• NSLU2-Linux: Technical information for hacking the Linksys NSLU2 NAS device, along with the Synology DS101, the Iomega NAS100d, the D-Link DSMG600 and other ixp4xx-based devices with large attached storage.
• Hacking WD MyBook World Ed: Western Digital's My Book World Edition network storage device is actually a little Linux RAID server. This Wiki has technical information on how to hack them.
• Sarah Jessica Parker Looks Like A Horse: Well, she does. And here's the website. Proof that people have too much time on their hands.
• A twittering experiment | eicolab: An interesting use Twitter, with a comment added by yours truly.
• Friends, Enemies and My Army | Viddler.com: Another recent presentation by Mark Pesce, this one at the 2008 Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, on 25 May 2008. A nice trip through the power of Twitter, the "nuclear option", and the surprising influence of Josh Marshall's army.
• Phoenix Lander “Talks” to Twitterers | NYTimes.com: Includes an interview with the NASA employee who's been playing the part of the Mars Phoenix spacecraft on Twitter (@MarsPhoenix).
• Australian Strategic Policy Institute: "One for the feed reader", I've been told. I haven't explored this site yet.
• A discussion paper on the singular use of “they”: This link looks like it solves this question forever. If only people read it…
• Twitter Co-Opted by Users as Better SMS, Social Media Platform | URBEINGRECORDED: Yet another superb essay on the impact of Twitter.
• The Gruen Transfer | ABC TV: A new TV series looking at the art and science of persuasion as used by the advertising industry. Much good stuff here.
• Ern Malley | Wikipedia: Not exactly a new story, but I was recently reminded of this wonderful literary hoax from the 1940s.
• Scaling a Microblogging Service – Part I | Hueniverse: A comprehensive but fairly technical explanation of the problems Twitter faces.
• The Digital Media Revolution | YouTube: Mark Pesce, Technology Futurist speaks about the Digital Media Revolution at the SAGEM conference, April 2008, in Adelaide. Will the government heed his advice? In 5 parts, this links to part 1.
• Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address | YouTube: An inspirational 15 mins about the importance of following your dream, even if the end result isn't clear. "You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back."

When I first compared this enlightened approach to people-management with the drive-them-harder style of Jason Calacanis, it triggered a massive debate, and I wrote a follow-up comparing the Calacanis approach to an evil cult. Last week 37signals reckoned that urgency is poisonous.

One thing I’ve come to realize is that urgency is overrated. In fact, I’ve come to believe urgency is poisonous. Urgency may get things done a few days sooner, but what does it cost in morale? Few things burn morale like urgency. Urgency is acidic.

Emergency is the only urgency. Almost anything else can wait a few days. It’s OK. There are exceptions (a trade show, a conference), but those are rare.

When a few days extra turns into a few weeks extra then there’s a problem, but what really has to be done by Friday that can’t wait for Monday or Tuesday? If your deliveries are that critical to the hour or day, maybe you’re setting up false priorities and dangerous expectations.

If you’re a just-in-time provider of industry parts then precise deadlines and deliveries may be required, but in the software industry urgency is self-imposed and morale-busting. If stress is a weed, urgency is the seed. Don’t plant it if you can help it.

I can’t agree more. A client phoned once, all a’fluster about an “emergency”. Before I could think, I blurted out the question, “Why? Whose life is in peril?”

Of course no-one was in danger. This client was operating in crisis mode, as usual: that anti-pattern also known as “firefighting mode”: “Dealing with things only when they become a crisis, with the result that everything becomes a crisis.” I’ve written about that before here and with my colleague Zern Liew.

My business Prussia.Net always has clients who resist any long-term IT planning. While researching potential suppliers to handle our increasing workload, I stumbled across the best explanation I’ve ever seen for how the process should work.

Many SOHO and very small business seem to have no plan for their IT at all. Most, actually. They just call for help when something breaks, and only replace computers and other equipment when it’s completely dead. They complain that their computers are slow or unreliable, and yet resist spending anything on preventative maintenance or minor upgrades which could deliver substantial improvements.

Zern Liew and I have discussed the causes of this before. However the two key elements are, I think, a lack of understanding of IT issues and the perception that doing things professionally will be expensive.

Last year Australian IT services company First Focus‘s website presented a 3-phase model for developing professionally-managed IT. They removed it when they renovated the site, which I think was a mistake. But here it is anyway, thanks to The Wayback Machine…

In the Learning phase, [we] will meet with your management team to hear about you. What are your priorities? What would you like to be able to do? How much do you want to spend? How much are IT problems costing you right now? Based on this information, we will create a proposal for moving your business towards a “best practice” IT environment. The proposal will include fixed costs, recommendations and alternatives, and we will discuss it with you in plain English to map out what’s going to happen next. During this phase, we will also distribute a survey to all members of staff in your organisation. The results of this survey will be used as a baseline for measuring improvements in your organization’s Network.

