During the World War 2, the U.S. produced “1556 major warships, including 105 aircraft carriers and 111 submarines; 82,000 vessels and landing craft; nearly six thousand merchant ships; 300,000 aircraft; 634,000 jeeps; 88,000 tanks; 2.3 million trucks; 6.5 million rifles; 40 billion bullets.”

Here’s me moaning that people who buy things and should use them. Well guess what, I do it myself.

One of the problems with a server-based music system (iTunes and also a UNIX server running SlimServer software so that I can stream wirelessly to my Slimp device in my lounge) is that when I buy new music it gets ripped straight away and disappears into the multitude of stuff already there. Before this CDs used to hang around a couple of weeks before being filed away. Now they don’t. Instead I usually keep a small list on a PostIt note to let me know what to listen to that’s new. But sometimes I forget.

So, while browsing through my iTunes today, I discovered Poe: Haunted. I received this in January 2003 (!) and hadn’t listened to it. I am now, and it’s fab. Read Ultraviolet13’s review on Amazon.

I was going to write a lengthy piece about the irony of losing lots of allegedly important art in a fire, given that the purpose of art is surely not only in the mechanics and rational for its creation, but also that it be displayed. Not stuck in a warehouse. But I can’t. Having art which isn’t shown is like buying clothes that you never wear.

I’ll leave the concept of ‘commissioned art’ to another time. (“Please sir, can you make me some art? Here’s fifty grand.”)

The research carried out by Scottish Enterprise showed that one in four workers in Scotland with slow internet access were wasting an hour a day waiting for files to download or documents to be sent.

Do these people just sit around doing nothing whilst they wait for these things to download? If so, they should be fired. Either because they’re not doing their job if there is plenty to do – surely there’s other stuff to do? If there isn’t plenty to do then why do these companies need them?

Alternatively, train people in time management. Coincidentally, I read this today, which summarises the concept of The Grid, which is a very simple time management method. According to Dave Allen: “When large organisations implement my kind of methodology (not The Grid, but something called Getting Things Done), the typical self-assessed gain is an hour a day. Just think what you would do with another hour a day.”

QED.

I keep telling people that Scottish Enterprise and its subordinate organisations are a waste of space. Read on to find out why:

Scottish Enterprise has launched a campaign urging Scottish businesses to get broadband so they improve customer service, productivity and communication. This has been reported by stating that only one in five firms have broadband in Scotland, compared to one in four across the UK as a whole. So you might think that the campaign is targeted at those extra 5%. But, unfortunately, the statistics don’t bear this out. This is because it also depends on the availability of broadband:

According to figures provided by the BBC, broadband coverage in Scotland is 65%, i.e. it’s available to that percentage of the population. In the rest of the UK, it’s 80%. So, let’s do some calculations:

For Scotland
Nationally, a 20% take up (“one in five”) from a coverage of 65% indicates that 30.8% of all Scottish businesses would like to have broadband (i.e. 100 / 65 * 20).

For rest of the UK
Nationally, a 25% take up (“on in four”) from a coverage of 80% indicates that 31.3% of all rest of UK businesses would like to have broadband.

So, we have a marginal difference of 0.5%. Not the 5% as reported. Scottish Enterprise and Broadband For Scotland should be targetting a general increase in broadband, i.e. disregarding the current take up, and pushing for increased coverage. Unfortunately, neither of those require reports or surveys to be produced.

Let’s look at the Highlands and Islands Enterprise website to see what evidence there is of businesses in my area benefiting by using broadband. Now, that’s extensive isn’t it?