Low PC Pricing Driving Unqualified After Sales Pitches

Something I've been hearing much scorn over recently is how large PC vendors, driven to very low price points, are resorting to after sales pitches which take "batteries not included" to a whole new level. They should be wary of damaging their brands. Obviously after-sales warranties etc are nothing new to any area of consumer electronics, and neither is the phenomenon of excluding items which had hitherto been inclusive as the competition hots up.

However, recent techniques are generating a whole new level of chagrin. John Ludwig describes how, on buying a low end HP, he spent hours (on top of Windows Activation) being forced through pitch after pitch which stood between him and him and actually doing anything useful.

Extended warranties, internet access, HP registration, Symantec, Money, Quicken, Office, Rhapsody, AOL, AOL Music, Ebay... his list goes on. No doubt that joint marketing deals with HP are very carefully calculated to provide the hooks to turn a $500 purchase into something north of $600. You can't blame them for the effort, but its time we reminded these guys of how many frustrated birthdays were created for simply not including batteries. I still don't forgive Sir Clive Sinclair for not including a mains plug on my Zx Spectrum when my birthday was on a Sunday and the shops were shut.

I also wonder what would happen if you actually said yes to all these offers on a low spec machine. My guess is that you're on the highway to rebuildsville.

Tags: technology, computing, PC, hardware, business

Web2.0 Hype or Reality?

I was sent this excellent white paper called "Web2.0:Hype or Reality... and how it will play out?" by Arma Partners, an investment banking firm that specialises in technology.

The paper's description of the Web2.0 phenomenon is the best I've seen with a very incisive 'investment market' analysis. Although the attempt to catalogue Web2.0 companies seems a little futile given the pace of breaking news (and certainly is a little hit and miss), there are still some nuggets about how some of these businesses are delivering their visions.

Tags: technology, Internet, Web 2.0, investment, business, Arma Partners, VC

My Art Space Launching...

A colleague has brought to my attention the countdown to the launch of MyArtSpace. This will be a place for artists and photographers to upload unlimited images of their work into a personalised gallery. In that great spirit of Web2.0 this will form the basis of a community with reviews, critiques, announcements, awards etc. The designers have used Flash to great effect. The front end has possibly been cooked to the limit with an age old splash screen, however, the useability around the galleries is fab.

To entice people in there's a competition where you can win a stay at an amazing villa in the South of France. At the moment this dominates the site to the point of being a distraction from the core purpose, but it IS onehelluva prize so why not.

I wonder how much of a contribution to the name was made by the possibility of a trade sale to Mr Murdoch?

Anyway, grab your scribblin' sticks and let's make art.

Tags: technology, Internet, Web 2.0, art, competition, gallery, My Art Space

Nokia N70 Long Term Road Test

There are many glowing reviews about the Nokia N70 either straight out of the box or just from the feature lists. I feel that a long term test is appropriate because in my history of mobile phones it is the small irritating things which stack up to make a "I'll never buy a XXX phone again" case. And believe me, I've bought several phones that held high promises, but have disappointed in the extreme. As long as the buying experience is comparing feature lists, looking at a mock up nailed to the wall and chats at the pub (where there is a tendency to gloss over poor purchases) the only way to avoid the trap again is to veto the maker.

Ok, back to the N70. This is a great phone. If you're not rushing to the shop now then you are surely holding out for the N80, N90 or beyond. Right? Sure. Well I hope this posting will see you make that decision with realistic expectations.

The N70 was great out of the box. It worked and there were enough toys bundled in to consume hours. There were no glaring user experience niggles- you know, the ones that really grate.

Now our relationship has cruised through the 100 hours of calls marker and there have been some wobbles creeping in. First of all, a Vivaldi track downloaded from my operator caused upset. This was not one of my first downloads by any stretch of the imagination, but every time I play it, after several minutes the phone has convulsions. The music stops, the screen goes blank and you are forced into a reboot. Odd.

The next irritation came last week when a bunch of preinstalled office apps (Adobe reader and the apps used to edit Word, Powerpoint and Excel files) just disappeared. I wondered if they had been on a limited time trial but low and behold they reappeared this morning. Very odd.

My 3rd quibble is that I started having network connection trouble- SIM rejection messages, no signal and no network messages. Really very odd.

My final moan is that the reception isn't great and seems to drop out during calls more regularly than my last phone. Whether this is symptomatic of 'overheating' or early 3G technology is unclear. Extremely odd.

Anyway, I'll conclude by saying that despite all this, you'd have to prise this phone out of my hand if you want to take it back. It's still a marvel, despite it's flaws.

Tags: technology, telephony, mobile, 3G, Nokia, N70, review

Taxi Drivers say the Funniest Things

Sounds like it could be the makings of a Saturday afternoon light entertainment TV show? Taxidrivers are great. They absorb so much info from their passengers and the media they are exposed to more than most. I'd suggest this does make them rather prone to accepting pseudoscience and becoming pedallers of urban myth.

I heard a great one this morning. Talking about his choice of the TomTom navigation system I was informed that they are the only vendor to actually have their own dedicated network of satellites. I didn't know this. Furthermore, with no sense of irony he explained how if we went to war with the US and they were to turn off our access to GPS, his TomTom would still work fine. I felt it was reassuring I could still get a cab as the Cruise missiles rained in.

I chose not to dispel his illusion. So far as I know, the European Galileo Programme (which I presume he got his wires crossed over) isn't going to be live until 2010 with its constellation of positioning satellites.

Someone tell them I've found the man to do their marketing.

Tags: technology, GPS, Galileo, taxi, cab, humour, humor

Marylebone or bust

If or when I need to move back to London, I've always had an eye to the places where there is a sense of community and local identity. The last place I lived in London was Richmond Hill so I guess that set the tone.

Walking through Marylebone today made me wonder if this could be on the list... property prices permitting! It has a great High Street and at the moment they're building up to a Summer Fayre on Sunday 18th June. It seems that the Howard De Walden Estate takes a very active role in managing the concept of Marylebone Village. It's interesting to see private enterprise taking on this traditional council/tourism office role of 'planning and managing'. Presumably they see a payback in terms of the enhanced desirability leading to increased rents etc. Which is exactly why Marylebone might have to leave my short list as quickly as it arrived.

Tags: London, Marylebone, Howard de Walden, business, property, lifestyle

Baristo vs Coffee Nations- let the coffee war begin!

In an earlier posting I was extolling the virtues of
Coffee Nation's automatic self service coffee machines. Well, that prime mover advantage is over. They have an immitator spotted at Tamworth Services called Baristo. I don't know whether it is an 'own brand' of Moto who don't want be beholden to Coffee Nations or a direct competitor. I also don't know if the coffee tastes any good because I didn't have time to join the queue of Leeds Utd fans en route to the First Division play offs (obviously a sophisticated, coffee tasting bunch).

However, the machines look the business and have an adjacent pastry display. Soemthing to look forward to on those long motorway days.

Tags: coffee, travel, drink, business, football, Leeds United

The Enemy of Religion

Amongst the hype around the launch of The Da Vinci Code film, some Christian groups have been highly critical of what they see as a blasphemous work. Defending his book, Dan Brown, has been quite sanguine, saying that the only true enemy of religion is apathy and that debate is a healthy thing.

Absolutely, and I think that's why the silent majority of churchgoers are embracing the attention.

Tags: Da Vinci Code, religion, film, Christianity

Amusing Company Slogan

I visited a company today who are based in a managed office. At reception I didn't have chance to read the slogan under the logo of the facilities management company, Arena, emblazoned across the wall.

In fact, it was only when I went to the gents later on that I chuckled at myself when I saw the slogan you can see on the right hand side of their website- ON A TOILET CUBICLE.

Tags: humour, humor, business, Dorset

The Future of Technology on FIRE

The definitive conference on the future of technology is on NOW. Why aren't you there? Everyone from Paul Allen to Michael Dell is attending Future In REview (FIRE) in San Diego this week to discuss the global mega trends and issues around technology.

Bloggers from the Seattle Times, ZDNet, CNET and Scripting News are keeping us informed as events unfold.

Tags: technology, society, business, futurology, future, San Diego, conference

Best Long Term Storage Format?

Ok, so let's take everything we read in the papers at face value and, between the celeb worshipping and reality TV, assume that we take some time out to plan for the demise of humanity.

Think of a disastrous event which wipes out, say, 99% of the human population on earth. Now think about you being one of those 'lucky' enough to come out blinking into the light. Let's say you reinstate the basic needs of warmth, food, shelter etc. Now, what would be the best way to access the thousands of years of civilisation's knowledge in order to start to develop society and technology as fast as possible?

Ok, so we would need some basic instructions in a readable form, but what format would you follow after that? How do we avoid the fate of the burning of the great Library of Alexandria and it's 500,000 books? Which format has the best long term stability?

This isn't an excuse for a PC vs MAC debate!

Tags: civilisation, technology, society, data format, data storage, future, catastrophe

The Weather with You is Glorious is it? We'll see...

For a while now I've had the GeoURL link on the left border of my blog. Well, today I thought I'd catch up on who my web neighbours are and found a very useful site to tell me what the weather is like. It saves me looking outside of the window and everything :)

Well, it will help in my weekly gloat with my parents when we compare the weather on the Sunny south coast with that in the Yorkshire Dales. WorldBuddy provides current and recent weather conditions around the country's airports and therefore, although it doesn't provide a forecast (stick with the Met Office for that), it does provide a very detailed and accurate picture- temp, wind direction/speed, humidity, dew points etc etc. Claims from the other end of the phone of it being hot and sunny could be dispelled in an instant- although the weather is better than the proverbial "grim up north" in the lea of the Pennines, I'm not sure that it compares to the tropics of Dorset as often as is claimed by my folks.

Tags: weather, Bournemouth, GeoURL, meteorology, Yorkshire

8 Blue Flag Beaches within Walking Distance

Encams, the environmental charity who are responsible for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign and admininistrating the Blue Flag Beach Seaside Awards in England, have announced this year's Blue Flag winners. For the second year running Bournemouth and Poole have netted four awards each, giving us 8 of England and Wales' 120 Blue Flag beaches within walking distance of ClickTowers.

To be honest, it would have been an embarrassment to either Poole or Bournemouth to have received anything less, and the loss of an award would probably have seen heads rolling. Both these authorities rely on the awards to fuel their valuable tourism industry.

One question I have though- why has Studland Beach (managed by the National Trust) not been awarded a blue flag? It looks every bit as clean as its blue flag neighbours in Poole and perhaps even more idyllic. Perhaps it is related to access (something which I'm happy for Studland to have relatively little of- keeps it quiet). Another possibility is that the National Trust don't have the resources to submit their application.

Tags: beaches, Bournemouth, Poole, Blue Flag, Studland, National Trust

Is it Crazy that a Coin Costs More to Make Than its Value?

An interesting fact about coins costing more to make than their representative value is discussed on One Digital Life.

I'm not sure that it's all that crazy. I'm not an economist but as I understand it, that coin can represent its value on hundreds of ocassions as it passes through the whole value chain many times in its lifetime. The question is more about how many times a coin can be reissued into the economy by the Government's bank in its lifetime?

Tags: coins, economics, numismatism

Google Trends- the latest Great Time Waster?

Well, it could be unless I can think of something to do with it. Hot on the heels of great products like Google Earth, the idea of Google Trends is to see how the popularity of a search term has changed over the years. It draws you in and is fun for a while, but I'm not sure when it might constitute a useful tool. I'll let you know, but for now it's an amusing curiosity.

Tags: Technology, Google, Internet, Trends, Google Trends

Scobleizer Pours his Heart Out

Robert Scoble (in my view the greatest blogger out there) is going through the heartache of seeing his mother, in all probability, on her death bed. He is reknown, as a self confessed Microsoft geek, for his technology blog, but since he received the news of his mother's stroke and subsequent diagnoses of other problems, the blog has become the channel for his out pourings.

It makes for tear jerking reading and you can see the best of the blogging phenomena as people gather round in support. His decision to tell the world about it may appear to some to be self indulgent, but I like it when blogs are streams of conciousness rather than focussed on what their audience want. That is not a criticism of the specialist subject blogs that have become essential to my work, but I know which I prefer to read on the weekends.

Tags: Scobleizer, Robert Scoble, Internet, web 2.0, blogs, blogging

Snooker Ace Raises Money for Cancer Charity

It's great how the Internet connects information. Before I go on and describe even more bleedingly obvious phenomena, let me explain.

I came across this story about how the snooker star, Paul Hunter, is raising money for a charity who help sufferers of a very rare form of hormonal cancer which he has himself.

Now, a bit of background. I've been helping my mother out with some genealogy and there is a hypothesis that we are related to Paul Hunter. There's a family resemblance, we're from the same area, my grandmother was born a Hunter and there are some crack snooker players in our midst (ok, maybe the latter is a red herring). Unfortunately, the one person who could shed some light on this (and apparently used to mention the connection) is no longer with us. Anyway, I've therefore long taken an interest in Paul's career, was shocked when I heard that he has cancer and have admired his tenacity in continuing to play at the highest ranks of world snooker, despite the chemotherapy numbing his hands.

