Gentle response to @stephenfry 's "blackberry picking"

http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/10/05/digital-devicement-part-three-blackberry-picking-time/

Hi Stephen, you've beautifully captured the nuances of the blackberry as a device and the love-hate relationship of owning one (or should i say, having one thrust upon oneself by one's employer). The smackberry certainly wins in terms of battery life and with its auto on/off feature for overnight use can easily last a week while still delivering email into your hands near instantaneously.

However, I think one aspect you haven't covered, perhaps because it doesn't irritate you, is the user interface - and by this I mean not just the keyboard, but the whole application design and GUI.

The hackberry, I feel, suffers from the problem that the main community responsible for its rise to stardom - i.e. all those corporate purchasers - are not the main user community. There is a disconnect here and consequently the splatberry suffers from a tedious and outdated interface that frankly would be laughable and disastrous if it were launched from new today.

Simple matters such as menus that are too long to fit on one screen, the inability to see when someone called without sub-selecting "view history" of each call (on my model at least) result in a propensity for scrolling and twizzling that sees one's finger tips breaking the olympic record for distance travelled on a daily basis. These are basic basic UI errors that the slick swishness of other device UIs put to shame.

And as for the keyboard - surely no-one with fingers fatter than a five pence piece could describe it as anything other than tortuous?! Picking the blasted thing up to dial a number - a core feature surely - let's say in a travelling car, singlehanded (not as a driver of course, merely as a passenger) and getting the right digits required to dial in the right order is only modestly more successful than getting one's precious lottery numbers. And of course, if it's dark, forget it, some of the models are not even backlit. Maybe the tedious business of phone calls is not meant to be performed in the dark?

This is, of course, if the device isn't still "hourglassing" while you've just fired it up for the first time in a while; a feature that becomes rapidly frustrating in the business context when time is of the essence (usually 30 seconds before a conference call).

I suppose I could find a use for my spangly spackberry with all those jangly facebook and twitter and life enhancing 2.0 apps - if it were not for the fact my corporate IT department has decided to lock the device down to the point where it's only moderately more useful than a paperweight...! sigh...

I enjoyed your article, I delight in your opinions, but sadly, I hate *my* blackberry..

I love the fact "pint" and "shot" are the same predictive key sequence...

...of course, if you have too much of either, then you could also generate a "riot".

Such elegance in language :)

How I baffled a cold-caller with one easy statement...

Cold Caller: Do you think people should be paying less for solar energy

Mr. Nik: I don't know - I mean I don't know what they're paying at the moment

Cold Caller: But people should be paying less, right?

Mr. Nik: Like I said, I don't really know, what are they paying now?

(repeat for several minutes)

Cold Caller: Well, but they should pay less?

Mr. Nik: Honestly, I don't know if they should...I have no idea about the costs.. maybe what they're paying now is ok?

Cold Caller: <silence>

Cold Caller: <more silence>

Cold Caller: <about 12 seconds silence; sound of tumbleweed>

Cold Caller: Ok, thank you for your time.. <click>

In Mr. Nik's head: No, thank YOU. My day wouldn't have been the same without this insane conversation

Getting hired depends on what you wear...

We may think of ourselves as a rather enlightended society, we may even have ticked the "diversity" box on our corporate and personal profiles. But we live in an "image conscious" society and it seems when it comes to hiring, this matters. The following research was conducted by the the recruitment firm, "The Ladders":

"You have relevant skills and experience, glowing references and a positive attitude, but I'm not going to hire you."

Many executive jobs candidates, while saying all the right things in their interview and presenting a perfect application, simply do not look the part when they walk into their potential employer's office.

A survey of 500 senior executives showed that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of bosses in Britain would decide against hiring a job candidate because of their clothing — and 37 per cent having done this recently.

The managing director of TheLadders.co.uk, responsible for hiring a team of management professionals, says "personal appearance is something that has certainly had an impact on my recruitment decisions".

