Simple life vacation!

I was on vacation last week. We had rented a cottage near Kazabazua (cool name eh!). The cottate was by a lake, the setup was pretty good. The super neat thing was that the whole thing could run on solar power. The roof was setup with solar panels, and the energy was stored in batteries in the basement. The whole week we were off the grid. At night between 9 or 11pm, if we weren't careful during the day, or it wasn't a sunny day, we would drain the batteries. Then we had to either light up the candels, light up the propane lanterns, or fire up the generator to artificially recharge the batteries. My take aways from the experience

• it's unbelievable how many stars there are in the sky
• I don't know this is going to last - but I realize better my energy consumption impact
• Leaving a light on
• flushing the toilet everytime one goes!!!

Air travel tipping point

I've been going over a post about this air travel for the last few days. I just couldn't nail it. I like the way he puts it. At one point Airlines will go down because there won't be customers anymore, and the remaining ones will have fairs that are way too expensive to justify themselves for me anyway. Just look at Ryanair in the UK who is says they want to sue the UK goverment(As per the Ottawa Citizen of Aug 16th) for not helping them assume the fiscal implications of the new security responsibilities. They are a cheap no frill airline - they have no where near the human resources to assume those responsibilities. They go bankrupt, it leaves UK with the more expensive British Airaways, taking away affordable travel in Europe for Irish and Brits. <p> I also agree that electronic means will be gaining in popularity. I would add that airTaxi will also gain much popularity, by passing lenghty security, much more predictable, and traveling in small groups. With enough competition, this could become viable. To read more read Ester Dyson The new Air-Taxi market. <p> I'm very much worried about security and my living conditions. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place - more security is good because in theory it makes the world I live in safer - more security is bad because it becomes impractical and I loose out on freedom and std of living. I'm worried by the terror in the sky or elsewhere just as much as anyone else, and I'm also worried now more than ever that sill in 2006, basic respect for who we are and where we come from, our diversity is still not important or respected as much as it ought to. In other words we may be living the "my way or the highway" saying more than ever, and everyone is trying to impose their vues by sheer force and brutality all over the globe.

<p> So when is the tipping point for Air Travel. It's probably going to be before the un-real scenario below, I don't believe anybody would put up with such scneario. Just as we read in Wired montly - here is a flash from the future of my own - Just picture the following in 2015 - In preparation for your plane trip.

Dear (insert your name here) as a valued customer of (insert airlines carrier(s) here, not sure if their should be a s, since I don't know there will be much carriers then) we are asking that you go through the following procedure before you board our plane for (insert you destination here). In the package we have just shipped you, you will find:

• (insert Airline name here) approved soap, shampoo
• (insert Airline name here) approved clothes and shoes
• (insert Airline name here) approved electronic packing wraps.

The day of your flight we ask you to follow exactly the guidelines below:

• no more than 24hours prior to your flight, take a shower using CATSA approved soap and shampoo
• This is to get rid of any substances that you could naturally have on your skin that our xRay machines could interpret as dangerous substances.
• The above procedure can't be done more than 24hours prior to flight as the body starts to produce dangerous substances again beyond that period of time.
• Upon you're arrival at the airport, at least 12hours ahead of your planned debarture please direct yourself to the checkin counter and register yourself.
• You will then be directed to the changing room, and change with the clothes and shoes we have provided you with your boarding package
• For those who will have forgotten their change clothes, kits can be bought at an extra cost of 400$ at the checkin counter. We only ask you to do the line again.
• Put your business attire in your suitcase.
• From this point on you're no longer permitted to drink or eat.
• Snacks will be served on the airplane
• At least 6hours prior to your departure, go to the second checkin counter
• Make sure all your electronics are safely wrapped and stored in your suitcase
• check-in luggage
• Go to security ...

Apple and SEC

As if SEC would ever delist apple.
It just looks like someone if following procedure very closely. How serious can this be though really, it makes it a joke in my mind.

powered by performancing firefox

Performancing

I stumbled on this firefox extension Performancing

It adds a blogging tool within the browser itself, it's pretty neet. I got the link from a infectious greed reading review for the wonderful or not so wonderful Windows Live Writer! I'll give it a shot, stay tuned.

New blogger

Google Operating System: The New Blogger Woohoo!

Engineering Servjces

Globalisation Of Engineering Services - The Next Growth Frontier For India: "a study “Globalisation of Engineering Services – the Next Frontier for India”." Two things - Product Development is a multi-discplinary business, it makes sense that Companies look at capturing the whole product development spectrum in terms of R&D activities ie - design, development, testing etc but also along verticals. For example firms offering product development services for the automotive industry, they will expand beyond mechanical engineering, to add design for example, but also go into other industry to leverage know-how and expertise.

Second as India gets serious about bumping out the Eng shops that are just down the streets of their clients to bring their jobs to India, I wonder what the reaction will be. Part of me says - well we've been through it with IT, and it won't be paid much attention since it's déja vu. I also think that since Eng are so much more organized and have so much lobby power with government that it could bring a whole new debate on the table. Only time will tell.

Don't believe in bad journalism

Don't believe BusinessWeek's bubble-math - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals) This is the second post I make about the bad job BusinessWeek did about digg I think digg is cool and Kevin Rose knows what he is doing, but I'm also happy to see that people don't believe the crap BusinessWeek has put up in this story. They stretched things way to thin, so that it would attract attention. All in all I read BusinessWeek regularly - I'm very disapointed by this story that's all.

Web 2.0 what is it?

business2blog: B2Day : What Does Web 2.0 Mean to You? It's so true that you ask 500 people and you roughly get 500 different answers. What is more true is because there is a Web 2.0 tag, there will most probably neve be a Web 3.0. I can't remember for sure where I read this, but the reasoning gist is that one would sounds silly and pompous to say quote stuff as Web 3.0. So careful in those cocktail parties, no Web 3.0 coining/categorizing.

Buble this!

Techdirt: Forget Paper Millionaire, Digg Founder's A Vapormillionaire: "BusinessWeek has written the ultimate Web2.0 hype piece without the slightest hint of skepticism about the numbers that it throws around" Thanks to Techdirt for sticking it to BusinessWeek. Digg has good content, has a good following and I read it every day. Show me a business model that makes it worth 200M , without saying YouTube is worth 500M to 1B.

Fortune and the Welch way

The New Rules - July 24, 2006: "Even now, nearly five years after his retirement from General Electric, Jack Welch commands the spotlight. He is still power-lunching, still making the gossip columns, still the charismatic embodiment of the star CEO" Since when "customer is king" a new rule? I believe Jack Welch did an amazing job at GE, companies across the board have much to learn from those years he spent there. I think the rules are too much "canibalize your own business" that we used to read everywhere in pre-bust years, or "build and they will come". Excess of the buble led to excessive cuts - in Corpo future like R&D, and this is leading us to the new rules from Fortune. Creating share holder value is a big challenge to start with, Welch has been good and consistent for many many years, creating share holder value year after year. I think we should point the fingers at the Welch wanabes - the ones who can/could only copy cat what others are doing.