Catching up !!!

I had forgotten all about this Blog and found it by accident when I clicked on a link in somebody else's Blog, simply saying "A Blog is a good thing, click here to get one" ;)

More terrible things in England

1) Two days ago, three 20-year-old guys pushed a 13-year-old boy into a pond.
Then they stoned him as he tried to get out and just watched as he drowned.
Just when I thought this country couldn't get worse, it does !!!

2) Earlier this week, a guy fell asleep on the late night train home. When it stopped a gang of teenagers got on and started stealing his money. When he woke up and tried to stop them, they kicked him to death.

3) The worst thing is that these incidents appear in small paragraphs buried deep inside the newspaper. A whole lot more space is given to political nonsense like 'Should be have an election ?'.

Today's my Birthday

I woke up early and got up at 6.00 am to start my birthday celebrations.
I'll sign up with the Woodland Trust charity (UK).
I'll also look into adding these entries to this Blog, instead of this diary.

I'm back after a lengthy absence

Firstly I forgot what my Blog was called !

Then I got distracted by keeping a Daily Diary as part of my collaboration with Microsoft on their 'MyLifeBits Research Project, under the guidance of Gordon Bell :-
http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/my_life/diary_display_from_april29th_2007.htm

Living on £3 (or $5) a day !!!

Last week I found myself trying to survive on £3 ($5) a day. Well, that sounds rather ambitious. The truth was that I had my weekly train ticket and was skipping breakfast but I knew that dinner was waiting for me at home in the evening.
So my £3/$5 was for newspapers, lunch and coffee.

But suddenly I realised that Starbucks is an expensive habit at £5/$8 for coffee and a muffin.

Especially when lunch could be a sandwich for £3/$5 !

Then the day after I finished that self-imposed hardship regime I bought two soft drinks in the railway station for a total of more than £3/$5 plus a packet of crisps/chips for about £1.
In other words I spent more on an easily-forgotten snack than I did on lunch.

A Trip from Haringey to Ealing via Malaysia ...

At the end of May, I finished an interesting period working on e-Government at Haringey (30 miles from home).
Then in June I took a trip to Malaysia (12,000 miles round trip) and attended an e-Government Conference sponsored by the EU in my wife's home town of Ipoh,(an Ipoh is a tree with poisonous leaves, formerly used in blowpipes, but there are only two Ipoh trees left in the town of Ipoh !!!).
Finally, in July started at the London Borough of Ealing (15 miles from home) working on another interesting e-Government Project.

Racism is alive and well and living in England !

Yesterday, an 18-year-old black teenager was waiting at a bus-stop with his (white) girl-friend.
He ignored verbal abuse from a gang of white youths, but they chased him into a nearby park and he died when they split open his head with an axe.

Some more terrible Headlines in England

1) 'Yesterday, a 27-year-old man was stabbed to death on a bus when he tried to stop a black guy throwing fast food at his girlfriend.'
Nobody tried to stop the killer who just walked calmly away.
2) 'Boy of 14 on murder charge', accused of stabbing a 16-year-old with a knife in an argument.
3) 'Boy, 14, is charged with raping four schoolgirls,' following seven attacks on a 10-year-old girl, two 8-year-olds and a 7-year old.
4) '5,000 people every year die in British Hospitals from a Super Bug' caused by dirty surroundings.
5) 'Mothers and newly-born babies in poorly-run birth wards are at risk' from acute staff and equipment shortages, poor training and weak management.
Britain has one of the worst infant mortality rates in Europe with only Poland and Slovakia being worse, says the OECD

Libraries, Open Web Services and VIEWs

In Local Authorities, Libraries are always a good starting-point to think about Citizen, Customer or Member Data.
Of course, people who develop and work with Library Systems are usually thoughtful, creative people. In fact, they have developed their own VIEWS discussion forum for a 'Vendor Initiave for Enablin Web Services' :-
http://www.views-consortia.org/


Talis is a leading supplier of Library Management Systems which is forward-looking.
Talis has a Project called Keystone to provide Web Services Integration :-
http://www.talis.com/research/keystone/keystone.shtml

Keystone has its own Discussion Forum :-
http://www.talis.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=55&sid=c6de59181a6d681ff0ec69381276d5e9

here's an item about CRM and 'a single source of the truth' :-
http://www.talis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=629