Anyway, back to the interconnectedness of life... I was reading the blog Ilkley Rocks where Bertram Wooster wrote about the local rag, the Ilkley Gazette, receiving a website makeover. It was visiting this polished up website that led me to the story about Paul Hunter and how he is supporting a fundraising dinner in my home town, Ilkley (hence the promo picture in front of the Cow and Calf rocks).

Et voila, the web I weave is complete.

If you're interested, the dinner is about £110 a place and for a very worthy cause- NET Patient Foundation incorporating Living With Carcinoid.

Tags: cancer, carcinoid, Ilkley, snooker, Paul Hunter, Yorkshire, charity, fundraising

CollectiveX Launches Today

Is CollectiveX about to trump LinkedIn, Yahoo360 (nee Clubs), Ecademy and all those other social networking sites? I've seen so many of these huge visions fall by the way side- remember ePeople? No, nor does DNS. It's so hard to work out what the secret of success might be and the space is full of so many niche players- seen Where are You Now (WAYN)? My fear for them is that the web 2.0 phenomenon puts the emphasis on loosely coupled features rather than centralising them on a single site.

CollectiveX looks great, looks workable and indeed, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has espoused it as what LinkedIn should have always been- quite an accolade.

Is it all enough? Time will tell.

Tags: technology, IT, Internet, web 2.0, social networking

Flattery will get you Everywhere

A moment of self indulgence. I need someone to burst my bubble.

I was described as "one of the architects of modern society" today by someone I have a huge amount of respect for. He's one of the UK's best known designers and was talking with one of my colleagues when the discussion moved to one of my past projects (mentioned in this blog somewhere).

If I can get that in writing it will take pride of place next to my Cub Scouts' Home Help badge and Paley's Peppermint Polo Prize for my work on "My Family Holiday" (circa 1986).

Don't worry, by the time I've fought my way through this afternoon's deadlines, I'll be ready to sit with the great unwashed again on the tube. Life is so fickle :)

Tags: humour, humor

Home Town Gives up Secrets

I lived in Ilkley for the first 18 years of my life and I never knew, until I saw some photo's of a memorial stone on maverickapollo's Flickr page, that during WWII a bomber crashed on Ilkley Moor.

I know little at the moment, but it's something to look into. Maverickapollo reports that all but one crew member died and I can see from the RAF insignia that it was 'one of ours'.

That must have been big news back then and in a town like that these stories live on for a long time. The moor was my playground as a kid and I never stumbled across this memorial.

Tags: Ilkley, Wharfedale, Yorkshire, Moor, WWII, bomber, RAF

Share your feeds

Using the Share Your OPML service for the first time today has given me the opportunity to reflect on how RSS has impacted on my computer usage.

More thorough reviews are available elsewhere, but basically the OPML file contains all your personal feed settings and this service enables you to manage multiple files and perhaps learn from other peoples' reading habits.

Just the summary of my own OPML was interesting. On a daily basis I'm reading content tailored for me, by me, from more than 90 sources. Imagine doing that before RSS. I'd have been surfing for 8 hours a day. Now I just spend 30 minutes a day and get all those goodies.

Still, it boggles me how some people are aggregating from 3000 sources... not all of them can just be poorly managed.

One particularly interesting feature of Share Your OPML is the ability to find like minded folk by comparing files. I look forward to reporting on my kindred spirits in due course.

Tags: technology, Internet, IT, blogs, RSS, OPML, web 2.0, blogging

How does your site look in IE7?

It's interesting times in the world of browsers as Microsoft launches the latest version of its Internet Explorer 7.0. Why is that interesting? Well, aside from the spat with Google over bundling the search box into the browser, after years of criticism, Microsoft seems to be waking up to the value of web standards. Previous versions of IE have interpretted code in subtly different ways resulting in web developers having to work hard to ensure their work could be presented in different browsers. This wasn't just Microsoft being awkward. Some of their approaches had technical merit over the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) approach. With IE7, support for cascading style sheets (CSS), in particular, has been more closely aligned with the W3C standard.

But such a change, however welcome, is causing turmoil amongst webmasters who have woken up to their pages being presented differently overnight. But help is at hand. Tools are available to help with the transition which also spans new IE features in the areas of Security and support for XML standards. The best advice is to get your hands on a copy of IE7 and have a look at the sites that you are responsible for... pronto.

Tags: technology, Internet, IT, browser, Internet Explorer 7.0, Microsoft, CSS, security, XML

New Top Gear Series

It is with a song in my heart that I write about Top Gear returning to BBC 2 on Sunday night. What a great programme. You worry when one series finishes that they won't be able to top that in the next... then they do. Nowhere else will you see a near half million pound Koenigsegg pushed beyond it's limit and plough into the safety tyres. Who else would cut the top off a Renault Espace, mount a home made tarp, and then ride it through the lions' den of a wildlife park?

I'm glad to see that they didn't tinker with the formula too much and welcome their new novelty- a lovely labradoodle called "Top Gear Dog" (who did nothing but laze around with disinterest).

Lots of good looking stuff coming up, including whacky races against a sky diver and some street runners.

Tags: automobile, cars, Top Gear, television, TV, BBC

The Ridgeway 40

Well, according to the blisters on my feet it wasn't easy but I completed the Ridgeway 40 (as mentioned in previous posts). I needed a good (and fit) friend to keep the tempo high to take my mind of the blisters but we made it inside of our target 12 hours.

I could have included rather gory pictures of my feet, but decided it was more tasteful to show this vista north of Marlborough (one of the few photos taken whilst I was still enjoying the landscape and before serious focus was required).

The Ridgeway 40 follows an ancient route from Overton Down in Wiltshire to Streatley in Berkshire and this annual event is a celebration of that history.

Here's to next year.

Tags: walking, hiking, outdoors, Ridgeway, Marlborough, Streatley

How Broad is your Broadband?

Just as ClickTowers is settling into life with a 2Mbps broadband connection, Peter Cochrane comes along and says that what you really need at home is 1,000Mbps.

Actually, he has a good point. In his Silicon Blog he explains that whilst 2Mbps might be good for web surfing from a PC or two, as more interconnected domestic appliances come on stream we will really need 1,000Mbps.

How long do we have? Well, the problem is that we've had a decade or more of high speed copper investment (DSL etc) and this sort of bandwidth leap requires a move to optical. This hasn't been factored in to the telcos finances so they are faced with some massive decisions. Just to keep things interesting, the Japanese and Koreans are already on that infrastructure roadmap with the acceptance that a dedicated 100Mbps is a minimal spec and building towards 1,000Mbps. So it becomes a competitive advantage for the 'haves' and a competitive disadvantage to us 'have-nots'. If we don't make the switch it will, at some point, hit our GDP.