The Ladders worked with celebrity stylist Gabrielle Teare, who has been featured in a range of publications, such as Marie Claire and Esquire, to analyse the results of our survey and offer some top tips on what to wear for an interview.

The results showed that, ideally, men should opt for a tailored single-breasted navy suit with a white or blue long-sleeved shirt, low-key tie and cufflinks, and black shoes and socks.

Meanwhile, female applicants will be in the best position to secure their next executive position while wearing a mid-length black skirt, long-sleeved collared shirt or blouse, tights, high heels and pearls.

Gabrielle said: "Aim to be well groomed, elegant and professional — you will have more confidence and this will come across to the interviewer."

Never compromise on your appearance as your appearance reflects on your attitude, abilities and competency.

Redbush Lovers: Red Espresso is now available in the UK

Those of us that love Redbush Tea and all the health benefits it has over the myriad of caffeinated and tannin ated (is there such a word?) other hot beverages will be thrilled to learn that Red Espsresso has finally hit the UK shores and can be ordered online.

Red Espresso, despite the name, is not coffee. Rather it is redbush tea, ground and packaged for preparation in coffee/espresso machines. It thus allows Red Bush aficionados to also enjoy the  pleasure of the "coffee-making" process and the convenience of one system/machine for both drinks .

Now all I want is Nespresso to adopt it too....

You can order Red Espresso online at  www.thezululounge.com  

The Barbeque: A cooking invention that doubles the mess and halves the nutrition

...and drenches your clothes in smoke fragrance.
A perfect night out where I come from...

Wolfram Alpha: the new face of business analytics?

I love Wolfram Alpha - not just for what it does now, but for what it promises.

Wolfram Alpha makes the web, or at least part of it, computable. I.e. unlike an ordinary search engine like Google - which does a good job of return data and results that are already published on the web - Wolfram Alpha actually ers *creates* new results from existing data. As well as performing computations, it can do things like compare data sets, show trends and interpret (some) natural language questions to give meaningful answers.

What I really hope is that Wolfram is going to take their technology (and any bits of string that might be holding it together just for the moment) and apply it to the business world.

For example, I work in the communications and contact centre industry. In a contact centre environment, the business (at different levels) needs to be able to answer a whole host of questions. Questions such as: who is my best agent? How many calls did I receive today compared to last week? What predicted staff level will I need on Wednesday next week based on my history of Wednesdays? How is customer satisfaction doing? How many calls are converting to sales, and where does this happen? If customers are defecting, do they mention to which competitors and why?

Now, as things stand all these questions *can* be answered, through a mixed bag of data capture and data analytics/mining solutions, including speech recognition systems. But to do this, someone has to integrate these solutions, open up their databases and write a ton of (often complex) reports. The average call centre supervisor may not have the skills to do this. And even if they do, they may not have the time. And what's more - if the question needs to changed, it will mean time spent writing new reports, assuming the data has been captured and available in the first place.

This is what I love about the promise of Wolfram Alpha. Assuming that all your IT systems are just publishing your data in a structured form where WA can collect it, then could WA just answer those straightforward questions - expressed in the way that call centre managers and business stakeholders and marketeers want to ask them - such as: how did my call volume this week compare to the same period last year? Which self-service menu items was most popular? Which customer calls the most?

No more report writing; no more figuring out complex database queries. The cost savings would be enormous...

A love hate relationship with my Samsung NC20 Netbook

I love my Samsung NC20 Netbook - I love it for its great 12 inch screen and full size keyboard that allow me to type articles like this during tedious Travelodge stays with consummate ease.

