In common w. many others I am very busy and no longer sit in front of a PC all day. The result = no blogging. It was a fun experiment but don’t expect much in the future.

Dom

So Bad

In common w. many others I am very busy and no longer sit in front of a PC all day. The result = no blogging. It was a fun experiment but don’e expect much in the future.

Dom

Ugly From Any Angle

I have always been a Porsche fan. Right up until the Cayenne….bit of a Wanker Tanker if you ask me. It’s the kind of car that you must have if an X5 (with a personal plate, of course) is just too passe. If a Cayenne is an aspirational car then possibly you have dreams of a home in Cheshire and big days out to Bicester Village.

Anyhow, just when you think it can’t get any worse out comes the Porsche Panamera. Here is a pic that kinda hides the fact that it is just ugly from any angle. And, you know what they say…”Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes to the bone.”

Ugly from any angle.

Ugly from any angle

 

Pity really. I have always dreamed of a 1989 911 w. a G50 gearbox. No whale tail.

Dom

The Waiting Game

Having sold Only Organic to Abel & Cole (Dec 08) I am playing a waiting game. I have applied for a public sector role (Thames Valley Police) and am experiencing the oh so slow grinding of the public service.

Still, I am sure this is a good thing and is allowing me to become a real stay at home dad and homemaker. It’s funny because I thought I may hate it (childcare/housecare/cooking etc) but have been pleasantly suprised. In fact, I really look forward to each day now. The enforced wait is, I daresay, doing me good. Although, I hate to admit it!

What has suffered is Twittering (the more time passes the more I feel that it is A.N. Other business tool and no real revolution regarding social interaction, anymoreso that the telephone, email, blogs etc. It is just a natural progression and any hype is of dotcom stylee – remember boo.com?) and to a lesser extent blogging. I am looking out of the window thinking that my time is better spent boosting my vitamin D intake instead of sitting here typing. On that note…cheerio.

Dom

Twitter Banalaties

As a communication tool Twitter can be very valuable. On the flip side it seems to be ok on Twitter to have verbal diarrhoea (thank god it is limited to 140 characters) about THE MOST banal things. It is real stream of conciousness stuff and it is up there with the hoax virus emails for uneccessary use of bandwdth.

Here is a small list from looking through (I follow relatively few folks) my Twitter feed for today. You decide….

• Car’s done! Going through to pick up and pay! (or…drive off w/out paying?)
• Still cold ad raining here in Austin, had to drive the boys to school this morning (it’s called weather. Surely they have waterproof skin?)
• What’s this Shorty Awards thing? I keep getting messages about it.  (Google it?)
• An old back up DVD is having issues… (has it seen a therapist?)
• Walked fast. Arrived early. Sparkly but very cold morning. Relaxing with a latte, a banana and wifi .. (awwww…. so good to know)
• Hmmm, ham, chicken and leek pie or Moroccan lamb stew? (toss a coin)
• Right, off t’ pub for lunch. (how novel. A pub? for lunch? get outta here…)
• police officer/crossing guard at elementary school on cell phone. NOT COOL. (not a cool job. low paid as well I expect)
• oh how could I have overlooked snackage once again? (who ate all the pies?)
• Texas bound with lots of Mind Candies on the 11:00h Virgin flight from Heathrow (awwwww… a plane. hold on)
• Just back from dropping the car off for its service. Now drinking tea and checking my email. (like most regular folk you have a pretty regular life)

You get the idea. What relevance do any of the above have for/to anyone else? There is no opinion being shared, no information being shared and all of the above are of seemingly no use to anyone else. Because it’s there seems to be the only explanation.

Dom

What Does It Take To Be An Expert?

I was just mulling over the conversations I have had recently regarding supposed expertise, especially online/social media. I decided to look up the definitions for expert (online, wherelse) and see what they say. Since I was there I also looked for names that came up as recognised experts and why.

What is an expert then? Well, it doesn’t get better than Wikipedia in my book (or should that be on my screen?) and they say, “An “expert“  is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well distinguished domain. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study.” I am happy to say that that definition puts me (and the vast majority of other social media users) firmly  in the amateur category. 

So why, when you look at the Twitter bios, do so many people insist on referring to themselves as experts? I didn’t think blind delusion existed on such a scale. This was a momentary lapse as I then thought of organised religion and realised just how wrong I was. I guess they are working on the principle that if you say (nay, insist) that black is white for long enough then people will believe you. If you are fortunate to get someone of influence to align with you then weaker minds are afraid to challenge. Emporer’s New Clothes again…

 

The tragic thing is that some of these self-annointed “experts” will actually manage to charge people money for their “services”. I wonder what sort of test can be devisedfor regular folks to tell if they are being flanneled? Here is as good a BS filter as any. 

For example; this chap looks convincing but then you drill in a bit and you read the client list. It ranges from “who they” to long defunct firms (Gateway computers anyone?). The expert is a .NET programmer turned self-appointed guru. The testimonials are nearly all from fellow Twitter users. Now, I don’t know this chap and have no axe to grind with him. His SEO is certainly good because I searched Google for “who is a social media expert?” and he came top. However, it concerns me to drill into the site and find cracks in the gloss. I am sure this is not unique.

 

I guess the time honoured phrase of Caveat Emptor still holds true!

Dom

A Few Random Thoughts On 11.03.09

What a day…

So far I have just avoided an obstreperous cyclist (of the “it’s my road and different rules apply to me” variety), had this blog read by a few other people than David Newton and taken my 6y old daughter cycling on the road for the first time.

The Cyclist: I was driving my van down a back road when I came across 1, then 2 then a gaggle of cyclists (it was one of the local CTC groups out enjoying the sun). As usual they were great all apart from 1 who swerved (possibly intentionally, hard to tell) into my path as I trundled by c. 15mph. She connected with my nearside wing mirror with just enough force for it to fold partially back but not enough to unseat her. I stopped at the top of the small hill and after a minutew or so was confronted by a near hysterical woman. Despite me admitting that we it was my vehicle that she came in contact with and an apology she kept on and on. It’s a bit sad really as she was not at all interested in any other viewpoint than her own perception.  Nothing was going to make her happy other than threatening me with all sorts of things and mis-quoting the Highway Code at me.  You almost feel sorry for some people. The best bit was muttering under her breath – but for me to hear – about we (the Brits?) don’t do things like they do in America. I am 1/2 Canadian but as she was in such a froth I didn’t wan’t to let her opinions be clouded by the facts. I found a website for her though….

New Readers: People remarked to me about this blog on Twitter today hence the update (I am feeling guilty for letting it slide for several days). I nearly fell off my chair and promptly followed the remarkers as it is the least I can do. They are clearly Twitterers of taste, after all. (@tawnypress & @Octane)

Cycling w. A 6y Old: If you are still reading this I will now confess to being an avid – albeit lapsed – cyclist. I wasn’t going to look like I was defending myself in such a lame way above. Nonetheless, my daughter has a really groovy bike from Isla Bikes, which she loves riding to and from school. Even though it seems de riguer to cycle on the pavement if you are a kid I want her to learn to ride safely on the road. This entails riding up and down a quiet side road whilst I jog along riding shotgun. She can really get a wiggle on and when I am running hard I have to order her to slow down or “you’ll kill daddy”. To recover my breath we do cornering exercises in a small car-park. From the heart stoppers of the thought track that goes, “she’s gonna crash, she’s gonna crash, she needs to learn, this is gonna hurt, she needs to learn, oh jeez she made it round, atta girl, etc etc” and repeat ad infinitum to the small mental nudging that reminds you the 8mo ago you wouldn’t have imagined this at all I love seeing her develop her skills. Will I do this over and over? You bet.

How do I have such a wonderful daughter I hear you cry? Well, I met my wife 10.5 years ago on a bilke ride. We got married and went cycling that afternoon. We then cycled into France a few weeks later. Hmmmm, I might have more sympathy with cyclists then Mrs Angry would think!

Can It Be So?

Is microblogging the “Next Big Thing”? It seems that it is starting to have all the characteristics of a Bubble. Tulips, gold, dotcom etc etc. Ring any bells?

 

See this good post here.

Perhaps the market needs to jump on this phenomenen now and micro-blogging won’t get over-valued in the way that other “Next Big Things” have. After all, it is just the latest way of communicating and hardly like the first atom bomb.

How Can Everyone Be a “Social Media Guru”?

An inordinate amount of people on Twitter list themselves as some sort of “Social Media Guru“. This seems to be largely a self-styled affectation brought about by spending too much time online. I struggle with the idea that merely being first to the party or spending too long at said party suddenly gifts you with the talent to tell others how to organise and run their parties.

I think we have all fallen victim – however temporary – to confusing our opinions on how to do things with actual execution. Take restaurants for example; I have on occasion reflected on a poor meal and thought that I could do it  better. In reality it is not likely. As with most things there is far more to it than meets the eye. The same goes for the new breed of gurus. They have eaten alot and prepared little.

Most self styled gurus would take your money (and watch) to tell you the time – remind you of anyone? Management Consultants perhaps? -and try to  baffle you with flannel. What concerns me is that the vast majority of folk, me included, don’t have the appropriate BS filters to see through the self-styled experts. However, we all have one valuable tool. My advice is to trust your gut instinct. If someone is BS’ing you then you can generally sense it. It’s your duty to point out that the emporer isn’t wearing any clothes.

After all, what is Twitter and the like but communication tools? There is no special magic to talking to your customers other than common sense. You have it. Use it.

Dom

PS: Loads of followers on Twitter does not maketh the man.

Customer Service Log – The Great and the BAAAAD!

I figured a bit of giving credit where it’s due along with some good ‘ole naming and shaming is definitely worth doing. I hope that when someone is researching a purchase on the web then this list, if relevant, will be there for them. I’ll add to the list as and when.

Lets start with the positive first;

THE GREAT

Alpkit 

Apple iTunes

Vodafone Business

Cotswold Outdoor

Keith Garages (VW)

The Summertown Wine Cafe

Fatbirds (a bicycle shop, what were you thinking?)

The Wine Society

Coad Opticians (Aylesbury)

Oakley UK

 

THE BAD (no URL’s as I think they are rubbish – Google them if you are a sadist…)

Rab/Equip

PayPal

Global Gizmos

BT (British Telecom)