Tags: technology, Internet, telecoms, broadband

Float or Sink with Blogshares

After the initial hype of the IPO and a resulting peak valuation of $2,400, my Blog's stock has fallen back to be worth just $1,000 on Blogshares. In fact it is the only stock in my portfolio of 6 which is on the slide.

However, I'm holding on tight to my shareholding because I think the underlying trends are good and this is just market foibles. Traffic to the blog is up, subscribers to the feed are up and more people are commenting.

Maybe the fact that I own all the shares is causing liquidity problems. Any Independent Blogshare Advisors out there?

Tags: technology, Internet, blogs, Blogshares

Choose an Integration Model

That's right folks, we're back to the technology. I'm working with a team reviewing the integration models available to an ambitious start up. It seems that some sectors are 5 years or more ahead of others, with retail, manufacturing and aviation generally at the front of the pack and healthcare struggling to catch up.

There are huge cultural implications around these decisions, but we are observing a recurrent pattern of maturity emerging.

Back in the days when computing became accessible, businesses applied the technology where they faced the greatest number crunching challenges- usually in their accounting and finance functions. At some point these isolated technologies needed to talk to each other and pairs of integrated systems emerged followed by clusters and groups.

What you had though was a series of point to point system communications where the integration ethos gradually became to marry the systems together as closely as possible. This was how to derisk projects. The concept of system X being marketed as compatible with system Y began. Whole families of technologies became aligned with each other and feuded with the family next door. With this approach there could ultimately only be one winning chain of systems. The essence of Microsoft's dominance in Office IT was born out of this era.

However, businesses began to realise they were locked into technology roadmaps and vendors. The opportunities to differentiate reduced. Huge monolithic systems were integrated beyond the ability to be flexible and post implementation changes became prohibitively expensive. Projects became so large and cumbersome that delivery failure was common and the blame would be between the two vendors who's systems were being integrated. The interfaces were often on the periphery of the systems and the projects so the risk wasn't managed appropriately and responsibility was ambiguous. Business had a choice of being hamstrung by outmoded and uncompetitive processes or picking over the bones of their legacy systems.

Recently though, a new model emerged where the starting point was to presume change. Success would come through collaboration rather than the traditional ideas of integration. Best of breed solutions from many vendors would be orchestrated to work together, but through standards-based, loose couples facilitating message transfer rather than tight marriages.

Some specialists pioneered in the area and made quite a reputation for themselves. Then the might of Microsoft came to the party and after struggling to find it's feet with early versions, managed to gain some traction and the race was on.

Two vendors are able to teach us about this modern approach to messaging integration-MS and Intersystems. This video shows how one of the primary movers in this space, Intersystems, use their Ensemble platform to build a Virtual Electronic Health Record. In another healthcare situation, we see how MS products (with BizTalk at the core) have been applied with dramatic effect in Indiana.

One of the first headlines of the IT Programme in Heathrow's T5 was about their selection of an XML hub. 5 years ago it would have been about the hardware choice.

Where will we go next? Where is your business?

Tags: technology, integration, systems, IT, BizTalk, Ensemble, Microsoft, Intersystems, business

Cheap Pint in London

I realise that cheap pint etiquette is usually the preserve of students, but I'm sure everyone has moments like me when they don't want their beer to be 50% more expensive to pay for the service or decor. Last night I wanted to pay for the beer, and the beer alone. Sam Smith's pubs usually fit the bill on these ocassions
and yesterday evening I found a star. Well, an angel really. The "Angel in the Fields" in Marylebone has a 'no messing' feel about it that could be interpretted as a fairly dour establishment. However, I found it quaint and, with a superb pint of Samuel Smith's Old Brewery for only £1.72, what is there to argue about?

Tags: beer, London, Marylebone, Samuel Smith, pub, social

Lost in music

Ok, one more post before we get back to the tech. Those of us who regularly use public transport will be well aware of the uptake in use of personal music devices. Today I saw something new though. A young lady dancing away in the midst of a crowded London Underground commuter carriage. It was like something from an iPod advert. She wasn't just jigging in her own space. This was a full on, expressive, lost-in-music experience and, I have to say, contrary to irritating those around her, most were sad to see her alight before the end of their own journey.

Best motorway service station in the country?

When I started writing my blog, I never thought I'd one day be writing about such mundane things as motorway service stations. Well, dropping in at Moto's Woolley Edge facility yesterday I figure they deserve at least an honourable mention.

I spend alot of time on the road and this service station on the M1 had all those great little ideas that you see around the country rolled into one location. A special toilet cubicle for little guys; wipes for toilet seats (in the gents is surely a novelty); a baby food station; free canine feeding station near the door; etc etc. The service was with a smile too, so you read their "no quibble" guarantees without fear of cynicism (because let's face it, in the UK who demands a refund when their espresso is weak?).

Ok, my point is made. Let's get back to some tech...

Tags: motorway, service station, Moto, Woolley Edge, M1, business, Compass

Milestone Spotting

At some point I'll need to do a cross check with
The Milestone Society (no, I didn't make them up) to see if they have record of this milestone which ClickDad and I stumbled across on Beamsley Beacon near Ilkley, Wharfedale. Located at approx 53 deg 57'23" N, 1 deg 50'09" W this milestone shows the way to Skipton, Knaresborough and Ottley. I've shown a photo of the side with the peculiar spelling of where is now called Otley.

I'm also surprised that Knaresborough is only 11 miles. Will check that too.

Tags: milestone, waymarker, Ilkley, Otley, Skipton, Knaresborough, Beamsley

New Forest Cycling

MissClick, myself and a couple of friends hired some bikes in the New Forset the other day. I had been concerned that we'd be given some decrepit old things that could well ruin the day. However, I needn't have worried. In fact, th eopposite became likely- with brand spanking, two day old, bikes may not have been set up right and we'd struggle our way round the route. That was not to be either. The Beaulieu 'branch' of Country Lanes had provided us with some fantastic Trek mountain bikes for a near pitance.

The guy holding the fort was very hospitable and route maps were provided. Being early in the season they'd not had chance to learn that a pub which had been used as a reference point had become a residential property making it difficult to spot. This caused a few moments of finger pointing in Brockenhurst but it was a great day out. A bit of forest, heath and road covered our 20 or so miles which was a comfortable distance for all of us (even including an clandestine pub stop).

Thanks Country Lanes.

