Jason Stamper's Blog: November 2008 Archives

MiniDisc Community up in mini arms
November 26, 2008

The worldwide MiniDisc fanbase was somewhat shocked by a blog I wrote recently, in which a survey put the MiniDisc at number 14 in a list of Britain’s 20 most useless gadgets.

Now I’m not saying I’m losing serious amounts of sleep over the outcry (he says as he grabs yet another coffee) but I just wanted to make a couple of things clear to all you faithful MiniDisc users, now that the comments about my blog on www.minidisc.org have just surpassed the 50 mark.

Firstly, I come in peace. I mean you no harm. ‘Twas not I who so wronged your beloved gadget, but a group of people – oh, how misguided they must surely be – who happened to fill in a survey on reviews site www.reevoo.com. I am but a messenger of bad tidings. When it comes to MiniDiscs, anyway.

Secondly, while I am accused of spelling MiniDisc wrongly in my earlier blog, it was only in the list of gadgets itself, as supplied to me by www.reevoo.com, where it was spelled wrongly. That’s because it seemed to me that there was a slim possibility that some respondents had meant another brand of ‘mini disk player’, as opposed to a Sony-specific MiniDisc per se.

Now if you want to split hairs -- and some in the MiniDisc community no doubt will -- you could argue that even though Sony licensed the MiniDisc format to most of the big electronics makers, they were still bound to use the proper term, MiniDisc, in their product marketing collateral. So strictly speaking there should be no ‘mini disk players’ in circulation (apart from MiniDisc players, if you see what I mean).

But that doesn’t mean that a quick Google search won’t turn up thousands of mis-spelled ‘mini disk players’, ‘minidisc players’ and ‘mini disc recorders’ that have been bought, sold or reviewed on the web. Or indeed, written about on minidisc.org, where despite their protestation about my spelling, many continue to spell it Minidisc – in violation of the proper and correct MiniDisc trademark as laid down by Sony itself – to this day.

Now I suppose you could argue that iPods and other MP3 players are, in a very real sense, ‘mini disk players’. The larger capacity versions certainly contain a very small hard disk drive, or, if you like, ‘mini disk’.

But thankfully, confusion between MiniDisc and iPods or ‘mini disk’ players has been rare, at least until now, because everyone calls them MP3 players or iPods or Sony WalkMan’s/Men. Phew!

So it’s unlikely that those respondents who put ‘mini disk players’ at number 14 on the list of Britain’s most useless gadgets meant iPods or their ilk.

Sorry, MiniDisc faithful, but it still seems to be the case that your faithful MiniDisc players were at number 14, making them more useless gadgets than egg slicers, yoghurt makers and towel warmers. At least, according to the survey.

Now, what do they say about not shooting the messenger?

PS. to the MiniDisc fan who said I "obviously" have "a sad obsession with electric nail files and foot spas", can I have my Christmas list back now please?

[Trivia fact: fans on MiniDisc.org call iPod users 'iSheep'.]

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Posted by Jason Stamper on 03:42 PM | Comments (1)

Chancellor throws business IT into disarray with VAT rate cut
November 25, 2008

With news in the pre-budget report that the Chancellor is slashing VAT from 17.5% to 15% from Monday, many businesses will be struggling to get their IT systems updated in time.

Since the rate of VAT changes so infrequently, many smaller firms have hard-coded the rate of 17.5% into their application logic. Refactoring those systems to calculate VAT at 15% may not be such an easy task, especially for companies that lack in-house IT skills.

Ewen Ferguson, associate director at Protiviti, noted: “While the VAT reduction will be welcomed by many in the business community, for some organisations it will be a lot more difficult to implement than people initially think. Even just scoping the impact of the change could be tricky. Many IT systems, and particularly spreadsheets, contain the 17.5% VAT rate ‘hard-coded’ into them within numerous calculations. To check and amend every system and spreadsheet could be a massive and expensive task, and may cause an unforeseen impact to year to date data.”

