northern ireland – Page 10

Ridiculous

Diamond Dan A pathetic attempt by the Orange Order to increase visibility and relevancy. Rather than paying for the commission of a comic book character they could have started policing their own people and weeding out the bigots and louts. As I said last year: As a Catholic who attended the celebrations on 12th July … Continue reading “Ridiculous”

Diamond Dan

A pathetic attempt by the Orange Order to increase visibility and relevancy.

Rather than paying for the commission of a comic book character they could have started policing their own people and weeding out the bigots and louts. As I said last year:

As a Catholic who attended the celebrations on 12th July 2007 in Holywood, I must say the sectarian displays were not comforting. The booze-addled skinheads wearing nylon uniforms in red, white and blue really set the scene. Add to that the drizzle waiting for about 90 minutes for the march to organise themselves to come up and down the main street. It really helped the spirits.

So how about making the 12th July more inclusive and less about the STUPID in our history?

Co-Working guidelines.

HiveLogic on getting into The Zone in modern offices: “Thereâ€™s no choice about how or when youâ€™re expected produce, or under what circumstances. Here is your computer, here is your workstation, you have the tools, the florescent lights are turned on, why donâ€™t you go ahead and get to work, thanks, bye.” “In a best … Continue reading “Co-Working guidelines.”

HiveLogic on getting into The Zone in modern offices:

“Thereâ€™s no choice about how or when youâ€™re expected produce, or under what circumstances. Here is your computer, here is your workstation, you have the tools, the florescent lights are turned on, why donâ€™t you go ahead and get to work, thanks, bye.”

“In a best case scenario, they do a mediocre job and feel OK at the end of the day. In the worst case, theyâ€™re miserable.”

The article mentions co-working in passing but I want to focus on the above paragraph. There is an idea that co-working is a “phenomenon” and there are some who think it might be a panacea to their productivity woes.

Looking at the quote above gives one aspect that can’t be ignored. You arrive in $BIG_COMPANY and if their processes are working correctly, you should have a desk, a computer, a phone and it’s just a case of getting your userid for the system, setting your passwords and starting to work (which may or may not include weeks of reading documentation). For some people this will idyllic, for others sufficient and for some of you, it may sound like hell on earth.

So what to do about it? The co-working movement assumes some things.

You are a self-employed knowledge worker with current income (or have a really understanding boss). You can make money at this or this is what you need to do to make money in the future or past.
Ideally you’re not going to need large equipment, a precise (and expensive) model of printer or a lot of space reserved for yourself. This is about sharing. You should provide your own equipment and it should all fit on one desk and use your fair share of power sockets.
If you’re lucky enough to have the capacity for a meeting space in addition to a communal work and break area, then great. If not, it’s perhaps not a great environment to bring customers for face to face meetings.
Working alongside people who are not your colleagues will benefit what you do (via the idea that networking is more valuable to you than teamwork) and you’re not just going to try to turn them into customers.
You have the equipment, data and resources online to help you do your work (or have some storage space at the co-work facility). You’re also pretty good with fixing your own problems. Don’t depend on your co-workers to sort out your issues. Most of them might help but they have their own jobs to do.
These interesting, creative, co-working people you have shacked up with won’t prove to be more of a distraction than your Wii, the postman, two cats and significant other which you’d have to contend with if you just stayed at home. And you’re not going to be a distraction to them either with tales of your last dentist visit or the how well you’re doing on Metroid.
You don’t have too many odious habits, you shower regularly and you know how to use a litter bin. If you smoke, you’ll have the sense to stand outside someone else’s door rather than just outside the co-work space.
If the facility is for more than just bedouin workers who hot-desk from day to day, then respect others personal space and property. Seems obvious but I came into an office a few years back where the keyboard was sticky and the screen was smeared. Apparently another worker had his kids in the office at the weekend.
Co-working is about shared responsibilities. You owe it to the other occupants not to be a prick to them, their colleagues, their customers and, if necessary, their children. Establish the rules early about who does the washing up, who cleans the toilet and who knows how to operate a vacuum cleaner. Remember it’s a co-work facility so it will likely be a good bit more freeform and chaotic than the standard cubicle farm.
Pay your share of the rent and utility bills without complaint. It’s my opinion that the base cost should be your percentages of these plus 10% for eventualities. If this means it’s not economical for you or you can’t pay on time then don’t be surprised when they ask you to leave.

In short, you need to be a good co-working citizen and expect the same from others.

If you are considering a co-working facility, you could do worse than to have a look at David Rice’s blog where these questions are being considered.

Living in Bangor

We’ve nearly been there for just over two months and I can think of no downsides. At the moment, the commute from Bangor takes about twenty minutes (leaving the house at 7 am) and the commute home takes about forty minutes (leaving at 4:20 pm). In short my commute time has effectively halved. Living five … Continue reading “Living in Bangor”

Living five minutes stroll from the beach and a twenty minute walk from the centre of Bangor has proved itself a couple of times. It’s just more convenient. I’ve not had to use the public transport network here (not in about 13 years to be honest) but I’m told it’s perfectly adequate.

