Nice warts-and-all summary of how FogCreek got started. Sounds like a lot of hard work. It makes a clear case for focus.
Archive for January, 2007
The Home Office is to be split up, it seems. And HMRC is spending too much on IT consultants. Looks like they need the new and feistier OGC to help it.
Charles Arthur makes the nice point that scare stories about microwaving tea towels should gradually reduce the number of Daily Express viewers.
I’m trying Google Browser Sync instead of Foxmarks. Having your saved passwords as well as bookmarks pop up wherever you are is brilliant.
Does what it say on the tin: cheap and easy screenshots.
The mobility center (Win+X) is a nice summary screen for all the things you need to play with when you’re on a laptop.
While Vista is a) pretty and b) seems to run much faster on my work and home laptops, it does force you to log in as administrator every single time you want to do something (like install a program).
Using the start button+type as a launcher works nicely, as does this tip: press Ctrl+Shift+Enter and you will be running the launched item as administrator (after security credentials, again, of course).
Wired has a nice list / answers to some big (science) questions.
I’ve been wondering about the adoption piece. Lots of rowing between the Cabinet, but this is one of the things that Labour used to avoid: having a massive public debate about something the rest of the UK doesn’t care much about.
There is definitely a spectrum here. I wouldn’t want a Catholic Adoption Agency (CAA) say “we won’t let you adopt because you are black”. For “black” you could substitute “remarried”, “a lover of long-hair cats” or “a muslim”.
I would feel uncomfortable, but rationally see the sense in a CAA saying “we won’t let you adopt because you are disabled” or “because you were too old” (assuming there was a link between the disability / age and the child’s welfare).
So it isn’t black and white. However, the issue is that you can’t reject someone as an adopter out-of-hand without a clear, unbiased process that can be appealed. That’s the problem with the CAA and homosexuals. They don’t have a clear process to show why / how / if / joking? being brought up by a same-sex couple is a detriment to an adopted child’s welfare.
It really is all over the place for unitary vs enhanced two-tier.
- Notts is e2t
- Cornwall is unitary
- Shropshire is unitary
- Somerset is at war
- Cumbria wants unitary but hasn’t voted yet, I believe
- Cheshire is unitary
And they all want to save on consultancy. Boo.
And there more:
- The Kent commitment looks like enhanced two-tier
- Wiltshire + one district go for unitary
- More on Cheshire
Lots of announcements today.
- Review of the OGC
- Local government white paper implementation plan
- Vertex is sold for not very much
A limited selection at the book people, but ten Patrick O’Brien Aubrey novels for under a tenner has to be value in anyone’s reckoning.
I liked Sherman very much today.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the economics have changed in the 10 years since this article was published. It essentially says that pay-to-throw is more sensible (for the environment and for business) than mandated recycling.
Free powerpoint add-in to sort out some missing pieces like Page XX of YY and linked table of contents.
Useful links for EU countries’ admin costs.
While the council comes and gets all our kitchen waste, it seems a good plan to have your own composter in the garden. Here’s one that looks like it might work. Depends on how much sunshine it needs - we’ve hardly seen any for weeks.
Thinking about the split of businesses into 1) infrastructure, 2) innovation, 3) customer, the Gap used to be seen as more than one. It probably shouldn’t be in that game according to Hagel.
