Clarke Ching - More Chilli Please

Apologies to RIM

I've just remembered that my old blackberry sucked a lot more when I first got it, then they fixed some stuff, I got some "service packs" sent to me over the airwaves, and it sucked much less, to the point where I loved my bb more than I loved my children.

The same will obviously happen with my BBB - blackberry bold.  Roll on the service packs.

The weird thing ... I had my old bb about 9 months before I called vodafone about an unrelated problem and the support guy mentioned the service packs in passing.  Prior to that I had no idea they existed.  I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that this is RIMs biggest hurdle: they're still not set up to deal properly with consumers.  I'm not an IT department.

BTW: if you have an iphone then I bet you a brazillion dollars that my Blackberry still has a bigger penis than your iphone, even with it's faults.

Hello Blackberry Bold

Okay, so I was too old to appreciate the beauty of the iphone.  I took it back to the Apple store in Glasgow and they were so nice about it that I bought a macbook.  Not true, but I was tempted.  They were really, really friendly and helpful.  [My friend Rob suggested that the apple geniuses should hold me down, attach electrical things to my testicles, and convince me of the error of my ways ... but they didn't.  Perhaps it's because geniuses are known for their brains, rather than their brawn.  Who knows?]

So I left the apple store without an iphone, but a very happy customer.

The very next day a courier man arrived with my new Blackberry Bold.  He wasn't nearly as excited as I was.  It took me a while to get it up and running - Orange filled the box with all sorts of really interesting stuff, about Orange, and some confusing stuff about the blackberry and how to setup my account.  Never mind, I got there eventually.  The trickiest part was figuring out how to turn it on!  I've discovering that the power button is not on top of the bbb, like it was on my previous model, but on the front of the machine ... on either the cancel or end-call button, I've not figured out which yet. 

So here's my review:

• the BBB is really, really nice to hold.  It feels nice physically.  Nicer than the iphone. 
• it comes with a nice case.  It's bigger than my old model, but it looks smaller; I think that's the case.
• the email works nicely.  As you'd expect.  They keyboard is okay.  I currently prefer the old keyboard, but maybe that will change.
• The webbrower might be better than the old version, i'm not sure, but it's nothing compared to the iphone.  Then again, I knew that.  I actually installed opera-mini which is far, far, far easier to use than the built in version.  In fact, I've just decided: the new bbb browser is a dog compared to the previous version.  There.  I've said it.
• The bbb has blackberry maps installed, but I can't find it.  Google maps doesn't work on this bb, yet. 
• Where RIM, the makers of the bbb, really suck, is their website and their desktop manager software.  They're very confusing, very slow, very awkward.  They still haven't figured out that they're now a consumer facing, not just business facing, company.  I'm not an IT department and it should be easier to use their website and software.  I hate RIM at the moment.

My conclusion.  The BB is better than the iphone, for me, but it's no improvement at all over my previous model, the 8800.  The browser is a step backwards.  The phone is nice to hold. 

Ubiquity - for firefox

I saw a glimpse of the future this morning. 

It's a new firefox extension from mozilla labs called Ubiquity.  It's like launchy for windows, but integrated inside firefox.  It's still a prototype version, but wow! 

Wow! 

Go take a quick look at the introduction video and you'll see what I mean. Then give it ago. It is extraordinarily obvious, once you've seen it.

I'm hooked already.
 

Measurements

A couple of weeks ago I flew Aer Lingus, from Dublin to London, return, for some work. The return flight departed two hours late.

What's worse is that the heathrow - Dublin flight that was supposed to fly an hour after my flight arrived and departed on time. The aircraft was identical and I was surprised when they didn't quietly transfer us to that aircraft. That would have meant that 2 flights were delayed by 1 hour each rather than 1 flight by 2 hours. I thought that was common practice.

Here, I think, is the problem: the airlines like to competitively compare their "on time performance". It is useful to know that, say, 98% of one airlines flights arrive on time where as its competitors flights only arrive 85% on time. You'd think it was a good indication of reliability and perhaps even satisfaction. So, if you are being measured by on-time performance and you've got the choice of having one flight delayed or two flights delayed, and the length of delay doesn't matter, then what do you do? Well do what they did to my flight.

I don't know if that's what happened but it wouldn't surprise me. I can't think of any other rational explaination. Scotrail, who used to be our local train company, was renowned for unnecessarily cancelling trains that were delayed because the cancellations and delays were counted seperately. Or so it is said.
.oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893

Delicious Curry, good for diabetics: Cod, Sweet Potato and Coconut Stew

This is one of my favourite recipes.  I like it because (a) it's delicious (b) I always feel full after eating it, and (c) my blood sugars are always good the following day (I'm diabetic). 

I'm not overly fond of sweet potato but it really works here and it's also good for you.  Far less sweet than ordinary potato, with a surprisingly low Glycemic index. 

Note: don't over coconut this if your looking for something healthy.

Cod, Sweet Potato and Coconut Stew from the hefty, cookery bilble, Darina Allen's Ballymaloe cookery course.

