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January’s Blog: Actions Speak Louder than Words, Wordy Bullshit, Branding, Links Today, TV Heaven, Enemies Bring Gifts, Debate on Dave Weinberger’s New Book, Change Now, Rant, What I did on my Holidays, Fame and Immortality (Me and Bill Gates), e-business failures, Parallels with my Father, Micropayments-The Future of the Internet, My First Day at School, Football Memories and a Chance in Life, Rivers Link People, Links, Design and Creativity, The Other Faces, 7UP, What is Voice?-Vision and Action, Writing in Progress, Latest Virus Alerts, When is a Weblog a Weblog, Hello 2002, Happy New Year, 2002 New Year’s Resolutions.

 

Thursday 31st January 2002

Actions Speak Louder than Words

How often have you been to a wedding and wondered if the marriage you are witnessing is going to last!

 

All those nice words,

“In sickness and in health”

“Till death us do part”

“Fidelity”

Or whatever modern things couples put in their vows.

But you know, you can promise anything in words, but are you your Word.

Blah Blah Blah, Yadda Yadda Yadda.

Words are easy, we speak them we write them.

But you know something, it’s about ACTION.  We can make all the verbal promises we like but what of our actions.

 

Why am I ranting about this?  Well I’m getting a bit sick of all the fantastic words being spoken in Internet discussion groups, I read this Enron Shit about values.  And I wonder what part Andersen played in all of this, and I hear the words coming out of politicians and Russell Crowe’s mouth, and I think word words words, but what are your actions.

 

Do your actions have integrity like your words appear to have?

 

Actions are more difficult than words.  Words are Easy (Contrary to the Popular song)

 

Wednesday 30th January 2002

Wordy Bullshit – The Turing Test

The more I get into writing my stuff, and the more stuff I read, the more I have to make sure it’s not just wordy bullshit and that it has some soul.

 

So firstly the Turing Test,

When talking about the Turing Test today what is generally understood is the following: The interrogator is connected to one person and one machine via a terminal, therefore can't see her counterparts. Her task is to find out which of the two candidates is the machine, and which is the human only by asking them questions. If the machine can "fool" the interrogator, it is intelligent.

This test has been subject to different kinds of criticism and has been at the heart of many discussions in AI, philosophy and cognitive science for the past 50 years.

And I copied this from a discussion email today;

On Tuesday, January 29, 2002, at 10:25 AM, b!X wrote:

“His worry is that we will soon discover that "societies capable of building machines that almost pass the Turing test are in danger of producing humans that nearly fail it."

While you may not agree with all of Locke's gloomy conclusions about the state of interaction and communication, his presentation of communication technology offers some clear-sighted critiques of contemporary and future pitfalls."

 

These exist. People working on 'customer support' lines regularly fail the Turing test, because they are following a script and behave like broken automata.

 

A programmer friend of mine regularly manages to find the bugs in their scripts and hack the logic. His best example is getting a visa from the British Consulate. Their system has a question that says 'press 1 if you are a British Subject in distress' so he pressed it and said 'I am in distress at how crap you are issuing visas', then got bumped up the chain of  human automata until he got to the Consul. Apparently there is a rule that you can't hang up on a British Subject in distress, so

Stuart kept him on the phone for 45 minutes until the visa was issued.”

 

Conversely, this is what Jaron Lanier says on the subject:

“Real, though miniature, Turing tests are happening all the time, every day, whenever a person puts up with stupid computer software.

For instance, in the United States, we organize our financial lives in order to look good to the pathetically simplistic computer programs that

determine our credit ratings. In doing this, we make ourselves stupid in order to make the computer software seem smart. In fact, we continue to trust the

credit-rating software even though there has been an epidemic of personal  bankruptcies during a time of very low unemployment and great prosperity.

 

We have caused the Turing test to be passed. There is no epistemological difference between artificial intelligence and the acceptance of badly designed computer software.”

 

Now what I’m coming to are the following two links;

 

The first is on the Dilbert site (check out the last two weeks worth of cartoons, Genius), and it’s a Mission Statement Generator, try it out.

It just goes to show what bullshit companies and some of their employees can come up with.

 

“The customer can count on us to completely initiate parallel paradigms and conveniently utilize timely information for 100% customer satisfaction.”

“We strive to synergistically promote innovative intellectual capital to meet our customer's needs.”

 

This is terrifying and just goes to show what bullshit many of us can generate.

 

The second is The Mark-O-Matic (1.0) Marketing Artists!  Terrifying!  Just make sure you’re not generating the same type of bullshit!

 

I reckon swear words are the best way forward to beat the machine.  Here’s part of the letter back from Telstra,

 

“This is an automated reply to advise you that your email address has been identified as having sent unsolicited email to Telstra in the past.

For this reason, the email we received from you will be automatically deleted.

If you have a genuine enquiry, please resend your email without any expletives and we will respond accordingly.”

 

and this is what caused the Telstra software to reject my email;

 

Telstra

 

You're complete and utter bastards.  How dare you change the plan we contracted on.

I know the terms and conditions allow this but as far as I'm concerned Telstra can fuck off.

 

I agreed to a 3 GB plan with you.  I have been well within that plan, I pay a premium not to worry about going anywhere near the 3GB limit and now you want to hike the price of our 1 year agreement.  Why?  I’ve got better things in my life to do than check my usage all the time.

 

If I move to the 1 GB plan, I now have to worry about going over this limit.

 

You better come up with a plan which charges me the same as I currently pay or goodbye Telstra.

It will take me a year to move away from Telstra, but believe me, this is the last straw.