The Stabilisation phase is all about ensuring your network meets a minimum level of reliability and usefulness for your staff. A poorly designed or cobbled together network is only going to cause you an endless series of problems. Our goal is to prevent problems from recurring by fixing the root causes, rather than the symptoms. Critical problem areas are addressed first, and typically this phase may include the delivery of one or more Focused Solutions to address key business objectives.

The Support phase is all about ensuring your cost-benefit. This “phase” is more a continual process, where First Focus ensures your network stays highly organized, documented, and stable. Preventative maintenance, Software updates, and Staff training are the hallmarks of this process. A regular strategic IT review is also conducted in order for First Focus to report to your management team, and in order for the management team to keep First Focus aware of any new business objectives or requirements. We will also survey your staff on a regular basis to help you measure any improvement in your organisation’s Network.

Very sensible stuff. The killer for me, though, was their final paragraph:

There are no shortcuts to this process; we can’t maintain your network to the standards we are satisfied with, until it is in a stable state. And we can’t move your network to a stable state until we understand the business processes and objectives your network must support.

100% correct. Businesses can’t ignore planning and maintenance and then whinge about poor reliability and sudden unexpected expenses when things need to be fixed. And yet this is precisely how most small businesses seem to run. It’s like getting a dodgy second-hand car, failing to check the water levels or change the oil when recommended, and then being surprised when the engine blows up.

Even though First Focus dropped that explanation from their website, they’re definitely a contender for Prussia.Net’s outsourced IT support. Expect my call soon, chaps.

How… 2005.

Laurel was tagged three months ago and is only getting to it now. And they’re not even real ropes!

Is that enough slagging-off? Shall I get on with it now?

Actually this will be fun on a Saturday morning. It’s been ages since I’ve done one of these. Here goes…

The Rules

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts about Stilgherrian

As you read these, do reflect upon your own life and, if any thoughts are triggered, please add your own comments.

1. I can’t swim. Whenever I went near water deeper than my ankles my mother, bless her, would screech, “Don’t go near the water you’ll fall in and drown!” I avoided school swimming lessons. Even now, if I wade into water that reaches my chest, my pulse rate surges and more often than not I’ll have a panic attack. A spa isn’t necessarily relaxing.
2. I was the first person to let a talkback caller say “fuck” on Adelaide radio, as far as I know. At least in daylight hours. When challenged by the station manager, I said the sheer strength of expression was an important part of the caller’s political point, and that we didn’t do political censorship. This was in the late 1980s.
3. I’m told I’m a good shot with a gun. This was after a trip on HMAS Aware, an old Attack-class patrol boat run by the RANR. I loosed a full clip from a 9mm Browning automatic into a perfectly innocent oil drum floating gently off the boat’s stern. Most shots hit the target. The Quartermaster-Gunner noticed, and his views were relayed back to me. I haven’t fired a gun since.
4. One time I got so drunk I lost my colour vision for two days. I was left in charge of a keg of cider and was serving it on a “one for you, one for me” basis. Hey give me a break, I was young!
5. The scars below my left eye were caused by two different accidents. When I was about 2 years old, I ran into the brass tap of a rainwater tank — conveniently at face height at that age. When I was 23 I was run down by a car. I bounced over the bonnet. The windscreen wipers dragged my glasses from my face, ploughing a furrow through the flesh. It was raining. The blood trickled into my eye as I lay on the street waiting for the ambulance. My neck hurt. It hurt a lot. I remembered the drill, though. “Don’t touch me,” I kept repeating to the driver. “Don’t touch me!” Fortunately my neck was not broken. My left knee, however, continues to be dodgy.
6. At high school I was in the same Venturer Scout patrol as soon-to-be Senator Nick Xenophon. Every now and then I joke about running for the Senate too. Should I?
7. Once, for a whole week, I had no keys. I’d moved out of my Adelaide flat and was en route to Sydney. But everything I owned, apart from a bag of clothes and a handful of books, was in transit. I stayed with friends while making a leisurely journey via Melbourne, and I hadn’t arranged accommodation in Sydney. With no keys defining my relationship with land and property, I felt strangely liberated and fancy-free.
8. I sometimes wonder what would’ve happen had I stayed living in Adelaide. There’s an artist who… who perhaps could have received more of my attention. Last I heard, he’s sharing his life with someone born in the same hospital I was, on exactly the same date, but one year different. Fate is a fickle bitch.

