July 2006 Archives

"Don't pick up this book if you are expecting a masterpiece comparable to The Da Vinci Code" says a random review trawled from Google. Well, if I was expecting a masterpiece comparable to The Da Vinci Code, I wouldn't be expecting a masterpiece. I'd be expecting a piece of sensationalist junk written by an illiterate and benefiting from a world-class marketing (I'm assuming that "comparable" is taken as meaning "of similar merit to" rather than "it is ok to compare it" ...).

It seems almost impossible to find a book these days which does not feature some cover blurb about the bloody Da Vinci Code or Dan bloody Brown. "Comparable to the Da Vinci Code" .. ."If you like the Da Vinci Code, you'll love this" ... etc etc. The absolute limit is when some moron claims that Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" is too difficult to read and not as good as the "Da Vinci Code". Listen, the Zürich phone book is comparable to the Da Vinci Code, although it is more rewarding to read and is far better written. The only book that I've ever read which I would say is worse than the Da Vinci Code is, well, Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. Actually, it is more or less the same book, except it is slightly worse written (difficult to imagine, I know), and even more ludicrous.
The totally unchallenged rise of absolute mediocrity puts me in mind of scenes from "Brave New World". People are becoming less and less willing to submit to any kind of intellectual challenge, to the extent of being actually terrified of any book which doesn't come with a 35 how-to-read-it guides. Imagination is dead. Literal-mindedness spread by the love affair that geeks have with autism (a bit like Romantic poets and consumption), is taking over. I guess an age gets the literature it deserves.

It is really ironic that Leonardo's name is associated with such tripe. Now that the literary world appears to aspire to the Dan Brown Standard, can we assume that sales of crayons and colouring books are rocketing?
Pshawww.

LifeDrive No Longer Shipping to Europe: "Recently, Palm, Inc. announced it was no longer shipping the Treo 650 to Europe because this smartphone doesn't comply with new rules regarding hazardous substances in electronic devices.

What wasn't announced was that this also applies to the LifeDrive Mobile Manager."

(Via PalmAddicts.)

This is crazy. These EU directives have been published for ages. It is understandable when old, very limited market cameras like the Hasselblad XPan or Pentax 645 cannot be economically updated, but I'm sure these rules must have been known before the LifeDrive even went into design. Sounds like total incompetence to me. Or another manufacturer gratefully grabbing a chance to save face, stuck with a failed product...

Euan Semple recently posted an article about business taking itself too damn seriously, and the consequences of this both on the business and the individuals working for it.

I'm coming to the end of my stint of trying to integrate into a big business, and I cannot say how much his words resonate. It may be a cultural thing (both national and business), but the stern, we-are-so-important stuff, in my opinion, totally dehumanises business, make it lose sight of any moral perspective, demoralises or corrupts its employees, and generally serves to cover up mediocrity. Frowning on levity is a sign of a business with no self-confidence, and no sense of proportion. There is no company, no business in world which is so important that it should be beyond laughing at itself.

I'm not saying that it there should be an open licence to mock, to attack, to insult. Humour is not an excuse for damaging the company, or for breaking rules. But humour has many benefits. It acts an emotional safety valve. It can make people look at things in a different way. It can encourage participation. It can defuse tense situations. It can make daunting situations seem much less so. In summary, it enhances productivity and creativity by making people feel more like they are part of a community, and not just a bunch of wage slaves. People who frown on humour usually have some personal approval-seeking agenda, which can be seriously detrimental to the company. Introducing a touch of (controlled) levity into a difficult meeting can save the day. Cood managers know this. Bad managers fear it.

Related Andecdote: If you come into the arrivals hall at Zürich airport, you will be assaulted by a barrage of huge banners exhorting the wares of the Swiss banking industry. Each one shows what the respective advertising companies appear to believe are aspirational images, generally trendy-blurry monochrome images of immaculately groomed suits (of both genders, but frankly little different) congratulating each other on their good fortune to have inherited huge stacks of loot. Almost always in a cold, impersonal concrete and glass environment, totally devoid of warmth, emotion or humanity (and I'll leave the extension of that line of thought to the reader). To me, this is a sign of an industry, which in the wider scheme of things, has totally lost the plot, at all levels, and from all perspectives.

Checking on the progress of the delivery of my new MacBook (replacing my tiBook which had an unfortunate accident and untimely end recently), I was very impressed to see that TNT managed to move it from Basel to Zurich in under one second, and then from Zurich to Geneva in under two seconds. They ran out of steam after that, taking 2.5 hours to move it from Geneva back to Zurich, but even so, it is pretty impressive. I hope the heat shield held up ok. With such performance, it is not surprising that they cut the delivery date back from 11th July to 4th July. Highly recommended!

04 juil. 2006
06:21
Zurich
Released From Customs

04 juil. 2006
03:43
Geneva
Customs Clearance In Progress

04 juil. 2006
03:42
Zurich
Customs Clearance In Progress

04 juil. 2006
03:42
Basel
Customs Clearance In Progress