More money, more problems

I have just finished reading this post on the blog of Martin Varsavsky. It’s in Spanish, so to summarize (very briefly) he says in the post he receives a lot of criticism from some readers of his blog because he has a lot of money – as an aside I think it’s worth mentioning that if he would like to give me all of his money I’ll happily take criticism from any of his readers 🙂

I don’t understand certain peoples attitude towards those they perceive as better off than themselves. Well, unfortunately, I think I do understand: jealousy. We all complain from time to time – some more than others – about x, y and z but if things are really that bad what are you going to do about it?

The way I see it, if you are not happy with something, change it! Nobody is going to do it for you. It won’t be easy but then what is? If you think you aren’t being paid enough, work harder and get a different job or go start a company. Why shouldn’t those who take risks be rewarded? After all, things could just as easily go horribly wrong! It’s a cliche but the greater the risk, the greater the reward right? Perhaps if those people who choose to criticize put as much energy into something vaguely enterprising then perhaps they wouldn’t have reason to vent their feelings at other people. Besides, money isn’t everything … unless, of course, you want to buy your own plane.

Blackberry vs Nokia

I have been looking to get a new mobile phone for a while and I have finally got it down to two choices: Blackberry Bold and the Nokia E71. I had a play with the Nokia E71 in the Nokia store a few weeks ago and was a bit disappointed with the user interface. Since then I had been waiting to look at the new Blackberry: the Bold. Finally, I got to play with it this morning – I had to ask to see a “real” one and not the dummy handsets most phone stores have on display! My initial impression is that it’s pretty slick. The screen resolution is really good, much better than the Nokia, especially when you play back videos. It’s also not heavy at all, which was surprising as it looks quite chunky. The Nokia has a better camera and has a better finish – it “feels” better.

Having said all of that I still haven’t decided yet, although I am definitely leaning more towards the Blackberry. I’m going to take another look at the Nokia this afternoon and will decide then. Then all I have to do is find the right tariff; it seems you have to pay extra for email access and web access etc. Joy! Why can’t the mobile providers just give you the one price that includes everything? For example, if you have a Blackberry you are going to need to purchase the Blackberry email package (5 GBP extra on top of the base tariff) as why else would you get a Blackberry?

Small steps, big results

I just came across this video post by Lars Pind about how to achieve your goals by taking small steps, one at a time – the Seinfeld productivity secret is particularly interesting. I thought it was worth pointing out because I have come across the technique Lars mentions so many times before that I figure it must be true, so much so that I’m going to try it myself with this blog!

I am not going to blog every day unless I have something to blog about but I am going to shoot for 5 posts every week and take it from there – that’s almost one every day 🙂 I enjoy writing but I never get around to doing any so I figure this blog is a good place to start. All I have to do now is find a giant wall calendar* and I’m good to go.

* check out the Seinfeld productivity tip and you’ll know what I’m referring to

Back from Spain

I just back from 6 days in the south of Spain. I landed at Gatwick’s North terminal so had to get the connecting train to the South terminal only there was a problem with the trains at the time which meant that there were hundreds of people waiting to get on them; I went for a coffee. I then had to wait an age in line waiting to order my coffee because the person who was working there had obviously decided that she couldn’t be bothered today; I got an attitude from her to accompany my coffee. Who says you don’t get anything for free nowadays. I’m not even going to comment on the weather! 

I was going to write that it’s great to be back but it’s not, so I won’t 🙂

Upgrade complete

Well that was painless! I just upgraded my WordPress install to the latest version and it worked first time; if only all things in life were that simple!

You can tell I have been working in the software industry too long when I express amazement that something software related actually works 🙂

Where do you want to go to today?

Well wherever it is you want to go chances are you aren’t going to get there using Google Maps. I thought I would break my hiatus from blogging with a rant. Over the last couple of months every time I viewed a site with a Google map, it wouldn’t load properly (see below): 

Anyway, I figured that perhaps my ISP was blocking the images or maybe my Internet connection was just slow but it seems it’s happening to other people too; I spoke to some friends and they, too, have had similar problems. I don’t use Google maps that often but it’s annoying when I do use it and they don’t work. Any ideas?

PS: As I write this, for some reason, I am unable to send email from my Gmail account using my desktop mail client. Instead of “Don’t be evil”, how about “Don’t be shit”. Much more appropriate given my recent experiences.