My broadband did get sorted and apart from the odd line drop where I can’t get attached to Sky’s servers for authentication or DHCP, it’s been fast with a 384 Kbit upload and a 6.8 Mbit download. Getting those speeds is relatively regular as well though the latency can be a little high at times.

There are a few things I miss. A local B&Q. A local Maplin. But there’s pretty much everything else and decent enough facilities for kids, a heap of new eateries that we can try out and the only RPG book shop in the province as well. There’s a spacious play park around the corner in addition to the beach and a nice view (if you take the seafront route) on the way home from town.

I just need to figure out how to remove the commute and change the day job for everything to be perfect.

Mobile/Portable Computing Caveats

One thing that is nice about John Dvorak is that he truly has a visionary streak. In all the years I’ve read about technology, Dvorak has seldom been right. He’s managed to cherry-pick the absolutely wrong from the blatantly obvious for years. That has to count for something. The rant this week is that he … Continue reading “Mobile/Portable Computing Caveats”

The rant this week is that he reckons in 2008, the perfect machine is a big old clunky desktop manufactured from the cheapest components. He rails about others who use laptops (and who can’t keep a cup of coffee from landing on it) or PDA/Smartphones (and who can’t remember not to drop it in the toilet bowl).

There is a difference between portable and mobile computing. Using a laptop is certainly now portable computing. You port this device from location to location and when you stop moving and find a seat, you work. Because the device is portable, it is possible to leave it in a cafe, forget to pick it up out of the taxi, have it lifted by some larcenous scumbag. There’s definitely a liability with it but the convenience outweighs the dversities. Conversely, using a phone/PDA is what I call mobile computing. You can reply to email or update your blog while standing in a queue. Unlike a laptop, the smartphone likely even follows you to the toilet (which is why some people have dropped theirs in the bowl). Now, I’m not advocating ‘plogging’ (though Twenty is about a decade too late to have claimed to have invented it), but there’s definitely a difference between using a smartphone and a laptop.

His main attack on portable and mobile computing is with regard to backups – both of data and of a workable machine and the relative cost of replacement.

Backup Your Data

“They drag the machine everywhere, and if it gets lost or broken, they’re toast, since they never perform any kind of backup. (Nobody backs up much these days.) Even if people do back up, though, they’re likely still SOL since the restore function typically doesn’t work well when a new machine is involved.”

Backups do happen, especially for smart folk that use Mac OS X along with Time Machine or Time Capsule. The backup argument is well made but it shouldn’t be singled out against laptop users. Everyone should backup. It’s not hard to do, it’s not expensive. Unless of course your laptop doesn’t hold your Data. James at Eirepreneur has been torturing himself with an eee PC for a week or so and keeps all of his documents in the Cloud (Google Docs, GMail, etc). The downside to using web services is that without Internet coverage you’re screwed. Is this a bad thing? Not really. It’s widespread and cheap. Similarly with a smartphone it’s likely that your documents on the phone are backed up to your ‘main’ computer so your data will not be lost.

Dvorak’s whine that restores don’t work well. Well. That’s just him. He uses Windows you know.

Backup your hardware

“And these devices are poised to become the next desktop replacement platform? Splash. Splash. Splash.”

This needs reinforced. If you work for a living and your machine gets toasted, ideally you should have a new machine pronto because the cost of being out of action will quickly offset the cost of getting the new machine. Every business should keep at least one spare machine. It doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest. Even a low end MacBook at Â£699 is a great machine for a spare. How long would it take for your worker to make back the Â£699? A day or three? And after his usual machine has been restored to full working order, you still have the spare for the next time (or as a loaner to a staff member who really wants to work from home). The cost is easily made back. So buy a spare already. Making your livelihood (whether you’re a sole trader or an employee) depend on a single machine is simply stupid. Or, if you don’t want to plonk down the readies for a machine that will gather dust, make friends with your local AASP as they’re likely to be able to supply you with a loaner or machine to rent in the interim. You will have to pay for the privilege but again, how many days before you’d make it back?

His page 2 arguments are easy enough to defeat. He mentions ten reasons to keep using desktops which are all ‘easier’ or ‘harder’ and none of them are absolutes. The one advantage of laptops and smartphones is an absolute however. There are desktops that are more expensive than laptops. There are laptops with immense amounts of internal storage. And they can also use USB drives too, John. But there are no desktops which are as portable as a laptop or smartphone. Period. Or that can be used for a couple of hours on a train journey. Or while waiting for your partner to finish browsing in a shop. Portability is an absolute and that’s why these devices are popular.

This article is not about refuting Dvorak because that could quickly become a full time job. This is about establishing behaviours for the next generation of knowledge worker.

Take the ‘stupid’ out of backups and use Time Machine
Have a spare machine handy to receive your backup
Have some friends who may have a spare machine just in case
Take care of your laptop and smartphone

“Don’t be a Jackass”

…would be a last point that needs underlined. Dvorak’s wisdom extends to any uses of Smartphones or laptops. But he made the title of the article “The iPhone is no desktop” which shows a couple of things.