450g Cod [or any other white fish] chopped up into biggish chunks
450g Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed in 1 inch chunks.
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  [Or any oil really]
1 Medium onion, peeled and chopped.
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped [optional]
1 inch cubed ginger, peeled then finely chopped [though, don't bother peeling it if you can't be bothered]
600ml of fresh fish stock [We always have a good big pot of fresh fish stock sitting on the Aga ... I'm kidding, I always use a good quality chicken or vegetable stock cube]
150g of creamed coconut [I use about half this]
400g tin of good quality tomatoes, chopped
35g [a handful] of Brazil nuts, chopped
15g [a handful] fresh coriander, which is also known as cilantro, chopped up roughly
salt and pepper, to taste.

Heat the oil, brwon the onion for 3 minutes, add the garlic and ginger and cook gently for 4 or 5 more minutes.  Add the sweet potato, stir, then cover with the stock and creamed coconut.  Cook over a low heat until the coconut has melted, stir every so often, then add tomatoes and simmer, uncovered for another 5-10 minutes, until the sweet potato is just cooked.  Add the fish and cook for 5 more minutes, until the fish is done.

Taste and season. 

Serve the stew in big bowls, covered with the roughly chopped brazil nuts and corriander. 

You can serve this with fresh warm bread ... or rice ... or a few quickly stir-fried veges.  Please yourself.

Don't be shy adding a chopped chillie, if that's your style.  It doesn't need it.

The Book Thief

I don't normally post videos ... but this one made me smile.

Police arrest a young lady (with fantastic teeth) because she had over due library books - one of which was the book thief.  Do watch.

[If the video doesn't show here then click here]

Vodafone ... are probably just as bad as their competitors but ...

I'm going through the enjoyable experience of swapping mobile-phone providers.  It's enjoyable because the sales folk who are trying to sell me a phone are being really, really, really nice to me.  The next time I'm feeling a little down I think I'll pop into a mobile phone shop just to feel cheered up. 

It's even more enjoyable though because I get to watch Vodafone, my current and soon to be ex and then never-again, phone company be pricks as they move from being really nice "oh please won't you stay with us, well give you a really good deal"  (the answer to that, btw, is "Do you sell iphones?  That's what I want") to the situation I'm in now where every two days their customer service guys say that they will close my account 30 days after their closures department PROCESSED the request, rather than 30 days after they RECEIVED the request. 

I put the request in via their webform on the 19th - I have the automated receipt - but their closures department didn't pick it up until the 21st.  I've explained to them that it's not my fault they understaff their customer service department.  I'm on the 3rd email exchange and I'm expecting another one in 2 days.  I'm being a bit silly, I suppose, because it doesn't make any difference to me financially. but I'm learning a lot about customer service.

Vodafone are being sillier than me though.  I'm leaving them because they didn't have the phone I want and a competitor did.  I'm never returning to them though because of their poor service.  I'm not angry, but I am adamant.

I've also learned, by looking around, that they're a good bit more expensive than their competitors.  Funny, their nice sales folk didn't explain that to me last year...

I'm returning my iphone

Perhaps it's a sign of old age or just the undeniable fact that I will never be cool but ... I've decided to return my iphone and I'm returning to my old number, which is 079 2011 4893.

The truth is that I liked the iphone A LOT but it just wasn't good at the three things I need most form an email-phone: typing longish emails, running for days on one battery charge, and not putting temptation in my way (e.g. tetris).

Stickyminds article: Critical Chain

Last week Stickyminds.com published my article about Critical Chain Scheduling.  I'm really pleased with the article. You'll find it very, very useufl if you work in an agile environment, like Scrum, where you make fixed-scope, fixed-deadline commitments every few weeks.  It's really shockingly easy for an agile team to prepare a 1, 2,3 or 4 week long critical chain plan and my god it takes the stress off.  I swear by it. 

(If you work in an agile team where you have variable scope, fixed deadline commitments then you are very lucky and you'll still find the ideas in the article very useful).

I tried really hard, while writing this article, to get through the simple behavioural changes required to make Critical Chain work - the single-tasking, not-treating-estimates-as-committments, frequenty-re-estimating, and so on - but, judging by the comments at the bottom of the article, I think I failed.  The folk who commented made very good points and I hope I answered their objections.

Critical Chain, as I've described, is a great way of rebuilding trust between managers and their staff.  In fact, it is THE best way I've found.  It's also sorely needed, judging by some of the comments.

Michael Jackson

I'm typing this from my exercycle.  I've got the handle bars rolled back to face me, with a padded tray sitting on them, and my laptop sitting atop the tray.  Itunes is on shuffle and I'm writing my arse off (figuratively) while trying, literally, to sweat it off.

I just glanced at Itunes.  It's playing Metallica.  Right next to the Metallica Live-earth EP, in albumn view, is Michael Jackson NUMBER ONES.

Isn't it amazng how quickly Michael Jackson's career went from NUMBER ONES to number twos.