You’re tagged!

And now it’s your turn. If you’ve already done this meme, let me know and I’ll victimise someone else.

• ’Pong, obviously.
• Alex Willemyns. Since you use Tumblr it’s tricky to post lots of text so maybe you have to do a series of pictures. Or post one fact at a time using text snippets. Or make a video.
• Garth “Deadly Bloody Serious” Kidd, it’d be nice to something from you more often than once every two or three months.
• Houston, whose last name I won’t give ‘cos it’s not on his blog.
• Nick Hodge Try not to make them all geekfacts.
• Snarky Platypus Here’s an excuse to finally write a second post. Or update Insane Platypus, a fine women’s basketball blog which has languished for nearly two years.
• Zern Liew. I know your Eicolab blog is business-oriented, so maybe yours all have to be facts about yourself which define your business identity. “All business is personal.”
• Zhasper

Australia’s democracy, created in the age of steam trains and the telegraph, must grasp the social media and online collaboration tools already transforming our world. Not tentatively, but with bold confidence.

I know these tools and their technology — and their flaws. Practical knowledge, untainted by the need to prop up old-media empires or sell products.

Armed with a high-powered “BS Detector”, I take a forensic approach to analysing complex issues — synthesizing and explaining practical solutions in clear, unambiguous language.

My passions are aroused by issues of integrity, human rights, truth, tolerance and transparency.

As I’ve mentioned before, my referees were Adam Salzer are Zern Liew. Nice to have one at each end of the alphabet, eh?

The more I look through my writing, the more I see the themes of this summit session running through so many articles.

Here’s 5, chosen more or less at random:

• Enlightenment is about Conversation
• Post 801: Kill the Hallucinating Goldfish
• Arrest of “teen party host” highlights stupidity of law
• 2007: Social media goes mainstream (except for business and politics)
• PodCamp Perth 2007: Social Media and the Federal Election

False modesty aside, I really do think I can be of value in Canberra. Let’s hope steering committee members John Hartigan et al agree.

If you click through to the full-size graphic, you’ll see how it begins in 1998 with observations like “Flash is bad” and variations on “Appropriate technology” through to current observations like “markets are conversations” and “business is personal” — things I happen to agree on.

What would your career look like in this format? What were the observations, tools and guiding principles which shaped your career path?

… they’d have to fit the kind of distorted bodies that designers imagine we have (pictured).

My friend and colleague Zern Liew made this image.

The two figures in the middle are typical of fashion design drawings. Designs are based on these oddly proportioned, fantasy, body shapes.

Click though to see what this distorted image would mean for the design of a toilet.

This was all part of a talk he gave high school students on body image as part of the Eating Disorders Foundation of NSW’s annual Youth Forum last year.

As the sun sets on 2007 — literally, as I took the photo just before I sat down to write — it’s time to reflect on an astounding year. The Snarky Platypus will join ’Pong and me later, and (perhaps) help us put together some predictions for 2008.

This was a watershed year for me, for my household and business, and for Australia. Many of the changes happened late in the year, so we haven’t noticed the effects yet. But as 2008 unfolds I think we’ll look back and see that, yes, 2007 marked a change of direction.

Personally, my understanding of how I fit into my world (and yours) became much clearer.

Almost a year ago I reflected upon the nature of my village, and then like so many I was moved by the ceremonies on the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s 75th birthday. That started a psychological journey which culminated in my trip to Thailand. That triggered many thoughts. They’re still rattling around; more will emerge. Meanwhile Facebook started re-connecting me with many old friends.

But the two most intense personal changes were meetings: one business, one social.

At a strategic planning session mid-year, Zern Liew helped me develop The Plan for returning to doing more media work. That’s languished for various reasons, but I did write stories for Crikey and put passion into some of the articles here. The business name Skank Media is registered and ready to unroll in 2008.

The social meeting was that dinner with Joe Wilson and Nick Hodge from Microsoft. The redoubtable Laurel Papworth was there — that’s her in the photo, with Rupert Murdoch keeping a watchful eye — and I met the witty Ajay Ranipeta, and Lachlan and Lisa who created Webjam. All good. But the highlight for me was meeting Mark Pesce.

I’ve wanted to meet Mark for ages. No, I’m not some starry-eyed fan-boy, but I did grok some of the stuff he wrote way back and figured he’d be an interesting bloke. He is.

Mark has lived in Sydney for 4 years now. We have many acquaintances in common, yet we only met this month. Even he said:

I’m amazed that we haven’t met before this. Have you been out of the country or something? For the last FOUR YEARS??? It’s. Just. Weird.