 

Goodbye Telstra Cable

Goodbye Mobile Number 1

Goodbye Mobile Number 2

Goodbye Phone Line Number 1

Goodbye Phone Line Number 2

Goodbye Bigpond@Home

 

The only one of these services I've been mildly satisfied with is Broadband (except for the fact you can't use B-Pay to pay the fucking bill.

How stupid is that with your most advanced customers)

 

I don't get it.  You know how many customers you have and what their usage is.  Why aren't you coming up with new plans for new customers instead of pissing off the ones you already have.  You can only push us so far and then we're gone.

 

This is the last straw and you're pissing on your customers.  I will move away from Telstra unless you come up with something genuine, honest and better.

 

Why not tell the truth for a change?

 

Regards

 

Tony Goodson

 

ps  Make sure this one gets escalated as high as possible.  But who really gives a shit about a customer complaint.

 

 

I hope that doesn’t look like a computer generated my letter!

 

Tuesday 29th January 2002

Branding

There’s a lot of talk of Branding and a growing anti-branding movement.

I’ve just started reading No Logo – Naomi Klein and yes I get it, but actually I like Brands, they’re sometimes fun.

It’s the philosophy behind some companies that stink.

If the philosophy is good then I have no problem with the Brand.  I see it more as Design.  That’s why I’m with Tom Peters! on this one.  No harm in him using his “!” it’s a bit of fun.

 

Two examples today of Brand.  One company which is excellent and the other which stinks.

 

Brabantia make excellent household products.  The designs are beautiful and functional and the price is excellent.  They make bins.  The 50litre bin is excellent, well priced, nice design, a pleasure to use (and it's only a bin!!).  The clip which holds the lid down needs replacing once or twice a year, and having moved to Australia from the UK I emailed them to ask where in Australia I can get the clips.  They came back straight away and said they'd send me some for free.  Now that is service, not just the free stuff but way the bin works, the design of it, the soul and brand of the company. You can tell.  Top to bottom.  Including the garbage.

 

Telstra (I can’t even bring myself to put a link in, but nice branding) are the main Australian Telecom).  I have

·         2 Telstra phone lines

·         2 Telstra mobiles

·         1 Telstra modem internet account

·         1 Telstra cable internet

 

They have pissed my off on numerous occasions, charge too much and offer shabby service for all the products except the Broadband Cable Internet which has been usually excellent.

 

I have just received an email which is breaking the contract I had with them on the Cable Internet.  I have a one year agreement which they can change but I can't.  And they've changed it under the guise of "A better deal for you Mr Customer".

 

I had an agreement of 512Kbps bandwidth and a maximum download per month of 3GB for which I pay $72pm.  They are now saying that to stay on the current agreement I have to start paying $88pm (remember this is in the middle of the agreement.  It's like you having your mobile plan charged to charge more midway) or drop to a 1GB allowance at $64pm.

 

Now I don't usually go above even the 1GB allowance (except last month which was 2.1GB) but I paid the extra just in case and so I don't have to worry about going over.  I have until mid Feb to drop my download amount, or pay extra or cancel (ah but I paid a $250 installation fee).  What really makes me seethe is they won't be honest with their users.  They won't explain why they're doing this, and consequently they're being economical with the truth (I better not say they’re lying), and their poor front line staff have to deal with this.

 

That is why the Telstra brand stinks, they made over $3billion profit last year and they can’t tell the whole truth.  Now I can understand why people say branding stinks, but I think it's the values that stink.

 

I really want to leave Telstra (this website is hosted by Telstra!)  I came to Australia just over 6 months ago and I thought I’d start with the main Telco Company for most or all of my stuff, but I’ve learnt a bitter lesson.  The bitterest lesson is that one brand doesn’t mean you get treated any better for buying many things, they’re each a different business within a brand that in my view mostly don’t give a shit, and I don’t mean the poor frontline people who bare the brunt of it and are usually very good.

 

I found this working with British Telecom, that the people on the ground are good and care and have pride in the company, many of them have been there for over 20 years, and care much more than the newer upstart Telcos who are there to make a buck.  But marketing and senior management don’t give a shit if they lose my business. And why would they?

 

It’s a tough world to sell into given that customers like me are so irrational, at least according to this Washington Post article which just goes to show that a well priced honest commodity means nothing to the buying public.

 

And what’s really funny, is that my letter of complaint to Telstra had so many swear words in it their software intercepted it and sent it back to me as looking like a SPAM I’d sent them.

 

Monday 28th January 2002

Links Today

Time for a Web Log of links today.

 

First one Dilbert. Today’s is genius!

 

Check out these babies Secret Sam, which I had aged 6,

And Johnny Seven which I wanted and Paul King had.

 

Ok, it’s time to tell the truth about the Sound of Music, but not tonight.  Coming soon is my description of the Sound of Music in my school book from aged 6.

 

Watch this space!

 

Sunday 27th January 2002

TV Heaven

Holy Shit!  I was just writing my Rimmer Shit (Childhood Memories) yesterday and I chose childhood TV, probably my favourite subject.

 

It took me all day and into the night because I didn’t want to miss any programmes out.

I must have missed some deep in the recesses of my memory (and soul).

Some help from TV Cream and a couple of other trivia websites.

 

WoW it brings back the memories.  Where do I start?  Pick out some of the highlights by name and see what happens.

 

The really early ones are BBC “Watch with Mother” and my favourite was Andy Pandy (looks a bit scary now) followed by the Bill and Ben, and The Wooden Tops (especially Spotty Dog).  But I also have other programmes deep in my brain and subconscious; Tingha and Tucker, Pinky and Perky, Tales of the River Banks (A hamster on a piece of Balsa Wood!)  Titch and Quackers (Dummies with a Ray Allen’s hand up one of them!) and Sooty definitely had Harry Corbett’s right hand up him.  Tuffty and road safety.  In fact a lot of safety films in the 60s and 70s which I haven’t gone into yet.  Swimming, Driving, Refrigerator Doors.  Hatty Town is the most obscure one I remember.

