a snowboarder and skier heading down the mountain holding hands, to the soundtrack of "Why Can't Be Friends".

Having recently been to Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, I am glad they opened up the resort to boarders a few years ago. These mountains have plenty of good snow to go around and the commercial drivers are getting more and more difficult ignore. I suspect at least one of the the remaining three will give in soon (probably one of the two in Utah). The others are likely to keep going, catering to the skier-only crowd as their (singular) unique proposition.

Moving closer to "equal snow"

2008-01-05T20:34:00.001Z

I am writing this while sitting in Reno airport (taking advantage of their free wireless network), on my way back to London after a week of awesome boarding in Lake Tahoe. I'll upload some pictures to Kulworld and onto Facebook after I get home.

One of the topics of conversation on the trip was how some resorts are getting on with their ban on snowboarders. While checking my RSS feeds just now, I noticed these two interesting articles:

The Boston Globe covers Jake Burton's offer to pay cash rewards to anyone who uploads video clips of snowboarders riding in banned resorts like Alta or Mad River Glen.

Wall Street Journal does an economic analysis around such bans, especially since Taos in New Mexico has decided to rescind its ban on snowboarders.

How long before the others follow? Or will they? Or will resorts "cordon off" areas by giving easier access to skiiers, for example by putting button lifts and t-bars dreaded by snowboarders?

Season's Greetings

2007-12-24T18:48:00.000Z

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable festive season. As the caption in the photo says:

"There is always time to dream and to be happy. This is the time to do it."

For those of you wondering, I took this photo in Val Thorens, France, during the early season snowboarding trip in late November. I gave it a bit of lovin' in my favourite graphics app to get the captions, signature and the look and feel in, although I have not re-touched the scene itself. This ended up being my greeting card to friends and family this year. (Click the picture to open up a larger version.)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Where to go in 2008

2007-12-23T22:59:00.000Z

I'm wondering where the PAR...TAY trips should take the crew in the New Year. According to the New York Times, Laos is the no. 1 place to visit. The top 5 is made up of Lisbon, Tunisia, Mauritius, and Mid-Beach, Miami. Have look at the reasoning and the rest of the list in the NYT's The 53 Places to Go In 2008.

Sri Lanka's cricketing purple patch

2007-12-09T10:48:00.000Z

It has been a thrilling cricketing fortnight for Sri Lanka. Beating England in the 1st Test was more or less a given, so the other achievements from this Test are more notable:

Muttiah Muralitharan became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket history, displacing the retired Aussie great, Shane Warne. Many feel that Murali will go onto take 1000 Test wickets. If achieved, I think it will be difficult to surpass his record in a generation. Unsurprisingly, he continues to be number 1 in the world Test bowling rankings.

Kumar Sangakkara displaced Australia's Ricky Ponting as No 1 in the world Test batting rankings. Sangakkara's numbers have been truly impressive in 2007. His 921 runs have come at an outstanding average of 184.20, with 2 more Tests against England in Sri Lanka remaining.
Sanath Jayasuriya, the masterblaster commonly credited for changing the face of the one-day cricket with his World Cup winning top order batting in 1996, called it quits from Tests. He intends to contribute more to the one-day game before retiring altogether.

Two Sri Lankans at the top of the ICC rankings is a very special achievement, which may again be difficult to match in a generation once these three aging stars (plus the current Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene) move on. As former captain Arjuna Ranatunga continues to warn, Sri Lanka needs to urgently develop a new generation of champions, before one day these glories eventually become mere memories of bygone glory days.

Ten habits of incompetent managers

2007-12-05T23:36:00.000Z

"Legendary ad man David Ogilvy argued that a good decision today is worth far more than a perfect decision next month," writes Margaret Heffernan in Fast Company. So, inaction, or "bias against action" as she puts it, is one of the habits to watch out for. Here's the full list:

Bias against action

Secrecy

Over-sensitivity

Love of procedure

Preference for weak candidates

Focus on small tasks

Allergy to deadlines

Inability to hire former employees

Addiction to consultants

Long hours

Although I mildly dispute the second to last on the list (sic), the core of her argument is spot on. Well worth reading the article for her explanation of each.

HP and Burton hit the "pow" together

2007-11-28T14:47:00.000Z

I love it when my interests + passions collide. HP has somehow convinced Burton (the snowboarding colossus) to be featured on HP's new "What do you have to say?" marketing campaign. The Burton microsite on HP's website has some great snowboarding videos and lots of insider views of Burton and its history. It tries to demonstrate how HP is supporting Burton with maintaining the visuals-heavy brand.

For example, HP's large format printers are used to quickly generate mock-ups of board graphics, which is cutting concept-to-market process times. Board visuals from the 1977 Fiberglass Prototype to the 2007 Jeremy Jones 59 are not only a visual feast, they also show how board forms have evolved. There is also a slide bar showing Burton stickers from years ago, with the explanation that HP allows Burton's in-house design team develop and produce these stickers themselves.

I think HP has missed a trick by not creating a facility on the microsite for bloggers to embed some of these videos on their blog posts. I would have put some of the snowboarding clips here. A free viral-advertising opportunity lost.

Early snow!

2007-10-06T22:15:00.000Z

I've booked 3 snowboarding trips for the upcoming season so far: Val Thorens, Lake Tahoe and Kicking Horse.

The early reports from the resorts in the Alps and North America are promising, according to the Ski Club of Great Britain. The pic at the left is from Val Thorens from 3 days ago. Apparently, Zermatt has already been open, with 6 working pistes. Let's hope the conditions are an early indicator of a bumper powder season.

Quoted in today's IT Week

2007-10-05T14:54:00.000Z

I am quoted in today's IT Week, in an article about Microsoft's recently announced Startup Accelerator Programme.

I'm disappointed my voice didn't convince the journalist that I'm a male, though! I suspect her original copy said "he added" in this sentence:

"... Vendors are tending to hire individual developers or use small companies to innovate, rather than do it themselves, she added."

Some punctilious editor probably changed it to "she" based on my first name. Amusing.

Will the Barmy Army drink Sri Lanka dry again?

2007-09-29T15:54:00.000Z

The Telegraph has an excellent article titled "Sri Lanka: cricket, Buddhas and beyond" looking at what the country has to offer to the visiting cricket fans from England (and their partners often termed "the cricket widows") beyond the sport itself. It gives good tips on places to stay, eat and drink, covering the 3 Test venues of Kandy, Colombo and Galle. A good source of ideas for my next trip home.

I especially enjoyed this comment from the chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board: "In 2001, when the Barmy Army [as the England cricket fan club is known] first came here, we had two days when we ran out of beer in this country. But this time we will be ready for them."

The fake Steve Jobs blog

2007-07-21T23:39:00.000Z

The tagline of this humorous site says it all: "Dude, I invented the friggin I Phone. Have you heard of it?" Check it out: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Fake Steve even has a Cafe Press shop.