Lets talk to some 10 year olds about technology

This is one of those articles which makes you feel old even when your not really. Ten year olds do not remember rotary phones, they are blissfully unaware of what life was like BI (before internet).

The BBC news website team, to celebrate their ten years of existence rounded up some ten years olds and talked to them about future technology.

One of the things they showed these kids was a rotary dial phone:

"I've seen these in movies but never used one before," said one. Another added: "I've seen one in Heartbeat. It must be hard to remember numbers."

My parents had a rotary phone in the 80's when I was a kid. Numbers were not hard to remember, I know its out of fashion but we memorised them.

I know several numbers off by heart, my home phone, my mobile, my work phone, several old work numbers. After all before mobile phones I had a phone card and a charge card, if we needed a number we memorised it or wrote it down.

I also remember when every phone call was from a withheld number and the only way to find out who was calling was to pick up the damn phone.

In recruitment trying to arrange interviews can be a nightmare, the idea of a mobile is for people to be contactable, not for them to stare at the screen because it is a withheld number and then let it go to answer phone or worse just ignore it. I would not mind but anyone that has applied for a job should expect calls from withheld numbers because those are the numbers recruiters call from.

So here is a test to see how old you are: Do you know off by heart your mobile and home phone number?

How many people have had the following conversation on their mobile:

Other person: "What's your number?"
You: "Hang on, I will have to look?

Maybe I am whinging on about things, but is this not the first step of relying on technology too much.

These everyday tasks of memory work the brain muscle which in this electronic age is starting to waste away.

We have been through a lot of temps recently at work and one of the first things we have to tell them is to write things down. Even with all the electronic assistance we have you still need to keep, process and organise a lot of information in your head. If you are not able to memorise your own phone number it is going to be an uphill struggle.

I feel a bit like an old man writing this article but maybe its because technology moves on at such a rate that the only people who are young any more are the ten year olds. Even teenagers are out of date, technology has moved on.

The Roy G. Biv theory

This is one of those half baked ideas that I have.

I cant decide whether this idea is:

a multi million pound paper back book Christmas special finally giving ordinary people the key to live a happy, successful life...

Or...

a parody of the million pound paper book back... blah blah blah etc etc etc...

Or...

a collection of odds and sods reorganised into something that is completely worthless...

Or...

just an interesting coffee break thought.

For those of you that don't know 'ROY G BIV' represents the colour and order of a rainbow (although according to wikipedia there may be some argument about this).

R - Red
O - Orange
Y - Yellow

G - Green

B - Blue
I - Indigo
V - Violet

Now inspiration particles (Terry Pratchett reference) hit in completely random places, this one hit me on a bus on the way to work in bright sunshine on a late October day. It was inspired by the following musical lyric.

"...And it was all yellow... "

-Yellow, Coldplay

So anyway on to the theory.

The Roy G. Biv Theory

Take any day and assign it a colour from 'ROY G BIV' according to the following colours and meanings.

Red -

Red is for passion, not just love but any day when you are passionate about something. It can be a thirst for making a change in your life or passionately arguing to change somebodies mind. It does not representative destructive anger or negative argumentative passion.

A red day is a positive day.

Orange -

Orange is about ideas and creativity. Orange screams listen or look at me. Orange are for those days where your energy and creativity are strongest. You mind solves intricate problems with ease.

An orange is a positive day.

Yellow -

Yellow is sunshine, happiness and contentment. Yellow is about being at ease with yourself and enjoying your day. Maybe nothing special happens but a yellow day is a pleasant emotionally stable day.

A yellow day is a positive day.

Green -

Green is the colour of change. Green is about changing not necessarily for the better. Green days are tough days that take a lot of energy and concentration potentially for little reward.

A green day is a neutral day.

Blue -

Blue is the colour of sadness. It can be a very emotional time, negative often associated with depression or tears. Blue days are emotionally draining days where you would rather be wrapped up under the duvet shutting yourself off from the world.