Tags: New Forest, Beaulieu, cycling, hire, mountain bikes, Brockenhurst, Hampshire

Being more effective without the voodoo science

I've recently started working with some of the most successful and effective professionals I've ever met. What makes them so? Clearly it is a whole raft of things, in their case being pretty smart and academically high achievers definitely helped. Before you throw up your hands and say "its too late for me" and "what about us el-thickos?", read on.

I've noticed that they all manage their personal space incredibly efficiently. On further probing, several of them swear by a methodology called "Getting Things Done". So, I bought the book by David Allen. I've linked to the US Amazon site- the UK version is in the ad on the left. I've not read it yet so expect further postings as to whether it helps me, but basically I don't think I'm underselling the methodology to say it boils down how you manage your in tray.

There's a decent review by the FT but, unfortunately, if you don't have a subscription then you can only read the first part, but do so anyway. I'd cut and paste the article here but I don't think my Google Ads revenue would remotely cover the legal fees if they were to chase me! Besides, I'd say that the FT sub is worth the money for most business peeps.

Tags: work, personal development, productivity, effective, professional, Getting Things Done, book, review, David Allen, Amazon

A Walk and a Pint

ClickRich has foolishy signed up to join some friends on a 40-mile-in-a-day walking lark. The 40 miles is a challenge. The speed that these friends will do it at will be a challenge. With less than 2 weeks to go, a training regime is something of a challenge too so I decided on Saturday to walk as fast as I could from ClickTowers in Bournemouth to the Bankes Arms in Studland village. There I would reward myself with a pint of their locally brewed* Isle of Purbeck Brewery before charging back as quickly as my hiking legs would carry me.

The objective, aside from a vain attempt to improve fitness, was to test my new clothes, check the boots still fit ok after 10 years, see how much I need to carry and work out what kind of pace starts to hurt... oh, and explore a corner of the world that I can see from our living room, but have not been to in 3 years here.

First things first. The pub is lovely. By it's character and panorama, it's something of a tourist spot, but there's plenty of room for everyone in the beer garden- even the domestic chore dodgers masquerading as mountain bikers (I know your game). I chose a pint of the Studland Bay Wrecked and I was not disappointed. I'd underestimated the amount of curvature of the coast round Studland- perhaps through the flattening effect of the distance as I view it from home- but I was surprised to be looking straight out to sea at Bournemouth. Strange.

Anyway, with the heat smashing down I headed for home and, excluding the wait for the Sandbanks ferry and sitting in the pub, I managed a round trip of 14 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. To do three times that distance in less than 12 hours (which I suspect is the target of my friends) will be pushing me to my limits...

...and there'll be no beer.

*round the back of the pub

Tags: Studland, Bankes, pub, walking, hiking, ale, Sandbanks, Dorset, Bournemouth, cycling, mountain biking

Paula Radcliffe is a no show at the 2006 London Marathon

The organisers must have missed that memo if this sign is anything to go by.

Don't know what I'm talking about?

Tags: Flora, London, marathon, Paula Radcliffe, humour, humor

Image is everything

Cafe Shore is one of the coolest bar restaurants on the South Coast. Nestling on the peninsula of Sandbanks in Poole, it certainly does pretty much the best job of projecting an image...

...which is why I suspect that these cars were deliberately parked on show. Don't get me wrong, the local neighbourhood is more than able to produce clientele with Lamborghinis and Ferraris. It's just the way they are parked such that, for example, I couldn't squeeze my Clickmobile in between them. Hey, if you got it, flaunt it.

Tags: Sandbanks, lifestyle, Poole, Dorset, supercars, restaurant, eating out, Cafe Shore

London Marathon or Dance-a-thon?

Yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 26th Flora London Marathon. As I had some small chores to do for a few runners (well done Mark, Emily, Benoit and Colin) I bounced from Woolwich to Docklands to Wapping to Westminster. I also watched everything from the elite athletes to the club runners to the, often ambling, fancy dressers. Of the many thought provoking memories of the day (the myriad of good causes and unity of the people was uplifting) it struck me how many runners were listening to ipods (other devices are available). Outside of the elite I'd venture it was as much as 30 or 40% had their digital pals. I mused on how many might have compiled a specific soundtrack and what that accompaniment might be. I doubt anyone could manage 'Eye of the Tiger' back to back with 'Chariots of Fire' for 440 minutes, so I'd like to know what the top ten tunes were. Perhaps many opted for 'in the mix' style dance compilations or entire orchestral suites. Was anyone even usefully filling the time learning Spanish!
For some, I suppose music might be a practical technique of keeping pace. For others who have trained through the darkest evenings of the year with their digital motivators there might be an almost Pavlovian need in order for their legs to move.
Despite the electronics industry's best attempts to alienate me through the use of earpieces that won't stay in my ears on a train, let alone whilst jogging, I decided that a music player would be a must if I were to get through the training. I would build up to some carefully chosen beats which, on the big day, would subtly quicken and slow according to the pace best suited to me and the course. All I need to do is check that if I go the distance, then so do the batteries!

The censors must be having giddy fits

Now I'm no prude, so don't take this as a complaint, but I was very surprised to be tuning my radio in West London and find a station broadcasting very adult humour. I enjoyed it. I'm not sure of the comedian but it was of that stand up genre where you'd have thought that a failure to use an expletive every few seconds was likely to result in electric shocks being administered to a loved one. Bear in mind that I'd tuned away from BBC Radio4 to find alternatives to their Sunday morning church service and you can see the contrast served up by the bombardment of 'effing' and the need to describe everyone in terms of their relations with their mother. But it was very funny. So, if you're over 18 then try tuning to Touch'94 FM. If you're not, then don't.

Studland Naturist Beach

I was just wondering. Was the sign in this picture intended as a warning or a promise?

Tags: Studland, beach, humour, humor, naturist, Poole, Dorset

I can't believe it's not leather

Now, it's probably not my place to say, but in the neverending search for a better handbag, and as a concession to MissClick I'm going to make this post under the pretense of materials science. We (well, MissClick with me standing the obligatory 5 yards behind) were looking at handbags whilst shopping recently and saw some amazing leather bags by Matt and Nat. Well, it turns out that they aren't leather at all. Their website makes a big deal of it, but we were none the wiser in the shop. Are they missing a trick?

Tags: creative, handbag, fashion, designer, vegan, Matt & Nat, humour

Yahoo! Answers Beta

This looks like some new service from Yahoo where they broker questions and answers. In truth, their email about it was inconclusive. I think Yahoo should be asking their own service to answer "why did my mass mail out manage to be sent with a spelling mistake and code failure?". That's right, what I think was meant to say "A great new way to answer questions", instead said "A great new way to and questions". Where there were probably meant to be typical questions, there were just dots.

