Chairman Rudd has announced that the 1000 “best and brightest” have been chosen for the Australia 2020 Summit, and confirms that the attendees will receive their invitations this week. There’s only “a handful” of household names, he says. I’ll list the 20 names he released today in another post later today, or you can read the pieces in The Age or at the ABC. I have household things to do first.
A “new” portrait?
I just found this photo of me which ’Pong took in July 2002. I’m now using a version on my Twitter profile. Should it be my permanent image?
Chocolate bunny revisited
Since it’s Easter Sunday, I’ll point you to a previous post showing what happens to unpopular bunnies. Enjoy!
Stilgherrian in Thailand: photographic evidence
Speaking of my journey to Thailand, ’Pong has just published a bunch of photos of me he took there, only one of which you’ve seen before. Some of them are not particularly flattering.
Everything is better on ice…
When I went to Thailand last year, Thai Airways International was generally excellent — except for their choice of in-flight movies. Sorry, but even after a couple glasses of wine and several brandies High School Musical is a piece of shit.
I’d originally guessed that it was only screened because it somehow matched the Thai sense of sentimentality. But no. I soon discovered it was such a success — it even won an Emmy! — that Disney made a sequel with the imaginative title High School Musical 2.
I was really, really hoping that was going to be the end of the story. But no (again). Touring Australia in April and May is… High School Musical: The Ice Tour.
Sadly, this show doesn’t involve the dentally-perfect racially-balanced lead characters in some meth-fuelled rampage but… yes… ice skates. Somebody get me a bucket.
There ain’t no shortcuts to professionally-managed IT
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…
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