Protiviti, a provider of risk consulting and internal audit services, warned that companies could face complexities and errors. There is a range of considerations, including supply chain, accounting timings of purchases and sales, decisions on pricing of goods, and invoicing, aside from the related IT issues.

For some organisations, making the change centrally will be quite straight forward, however for many it will not be as simple as changing a single rate. There is a range of considerations, including supply chain, accounting timings of purchases and sales, decisions on pricing of goods, and invoicing, aside from the related IT issues.

CODA, supplier of finance systems to 25% of the UK high street, warned of the confusion the cut in VAT will cause not just to retailers, but potentially also to consumers in the run-up to Christmas.

Following discussions with its retail customers about implementing the 2.5% cut in VAT, CODA found that many believe it will cause more problems than it solves at a time when they are already discounting heavily...[click continue reading for more on this entry]...

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Posted by Jason Stamper on 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

SaaS alive and well?
November 20, 2008

Business process management maven Cordys has obviously not been listening to Lawson’s CEO, who has said that the Software as a Service (SaaS) market is doomed inside of two years.

Cordys has just announced that it has entered an SaaS OEM agreement with Active Operations Management International (AOMi).

The companies pointed out that the SaaS market is forecast to grow to $19.3bn by 2011 according to research firm Gartner.

AOMi does clerical operations management through a mixture of training, consultancy and a web-based operations planning and control application called Workware.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cordys’ Business Operations Platform will be implemented at the communications layer within Workware to enable integration of AOMi’s SaaS offering with client processing systems.

“[Cordys] in combination with AOMi’s methodology expertise delivers a fully integrated solution,” said Cordys chief strategy officer Jon Pyke, “that helps customers looking for resolution of issues such as capacity planning and performance reporting, based on a Software as a Service business model.”

But AOMi MD Richard Jeffery noted that, “It is only through successfully bringing people, processes and technology together, that real business benefits are realised. Technology is only one critical element, addressing the cultural issues within an organisation is just as important to the success of the project. In reality this involves a mix of training, consultancy and the introduction of Workware.”

AOMi says its Active Operations Management (AOM) methodology, training services and support tools is used to support the management of over 25,000 staff, and is growing at over 10,000 a year.

Visit activeops.com or cordys.com for more info.

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Posted by Jason Stamper on 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

How to make the perfect Yorkshire Pudding
November 13, 2008

I love it when serious chemists put their mind to solving seemingly mundane challenges: in this case how to make the perfect Yorkshire pudding.

But the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has done just that, and also decreed that a Yorkshire pudding is not a Yorkshire pudding unless it is at least four inches tall.

Chemical scientist and author John Emsley, of Yorkshire, went further, and invoked the North-South divide when he said, “You can always tell from the look and taste if the cook has the right touch and it is almost pitiful to observe the stuff that comes from some southern ovens - flat, pale and soggy much of the time.”

The RSC has published its recipe and method for the perfect Yorkshire pud...[click continue reading for the recipe and method]...

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Posted by Jason Stamper on 02:06 PM | Comments (1)

What does Obama’s election mean for science and technology?
November 05, 2008

Obama's campaign team pointed out that as a share of the Gross Domestic Product, American federal investment in the physical sciences and engineering research has dropped by half since 1970.

At the same time, a recent international study found that US students perform lower on scientific assessments than students in 16 other economically developed nations, and lower than 20 economically developed nations in mathematics. There are signs that many US citizens are not ideally suited to participate in the 21st century economy.

As Barack Obama says, “America risks being left behind in the global economy: Revolutionary advances in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other fields are reshaping the global economy. Without renewed efforts, the United States risks losing leadership in science, technology and innovation.”

So what does Obama’s election as president mean for technology? Let’s start with a look at his track record as Senator...[click continue reading for Obama's plans in the field of science and technology]...

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Posted by Jason Stamper on 12:27 PM | Comments (3)