There’s some great comments on yesterday’s piece about Microsoft. And there’s still time to add your thoughts before my dinner tonight. You know what to do.
Weekly Poll: Merry Bloody Christmas!
Yes, it’s that time of year again, when a celebration of the birth of social radical Joshua bar Joseph is turned into a retail extravaganza.
How do you feel about Christmas? Personally, I get annoyed with the “compulsory cheerfulness” and the pointless mob behaviour. As the old saying goes, you can’t pick your families, and Christmas forces them together regardless — though reports that the suicide rate peaks at Christmas is an urban legend.
Yes, how do you feel about Christmas? Go to the website to vote, or add your comments here.
[poll id=”15″]
[Yes, that is me in the photograph. I made the antlers for the Snarky Platypus, who should be wearing them on Friday, and ’Pong took the photo using my Nokia N80.]
Damaged tail
Since the Weekly Poll was clearly in favour of publishing the “disturbing image”, here’s a photograph of Artemis’ tail injury. Yes, you have to follow the link since some people thought that “appropriate”.
The basic deal is that our beautiful cat was probably hit by a car. She ran, but the car’s tyre caught the hair on her tail and scalped a 20cm section. The photo shows what it looked like after the vet had shaved it back for inspection.
Since then, Artemis “failed to re-gain tail functionality”. The tail has been amputated. So, as I explain to friends, we now have 1.95 cats. Apparently this is quite a common injury for urban cats.
Artemis is coping remarkably well, and it was a neat piece of surgery (thanks Katherine!). The main trauma was that it all happened while ’Pong and I were in Bangkok. Thanks to the Snarky Platypus and my office manager Virginia Bridger for helping out while we were away.
So much for Facebook’s contextual advertising…
So, Facebook now has advertising which is tailored to the user. OK, I’m an attached gay man. What ads do I see?
Back to the drawing board I think, chaps. Unless you think my wedding day should be something really special?
How can Microsoft stop us hating them?
So what do you think of Microsoft, eh? No, really. I want to know.
I have to admit I’m not exactly a fan. I’ll explain why momentarily. But Microsoft is changing, or at least wants to change, and I’m finding it hard to shed old impressions.
The Blue Monster cartoon is part of this changing Microsoft. Its creator, Hugh MacLeod, intended it as a conversation-starter — what he calls a social object. Steve Clayton from Microsoft UK says they use it to help Microsoft start talking about its own process of re-birth.
I’m cynical when software companies claim grand goals like “changing the world”. That over-the-top rhetoric was central to the first dot-com bubble. Usually, the bigger the rhetoric the crappier the product. Still, I’m willing to listen.
Another sign of a changing Microsoft is my friend Nick Hodge, who sold me my first Mac back in 1985. Nick now works for the Blue Monster as an “enthusiast evangelist”, and represents how Microsoft is embracing blogging and a new culture of openness — and actually having conversations with people instead of talking at them.
But can Microsoft really change and, more importantly, convince us to believe them?
Thailand’s worst fruit carving
One of Thailand’s traditional handicrafts is fruit carving. Indeed, it’s impossible to go to any Thai community event without seeing a plethora of intricately-shaped melons and carrots to delight the eye.
In this photograph, ’Pong demonstrates that he’s the worst fruit carver that Thailand has ever seen.
I dunno, maybe his creativity was stifled by the fact that it was early in the morning. And I suppose there’s only so much you can do with a hotel butter knife.
Nonetheless, I do recommend you check out his post about Thai alternative music.