 

If you’re a UK child of the 60s then Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley is a must

 

And some weird and scary ones;

 

The Clangers, Hartley Hare, Rainbow, Banana Splits, Dr Who, Tomorrow People

The Magic Boomerang, Catweazle.

 

And of course some all time favourites (mind you there’s a difference between what I remember nostalgically (like Thunderbirds) and the crap I probably watched (like Tarzan)

 

Blue Peter, CrackerJack, Skippy, Daktari, Casey Jones Stingray, Thunderbirds, Whacky Races, Scooby Doo, Top Cat, Marine Boy Spiderman, The Hair Bear Bunch

Sylvester (My Favourite Loser) Mr Ed.

 

Likely Lads, The Lovers, Porridge, Please Sir, On the Buses, Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, It’s a Knockout,

The Champions, The Persuaders, The Saint, Randal and Hopkirk Deceased

Batman, Man from Uncle, Star Trek

The Virginian, Alias Smith and Jones,

Top of the Pops, The Goodies, The Monkees, The Sweeney

 

And of course is there one show I could be on, it’s interviewed by Parkinson.

I reckon I have up to 20 years to get on there!

Maybe I’ll be interviewing him by then.

 

In fact let’s do a Desert Island Programmes with Sue Lawley.  Here Goes, my top 10 (not favourites but historic, and from the early years)

 

 

Saturday 26th January 2002

Enemies Bring Gifts!

I was thinking yesterday about how all my enemies have brought me gifts in the long run.

I’m sure they didn’t mean to!

 

I’ve never been one to forgive.  I bear and carry my grudges.  I never forget.  Old scores to settle.

In some ways my grudges eat at me, but in other ways they fuel me, light my fire, give me my desire and ambition.

I’ll show those bastards.

 

Back to the gifts.

I was thinking about my daughter Georgia.

Born 4 months ago, she’s the most precious thing in my life, and yet I wouldn’t have her if my first wife had not broken-up our marriage.

Looking at it now, did she deliberately do it consciously or sub consciously so that I could have Georgia.

Just a thought bizarre as it seems.

 

One of my ex-bosses who made me redundant, the teacher who sent me out of class for me questioning what he was teaching, the work colleague who bad mouthed me when I was applying for job at her boyfriend’s company.  These things all worked out better for me in the long run.  All my relationships that have not worked would not have brought me Georgia, (and Annie my wife).

 

I’m not on some kind of high level spiritual thing here, I was just struck by the alternative way of seeing things now, and wondered if any of these acts were deliberate.

Mind you at the time of them happening, I would just about have killed any of them.

And anyone who suggested at the time that things would get better and work out for the best, I would have killed them as well.

 

And talking of killing and enemies bringing me gifts, what this reminds me of Albert Camus and the only saying I can remember,

 

“That which doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”

 

Friday 25th January 2002

Debate on David Weinberger’s New Book

Having linked to David Weinberger yesterday, his book due out in April has received a real slating from Jon Katz at Slashdot.

Check out the links

The End of Cyber BS, by Jon Katz <http://slashdot.org/books/02/01/21/2247246.shtml>

Astonishment, by David Weinberger <http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26657&cid=2897908>

Premature ESlashulation, by David Weinberger <http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/archive/2002_01_01_archive.html#9018134>

Very high slash/dot ratio, by Doc Searls <http://doc.weblogs.com/2002/01/24#veryHighSlashdotRatio>

The Godfather of GEEK Force Loses The Faith, by b!X <http://www.theonetruebix.com/archives/001223.shtml>

Thanks to b!X for pointing them out.

 

There’s a lot of energy and comment in the Slashdot discussion that follows the book review.

 

I can see both sides here.  Not much has fundamentally changed for most people as a result of the Internet.  Sure we have email and people tend to write to each other more but that’s about it.  Most people don’t read or reply to their email that often, and most people hardly use the Internet at all, except a small minority who create a very loud noise, so it seems much bigger than it really is.

 

But which direction is it moving and growing in?  Rapidly towards more Internet usage and growing very fast, so you might as well be at the leading edge and part of the vision that will sweep all before it.

 

Can’t say you weren’t warned, but it may take longer than predicted.

 

Thursday 24th January 2002

Change Now!

“How do you go on an effective diet?

How do you stop smoking?

How do you stop drinking?

In short, you do it and it’s done.

Then you work like hell for the rest of your life to stay on the weight-maintenance, non-smoking, or booze-free wagon…”

Tom Peter “Pursuit of WoW!”

 

It’s true isn’t it, change is easy.  You make a decision now to change!  It’s keeping it going.

But it’s a good reminder that you can change anything, starting now.

 

I like David Weinberger’s Weblog on what he’s going to talk about at a very important dinner meeting and his definition of Web Logging, especially now I’m writing so much here on my website.

 

“The importance of the Weblog phenomenon isn't so much that it enables people to publish their breakfast menus or even their genuine insights.

It's that we now know what our "avatars" on the Net are going to be: not graphical cartoon representations but our body of writing.

You are what you write.

On the Web we are writing ourselves into existence.

This introduces into the self the same issues of control, inspiration, invention, deception and play as have always been present in the relationship of authors to what they write.”

 

Wednesday 23rd January 2002

Rant (Extract from an email I sent a friend yesterday)

Much of the Cluetrain debate is too wordy, which is the problem I’m finding with a lot of debate going on, no matter which group one is a member of.  Nobody seems to be actually going into a company and changing things, or changing a group within a company.

