The attached is a screen shot from a genuine incident raised to our internal helped desk, just priceless and if you think I made it up then thank you for the compliment I just don’t think I’m capable of anything this brilliant.
Check Kev’s blog for the screenshot.
This one has gone viral in Systems at Debenhams. Everyone is talking about it.
Dave Winer:
Here’s the idea. Set up a trust for the movie industry. A bank account that we can deposit money into but only movie-makers can withdraw from. When you download a movie via BitTorrent that you watch all the way to the end, deposit $5 into the account for the movie. When the owners decide to accept BitTorrent as a legitimate distribution system, which someday they are sure to, they can have the money. The amount of money in the account is always public info. So it becomes an important statistic, part of the “box office” for a movie. Then you’d probably find a funny thing happening — independent movie producers who can’t get distribution any other way will start promoting this site as a legitimate way to pay for movies. It wouldn’t take long before the MPAA realized that there are a huge number of people who want the convenience of watching movies at home on their own timetable, instead of having to deal with the inhumane system the movie industry created for them.
Via Scripting News
Makes sense. I think some people just pirate because they want the convenience that the movie industry refuse to give them. Not to mention the hard sale they get at the cinema, or when they’re forced to watch adverts and “don’t steal!” messages and copyright notices at the start of a DVDs. They’ll pirate regardless of what the industry does, whether it’s right or wrong. Just as well give them a way to pay. I think some (obviously not all) will.
I see Gary Glitter is now on Twitter. Could be interesting.
A situation where someone so hated (and with fair reason) is exposed to the public on the Internet. He isn’t someone who cheated on his wife, did a crap job of managing England or a much disliked media mogul. He did things that people truly despise.
Frankie Boyle has already got stuck in:
@OfficialGlitter Hi Gary. Would you say it’s you or the captain of the Concordia that’s fucked more people in international waters?
Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.
Via http://blog.mocality.co.ke/2012/01/13/google-what-were-you-thinking/
Google are having a rough time keeping to their Don’t Be Evil motto:
It’s a long read, but I found it interesting. The sort of sting they performed on Google is the type I’d expect Google to do to others.
Another post I’ve found in my drafts. You can tell this one was written a little while ago because it completely focuses on Stan, with no mention of Izzy. [I've just checked the date, and it was written in January 2011 - I don't think we even knew about her back then]
…
I’ve been asked a few times what I’d like Stan to be when he’s older. I’ve given various answers. Here’s my current one.
Of course, in an ideal world Stan would be just like his old man: A music loving, left-wing geek. But his old man (Jesus, I’m talking about myself in the 3rd person here..) is proof that this doesn’t always happen.
Unlike my Dad, I don’t:
The differences were evident as we were shoe shopping the other day. Not much bores me more. Given that my dad spent his career in the shoe business (in much the same way I hope to spend my career in technology), I mentioned how I hope Stan is far more enthusiastic about technology than I am about shoes.
So given that it’s a tall order to expect Stan to be a music loving, left-wing geek, what would I like Stan to be when he’s older?
Two things. At least for now.
First off, I’d like him to be open-minded. I don’t want him to think any less of people just because they’re black, gay, rich or poor, dress differently or are into different things than him. And with that in mind, if he happens to be gay, I’d support him all the way. For starters I don’t consider it a choice, but even if it were, that’s his choice to make. I wouldn’t want him to dread telling his old man. And along those lines, I wouldn’t want anyone to fear what Stan might think about them.
Secondly, I want him to be passionate about things. I think it’s important to have hobbies and interests. To not go through life simply to work and that’s it. I know people who do that and they tend to judge people who do have hobbies they don’t agree with (I can think of a few people who would think I’m both sad and wasting my time for writing a blog, but fuck it, I enjoy it so what’s the problem? “Get out more?”. Why bother when I’m perfectly content doing this).
As long as it’s legal and doesn’t hurt others, I don’t really mind what Stan get’s passionate about, as long as he enjoys it. Again, it would be great if it were music and tech, but if it were skate boarding, writing rap music or playing the flute I’d be a very happy dad. Right now he’s passionate about Mickey Mouse (and by passionate, I really mean addicted). Yes it’s a little concerning that he’s already so dependent on a TV fix, but I’m still chuffed he loves something.