Mark is 100% right: it is weird. Then it hit me. I haven’t been out of the country for 4 years. But I have been living under a rock.

Instead of using my skills and knowledge in media and the Internet, I’ve been a mechanic — fixing other people’s tools through my little IT business. And I’ve been frustrated the whole time.

That dinner was an important trigger. It reminded me who my peers are in this “industry” and what sort of level I should be playing at. Roll on 2008!

Actually, there was a third major meeting. PodCamp in Perth and my presentation there. This reminded me, once more, that presentation and “explaining things” is a personal forte. Thank you, Crispin.

I also put on a bit of weight. We’ll deal with that later.

Looking more widely, yes, Kevin Rudd is now Prime Minister.

The Golden Age of the Iced Vovo has not yet emerged, and today there was news of severe fuckwittedness regarding Internet filtering. But on the whole I’m happy that John Howard’s Reign of (the War on) Terror has ended. I’m hoping this translates into some intelligent leadership from Chairman Rudd.

I haven’t said much about ’Pong, but he’s everywhere through this blog. Phom rak khun krub! And the Snarky Platypus has made so much possible too, in his own, um, endurable fashion. I tend not to blog about all that because, well, it’s personal personal stuff. Thank you.

I’ll stop the thank-yous there, or I’ll end up sounding like John Cleese’s BAFTA acceptance speech.

And now, gin and tonic! See you next year.

One section touches upon what I’ve been calling radical transparency — something which can shock clients more used to their suppliers spinning bull.

The openness with which we communicate here is not common. It has gotten some people suspicious and angry. We talk about clients that screwed us over (without mentioning their name, or even giving hints of course), contracts we didn’t get because we were not good enough, we shoot against people that are potential clients, we mess with one of the lungs of the blogosphere and one of the biggest marketing agency in the world started to get nervous after we opened fire against them and their unprofessional dubious practices.

This openness is to a certain degree an experiment, to a certain degree unavoidable, as it goes back to the character of iA’s peculiar owner. iA’s openness is based on the assumption: That being real works better that being virtual. In the so called virtual world as well as in the real world. Yes, in the business world as well: Because if you show your clients who you are, you are more likely to get the ones that understand you.

The definite reality check on that one is yet to come. But we are pretty optimistic.

I’ve written about transparency before, but it’s great to find a like-minded firm. Hat tip to Zern Liew.

There is no such thing as a “space”.

There is such a thing as a market — that’s a group of people who will directly or indirectly pay money for something.

There is such a thing as a product — that’s an offering of a new kind of good or service that is brought to a market.

There is such a thing as a company — that’s an organized business entity that brings a product to a market.

Marc’s article goes on to explain why there’s no such thing as “Web 2.0″ either — in fact that’s its main thrust. It’s worth reading.

Hell, his entire blog is worth reading.

On the other hand, William Shakespeare is worth reading too.

So are P J O’Rourke, Daniel Petre, George Orwell, David Marr, John Birmingham, James Burke, George Lakoff, Brian Eno, Lao Tsu, Sherry Turkle, Steven Levy, Neal Stephenson, Umberto Eco, Richard Watts, Paul Graham, Bruce Schneier, Father Bob Maguire, Matt Ridley, Daniel Dennett, Zern Liew, Steven Levitt… but you’ve just got to draw the line somewhere!

Actually, I’m going to give you two sets of five. My really favourite feeds are from people unlikely to play this game, but I’m sure to read them every day.

1. Gaping Void, Hugh McLeod’s insightful cartoons drawn on the back of business cards. I also appreciate his observations on blog-led business marketing. I should also mention Indexed in this context, even though it’s not quite a must-read yet.
2. Freakonomics, the blog of the book of the same name.
3. I agree with Zhasper that The Bartlett Diaries is a fine political blog.
4. Josh Spear spends his days cruising around to see what’s cool. Lucky him.
5. Crikey. OK, I cheated. It’s an email newsletter, not an RSS feed. Sue me.

On a more personal note:

1. If I don’t start with Out to Space and Pong’s Flickr feed, I’ll be in serious trouble.
2. My friend and colleague Zern Liew’s Eicolab, even if he does have a rant against Apple today.
3. Man About Town, a personal blog by my friend Richard Watts in Melbourne — always an eclectic mix of personal anecdotes and arts reviews. I’d never reveal so much of my, erm, vices!
4. The Other Andrew‘s delightfully-written personal observations would continue to fascinate me, even if I hadn’t know him for years.
5. Bad Language by Matthew Stibbe is my daily fix of writing about writing.

Now, your responses please! And if you’re reading this but haven’t been tagged, I’d love to hear from you anyway. Post a comment! You know you want to!