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I’ve noticed that the initial excitement which greeted the arrival of our nice new BlackBerry Storm handsets seems to have been tempered somewhat by a number of usability niggles, so I thought it might be handy to go through some of these and see if we can improve things... |
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At Calvis we often talk about ourselves as “agile” and using “agile methods”, but these terms, as with almost all business shorthand, risk becoming vacuous linguistic space-fillers. However, agility is at the core of who we are for a reason, so I want to explore that reason and refill the semantics of the language. |
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We’ve not had much luck with animals over the years. First there was the epileptic Greyhound. Spot was a lovely dog but wouldn’t win any awards for break dancing and sadly had to be put to sleep. Next was Conker the £120 “elephant man” hamster. Well, he actually cost £5 from the local pet shop and once home turned out to be the most viscous hamster I’ve ever seen. Rather than go for one of the nice sedate hamsters snoozing in the corner of the cage, the kids chose the hamster that was the most active, the one that was running around and coming to the bars to see us. None of us noticed the glint in his eye, not even me. |
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I see more and more emails with the tag line – "We’re a Carbon Neutral company" – and being the sort of person I am I get suspicious. |
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Once upon a time, there was an IT consultant that had through the years worked as a developer using a number of different UNIX and Linux operating systems. One day he arrived at Calvis, unaware that lurking in dark corners were customers with Linux needs. Now perhaps I should clarify, before I hear you all ask "well what's wrong with that? If you have experience using Linux then you shouldn't have any reservations, right?” Maybe an analogy is in order... |
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Logic is a peculiar thing. Something that is logical is usually simple, obvious, rational, or some combination of these. The word suggests a series of steps that inexorably lead to a conclusion. But logic can be complex. Consider the following story... |
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We got the puppy because friends and neighbours had recommended a dog as being the best way to keep a fox away. Apparently the dog does not need to chase the fox, just be around. The scent is enough. A couple of weeks earlier we had lost some poultry to a fox. Two turkeys, a hen and our cockerel had been chased away from the house and killed. |
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From time to time we come across a phrase or word, that for years you have heard used and never thought about, and then along comes a meaning to it that defines why it came to be... |
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Jim and Jane lived happily in their spacious suburban semi with their children, Claire (14) and Clive (10). Jane was a successful architect, and the family had enjoyed a period of comfort and affluence. Jim had recently returned to work part-time after a career break to look after the children... |
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I hear a lot of people talking about “global solutions”, “global service lines” or just plain “globalization”, and I wonder how many have stopped to think about what they really mean. Of course, superficially they are talking about providing a consistency around the world – as Barclays once put it in an internal campaign to encourage their staff to follow standards, “where ever you touch us, it should feel the same”... |
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Ok – so your normal day at the office involves working on five separate projects, which are controlled by five different people, who have five different views on what is achievable by “EOP” Friday. This is either a chance to spend all day doing nothing whilst looking good… |
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I want to tell you about a dreadful problem that is troubling more and more people in our modern world. I also want your help in dealing with this problem. Please do not stop reading just because I ask for your help. As the world becomes more difficult and crowded we must all be prepared to help each other...
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We previously discussed the general absurdity of how the human body has evolved to what it is. The cause of this was a growing wonderment of how we actually manage to get anything done at all, given the complexities of controlling such a strangely-structured entity. Let’s carry on where we left off, and look at what’s involved in going and getting a cup of coffee... |
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I'll start with a comedian and Alanis Morissette. A couple of years ago I came across a TV show in which a comedian from this side of the pond was on stage in Canada, giving the inimitable Ms Morissette a good grilling over her song 'Ironic'... |
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Have you noticed that more and more media attention is being given to the subject of climate change? London's free newspaper pages are now dedicated to the subject and each day new thought provoking information is being reported from around the world... |
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It definitely feels like if there's a chance of immersing myself in a problem, or completely missing a deadline because I just plain forgot, or finding myself in the middle of a misunderstanding that I'm pretty sure I didn't cause, then I'm there, centre stage... |
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Whether we like it or not we all spend our lives managing projects. From organising the weekly food shopping to moving house, we live through a series of activities that usually conglomerate into groups with some overall identifiable aim in mind. I call these projects...
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