Blog

Pops off the Top

To get you in the mood, and involved, please check out the longlist of songs eligible for my [emphasis by author] Top 2000 Of All Times (link to clean Excel here).
Yes,

  • I’ll have to prune a bit, there’s more than 2000 now;
  • They’re sorted alphabetically on Artist so far, yes, yes. But my next thing to do is to recursively bin the lot into shrinking bin sizes, you know, like a good algorithmically sound sorter would;
  • If there might be songs you miss on the list, please comment with your suggestions. Which are totally non-binding as the list is mine (make your own, feel free to copy the Excel and adapt / deteriorate) so don’t be put off if your wacky addition(s) don’t make it to the final list;
  • Most importantly, if there’s things (songs) on the list you’d deem ridiculous, you may be right. But They’re my choice…

And the usual pic:
??????????[Way back from the 60s, would still be Good if built today like this]
To get you in the mood, check out this random sample…

Titles Artist
Donna 10CC
Dreadlock Holiday 10CC
I’m Not In Love 10CC
The Things We Do For Love 10CC
The Wall Street Shuffle 10CC
Me So Horny 2 Live Crew
I’m On Fire 5000 Volts
Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In 5th Dimension
Chiquitita ABBA
Dancing Queen ABBA
Eagle ABBA
Gimme Gimme Gimme ABBA
Knowing Me Knowing You ABBA
Mamma Mia ABBA
Money, Money, Money ABBA
S.O.S. ABBA
Summer Night City ABBA
Super Trouper ABBA
Take A Chance On Me ABBA
The Winner Takes It All ABBA
Voulez-Vous ABBA
Waterloo ABBA
All Of My Heart ABC
Back in Black AC/DC
Hells Bells AC/DC
Highway To Hell AC/DC
Let There be Rock AC/DC
Shoot to Thrill AC/DC
Thunderstruck AC/DC
Who Made Who AC/DC
Whole Lotta Rosie AC/DC
How Long ACE
Killer Adamski ft. Seal
Amazing Aerosmith
Crazy Aerosmith
Dream On Aerosmith
Dude Looks Like a Lady Aerosmith
… …
Good Vibrations Beach Boys
I Can Hear Music Beach Boys
Sloop John B Beach Boys
Tears in the morning Beach Boys
Wouldn’t It Be Nice Beach Boys
Brass Monkey Beastie Boys
Hey Ladies Beastie Boys
Intergalactic Beastie Boys
No Sleep Till Brooklyn Beastie Boys
You Got To Fight For Your Right to Party Beastie Boys
Hey Jude Beatles
While My Guitar Gently Weeps Beatles
Loser Beck
Don’t Forget To Remember Bee Gees
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart Bee Gees
How Deep Is Your Love Bee Gees
I Started A Joke Bee Gees
Jive Talkin’ Bee Gees
… …
Play That Funky Music Wild Cherry
Lion In The Morning Sun Will And The People
Het Dorp Wim Sonneveld
Live And Let Die Wings
CREAM Wu Tang Clan
Gravel Pit Wu Tang Clan
Protect Ya Neck Wu Tang Clan
Making Plans For Nigel XTC
Close To The Edge Yes
I’ve Seen All The Good People Yes
Owner Of A Lonely Heart Yes
Roundabout Yes
Yours Is No Disgrace Yes
7 Seconds Youssou N’Dour & Neneh Cherry
If I Can’t Have You Yvonne Elliman
In The Year 2525 Zager & Evans
Hair Zen
Gimme All Your Lovin’ ZZ Top
La Grange ZZ Top
Legs ZZ Top
Sharp Dressed Man ZZ Top

Sorry wasn’t able to find any good Zzz and the Zzzzzs songs… Now get going and come forward with your extension suggestions …!

Black / White

Just in case you thought that men (the typical kind; you like generalisations, apparently) know only black and white, or if pushed, also red, blue, yellow, green and brown, and women (see how overgeneralized this argument is?) know so many more as in this – then there’s also this…
Wouldn’t it be stupid to ask for some easier (to remember!) classification / labeling?

And the pic; what colour this house …?
004_22 (2)[Old analog->digital… Utrecht]

Detachment

First, this:
DSCN9250
[Fantasy, sorcery, in the end Harry wins. Porto]

Just to start your day with a bit of freshness.

