So hard to update my blog; so much to say and so little time...

I've been managing some work with IBM recently. It's been really interesting to see how the big boys work, having previously contemplated an offer from Accenture. There are undoubtedly some very bright and talented people in these organisations, so it makes you wonder how the rest get in. It's not as if the turnover is that high either; had an appalling presentation the other day from an IBM team to one of our clients but they'd all been with the company at least three years.
Not the worst I've seen though. When the people presenting have an argument in front of the client, you know not all is well..
But I digress as is my wont when I've been doing too much of the same old thing. This morning I had a waking dream where it was time for work, but I couldn't remember what preparation I needed to do. I was pretty sure I didn't need to do any financial consultancy so did I need to have a lecture prepared on Racine?
It was only when I awoke fully and figured out I needed to get to Clerkenwell that I remembered my job was about web stuff that dreams are made on. Reminds me of a dream where I had to resit my A-levels but couldn't remember the double cosine rule; frighteningly real.
The best thing about this season is how you get to see dawn each morning with having to wake from your dreams at some unprepossessing — does anyone know what that means? — hour. Rosy-fingered, as Ovid tells us, she shows us as many colours as my next-door neighbours horticultural specimens. So arise and enjoy! Don't submit to the media's Brrr-itain hegemony!

A site for sore eyes

The great thing about the internet is that you can find like-minded people speaking truths about things that are close to your heart. Having become a fully paid up member of suburbia, this site really struck a chord.
I've been an advocate of slow and painful death for the sciurus griseus ever since they got under the eaves in my childhood home and chewed through the electric cable. My new-found gardening habits have done little to dent my prejudices against the scurvy squirrel breed. Beatrix Potter has a lot to answer for with her ideas of cute Nutkins, let me tell you. And before you tell me it was a red one, I hold no colour bar here.
Nevertheless Death to Grey Squirrels is full of practical tips for squirrel disposal for you to better enjoy your weekends.

Evidence of WMD in Iraq

Claiming that there's finally evidence of WMD in Iraq would be somewhat facetious given that Saddam gassed hundreds of Kurds. But it is striking that a state which justified war on the basis that the enemy had used chemical weapons then deployed chemical weapons against that enemy. The UK Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, has admitted that an MK77 firebomb, similar to Napalm, was used. continues >>

In addition, an Italian documentary has found that white phosporus was used during the assault on Fallujah in 2003. Western journalists were barred from covering the assault on the city.
If you feel moved to watch some clips, you can do so here, though I'm not necessarily recommending it.

Just another news story

Another news story which has received less coverage than it should.

From the horse's mouth

What you read about on football web sites can usually be taken with a grain of salt. But this story really made me laugh and could well be true. Patrick Vieira has released his autobiography and is somewhat critical of Ruud van Nistelrooy. Given old horse-face's reported wish to sue, I'm not going to describe what Paddy said of him here, or say that it's all so true. Just read it for yourself.

Escaping the news

This story seems to have escaped the news somewhat in the UK at least...

How to replace your PDA

I have for some time been considering a replacement for my three-year-old and now less than reliable PDA. This would, you may assume, be a relatively straigtforward task for someone who advises companies on technology selection. But the lure of market-leading products just around the corner is great, particularly when it comes to always on, available from anywhere internet access.
I had previously allowed myself to be seduced by the iMate Jasjar's monster feature set: wi-fi and 3G bundled with a QWERTY keyboard and VGA screen; no other phone can compete. But it weighs deeply on the pocket both physically and figuratively. May as well buy a laptop.
I was going to comment at some length about the benefits of Wi-Fi vs. 3G vs. GPRS, until I saw this: the ultimate in PIM for today's disposable culture (Flash required).

I left my voice...

in Old Trafford. And what a sham.
Whether Flitney was out of his area was difficult to tell from where I was and just as difficult for the referee. It was the assistant who gave the decision. Unfortunately the referee who hadn't been able to see the offence committed deemed himself able to tell whether it merited a red card.
It was the wrong decision technically and morally. There are those who will trot out the rebarbative mantra about consistency, but no one was denied a goal-scoring opporunity, even though Flitney was clearly the last man. That makes it a deliberate handball and a yellow card offence. Instead the referee crushed the atmosphere for all the fans and ruined the biggest football game of two players' careers: the goalkeeper Flitney and Louie Soares, who was substituted by the new keeper Scott Tynan without touching the ball.
There may well be some positives to draw. If we'd had eleven men and got stuffed it would have been really embarrassing. At least we scored. The club should now be out of debt. But we spent over £50 each and took the day off work, spending nine hours on a coach for the referee to screw things up; and people taking their family up during half term spent more.
Football is a sport and the professional game should also be about entertainment. Despite what the phone-ins say it's not about conjecture and debate. If I wanted that I'd have stayed at home and watched Question Time.
By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can find out here.
addendum
I have since discovered that losing my voice was due to catching a cold. Flitney has meanwhile had his red card rescinded, which only serves to prove the referee's onanist tendencies.

All I want for Christmas

So he'd send his doting mother up the stairs with the stepladders
To get the Soccer Robot out of the loft
He had all the accessories required for that big match atmosphere
The crowd and the dugout and the floodlights too
You'd always get palmed off with a headless centre forward
And a goalkeeper with no arms and a face like his

Web 2.0, apparently

The analyst firm Gartner has been harping on about "global-class computing" for some time now, telling us how Google and eBay aren't really web sites but platforms and if we want to move to the next generation of the web, business will need to follow a similar model and think outside the enterprise box.
While it suits Gartner and those of us working in web development to think that the next generation of technology is here and that there is a clear threshold we need merely step across in order to attain super-webdom, Gartner's approach has all the symptoms of a futurologist's thinking. Specifically, it is based on technological possibilities rather than real requirements and is devoid of political insight.
While it's true that businesses should not need to host every application under the sun in order to provide a bit of brochure-ware with no idea of return on investment, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to make use of the always on, available from everywhere super fast web. And what's more — get this — it's actually got to work, securely, for people who don't need to be trained but who can make informed choices about their browsing preferences.
Content and interfaces need to be better. When I start up my application even at OS level, if I'm shopping I want the system to find me the cheapest product availabe. If I'm looking for an authoritative answer I don't want to be taken to Wikipedia. And above all I don't want to open up an application and have a couple of hundred offers for penis-stimulating pharmaceuticals.
The thing that gets me most about these predictions however is that they always forget the most important part of the internet: infrastructure. Anyone reading these reports would think that making a request to a web site or mail server and getting a response was some kind of auto-magical process, unworthy of comment.
Without infrastructure the web is nothing and beyond the shores of the developed world that's pretty much what you have. The entire African continent has barely as many internet connections as Manhattan island. Meanwhile there is dispute over who controls the internet's addressing system which, by a quirk of fate, currently resides with the U.S. government. Most states would prefer to see this control ceded to the United Nations, but not George Bush. He sees a danger in allowing countries which may prevent freedom of speech in controlling internet domains, but actually the fear should be that the U.S. will in future be able to simply cut an entire nation out of the internet: email, web access to uncensored content, everything. I guess it's better than dropping bombs on 'em. Meanwhile, what of the people working behind the screens? Will the global-class players act as such? Will Amazon allow trades union representation and remove the glass ceiling that prevents you from reaching management unless you're male and white? Will eBay recognise a duty to the consumer rather than training all its support staff to deny any errors and lay all the blame with whoever has just lost their money when their credit card details are stolen?
Web 2.0 will need to address such issues if it's not going to become yet another method for making capital, irrespective of social responsibility.