Now, I'm guilty of many an email faux pas so it's just reassuring to see that the mighty email service provider can get it so wrong too.

Tags: technology, internet, email, Yahoo

Calling all Blogging Widows

MissClick is setting up a support group whose first meeting will convene for Gin and Tonics on, well, any evening really.

Tags: technology, internet, blogging, humour, humor

The Future of Office Collaboration

Watch the video of this Microsoft guy enthusing about the future of real time office collaboration. Their Communicator product is out now for the enterprise and I'm looking forward to 'presence' features pushing my own productivity through the roof, let alone what it will do for places like hospitals. I get so frustrated by missed calls, leaving a message for someone as they're ringing you back etc etc.

Tags: technology, office, IT, collaboration, Microsoft, productivity, mobile, healthcare

If Carlsberg did Weigh & Save

I remember as a boy being dragged round shops called things like "Weigh & Save" where my parents would buy foodstuffs, typically at the staple end of the spectrum, at apparently bulk knock down prices. It's not a particularly fond memory and I've often wondered what if, just like their famed adverts, Carlsberg were to do Weigh & Save?

Well, I need wonder no more. I'm pretty sure it would be like VomFass. This franchise, which admittedly has a ropey look and feel on its corporate site (from which I pilfered the image in this article), has a UK site that seems to have been licked into something a little more sophisticated.

I stumbled across their shop in Stratford where I could buy wine, liqueurs, spirits and olive oil by the 100ml. There are tasteful racks of the stuff (using barrels and massive glass containers as appropriate etc) and you just choose your bottle and go for it.

Weigh & Save can keep it's oats by the shovel.

Tags: retail, franchise, spirits, liqueur, olive oil

Upcomm launch Upcode

A month and a half ago I reported on some great new technologies spinning out of HP labs in Bristol-
QR codes and the Glass software. Well, it seems that the team at Upcomm were already well on the case. They have taken a very similar application (I'm not sure if it is an HP derivative or home grown), branded it and taken it to market. I saw one of their so called 'Upcodes' on an hardcopy advert for Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. In the corner was the code itself with a neatly branded surround and a URL for more info.

The Upcomm website doesn't carry much information beyond what the casual consumer needs to know, but it looks like this may be a company from Finland. Well, they should know about mobile phones. I suppose the trust in the technology comes from the association with the advertiser rather than the technologist, but I'm nosey.

I hope to see these logos proliferate over the coming year.

However, the only problem was that my first sighting of this application was on an advert above the seats on the tube. So, I wasn't able to try it. Possibly the only place amongst the ten million population of London where I have no phone reception. When will the London Underground sort that out? The HK tube is rammed with mobile telephony infrastructure.

Tags: technology, Internet, mobile, Upcomm, Upcode

ClickTowers receives DAB

I'm pleased to report that this morning's piercing alarm call was replaced by the soothing tones of digital radio. As an early birthday present to MissClick, I selflessly invested in a Tivoli DAB radio. Early results are promising- although I thought I'd better let the birthday girl do most of the playing. However, the sound is natural and warm and, after a head to head test in the shop against the top end Pure, was in a league of it's own. The sound more befits a much larger platform.

This is in no small part due to the founders of Tivoli who came together with huge hifi design credentials. Between them they've set up two of the world's most respected hifi makers- Acoustic Research and Cambridge Audio (who later came together to create Arcam).

There's one thing worth pointing out that wasn't reported on any of the websites or in the mags I read whilst researching DAB radios. There are two alarms so MissClick and I can be woken at different times. It might sound trivial, but it was an important feature, the lack of which could have seen us compromise on sound quality in order to purchase a radio with it. No such worries in the end though. Tivoli marketers can have that one on me.

Tags: technology, radio, DAB, digital, Tivoli

Train ticket mix up

A piece of advice for those rushing through Paddington station is to be careful over your ticket selection in the self service machines. As I came out of the tube there was just a few minutes until my train was leaving. I'd been lucky enough to spot the platform the train was leaving from, but this was the mad Easter rush on Thursday evening rush hour- a crammed Central Line had already seen me running up to an hour late.

So I reached the front of the queue for the self-serve machine. My first problem was, and it could have been my spelling, but I couldn't find Moreton-in-Marsh. With the clock ticking I had little choice but to select the train's ultimate destination, Hereford. It'll cost, I thought, but I have to catch THAT train.

Next up, I needed to select my ticket type. I only wanted one way, but the tickets on screen were all wrong wrong wrong. First class this, first class that. What do they call cattle class these days? 2nd class? Can't see it. Then I see First Cheap Day Return. That'll do. I don't need a return but I hear that singles aren't much cheaper. The "first" must refer to the train company, First Great Western, as it is followed by the word "cheap" and is the only ticket not to have the word first followed by "class".

So in the flash of a PIN, I'm sprinting for the train and make it just for when the doors close. Luckily, I also find a seat ahead of the stragglers before me without resorting to strong arm tactics.

An hour later as we're swooshing through Oxfordshire I'm starting to wish the train had more leg room and that the screaming baby would pipe down. The conductor passes through and on checking my ticket simply looks at me, looks at the ticket, and in her loudest voice points out that first class is at the back of the train.

That's right. I'd managed to spend the best part of £100 when less than half of that would have sufficed. Additionally, I'd not even taken advantage of the services. Still, I sat through the last 5 minutes of my journey in the plush, stretch your legs out, reclined armchair surroundings of first class. Not without funny looks from passengers who no doubt thought I was a fare dodger- having taken my seat after the inspector had passed through.

In a moment of charity, I tried to find a London bound passenger at Moreton-in-Marsh to take my return leg first class ticket, but alas there was no one to be found. Unlucky, I could have salvaged some good from the ridiculous mistake I'd made.

Up there in my all-time-wasting-money-stories with peeling the leaves off a cauliflower at Uni until, with the leaves in the bin and only a morsel of green left, I realised it was a cabbage.

Tags: humour, Moreton-in-Marsh, train, First Class, Paddington, First Great Western

Shakespeare in Stratford

One thing you can't accuse Stratford-upon-Avon of doing is missing the opportunity to take advantage of its connections with Shakespeare... But I had to laugh when I saw the local pub landlords joining in by calling their Pub Watch scheme "Bard Watch". Very drole.