Then this: Hardly any surprise that Big Corp advertises like a headless monster
7e55ec92-20ab-11e4-8ead-22000ab926d3-large
Where the ‘joke’ is that this is from a company (note: it’s just an example, others are similar (..?)) where staff is pushed to the edge to deliver on hardly-quality-related shortest-term-possible KPIs, have had to hand in holiday days to keep up the profit shares of the partners (‘voluntarily’ as otherwise it might be illegal), etc. etc. Stepping one millimeter out of line is punished with all but physical beheading. So, the ad is just false advertising of the worst, culpable, kind, or displays the utter ignorance of those involved.

Or both. Which again are signs of dinosaur behavior. Detachment of where actual work is done. Same as outsourcing production abroad and claiming ignorance about work conditions – ignorance on purpose is still very, very culpable; do we need a SOx for what should be normal, human, humane treatment of employees ..? Hopefully not, as this would open the floodgates of totalitarian bureaucrat advisors and consultants once again (…), yes those that Holier Than Thou folks (see above) who display to don’t know a thing about practical management. As proven (!) by Mintzberg.
Detachment. Isolation, islands of bounty at the ‘top’. That will be swept into oblivion by a mere floodwave. Where a tsunami’s approaching.

Oh, for the unattentive reader: There’s a great many posts on this site (just do a search) that I am not against leadership, by actual leaders… This just being a rant against the falsehood of advertising and against bad ‘leadership’ …

Be quick at Making or be like dead

When I noted an article (is it?) on Baidu Eye (all of you will certainly know by now what I mean…!?), it finally dawned on me: ‘we’ in the West (let’s say for purposes here, the 300M of Europe plus the 300M of North America) just don’t do enough rapid prototyping yet.
Because that’s the trade we have left to e.g., the Chinese when ‘we’ shipped our (rapid) product(ion) development to them.

Now, the sweatshop structure that sprang up to the side of that, is one huge landscape of rapid prototyping facilities. Which, if not ‘stealing’ (don’t start the legaleeze that’s way too dependent on cultural notions) product ideas before launch, or just slapping a different brand tag after (over)production, allows copycatting of products (commonly, of less quality or functionality) or of sparks of innovation (not taking a product as ideal model but as inspiration).

This somewhat fits the model of the Maker movement that springs up in the West. Is still springing up a bit, here and there. Was mentioned here and there, sparsely, and may have whittled into almost-oblivion already again ..?
Whatever; the Maker movement has a different focus, not on extremely-rapid prototyping to mass produce, but to keep it as close to one-offs as is feasible. Quite an opposite horizon!
And also leaving a vast playing field open for … others.

How can we change business / production culture to get, beside a Traditional and a Maker movement, a Happy Go Lucky Production movement where improvement-on-the-production-fly-cycles are much more rapidly learned from? (Much faster even than e.g., Samsung’s (and others’ like Apple!) fast-introduction-perfect-in-next-versions approach. But also taking this into account, for this reason!) No, just shouting around about tearing down bureaucratic rules won’t work; those rules are there to regulate the current rogues (big business, oligopolising everywhere) – I mean a real cultural shift. Is that what’s happening (or should happen) in some backwater country now that the 0.001% with help from the 1% has killed the previous mainstay power the Middle 80% ..?

Seriously, how can we rig, ground, lay the foundations, for such a Third Way ..? To get, e.g., this sort of initiatives far more widespread.

[Huh, since I wrote the above (couple of weeks ago), this came to light…]
[And this, the caveat you wanted …]

You (somewhere in the #=0 to #=3 range) have been such kind readers to even visit… hence I’ll leave you with:
DSCN7516[Freedom to consume; the mediocre! – Good, more authentic stuff, close by but elsewhere]

Managing Fortuna’s Risks

On how Risk Management is self-defeating… or just something one has to do while Life has other plans with you(r organization).

