Kaizen Bits

No, I am not AWOL, it´s just hard to kick everything off: the lectures, the researchers contracts and burocracy, project work and some residual proposal writing. Gee, it is hard. However, this does not force to live in a shell, and I was one of those who shouted when the UK Government announced the nationalization of Stadford & Bingley, the second of the year after Northern Rock and in the US, Wachovia was taken over by Citigroup.

I follow the financial news with a combination of fear and curiosity. I am not really sure what could happen if the famous Bailout Bill doesn´t go through (just read it has not, so far) the US Congress, so I keep on, staring and wathcing. But not AWOL

Reading this list of 30 cool hacks for Acer Aspire One,  I thought again about how netbooks are changing the current laptop landscape. Last week, a friend of mine show me one of those little devices (half laptop, half network, that is the idea) and I wrote an exam about netbooks for one of my Business School courses.

The thing is I don´t really see the point of netbooks. If I am travelling, as usual, I am OK with a laptop and if I am in the office, it is still OK. What is the wonderful thing about netbooks, then? The price? Being lightweight? Opinions welcome…

There are many reasons to read a book. One of the most interesting, in my opinioin, is reading to travel, to experience a culture and to get to understand that culture. Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea is a perfect example of the latter.

This book is the story of four girls. Their feelings, joys and distresses, their anguish and cultural problems in the Saudi Arabia context are the best window to a world Western people, we hardly understand, even thought we want to.

Sorry but last week was too exciting. First Lehman Brothers left us for good, then Merryll Lynch was bought by Bank of American and… AIG survived just because the US Government announced the biggest plan ever. Probably Capitalism will never be as we knew it before.

Regarding the US bailout, this great comment from The Big Picture via Stephen Kinsella.  To get a sense of just how big the bailout is, consider this:

1 million seconds is 11 days
1 billion seconds is 32 years
1 trillion seconds is 3 centuries.

So, if the bailout cost the US economy 1trillion, paying it back at a dollar a second could take centuries. Nice comparison.

Simply glorious. I can´t think of a better way to kick off this list but with the best Scottish band ever. This album jumped on my car player to never step out. That was since July, where I watched them at the Rock in Rio concert and I wouldn´t stop listening to them ever since.

Thanks guys, you are the A!!

Thanks to my dear friend Armin Haller, I could not stop giving a big bunch of laughs at this great comic. Boy, LOL, I could not be more identified myself from my PhD times.  That´s all I am saying.

OK, I will confess, I did not love this book, but it was great. I usually don´t read books about travel, but while being in Sydney I could not help the feeling that many things about Australia were being left out. Hence, strolling around George Street, I hopped into a bookshop to look for the last book of Ben Pastor (who, btw, was never published in Australia) and stumbled upon Bill Bryson´s Down Under.

While the reviews point out at the book being “funny”, I found it funny from a British / American adult perspective, perhaps. But I found it a great source of legends, curious stories and information about Australia that I would have spent half of the year reading about, all summarized in an easy-going, lightweight reading about a couple of trips to Australia.

Hence, I recommend this book for all of you who want to know more about Down Under: history, politics (completely unknown, as the author points out) and, mostly, about a set of insights that will hover you long after being back from the antipodes.

Well, I already could not help talking about this book. I just failed to buy the sequel, Bangkok Tattoo, at Bangkok Airport on my way back but I left it for a better time, probably next time…?

The book is good, the end a bit difficult to belive. But what I loved the most is the fact of a Western writer such as Burdett to jump into a Thai cop skin and give an (outsider) inside-out view of the Thai society. That implies a good bunch of research, talking to people and empathy. Nice stuff and nice entertainment.

Well, this failure at the LSE for the whole day was one of those perfect examples for the SE lecture. I quote literally from Slashdot: ““TradElect, the Microsoft .Net based trading platform for the London Stock Exchange, was offline for about seven hours, meaning that their 5-nines SLAs are shot for approximately the next 100 years. The TradElect system was launched back in June of 2007 and was designed for increased speed and system capacity.”

I have not been able to research into the matter, I am ultra busy setting of some fires after the return to the real world, but I will update the post asap.

“A word to the wise ain’t necessary – it’s the stupid ones that need the advice”

Bill Cosby

It is kind of a funny quote I just stumbled upon. So basically, back to the Real World, and, for those like me who live (and enjoy) University, it is the beginning of a new term, hence changes show up. When I first started blogging in 2004, it was more a game and a tool to make me remember and have useful and information resources. Now the blog has become a very important assistant for most of my activities since I tend to come back here and build on things I have drafted or commented. To be honest, this is only when preparing Case Studies, for example. But even though, it has become an invaluable help.
However, changes are needed. First of all, some people mentioned this blog is toooo professional . Hence, I am including right here two new sections Music and Books, aiming at helping me to remember if I managed to read 50 books and 50 music albums this year.

Secondly, I will also try to include more stuff about Innovation and my business lectures. Promise.