It’ll probably freak you out, but that’s all the more reason to watch it and then be conscious of what you share on line.

So we came up with the following Job Title Generator for sales. First column is optional, then you can mix and match from the other columns.

So you can have “Global Account Manager” and “Senior Business Development Executive” etc.

Yeah, I know we need to get out more. But it does show how devilishly hard it is to find out what someone does based on their Sales-focused job title, or indeed how to pick a job title that will resonate with the right people.

Courier was cancelled because the product didn’t clearly align with the company’s Windows and Office franchises

As a result, Microsoft is in third place in the Tablet space (behind Apple and Android).

Apple re-thought the “personal” computing experience and produced a product so revolutionary that it the implications are still rippling through the rest of the IT ecosystem – and has driven Apple to undreamed of success.

Microsoft did the same thing (ish) but couldn’t bear to release it – that’s the Innovator’s Dilemma in a nutshell. Which Apple appear to have solved, which is an incredible thing to have fixed, if they truly have done so in a systematic manner.

Here’s the original article on CNet.

Our demand for housing and transportation, two of the biggest commodity hogs, will be lower. McMansions will be totally passe. It should already be dawning on people that most all of our non-sleeping hours at home are spent in the kitchen and its adjacent family room. Living rooms and dining rooms are relics. When people internalize the fact that they spend most of their non-sleeping, non-bathroom, non-eating time in a ten by twelve foot space with their various experience machine prototypes, large homes will, by and large, go the way of cars with fins and chrome.

We obviously will not need to drive around as much, given that so much of what we want is delivered to us electromagnetically. And, getting back to real goods and technological advances, if we take the web-based distribution a few steps further, rather than having thousands of cars running from one store to the next, a couple of delivery trucks will ply the streets. So per-capita consumption of energy and resource-intensive infrastructure will decrease.

Given our evolved interests a few decades hence, most of us will be spending a fraction of our income on consumption. There just won’t be a lot that we will demand that requires nonrenewable resources. What we will demand will be in the way of electronic products, which will only consume a few ounces of such commodities. We will basically eat, sleep, work and then veg out. Give us food, plumbing, heat and our two-hundred dollar experience machine games, and we will be happy as a clam.

Whilst I’m no fan of the video games etc. there are some very important breakthroughs which are causing the “stuff” in our house to shrink and hence the overall living space to effectively grow. For example:

• We no longer have piles of DVDs lying around – an AppleTV for every TV, plus a home media server, means we just don’t need them (the CDs went years ago, in the same way). Plus we can get rid of the DVD player.
• TVs have got smaller – if you think how dominant a CRT TV was, compared to a new Flat Panel TV, you basically get a another few feet of the room back plus a lot of flexibility in room layout.
• Devices have collapsed into one – we no longer have separate TV, Audio system etc., it is all in the TV & AppleTV – although we still have separate speakers.
• My personal filing has disappeared – everything is now scanned into a computer, and in my case stored in PatentSafe where it is nicely searchable and categorised. Not only has this saved a lot of space, it also makes finding things *so* much easier. Plus I can back it up off site, and also access things from anywhere I have Internet.
• Books, Magazines etc. are all collapsing into the iPad and the Kindle. For a family of 4 heavy readers this is a major space saving, especially when you also get rid of technical books and recipe books.

I estimate I’ve taken 1 bedroom worth of “Stuff” out of our living areas in the past year. Sure I’ve had to invest a bit but if you look at how much it would have cost to move to a larger house, it is a real bargain.

The same thing is happening at work, too. We’re gradually working our way through all the paper and eliminating it which not only removes the paper it also removes all the stuff you have to look after paper – files, envelopes, printers, fax machines, etc. I don’t know what proportion of a typical office is dedicated to paper and everything that goes with it, but it is substantial. We realised the other day that we rarely use our printer these days, the fax machine is dusty, and we have to stop buying envelopes in office-sized quantities because the adhesive goes off before we use them.