A blue day is a negative day.

Indigo -

Indigo is the colour of spiritualism. It is about deep thought sometimes with a detachment from reality. Indigo days are characterized by a feeling of not being a part of the every day world. A day of being lost in your own world.

An indigo day is a neutral day.

Violet -

Violet is the colour of anger. It is about anger barely contained, an explosion waiting to happen. Violet days are characterized by a general grumpy feeling, a tense day where you could lash out at anyone and everyone.

A violet day is a negative day.

Now do this for a week taking the predominant colour of each day and you will have a list like so

Colour
RRGBOYII

+/-
++ . - + + .. giving a total score for the week of +3.

Obviously the more positive your week the better, and for negative weeks you can look closely at your problem areas.

As the weeks go by you will start to see patterns to the days and emotions which will enrich your understanding of yourself.

This framework is about starting a voyage of discovery about you and your emotions and how that ebbs and flows over a week.

...End of theory...

Now,do you see the problem I had at the start of this article. On a very superficial level my theory seems as good as any other mumbo jumbo that makes it into the paperback Christmas chart but when you look a bit close isn't all just a load of made up nonsense.

All the colours are an adaption or reorganisation of existing colour theory or just what the colour sometimes means to me.

Either way I am going to park it here on my blog, make of it what you will.

Just in case, if it does turn out that the idea is worth millions, please note the copyright and intellectual property contained here in belongs to me, and I will sue.

Remembrance Day - 11 November 2007.

There are a couple of things that I feel are a moral responsibility for individuals in this world. One is to vote and another is to remember those that have died to give us and people around the world, to protect the freedom to vote among other things.

No matter how you feel about war our brave men and women serve in the armed forced to protect our freedom. Words are not enough, but we should never, ever forget the sacrifices they have made and will continue to make in the future.

Please buy a poppy this November and take just one moment to remember the fallen.

Bring Back 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'

I have been watching the run of the American version of 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' on FiveUS. It is just as good as the older UK version.

For those of you who have never come across this show it is about improvisational comedy. A panel of four comedians are given a series of party games where a character or situation is given to them and they have to improvise the scene.

Some of the games have included, the Hoedown where they have to sing a hoedown based on a suggestion from the audience for example singing about being a fast food worker.

Another games is helping hands where one comedian provides the hands for another comedian from behind their back. Usually involving food or other props these games could get a bit messy.

The great thing about the show was this it was very hard, comedians had to think quickly on their feet to make you laugh and sometimes in failing they made you laugh even harder.

There were some regulars on the panel including Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops which allowed for running jokes and a more intimate feeling about the show.

There has never been a show that has come close to replacing it and I think it should be bought back. Mix some of the old stars with the new talent that has built up in the late 90's and 00's. This type of comedy show is comedy on the edge it is all about whether comedians are still funny without a script. This is the heart of comedy finding the funny in any situation and making people laugh.

The show was always less pretentious than modern so called comedy quiz shows, it was notscripted, packaged and prepared. No one scored points off an obvious stooge participant, it was simply about making people laugh.

Come on some UK network programme commissioner bring back 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'. I personally guarantee there is a gap in the market for a simple less packaged programme that just makes you laugh.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

II Waging War

9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough for its needs.

10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.

Notes by Zephyrist:

The first paragraph simply states that bring important things like armour and weaponry from home but feed off the land. More basically only transport that which you cannot reliably get on or near the battlefield.

The second paragraph is a bit more cryptic. Sun Tzu may have been saying something simple, with money tax the people near the army to prevent the state exchequer and the people becoming impoverished. Alternatively, he may just be saying the greater the distance between the army and the home land the more impoverished the state will become, so only make war close to home.

As usual Sun Tzu is open to interpretation.

Great Coffee

First up, I would never advertise a product or service I didn't love, so I am not on commission or anything.

I love Coffee and I have to say the best chain coffee bar for quality, price and value by far is AMT Coffee. Ok so they may not have one one every high street and they may only have kiosks not proper coffee shops but if you are lucky to have one near you then you should try it now.

