Is Office 2007 going to be too little too late?

Google is going from strength to strength with its fledgling on-line documents and spreadsheet editing facilities.  More and more small companies will find these totally and seductively attractive.  They will not be wowed by sexy toolbars – just the ease of collaborating with colleagues on key documents at no cost above the ubiquitous browser.

Right now Google is promoting these in its usual low-key basis. No direct marketing and an emphasis on viral approaches.  And so the take up will be steady as the tools become stronger.

technorati tags:online, spreadsheets, documents, editing, google, office

The National Trust – living a lie?

Many UK citizens belong to and/or support the National Trust, a popular organisation that looks after homes, gardens and land of historical value to the country. Right now the organisation is promoting a make-over via its magazine, one that promotes a stronger emphasis on the environment and climate change issues.

In all this the National Trust is seen to take a largely reactive position, hardly ever is it seen as a pressure group trying to move forward challenging agendas, rather it looks like a cosy fireside discussion group served with tea and cakes. Such an attitude leads the trust into paradoxical positions. For example the magazine is saturated with holiday adverts and lots of these involve flights. For example there is one with tours of China.  But what better way to damage the planet is there than to promote and support flights for largely recreational purposes?

Surely if the National trust is to shed its 19th Century look and feel it is the time to develop a campaign running along the lines of the anti-smoking campaign similar to “SMOKING KILLS“, with a planet health warning along the lines of “FLYING KILLS” aimed at flights for leisure and holiday reasons.  All adverts promoting flights for leisure purposes could then carry this “FLYING KILLS” global health warning.  In doing so surely the National Trust could dig itself out of its quaint fireside bucket and become a real organisation for a better world!

technorati tags:national, trust, flying, co2

Tree planting in Beckley

We were especially pleased this year to plant some trees donated from Oxford’s Freecycle into what has become an annual tree-planting event in a beautiful field just North of Oxford, near a village called Beckley. Here is the opening video I shot.

technorati tags:trees, co2, oxford

Woiking in Woild Toime

Over the last six years at least I have had the pleasure of working on projects with colleagues spread across the globe.  Many working from home, or other people’s houses.  Others at traditional places of work.  Whichever the case one common issue is “knowing” what time zone other parties are in, when it is convenient to have a call etc etc.  Most computer applications are poor at sharing inherent knowledge of time zone differences.

One exception is Skype which has that information to hand. Not easy to find – but it is usually there.  Simply click on a contact and the time information is displayed on the right hand side.

There are important ramifications of working in Woild Toime, which I shall follow up in a later posting.  If you are interested in Woild Toime issues please let me know.

Protect yourself from salmonella – buy UK eggs

According to DEFRA report 1 in 30 imported egg boxes contain salmonella, increasing to 1 in 8 if those eggs are bought from either Spain or France.  Here are some guidelines you can use to help stay healthy:

1. Simply avoid salmonella poisoning – buy British, since nearly all British eggs are salmonella free!
2. Avoid buying eggs from local shops & markets since these are likely to be imported.  Personally I do not like this idea since it hurts the small trader, but…
3. Avoid pre-made egg sandwiches since these are more often than not made with imported eggs,
4. Longer term we should put pressure on supermarkets such as Sainsburys, Tesco and the Co-op and food producers to say where there eggs come from with proper labelling on food products that contain eggs
5. Actually if you take the wording literally – simply don’t eat the boxes

technorati tags:eggs, poison, defra, uk

Must read

For any one interested in the open/closed source business model debate read MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos Answers Your Questions

Now I don’t take drugs but some people obviously do

In fact according to Reason Magazine 6.3% of US citizens over 11 admitted to taking drugs.   If you hypothesis a possible further say 6.3% that did not admit then 12% of US citizens could be active drug takers.  What does this say about anti-drug taking offensives when possible 1 in 10 might be taking drugs?  To me it says that the war on drugs is a good idea, but fighting drug barons is a pretty useless tactic when there is such an obviously high demand.  If you takeout one or two drug barons they will simply be replaced by others.  The only tactic that can work long-term is to reduce demand.  And I do not see that easily happening when budgets are more easily obtained to fight a well-defined target such as a a drug-supplying country compared with a nebulous target of the US population where “freedom” is a word that is possibly over-used to defend lifestyle.

When is the tube not a tube?

Oxford is blessed with tremendous travel options to London. Our favourite is the choice of the oxford tube and the oxford express which often means waiting no more than 15 minutes even after midnight. This blog entry is being made on one such journey as we head to a party in Woolwich – on the other side of London.

Heartless Websites Suck

The cardinal sin in website content is ones that do not have heart.  Communication is a personal statement and that is true wether you are a multi-national conglomerate or a one-person show.   Any website worth a grain of salt should show name at least one human being behind the facade, whether this is on some support forum, about page or whatever.

A website that denies that personal statement should be castigated.   Does anyone know of a directory of heartless websites?  They really should be named and shamed.

Gmail for mobiles no longer available?

Attempting to download this java applet now meets with a “not found” message. Is this an admission that it does not work? The Nokia support forums are plagued with people trying to get it to work, and failing. So perhaps this is a case of “back to the drawing board”?