However, in a way, I hate it for the same reasons - because although fairly lightweight, I adored the dinky size of my previous Advent 10 inch Netbook. I also find the following things frustrating:

a.. The screen seems washed out to me - the colours are not saturated enough at what I consider normal viewing angles. And it's too bright - or more correctly doesn't go dim enough for me when working in dark conditions (which would save battery power).
b.. The track-pad is very annoying - it regularly seems to switch to "scroll mode" with the lightest of touches, even when your finger is not on the "scroll region" on the right hand side.
c.. The speakers are woeful.
d.. I'm not convinced by the Via Nano processor. The machine regularly runs at 100%, thus gets hot and canes the battery life. And I've had trouble ever getting BBC iPlayer to run smoothly. It's just about bearable with the colour depth set to 16 bits and performance set to max. And again, this canes the battery life.
e.. Battery life: if you are doing very little you may squeeze the claimed 4 - 6 hours out of it - but anything multimedia and not a chance..
f.. The Samsung Recovery system - which claims a minimum 25Gb of your hard disk for what seems to me very little use. Backing up your machine to the same physical disk seems almost pointless. If the disk fails or the machine is stolen, then I'm likely to end up data-less regardless. It might possibly save you if some key disk sectors get corrupted, but that's about all.
g.. Pre-installed Macafee security. Sheesh, this thing just guzzles resources. Uninstall it as soon as you can, and use something free like Avast.
h.. There's no firewire port. So although in principle I could throw together a few MovieMaker movies when I have my camcorder along with me, I can't transfer the material.
i.. There are no office tools. Although basic, at least the Advent came with Microsoft Works.
j.. Even though i upgraded to 2Gb memory, it doesn't really seem to have made a significant difference.

On the plus side i like that you can extend the desktop onto an external monitor (i.e. basically see two displays).

So - I suppose it does what it says on the tin, but it doesn't make me grin.

Blackberry vs. Iphone 3.0

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA hahahahaha  hahahahaha  hahahahahahaha  hahahahahahahaha hahhhahahahahaa   haaaa    hhhaaaa    haa    ha       ha

sob

sniff

Knowing Right from Wrong

A few values that wouldn't go amiss down at the House of Commons - courtesy of my "code of conduct" training:

INTEGRITY:	Integrity is at the heart of everything we do. We are honest, ethical and upfront because trust is at the foundation of our relationships with our customers, our communities, our stakeholders and each other.
RESPECT:	We know it is critical that we respect everyone at every level of our business. We champion diversity, embrace individuality and listen carefully when others speak.
PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE:	We hold ourselves to a very high standard of performance. We prize innovative ideas and the teamwork it takes to make them realities. We never stop asking ourselves how we can make the customer experience better, and every day, we find an answer.
ACCOUNTABILITY:	We take responsibility for our actions as individuals, as team members, and as an organization. We work together, support one another and never let the customer — or our co-workers — down.

What these are, are principles: tools to guide decision-making. Not "rules" - there are far too many real-world scenarios to possibly create rules for in black and white. Instead, with these principles, we use our skill, judgement and honesty to choose what is right and wrong. You can't claim "it was within the rules" if it breaks one of the principles.

Tough huh? Reality, actually, Mr. MP.

I do actually agree with Stephen Fry's blundered attempt (by his own admission) to highlight that there are more important matters of business at hand for politicians to be dealing with. But - and maybe I differ from Stephen here - it raises a significant issue for me: without an even basic level of integrity, do I trust those hands to deal with those bigger matters? I have a bitter taste in my mouth. Personally I have never cheated any expense system, no matter how strong the temptation; even though Stephen reckons most people would. Sad day.  

Here's a couple of scenarios that one can use these principles to judge:

I had some personal expenses on a business trip and didn’t have a personal credit card to pay them. Can I use my business card for personal expenses and reimburse the company later? 

(the answer is "no", of course)

An employee, who travels often and usually documents her expenses well, makes a business trip from Boston to Chicago. On her T&E reimbursement submission she lists a flight valued at 600 but does not have a receipt for the ticket. When questioned, she explained that she has a friend whose family lives in Chicago. “So instead of getting one plane ticket,” she says, “I got two first class train tickets and took my friend with me. It didn’t cost any more, so I figured that it was okay.”  Is this acceptable?

(the answer is also "no", of course)

The latter plays straight into the grey area that many MP's seem to habit - one's mind can only boggle at what actually went on before receipts had to be submitted for expenses claimed - a practice unthinkable in any modern corporation. 

Time to flush out the cistern?