My favourite style is cappuccino and AMT gets it right nearly every time. AMT are one of the only coffee shops to offer a choice of sprinkles for your cappuccino: chocolate, cinnamon or nutmeg. I changed from chocolate to cinnamon sprinkles and have not looked back.

The only snag is that the cappuccino comes to the top of the cup, so when you put the lid on the sprinkles stick to the lid. One of AMT's big point of difference between it and its competitors is that they listen to their customers. For example, they went organic and changed their snacks stock in response to customer feedback.

I thought I would test the customer feedback out. I collected one of their feedback forms and sent it in suggesting that either the cups or the concave lid should be redesigned so that the sprinkles remained on the foam.

I promptly got a letter back with two free drinks tokens and a good, slightly customized letter, hand signed. Ok so I haven't written many letters before to companies but I did write one to First Great Western once, who wrote back and told me I was clearly wrong.

So well done AMT, you obviously do listen to and value your customers.

I will keep you updated as to whether they change the design of the cup or the lid.

Humanistic Design

Humanistic Design is about how we as people relate to things like technology. Our interaction with technology is a whole science about human interfaces and usability.

Humans intuitively know how things should work. We pick up a camera and we know when we press the button not only should the button go click but we should hear the shutter open and closing.

The thing is technology is now so advanced that the camera doesn't need to go click and make a shutter noise. So why does it? Well quite simply if it did not we as humans would feel uncomfortable without quite knowing why. Therefore the camera would become an alien object to us and sub consciously we might buy the camera that does have the noises even if there is an option to turn them on and off.

The other strange thing about human design is what we expect technology to look and sound like. Take a gadget like an MP3 player, generally silver, small with sexy curves is a good thing. The MP3 player I bought a while ago followed this design ethos, it was small sleek with simple buttons.

However, I discovered a humanistic design flaw. The design is essential a tube with the headphone jack at one end and the usb port at the other. The problem came when deciding what the headphone jack would look like, they went for a straight jack rather than an L-shape. After about two months all the twisting has broken the cable and I have had to go and buy some new headphones. I bought an L-shaped jack and although it breaks up the sleek lines it probably wont break so easily.

Take cars as well, we all know that a really great car will have a throaty engine roar. So engine designers make sports cars with throaty roars, whether they need a good roar to have a good engine is a mute point. Humans demand a good throaty roar so they must have it.

Humans are fascinating creatures, we have so many rules, traditions and customs which our mind creates to make life easier. Our interaction with things is just one study of psychology that I have always found fascinating.

Here are two example clips of humanistic design which are pointless but satisfying, prepare to release your inner geek.

Camera shutter

Phone shut

Misheard lyrics 2

Sometimes it is very difficult to hear song lyrics, although the internet pretty much means you can now look up the correct version. Here is another that I have misheard.

The Automatic - Monster.
Actual Lyric:

"What's that coming over the hill
Is it a monster? Is it a monster?"

My version:

"What's that coming over the hill
Is it a boxster? Is it a boxster?"

As in Porsche boxster, coming over the brow of a hill on the road. Seemed much more logical to me and it had the added benefit of making the song a solid driving song for true petrolheads.

20 years ago: The Great storm

On the BBC when I got up, on the news this evening, on the websites and just now I was reminded it was 20 years since the 'great storm' hit the south east of England.

Well I was in the South-West at the time where it was slightly less impressive, some trees did blow over and several roads were closed due to falling debris.

My point is yes, it was a devastating storm which killed people and destroyed property but why is it head line news today. Is it such a slow news day that we call history news, they must have been building up to this for months with all their documentaries and clips.

There are stories happening all over the world that the public need to know about and discuss. A 20 year old storm is a 1 hour documentary not national news.

I wonder sometimes whether we are raising the bar of sensationalist news so high that on most normal days nothing happens that the media feels is worth reporting. So I fear that there will be more days when it is X years since such an event occurred. News may become a five minute segment of past news.

