Tag Archives: linkedin

11.11.11 – The start of something

On 11.11.11 I launched a new venture called Webwiser – http://www.webwiser.co.uk @webwiserUK – a stake in the ground for something that I hope will grow to be worthwhile and fulfilling. I think this particular date had been planted in my head through a blog post I wrote earlier this year about my car hitting the 111111 mile mark and it being an omen of some sort. I’m sure this is a self-fulfilling prophecy but the timing for this move felt right for quite a number of reasons.

Anyway, it seems others had the idea of using this numerically significant date to make announcements… Continue reading →

BT – super fast, super efficient !

hmmm – these are not words I have associated with our national telecoms behemoth in the past and much as I enjoy a rant over poor customer service and corporate inefficiencies I have to say that on this very rare occasion I write in praise of my recent experiences.

After many years of pedestrian home broadband service, frustratingly right on the edge of the Virgin Media network but seemingly too far for them to shift a bit of dirt in my direction, I am now enjoying ‘superfast’ BT Infinity.

By way of an instant example of the difference, my wife recommended I watched a particular sequence of Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads the other evening before the Infinity install. The bit she wanted to show me was about half way through the 45 minute episode and she had to wait at least 10 minutes for it to load from the Demand 5 service. Contrast that with the BBC iPlayer demo the BT engineer gave after install where a 1 hour programme loaded instantly and he was able to play the beginning, middle and end of it in a matter of seconds.

Not only am I delighted with the service speeds, and have almost doubled my Drupal development activities during the morning ;), but the whole experience in ordering the service, receiving the equipment and getting it installed has not only been fast but also ‘super efficient’!

BT has made excellent use of the web, email, text message, phone and post to keep me informed every step of the way from switching my lines back to them from ‘Talk Crap‘ (a not so pleasant telecoms experience where they shot themselves in the foot spectacularly by phoning me relentlessly to get me to buy new stuff), to arranging the engineer’s visit and then following everything up.

Well done BT!

Drupal vs Sitecore – a points win in the 10th round

Ahhh – there’s nothing warms the heart of an old europhile and CMS veteran more than listening to three Americans debating the pros and cons of web solutions that were created in that other world across the pond from them 😉 .  And so it was as Drupal went head to head with Sitecore during 10 rounds of bruising questions for the latest CMS-Connected event 🙂

Drupal had the much greater reach but Sitecore was able to land some low punches

In the blue corner we had Bryan House from Acquia representing Drupal. In the red corner Darren Guarnaccia from Sitecore. The referee was Scott Liewehr from Outsell Inc and the delightful compere was Veronica Cooper from CHEK TV.

Early in round one it became clear that this wasn’t a straightforward product bout but more a philosophical battle between open source and proprietary web platforms in which the names could be swapped out across different levels of  competition by any number of commercial and GPL offerings.

However, taking the Real Story Group’s recent re-classification of Sitecore as an upper-tier solution and the growing reputation of Drupal as an enterprise capable platform then I would pitch this as a heavyweight title match.

Before entering the ring, a quick review of the competitor’s stats had Sitecore talking thousands of implementations and Drupal talking millions so the relative sizes giving open source an immediate advantage in terms of reach but perhaps the smaller fighter being more nimble, agile and packing a stronger punch? On stats alone this looked a little like a David and Goliath scenario…   Continue reading →

WoW ! It's the Web on Wheels

I wrote recently about my delight at finding a new monthly car magazine that focuses on efficiency and sustainability while still pressing hot buttons of style and performance. The second edition of iCar has several articles on ‘in-car Internet’ and the different ways it is currently possible to access the Web on wheels.

You could say that the Web passed its driving test a few years ago with the arrival of high bandwidth mobile access. However, now that smartphone ownership is starting to pass the 50% mark in some countries, access and use of the Mobile Web is growing exponentially and ‘in-vehicle’ capabilities are improving steadily in competency and sophistication. The major challenge remains the speed with which smartphone technology is changing and the comparative slow development lifecycles of automotive technologies, restricted as they are by a myriad of safety legislation and complex supply chains.    Continue reading →

Psychopaths need not apply

According to a fascinating Horizon programme last night, today’s business environment is ideal for psychopaths and, despite deep psychological flaws, they are often seen as charismatic leaders who know how to ‘talk the talk’.

Hmmm – who knew?

I won’t name names but I can think of a few such candidates for psychological evaluation from my time in the workplace over the last 25 years, most of whom come from across the pond.

The programme gave an excellent insight into genetic research over the last decade that shows a particular gene type (called the Warrior gene) is prevalent in psychopaths but made it clear that it is the environment in which they live that determines if or when psychopathic behaviour will manifest itself.   Continue reading →