First, the übliche picture:
20140813_154840
[Shadow (play) of Dudok, Hilversum again of course]

First, the Defeating part. This, we hardly discuss at length, full enough, but when we do, it’s so obvious you understand why: Because RM is about cost avoidance, even if opportunity cost avoidance. Which makes you the Cassandra, the Boy Cried Wolf of the courtiers (sic). It’s just not interesting, not entrepreneurial enough. [Even if that would be pearls before swines…]

Second, this is why it’s so hard to sell (no quotes, just outright sell for consultancy or budget bucks) the idea of RM to executives – they only see the cost you are. They don’t see themselves as delivering something if, if, if only, they had integrated RM into their daily ‘governance’ (liar! that’s just management!) / management. They don’t want to do anything. They just don’t understand to do something that doesn’t show to be effective even if others for once see no harm (though the others will not even care to flag the kindergarten-level window dressing that’s going on with the RM subject; too silly that, to call out).

Third, this happens not only with ‘boardroom’ RM (~consultancy/advisory), it has been well-established at lower ranks; all the way from the mundane IT security, Information Security, Information Risk Management, Operational Risk Management (where the vast majority of organisations don’t make anything tangible anymore), including the wing positions of, e.g., Credit and Market Risk (which are in fact, with the visors to mention, the same as the previous!), to Enterprise Risk Management altogether.

Fourth, we tie in Queuillism. The Do nothing part almost as in Keynesianism where in the latter, future-mishap prevention should be arranged during the years where government intervention wasn’t required as such. As in Joseph’s seven fat years contra the seven years of famine (Genesis 41). How does this reflect on RM? Would it not be just BCM in its widest, enterprise-wide sense? Isn’t that what ‘management’ is about, again..? Just sanding off the rough edges and for the rest, give room to the actual stars, the employees at all levels, to let them bring out their best – so exponentially much more than you can achieve by mere, petty, command & control. You raise KPIs, I rest my case of your incompetence. And this goes for governments even more. Just enormously expensive busywork.

Fifth, finally, the fourth trope points into the direction of Machiavelli’s Fortuna. Which was also covered by Montaigne, of course. It doesn’t matter what you do, in the end, Life has other plans with you. Sobering, eh? Oh but again, you can shave off the rough edges for yourself, too. Just don’t think in the end, that will matter much beyond some comfort to you. Katharsis, and move on.

OK, since you held out so long:
20140813_154800
[The same, from another angle]

Stop bLeading, start PLeading

There seems to be a wave of ‘management’/ ‘executive’ (quoting for the laughability of those words, as in this) advice on how to Lead. Mostly, on how to push underlings into following better i.e., more, towards your goals.
Which is wrong in many ways:

  • Your goals are ulterior, or very inferior. If you lead in such a pushing way, your team members don’t give a r.ts a.. about your goals, objectives, strategy, or whatever, and even less, much less, about you. They’ll be in it not to get punished by being fired too early ’cause they know to be fired anyway. And by matter of speech (if you’d take it as a pointer, you’d miss my point) they’ll phone the WBC on the details of your funeral.
  • If you whip, you will get whipped. More, harder, longer than an eye for an eye [Interesting side note: That iconic reference was originally only about business transactions, nothing physical, to get even but no more than even].
  • You don’t push, at most pull a bit into the right direction. At best, plead for the ulterior motives, the lofty goals out there. That have nothing to do with you. You are redundant, replaceable, and guess what – you will be replaced more often than not on the verge of achieving your own slave’s targets because someone else will reap your benefits. But then again, if your goal is really ulterior and you honestly mean it, you don’t care! Don’t care about all the effort, and the gains being spread so wide around you. You do care about that ulterior goal being reached, not any other reward let alone with the mammon from hell.
  • If you push, the grader (like in this) will only dig itself in.
  • If you push, all words will be called out for their emptiness before they’re out of your mouth. ‘Supporting creativity / out-of-the-box thinking’..? People will know on what side their bread is buttered.
  • And more.

Which all will make you a deliriously stressed-out fool.
One that will have done irreparable damage to many around you. That you should pay everyday for the rest of your life. You make them bleed, you will bleed.

Why not go out in the effective direction, by Leading …? Leading towards ulterioir goals because they’re worth it. Not by whipping, bleeding, but by pleading (mostly with empty hands..!) others into rightly-oriented action.