It reminded me of a West Wing episode last night. Toby Ziegler was talking with the 4 network news editors about coverage of the republican and democratic conferences. They wanted to cut coverage down from 2 hours a night to 1 hour a night. In their words they wanted to show the acceptance of nomination speech and the balloons.

Everyone likes to see the balloons, if you have never seen the footage it is where balloons drop from the ceiling and everyone is wearing placards. Every conference would not be complete without balloons. In the UK strangely enough we are less cheer leaderish about our politics.

Toby, as I would be was incensed.

Yes, no. There isn't going to be a horse race to cover, either in New York or San Diego. But we gave you the air waves for free 70 years ago and 357 days a year you can say who's up and who's down, who won the West and who lost the South.
But what's wrong with 8 days, not every year but every 4 years, showing our leaders talking to us? Not a fraction of what they said, but what they said. And then the balloons.
- Toby Ziegler, West Wing (Quoted from Conventional viewing)

The man has a point for all that is great about humanity for all its achievements, successes and the great forum of debate that is the world, the media wish to cut current affairs programming and replace it with the latest reality TV Show.

If the public has no appetite in news it is not because it is uninteresting, it is because the media are failing in telling us the story, failing to involve us . Sensationalism has replaced debate and it can only get worse not better.

In about twenty years from now this year will be interesting, there was the great snow, the great flood x2, who knows what winter will be like. Perhaps on of the main news shows could be renamed '20 years ago today...'.

But remember 20 years ago was a great storm ...

How to ... pick your targets

The Simon Cowell approach.

Think of the job you want to apply for think of your skills, qualifications and experience for the job. Now Simon has the list of skills, qualifications and experience in front of him. You walk into the room and he ticks them off one by one. At the end of the interview he will either tell you, you have the job or tell you its not for you. Be honest because Simon will, are you good enough?

The reason I bring Simon Cowell into recruitment is because everyone has seen on the X-factor all those people who have deluded themselves that they are the next number 1 star and it is clear to everyone they are not. Applications are just the same, are you deluding yourself that you are the best?

The Way forward.

Create the check-list of skills, qualifications and experience for the job you want. Tick off the ones you already have, err on the side of caution or better still get someone else to objectively tick off the list.

For most jobs I recommend that you need at least half of the list ticked to stand a chance and that is just to get through to the next stage, not necessarily the job.

If you have less than half checked you have a few choices:

• Go for a lower position and work your way up.
• Do volunteer work in your spare time to give you some more relevant experience.
• Study for some of the qualifications.

Keep doing all of the above while you continue to make applications. Although you will get a lot of knock backs you are gaining experience and continue to add to the ticks on the list. Sooner or later you should get where you want to go but be prepared for the long haul.

If you are not prepared for the long haul and still have less than half checked really think about whether there is any point in applying. Consider how competitive the field is as well, will there be lots of high quality applicants? Your application as well as being considered in isolation will be compared to all the other applications. Recruiters do not have time to interview everyone who meet the minimum check-list criteria.

In the UK the public sector and sometimes the private sector create the check-list for you, it is the person specification. In short-listing the person specification is just checked against the application, depending on the number of applicants and the quality a score threshold is put in place and everyone above that score is invited to interview. So the higher your score the better chance you have of being interviewed.

So the first step in an application should be about being realistic about which jobs you are going to apply for. Pick your targets and put your efforts into securing that job. The scatter gun method of applying for every job rarely works.

A good application will take time to put together and therefore you need to choose carefully which jobs you apply for, after all you do not want to waste your time do you.

Next up How to ... write a good CV

How to ... Introduction

They sometimes say it is best to write about what you know, most of this blog is just random thoughts straying down my fingers and typed into words. A lot of the blog is simply a post it note for my brain, it saves having to remember everything.

I work in HR and I have previously shared some of my interview experiences offering some tips to people to give them a good chance at getting the job they want.

For one recent mass recruitment project I wrote a two page guidance note for people that did not get short-listed. Due to the numbers involved we were unable to offer specific feedback and too be honest the feedback for all of the 'regrets' (what we politely call failures) was exactly the same. They all made the same mistakes.

Recently I interviewed a candidate who had failed the first time round, on the short walk to the interview room they explained how I had helped them last time they applied, how they had taken the feedback away and really taken the information on board. They then explained how this was there nth application for the job and they were a bit nervous because it meant so much to them.

I had looked at both their new and old application form, they really had taken the advice and had nailed the application second time around.

At interview they nailed that too, although nervous they clearly emphasised their skills, experience and suitability for the job. It struck me that without that bit of advice I gave them originally they might have missed out on a job and we would have missed out on a great new employee.

Sometimes all people need is a bit of advice and no one in the recruitment world really gives practical advice especially in the early stages. The recruitment process is not perfect, we can only hire those who evidence their ability, if your not good at interviews or application forms we could easily miss you.

I have decided to write a short series of 'How to...' articles to help those that are looking for practical advice on how not to miss out on a job they could do.

First up 'How to ... pick your targets.'

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

II Waging War

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.

8. The skilful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply wagons loaded more than twice.

Notes by Zephyrist:

In warfare evil men flourish. Evil flourishes in chaos and the general populace always suffer.Sun Tzu states that anyone that has seen the full horrors of war knows this truism.

In the second paragraph Sun Tzu goes back to labouring the same point in a different way. A good warrior only needs one levy of soldiers to win and only one set of supplies. Presumably because the good warrior has chosen his perfect moment with the perfect strategy to get it right first time and secure victory.

Jericho - ITV4 Wednesday's 8pm

I have been watching this new US drama series for the last two weeks and it is turning into a must watch series.

Its starts off with following a prodigal son Jake Green returning home to a small town (population:5000) called Jericho a few hours away from Denver. Then a nuclear mushroom cloud is seen over Denver and all communication is lost without the outside world.

In the first episode is blind panic, the children are missing in a school bus somewhere, everyone can see the mushroom cloud but no one has any information and then the power goes out. One of the first panics is at the gas station where everyone is queuing for fuel. Although it is unclear where they might drive too. Certainly in both episodes no one appears to leave the district. The sheriffs department go off in search of the school bus but get caught up with some escaped criminals leaving the fire brigade to act as public order officials.

The mayor and his family including the prodigal son must then pull the town together to survive. Episode 1 ends with a stirring speech of the best community in the US from the mayor and then his son arrives with the missing school bus.

In Episode 2 the criminals roll into town looking for trouble and lethal radioactive rain storm is on its way from Denver, two hours to get everyone under cover in two small nuclear shelters. Despite some frantic repair work only the town hall shelter is functional leaving all the hospital staff, patients and other stuck with no place to go. Is the salt mine their last hope?

Meanwhile our hero Jake finds out about the criminals and heads out to rescue his friends, can he do it before the killer rain arrives?

This is a very interesting show which has potential, I shall keep watching to see how things turn out.

'Stray Matter' - utter genius!

Sometimes I come across a site where I think my photography could be so much better, sometimes I come across a site and think wow I'm never going to be this good. On very rare occasions I come across a site which makes me want to cry and throw away my camera because any photograph I ever take will only be one millionth as good as this.

Of course the rarest gem of all is a photo site with good picture descriptions. Yes, there are sites with good technical or factual descriptions. Yes, there are sites with OK poetic descriptions which complement the picture nicely but none where the link is seemless or where you cant separate the text from the picture.

A picture says a thousand words but a picture with a thousand words says a million words.

'Stray matter' is a photoblog that does all the above and more, it blows my mind far out the other side, how can a photoblog be this good.

Evocative is one word I could use, often haunting, combining the photo with the text puts you right into the picture making it a living breathing landscape.

Utter genius.

Thank you to Scotty for permission to use a thumbnail image.

