Books, over ebooks

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[Once new, new york]

Was challenged about the virtues of the old-style paper books over eBooks. Just give you this hint (warning: if you’re one of these victims, you may not be interested). #3 in particular is one which is often overlooked. See, e.g., the first lines of the quote in this piece. There was even some scientific proof somewhere a couple of months ago about how touchable books were more like landscapes to the brain, enticing to explore the full meaning of the text in all its non-linear relations, whereas ebooks only appealed to the most dumbed-down rational functions of character processing with only a thin line to semantics extraction. Link requested.

Which is similar to what Bruce Schneier indicated (see under Privacy, anonymity, authentication in this summary) about human interaction.

So, for the uninterested traveller who wants to travel light and is bored by not caring to really look around and learn from the environment, ebooks may be handy. For those interested in preserving elements of high culture, caring about good print (and other physical quality aspects), and caring for one’s books, is a quality of the person. If you want flat info, join the Shallows. Your identity will be lost after the Singularity moment has functionally passed. If you’re enthousiastic about anything new that dumbs you down even further, do not assume everyone will want to join or everyone wants to be dumbed down to your levels just for the sake of keeping up. There’s many that don’t rush head over heels into destruction or disruption before it has been established to bring improvement and only after some little time find out somethings irrecoverable were lost!

Three shorties

Just to drop it; two and a half links to interesting articles. According to me, as I determine what goes here… and in a positive mood.

First, a picture for your viewing delight:
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[Njagra folls, yes]

OK, one on invention, innovation, in a very useful way: This, on blood testing.

And one that links quite nicely to some other post of mine.

And the other, lighter fare which is about you the baboon goes under the title of Mehhhh

Because reasons:
Masterpiece

Shortie: We’re all doomed now

[Plugged in now, as it was already on radio news yesterday – some time after I scheduled this tweet. Hm. Want to be First…]

Oh my G; we’re all doomed now. Due to this
Or can we hang in there only just, till this blows over ..? It should already have, shouldn’t it, when these sort of excesses (like this, too) turn up …!? Please …!!!

And a picture of course:
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[For no Binckhorst reason but the pretty industrial sight]

Covey. Books by Quote (Dutch)

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[From chaos onto calmth]

There you have it; Stephen Covey’s Seven Hobbits. Hobbies – I mean, Habits of Effective Leadership. In Dutch. You may figure out for yourself why I copied the quotes; either because I find them valuable or because the error is of import for its ominousness (is that a word?).
Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..!

Stephen R. Covey, De Zeven Eigenschappen van Effectief Leiderschap, FranklinCovey / Business Contact, juli 2006, ISBN 9789025414894.

Wat je de Principiële Levenshouding zou kunnen noemen wordt daarentegen in vrijwel alle literatuur van de eerste honderdvijftig jaar beschouwd als basis voor succes: integriteit, nederigheid, trouw, gematigdheid, moed, rechtvaardigheid, geduld, ijver, eenvoud, bescheidenheid en de gulden regel. Karakteristiek voor die literatuur is de autobiografie van Benjamin Franklin. (p.16)

Principes zijn geen waarden. Een criminele organisatie kan bepaalde waarden delen, maar ze zijn in strijd met de principes die ik hier bedoel. Principes zijn het land, waarden de landkaart. Als we de juiste principes als kaart hanteren kennen we de waarheid. Principes zijn richtlijnen voor menselijk gedrag, die hun waarden op lange termijn hebben bewezen. Hoe fundamenteel ze zijn wordt direct duidelijk, als je bedenkt hoe absurd het is om te leven volgens regels die er tegenin druisen. Ik betwijfel of er iemand bestaat die er werkelijk van overtuigd is dat onredelijkheid, bedrog, lafheid, nutteloosheid, middelmatigheid of verval een solide basis voor succes kunnen vormen. (p.27)
Continue reading “Covey. Books by Quote (Dutch)”

Battles; aren’t we over them?

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[Yes that actually is a watch – well, sundial but still]

Hmmm, just when I thought that manufacturer battles had gone out of style (would’ve been something for these lists), here we go again: Wired’s take on the next one.

Mehhh Practice

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[Mehhhdrid?]

This appeared:

Nicely summing up a widespread complaint. E.g., against ISO 2700x. One should be forbidden to call those ‘Best’, as they are average, at best.
Because they’re adopted by the ones with no imagination of their own so implementations will fall short of average, thus in mass lowering the average even further.

And Best has never been Best in the first place. ‘tWas a compromise, as it had to cover so much, over so many contributors at its inception already. Remember, BS7799 ..!? And on and on in review rounds, committees decided over changes. A camel is a horse designed by a committee. And it all had to be applicable to as many industries as you can dream up. Another flattener par excellence. Standards work, where there is little variation required. Here, much variation, tailoring to each and every implementation over and over again, is a prerequisite for any success. I might continue.

Luckily for you, the new ISO27001:2013 of last October, is a huge improvement…. To the panic of the knights of busywork, one cannot anymore rely on following the herd as described, prescribed, because, at last, the prescription tends to Use Your Own Brain. Principle-based at last ..! For some elements. Tuning required, not by the (C)ISO (office) (only), but by the Business itself. Oh dear! The implementation efforts… Consultants’ dreams.

Well, get the lowdown of this, from experts [disclaimer: don’t own anything of them]. Just wanted to post the tweet and my take on it.

The librarian wave

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[Had this as my cubicle, a long time ago]

There seems to be a silent undercurrent wave of librarians entering our (not) field of information processing. If you think their thinking might be stale, think again. This here piece, for example, is clear and bright in its contributions towards better …, well, calling it flatly what it is, ‘data’ management. Flatly, as that’s what one gets by approaching it from the IT side only. ‘Processes’ add only so much. I.e., so little.

Just one pic from that blog post to demonstrate the clarity of thought:
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How’zat for clarity ..?

I’ll pick this one up in full, later, when extending the stuff on ‘information’ in light of the one overarching Book on it all that I still have as a plan, if only I had the time to work on it full-time …!

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord