tonygoodson

My email address is collapsing

Aaaagggghhhhh!  Is it just my email address or are you starting to have bounced email from SPAM filters?  I think mine is worse than yours!  I can't send to any Bigpond user.  My own email server from DomainDirect(Tucows) is bouncing some of my own email I'm sending out.  Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail don't like me much, and my anti-virus software keeps inserting "SPAM" into the beginning of the subject on incoming emails!

Somehow, the world has decided that my email address and/or email server is evil.  Even DomainDirect are stuffing up my emails out with strong anti-spamming such that trying to talk to my accountant, or reply to a group of people, completely fails.

It's got to the stage where I'm going try out my Go Daddy registered email address to see if it's any better.  Yeah Yeah, I already use Gmail, but I do like the cozy feel of an email client on my laptop!!

Ampires!

What do you call the people who wander through airline terminals, looking at the bases of walls, hunting for a previous power outlet into which they can sink their electric teeth?  Brilliant, David Weinberger!

It is so true,  you have to have experienced that desperate hunt for power at an airport, to understand what he's describing.  At first I thought it was thoughtlessness by the airport, and then I wandered into the Qantas Club lounge with hundreds of power outlets.  It's deliberate.  If you want power, then join the Qantas monopoly.

Don't Upgrade to Office 2007 (It's Windows ME)

I'm having a bad technical day.  Firstly my Telstra Bigpond Cable had been down for most of the day, with no Service Status update to at least let us know there's something wrong.  Hey maybe it's just me.  Give credit to Telstra, my Cable has been stable for over 4 years, and this is the first time I can remember that there's been a prolonged outage just like the good 'ol days.

And talking of good 'ol days, Office 2007 seems to have converted my stable XP system into Windows ME.  Yes, it's that bad!  Slow, hanging, locking.

Hey Microsoft, here's a clue.  Whatever you did to Windows XP to stop it being Windows ME, can you please do that for Office 2007.  I don't think it's a hardware resource thing.  I don't think I need more memory, a faster processor, or a bigger faster disk.  I think it's bad coding or testing.

But worst of all, what exactly am I getting for all this suffering?  I just can't see what extra, Office 2007 is giving me.  A few more commands out in the open, a floating command "ribbon", a change of colours, a few more colours added.  Maybe I haven't read the manual, or you Microsoft haven't marketed or even sold me on the new features.  What new features?  I just can't find them.

What you're saying Microsoft, is that you've taken Outlook and PowerPoint as far you can, and you can't even make it perform.  What the hell is Office 2007 doing that's slowing everything down?  Even my mouse cursor sometimes slows and sometimes disappears for a while!  It's Windows ME!!

Let's face it, most of us got hooked on Microsoft years ago, because we thought all the Office products would integrate well together and upgrade easily.  So far they still upgrade easily as long as you guess which ones to not go for too early.  The Office 2007 upgrade at least was easy and with no trouble, it's just what it's done to my laptop.  Vista Upgrade?  No Thanks.

Maybe, just maybe one or several of the few applications I use that integrate with Office, such as, Skylook, or MindManager, is causing this, but I don't think it is.  It's as if Office 2007 hasn't been coded properly, it's going off to look for something, can't find it, so it slows or hangs.  Even my RSS feedreader SharpReader, has been misbehaving since the upgrade.

If ever there was a time to look at Thunderbird, and find an alternative to PowerPoint, then this would be it.  Yes yes, even Apple or Linux, but I won't have the wool pulled over my eyes with either of those two.  If it's not better and I can't get the applications, then I'm stuck.  In fact, I'm was very happy with XP and Office 2003, I just hoped that an early Office 2007 would give me something to enhance my Presentations, and help me Get Things Done.

Not Yet!