Digitisation at work and home means it doesn’t really where I am anymore. In fact I do look at the overall costs of an office and wonder why we have one at all. I think there are a lot of businesses who have offices just because they have always had an office, but I suspect if they were aggressive about digitising, they would be able to remove a massive fixed cost with relatively small investment.

So, if you want a larger house go and get a new TV or two, some AppleTVs, a Kindle each, a few iPads, and a scanner (I am in love with the Fujitsu ScanSnap). For a few thousand pounds you can get yourself a larger, less cluttered living space – much cheaper than moving house! Plus, you get to reduce your environmental footprint…

There’s a good list of some of the worst examples on the Journalist Wall of Shame. Really quite shocking what’s being said, which is a real shame because it just feeds on people’s misunderstanding of all things Nuclear and will distort the Nuclear debate for years.

In addition, this is a nice example of Crowdsourcing to hold “professional” media to account, and an interesting use of Google Docs to allow multiple collaborators produce and update a single document (see second half of the page).

Update: The guy who started it has explained his reasons with a link to a list of good Journalism on the subject.

Clearly a Washing Machine is kind of critical especially with two small boys, and my travel schedule. So thanks to The Internet, a new washing machine will arrive Tuesday – crisis over. And I think we will be able to keep the old one, which will provide a weekend’s worth of entertainment and education for the Boys as we talk it apart – and a very happy colleague who will get the bits for his Heath Robinson projects.

But this got me thinking – I want one with a network connection. Which I mentioned on Facebook and someone quite rightly asked “Why”.

This is what I expect my washing machine to provide:

• SNMP for
  • Status (stage of washing cycle etc.
  • Energy Use
  • Water use
  • Any other stats (I think they weigh the washing, and measure detergent – that would be interesting)
• Email alerts on events (e.g. finished, error reports)
• Web interface for administration, user’s manual etc.
• A way of pinging it to say “Start” – so I can coordinate with the rest of my household
• Service status, warnings of imminent servicing etc.

Then I can hook my washing machine up to Nagios, etc.

Oh and I want my Dishwasher and Dryer to do this too… and the heating system.

Given the ubiquity of WiFi chips and Microcontrollers – I can’t see this being too far away surely? And it would be exceptionally cool – let’s just hope they provide IPv6

This excellent post gives some perspective. Some quotes:

… to an extent, anyway. See, the thing that people don’t realize is that Honshu is massive. It is larger than Great Britain. (A country which does not typically refer to itself as a “tiny island nation.”) At about 800 miles long, it stretches from roughly Chicago to New Orleans. Quite a lot of the reporting on Japan, including that which is scaring the heck out of my friends and family, is the equivalent of someone ringing up Mayor Daley during Katrina and saying “My God man, that’s terrible?—?how are you coping?”

[snip]

The overwhelming response of Japanese engineering to the challenge posed by an earthquake larger than any in the last century was to function exactly as designed. Millions of people are alive right now because the system worked and the system worked and the system worked.

[snip]

The tremendous public unease over nuclear power shouldn’t be allowed to overpower the conclusion: nuclear energy, in all the years leading to the crisis and continuing during it, is absurdly safe. Remember the talk about the trains and how they did exactly what they were supposed to do within seconds? Several hundred people still drowned on the trains. [snip] When you hear news reports of people exposed to radiation, keep in mind, at the moment we’re talking a level of severity somewhere between “ate a banana” and “carries a Delta Skymiles platinum membership card”.

[snip]

Japan’s economy just got a serious monkey wrench thrown into it, but it will be back up to speed fairly quickly. (By comparison, it was probably more hurt by either the Leiman Shock or the decision to invent a safety crisis to help out the US auto industry. By the way, wondering what you can do for Japan? Take whatever you’re saying currently about “We’re all Japanese”, hold onto it for a few years, and copy it into a strongly worded letter to your local Congresscritter the next time nativism runs rampant.)