Tags: humour, Stratford

Cabbie Endorsement of Toyota Prius

Taxi drivers' choices of car in the UK can often be something of an urban joke- remember the Nissan Bluebird? But there is a serious side to this. Cabbies are only going to choose cars that are cheap to run and reliable so for them to choose your car, as a motor manufacturer, should be taken as quite an endorsement. In particular, if your car is a cutting edge hybrid, it is a specific challenge to gain acceptance in the marketplace.

Now the Toyota Prius seems to be selling fairly well, but the other night I was picked up by a cabbie who was two days into his ownership of a Prius. He's a little nervous as to how the decision will play out, with 100,000 miles anticipated over the next two years, but so far he's been laughing all the way to the bank from the petrol forecourt. If you are in the environs of Alcester anytime soon, check in on Merv and see how he's getting on. Nice guy to boot.

Tags: technology, Alcester, automotive, hybrid

Which Way To Alcester?

Alcester here we go! Now we just need to turn left, no right, no left.

Tags: humour, Alcester

Ministry KPIs

I was listening to an interview with a Salvation Army member last night. Far from the dour image, he was quite funny. In answering a question on how many 'converts' he would expect to make from a particular event, he replied "Over about 3 years Jesus Christ himself only managed to recruit 12 followers- and one of those was a bit ropey". Brilliant.

The Search Engine Saga continues...

Further to my efforts to help a friend get their website to its righful place in the Google returns, I'm pleased to report some progress. We are on the radar (we're being indexed) and for searches on the business name we're on page 1, and for the business name plus location or nature of business, we're number one.

However, this leaves what I'd call the competitive searches; i.e. the punter doesn't have a business name in mind. They'll search by nature of business and location. Small Town IT explains why it's not easy and I can report that those pesky aggregate listing sites I mentioned are still getting in the way- and this battle will be on their home turf. Wish me luck, I'm going in...

Tags: technology, IT, Internet, search, Google

Don't Read My Blog

If you do one thing on arriving at this blog, it is to leave it! Go to David Hillier's site instead. By all means come back for a browse later.

David says that this event is giving him goals to stay alive for but I can't help but think that this is an unbelievably selfless act- to dedicate such precious time to the benefit of others.

Tags: cancer, prostrate, cycling, New York, Justgiving

Calling all Teenagers

The Institute of Engineering and Technology is interested in the views and opinions of under 18s. If you are under 18 but are thinking that you're not interested in engineering OR technology then:

a) why are you on the internet? It's not all bolts and volts you know?
b) YOU ARE EXACTLY WHO THEY WANT TO HEAR FROM- they need to see the whole spectrum.

The results of the 2020 Vision survey will help inform debate and discussion at an event being staged at Savoy Place on April 28.

This event will involve around 400 young people in the audience and will be available on line via IET.TV. The IET will also have film footage of young people from a number of countries giving their views, plus input from some leading engineers and technologists. Some of these people will be on film, including Azim Premji, founder of Wipro in India and a senior figure from NASA’s JPL. Taking part at Savoy Place will be Prof Kevin Warwick from Reading University, Mike Ely from Astrium and Braulio Morera from Arup.

Tags: technology, IET, engineering, teenage, survey

The NHS IT Backlash Begins

It was only a matter of time before the NHS Direct General of IT, Richard Granger's, approach to vendor procurement and management resulted in a severe backlash. Richard Granger is notorius for taking a no nonsense (read "thou shalt...") approach to managing suppliers. The NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has serious delivery problems documented elsewhere. What interests me is how this is affecting the whole IT sector, for whom the Healthcare sector should be an exciting space in which to add immense amounts of value, and who were falling over each other to win apparently lucrative contracts.

Recently the chain of consequences began in earnest with Accenture (with major delivery responsibilities to the NHS) announcing losses of nearly half a billion pounds on the programme. To put that into perspective, Accenture's partners will not receive a bonus this year- an unprecedented state of affairs. The share price is down around 15%. As the blame unravelled, things became even worse for their business partner on the programme, iSoft, with their share price in freefall. At one point this week, the company once worth £1bn was valued at only £300m.

All of this is unsustainable for the IT sector and this morning I woke up to the news that in an open letter to Computing Weekly Magazine, 20 computer scientists have called on MPs to carry out an independent review of the £6.2bn programme. The Department of Health remains resolute that the Healthcare IT delivery is robust and resiliant. Meanwhile, the cracks are growing on the other side of their contracts.

Watch this space.

Tags: technology, IT, healthcare, politics, NPfIT, business

Yes, but what's it like deep fried in batter?

That's the question in my mind as I read that England's first Barramundi farm has harvested it's first fish. With cod stocks under pressure, barramundi (native of Oz) have been hailed as a possible substitute with a buttery taste and great steamed, fried, grilled or BBQ'd. Have those sports mad Aussies tried dipping them in batter, flipping them into a deep fat fryer and then rolling them in a newspaper with similarly deep dried potatoes? I can't imagine any other country than ours being mad enough...

Tags: food, farming, fish

Stove Pipe Hats off to First Great Western

Good work to First Great Western for their promotional tie in to the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Brunel's birth. As the father of the Paddington to Bristol route, it is fitting that for a period around the celebrations you will be able to buy a ticket for just a fiver.

Tags: Brunel, First Great Western, London, Bristol, train, ticket promotion

Has New Engineering Institution missed a trick?

With much fanfare and pizazz, the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) has emerged as the organisation representing engineering professionals across a range of disciplines. Quite right too. After a decade or more of the Institutes of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (IEE and IMechE) unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a nearly-all encompassing engineering institution, the IEE has eventually merged with the Institute of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) and created the vehicle with the potential to eventually serve all Engineers, irrespective of discipline. The IET is born. This is much needed as the historic fragmentation has struggled to find the critical mass to maintain a respect for Engineering as a profession.

HOWEVER. In focussing on the merger and with much introspection, have we all missed a trick? I think so. It struck me today that a body "engaged in engineering and technology" has failed to meaningfully recognise the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the worlds' greatest engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and leaving the celebrations to the stewardship of Bristol City Council, The Arts Council, The National Lottery and Business West- who, by the way, are doing an excellent job. What a great message of engineering inclusion it would have been for the IET to join with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers and Institute of Civil Engineers in celebrating such an amazing life. The IMechE joined in with solid support for the Portsea celebrations. Is this the difference between the message of inclusion and the actual culture of an organisation? As a result, the IET has appeared to be out of step with the rest of the engineering community. I hang my head in shame, hoping and promising to contribute to keeping our eyes open and not letting this happen again. The IET is the future of engineering in our country.

Tags: Brunel, IET, Institute of Engineering and Technology

Say it with a Story

Numbers numb, jargon jars,and nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart. If you want to connect with your audience, tell them a story.

