Blog – Page 322 – Stilgherrian

11 March 200811 March 2008

Stupid uses of “solution”

Photograph of truck with sign on side: Crawford Tree Solutions Pty Ltd 0417 871 471

Pet gripe: the use of the word “solution” in (originally) the IT industry and now, seemingly, everywhere.

Wikipedia doesn’t give it it’s own page, merely saying:

In business, a solution is a product, service, or combination of both which is said to solve a business or consumer’s problem; the term is often considered an overused and unimaginative buzzword.

So when I saw this truck (pictured) in Stanmore yesterday afternoon I wondered, “WFT is a ‘tree solution’?”

I assume this guy is an arborist, or “tree surgeon”. The former ain’t great marketing in the 21st Century ‘cos it’s latinesque, but I can live with the latter — after all, he’s a bloke what cuts down or fixes trees, yeah?

Other annoying buzzwords for me: “business ecology”, “DNA” (when used to talk about “our business’ DNA”), “space” and “Web 2.0”. Any others?

11 March 200811 March 2008

Twitter updates for 2008-03-10

[Note: Although labelled as the tweets for 10 March, the current Twitter Tools date function isn’t localised properly and this appears to be for 10 March UTC, not AEDT, ‘cos the one starting “Emerging” (3rd from bottom) was the morning of 11 March for me. They’re in chronological order, top to bottom.]

Finally! Zukerberg’s speech at SXSW has pushed the JCal war off the top of Techmeme. #
@crispin_harris Thanks (though you missed an "r" in my name). Did you see the longer piece I posted about an hour ago? #
@crispin_harris Cool. It’ll be interesting to see how the Cult of the Internet Start-up fundamentalists respond to such an open challenge. #
@ApostrophePong Useful meta-review of Nikkor 18-200mm DX lens. http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2008/03/09/4901 #
@duncanriley Welcome back to Oz. Time for you to trigger another shit-fight on teh internetz! 😉 #
Monday re-planned (well, re-chaos’d): Heading to St Ives to fix client problem. #
Waiting for a cab at Pymble. School (all private) is out: noisy! #
Schoolchildren interfere with cab-hailing gesture. FAIL! #
@mpesce Agreed, but last I checked I’m not authorised to shoot children under 15. #
Reinstalling 2007 Microsoft Office system which failed to activate properly. FAIL! #
Ah, my work St St Ives is, essentially, done. Now to potter for a moment and de-stress before re-stressing in the traffic. #
Latitude decreasing… stress neutral… back aching… sun shining… earth turning… #
@eskimo_sparky Welcome, new Twitterstalker(tm)! Twittering on a laptop at the bus stop is weird. That’s me, not you… 😉 #
@eskimo_sparky Let’s drink to weird people then! One shot each for each one we know. #
Monday re-plan, v3.0: gym & dinner cancelled; on train returning to civilisation; evening options open #
@SilkCharm Does your sister also have a flower name? A psychic told me you do. #
Oops… Nokia N80 battery about to fail. Laptop to Internet via Bluetooth to said N80 about to fail. I NEED MORE VOLTS! #
Home! #
@SilkCharm Psychic was a he, didn’t specify partic plants, just that I’d met a woman with a plant/flower name, who had sister with one too. #
@zhasper Am I that pedant? *slightly confused* I mean, I AM a pedant… #
@SilkCharm Apparently Plant woman is important to my next major change(s) in life! (Keep your ego in curb, girl!) #
@SilkCharm He said that I’d been to a meeting or something with this woman, and also described @nickhodge and @mpesce (sort of). #
@NickHodge Shortly after that dinner in December, a psychic happened to mention a "meeting" I’d had and you match the photofit. 😉 #
@NickHodge Yeah @Fifikins is so right, H O T Z ! @ApostrophePong is so dumped! #
@bck Tempting, but nah @nickhodge still wins. It’s those superb rolls of fat and the saggy y-fronts for me! And especially the back hair #
As a random thought, how long are Tweets archived for? #
Oh shit! My Tweets also go on my website, and the National Archives keep my website FOREVER! #
@kcarruthers Nah I’m actually quite used to what I say being on the public record. Too much time as a broadcaster. #
@bck Maybe you could show us a different part of your body each weeknight, and then on weekends… #
@weatherbot sydney australia #
Emerging. Today is all tea, no coffee. Wonder when headaches will start. (I’ve previously done 1yr no caffeine. Time to do it again.) #
Dumping planned breakfast meeting. Just a supplier wanting to whore new products. Why START the day with crass commercialism? #
@jjprojects guess I’d better start following you. Half the people I see talk to you and I’m getting confused. Or tantalised. #

11 March 2008

Twitter digests: an experiment

As an experiment, I’m going to publish daily digests of my Twitter updates. Let me know what you think. If you don’t know WTF I’m talking about, go to Twitter and then look at twitter.com/stilgherrian. The most recent 10 tweets are visible on my website, but I’m starting to do quite a few more than that every day.

11 March 2008

Some videos what you can enjoy, y’hear?

Here’s some moving images on the Internet for your enjoyment.

You know how Westpac bank ATMs have that woman who gestures at you through the transaction? Does she annoy you? I especially hate how she asks whether you want a receipt, and then says you can’t have a receipt. Ignorant bitch. What about this version?
Check out the most in-demand video editing crew in the entire Sunnyvale trailer park.
A currently-running TV advert with a nice beaver. I encourage you to join the conversation there about the use of the word. Has the advertiser got it right for the Australian audience?

Now this is nothing more than links to things I found interesting. Should this be a full post like this, with a headline? A “Note” which, on the website home page at least, is shown without a headline but with a red line in the margin? Or should I just Twitter them as I find them?

11 March 200811 March 2008

Quotes of the Day, 11 March 2008

Eavesdropping highlights from the last 24 hours:

“Somehow I suspect book lovers feel the same way about Harry Potter as music lovers feel about Jeff Buckley.” (Alastair Rankine)
Overheard while walking past a house where young boys were playing noisily: “I’m the birthday boy so I have to be team leader.”
“Someone in my office just said ‘cyberspace’. I hope I’m not paying them.” (abacab)
In response to my comment, “Stilgherrian is thinking about things that geeks think about”, someone who should probably remain nameless said: “Most geeks I know think about banging Natalie Portman in a blow-up-pool filled with custard…”
“Stilgherrian, one day in the future, your life will confuse historians.” (Nick Hodge)