Humour For All Occasions: What we were reading in Mar, 2009

I pinched this from the http://www.performancecontroller.com/ blog. Or PCB as we call it. You can check it out if you like. But to be honest, it is just one of those boring business blogs that waffle on about business. This material I wrote for them so I figure it is not plagiarism, is it? Unless they catch me stealing my work back.

Well anyway It seems ages since recession ended doesn't it?.

My Quote for this month

I have seen the future and it doesn't work".-
This is such a great one liner by Canadian author and journalist Robert Fulford

At PCB They did a bunch of posts and their readership short thru the roof, despite my suggestion to turn off. Clearly people have too much idle time. Or is reading replacing TV as a pastime.. I wonder?

Here is some of what they wrote :

Actually some of it is not bad!!!

Here is what they said they read about:

Sawbones Online fans get a second book

This month we saw, yes another Wood, add a second book to the reading maize. Trevor Wood an Australian illustrator, has again dug deep into the realms of the living dead with his comic books about a zombie odd couple. In this he re-animates the dead with the comic "Sawbones".

Wood, who teamed up with writer Jen Breach, who together have been publishing weekly comics for over two years with books also coming in multiple story format.

The two main characters, are rough and ready cowboy, Sheriff Sawyer and pompous English buffoon, Bones O'Brien, They get involved in comic adventures, with a focus firmly on slapstick. "The violence is implied," Wood says. who adds "We put them in everyday situations instead of dealing with the situation normally, they eat your brains,"

In keeping with http://www.performanceecontroller.com/ policy of no direct plugs, even to ourselves, (what a silly idea that is) we cannot suggest you visit their website and order a book. Actually that is not true.The truth is if you don't get an order in quickly, you will most likely have to go on back-order and wait.

Sawbones Volume 2 and 1 are both available at comic stores and http://sawbonesonline.com/comic/

Is it Confidential, Maybe Not?

Lawyers know, or should know, that the photos, documents, videos and other similar files that they attach to emails, and send out into the cloud, contain metadata. This hidden data contains information about the attachments that may, or may not, be intended to remain confidential. Lawyers, especially, must be concerned about confidentiality of communications.

Read Full Post on this >>

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Do you have a Twitter account yet? If not you may get left behind as everyone else seems t have one.

But and for the life of me the value is still elusive as we are sending out and receiving loads of tweets to see what happens. But not so for many who just use it daily and for early adopter marketers who learning about this new channel for communication. They could be onto something here so I plan to follow this.

There is a lot more to come on Twitter I am sure as phenomena that is growing exponentially. The present Google acquisition rumors reflect Twitter's importance as a social media and micro blogging service.

Check go this out ?>

Up and Comer Blog

New entrant to the business blog world is Singaporean Vince Chew. Vince is a young IT veteran and business change consultant who packs a punch when it comes to contributing to others. Knowing Vince as we do in person, we know his new blog will be worth watching for sure. we have also added it to our blog roll.

Why not check check out his new Creative Management blog and take a look at his post Writing good reports for success

Guess The Nationality (Love this one)

I was doing some research on marketing and awareness programs and I came across this titillating advertising, designed to get attention, as it asks you to Guess The Nationality!

Is it....American? Swiss? Spanish? French? Italian? Brazilian?

As you can see on the picture right .. the answer is Polish

Beating the Tom Tom Update

Microsoft and TomTom announced they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

In a statement, the two companies said that the settlement provides TomTom patent coverage "in a manner that is fully compliant with TomTom's obligations under the General Public Lucense Version 2." As part of the agreement, TomTom will "remove from its products the functionality related to two file management systems patents," over the next two years. The agreement protects TomTom's customers under the patents during that time, the companies said.

Read the Full C Net Post>>

Encarta moves over for Wikipedia

In a recent Mashable.com post reported a Microsoft quote about Encarta closure

“Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.”

The post goes on to say Wikipedia boasts 2.7 million entries in English versus just 42,000 for Encarta.

Check it out >>

Russia Microsoft Dichotomy

This month, Ina Frieda a writer at CNet, has her attention focused on on Microsoft. In one article this month she talks about the Software giant coming under anti trust scrutiny in Russia. Talk about maturing, it was not long ago Russia was listed on Microsoft's piracy board as one of the highest offending countries outside Indonesia. It is amazing how the wheel turns.

Anyway if you are interested in Microsoft check out Ina's Recent posts from Beyond Binary

Pirates and who Benefits

It is a well know that John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz wrote the original Dartmouth BASISC programming software that got Microsoft started. As the story goes Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the founders of Microsoft, then modified it and sold as their first product at Micro-Soft (that was the company's name when it started business).

According to Sam Varghese at ITWire in his post last month he adds that everyone agrees the famous whine in 1976 saw Gates invent the term "software piracy." He also outlines more about Gates view on the ling term benefits that will flow to Microsoft from China when they do start paying for software.

I for one have always been convinced that the 3 US dollars price you pay for any software in Jakarta is a Cartel level rate agreed by vendors to propagate its software into this developing nation. In Thailand a common folk law view is the Pantip Plaza, is actually owned by Microsoft Pantip is the home of the 15 minute pirate copy burners.

The Singapore Lion

Singapore's latest technology blueprint, called Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), was announced in 2006. It is designed to help the nation achieve various economic and social benefits through more sophisticated and innovative use of infocomm technologies.

Through iN2015, Singapore is aiming for a two-fold rise in value driven by its infocomm industry to S$26 billion (US$17 billion) and a three-fold increase in infocomm export revenue to S$60 billion (US$39 billion). It is also targeting for this industry to create 80,000 new jobs.

India consultant service coming of Age?

And here's Kate the Uma-Kataya, label queen also of The Dancing Feather Fashion House fame,

She is in India now buying and coordinating her designer ranges in productions for the summer releases this year. Nothing new there but as a student of India and the constant change in the fashion business, she noticed the consultants trend is very interesting.

India as a country has had an English speaking base for over 400 years and the richness of this and other languages makes for interesting influences on their cultures.

As India maturing commercially continues with its increasing economic importance, so does the Indian consultants influence in the world's largest managements.

“Conventional wisdom in the US holds that consulting firms like McKinsey have nothing to fear from Indian firms. The reason is that Indian firms are most unlikely to win high-end strategy and board level consulting business, at the expense of the likes of McKinsey and Bain, because the cultural barriers are way too high.”?

That is a quote from this Indian journal which challenges this conventional wisdom as it goes on to ask “will companies like Wipro and Infosys work to help US and other developed nation firms change their culture”?

Check it out www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=6300

Posted By Ralph Eastman who is using the false name Freddy Frango so he can remain anonymous and incognito

Monday, April 6, 2009

What we were reading in Mar, 2009