 

One of my goals and dreams this year is to start something which has an impact on a large company.  It’s just a dream right now, but a good start since all my dreams come true!!!!!

 

I sometime get disheartened when there are too many words flying around.  I realise that many of these guys in the debate are hiding behind their books and words.  I’m fine with that, and they can continue to create the Vision, and I want to contribute to the Vision and debate, but I want to know where the action is.  And when you ask them all, it just draws a blank other than “I’m writing a book about it, and I have these websites.”

 

I’m in danger of falling into the same trap.

 

No-one seems to be confronting the CEOs to change things.  And I don’t just mean accounting practises or marketing departments.  I mean the people that work in the fucking companies. 

 

I’ve looked into the infrastructure and culture of ICL and found that actually there is lot of the stuff there on their Intranet and the company has always been quite liberal to allow people unrestricted to express views.  But nobody uses the stuff.

 

And I’m asking myself why.  What is going on that Senior Executives are doing nothing (we all know the answer to that)?  Employees are doing nothing (I’m not sure about the answer to that one), and actually most of us like buying the crap and falling for the adverts of the corporate world.  Coke, McDonalds, Ford, Nike etc etc.  So why should anything change?

 

And yet in my gut I feel something.  That there is room for something else and Cluetrain and Gonzo Marketing hit on something.  Work should be Fun.  Creative.  Communicative.  There are enough Internet tools (Chat, Forums, Email, Webcams) out there to really create a buzz, but I haven’t found one Buzz yet.  Where are things Buzzing?  Does anyone know where the Buzz is?  All I’m asking for is one Buzz, as a means of giving me some hope that I don’t have to invent Buzz on my own!!!!!!

 

Before I left the UK the thing I started with the ICL salesforce was the start of something.  When I tried to take it a step further with the talk of genuine community where salespeople talk to each other and share information they got scared.  I used www.ciao.com as the example which I still think is the best example of a community that could be set up in a company, but that’s as for as I’ve got and things are on the back burner whilst I look for some more sales training and continue my writing.

 

I’m open to suggestions though.  Rant over!

 

Tuesday 22nd January 2002

What I did on my Holidays

Just got back from Sydney.  There for 5 days.  Love it.  A very beautiful city.  Went with Annie and Baby Georgia, our first trip away.  One Hour flight.  Anything more might have been a bit stressful.

 

I thought about taking my laptop and writing my Web Log and other bits, but I thought I’d have a rest and see what happens.  I continued with my 3 handwritten pages of A4 for my personal journal.

 

Difficult to get back to this.  I thought I’d have lots to write about.  I have but I can’t seem to get it down today.

 

Maybe tomorrow.

 

Tuesday 15th January 2002

Fame and Immortality (Me and Bill Gates)

Maybe it’s because I’m 40 and it’s mid life crisis.  But I’m starting to think about, what it’s all about.

 

The thing that strikes me most about life, is that we all wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to the toilet, shower, commute, yawn, sleep, drink, have lunch, phone people, most of us read and send email.  By the time we’ve all done that what really is the difference between me and Bill Gates Gates v Job

 

Seriously, how is Bill Gates’s life different from mine?  His table might be bigger, his view may encompass more trees and water, the glass window is larger.  But he still has to shower and go to the toilet, and wear clothes, even Bill Gates.  He still has to eat.  He still has to sleep. He’s still going to die (that’s not a death threat Bill, just the meaning of life!).  He has a jet and commutes.  I’d much rather cycle down to the sea.  I don’t want to be on a plane if I can help it.  I spend a lot of time with my baby daughter.  How much time does he spend with his kids?  I suppose what he has is choice.  I don’t have the range of choices he has.  But the most stressful times of my life are when I have to make a decision, the right decision from a number of choices.

 

Annie my wife asked me the other day if I could have any car, what would it be.  And I really struggled with the answer.  I love cars, and yes sometimes I love the prestige of a nice car, but what car would it be.  A BMW, a Merc, a Ferrari? Each one I thought of seemed too big.  An MX5?  Too small.  The only cars I could come up with was the car I left in the UK, my Golf GTi 1.8T and a BMW M3, which I would not be particularly proud to be seen in.

 

The only thing I could think of that’s different between me and Bill Gates is that when he travels the world, he can point at things and say, “I influenced that.” Or “I chose the colour and name for that.”

Ok he leaves a big legacy, but he’ll be dead and won’t be around to appreciate it.  More money for the kids.  That’s a bit of a two edged sword given how inheritance effects some kids.  Oh and he has a platform.  When he speaks people listen.  But just as many people hate him as love him.  I have less people loving me, but I also have less people hating me.

 

I love St Paul’s Cathedral in London, and I’m always struck my the fact that it’s a legacy that has lasted more than 300 years and as a result Christopher Wren is remembered more than most Kings and Queens.  How many people are remembered for longer than 50 year after they’ve died let alone 100s of years?

 

If the link above is true, then Steve Job is so petty.  He really takes pride in bossing people around and being a control freak?  He likes to piss off Bill Gates and gets a kick out if it?  It’s all hearsay so I don’t know but it seems weird to me.

 

It’s my birthday in a few weeks time.  What could I possibly want that I don’t already have?

 

On the other hand I’ve always dreamt of having a decent shower in the bathroom.  We don’t really have showers in the UK, some say we don’t wash at all (ha ha).  And when we have them they’re so small that the shower curtain sticks to you and the “power” shower dribbles.  So even my dream shower here in Australia has come true.  But you know what?  The bathroom is beige and there’s no window, so every time I climb in the shower I smile because my dream has come true, and I say,

 

“Next time we’ll have a window and a nice bathroom”

 

It’s so human to strive for better and never be satisfied!