Hopefully that continues as he get’s older.
Whilst writing my last post regarding column mode in Putty, I got thinking about which other apps might use this convention (alt key and mouse) for column mode. The first (and in fairness only) app I tried was Vim (the GVIM flavour).
I love Vim. Rarely does a week go by that I don’t learn some new trick with Vim. However by far my biggest gripe regarding Vim compared to my previous editor of choice (UltraEdit) is it’s column mode.
Generally speaking – unlike much of Vim (arguably) – column mode isn’t very intuitive to use. It’s a big enough pain that I simply don’t use it (I’ve tried to get in the habit on several occasions now). However, with the help of the alt key (as seen in the Putty post [LINK]), it’s slightly easier (at least as far as I’m concerned).
Unlike with Putty where I’m using it to select and copy text, with GVIM I’m using it to insert text.
Note that this example is for GVIM only. Not the terminal version of Vim.
I find applications that have column mode extremely useful (eg. UltraEdit).
It wasn’t until I was looking over someone’s shoulder whilst they were working that I realised Putty has a column mode (albeit read only), and it’s elegantly implemented.
It’s really quite simple. Barely worthy of the bullet points in fact:
I’ve only recently discovered it, so excuse my list of 1, but I find it useful when selecting a list of file names from an ‘ls –l’ command:
Note: I tried to get a screenshot of it in action. Unfortunately it doesn’t capture the fact you’ve highlighted certain text. So please use your imagination and pretend the items in the blue box above have been highlighted/selected.
Helpfully, it trims the trailing spaces when you then go to insert the clipboard contents into another application.
Of course, there are other ways to achieve this (eg. ls –1 will return just the filenames).
Still, it’s a handy trick to know.
There are all kinds of problems with commissions, for example, high turnover as salespeople shop jobs to get a slightly more lucrative commission system. Always attempting to maximize personal benefit which results in system gaming like making fake phone calls to hit call numbers, sandbagging deals into the next quarter, sniping new leads, and so on (the list here is actually endless).
The problems include infighting over who gets credit for accounts and sales. They include constantly comparing territories and account value to determine fairness between salespeople. They include an enormous amount of overhead as each salesperson sedulously tracks every transaction no matter how minute to make sure they get paid on it (by the way, they hate having to do this, and it’s a staggering waste of time. It’s also a place where weak salespeople like to hide out).
I hate walking into shops that are driven by commission. I don’t like being pounced on when I enter the door, and I don’t like being treated as the best mate of some cocky shit in a mobile phone shop who has the gift of the gab.
The above article as other good reasons on why commission doesn’t work. The company the writer is writing on behalf of got rid of commission, and it seems like it worked out well for them.
In a previous post I mentioned a slightly more complex life had got in the way of me sorting out the dead server. It was a good kind of complex though.
Introducing Izzy….
She was born on Oct 17th and she’s been a brilliant little girl ever since (a bit of a pain before hand though, refusing to engage!). At the time of writing she is already sleeping through and feeding well, which is all we can ask of her.
For me the initial interest was always going to be how Stan (our 2 year old son) would react to the new arrival. My money was on jealousy, but apart from the odd occasion, that couldn’t be further from the truth. He completely adores her, cuddling and tickling her at any opportunity. When asked who his favourite person is, he usually responds with “baby” (he can say her name, but mostly refers to her as baby).
I’m sure we’ve got all the jealousy to come, but so far so good in terms of them getting along.
I can’t wait to see them grow up together!
When trying to prevent something from being missed out when performing a frequent task, check-lists don’t work. You you inevitably fall into a routine, get cocky, and ignore them.
That’s all I have to say on the matter…
[Note: this one has been sitting in my drafts for a while. I'm not entirely sure why I wrote it, but I'd bet good money it involved a bad day at work where a check-list was proposed following a root cause analysis of a failure]