Innovation advisory and IRM/InfoSec/I-Audit services. Positive contrarian, inspirator, loosen-upper.
Just a short note. Or question, rather: What the … is Google up to, these days..?
I mean, Glass has turned into a pilot thing, as yet testing the waters only, but spawning a whole eco(?)system of wearables. One of The Other Ones (fubbuck) swallowing up Oculus might tie in to this (pre-emptive, to keep it out of G’s hands ..!?), or not.
And after Hadoop there’s news on WebScaleSQL; I can understand that (but see how this means reaching out to conglomerate with erstwhile fiercest (attention) competitors).
But then there’s AI. Yeah, that might improve Search. But the potential(s) for game changers of unseen kinds are limitless. Is the Big G trying to outflank Watson, and/or will G morph into the Matrix ..? Blue pills…, blue pills everywhere….
Compared to this, the jump to Gmail Banking is just a little one, (will) disrupting only a couple of major industries.
As it all stands; what is Google’s grand master plan, or if there isn’t one, how could one get a good overview of all (sic) the initiatives in the wings, either public or, of which I guess there’s a lot more to know, internally?
I would sign a stack of NDAs to get an insight – if only to be able to decide on a reinventive career switch… Thanks Google if you could reach out to me!
Oh and now to close it off of course encore the usual picture for your viewing delight [sits on ‘Picasa’ somewhere anyway ;-]
[Appropriate, if you know what/where I mean]
Why do I even write posts here, as teh (sic) process has been automated to (my interpretation of) perfection ..?
And it’s picture time again:
[Interpret as ‘lucky’]
Because it’s almost Friday and you deserve a shot at championship…
I’ll leave you with this link to how/where to win in a great way.
Aaaand… a picture again:
[Paraguay and/or Sevilla…?]
Oh how I do <heart> Dan Pontefract’s post on dreaming.
First, as you expected, a picture:
![20140324_131129[1]](https://maverisk.nl/wp-content/uploads/20140324_1311291.jpg)
[How short do real creative ideas blossom]
Or, maybe go further and strengthen some, most often even virtually absent, actual praxis of rewarding the dreamer. For bringing the ideas that the future your organisation needs. Continuing along the trodden path will, for certain, as you know, bring about your downfall. Your downfall, as progressively, you will be less and less able to run away before the blame buck stops at your desk.
Which leaves the question: How to rate the performance of dreamers? As their dreams have varying, varying future values. What value to attach to ‘avoid extinction’..?
To be continued.
Ah, so true; music over mechanics. Same in business, same gross lack of capabilities (including lack of (self)awareness about this).
Seth's Blog: Not even one note.
And a picture for the effort:
[Walk in the vintage park]
On the non-existence of ‘governance’.
Suddenly, I realised the full truth of Mitzberg’s dismissal of ‘governance’, since the traditional management would fit the bill perfectly but it has devolved to nothing more than a numb sort of administrative-clerk role (if you’ve read it and don’t understand, re-read it until you do).
Because, ‘governance’ isn’t anything. That what is assigned the ‘governance’ label, is nothing, literally and figuratively, and in all other ways nothing, more than plain good old management. Those who need models to do that, proof ex ante to will fail at their job.
Some of you may have heard me whisper, say, yell, over the past decades, that ‘governors’ are just a bunch of calcified obese that got stuck in their place and for mortal fear of being found out, they’ll mumblebluff their way through anything, anything, thrown at them. Zero, really zero, control over actual affairs, zero understanding of how shop-floor level work (the horror!) keeps the whole house of cards afloat, zero understanding of the treacherous nature of the false prophets deployed as ‘managers’. A few, a precious few white crows… the masses of them (all), just black. Inert.
If all ‘governors’ would disappear at once, wouldn’t society’s productivity shoot up through the roof ..? Wouldn’t actual managers step in and do the little bit of steering that’s required? Wouldn’t they disregard any of the ‘managers’ that (would) panic around, pushing them back into clerkdom ..?
Sigh.
One can dream, can’t one ..?
[Which one is it ..?]
And so, the emperor was shown to wear no clothes…
One couldn’t even blame PCI too much; their standards (meaning: as in uniform things, not the flags one can rally behind) actually do include pointers to deeper (and common-sense) actual infosec control implementation. But not throughout…
… nor systematically. As written before, and in many other posts on this site: The Information Security “Management” (quod non) “System” (quod non) was trusted because upward reporting on its efficacy showed ‘satisfactory’ or better – without realising that its was just deafening and wholesale bureaucratia’s babbling.