The amount of preparation the Japanese have done is amazing. It is a pity that in Europe and US you can’t really get people to take contingency planning seriously – but I guess Japan gets a lot of practice.

There’s also a couple of posts on the Nuclear thing in more detail:

• Bob Cringley, who worked as an investigator for the Presidential Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island on the thinks most of the 11 reactors will be a write off.
• Here’s a detailed post on why we shouldn’t worry about the Nuclear Reactors.

The comments on these articles are worth a read.

I do fear that one of the biggest casualties of this whole thing is going to be common sense in the Nuclear Power debate.

Very interesting…

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary”

Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

Then via this post, I see there’s more fun to be had with the right tools…

But the newly-launched TransferWise service appears to be different:

• They are disruptive – they apparently give better rates by matching pairs of transfers rather than going out into the Markets.
• Their web site is really clean and explains it all well (in contrast to most services which are either phone-only or horribly complex sites).
• They are transparent in what they are trying to do and charge. So much of financial services seems to be designed to baffle you into being swindled.

Oh, and I like their Blog and Story (as well as where their name came from). Disruption with a sense of humour.

I don’t know if we’ll use them – nothing to do with me really – but I do like their approach.

As an atheist, I see nothing “wrong” in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather you didn’t kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral. It’s strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing, omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also want to judge and punish people for what they are. From what I can gather, pretty much the worst type of person you can be is an atheist. The first four commandments hammer this point home. There is a god, I’m him, no one else is, you’re not as good and don’t forget it.

[snip]

So what does the question “Why don’t you believe in God?” really mean. I think when someone asks that they are really questioning their own belief. In a way they are asking “what makes you so special? “How come you weren’t brainwashed with the rest of us?” “How dare you say I’m a fool and I’m not going to heaven, f— you!” Let’s be honest, if one person believed in God he would be considered pretty strange. But because it’s a very popular view it’s accepted. And why is it such a popular view? That’s obvious. It’s an attractive proposition. Believe in me and live forever. Again if it was just a case of spirituality this would be fine.

“Do unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is -­? a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. “Do this or you’ll burn in hell.”

You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.

This article titled “Geminid meteor shower set for clear skies” was written by Steven Morris, for The Guardian on Sunday 12th December 2010 14.35 UTC

Lovers of the night sky could be in for a treat tomorrow night as clear conditions are predicted for one of the best astronomical shows of the year.

Some experts believe the annual Geminid meteor shower is becoming more spectacular – though if it is, nobody is sure why – and with cloudless skies possible in many parts of the country, this year’s event could be a particularly memorable one.

At its peak and in a clear, dark sky, up to 100 meteors – or shooting stars – may be seen every hour. The best time to see it is expected to be late on Monday night and in the early hours of Tuesday after the moon has set.

In comparison with other showers, Geminid meteors travel fairly slowly, at about 22 miles per second. They are bright and have a yellowish hue, making them distinct and easy to spot.

Meteors are the result of small particles entering Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, burning up and super-heating the air around them, which shines as a characteristic short-lived streak of light. In the case of the Geminids, the debris is associated with the asteroidal object 3200 Phaethon, which many astronomers believe to be an extinct comet.

National Trust list of the best places to watch the shower

• Black Down in Sussex, the highest point in the South Downs.

• Teign Valley in Devon, within Dartmoor national park.

• Penbryn Beach, on the Ceredigion coast in west Wales.

• Stonehenge area in Wiltshire – chalk downland and crystal clear skies.

• Wicken Fen nature reserve in Cambridgeshire – dark skies and nocturnal wildlife.

• Mam Tor in Derbyshire, an escape from the bright lights of cities such as Sheffield.

• Friar’s Crag in Cumbria, jutting out into Derwentwater.

This article was amended on 13 December 2010. The original time-lapse image appeared to show the tracks of stars not meteors. It has been replaced.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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