 

Al Pacino “Inch by Inch”

 

Monday 14th January 2002

e-business failures

Just sent a private reply to Chris Macrae’s Topica list on efailures which he’s posted on to the list.  These are the edited highlights of my observations on e-business and how to save the world.

 

Chris,

 

I've been thinking about "the pattern of causes of ebusiness failure.

 

I'm not an expert on it, and my initial reaction was as expected, cash-flow, revenue model, promotion/advertising, market testing of the need for the product, profit on the product.

 

In one paragraph the things I'd add to the list and the potential for the future is:

·         Trust in paying over the Internet has to be increased.  Most people don't trust paying over the Internet.

·         Buying over the Internet in general.  People are hesitant.

·         Cost of advertising something that no-one knows about is exorbitant.  Use "Tipping Point" epidemics to promote products. December copy

·         Micropayments I realise is the future.  So many businesses and customers would appreciate a reliable and low cost form of Micropayments (being able to pay 1p or 1c for something)

·         Products sold over the Internet have to be either be a service, or something that can be posted (like a book or a CD, hence Amazon's success), or a low cost method of deliver to home and work or collection centres/shops/points which are a pleasant experience rather than a degrading experience (a warehouse with a bell, a glass window and a rude guy) to pick up goods ordered (and returned)

·         Returned Goods.  That's one of the biggest problems about Internet business.

 

At the end of the day we will continue to use shampoo, drive cars, have haircuts, eat food.  Actually this is more profound than you think, because not many things have substantially changed in 10, 20, 50 100 years.  Technology wise, the car is 100 years old, airplanes 100 years old and jet engines 50+ years old.  TV is 50+.  The only bit of technology I can see that is new is the microwave and maybe the VCR and Cellphone.  (I'm coming on to the PC).  We all sleep, get up, go to the toilet, wear clothes, have baths and showers, use transport, watch TV or Cable or Radio or Surf the Internet, but really our lives aren't that different, and I speak for the developed (ha ha) countries.  So all this debate about voice and clued is just scratching at the surface, unless the big Globals are going to change, and observing the lack of answers and triviality of the Cluetrain list I doubt anything is and will change.

 

Ok so a gem like Amazon will come along and be part of the corporate horizon, but so what?

 

The one thing that has changed for me is I work from home.  I use a PC and peripherals at home, I don't buy a newspaper and I don't watch the TV as much as I used to.  Having said that I'd be exaggerating if I said 3 in 100 family friends and colleagues use the Internet that much other than for email and to book a holiday.  And Christ I can't get most of them (including yourself) to respond to emails I send.  People love buying brands and most love being sold to, even though they deny it.

 

For E-business failure go back to the items at the top of this email.  The internet is currently just an enabler like the telephone.  Yes the potential is huge, but then when did technological capability have anything to do with change.  We sent a man to the moon in 1969 and we haven’t done much since.  Our drugs kill us as much as they cure us, and we could have Magnetic Levitating trains at twice the speed, and a fraction of the maintenance, but we don’t.

 

If there’s one thing I’d sort out it would be Micropayments.  That would resolve many of the problems so far with the Internet.  It would become a very exciting place with a direct and fast relationship between supplier and consumer, and low risk for everyone.

 

Regards

 

Tony Goodson

 

 

 

Sunday 13th January 2002

Parallels with my Father

My Dad was born in 1921.  I was born in 1961.

He married aged 40, his second marriage in 1960.  I married aged 40 (almost), my second marriage in 2000.

He had his first child in 1961. I have my first child in 2001.

He died in 1977 aged 56.

 

He led an incredible life in his 56 years.

Born in Canada, his parents had emigrated from Manchester just before he was born but returned back to Manchester after his birth.

He was 5ft 1” in his adult life, which makes me tall at 5ft 7”.

He joined the RAF in 1939, and initially trained as a radio operator in an Avro Anson and later flew as a rear gunner in a Hampden Bomber.

He was shot down over Germany in 1940, and managed to bail out with his parachute.

Stuck in mud for nearly 24 hours, he was captured and became a prisoner of war in StalagLuft 3, where the “Great Escape” happened.

“Officers part of the camp” is all he would say on the matter!

He remained a prisoner for nearly 5 years until 1945.

 

In the 50’s he owned a few garages, raced cars, flew and landed planes on Southport beach.

He married in the early 50s, but his wife died 3 weeks later of liver failure.

The rabbi who married them, buried her within the same month.

I didn’t know he’d been married before until I was 8 and he was talking to a friend at lunch, and I overheard him talking about being depressed when his first wife died.

I nearly spat my soup out, like they do in the movies.

 

In business, he set up a shirt manufacturing business and owned 2 men clothes shops.

 

He met my Mum in the late 50s and they married in 1960.  I was born in 1961.

For most of his life he suffered from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a form of arthritis where the fluid in the joints is lost and the bones freeze together.

He suffered greatly with the pain but never complained, he focused on his work.

He’d always had a fascination with mechanical things so he sold his shirt business and became a partner in a small engineering company.

He later helped fund a business in self-erecting cranes during the building recession of the 1970s.  Not the wisest thing.

 

Finally one morning he crashed his car on his way into work, hitting a bridge support on the motorway.

He survived the crash which broke his neck and that put him in traction for 3 months permanently on his back with his head supported by weights.

I can’t imagine the pain he must have been in when combined with his Ankylosing Spondylitis.

He came out of hospital with his neck in a brace.  But 4 weeks later he died of a heart attack.

 

He never talked about his past.  One of the things I regret about him dying when I was only 16 was not being able to talk to him and ask him so many things about his life.

