Reliable over time

In a bid to keep the kids entertained last night, I dug out my 17-year old Alesis QS6 synthesizer, plugged it in and let them make a horrendous racket. As I got the thing plugged in, and excitement levels were rampant, I did for a split second wonder "Will it still work?". There were no … Continue reading Reliable over time

The need for Digital

  One of the plethora of wonderful people that I met in Bournemouth at this year's Silicon Beach event was Simon White. He's formerly of the ad world, and these days thinks of ideas and then makes them happen - I aspire to such ideals. Today he wrote an article for the magazine Imperia, and whilst … Continue reading The need for Digital

Qual not Quant

  At university (distressingly some twenty-odd years ago now), I quite quickly realised that I was a qualitative, rather than quantitative, kind of guy. Oh yes, I knew how to live the student dream. To explain - I studied Sociology. And in the realm of the social sciences there is a long-standing debate about whether … Continue reading Qual not Quant

The John Lewis of tech

A twitter conversation yesterday reminded me of a crazy idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a couple of months. Imagine, if you will, that on his departure from Microsoft, in a last defiant act to show how much he "loves this company", Steve Ballmer were to put all of his shares … Continue reading The John Lewis of tech

Ding dong the curve is dead

So the news is that Microsoft have decided that their infamous stack-ranked performance management and rewards system is to be retired. The news comes too late for many. Whilst there will be much coverage of the change, and much discussion about how tech companies manage performance and pay their employees, I expect little of it … Continue reading Ding dong the curve is dead

For your own safety

IT security is a hellishly boring subject. It's riddled with nonsensical militaristic metaphor, which ends up with most people confused, scared, and none the wiser. IT security people are, as I've argued before, possibly (and undoubtedly unwittingly) the biggest part of the security problem out there. Recent hacks - the Adobe one in particular - … Continue reading For your own safety

Three lines

The best thing, without a doubt, of my current madcap adventure with stamp London is that it is giving me good reason to go and spend time talking with loads of fascinating people. Last week I was lucky to grab a coffee with Andy Law, something of an ad land legend, and a terribly nice chap … Continue reading Three lines

The podcast playlist

Now that I'm back into the swing of rail commuting, I'm listening to podcasts again at a fair rate. Here's the current playlist (for the record, the player I use is the Android App BeyondPod) Radio 4's Documentary of the Week: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/r4choice/rss.xml A fairly random selection, but there's been some corkers recently - particularly a … Continue reading The podcast playlist

The bigger threat to national security?

  There are two stories alive in the press at the moment at two very different ends of the security spectrum. The first is the ongoing debate of the extent to which The Guardian's leaks of data released by US whistleblower/traitor (delete as per your viewpoint) Edward Snowden have impacted national security. The second is … Continue reading The bigger threat to national security?