Freakonomics

Some days whilst you're on a Landmark Forum course, it's all,
"Hello trees, hello street cleaner, hello homeless person, hello all you people on the train, in shops, and on the street, I love you all."
And there are other days when I believe you are all a bunch of corrupt dishonest fucking Weasels.
Today was one of those days, where I stare in wide mouthed amazement, and wonder is it just me or is the rest of the world out of step.
I'd better not get too specific, but what goes through people's minds when they know what they're doing is wrong, or they're doing the wrong thing, or they're lying to themselves.

And then this crops up today to explain it all.  Freakonomics.

Steven Levitt's three-year-old daughter, Amanda, had not long finished potty training when she decided she actually preferred nappies. Levitt's wife, Jeannette, used all the methods she knew to convince the toddler otherwise but to no avail. Levitt, the author of hit book Freakonomics, intervened. He promised Amanda some M&M's whenever she used the potty.  

For the first few days it worked well with sweets changing hands in return for timely toilet visits. On the third or fourth day Levitt, 38, took Amanda to the toilet. She passed just a dribble and took the sweets. A few minutes later she was back on the toilet, passing yet another dribble and putting her hand out for yet more sweets. She'd rumbled the system. Levitt smiles.

 

"I never thought my three-year-old daughter could outwit my incentives in just three or four days," he says. "But it's a great example of how   incentives can have unpredictable effects."
 

What he's saying is that we are an incentive based society, and if we can find a way of beating the system then we probably will. 

And that usually means Money.  Well why wouldn't you?  If you can further protect your gene pool by playing the system, why not?
Quite why someone needs $1Billion instead of $100m goes a bit beyond the gene pool, unless of course you're building the Chelsea gene pool!
But I digress.  Today I witnessed several examples of people being "Economic with the truth".
Why does that still shock me.
Oh and I met Dave Brent today.

Master of Curiosity

Daryl Cook has written about MBAs, Masters of Bugger All?

I think what's lacking is being a Master of Curiosity.
Where has the curiosity gone?  In science, in medicine (especially GPs), in business.
No one is curious as to how something works, how it can be improved, is there a better way.
We put up with the mediocre and accept it.

Oh sure, there's 1000 interconnected bloggers out there who have a high degree of curiosity, but that's about it.
If I run some training, I'd be surprised if 1 in 100 people come up to me afterwards to ask about or flick through a book I recommend or point to.
At "networking" meetings less than 1 in a 100 people will actually call or email the business card they've collected.

No doubt MBAs have some forced curiosity for a while because they have to get their assignments in!!  But afterwards?  Do they put their certificate up on the wall and leave it at that?

And if you are curious, you're treated like some pariah (Don't rock the boat Tony).
We worship our Einsteins and Bills and Bransons but what do you think these guys have in common other than luck and persistence?
Yes, the thing that killed the cat!

Dickheads on the Train

I'm starting a new occasional category - Dickheads on the Train.
And first off, are people who use laptops on the train.  If I see one more dickhead looking busy on their laptop, even though they've only typed 3 lines in 20 minutes, then I will whip out my Tablet and really sock it to those Dell/IBM dickheads.

Secondly, is it just more, or are most iPod users dickheads for owning something you can't hang or clip on to anything.  It's so cool you have to put it in your pocket.  Dickheads!

Daylight Saving - I detest it

We've moved our clock back today, here in Melbourne.  It's daylight saving.  I detest daylight saving.
Why do we do it?  Can anyone give a rational answer that isn't set in mythology?
Can anyone give a benefit as to why we do it?
Does anyone enjoy changing the clocks twice a year?

The only benefit I can see, is that most people love the extra hours of daylight you get in the summer time.  Meanwhile, we have to suffer the reduced hours of daylight in the winter time, as if it isn't depressing enough already.

Simple answer.  Freeze the time for summer hours, or move forward another hour and freeze it.  Then at least most of us can have some daylight in the evening.