Andy Goodman, who teaches storytelling.

By the way. Another great moment of inspiration from Andy. Check out that URL. It has a purple.html filename. Try changing that to green.html. I've never seen that before and it's interesting how it changes the mood of the site. My mind is whirring as to how Andy incorporates that into marketing. Clearly someone worth knowing!

Tags: presentation, public speaking, communication, story

A Handbag?

I was wandering through St.Christopher's Place in London today and stumbled across a boutique that a friend is a partner in. Ollie (one half of Ollie&Nic) is a designer that lived with one of my best buddies for a while. I kept hearing how well she's doing, but tending to hide her light under a bushel, it still came as a surprise to see a real shop in a very cool corner of London.

If you can't get there, or handbags aren't your, erm, bag, then the website is worth a peak. Technos may appreciate the reminder that Flash has truly matured in the hands of people with the creative vision to do more than the obligatory early 2000s splash screen. Guilty your honour.

Tags: creative, handbag, fashion, designer, London, Ollie&Nic

How seriously do you take your hobby?

I suspect not as seriously as my friend, whose train set is in a league of its own and looks nothing like my 1980s Hornby (much as though I loved it). He chose the whole house on the requirements of the layout and uses scheduling, signalling and control systems that railway engineers would be envious of. One of his suppliers recently filmed a promotional video which is here in three parts.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

You gotta have a hobby.

Tags: hobby, trainset, train, railway

Are bloggers all mouth and no trousers?

In the main, probably yes. However, this group of Healthcare IT bloggers are holding a blogposium from April 18-10th to furnish a Clinical Informatics Wiki. This will show that blogging is capable of delivering real work, rather than just passing commentary on what catches their whim. For my part, I hope that by mentioning the event, their ying will compensate for much of my yang. Good luck bloggers.

Any experts in the area should contact Shahid Shah to register.

Tags: technology, blogs, blogposium, healthcare IT, wiki

This is what the Nanny state has come to

I saw this at Dublin Airport today. Quite right too. People should not use escalators until they have been on the Escalator Familiarisation Course. Supervision of children is only appropriate for those who have completed, with distinction, the Advanced Escalator Course (Stage 8).

Why don't they just say "Warning: The Laws of Physics Apply", and be done with it?

I also like the presumption that trolleys can read.

Tags: Dublin, airport, safety

New Power Sockets on Bournemouth South West Trains

OK, so the whole train is actually new, but this morning I was pleased to see that my seat had a pair of sockets next to it. I've been making use of these on Virgin Cross Country for some time, so it's good to see it on my more usual haul.

A shame that they only seem to be on the seats with a table, but there wasn't exactly a rush for the 0515 out of Bournemouth this morning- later trains may be a scrabble to get the tables! Especially the 0656 London commuter.

Tags: Trains, Bournemouth, Railway, technology

April 1st Nissan Promotion in Bournemouth

You can't beat a gag that takes a load of planning and execution... and I've not seen anyone go further this year than the Nissan team in Bournemouth. Perhaps taking advantage of this April 1st falling on a Saturday, this Nissan 4x4 was, almost literally, planted in the main square. Thanks to Simon Holt (or is that Simon Henry) for his sharp shootin'.

Well done to Nissan and to the council for not being killjoys (I presume the council knew about it).

Tags: April fool, Bournemouth, Nissan, advertising

Aircraft Maps like you've never seen before!

Many thanks to
Worldmapper who have a load of maps of the world redrawn to represent interesting stats. This one shows countries sized according to the number of departures of aircraft registered to that country. Fascinating. Africa practically disappears and the UK swells to the size of South America.

Tags: maps, cartography, statistics, geographical information system, GIS, aviation, air travel

Should Jensen Button's Honda team have stopped him?

In the aftermath of the Melbourne Grand Prix, there is much discussion as to whether Honda made the right decision in telling Jensen Button to stop just yards short of the line. Button's Honda engine suffered a blow out with several corners to go whilst in a points scoring position. Although he had enough speed to carry over the finishing line, the team told him to stop because, as a non-finisher, he wouldn't suffer a 10 position grid penalty at the next race for an engine change.

Many are challenging how wise a decision this was. My guess is that we'll never know. Even if Button goes on to have a decent podium position in San Marino, we will never know whether he could have done similarly with the grid penalty. One thing I do know for sure is that there was so little time in which to make the decision that I, for one, wouldn't have even realised that a decision was there to be made. The adrenalin would have had me shouting at Jensen (as the ITV commentary team were) to get out and push!

Tags: F1, Formula One, Formula1, sport, Melbourne, Australian GP, Honda

Calling all South Coast Sports Car Owners

Bournemouth based Red Dragon Motorsport is organising a Gumball/Canonball style 'tour' (it's not a race, honest Gendarme) from Poole to Monaco. Timed to coincide with the opening of the Top Marques Monaco Luxury and Supercar show on the 20th April, 25 entrants of the Helluvit Sports Car Tour will have a fabulous time (sweety) whilst raising cash for UNICEF.

I'll be there in a Peugeot 105 Rallye :) OK, perhaps next year.

Tags: cars, motorsport, Bournemouth, Poole, Monaco, marques, charity

ClickRich Blog has Floated

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke. Shares in the ClickRich blog, at least fictionally, have been listed on the BlogShares market. Feel free to buy shares in this site (clicking on the BlogShares image at the bottom of the left hand menu is a shortcut) although I should point out that will help my holding! Still, the analysts on the site still reckon my shares are underpriced and are worth getting hold of.

Basically, you don't need to have your own blog to participate and each player is given a fictional $500 to trade. Then market forces take over. I'll be interested in how this game pans out for me as a player. There certainly seem to be some advanced features you'd expect of a real stock market, in addition to buying and selling, such as placing orders.

ClickRich is trading at 31c at the moment with the blog valued at $1,618.75- a bargain.

Tags: internet, games, blogshares, stock market

I've perfected a cold fusion reactor...

...at home!

I was able to create a closed system perpetual source of electrical energy (about 31.5MeV) with only the addition of hydrogen in the form of tap water and an inert vessel lined with some polar foil from the kitchen. A friend of mine with a PhD in nuclear physics from Cambridge belives the foil was able to breakdown the repulsive force between the two nuclei. Hitherto, scientists have attempted to overpower the forces rather than dissolve them. He is writing a paper and peers from MIT and CERN have accepted invitations to validate the results in the lab.

Exciting times! Could this be the greatest scientific moment created in the domestic situation since the Eureka moment?

Tags: technology, science, physics, nuclear, fusion, Cambridge, MIT, CERN, Fool