...the sins of the past...

Working in Information Technology always carries with it the need to balance things. Balance keeping projects alive when all around you is going up in flames because of another project that... well... stuffed it all up. Resources have to be pulled from places where they are already thinly stretched, etc, etc...

No technology organisation is immune to this...

And yet, in the darkest hour of the night when a glimmer of hope is on the horizon - actually it is the sun in most cases coming up - you stumble on the most amazing things with colleagues at work.

And this particular evening a few weeks back was no different. Another small victory for the IT crowd this particular evening where we walked out the heroes due to a small thing that was missed and had to be corrected urgently, etc, etc.

BUT...

This evening I was introduced by Marcio to the INTERNET ARCHIVE WAYBACK MACHINE.



Totally useless it may be, but the ability to go and look up the landing page of any web site in the world at various stages over the past decade or so is really just - well - quite cool. To see what the epitome of web interface technology was and visual graphics a decade back is really - well - at the best of times - quite shocking and appaling.

So saunter over and have a look at
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php


If you do not find at least some amusement from this site, you will at least be amused to see how some of your messes of the past have been written into the history of the web - like when the web crawler decided to come by on the day that you had you worst downtime in history and "The website is currently unavailable" is written into the history of time in a place where you cannot go fix it.

Have fun...

...a crash a day keeps slow performance, ole!...

For years I had no particular qualms about Bill and his company. They made great software, period.

From the nights at varsity being wasted away on one of the all time classics (which I believe has now been stopped due to the business case) with Flight Simulator to the various forms of O/S's I have seen over the years, there have been no issues.

Yes there was the need to fiddle around with a few settings in the beginning on 3.1 and in the early stages of Workgroup and so on, but it still worked - and most importantly it was fast.

Then came XP and brought a fast operating system (relatively) with simplicity. It worked for 99.9% of the time. Yes there was the occasional crash but by and large it was stable, performed and had limited bugs.

Then came Vista...




And then all that was well came crashing down at a ridiculously fast rate. This was not a choice. Twice I managed to not get Vista loaded but with the latest laptop I was not really left with many choices - one being that the policy changed and the second being that support for a lot of hardware vendors on XP had been stopped - like Bluetooth drivers for Widcomm devices - they just refuse to write it for XP any more and I suppose that is fair - or maybe just stupid.

I now have at least one application failure per day. I also have at least one complete "hold down power button" to reboot scenario and then of course somehow the complete old blue screen that Microsoft was notorious for made it back in the last version of the software as a weekly feature.

So one cannot help but wonder whether those Apple junkies out there have the right idea with Snow Leopard having just been launched. I mean - yes my iPod crashes as well - less often I have to say - but hell - at least the lines on the hardware is unbelievably cool.

Looking at the Macbook Air I believe that people can be forgiven for living with the occasional crash. The fact that everyone wants to play with their ultra cool and sleek notebook is a reasonable expection that you probably have to live with.

So...

In a million MBA case studies there is the argument that for the super cool brands like the Apple's of the world, brand loyalty overrides logic every now and then and the brand will be forgiven for some seriously blatant blunders on the product line.

But one has to ask yourself the question in the current day and age whether this is something that is even remotely deserved in the software market of late - especially in the O/S market - brand is less important as this item has really started to become a commodity.

I hate messing around with my PC - the thing must just work and keep on working - so actually taking the step to install Ubuntu recently after a 650MB download left me quite surprised with the O/S and it was free; and it works; and it is fast; and it knew what a 3G card was!

So this is the last chance - I will soon try Microsoft Windows 7 and if it works I will stick to it blindly for another couple of years.

Should it not - I will join the millions of people who have already given up and moved to either a complete Open Source notebook or a Macbook. Not that Microsoft could care less about what I do - but seriously - looking at this, I understand why Microsoft is having so much difficulty holding on to the number one spot in the desktop software market year-on-year.

There are many business lessons in this and I am sure that in the MBA graduates of five to ten years from now there is going to be some interesting case studies under some interesting headings...

...competition...it has powered dreams for decades...

This is one of those Ads that someone mailed to me recently. After long deliberation I decided to publish it. Naturally the fact that I do not drive a Merc but the other one played some part in the decision.

Have a great week out there.

And for the Merc drivers - I hope your week improves - radically

...pic of the week...

Five days without a fag...



Apologies to those who didn't who that I stopped smoking and felt the wrath of Kahn...

...pic of the week...

so... 48 hours without a smoke and I came across this pic...

Sigghh!?!!...

...anagram / gramana...

Lucky? No Way!!


DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

GAUTENG:
When you rearrange the letters:
GET A GUN


THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letter:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

...happy Christmas to all...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

by Clement Clarke Moore
or Henry Livingston