It's about time something was done about this.  I have a cunning plan. 
Opposition parties in Australia, UK, and USA, can use this as their main campaigning platform, so instead of campaigning against, in Michael Howard's case, gypsies and travellers (the last politically correct group you can speak ill of (shame on you Michael Howard), or trying to be even worse than the government in power, a "freeze the daylight saving" campaign could be a decisive vote winner!!
And we could actually see the difference, after we've voted for you (ha ha).

p.s Oh, and another thing.  This Daylight Saving thing is clearly a Northern Hemisphere conspiracy followed by Southern Hemisphere sheep like Australia, because how come we only get 5 months of sunlight from November to April??

p.p.s I'm depressed!

I'm alright Jack and Being There

Ok Shannon, the gloves come off.
The vote of the majority doesn't make it right.  If we allowed majority rule every time, we'd be having public executions, because the majority, given free reign would vote for lots of things that they don't think effects them, but seem like a good idea.

War in Iraq is all well and good until it's your brother that's sent there.  Now that would be ok if the war is just.  Are you saying the war in Iraq is a good thing, and should have been started? You voted for it twice.  I wonder how Bush and Howard are going to dig their way out of it. History tells us that the Soviets in Afghanistan completely cocked things up.  Why are America going to be any different this time?

Sure they can pull out of Afghanistan even before the job is finished. But they can't pull out of Iraq because of oil, and the Saudis won't let them!  It would destabilise the Middle East more than when they entered the Middle East.  Clearly there was a plan for war, but no plan for peace. Winning the "war" was easy.  What next?
And just as you can smirk with the election of your two right wing governments, so I can sit back and watch the deaths pile up in Iraq and keep asking you when is enough.  And I will continue to remind you.

Remind me again, why did Bush and Howard go into Iraq?  Howard didn't have to take Australia into the war.  Look at Canada and New Zealand.

Watching George W Bush is like an eerie repeat of Chauncy Gardiner (Peter Sellers) in Being There.  A complete moron nearly being elected president, except in real life it happened.  Twice! There is enough anecdotal evidence from those who know Bush and grew up with him, that he's not quite all there.  A simple man with a simple message.  Well yes, that appeals to the majority because they want equal or more than they currently have, and sod your fellow person. I'm all right Jack.
Michael Moore may be a left wing propagandist, but the central theme of Fahrenheit 9/11 is, "Would you send your children to fight in Iraq, Mr/Mrs Congressman?"
Hell No!  The war is for the morons that voted for us to go fight.  Oh and those who didn't vote for us.
America didn't put enough troops into Afghanistan to finish the job off quickly.
America put enough troops into Iraq to win the war, but not to win the peace.  They didn't secure the borders.  They didn't secure the cities.  They didn't even secure some of the installations.  And you and they voted these idiots in again.  Good Luck.  We the others also pay the price.
Most politicians are creepy morons.  Bush. Howard. Even Clinton.  Read up some more about Kerry, and all things being equal, America just turned down the best they're going to get for a long long time, because the thought of Hillary Clinton doesn't exactly fill me with hope. The politics of the USA, UK and Australia is a fight for centre right, so it's not as though any in opposition are going to radically alter the economics, so it's down to personality.  I can accuse Howard of lying but not incompetence or corruption, but I could accuse Bush of that and probably be right.

And as for saying "He's our President too" that's like saying Hitler is our Fuhrer now, democratically and constitutionally voted in. You have to draw the line somewhere, and whilst I can count the pennies piling up in my bank with Howard, Bush is a far more dangerous entity.

Gonzo Iraq

A definition of Gonzo

In gonzo journalism, there are no set rules, though like most writers, Thompson follows a successful style and framework, revolving loosely around the Kentucky piece. Thompson's own definition of it has varied over the years, but he still maintains that a good gonzo journalist "needs the talent of master journalist, the eye of an artist/photographer and the heavy balls of an actor" and that gonzo is a "style of reporting based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism.