My curiosity was aroused when I was older.

 

As a kid and teenager he was just my Dad.  Bit of a hero when I look at what I’ve just written.

 

And now I’m a Dad.

 

Saturday 12th January 2002

Micropayments, the future of the Internet

I’m good at predicting the future in technology trends, and I realised today that of the all the things going on Micropayments (Jakob Nielsen article for instance) has the biggest potential on the Internet.  This isn’t a new idea, but as far as I know the agents that want to act as the broker between supplier and customer charge too much and are too greedy.  But if someone comes up with a system then charges (1cent or 1 pence) per webpage or per view of a website there is enormous potential and everyone would be satisfied.

 

I realise that I’ve more or less given up newspapers and TV.  I would pay 1 cent per day to view Dilbert cartoons, or access the BBC, or for that matter to make sure that some of the people I like to read, write every day in their Weblogs or on their websites.  I currently click on the following 13 websites every day and would pay 1 cent per day for the privilege.

 

www.bbc.co.uk, www.football365.com, www.dilbert.com, www.wired.com, www.cnet.com, www.salon.com, www.rageboy.com/blogger, doc searls, david weinberger, dave winer, wil wheaton, bradlands, girlrepair.

 

Artistic potential is enormous.  Artists being paid a small amount form each person, and a huge following.

 

And I realise this with my own growing website.  I’d love a regular readership of 100 people per day, just for the love of it and 2 way feedback, readers to me, me to readers.  But what if that grew to 100,000 per day, paying 1 cent each to read my genius writing. WoW!  I can dream can’t I?  But also it would generate money for webdesigners to help develop websites for the Artists.  I know what I want but I have to do it myself currently.

 

And I realise that this is a great way for many artists, writers, web people to earn a living and create great work which costs each customer almost nothing to view.

My fear is the whole Internet going that way.

There are some things I expect to be free and I don’t like the idea of getting lured into a site and have someone make big bucks for crap.

But how and why does the BBC have such a great and vast site and nobody pays for it, except of course UK TV licensees!

 

Friday 11th January 2002

My First Day at School

Just been writing about my first day at school.

Can you remember your first day at school?

Mine is vivid, or at least parts of it are. September 1966.

 

Cute eh?  But of course there’s a twist.

Handforth C of E didn’t have school caps, so what the hell was my Mum doing photographing me in a cap before I went to school on my first day?

The brick wall which I’m lined up against like a war refugee has probably lasted better than me, and the legs haven’t changed much.

 

   

 

Back to my First Day. One boy cried his eyes out the whole day.  I think it was Stephen Taylor who became my best friend.

He cried so much he was sick on the front step of the school and we had to walk around the chair placed over Stephen’s dislike of first day at Handforth C of E. 

My biggest memory of first day at Handforth C of E, was being scared shitless.

We were in Mrs Tyrer’s class.  She was a great teacher.  Set me up for life.

Mrs Tyrer’s class was a mix of two years, which meant that the 6 year olds were old lags.

They’d seen and done it all before.  Consequently they ruled the roost.

Melvyn Ingham and Robert Hargreaves, two old lags aged 6 were playing at being robots, picking the new starters up, and putting them in a hinged, folding vertical library of books, and shutting them in.

Shit (I didn’t use the term shit at the time but I learnt real quick), I hope they don’t chose me.  .

 

My thoughts about this were.  Please don’t pick me.

Play invisible Anthony and they won’t notice you.

And I’ve been playing invisible ever since for the rest of my life.

I blame Melvyn Ingham and Robert Hargreaves.

Bloody Robots.

 

Thursday 10th January 2002

Football Memories and a Chance in Life

Firstly have a look at this www.uglyfootballers.com!

 

This set me off on a nostalgia trip of my own.  Writing in my Rimmer Shit childhood memories today, I was looking up the stats on Neil Young of Man City fame who lived on our estate, and Lee Dixon of Arsenal fame who played football with us as a tubby, not very good kid.  Interesting that Lee Dixon’s father was an ex-football pro, which just goes to show how you can be shaped by influences later on despite your lack of early skills.

 

Also, I’m struck by looking at the map of where I lived and grew up (see below) that the big white ring at the bottom left of the picture, Francis Lee’s house and horse track.  Now Neil Young and Francis Lee both played for Man City and were in the same team.  Both had glorious careers, Neil Young scored the winner in the 1969 F.A Cup Final and the European Cup Winners Cup the following year.  Francis Lee fell over for Man City, Derby and England, Lee One Pen being the top scorer for many seasons.  Neil Young lived on our estate and became a milk man and then unemployed, and I think works for Man City now.  Francis Lee becomes a transport owning, paper manufacturing, horse owning, chairman of Man City who lives a mile away on the other side of The Valley.  Equal Opportunity, how come the difference.

What happened to the other Man City players of the era?

 

My life long passion and mission, it sports psychology.

What makes one person succeed and another fail?

Why do some teams and countries have success in one particular competition regardless of talent and resources.

 

There’s a lot of psychological mysteries about sports and it’s history.  I’ll give a few examples.

 

English middle distance running in the 70s and 80s.  A kid called Steve Ovett comes along and wins 800metres at the 1973 European Junior Championships, and out of the woodwork comes Seb Coe at the same time, and they begat Steve Cram and Pete Elliot and one more who can’t remember.

 

Swedish Tennis.  Bjorn Borg comes along and a dynasty of Swedish Tennis players who all play differently are spawned.

 

Britain lays claim to Greg Rusedski and suddenly Tim Henman can play tennis.  Maybe Tim Henman will win something the year after Greg Rusedski does.

