I was quite surprised to see that the most tagged thing on my blog is the word Apple. A lot of people are under the impression that I am anti Apple , because I don't own any Apple products . Never had or wanted an iPod or and iPhone but was tempted by an iPad. My own website integrates with iTunes so thats the nearest I get to endorsing Apple.
Apple are great at appropriating other people's ideas , and produce some of the most desirable products on the market . so desireable that people oftemn don't even know why they want an Apple product , they just do , which is great for Apple.
The other thing to remember is that Apple was the label set up by the Beatles to distribute their records and anyone else they signed, resulting in some minor litigation between the two. So another case of Apple nicking someone elses idea , they couldn't even come up with an original name (Steve Job's Apple as opposed to the Beatles' Apple).
In the team of six I work with four people have iPhones , one has a Blackberry and I have an Android device , I wonder how long before I just go with the flow and get one , but then again the new Samsung Galazy looks very nice!!
It amazes me how in modern life , things like service provision take a back seat . There's a saying that the customer is always right , but not apparently when dealing with government or IT Support. The pretext is that these organisations are her to serve us , but so often just try to stop us from actually doing anything constructive by laying down impossible to follow conditions , just so they can get away with not actually do anything.
I recently received a letter from the DVLA saying that I wont get a refund from the tax disc I sent them when I scrapped the car because I hadnt told them why I wanted a refund , despite sending me a separate letter saying that they had received confirmation of the transfer of ownership for scrapping the car.
When you work somewhere you build up a history of rights and privileges required to do your job . These should be cetrally recorded to be checked and cross checked when required , but it seems that they can disappear in an instant when departments decide not to bother with keeping records.
I've come up against many IT support departments who's attitude is that their life would be ideal if it were'nt for those pesky users . And amazingly a lot of them get away with it!!
The only way round this is to take your own copies of any document that gives you rights , and just hope you can get backing when you need to go up against the bully boys.
Ithe book Inferno by Larry Niven (his take on Dante's Inferno) , one of the levels of hel requires the hero to fill in forms in triplicate on tissue paper with a blunt pencil. This is how I feel sometimes going against the faceless foe.
Terry Gilliam's Brazil is another example where Jonathan Pryce has to continually form fill to get the slightest thing done . Maybe one day things will click into place and the world will run smoothly , but I think there a lot of people who will do anything to make sure that doesnt happen!
It's funny how our magpie like society convinces us that we need to have things . I can't remember why but while perusing Amazon I became aware of a book called "The Olivetti Chronicles" which I thought was about John Peel , for some reason I assumed someone had written another book about him , which is notunexpected given the importance of the guy to modern music.
Today , three months after receiving it as a birthday present I finally started to read the said book , and discovered thatit is actually a collection of John Peel's writings for many publications , unearthed by his family when they finished "Margrave of the Marshes" , the man's autobigraphy.
The title alloudes to the Olivetti typewriter that John produced his articles on , despite the difficulties in procuring ink to allow him to type , , but still his wife Sheila and son William have brought together over four hunderd pages of delightful and insightful prose , including stuff on his beloved Liverpool Football Club , and of course lot's of music .
His son Tom Ravenscroft presents a show on Radio 6 and sounds incredibly like his dad in his manner and taste in music , and sense of humour.
So that's my reading sorted for the next week or two!!
This week was the first time that my main web site has been hacked , possibly by Islamic Propagandists or just jokers who replaced the home page with a fetching Islamic Jihad flag animation on a black background. No hardm was done as the bulk of site visits go drect to information pages , although anyone then visiting the home pages may have got a surprise to say the least.
I dont go security mad , but it is amazing the legths people will go to , just to prove they can beak something.
Just a very short post . Yesterday we were and a works sales conference. Tables were named after iconic figures such as Mother Theresa and , our table, Queen Elizabeth The first. Somehow Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had slipped in there , although they feature heavily in the film "The Iron Lady" just on national release.
All tables were given a pound as an illustration of a point one of the speakers was making . What can you do with a pound . As the team leader for the table of ten I appropriated the coin with everyones agreement and put the following numbers on the lottery for tonight , 11th of January 2012. Below is the ticket , and above is an illustration of a good use of web slide controls when trying to sell products. Anyway the numbers are 32 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 39.
If you want to play yourself follow the link below!!
A week into the New Year , and finally had a good night's sleep . I've visited the Valley Junction in Corbridge for the first , time an absolutely stunning restaurant with food to match and it's own curry train that runs for Newcastle or Carlisle!!
The Christmas decorations are packed away , and work has restarted , looking forward to lots of events and festivals this year , hopin Evolution get their act together , and glad for dicovering the wonderful Lord Rochester over the Christmas break. at The wonderful Central Bar in Gateshead , and having the good fortune to watch Newcastle beat Manchester United starting with Demba Ba's wonder goal.
Am planning my first ever visit to the Star and Shadow Cinema , oh and Sherlock series 2 started on BBC after Benedict Cumberbatch , Martin Freeman were given time off from the Hobbit by Peter Jackson!
One thing that 2012 promises not to be and that's boring
This is probably the earliest blog post I've done in a year . We're 75 minutes into 2012 , I've made the same resolution I always do and I'm going to stick to it , which is:
"to make myself as happy as possible and try and spread that to my friends and family"
I hope your year improves beyond belief , and 2012 is filled with happiness for you.
Just realised this takes the blog into it's sixth year now , six years writing about not much and still havent come up with an idea for my book , and no excuse now as you can easily self publis on Amazon
