I have been going to Swanmore Lake and the downs north of it for years now, and last week visited it again to see what images I could come up with :-
Lurking Cloud
I’ve made images of this little valley before, but this time I had the luck to have this little cloud trying to hide behind the trees – sorry cloud, but you need a bit of a diet to hide here properly!
It is always funny reading articles trying to gaze into the future of computing especially when they start trying to figure out the form factor of future computers. The “desktop is dead, long live the laptop”, the sudden emergence and roaring success of the netbook, the gradual improvement in specification and increase in price of the netbook to encroach on laptop territory.
And of course the “new thing” – the slate (I refuse to call it the silly name that Applie chose).
Everything we read leads us to believe that this is going to beat that and there is no market for this other thing. The truth of the matter is that there is no reason why there should not be a reasonable market for all the different form factors.
For instance, I own and use :-
Now I’m an extreme example, and it is unlikely that normal people would want all that. But it is quite possible the average family might, or even more.
But even more importantly, someone who has a desktop machine at home (and work) probably doesn’t need a powerful laptop, but may find a netbook useful. Or someone with a powerful laptop may not want a netbook, but may find a slate useful for random bits in front of the TV.
Different people have different preferred ways of interacting with computers. And the market is now large enough to provide different environments. So whilst the slate may eat away at the market share of netbooks, as indeed laptops have taken market share from desktops, there is no ‘death of the netbook’ coming anytime soon.
So for most of the summer we have had the following on Southsea Common entertaining both children and adults alike :-
And of course along comes a crew of cretins and does this :-
Undoubtedly those who did this think it was funny.
Watching the reaction in various places has been interesting … it’s quite astonishing just how popular this misshapen dinosaur had become amongst the local residents. It would be nice to see some form of fight-back – perhaps build another one ?
Yesterday we heard the news that the new leader of the Labour party is Ed Millband – and congratulations to him. Ever since then we have had the media rambling on with the same old theme – more or less “but … but … it was the undemocratic unions who voted him in”.
So? It is not as if the Labour party has some sort of secret democratic process that changes every five minutes; the union vote was known well in advance, yet we heard no complaints before the result. Sometimes it feels as if the media look for any possible note of negativity in any news. Why not portray the news for once, and look at what difference Ed may make ?
There are undoubtedly Labour party members a bit suspicious of the influence of the Unions – after all it is hardly every party that allows people outside the membership of the party to vote. But why not ? The Labour party is supposed to reflect the interests of the working man and woman, so shouldn’t their representatives have an influence on the leadership ?
Sometimes the media gives us the impression that political parties need to have free and fair elections to select their leaders. Nothing could be further from the truth. A political party is effectively a private members club who put up their members for election whenever the opportunity presents itself (if funds and inclination are available).
Excluding the Liberal Democrats who have had a more chaotic life over the last 50 years, the Tories had their first leadership election in 1965 (over 100 years after their first government), and the Labour party had their first leadership election in 1922 some time after their formation. Indeed the only voters at those elections were the MPs of the respective parties!
The Labour party is unusual in allowing the unions to vote … or more accurately, the members of those unions. If they choose to do so, who are we (as non-members) to say it is wrong ? If you feel it is wrong, join the party and campaign for change.
And lets have a few less curmudgeons in the media please!
This is a collection of a few thoughts mostly in relation to online shopping – I’ve been doing it for quite a while now; for over 10 years.
There are two kinds of online shopping – those items that you really want and are prepared to go to the extra effort of finding, and those items that you’ll pick up online if it is convenient.
It seems that nearly all online retailers want to build a relationship with their customers; complete with yet another username and password to remember, and yet more promotional emails cluttering up our inboxes, Frankly many of us do not want a relationship with the people who sell us stuff – we just want the stuff.
The effect of this, is that many of us have a tendency to stick with a relatively few online retailers (think Amazon), and only build new “relationships” when the special purchase crops up. This gives smaller retailers and those new to the marketplace a bit of a disadvantage. Although I would naturally prefer smaller retailers rather than the huge multi-nationals, I would rather not go through the hassle of creating a new account with a new retailer and deal with a bunch more “near spam“.
Plus of course there are people who are more cautious about online purchases who might stick to the larger online retailers as a way of avoiding risk.
What would benefit both the consumers and the smaller retailers is some sort of ‘meta-retailer’ who deals with the authentication, the “near spam” (by sending out a single digest collecting together multiple messages once a week please!), and serves as a clearing house for complaints. You might immediately think of eBay (or Amazon itself), which resembles what I have in mind, but the weighting is in favour of the ‘meta retailer’ rather than the business actually doing the selling.
As an example of what I have in mind, think of a retailer like Blacks (with whom I have a “relationship” for buying boots every few years). Whilst the process of choosing what to buy would be the same – by visiting the retailer’s website and picking out the chosen products, the process of buying would be different. You would select “Buy Now” which would take you to a different website, where you would authenticate using a username and password used for all the retailers who choose this service.
Such a service would benefit the smaller retailers by encouraging their use, and benefit the consumers who want reassurance and less hassle.
Delivery of online purchases needs to be fixed. Some of the companies that perform deliveries are less than competent. I’ve taken days off work to wait in for deliveries only to be left sitting in my flat all day without a delivery being made. And often when such deliveries fail to appear, the delivery company is less than flexible about making alternative arrangements – for example refusing to making a second delivery attempt on a Saturday requiring me to take a second day off, or insisting that the goods are returned (which I have done, and encourage others to do when the delivery company tries to pull a fast one).
There are two immediate solutions that come to mind :-
Some people like shopping on the high street in genuine bricks and mortar shops where you can touch and feel what is on offer. Fair enough, but there are those who hate it too. In addition, the high street is under threat from online shopping which offers a greater choice, and more convenience … especially for those who do not like shopping on the high street.
What strengths does the high street offer to give it an advantage over online shopping ?
First of all, there is the possibility of getting something right now. If I need a pair of socks urgently (!), then I need to pop into a shop and get a pair suitable for my size of feet (12). I don’t need a wide variety of socks to choose from – I need an ordinary pair of socks in my size.
Reduce the variety of socks available slightly and introduce a proper range of ordinary socks in all sizes. So what if the size 12 socks don’t sell in great quantities ? An occasional sale will serve as good publicity and keep people coming back to the high street. And who knows ? Whilst buying my size 12 socks I might pick up a silk scarf at the same time.
Secondly there is the ‘touch & feel’ factor. In many cases, it is possible to deliver goods from a distant warehouse at a later date or time leaving the shop as a showroom for the goods on sale. This especially works for larger goods – TVs, washing machines, and the like. But could work equally well for smaller items given that a shop with less storage has more room for goods on display.