Posts from 2006

I am one of those 40-50 year olds who disagree with Stowe Boyd who predicts the death of newspapers in the not too distant future.

I like newspapers. You can take them in the garden. You can take them on the train, bus and plane. Newspapers are ubiquitous, relatively cheap and convenient. Yes I could pay to download selected stories to my mobile device but I've tried that and it simply doesn't work. My eyes aren't good enough to squint at a minuscule screen.

Mind you, Stowe lives in America so, when you consider the quality of printed media ('Cat rescued from tree') being thrown into his driveway, maybe he does have a point after all.

Don't forget to check back in 10 years time to see who was right.

For the most part, unsung and largely unnoticed at Chelsea. Simply outstanding for Ghana against high quality opposition (Italy) yesterday. Continually in the action, absolutely everywhere, superb fitness levels, great tackler, decent passer, suspect temperament.

Essien is the tailor-made replacement for Roy Keane. United fans can only hope Ballack's arrival puts Essien on the bench or in the reserves and that he won't just sit there and take the money (cf. SWP).

A superb photograph of Englands (own) goal in the World Cup opener versus Paraguay.

I dont think I could have a higher opinion of any footballer than I already had of the Irishman, but he rose even further in my estimation at the Stadio Delle Alpi. The minute he was booked and out of the final he seemed to redouble his efforts to get the team there. It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose he inspired all around him. I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player.'

Alex Ferguson on Roy Keane after the European Cup semi-final in 1999.

[Via United Rant]

I am really sorry that we have 125 German tourists staying in the hotel.

The waitress actually meant Sorry for the delay but we have... but it still reminded me of Fawlty Towers and raised a smile

Psst. I have managed to beat the banning order and have now safely arrived in Stockholm (near Sweden). I evaded the hordes of police spotters at Heathrow by checking in immediately behind a screaming infant with a glum face (me not the baby). I also sported a linen jacket and a laptop to complete my cunning disguise.

I was proudly telling a group of German ladies from Munich (World Cup widows) of my escapades in the confines of the hotel lift. There was a lengthy pause and they all looked really interested (or perplexed) until a Deutsche Fraulein uttered:

'Until you insert your door card in that slot, we won't even be going to the 10th floor let alone Nuremberg, Englischer Dummkopf'.

Someone recently asked me at a dinner party: So, Norman, tell me what you do in life ?. I spontaneously replied: I help people read books. The lady (for it was a she) exclaimed: Oh how absolutely fabulous. You are a teacher. Err, well, no. I actually work in IT. Oh I see. You work in training. Why didn't you just say so ?' 'Err, well no. I am a sort of IT consultant'.

Anyway, after an embarassing stony silence, thankfully I managed to steer the conversation to the safer domain of the wide range of choices for secondary school education in our locality. This fascinating subject occupied us right through until the desert and coffee were served.

But the point I was trying to make was that Siebel and Oracle are incredibly large, complicated, wide ranging software products. I have worked with Siebel for three years and Oracle for a little longer but there are still so many areas and modules in both products that I have no practical experience of whatsoever.

I remember once reading Tom Kyte stating that he did not have access to the Oracle source code nor did he did not have a hotline to RDBMS engineering. The basis of his wealth of extensive Oracle knowledge was primarily the documentation set. I remember being hugely impressed by this simple statement. [ Sorry I did look but failed to locate the reference ]

I am a Siebel 'consultant' trying to help people use Siebel more effectively. Most of the information needed to help customers use Siebel more effectively is actually contained in the documentation. The only problem is that the 'documentation' is simply overwhelming as it includes the manuals, FAQ's, Alerts, Release Notes, Service Requests etc etc.

I have a couple of advantages: Firstly, I am continually exposed to a wide variety of different Siebel related issues day after day so I so have a degree of experience of real-world problems (and hopefully the resolution).

Secondly, and more importantly, I do have access to a network of highly talented, intelligent individuals with far more experience and intelligence than yours truly. Now this wouldn't be an advantage unless that group of people were prepared to share their knowledge and I am pleased to say that they are. This isn't necessarily true at all companies I have worked for.

Normally, I lug my heavy laptop, hanging over my shoulder, attached to my body like a young helpless infant, all around Europe. Today I was in Stockholm and the weather was unusually hot (30'C). To reach the office, I had to take a train and a tube in the morning rush hour. Consequently, I left the laptop behind in the hotel and arrived onsite free from back pain and feeling blissfully liberated.

I told the customer that we would purely be using the public documentation that is freely available to me and him. No hidden cheat-sheets, no private internal emails, no top tips from engineering. He was impressed (I think).

Then, of course, inevitably, we hit a very obtuse, bizarre problem, neither of us had encountered before so it was time to make another call on that network.

Maybe a fraction too late for Doug Burns (whose Blogger blog has been recently hijacked) but WordPress have just announced the availability of XML import/export utilities, primarily for switching between self-hosted and WordPress.com blogs but may also be useful for backing up your blog and facilitating other platform migrations.

Tempting, very tempting

Another criteria for the inverse law of airports. The strange thing is, you are most susceptible and sensitive to a screaming, inconsolable baby when you dont possess any yourself.

However, when you are a (recent) parent, you are too consumed with guilt and embarrassment to even care what other people think.

Or, if you are an (experienced) parent, travelling abroad on business, you tend to side with Frank Skinner, who memorably said:

'Oh she's tired. Bless her'.

'Well actually no she isn't, if she was 'tired', she would be asleep not screaming blue murder'.

The larger the airport, the longer it takes to drive there, check in, clear security, order a sandwich, find a seat in the lounge, secure a taxi.

In my limited experience, Heathrow Terminal 3 is pretty poor. Some small, anonymous airfield in Switzerland is the best. You pick up your own bags from the runway, walk to an empty terminal building and you even get to stamp your own passport.

BTW - England have just beaten Argentina 1-0 in the World Cup. Owen took a dive for a penalty converted by Beckham and Nicky Butt was absolutely outstanding.