not blogging

Just a rambling blog entry.

In a vague attempt to do something productive over the extended Christmas break, I moved all my computer passwords onto 1password, a password management software doohicky. This jinxed Rapidweaver that I use for updating my website, so that took a wee while to fix. Also it has been just unbelievably cold lately, so I have been feeling pretty lethargic. However starting to get back into a more productive routine now. Hence a quick rash of blog postings today.

Christmas now seems like an age ago, it was a fine chance to catch up with my reading, I now have four books on the go, which is really a couple too many, so I will try and slim things down to just reading the two books. Also caught up with my RSS feeds. The whole place was inches deep in ice, or on a bad day slush, so it was just the sort of time for sitting on the sofa not doing terribly much.

It does not actually feel much warmer now, but at least the inch thick layer of ice has finally gone. Getting back to work was a bit of a shock to the system, and suddenly the weekends seemed to last about a nanosecond. Finally feel like I am getting back into a bit of a routine.

Day off on Friday getting the central heating looked at, hopefully getting the central heating fixed. Being at home waiting was all the excuse I needed to watch the Apple Keynote. Steve Jobs looking skeletal explaining why the iPad is the future of computing, without full application of the reality distortion field. Part of the problem with the presentation was that the price was actually the killer, the iPad at £1000 is a duff product, at half that it is possible, at anything under that it is incredibly tempting, but a device like that really does rely on the "it just works" factor. If it does "just work" then it should sell by the shedload, if if has all sorts of glitchy annoying doohickery then it won't. Also a bit wary of the way you have to buy absolutely everything off iTunes. Might be looking at buying an iPad or two for the family when they come out.

Also rewatched the recent BBC Arena documentary about Brian Eno. He came across as a rather genial soul, incredibly smart, pottering about with his various interests. Despite being an Art School graduate I did not get the impression that he had a strong visual sense, if I had his money and time I would be living in something that looked like John Lautner's Scottish holiday home. Also more likeable in person than he might seem in the written interviews. I suspect that his interests and enthusiasms simply exhaust people, it did look like Paul Morley was stiffling a yawn at one point.

Other news, I've installed bumptop, a desktop interface thing. There was a TED talk about it years ago, and it has now finally come out on the Mac. Most people seem to think that it is pointless eye candy. I actually quite like it. It allows you to create a virtual 3D desktop, so there are various walls around your desktop. So you can pin things to the wall, or leave stuff in the middle to get done. It does seem to slow down loading, but I like it, and will probably stick with it. The various OSX interface tweaks like Expose, Spaces, etc left me cold, I never quite got my head round them, and Quicksilver is a bit too hardcore. I like simple visual metaphors, so I know where I am with Bumptop.

Back at work, getting busier and busier, but also starting to get the hang of what I am doing, so not so bothered wondering whether I am actually doing anything of any use. Enjoying the work, and getting to know and like my work colleagues even better. The extra travelling and extra hours just trying to make progress are slimming down the time that I have not at work, but I'll try and rationalise a few commitments over the year so that I find a decent balance.

Finally, been listening to the LSTN series on the Urban Outfitters websites (different UK and US versions) being particularly struck by the following which does stick in your head,

Customer Service

I know that big business is attempting to personalise the service that they can offer. So I get a personalised screen every time I arrive at Amazon, and a wishlist that I can publish to the world.

But micro businesses are taking this to a whole new level. We got a cheery postcard from the person we rented a holiday cottage from this year, when my wife orders from eBay retailers she gets a cheery postcard with her order, when I order shareware I can email the developer with questions or suggestions, I can comment on Redbubble and the designer of a teeshirt will amend it to reflect my comments.

The classic split used to be that a business was a commodity business or it was not. Perhaps there is a split between the micro business with micro business standards of service and the macro business with macro business standards of service. If you cannot make a compelling case that you are offering a high quality service at either the macro or the micro level, then perhaps it is time to start looking for a new business to be in.

doing digital

Maybe it is just me, but for some reason when I do something digital I always feel that it is somehow less worthwhile than something that is less digital.

So an email not worth as much as a letter, reading a website is not worth as much as reading a newspaper, organising a computer's hard drive is not worth as much as tidying up a room, sorting out my webpage is not worth as much as fixing a cupboard.

There is a certain satisfaction to be had from posting a real letter, but I suppose we had better get used to living in a virtual world.

Reinventing the Working Class

I have long disliked the term working class, it seems to hark bark to the First World War and outdated mindsets. However it clearly denotes something. There is an element of what was the working class that is now adrift. Living in sink estates, detached from employment, perhaps for generations. These people were the perfect workers and soldiers that built the British Empire, but now they seem to lack purpose, and they languish largely out of sight and out of mind.

When I went to secondary school the year was streamed at the end of second year, and suddenly half the year was lumped together into a group that had very little in the way of academic aspirations. I don't think any of them were terribly bothered by this, in a few years they would be done with school and glad of it. As long as there was a huge demand for unskilled labour, in the shipyards, on the land, in service, etc etc this arrangement worked perfectly well.

The nature of that society was that there was still a need for a huge army of general purpose infantry, with a smaller need for an officer class, and an even smaller need for a lofty general class above that. The system worked, it produced what the society needed in about the right proportions, people were generally happy with their lot. The bright, ambitious and hard working might seek to better their lot, the unfortunate or unmotivated might drop down the social scale, but an accident of birth, provided your breeding and determined which stock you belonged to.

But society has changed, the government believes that the way to a stronger economy is through a better educated workforce. If they can populate the country entirely with university graduates then the economy will thrive. Of course there are a residue of unskilled jobs, but if British people do not want them then economic migrants from overseas will relish the opportunity. Such guest workers have been common across Europe for generations.

If half the school population has no academic aspirations then suddenly you have a great many people without a place in this modern economy. There remain the traditional working class unskilled and skilled jobs, but with the loss of heavy industry and the move to a more skilled and flexible workforce, a sizable chunk of society no longer has much to offer. Having little to offer, they have little to gain. They sit detached from society, aware of aspirations and lifestyles that are as foreign to their lives as a fairy story.

I believe that this is more an issue of culture than ability, but cultures take generations to change. In the meantime there remain a considerable number of people who are largely detached from the economy and society. This cannot be right or just.

It is not that there is nothing that these people can do, it is not that they do not want to do anything. It is not that they lack value and dignity.

I would propose that the government starts to mobilise those who want, to join a peace time army. An army that can be deployed across the world to build infrastructure and social capacity. There is a proliferation of failed and failing states across the world. These need good government, decent infrastructure, society and not anarchy. In this country we have a multitude of people that are not only up for the task, but are more than capable of it. The major world powers are still to fixated on winning wars, we need to increase the peace. Increase the world supply of decency, honesty, trust, compassion. We do this by driving out corruption and inefficiency, providing adequate governance and infrastructure across the world. This need not be democracy and the first world as we understand it. Maybe these countries can leapfrog us to some better post Oil future society.

We have a vast supply of underutilised talent that we should use for good, before it is turned to ill use. The lesson across the world is that people have a huge potential, and we should be harnessing that for the good of all, before society is corrupted and degraded by a disenchanted minority.