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 today, just to make my blood really boil. Either Bush is ignorant or he's a liar.
The same applies to Johnny Howard and Tony Blair. How can these guys sleep at night if it's true that they have the blood of 100,000 Iraqis on their hands, let alone coalition deaths.

Fuck it. You know, I try to be reasonable. But it's hard to maintain the cool stoniness of reason when you're surrounded by a 100,000 corpses — women and children and men — even if your country is directly responsible "only" for most of them.
We have an administration that uses this war to win an election, yet it forbids us from seeing photographs of our honoured dead. Then it crows that the Democrats will lose because we're "reality-based." A hundred thousand corpses around us is a lot of reality to ignore. Reality is going to catch up with us, and it is going to hurt 100,000 times more when it does.

What have we become? David Weinberger

Yeh Michael Moore makes propaganda films, and it's all in the editing and twisting the facts to suit, but there's enough there to nail Bush's ass. But still they vote for him. Two words. Britney Spears (you have to have seen the film to understand).
And you want to read just how evil Bush is? Take it from the man who wrote the most vitriolic piece on Nixon, ever, and would vote for Nixon over Bush at this Presidential Election.
Hunter S Thomson

If Nixon were running for president today, he would be seen as a "liberal" candidate, and he would probably win. He was a crook and a bungler, but what the hell? Nixon was a barrel of laughs compared to this gang of thugs from the Halliburton petroleum organization who are running the White House today

And whilst I remember, talking of Gonzo, Chris Locke, writes in (and acknowledges) the style of Hunter S Thompson, and Chris Locke's book Gonzo Marketing, written 3 years ago, is a magnificent prediction of future business, and it's all starting to come true. Go read.

Adobe is Shit!

I was just using Acrobat reader, and the software told me I needed an update. So I clicked on update. So it offered me Acrobat update and/or Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition. Firstly, it took me a while to work out how to pick both, then the software totally confused me with what to click, then it took me to the website for the download (I thought the download was automatic), then the software tells me I already have Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition installed on my PC so I need to uninstall it to get a more up to date version (sheesh you think the download could handle an update on software that's already installed?), then I have to register the product, but the registration is sent to me by email, which doesn't arrive, but the software seems to work anyway, but when I try it, it's hardly inspiring, and doesn't seem to give me anything that IrfanView doesn't already do. So here I am a neutral, watching everyone else in the world use PhotoShop, which I'm neither prepared to pay for nor pirate, and besides, I wouldn't know what to do with the software even if it was given to me for free.

So here's the real point. I am a user somewhere between moron and genius. I along with many users in the world are looking for photo editing software that doesn't patronise us like idiots, and doesn't blind us with terms we don't understand like, Mask, Layer, Matting, Gamma, Raster, Vector, Colourize (I use PaintShop pro and still haven't taken the time and trouble to learn what everything does)! It's not that we can't comprehend all this it's just that it's a new language, and we don't have several weeks to learn it. Most of us can look at a photo and say, "That looks crap!" it's just that we don't know the right term to fix the crap. So instead of all these idiot photo-editor companies chasing the "Photo-Album" grannies, do you think that someone could come up with an interface that let's us size photos, change the file size easily so that we can post to websites, help us when the file size reduction causes the photo to deteriorate, and god forbid, take a photo and give us 20 examples of what the effing software can do with the photo. I'm telling you, the money is in photo sizing and improving not in bloody storing it in crap albums. I know how to put a photo into a folder and name the folder thank you, what I can't work out is how best to reduce a 500KB photo to a 20KB size without it going grainy. And yes, I understand that it goes grainy because it's being reduced in file size, but what's the optimum way to reduce file size without losing quality. Other people seem to be achieving it on their websites!!

So back to Adobe. If they released some of the potential of Photoshop and helped us mid-market people to produce photos for our websites, they'd have evangelists, but in the meantime I'll have to put up with the wanky patronising shit they keep churning out, which isn't very user friendly.
User friendly does not mean "patronising"!!