Autum election not on the cards.

Smugly, I would like to point out that I was right.

Gordon Brown has now gone on record to state that that there will not be an autumn election. In his own words he acknowledged that he had a duty of care to consider a snap election but that on balance he wanted to show his vision for Briton before going to the electorate.

The Tories have regressed to childish politics and are accusing him of being a scaredy cat. I am sure if positions were reversed the Tories would have given it a miss as well.

As both sides know it was an outside shot at best and just a fishing expedition by the labour just in case conditions looked favourable. The Tories knowing this have been able to counter the move quite nicely.

In a game of two halves it looks like this one came out as a draw, although the Tories were on the defensive for the entire game. The Labour party thought they had nothing to loose but maybe went a play too far.

Of course nothing ever changes and we will be able to come back to this "will he / wont he?" next April in time for an early may election.

The prime minster was also asked by the BBC whether he would rule out an election for 2008.

"I think it's very unlikely that this will happen in the next period."

- Gordon Brown

In other words he has cleverly allowed himself leeway to call an election but made it clear as possible that the next year will not be a protracted election campaign.

The problem Gordon could come up against is that if the media and the Tories launch a campaign for election they could force Gordon hand. This is why he has tried to draw a line under the issue, Gordon knows that to win an election he must choose the right moment to call it.

Coconut Skins and the Coconut Factory

I was busy licking coconut skins (interviewing candidates) yesterday. It was a long day but there was some very good candidates who will be an asset to the organisation. Thankfully even the bad ones were not nutters, they were just not good enough this time.

The only tips that came out of yesterday was keep your hands still. At least two people were significantly fidgety that it was distracting me. I know as a candidate you may be nervous but it is best to avoid holding anything in your hands and not to play with your clothes.

I made the best fool out of myself yesterday, I temporarily lost my pen and the candidate needed one to sign some paperwork. The candidate pointed out it was already in my hand. Doh!

The chairs were a bit rubbish as well, one day in those was liking flying on a budget airline.

I was interviewing in one of the executive office blocks the organisation owns. The walls were covered in inspirational quote pictures, plenty of office space, newly decorated, the works. Just the kind of building occupied by people who go no where near the sharp end of the business and just issue edicts from their ivory tower.

Any workplace that has inspirational posters on the wall is either trying too hard or is detached from reality. Posters may even go as far as to suggest that management have used them as a sticking plaster to appease a disgruntled work force. Management seem to have this idea that inspirational posters really help.

Of course as it was all in an executive suite with guards and hyper efficient receptionists, security was very tight even the kitchen had a numeric key lock. I will be glad on Monday to return to the coal face, my trip into executive land seems like a scary psychedelic dream.

November General Election.

I am still thinking Gordon is on for a May election but my position has moved more towards a November date. Its still an outside chance but it is a possibility.

The Conservatives should be at the top of their game as with the conference they control the media cycle. Yet the media especially the red top ones are very anti Tory still. They were all busy wondering whether the Tory tax cuts make sense.

Gordon Brown despite ignoring parliament in making major policy announcements can do no wrong. No party seems to be be playing the Tony's crony card so labour are in a very strong position.

My position now would be if November was May there would be a general election.

Apparently according to the media the key day is next Wednesday, some important announcements go to parliament on Monday / Tuesday and certain media pundits are expecting Gordon to ride the wave of celebration into a general election campaign.

I am still not convinced but I am ready to eat my words.

Northern Rock possible funding sources

I have still been thinking a bit about Northern Rock mainly while looking through my spam folder. I don't open the emails as you should never open a spam email just in case but I do like looking at the senders and the subject lines.

Anyway lately I have been getting variations of "You're loan has been approved" or "We are happy to approve your loan" etc. Northern Rock must have had thousands of these offers in their spam box, did no one suggest taking advantage of such readily available credit facilities. (BTW I know there is no such loan or credit, its just a scam, I am trying to be humorous or should that be humourless.)