He thinks you’re stupid.
He writes his articles at a cheap desktop, running Windows, in his underwear
He’s whoring for links by mentioning the iPhone (a media darling)
He mentions ‘Apple laptop’ where the wisdom could apply to any manufacturer

Cheap tricks designed to lure people in to view his ads and get more revenue.

But take what I say on board. Don’t think the right method is the Dvorak method – “go back to using a cheap desktop”. The right method is to back up your data. To have a spare machine. And to be careful while plogging.

Working conditions

â€œself-funded small business that encourages people to stay away from the VCs, says you donâ€™t need to live in San Francisco to be successful, suggests that charging for your products is a good thing, espouses the advantages of small teams, applauds shorter work weeks with more reasonable hours, rejects the notion of traditional â€˜seriousness business … Continue reading “Working conditions”

â€œself-funded small business that encourages people to stay away from the VCs, says you donâ€™t need to live in San Francisco to be successful, suggests that charging for your products is a good thing, espouses the advantages of small teams, applauds shorter work weeks with more reasonable hours, rejects the notion of traditional â€˜seriousness business stuff,â€™ and believes keeping it simple is the way to success.â€

Yup

Jason Calacanis was hounded a little last week with his comments about workaholics but it’s worth looking at what he said rather than the rants about how people interpreted them.

when you don’t love what you do it sucks.

I can totally empathise with this as I keep working on trying to do the switch again? Explain? Okay. I will, but not here.

Jason also says
Very much paraphrased here…and removing some points which I don’t feel can apply universally.

Buy Macs. They’ll save you money in the long run
Buy an extra monitor for everyone. Makes people happy and productive
Buy lunch. Often.
Find a good accountant to handle tax and wages

This, the Jason Calacanis/37Signals model is the model I already run with for the most part, but there are limits, e.g.

I think most customers would prefer that Mac-Sys was open 6 days a week rather than 5 (but that limitation comes from the Enterprise Park and not from us). We have campaigned repeatedly to get this changed…
The hosting company needs to be available 7 days a week. That’s just a reality. Nothing can be done about that and it’s up there with my own expectations.
Infurious could get away with a 4 day week, probably less considering everyone is working at it part time at the moment anyway.

but the issue with all of this is in terms of equality. Rolling out something to one group and not another isn’t egalitarian and therefore I’m not willing to consider it. It’s not an issue at the moment because the hosting company and Infurious are both still in startup mode. Working conditions are not bad at all – it’s not a stressed environment, they get to work with interesting people every day, they do stuff they enjoy and the only aggro was who gets to play their music on the Airport Express. But it’s not perfect, we’re starting to get tight on space and I’m feeling more and more that a city centre location (or one walkable to from the major bus and train stops) would be better for everyone.

I think 2008 will be a time for me to work on improving the working conditions for everyone.

Anyone want to buy a house? In Ireland no less!

It’s an airy 4 bedroom house with a large living room and a dining room. Decent grounds. External garage. Gas central heating. Double-glazed throughout. Only 3 miles from Belfast City Centre and up on a hill just in case Al Gore is right and the sea is going to rise 20 feet sometime before Tuesday. It’s in the Four Winds area of Belfast, a short walk from The Four Winds (a wine bar and gourmet restaurant) and if you walk 100 yards in the other direction, you’re in the countryside. Traffic, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere is bad from 0800 to about 0845 but going home at 5 pm takes about 15 minutes with a quick scoot up the Ormeau Road. There’s an excellent bus service, several schools and nurserys and Forestside shopping centre as well as being minutes from Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, which is great for the nippers. You’re also 15 minutes from Lisburn and the M1 which will lead you to the West and also the South.

We’re moving down the coast, probably in the direction of Ballyhalbert which means we’re pretty much buggered if Al Gore is right about the sea levels thing. We’ve viewed a heap of houses so far – so much that I’m tired of introducing myself to strangers and tramping through their pads. Our intention is to sell as quickly as possible and if we don’t have anywhere to live then, rent until something appears.

The change of pace for me will be amazing. At first I’ll be commuting quite a lot but I’ll get used to that – or change jobs (sadly there’s not much call for enterprise-focussed IT professionals along the rural Ards peninsula).

The property market in Northern Ireland has slowed a lot since last year. Houses are not selling as quickly as they did and, thankfully, prices have begun to come down as well. It was becoming impossible for first time buyers, certainly in Belfast where it was hard to find a property for less than Â£200 000 (US$400 000). There’s certainly a glut of housing at the moment and fewer houses are being torn down to make way for multi-storey apartment blocks. It’s suddenly shifted to being a buyers market with many houses going for just the asking price as opposed to much higher (I enquired about one property last year which was list price Â£80 000 for not much more than a site and a shed. The site sold to a developer for over Â£250 000.) It seems the market is reaching equilibrium so all we need is for salaries to catch up.

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“Don’t be a Jackass”

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