 

Some football teams have it in their history to do well in certain competitions and others never.  Newcastle and Chelsea will never win The Premiership.  Leeds came back after years in the doldrums.  Prediction.  Everton will one day be great again!  There you go I’m sticking my neck out on that one.

 

Man Utd were 1-0 down against Bayern Munich with 5 minutes to go.  It seemed in their destiny to win the European Cup again, and suddenly a miracle happened, 2 goals in the last few minutes.  United against Arsenal in the F.A Cup Semi Final.  Schmeichel saves a penalty and Giggs scores the best goal ever (makes up for Alan Sunderland); Destiny.  Man City were 2-0 down against Gillingham and it was in their destiny to get promotion.  Bang 3-2.

 

Some sporting events reflect a strange weave of the mystery of life and achievement.

It will take me all my life to unravel the mystery.

 

Wednesday 9th January 2002

Rivers link people

Just writing my Rimmer Shit childhood memories and I looked up the on-line maps of where I lived and grew up.

 

See how green it is on the Aerial map.  It’s not just childhood memories.  I went back there a few years ago, into The Valley, and unlike most memories we have, it was more lush, and green, and beautiful than in my memories.  My childhood memories are always, blue sky and sun.  Summer. And of course The Snow in winter.

 

Looking at the Aerial map which is shot with a wide angle lens, loses a lot of the perspective.  Right Angle bends in the river look straight.  An aerial view is just one perspective, which set me thinking about Afghanistan and bombing using Aerial photographs.  If My Valley was bombed using Aerial photography the perspective in the air is very different from on the ground.  Political perspective and journalistic perspective sometimes tries to give an aerial view of what you see is what you get, but on the ground it’s very different.

 

What struck me the most was following the River Dean on the map.  I’ve never tracked it.  It combines with the River Bollin downstream and then flows into the Mersey.  But the amazing thing is how many friends who live miles away in all different directions are connected by the river flowing close to where they live.  Matthew, Mark, Jules, Simon, Tony all grew up near the same river that flowed outside my home.  But they lived miles away in very different places.

 

Nowadays we are largely road centric.

It’s strange and nostalgic to look at a river centric connection.

 

Tuesday 8th January 2002 10-55

Links

A few things to look at.  This is a bit gory but quite funny.  Dogs in Elk!

 

Reading more of Chris Locke’s postings about voice and the dumbing of the media.

 

And this one is fun and fascinating to play with Moving Skeleton.

 

Email.  Is it just me or do I send out a much higher proportion of emails and receive much fewer back?

Maybe people have better things to do in their lives than respond or acknowledge my emails.

Maybe I’m not receiving as many emails as other people?

 

Maybe I need to get a life!

 

Monday 7th January 2002 11-05

Design and Creativity

Got a link from Doc Searls website/blog, of this www.girlrepair.com.  It’s the most stunning website I’ve seen.  The photos are breathtaking, the web design is clean, fun, functional, and yes, beautiful.  There’s lots of nice touches.  And the red lollipop branding across the website and in the photos he takes.  Interesting that it’s difficult to tell at first if the person is a bloke or girl.  Bloke I think.  Check out the archives as well.  Stunning.

 

Another website I like for design and voice is www.christian-mclaughlin.com again clean design, great content, humour, and a camp voice. 

 

I can be intimidated by how good these websites are or inspired.  I say intimidated because it’s easy to say, they have better photography, Photoshop, programming, writing, skills than me, or I can ask “How do they do that?” and derive my own style.  The other site I like is www.bradlands.com , another camp voice of the Internet.  Very funny in a Julian Clarey kind of way.

 

It’s time to camp up my Internet voice!  I’m inspired.

 

Sunday 6th January 2002 9-55

The Other Faces

Looking again at www.friendsreunited.com I notice that there’s not just my class photo from 1967, but “Miss Capstick” has put up “the other” photo with the other class from that year.  And I find it very weird, spooky.  Same photo, same environment, same chairs, different faces.  Like a parallel universe.  “The Other Class”; and I say Miss Capstick because her name is in the pupil list and of course she was the teacher of “The Other Class” the parallel universe the anti-Mrs Tyrer, our teacher.  Faces without names, that haunt me.  Of course I know some of them of the names.

 

It’s made me wonder. “Give me the child until 7 and I will show you the man”  That’s something like the quote from the Granada 7UP programme.

 

7UP

And of course it’s reminded me of my all time favourite programme.  The 7UP series looking at a group of 14 children aged 7 in 1964, and their progression every 7 years.  The last one showing was 42UP in 1999.  This is my generation, when I look at my 1967 class photo, I see similar faces, I’m 4 years behind them.

 

Words fail me.  Do a search on 7UP and include Granada or Michael Apted in the search to get rid of the fizzy drink.

 

Check out the Amazon description and reviews as a starter.  42UP on USA Amazon

 

Saturday 5th January 2002 11-21

What is Voice? Vision and Action

The Cluetrain list is getting all exited about defining “voice”.

I don’t really give a shit.  Too much navel contemplation and really people doing the research for Chris Locke’s next book, and I guess a degree of sucking up.  Especially if they get a mention in the book!

 

Having said that, I do like the article which Chris Locke quotes on Hunter S Thompson talking about Nixon’s death.

 

It makes me think about the voice I want to write in which is engaging to others.  The Nixon article is very engaging.

 

But it’s all mostly Bollocks. 

Vision and Action.  That’s what I say.  You’re either Vision or Action, or Vision and Action, or neither.  Most of the list of 300+ are neither, since they don’t contribute and think silently to themselves.  There’s a lot of Vision and defining things, and very little action.  So it’s all largely bollocks and counts for nothing except Chris Locke’s new book.

