Intranet on the Internet

Oracle AppsLab is one of my longest standing and favourite blogs. Jake Kuramoto (and the AppsLab team) always post interesting and thought provoking articles and I also share a few areas of common interest (Twitter, Disqus, FriendFeed et al). Although I happen to work for the same company as Jake Kuramoto, I have never actually met Jake in person. Curiously, I have had more interactions with Jake by commenting on the blog as opposed to communications via Oracle email....

June 20, 2008

BRU-LHR

On Friday I returned from a very enjoyable week in Brussels. Hard work, challenging customer and miscellaneous technical issues. However, unusually, I had the pleasure of the company of a few of colleagues so we were able to have a chat over a meal and share a few excellent beers together. Over the past five years, I have visited so many European airports, that they all tend to blur into one....

June 15, 2008

reader fragmentation

I suspect I have different audiences reading my blog, Tumblr, Friendfeed, Jaiku, GR Shared Items. I call this ‘reader fragmentation’ but haven’t applied for copyright yet. Should I ?

June 10, 2008

The Chameleons - Splitting in Two

The Chameleons used to cover ATV’s ‘Splitting in Two’ for an encore. Reg (guitar) played the drums and John (drums) played bass. Mark Burgess threw himself into the crowd and chaos ensued. Burgess also used to improvise snippets of The Fall’s ‘Rowche Rumble’ and occasionally Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and some Beatles tune. 8 minutes of pure, manic, unsurpassed joy. I once asked Mark Perry of ATV (via email) what he thought of the cover....

May 29, 2008

30 second guide to musical taste

Since I started blogging, three intelligent friends have complimented me on my musical taste and 123 people have accused me of being stuck in an ‘manic depressive, 80’s time warp’. Obviously, this is preferable to being told you have abysmal taste in music and started me thinking. So here is another in the very occasional and popular ‘30 second’ series: ‘Superlative’ - You love everything I love. You despise everything I despise and I have actually discovered new bands from your recommendation engine....

May 19, 2008

truth behind the Rangers fans and the Manchester riots

Thursday 15 May - Manchester, near England 107,239 hungover Rangers’ supporters (and an exiled Scotsman who drove up from Coventry) firmly blamed Great Manchester Police for last night’s scenes of fighting, violent disorder and urinating in the street. One fan, Jimmy ‘Och Aye Jimmy’ McTavish from Glasgow, claimed: ‘Everyone was having a great time in Piccadilly Gardens, sunbathing, drinking and joking around with the police. At 19:35, everyone went to the toilet, big Gordon put the kettle on, Doug popped out for popcorn and we all sat down to enjoy Rangers’ biggest game in 36 years on the big screen....

May 15, 2008

pocket Web 2.0 dictionary

Define your favourite Web 2.0 service in two words (or less) Blogging: ‘Dear diary’ Flickr: ‘Cat photos’ FriendFeed: ‘Friend’s Feeds’ Tumblr: ‘Disposable blogging’ Wikipedia: ‘Online encyclopedia’ Twitter: ‘Inane drivel’ del.icio.us: ‘Period overload’ Disqus: ‘Modern flamewars’ Digg: ‘Technical narcissism’ Last.fm: ‘Dire Straits’ YouTube: ‘Cat videos’ LinkedIn: ‘Gizza job’

May 9, 2008

new look for monthly archives

There is a new, improved Monthly Archives plugin available for Habari which is now installed on this blog. I realise that I’m probably the only person to ever scan the historical archives but I really like it so, once again, many thanks to Chris Meller and the Habari community.

May 1, 2008

so farewell then, Sven Goran Eriksson

I have to say I am a little surprised at this breaking news. Still, I guess Eriksson will draw another excessive compensation package while he seeks alternative employment. In my view, buying all those expensive foreigners, beating United twice and finishing mid-table was a creditable first season. Mind you, I always had niggling reservations about Mr. Shinawatra. So, who’s next for the job at Manchester City - Jose Mourinho ?

April 29, 2008

a brief history of inane drivel

Mark Krynsky posted a interesting post on Twitter (sorry, I simply can’t bring myself to call them ‘Tweets’) inviting readers to share their first ever Twitter post. Trawling through my own Twitter archives, I noted my first ever post was: ‘just signed up. never thought I would’ on 9 November 2007 although I had earlier aired my disdain on this blog way back on 12 March 2007. Perusing the archives of my own continuous stream of inane drivel did unearth the odd gem - well OK then - the occasional notable one-liner in a continuous stream of inane drivel....

April 29, 2008