Size Matters
August 19, 2010
Here’s a great presentation by Nigel Marsh given at TEDx Sydney in May, I recommend watching it, it’s only 10mins long, here’s a snippet
“the small things matter… being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your life… with the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your life and relations… I believe it can transform society, as if enough people do it we can change society’s definition of success… away from the notion that the ‘Guy with the most money when he dies wins’… to a more thoughtful and balanced definition of what a life well lived looks like”
It dove tails perfectly with one aspect of the “Your Small Change” non-profit concept I had a while back, which I’m rolling out in the coming weeks, so I’d love it if you drop by the Facebook page in the meantime and clicked the LIKE button to show your interest and support
The App Genome Project
August 16, 2010
At the Black Hat Security Conference, Lookout unveiled the App Genome Project, which is the largest mobile application dataset ever created. In an ongoing effort to map and study mobile applications, the App Genome Project was created to identify security threats in the wild and provide insight into how applications are accessing personal data, as well as other phone resources. Lookout founders John Hering and Kevin Mahaffey initiated the App Genome project to understand what mobile applications are doing and use that information to more quickly identify potential security threats.
With the prevalence of mobile devices, they have become inherent in our lives, the more we depend upon the information stored within them, the greater the risks posed when this information falls into the wrong hands. Is this something you should be concerned about? Your Identity Matters, but how much it matters is up to you.
similar post here
Are You Managing to Lead?
August 13, 2010
Today I received an email from a friend saying how they are fed up with the continual way their line manager treats them, with little or no respect. I hear this time and time again from friends and colleagues… when will managers realise, if they change their attitude, show genuine leadership and stop being administrators, they’ll get the results they desire.
Managers often say, “why doesn’t my staff do what they’re supposed to do?” the simple answer (and one they don’t like to hear), is because they either haven’t explained it properly, or they’re not showing genuine leadership, because if they had, their staff would do as they ask. Managers have Power & Authority, but that’s not enough, an uninspiring manager is someone that manages and administrates, a good manager shows leadership and does so by gaining respect and influence.
‘Power’ is derived from position, ‘Authority’ is derived from title, ‘Leadership’ is derived from behavior James R. Davis
We all remember teachers from our school years, and the really good ones stand out, because they were leaders. If you’re a manager, how do you want to be remembered by your past staff, the insignificant manager that administered, or the person that gained respect and made a real difference to those working with you?
Dwight Eisenhower defined leadership as “Convincing someone else, to do what you want, because they want to do it.”
I’ve written about this before in my post Follow the Leader in essence it comes down to this Anyone can lead, it isn’t about having authority, it’s about gaining trust & respect through the correct behaviour.
Freedom of Choice / Sodapopstop.com
August 11, 2010
If I lived in LA, I probably wouldn’t have any teeth left as I’d be in this shop every single day!
you can’t help but admire and be drawn to this guy as he explains how he’s made his passion his life… as he says “People say you’re here and work all the time… I don’t work, I just play all day long… it’s flavoured water with a lot of bubbles… if I was to define it in one word, I’d say happy”
“I went out and and found 25 little brands of soda, and put them on the shelf and people would ask, what are you doing with all those old things that don’t sell? but when I got to 250 it was, where are you finding them?… now we have about 500 different sodas”
“When you give your customers choice, they’re buy it… the important thing is to set yourself apart and provide your customers with something that nobody else has”
this is a great example of the long tail in action
Serendipity
July 29, 2010
ooops, I meant to post this a month ago, just found it sitting on my iPhone.
Tonight I met an old friend / business partner I’ve not seen in over 14 years! I know crazy eh… but he still lives 7,000 miles away in Singapore, where we had our business. Anyway it got me thinking… As when I met him this evening it was like I’d met him only last week! And when I said good night at Leicester Square just now it was like I was going to see him again next week (unfortunately I probably won’t see him again for years). Possibly it’s just me, but maybe (and I’m hoping I’m right here) but when you catch up with a really good friend it makes no difference how long it’s been since you last met them, they’re still a best friend, no matter how long it’s been… They’re on your wave length, they get you, you get them, you click.
It was refreshing to catch up with him after all this time, he is still the same guy I knew all those years ago, hopefully I’m still the same guy he remembers (apart from one or two extra grey hairs!)… He’s been through a lot of the same experiences as me in the last couple of years, he’d lost someone very close to him after a long term terminal illness, yet he’d come through it pretty much the same as me. Although we shared a lot, our lives have taken us in different directions, both of us have regrets of what could have been, but both of us are pretty glad of what we have and upon reflection I don’t think either one of us would change much about our lives (except maybe the way we played the stockmarkets!)
Funny, as I write this, “The Riverboat Song” by Ocean Colour Scene is playing on my iPhone, a tune that always reminds me of riding home in a cab on a hot and sticky night in Singapore many many years ago!
The Mobile Office
July 28, 2010
The sun has made an appearance again, so I’ve shifted the office to my garden today… you gotta love WiFi
Aha Moment
July 28, 2010
No I’m not talking about the 80′s Norwegian boy band
I just stumbled across Aha Moment a website full of short videos of people decribing their Aha Moment. One that struck a cord with me was Siobhan Neilland’s Aha Moment…
“My aha moment happened two and a half years ago, when I lost a baby through a miscarriage. I got really depressed, so I decided to stop everything and go to Africa to try to see if I could help other people. I ended up volunteering with this organization that did malaria prevention in Uganda.
One of the women I met with was Jamira, who’s a midwife. Something happened when I met her. I was staring at the bed where thousands of women have had their babies with the same black, blood-soaked pad. They were just deplorable conditions. I said, ‘I can help change this…”
Check out her One Mama website
Pulse of the Nation
July 27, 2010
I love data visualisation, in fact I was given a wonderful book entitled “Information is Beautiful” as a present a few days ago… anyway I just stumbled across this on Mashable
The video shows the mood in the U.S., as inferred using over 300 million tweets, over the course of the day. The maps are represented using density-preserving cartograms more info here
iPhone 4 35mm Lens Adapter
July 26, 2010
In an update to the post I made a couple of weeks ago about attaching 35mm lenses to the iPhone 4, the guys at Vid Atlantic have adapted their EnCinema 35mm Adapter to fit to Owle Bubo
Video shot with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 DSLR lens on the EnCinema 35mm Adapter attached to the OWLE Bubo
It’s an Illusion – Meet Your Strawman
July 22, 2010
I can’t remember how I stumbled across a presentation entitled It’s an Illusion by John Harris a couple of months ago, but I’m very glad I did, as it was a real eye opener. It’s 50mins long in total, but it’s time well invested I assure you.
It’s an Illusion on BBC5.tv or YouTube
“John Harris gives us his perspective on what’s going on. He describes how we are economic slaves to a debt dependant system, notably achieved through the deception of the birth certificate and the creation of a legal fiction known as your ‘PERSON’. It is this PERSON that the government then wields it’s control upon. Although John points out that this arrangement only works when we consent.
Unfortunately inaction is taken as consent, hence we have unwittingly surrendered our inalienable rights through identifying with the PERSON. Remember you are a human being with god given rights, all you have to do is claim them.
Filmed at the The British Constitution Group Lawful Rebellion Conference in Stoke-on-Trent on the 24th January 2009.”
More info on The People’s United Community
For a quick summary, you can watch Meet Your Strawman below by Infomatic Films (I stumbled across this on Lster921′s blog just now)
Another good site that explains this is Freedom Rebels, I recommend reading What’s a Freeman?