 

Voice is all well and good, but who’s going to actually do something which changes anything.  And this rarely happens anyway.  After all, most of us wake in the morning, breathe, eat, shit, read, watch, commute, talk, phone, and go back to sleep.  Very few voices have ever changed anything.

 

Action!

 

Friday 4th January 2002 23-59 (Actually it’s 00-08 but let’s not confuse things)

Writing in Progress

Ok, I’ve decided to write my stuff on-line.  When I look at how much I’ve written over the last two months just with my Weblog, if I applied that to my book ideas, I’d have 3 or 4 books by the end of the year.  Dream on Tony!

 

But hey, let’s see how it goes.  I’ve set up a Writing in Progress page which points to 3 subjects I’m going to progress.

 

 

Thursday 3rd January 2002 23-47

Internet Security Alert for latest Viruses and Trojans

Have a read of this page at CNET which will guide you to a few articles on the latest wave of PC worms.

 

Be very careful about running attachments in emails.  Double check that the email from a friend is really from them.

 

Wednesday 2nd January 2002 19-38

When is a Weblog a Weblog

According to Doc Searls’ definition maybe this isn’t a Weblog.  I don’t have enough links for readers to pass through, and I’m not recommending or linking to other Bloggers.

Oh No!  This is a website.  I’m doomed.

 

I’m going back to journaling in the morning, 3 handwritten A4 pages a la ‘Artist’s Way” – Julia Cameron, as well as continuing to write this Weblog.

 

Just rereading some of my previous journaling.  Interesting. It’s amazing reading old things how much we change and how much our current thinking is written down ages ago.

Do I never have a new thought?  It’s all there from a year ago.  Just the context of being in Australia has changed. 

 

Actually things have moved on.  I have this website, finally.  I have the baby that Annie was having her scan for.  Georgia.  My how things have moved on!

 

Tuesday 1st January 2002 13-36

Hello 2002

Hello 2002.  I’d written a poem a few years ago called 2002, except I thought we’d call this year two oh two, if you see what I mean.

 

“202 Feeling Blue

Nothing quite compares to you….”

 

And strangely enough I dreamt about the person I’d written the poem about, last night!

 

Just changed a few things on the website.  I’ve added my TGtips Discussion Place to discuss content of this Weblog and website.  Archived December 2001 Weblog and started Jan 2002 with the last two days entries of 2001 and of course this.

 

I’ll add more later today.  Off to the airport to pick Annie’s auntie and Cousin Karen, who’ve come from Sydney for a viewing of Georgia.

 

Monday 31st December 2001 23-07

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers.  Do I have any?  Keep going Tony, write and they will come!

 

Stayed in tonight with baby Georgia, and Annie.  We were going to drive into Melbourne but it’s pissing down with rain, so we’ve stayed in and eaten chocolate.  Georgia (aged 14 weeks) obscurely must know it New Year’s Eve.  She won’t go to sleep and wants to stay up for the action.  She’s also been jumping out of the rocker for the last hour whilst I try and write this.

 

That’s it, Bye Bye 2001.  It was a great year for me.  But not for some.  In some ways the world changed.  But I remember my excitement and anticipation for 40 years towards The Millennium.  And you know what?  Everything was exactly the same as it was the day before the Millennium.  It will take far bigger things than what has happened this last year to permanently change things.  Life goes on in all its weird and wonderful ways.

 

For me, I can’t think of anything better than spending my New Year’s Eve with Annie and little Georgia, and eating chocolate!

 

Sunday 30th December 2001 21-50

2002 New Year’s Resolutions -  Draft (2001 Retrospective)

Thinking about what I’d like for 2002, resolutions, dreams to come true.

 

2001 has been a hell of a year.  Found out Annie was pregnant whilst on our honeymoon.

She told me at Singapore airport as we were flying back to London.  WoW Fantastic.

I decided that 2001 would be the year of gadgets, and boy have I fulfilled that.

New PC, scanner, lots of software, MP3s, dictation machine, new mobile, 2 cars, all new white goods for the house.

Blood Pressure machine! Printer.  The speakers on my PC and living in a detached house have revived my love of music.

 

Of course the major event has been moving to Melbourne, and the birth of Georgia, our first baby.

Unbelievable.  I’ve waited for so long, and it’s even better than I’d hoped.

Sometimes I just want to cry with joy when I look at her and she’s gurgling and smiling away, kicking me as a lean over her.

Sleeping on my chest snuggled up with her bottom in the air as she sleeps.  Gorgeous Georgia.

And Australia.  A new start.  Great so far.

 

So many of my dreams have come true.  So let’s have some more dreams.

 

2001 was the year of the gadgets.  I’m sure there’s a few more to come.

2002 I sense is time to write.  The year of writing.  Content.

Continue to grow my website. Continue to contribute to the debates I feel passionate about. More of that. Create the start of something big in a large corporation.

Start to write more on Sales Training and Self Development.  I feel there’s something else there, something BIG.

A Novel?  E-Learning?  Business Website?  I don’t know yet but the start of something very big is out there.

 

Time with Annie.  Time with Georgia.  Cycling and Roller Blading.  Even more sports events.  Water Sports?  Windsurfing again?

 

The perfect day for 2002 would include the following.  Up early, Journal for 45 mins, go for a walk or cycle, breakfast, read email, surf the internet, time with Georgia, time with Annie, writing, developing/delivering course work, build my website, read, networking, cycle or rollerblade by the sea, send emails.

And that’s just the start.

How am I going to fit it all in? Oh and FUN!

 

And most important are my new set of 5 year dreams.  Since all my dreams come true, not always in the way I expect them (so be careful what you ask for Tony).

 

That’s it so far, in draft.  No links in this entry!