Category Archives: Uncategorized

Alexa Blues…

I’ve written here before about how I hate using the Alexa App. It’s a series of bad web objects thrown together at random by someone with something more important to do elsewhere. To add to this, the screen is too small.

Think of the fun you have mapping your house assigning objects into a graphic representation of your home. Mapping sounds, colours and scenes. Instead it’s the SAP of Home management.

There is nothing more confusing than long lists of devices where the virtual model is out of sync with the app and reality…

So finally Amazon have decided to solve the issue. They’re closing the only large screen interface that they offer!!!

Argh!

IT is like…

I have a pet hate with IT opinion pieces that compare our business to other industries. This is an example but it’s one of millions…

RT @DOES_USA: A few things #enterprise #IT can learn from car production… ?@mik_kersten? ?@Tasktop? #DOES18 pic.twitter.com/iDClIQ0WIo— Gene Kim (@RealGeneKim) October 23, 2018

More often than not we’re compared to car factories or airlines. I don’t understand why. I waited for months for my car and I can talk to you for hours about the issues of airlines. Is there anyone left in the western world who doesn’t have a horror story about flying?

What’s special about these industries other than cars and planes appeal to middle aged men? I’d also argue that there is as much variation within these industries than there is in common. I think that Aston Martin and Skoda look as different as RyanAir and Emirates. 

Why aren’t we comparing ourselves to McDonald’s, Goldman Sachs, Real Madrid or Red Bull? I can only think that it’s the appeal is because they’re engineering companies with large physical machines that move.

There is also the risk of comparing whole industries as if they had a single culture and operating model. They don’t, never had and never will.

First prize goes to the person that compares us to a religion or an animal! 😉

Sterling’s long-term decline…

Sterling’s long-term decline | Financial Times

And since then it’s dropped still further. I don’t understand why this isn’t in the news more.

Boris and the erosion of the rule of law…

“the British constitution is a fragile fabric of conventions, age-old rules and precedents with no clear framework to determine what applies when, and by whom it is decided. So far, it has worked according to the “good chaps principle”, that is, the assumption that politicians with moral integrity would interpret the essence of this muddle correctly. The British are ultimately dependent on the goodwill of the government they have elected. A prime minister who deliberately chooses not to adhere to the rules and spirit of this unwritten constitution, or who even seeks to actively undermine its principles, is an unforeseen circumstance with no effective remedy.”

The politics of lies: Boris Johnson and the erosion of the rule of law

These things are worth writing down clearly so that everyone knows the rules that they’re playing to.