If you believe in compliance reporting and similar fairy tales, you’ll believe anything. How much misery must be heaped on all that can’t help it, and all that might have, before the fear of independent thought is restored in particular where it’s needed…? We may get philosophical here. And/or practical. Or whatever. It’ll takes a book(s) to describe it clearly enough for the unconvincable to be convinced or at least to get them out of blocking positions. They truly are the Maginot line of organisatia.
And a picture to close off for now:
[Still somewhat light, though sturdy; Enschedé]
[Lost lives, for the cause]
Yet another ‘Book By Quote’ then.
An attempt to subjectively summarise a book by the quotes I found worthwhile to mark, to remember. Be aware that the quotes as such, aren’t a real unbiased ‘objective’ summary; most often I heartily advise to read the book yourself..! [This time, really. As really as the other times. But maybe a bit shorter than usual; some personal interst details left out.]
So, this time: Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities, the Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, Oxford UP 2005, ISBN 978019514183-2.
Those who trusted in riches are eternally cast onto a razor-sharp pillar of fire; bankers who made money on interest spend eternity up to their knees in filth … The blessings of the saved are understandibly less graphic.(p.26)
This was one of the truly brilliant scholars of ancient Christianity in the late twentieth century: massively erudite, enormously well-read, and, to put it bluntly, an intellectual cut above most of the academics he had to contend with. (p.70)
This world is miserable. And if there is any hope for deliverance, it will not come from within this world through worldly means, for example, by improving the welfare state, putting more teachers in the classroom, or devoting more national resources to the fight against terrorism. (p.114)
In America today, Christians new in town sometimes find it difficult to choose the right church. If they are Episcopalian, do they prefer high church or low church? If Methodist, socially liberal or ethically conservative? If evangelical, large and technologically sophisticated or small and intimate? Schould it be a bible-preaching church or a litugically oriented church? Politically active or spiritually focused? Strong music program or thoughtful sermons? Should it have a solid social ministry? Active youth group? Vibrant outreach program? (p.135)
The injuction not to eat pork means not to live like swine, who grunt loudly when hungry but keep silent when full. People are not to treat God in this way, coming to him with loud petitions when they are in need but ignoring him when theyare not. (p.146)
In ancient languages, the letters of the alphabet performed double duty as numerals – unlike English, where we use Roman letters but [West-, ed.] Arabic numerals (except when we use Roman numerals). (p.147)
According to Basilides, Jesus used the opportunity to pull a supernatural switch, transforming himself to look like Simon and Simon to look like himself. The Romans then proceeded to crucify the wrong man, while Jesus stood to the side, laughing at his subterfuge. Simon, presumably, did not find it so funny. (p.188)
His teacher pleads him to cooperate, until Jesus replies with a scornful challenge, “If you really are a teacher and know the letters well, tell me the power of Alpha and I’ll tell you the power of Beta.” More than a little perturbed, the teacher cuffs the boy on the head, the single largest mistake in an illustrous teaching career. Jesus withers him on the spot. (p.205)
…, there is nothing particularly Gnostic about this text: Jesus is a real child here, who feels pain, for example, when his father yanks his ear in anger. (p.206)
When the Tessalonians received Paul’s first letter, someone in the community must have copied it by hand, one word at a time. The copy itself was then copied, possibly in Thessalonica, possibly in another community to which a copy was taken or sent. This copy of the copy was also copied, as later this copy of the copy of the copy. (p.217)
There are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New testament. (p.219)
These kinds of accidental changes were facilitated, in part, by the fact that ancient scribes did not use punctuation and paragraph divisions, and did not in fact separate the words on the page butprintedthemalltogethermakingmistakesinreadingfairlycommon. (p.220)
For example, while affirming the authority of the Jewish Scriptures (with the Ebionites but against the Marcionites), the proto-orthodox rejected historical Judaism (with the Marcionites against the Ebionites); while affirming the divinity of Jesus (with the Marcionites against the Ebionites), they also affirmed his humanity (with the Ebionites against the Marcionites). While insisting that the true one God is the creator of this world (against Marcion and Gnostics) they often denigrated this world and strove to escape its material trappings through ascetic practices (with Marcion and Gnostics). (p.253)
It is a bit like objecting to the truth claim of the morning paper when it indicates that ‘sunrise’ is at 6:36AM, since any reasonably intelligent person knows that the sun never rises at all, or like claiming that ‘Jabberwocky’ can’t be an English poem because brillig isn’t an English word. (pp. 274-275)
[Philly mirrored]
Just a link, to demonstrate that lowtech innovation may be more useful straight away than hightech phantoms in bettering our daily lives…: On Wired. Of course [Among a handful of equals]
In the longer term, tables may be turned, though. As per usual.
And, a question on the exit: Was this lowtech innovation, or about the highest one can get? It shouldn’t depend on its deployment, should it ..?
