Book Review – First There Wasn’t, Then There Was by Troy Blackford
First There Wasn't, Then There Was by Troy Blackford My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a very strange tale, and definitely the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from someone who'd lost everything and was living on the streets. The premise is that four young guys, all smokers, see an old man shambling around every day when they are out on their smoke breaks. The old man is always talking, never stops or addresses anyone directly and refuses money or any other attempts to engage. He never stands still long enough for them to hear what he says. One day one of the young smokers has an idea, they pop a digital dictaphone in his pocket and record what he says for a few hours. When they listen back they find an unexpectedly coherent story, told consciously…
3 Step Guide on How to stream Demand 5 on linux (and windows and Mac too)
I like to watch the Mentalist, and my PVR is a bit flaky, which means that I need to fall back on Demand 5 to watch it when I miss it. If you have tried this you'll know that it is a much maligned video on demand service offered by Channel 5 in the UK. There's a reason for this, there's too much going on with their page because it is badly developed. They've certainly not designed with the user need in mind like GDS are getting the UK government to do. So inspired by this post and after reading lots of other posts telling me I needed to install hal and stuff I came up with the following three steps to get Demand 5 working: Install Firefox Flash Block Ad Killer 1. Install Firefox I tried it with both Mozilla Firefox…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Evolution
We've had a succession of changes in socially acceptable behaviour. First we couldn't smoke on trains, then it was smelly food, noisy headphones and excessive alcohol ; Now there is the most sensible change in social responsibility. The Daily Fail is now not allowed on Britain's rail network. About time if you ask
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Book Review – Moving Target by Elizabeth Moon
Moving Target by Elizabeth Moon My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the second in the series, and I think it is better than the first. The universe has been expanded, amid the destruction of the Vatta family there is a whole load more political stuff going on that is revealed. Or more accurately it is strongly hinted at and clues dispensed, there isn't a big reveal, other than that there is a wider and more twisty world than the one that Ky Vatta had been living in before. View all my reviews
Mintzberg’s 5Ps & Whittington’s 3Ps
I noticed that a number of the people visiting my blog are looking for strategy material. So I've trawled my unpublished archives and have put together some short posts on strategy topics. Here's one on looking to explain two ways of defining strategy. Mintzberg's 5Ps and Whittington's 3Ps. The main thing to bear in mind, with both Mintzberg's 5Ps & Whittington's 3Ps, is that they're not a process tool for producing strategies. However, they are both excellent tools for analysing and evaluating strategies. That is definitely worth doing if you have to devise strategy. Before you release a strategy you need to robustly take it apart to ensure that it is fit for purpose. If you find it weak then it isn't yet ready for prime time. Mintzberg's 5Ps Henry Mintzberg has described five ways of looking at strategy as plan, ploy, pattern, position and…