[Edited to add: OK, right today, as this pre-scheduled post appears, this, to the same effect…]

OK, I’ll leave you now with an upbeat picture:
??????????
[Clearly, a bridge. Cala near Hoofddorp]

Book by Quote: Time Reborn

Lee Smolin’s 00:00 Time Reborn, Allen Lane 2013, ISBN 9781846142994: A curious read, as I, too, was off-put by the development of the first section in believing LS would actually agree with the “No Time’rs”, ploughing on with No! No! You can’t seriously mean that! when suddenly LS makes a u-ey and explains how things actually are. And then, unfortunately, ends with an almost delirious account on the edge of philosophy – before caving in to e.g., religion. An unfortunate afterburner where the twist to that, should’ve been straight ahead into hermeneutics.
But then again, here we have the, not really representative quotes:

Anyone who thinks that the correct theory of politics or economics was written down in the century before last is thinking outside of time. (p.XV)

We reenter time when we realize that every feature of human organization is a result of history, so that everything about them is negotiable and subject to improvement by the invention of new ways of doing things. (p.XVI)

On a personal level, to think in time is to accept the uncertainty of life as the necessary price of being alive. To rebel against the precariousness of life, to adopt a zero tolerance to risk, to imagine that life can be organized to completely eliminate danger, is to think outside time. To be human is to live suspended between danger and opportunity. (pp.XVI-XVII)

Could we overcome the capriciousness of life and achieve a state in wherein we knew, if not everything, enough to see all the consequences of our choices – the dangers and the opportunities alike? This is, could we live a truly rational life, without surprises? If time were an illusion, we could imagine this as possible … Some number, some formula, could be computed and decoded to tell us all we needed to know.
But if time is real, the future is not determinable from knowledge of the present. (p.XVII)

Relativity strongly suggests that the whole history of the world is a timeless unity; present, past, and future have no meaning apart from human subjectivity. Time is just another dimension of space, and the sense we have of experiencing moments passing is an illusion behind which is a timeless reality. These assertions may seem horrifying to anyone whose worldview includes a place for free will or human agency. (p.XXII)

Now, a pic, and Moar:
dudokhsumlinkshuge[May have used this Dudok beauty before, H’sum]
Continue reading “Book by Quote: Time Reborn”

Not on our / I watch ..?

OK, so I wrote about the lack of API integration (yes, double) in IoT land. Which seems about to change. Now that this has come around. Tools in their early adopter stage, gotta love ’em. Next, the breakthrough.
Of IoT, too; but in what direction? Countries’ hardware infrastructures first, how deep down to B2C channels? The other way around, home channels all the way up? SocMed to wearables to life tracking blends? We’ll see. Maybe soon.

But for one thing: That geriatric-thinking pseudoreligion time-teller will not connect to the rest of the world. Sad (??). Will become the next one down. Hopefully.

For your viewing pleasure:
20140905_201020[Heaps upon Sea, indeed]

Security accountability: We’re off

Remember the Vasco i.e. Diginotar certificate breach scandal ..? For the many that don’t read Dutch easily enough, the gist of this court decision is that the previous owners of Diginotar are accountable for the damages to Vasco following the breach since the previous Diginotar owners hadn’t secured their systems well enough.

There’s a lot to be said here.

  • E.g., that the security lapses could have been known. Due diligence …? Well, the PwC reports were all green traffic lights, at the procedures-on-paper level. But a couple of years before the take-over, already a third party (ITSec, which I know for their good work [disclaimer: have no business relations]) had notified Diginotar about shop-floor level deficiencies. That remained uncorrected.
     
  • Add to that, that actually, the previous owners themselves started legal claims. Because a major part of their sale proceeds were still held in escrow, and they wanted the monay. Vasco filed a counter claim; logically, and won.
     
  • Also, the auditors that had time and time again ‘assured’ the security of the scheme (and don’t get me started about limiting the scope of such assurance in scope vagueness or in the fine print!), haven’t felt too much backfire. Yet, hopefully. Though recently, the same firm announced an initiative towards a new, proprietary one can guess, security standard. Right.

So, are we finally seeing accountability breaking through ..? I already posted something on the Target Cxx stepdown for similar security lapse(s). Now this one. The trickle’s there, let the deluge follow. That‘ll teach ’em! And of course, generate a humongous market for backlog bug remediation, from the software levels up through controls to governance levels…
Even if that would stifle innovation for a while. Would that be a bad thing; having only the real improvements breaking through and not the junk ones ..?

OK then, now for a picture:
DSCN0358
[Monteriggione security was effective, until not, then abandoned as control approach… they did, why not all of us today?]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord